By Nicole

Bittersweet.  Thumb and Pointer and Tall Man.  My baby turned three yesterday.

On Sunday, I finished the Rhody Run. This is one of those small runs that has been going on forever and has recently gotten "big" by our small town standards. I might do a Rhody Run re-cap sometime, but what I really want to write about are the awful faces I make when I run. As usual, at most races there are lots of camera people roaming around, working hard to take the most flattering shots possible of jiggling, sweating, red-faced runners. But they usually aren't flattering...at least, not my pictures. I know there are those who are super-muscled and tanned. Those who make running look easy. Fun even. They know just when to smile and wave. They can run and pose at the same time. Not I. Not I, said the red-faced, sweating, jiggling runner. The runner whose pictures look like this . And this . Even when I think I am smiling and maybe looking athletic... I still look unconvincing . The funny thing is, a lot of the time, I like my run. But app

Come on Baby, make it hurt so good... Sometimes love don't feel like it should.... That's the song I woke up with in my head this morning.  Except I am a hairy beast who epilated for the first time last night.  So the song went more like this... Oh Emjoi, make it hurt so good... Sometimes hair removal don't feel like it should... And that is why Emjoi doesn't pay me to write jingles and why John Mellencamp won't ever give me the rights to his music.  But Tina at For The Love of the Run trusted me enough to send me an Emjoi epilator to try!  I was so excited.  One, because they aren't cheap.  Two, because I really need to come up with a better way to deal with all my leg hair.  I am abysmal at shaving my legs.  I hate it.  I never have time for it. And, I'm married with three children, for crying out loud.  (My husband really likes that attitude, by the way.)  Summer is on the way, and I really want to wear shorts when running without feeling the w

This month is just a flop for me. I have miserably failed at blogging daily, and when I have, I haven't bothered to link up with BlogHer.  My apologies to those of you who check me out and see nothing. Hopefully June will be better. And I know it has to be because I have two great books that I will be reviewing, three fantastic running related (or not) products that I get to test out and review, and some great sob stories about owning chickens, etc. in the works.  I'll get better...  Oh - and I have another long run coming up to blog about... and I am excited!  But for now, my keyboard will remain silent. Thanks for all your patience!

Wednesday was a day full of blessings... silly, mostly materialistic blessings, but blessings nonetheless.  And one in particular that saw me fall asleep with a smile on my face.  And to fully explain it, I'm not sure where to start.  Do I start the moment the love affair began?  Do I start with me gleefully ripping off my boots?  Or maybe I will begin with the day I decided to cyberstalk them.  It had been over six months since I first laid eyes and hands on them... since I had fallen in love at the outlet mall.  But I had walked away, leaving my dream boots on the shelf...  I convinced myself that it was infatuation and that in a day or two I would forget the buckles and pockets, that I could find a different, less expensive pair.  A pair that would "do".  But I didn't.  I couldn't get them out of my mind.  The only thing that stopped me from forsaking all other boots and racing to the cash register was the price tag.  It made the committment too daunting.

A few months ago I was approved to be a review blogger for Litfuse Publicity.   Forever Hilltop by Judy Baer is the first book I've had an opportunity to review.  The bonus about this book is that it is two books in one.  It's a cute story with likeable characters and funny, endearing descriptions of life in a rural farming community in North Dakota. It was a good, safe read... comfortable and amusing.  If you like Christian fiction, especially romance, then I highly recommend Judy's book.  Her characters are well developed and some of the scenarios were really amusing.  There were a couple parts in the story where I laughed out loud.  Here's what Litfuse says about the book and the author... About the book: The charming and often hilarious Forever Hilltop series follows the experiences of former city dweller Alex Armstrong as he settles into his new role as pastor of a Scandinavian community in rural North Dakota. Alex is sometimes baffled by his parishi

I have a good, long, dirty post in the works (in my mind) right now, but in the interest of time and sleep, I am going to fall back on my Sharing Some Love Sunday.... Here's where I've been: Mom vs. Marathon Miss Zippy For the Love of the Run Buttoning My Jeans Papa is a Preacher Expandng This Foxtail Lily Periphery Tiaras and Tantrums Out of the Pantry Airing My Dirty Laundry If you are here checking this post out and we normally read each other and you aren't on the above list it's because I am falling asleep at the computer, my cheeks are burning (from too much sun (if you can believe it!)), my muscles ache (from too much yardwork) and all I can think about is my pillow.  It just isn't fair to anyone else to half-read, half-snooze through their blog and leave some weird comment that would most likely contain a typo.  I'm sparing us all now. So - please don't take offense... your time will come. Smile, wink, zzzzzzzzzzzz......

Yes, my husband picks up roadkill sometimes.

It doesn't stop! Eleven more chicks today, and we are buying seeds.  Oh, and the granola we bought today has amaranth in it...  I'm also certain that pretty soon I'll be making my own granola. 

Just this last weekend, I was with a group of women at our church kitchen preparing for the Missionette's Honor Star Crowning Ceremony.  But this year, I had a special plastic bag on the counter for all of the vegetable and fruit stems and peelings.  For our pigs of course.  At the end of the night, as I stuffed decorative leaf lettuce in the bags, I mentioned how excited our chickens would be for a little of the lettuce.  Jen: "You have chickens too?" Me: "Oh, yes... chickens, pigs... we're a regular farm these days." Jen: "My husband is talking about wanting chickens." Me: "Well, keep him away from Jason, or he'll have him talked into them pretty quickly." Jen: "Ahem, I think he's the one that started it." Me: "Oh great.  I am SO sorry." Sarah: "Now, Nicole... you knew Jason was a farmer when you married him." Me:  "That's the problem.  He was NOT a farmer when I married him.  Not