Race for Hope 2009 -- Philadelphia!

Hello All!

Yesterday I mentioned that I had a special event this past weekend. Well, it was a 5K race in honor of my beloved Mommy. If you're a reader of this blog, you know that my mother passed away nearly two years ago (rather suddenly) from a brain tumor. She is very, very missed. It's still difficult without her and I know the others in my family, namely my sister and my Dad, feel exactly the same way.

Last year, we planned to do the race but I badly sprained my ankle the day before and The Sister was pregnant so she just walked it. I was not in shape at all to run it anyway. We vowed that this year, we would give it our all and give it our all we did!

It started off not looking like a very nice day. I was worried about running in the rain. I am particular about my running conditions and didn't think I would fare very well on a cold and rainy day. It was also very early for me and I am not a morning gal. Thank Goodness we turned the clocks back the night before. That "extra" hour was appreciated. (Thank you Ben Franklin)

The Son was excited. He's in the back seat next to my cousin Chrissy and her friend Cherie who drove down from Connecticut to participate in the race with us. They DID manage to do the race last year so it was nice to have them here again this year.

Yeah... it's grey and dreary...

Almost there...


We had planned to meet the rest of our team at the port-a-potties. Not the most glamorous meeting place I'll admit but it was convenient since you couldn't really not find them. It was busy over 800 runners and thousands of walkers. That's the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the background, remember "Rocky" running up the steps... well, that's coming up later...


The BIL finishing...

Me finishing... not a very flattering picture...

Team Joycie's Kids... the team raised over $500 for the cause of brain cancer research. I must give The Sister and all her friends credit for that, she managed to send out the team link to her whole e-mail list and had quite a few generous people who donated in honor of our mom. Thanks everyone!
Tomorrow, I'll show you a few more pictures and tell you our final times... this post is getting a little long... see you then! Enjoy your Tuesday!

Christmas tour of days of yore.

Hi everyone! I'm participating in a holiday open house today courtesy of "Hooked on Houses". I decided to use pictures from our City House back in 2006 (and 2005). We didn't decorate last year as we were doing renovations and yes, we're STILL doing renovations. We now live in the Country House which I will be featuring tomorrow in Kimba's Holiday Open House.


So...I bring you the City House... it was built in 1811 and is located in a historic city on a very historic street. You history buffs out there, just might be able to figure it out but that's OK, we're living somewhere else now. Incidentally, the house will be on the market soon so if there's any chance that anyone out there is interested in an old house with a brand new kitchen and some added on bedrooms...you can find me here on this blog!

Yes, I even decorated the bathroom... doesn't everyone?

I do it now because I like it but back in the City House, I did it because every year we had an open house where people would pay money to come on the street and tour the homes, ours was the only home with a bathroom on the first level and believe it or not, people would ask to use the bathroom instead of the port-a-potties that were provided. Decorating the room, just made it easier to say, "no."







Did you catch that? The tree is in two different places! ha ha! That's because for the life of me, I couldn't find any pictures of our living room tree from 2006, other than the one of The Son at almost three sitting in front of it. I'm pretty sure 2005's tree looked much like the tree in 2006 so just use your imagination.

Thanks for coming on my tour! Tomorrow I will be giving a tour of the Country House's decorations and on Wednesday, I'll be hosting my first give away in honor of 200 posts! Actually, it will be 201 posts by then but who's counting? I'll be featuring a hand crafted item of mine for the give away, I hope you'll come back to enter.

Happy holidays everyone!

Tonight I transform...

into City Momma! Actually, I should say City Girl because I won't really even have to be a Momma tonight. I am heading back into The City to hang out with one of my bestest girlfriends (Joanie) there. I will also get to see my old house, it's construction progress and if it's worthy, I'll take pictures to post on The Blog. 

We're planning on heading out somewhere very trendy and cosmopolitan for dinner where we'll proceed to act trendy and drink copious amounts of cosmopolitans. (or Stoli gimlets which I much prefer to cosmos.) We'll live it up for a few hours, possibly attracting the eye of several eligible gentlemen who will be heartbroken and shocked to learn that I am a 38 year old married mother of one. I hate to break their hearts in this way but at least Joanie is single, I can be her "wing girl". We'll stay out late realizing as we walk home, that Joanie's handbag is bulging with the phone numbers of all the eligible men we met and that we didn't have to pay for a single drink all night. That's how it used to be when I lived in The City. Really... why don't you believe me? 

ha ha ha ha ha ha! Who am I kidding? It probably won't go down exactly like that but I do know that we'll have fun, lots of good girl talk and a few precious hours of forgetting the I am usually "The Momma" and a chance to just be myself. I'll try to take pictures if we're not having too much fun!

Enjoy your weekend my friends.