Vote or Don't Vote on November 4th!

Well, I know at least 5 friends look at our site, so I did my part.

What about you?

WASSSUP 2008

A lot has happened in 8 years. This ad is from the same director as the original. He went out and grabbed the same guys to shoot this spot. I hope you guys enjoy it.

We've SEEN This Spider!

When we lived in Australia, we took a trip up to The Great Barrier Reef when our friends Darrin and Stephanie came to visit us. After we went snorkeling, we spent a day in the rainforest on a tourist's tour - very cool. But one of the things all four of us will remember till our dying day is the HUGE Golden Orb Weaver spider we saw in the forest!

The spider itself was as big as John's hand with his fingers extended, and the web was about 4 feet by 5 feet or so, about 4 feet from the path we were walking. It was fascinating and not a little terrifying to see such a ginormous spider!

Then yesterday I saw this story on an Australian news site. This Golden Orb Weaver spider caught a BIRD in its web and is eating it!!! Now THAT is the kind of thing I'm trying not to think about as we get ready to move back! LOL!!

Comin' Round the Back Stretch

(Kitty) Only four weeks to go! Less, since this is Tuesday already! Four weeks left to try to get in better and better shape to make our 13.1 mile run! Woo-hoo! We're excited, but more than a little nervous. I haven't actually run 13 miles yet due to "life" interrupting our running schedule. John probably ran 13 the day I ran 11, but yesterday during our 4 mile run his knee started hurting. It's probably nothing, but all these little setbacks make us nervous about the final outcome.

Still, everything I've read says that running has as much to do with your mind as your body. John and I have "decided" we ARE going to finish the race, hills and all. (Eek! Did you hear us whimper when I said "hills?") We ARE going to finish. We ARE going to finish. We ARE...

BROTHERS BIKE RACE

I have been working some long hours lately, but thought I would post some pictures of my brother (since I don't have much of a life right now.) Here he is in a bike race where he placed 16th place out of 40 riders. Nice work bro.

Running Off Kilter

(Kitty) Some days are just harder to get through than others. John worked 13 hours on Saturday and was just too flipping exhausted to run Sunday morning. Then Monday morning he woke up sick and was in bed most of the day. Tuesday morning, today, he felt better and we did our 30-min brisk walk. Thank goodness! I think my body is actually [gasp] getting used to exercise! I felt much better after our walk today.

So - barring sickness or unforeseen disaster - we should be running again tomorrow, 6 miles down the beach and back. I think I'm actually looking forward to it! :)

Back in the Saddle - Not Quite in the Groove

(Kitty) So today we ran 6 miles, twice what we did two days ago. Yea! We've never taken water or energy gels with us for a 6 mile run. John can run it in an hour without me, and I run it in about 85 minutes. We figure it's not that long a time to wait for food and water.

BUT now that I'm learning more about how this all works, and how my body in particular works, I'm taking "food" and water for anything over 4 miles, because it takes me 51-54 minutes to run 4 miles, and I've found increased energy if I eat an energy gel at about an hour into the run. So today I filled up my four water bottles, strapped on my water belt, put some stuff in my belt that looks and tastes like gummy bears, and off we went.

Because I want to start working harder during the short runs to increase my strength and endurance, I tried to run a little faster today - and I did! I also ran uphill instead of my usual shuffling jog. Of course, at the top of the hills I had to walk for a minute to get my heart rate down! But even with all the extra walking I did in between bursts of speed, I still hit the 4 and 6 mile marks at one of my best times! I'm exhausted but happy!

John, of course, did awesome as always! Dwight and I pretend to hate him because he's such a natural athlete. He's going to do so well at the Half Marathon! By the way, if you want to see more about what we'll be doing, just visit the Pasadena Marathon web site. We'll update you again next week!

10 Days Without Running = EEK!

(Kitty) Due to a series of scheduling conflicts, followed by 5 days of vacation where running shoes were packed but never worn, it has been 10 days since our last run. It's kind of funny and sad - our last run was 11 miles! Today we made it 3! LOL!! Now we really only were scheduled for 4 miles today, and we could have made it 4, but... John decided that me passing out from lack of oxygen would be a bad thing. LOL!! He suggested we stop at 3 and walk the last mile home because he knew if he kept going, I would, too. He's right! {grin}

But this week - with only 5 weeks till the big race - we are going to follow another runner's training schedule. We'll still be running 2 short runs and 1 really long run, but on 3 more days we'll be walking for 40 minutes and doing strength training. Oh, and trying to eat properly. :)

We'll let you know how it goes! If you have any advice, feel free to let us know! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!!!

Take a minute to join me today in wishing John a very happy birthday! Send him an email or an ecard or post a message here! And if you're friends with his twin brother, David - send him a message too! Happy birthday, Dave!

Happy birthday John! I love you!!

Umm...It's Barely October

(Kitty) Okay, today is October 1st, but two days ago while it was still very much September, I looked across the grocery store parking lot to see "Scott's Christmas Trees" setting up!! What?! Trust me, if anyone is a long-term planner, it's me. But come on, guys!

Sunshine and Rain

(Kitty) I love it when this happens - I looked out the window this afternoon and saw it begin to rain. But there was sunshine all over the yard! It lasted about 10 minutes. Don't know how it works - angle of the sun, angle of the rain, don't know. But it was totally cool!

It made me forget for a moment that I had just had the car washed about 20 minutes before the rain. Ugh... :)

Double Digits!

(Kitty) We broke the double-digit barrier! We ran 10.4 miles on Sunday! Hurray!!!! The schedule called for 10, which seemed huge. But John said, hey, wanna run to that street I accidentally ran to a couple months ago? I thought, heck, if we're going to push ourselves to do this, then fine, let's push ourselves. And we DID it!!!

We were feeling pretty good, feeling like it was an easy run for the first 6 miles. The next couple were a little harder, I was looking forward to those 1-minute breaks every 3 minutes. And the last two - well, I just keep thinking that I could do it - and we did it!!

Of course, we were exhausted at church Sunday and collapsed into idleness for the rest of the day! LOL! Sunday night and Monday night I kept waking up having to stretch because my muscles were tight. I thought it would be over by today, but this morning we had to run 4 more miles and I couldn't do it!! It took me 3 miles just to get loose enough to not feel like I wanted to limp. But I couldn't make it another mile. And I didn't want to push myself and pull or tear something. So I made it to about 3.5 miles, then we walked the last half mile home. John could have made it, but... LOL!! Oh well!

Gotta keep stretching and trying to help the muscles relax even as they get stronger because - this next weekend we have to run 11 miles!! EEK!! LOL!!

For Friends to Contact Us

(Kitty) It occurs to me occasionally that some of you may have fallen out of touch with us and are following us through the blog with no way to email us. I hate putting our email address on the Internet, but you can reach me at kittysotheremail at yahoo dot com. Then I can give you our "real" email addresses. :) However, I beg you not to send junk mail to our real emails! LOL!

The Good, the Bad, and the Bloody

(Kitty) I joked with my sister Bonnie yesterday about the chances of me falling down during the race. In front of thousands of people. And news crews.

Then today - I did it! I fell. Again.

The good news is that I ran two miles today in a new record time - 24 minutes and 15 seconds. The bad news is that includes the falling, the brushing off the dirt, the walking for a block to loosen up again, and then back to running. The bloody news isn't too bad - only one knee got scraped, the other avoided most of the fall altogether. The heels of my hands hurt the worst even though I didn't break the skin. They probably took 70% or more of my weight when I hit the sidewalk.

Oh, did I mention that this is the EXACT same part of the sidewalk where I fell the first time? Sigh... Oh well. I just really need to watch that spot now. The sidewalks are not flat around here. Too many tree roots pushing up the cement at weird angles. I was all zoned into my run and didn't pick up my feet enough to miss the hiccups in the cement. The beach walk is so much better for zoning into your run. But if I'm at the beach, that means I'm running way more than 2 miles! For today, I'm tired, so I'll take the shorter run and the scraped knee. LOL!

How Does This Work??

(Kitty) So John and I did a fairly great job of running our 9 miles on Sunday. We got some good rest Sunday afternoon and Monday, and we woke up bright and early to run 4 miles on Tuesday. How in the world can we feel so freakin' TIRED?! It took me 55 minutes, and it usually only takes 52-53. Once I even got it down to 51 minutes for 4 miles. We even ate well Monday night, drank lots of water Monday, and no alcohol since Sunday night. Tuesday night I fell into bed exhausted at 9:30.

Whatever it is, I hope it's normal. Saturday it's up into the double digits! TEN MILES!! Wish us luck!!

9 Miles!

(Kitty) There is still a big part of me that can't believe what John and I are doing! Sunday we ran 9 MILES!!!! That is so amazing! I mean, John looked great - I saw him do some wind sprints a couple times, his form never lagged, and he ran more than 9 miles because he ran ahead, then circled back to me, then ran ahead, etc. But at about mile 8, I was thinking about how exhausted I was, and I remembered running down that same stretch back in March and April and thinking, "There is no way I can run for 2 minutes straight!" Yet on Sunday, we ran for 2 hours and 5 minutes!

During most of the run, I would think of things that made me happy, or future happy events like finishing the Half Marathon, or I would focus on enjoying the upbeat music I put on my "Running" playlist on my iPod. I've been learning that I keep going better when I'm feeling good, feeling happy. I ran most of my 8 miles a couple weeks ago listening to a writing lecture where the speakers were hilarious! So this week I tried to keep that upbeat mindset alive. I repeated "The joy of the Lord is my strength" when I felt tired. And at about mile 6, I started telling myself this is not a race, but a challenge. The run was just one more way to prove myself.

I kept telling myself that all the way to the end - and I did it! I ran the whole 9 miles! I'm still nervous about running the Half Marathon in November, depending on the day somewhere between butterflies nervous and throw up nervous, but as of Sunday I was absolutely positive I could do it! (For anyone who has run a marathon, John suggested we use the Galloway method - 3 minutes running, then 1 minute walking, then 3 running, etc. the whole time. "Everyone" swears by it, and we've found it very effective.)

If you've got something challenging happening in your life, keep telling yourself you can do it. I don't know why it works, but it does! :)

MOVING BACK TO SYDNEY!
MOVING BACK TO SYDNEY!
MOVING BACK TO SYDNEY!

Well ladies and gentlemen, it is official. I recently signed the papers and the plans are in the works to move back to Sydney, Australia in July of 2009. I have been asked to come back as a Lead Motion Editor for HAPPY FEET 2! I have been in talks with Doctor D Studios in Sydney for a month or so, talking and haggling over contracts and pay scale. I recently put my signature to the final contract and it is final. The studio is going to be in one of two places (they are still trying to decide where to set up shop,) so we are not sure WHERE in Sydney we will be moving too. We have thoughts of moving close to the University of Sydney so Kitty can get Masters in Creative Writing! We also have plans on getting a TWO bedroom apartment so ANYONE who wants to come out and visit will have a place to stay! We want to give everyone as much incentive as possible to come and see us (as if visiting Sydney, Australia wouldn't be reason enough!)

God has blessed us so much in these last couple of months, it's hard to believe it's actually happening. Thank you so much for the people who were praying for us as while I was in talks with the studio.

Should've Gone to McDonald's

(Kitty) How can I be 40 years old and be such a terrible cook?! There are things I can do really well (like my Almost Better Than Sex Brownies - John's name for them!), and there are things I can do passably well (my meatloaf's pretty good). But as far as coming up with an idea and then saying, hey that sounds great, let's do it - no good.

Today I thought I'd stop by McDonald's on the way to the bank so I could eat in the car and get back to work quicker. Then I thought - that's not good for you and my friend Janet just told me she lost 100 pounds and I could make myself an awesome hamburger exactly how I'd like it. I'll just stop by the store, whip up a lunch and be back at work with a full stomach of healthy food.

Not so much.

I don't know where I went wrong. I put a bunch of things that I really like - shredded cheddar cheese, cut up mushrooms - and some things that seemed like a good idea - salt, pepper, garlic salt, Italian seasoning - in a bowl and squished it into the hamburger, then fried it up. I'd bought a bag of frozen french fries because I thought it'd be healthier than McDonald's fries. When I got the whole thing on my plate - couldn't have cut up avocados 'cause they'd already gone bad - I started eating and... Well, I couldn't wait to get to the end. Not because it was good. 'Cause I wanted lunch to be over. I don't know what I'm going to do with that bag of frozen french fries. I used to love them but I guess I don't anymore.

Sigh...

Next time I'm going to McDonald's anyway. Meanwhile, I'm munching on chocolate covered almonds to get the taste of lunch out of my mouth.

Routines For Writers

(Kitty) I was shocked to discover while trying to think of what to blog here today that I haven't told you about my new professional blog! My two critique partners, Stephanie Shackelford and Shonna Slayton, and I created a web site for writers to help them try to find routines that increase their productivity and creativity. We've been planning this for months and launched the blog last Monday, on September 1!

If you have a minute, stop by, see what we're up to, leave a comment. We're excited to share what we've learned over the years, and we want to encourage others to share what they've learned there, too. As my friend Kathleen says, no one has to die to make room for one more success! So drop on by and see if we can't pursue success together!

Welcome to the World!

(Kitty) I am so pleased to tell you that I am a great-aunt again, and John is again a great-uncle! My sister Bonnie's son Bruce welcomed his second son into the world on Thursday, September 4, 2008 - Riely Scott.

Welcome, Riely!