Dead or alive?

This is what I had to ask myself after finishing my 2nd 1/2 marathon ever on Saturday. It was the Nashville Country Music Half Marathon, mind you, and I hate country music. But, this has become a Lee event through and through and one I'll probably participate in until I just can't possibly do it anymore. However, this year compared to last year, was ridiculously much harder. This year I decided to run a mile, then walk a mile and that is exactly how I trained. Last year, I walked 12 miles and ran the last one to the finish line. My time last year, you might ask, was 3:03 and 19 seconds. So, surely I could shave off those 3 measly minutes since I'm running half of it, RIGHT? Nope, my time this year, you might ask, was 3:03 and 17 seconds. 2 seconds faster than last year and my body actually did half running/half walking.

This year Will decided to not train much therefore he committed to stay with me the entire race. Well, I knew I was in for some persuasion since I have been married to him 10 years and I know his personality. So about 1/2 mile in, here comes the persuasion. Surely we can make it to the first water stand running right Andrea? Sure thing honey. Well that was before the marathon committee decided to change the course this year and add 1 million more hills! Needless to say, I almost had to cuss Will to get him to let me walk in the beginning when the hills felt like they'd never end. I gave him the ole, "honey, I told you it would be annoying for you to try to push me beyond what I've trained for." So, he backed off and with his sweet laid back-ness, he stayed with me walking and running the entire rest of the race.

Around mile 12, my legs had so many cramps in them, I'm pretty sure I looked handicapped hobbling into the final mile. At one point, I had to stop and stretch out my legs just to get some relief. This coming after I almost chuked my "Gu" twice and had to hold it back for fear of embarrassment.

In the end, I was so happy to cross the finish line and see familiar faces who also had just finished up. Friday night at Bucca was a blast, food and company was a lot of fun. The whole atmosphere in the morning (even though we missed the group picture b/c the buses were moving slowly) is quite exciting. 33,000 people dressed and ready to complete the same goal, it's a lot of hype but well worth it.

So, all in all, great experience. We'll see about #3 for 2010, my guess is I'll get roped in again and experience all of this same stuff for a 3rd time.

Here we are below in our bright orange Lee University shirts.

Jump rope and outside toys

Blake is into to jumping rope these days. They must do it at the YMCA after school program or in gym class at school. So, we all decided we'd take a turn. Theses are funny pics.














First Eric tries it.














Then Will tries it.























Missy is pretty good at it but she complained it hurt her feet too bad.











I was pretty much terrible at it. I had a serious allergy attack at their house. The pollen got to me at the baseball park and by the time I got there, I was one big mess. Watery, itchy eyes, sneezing my head off, nose stuffed up - couldn't smell a thing unless it was one of the twins poopy diapers. Can't help but smell those rotten things.








Let's be honest, my boys love playing outside. They'll do whatever outside; run around, bikes, cars, dirt, swings, trucks, you name it, they will play it outside.








Even if it's pink and has princesses all over it - doesn't matter. Tucker is shown here riding the girly scooter complete with the basket for fresh flowers on the front.
















It was a fun weekend besides the pollen. The rain will help that we are getting today. I can't wait for more weather like Saturday, it rocked!

The baseball park, our second home

We are spending quite a lot of time at the baseball park these days. Only Blake is playing right now so I feel like it is going to get a lot worse! Anyhow, we like it and we make it a family affair. I took some cute shots this weekend. It was gorgeous weather and it wasn't too hot or too cool, it was just right.




This is Blake on first base and here he is running the bases.


He's a good little athlete at 7 years old and he enjoys doing it.











Here's all the fans as they run around in the dirt around the bleechers. They get nasty, I mean nasty at the ballpark. They sit in the dirt and build things and pick up rocks and "make dinner" with them. It's cute and they do have fun. Usually we come straight home to the bath tub.






Here's Spiderman Brett. That's what I call him when he scales the fence like this. He loves to do this and pretty good at it.








This might be one of my new favorite pics. I took this one of Blake looking through the fence and the corner of the dugout. I'm pretty sure he wanted me to stop taking pics but it was enjoyable to me. Teeth at this age are a dead give-away. They come in so big and so unproportional (is that a word?) to the size of their face. Anytime I see a child with this look, you just know, they must be 6 or 7. Cute! :)


















And one more. Blake's not usually a poser but for this one he had hand on hip and ready to go. Mr. GQ. He looks 14 to me in this pic. He's really only 7.

All dressed up and lots of places to go

Friday night, we had the chance to host a very small but fun event on campus. Every year we have an Ask the President chapel and students can write in with questions. Each year we get several students who ask for a date kit or the means to take their significant other out. So this year we decided to have one event and everyone who wrote in asking for this, got it. So, I volunteered Will and I to host and was told to ask a few other faculty/staff members to help us. So I asked Eric and Missy and Tommy and Sarah to help host. Friday also happened to be Missy's 21st birthday (not really 21 but who cares). The students were told this was going to be a very fancy and nice evening so most of them dressed accordingly. We had roses, candles, movie passes, live jazz band music and of course good food. Here's the look of the 2 person table.

Basically I did all of the organizing ahead of time and during the day on Friday so when we got there Friday night, we just enjoyed the ambiance.




This is our table. Dinner was quite good, we had bacon wrapped filets, twice baked potatoes, green beans and then chocolate molten cake for dessert. I was impressed!










I told you it was kind of fancy so we tried to dress accordingly.

























This is a group shot of the 6 of us who hosted this event. We had so much fun. They all had their own 2 person tables and we sat in the back at a 6 top table and were able to relax and enjoy a fun evening. Several students stopped by our table on their way out to tell us thanks and that they had a great time.




Since it was Missy's birthday, we decided to go down to Chattanooga after dinner and walk on the walking bridge. We were all dressed up so we wanted to head down and find a place to hang out. We walked across the bridge, high heels and all, and finally made it to a cute little place called Smokin Crabshack and Canteen. It had a back deck screened in where we could sit and be loud if we wanted. So we stayed there and had such a good time, we rang in Missy's birthday at 11:07 the exact minute she was born. Here's a pic from there.


To be honest, we have a range of personalities mixed into this little group and I will give you a few prime examples.



We have serious Tommy.








We also have goofy Eric. And not so serious but laid back Will.























This is Missy and Sarah (myself included) who decided to walk back across the bridge barefoot.










Fun, fun, fun night. It quite possibly could be the best birthday party/outing I've been to in a long time.

I've got some blogging to do

I know, I am hearing you. I need to update my blog. That is my goal this weekend and I feel sure I will be successful but I'll start just by posting this cute pic of the twins. It's amazing to me how different they look now. When they were babies, of course, we could tell them apart but there weren't many who could. Although they looked very different to me, they had a very similar look, after all they are twins. But just take a gander at how different they actually are. I'll post more pics later from some other happenings in the Campbell circus, thanks for being patient!!

Great Strides 2009

We have something at Lee every year in March, it's the Great Strides Walk/Run to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We always try to go and support and this year, our whole fam went out for the event. It was raining, almost the entire time but not storming so we were able to do the whole event. Here's the boys on the way over to Lee prepared to walk/run in the rain.

I called them the hat boys that morning b/c everyone of them wanted to wear a hat like dad. So cute.




When we got over to Lee, we had some time before our event, which was the 1 mile Fun Run. So, we ate bagels and bananas while we waited for our turn. Everyone was excited about participating. We debated taking them all over there b/c we didn't know how hard it would be raining.






Here we are in the rain, doing our 1 mile Fun Run. Funny thing happened, somehow we missed the shot gun start of our part. So, Tommy and Sarah with us and our kids did our own "fun run" in the rain. But, it was great, we laughed and got wet and just went on our merry way.














And also, at this event, my camera got on a different setting and so lots of the photos are blurry. I didn't notice it until I got home but I ran with my camera on my back so it must've switched settings. You'll be able to see the blurriness soon.












This is Amber and blurry Brett and blurry Jenna in the background. Really? How could I let that happen to my settings. It's really annoying.









This is Stephanie. I work with her and we had 100% participation from our office that morning. Cole was there too but I didn't get his picture. Of course Dr. Conn was there and his entire family.

Upstairs in the PCSU (b/c of the rain) there were games and prizes and lots of goodies for the kids. We spent about an hour up there probably. The kids enjoyed it though.





More fun in the kids area with some Hammond friends.

Charleston Rocks!

So we decided to take a trip with some friends. We decided on Charleston, that was an easy choice, it's a great place to vacation and hang out. Our friends Eric & Missy went with us and they were super fun. We left Cleveland on a Friday at noon and headed toward the coast. We made a few stops on the way there (thank you for letting me stop at Target). I needed to pick up a few things including a memory card for my NEW CAMERA. And I got a really cool khaki long coat since it was going to be chilly in Chaz-town.
These pics were taken when we got there and got settled into our room. We stayed at Lodge Alley which is the best place to stay when you go there. It's a Bluegreen Resort and it's right in the middle of everything you can imagine to do in Charleston.


Our first dinner there, we ate at Tommy Condon's which is a famous Charleston spot and a good one for seafood and other stuff. I had angel hair pasta with seafood in it. Everyone else got something having to do with seafood too. We even got dessert. We also ate outside on the patio area but they had these cool plastic curtain type things because it was chilly.



(Sorry mom, the kids aren't in any of the Chaz-town pics, so you'll have to just deal with it.)







After dinner we walked around for awhile. There's a great place out by the water where they have these huge unbelievable cool porch swings. You can just sit and talk forever swinging in the dark by the water. It's one of my favorite places to frequent while in Charleston. This is Will and I on a swing, acting goofy....as usual.





This is E&M trying to "have a moment" I guess but that doesn't happen on a trip with friends. Ha! No really they were cutting up as we were...as usual.










After we did the swings and the water, we found a spot to watch some hoops becuase it was the beginning of March Madness and we were all (ha, anyone that knows me well...knows I wasn't that anxious about scores of b-ball games!)anxious to know scores and results.








This is gorgeous Lodge Alley. This is right outside our room. Our door to our room is the second one you see on the left. It really is a great place to stay, we had a fireplace in our room, flat screen TV and lots of other added luxuries.







On Saturday, we just had muffins and coffee for b-fast and then ate at this tiny little cafe close to the market. It had all of about 7 tables in it. Very good food and some very saweeeeeeeet tea.










Body art anyone?

Okay, so I wasn't going to make this huge announcement on my blog but I can't help but tell what we did and post the pics to go along with it. Will and I, at 33 years old, both got tattoos in Chaz-town. It was not an impulse decision, it's one we've been discussing for years. So before we went, I had been through tons and tons of designs and contemplated on what to get and where to get it. In the office for our most recent dinner, we used a very cute four leaf clover on our invitations etc. I really wanted something that signifies that I have 4 wonderful children that I love so very much. So, it was decided, I was getting a brown dainty but very sweet four leaf clover on the inside of my right ankle right above where my shoe hits.






I was a NERVOUS WRECK!! I had no idea how bad the pain would be and I was so afraid of the unknown.










Okay below is a progression of pics. My artist was Chris Seattle and he was great, we liked him a lot. E&M went for moral support and they were troopers!!


Only took 15 minutes or less under the needle to get my little brown clover on my skin. He was fast!!

Finished product and so very proud of it. I know, I know, mid life crisis? Probably not at 33 but it's something I've wanted to do for a long time and I finally had the guts to do it. Is it professional? Probably not but I'll try to be very discreet about it at work.

So, then Will's was a different story. It took 1 hour and 45 minutes. Will and Chris (the artist) worked together to come up with a very cool design. It's a cross and above it, Psalms and below it 127:4. The verse says, Sons born to a man when he is young are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. His turned out perfect and we love it as well.

This is in process. Below is finished product. His hurt worse than mine. By the way, mine didn't hurt hardly at all. His was way more red and tender looking than mine.



Okay. Now that we got that out of the way, on to the rest of the trip. We spent a lot of time in a vintage shop one day and let me say, we had a blast.

For dinner that night we went to Hymans Seafood. Its another Charleston fave and is known for its oysters, which I hate.
We waited over an hour for a table but it was worth it. By the time we got our food, we were pretty much starving.



That night, I was so tired. We went dancing for a little while at Club Light. Yes, we were the oldest folks in the place but it was a blast!!

So we were watching hoops when we got back in and I just pooped out right there on the couch and they took a pic to make fun of me. Classic!






Another day by the water on the swings. Great place to hang out.


























Okay, last pics to post are of the 4 of us walking in an alley in Charleston. They have the coolest alleys there and I thought it'd be fun to take pics of us walking down an alley. So here they are. I'll finish out with a picture of the four of us. We didn't get many shots of the 4 of us so I'm posting the best one we got.

What a fun trip!!!