The month of December flew by and so is January. We have been extremely busy the past month and now that all the "excitement" is over I don't know what to do with myself!! Here is a run down of our past month.
-Right after Thanksgiving we did all of our shopping in preparation for our cruise. We knew that when we got back we would only have 4 days before leaving to go home to WV for Christmas, so shopping needed to be finished. Planning a trip right before Christmas probably wasn't the best idea we have had :)!!
-We went on a 10 day cruise to South America, Panama, Costa Rica and the Carribean. We had a blast. 10 days was a little long on a boat so I was glad to see and be on land again however it was great having that long to just relax.
-When we got home on Monday we unpacked and repacked for our trip to WV to visit family for Christmas. We had a great time at home playing games and just hanging out with all of our family for the Holiday. My brothers were in and all of James family but 1 brother live in WV so we were able to see pretty much everyone. It was really nice since we only get home about once a year.
-WE HAD SNOW. There was snow on the ground from the day we got there until the day we left. So we had a white Christmas. We actually had to postpone our trip home by a day due to the huge snowstorm they had in the northeast. Through the mountains of WV where we were going to be driving they had about a foot of snow the day we were planning on leaving...so we thought it would be best to wait an extra day so they could clear the roads.
-This whole time I knew we had a race coming up the first of January so I was running on the cruise and trying to run in WV. That was interesting with all the ice and snow on the roads. I'm lucky I didn't break my neck :)
-We got home in time for New Year's and just kinda hung out at home playing the Wii and we went to see a movie. It was nice. I got Mario Brother's for the Wii for Christmas (I still love getting toys for Christmas!!)
-This past weekend I ran in my first 1/2 Marathon. It was the Walt Disney World Marathon in Orlando. It was awesome. I felt really good which I usually don't when I'm running so that was a pleasant surprise!! I wanted to finish between 2 hours and 2:05 and I finished in 1:57 so I am THRILLED with my time. It was so fun running with so many people. They had around 27,000 people running. It was awesome to get to run through the Disney Parks and see all the characters. It made the time go by so much faster.
-So this craziness is finally over. I ended all my "stuff" yesterday with surgery on my knee. It's the veins that go behind my knee from my upper leg to my calf. They ended up having to remove a vein and do some other "repair" work. I have had the appt for months but wanted to do it after the race so it didn't interfere with my training. So I'm just recovering and can't wait until Wed to take these first set of bandages off so I can bend my knee!! The rest have to stay on for another week after that but at least I'll be able to bend my leg :)

So that is my story of the past month or so. BUSY!! I'm actually sad everything is over because now I don't know what to do with myself :) I'm sure something will come up.
I have to go to Baltimore for work Feb 16th for a few days. Our whole office is going so that will be fun since we lived there for 6 years. It's always nice to go back, and since my brothers both live there it will be nice to see them.
I am going to start (in 2 weeks when I'm allowed to run again) training for a FULL marathon in either April or June. I think we are looking at doing the Utah Valley Marathon through the Provo Canyon out in Utah in mid June. The other race is in Nashville in April so I don't know if I can be ready by then. I was going to wait until October and do the St. George Marathon but it is VERY difficult to train here in Florida through the summer and I figured I'm already half way right now I might as well finish training and do it. If I wait to do a race in Oct I'll slack off for the next few months. I really want to say I've finished a Marathon!!! So that is the next thing for me