And We're Off . . .

Yes, 2012 is off with a bang.  First up, remember these (from Donna)?  I'm referring to the dishcloths.  Well, they came in handy when this happened . . .

Yes, the dishwasher crapped out and we had to resort to the old fashioned way of cleaning our dishes.  Yikes, that brought back some memories!!  Not to worry, after much trouble and aggravation, we finally got this puppy installed.  (and by "we", I mean B-guy - bless his heart!)

Then there was this fiasco . . .

A little fender bender . . . ha!  The cost to fix this mess could feed a small African country.

A few days later this happened . . .

This is looking across the street from the front door.  Unfortunately because of my crazy busy season at work, I was unable to get a rental car after the accident and definitely unable to get one after the flood.  I'm still without a car and the wreck happened a week ago.

But, all is not gloom and doom in the month of January.  On Sunday, this happened . . .

 My family and I at the Houston Marathon Expo on Saturday picking up our packets.

And on Sunday proudly wearing our medals.  We all ran the Half Marathon except for my brother in the middle with the big medal - he ran the Full Marathon.

It was an awesome weekend because on Saturday we trekked downtown and watched the elite athletes vie for our 3 coveted 2012 Olympic marathon spots.  These awesome (and very, very fast runners) ran within feet of us.  At the end of the day, we saw Meb, Ryan and Abdi place 1st, 2nd and 3rd for the men. 

And Shalane, Desiree and Kara place 1st, 2nd and 3rd for the women.  It was probably a once in a lifetime deal as what are the chances that Houston will host the men's and women's Olympic trials again?  I was totally in awe.





Shalane Flanagan in the white socks streaking by on her way to 1st place victory. At this point, she had approximately 1/4 mile to go.  It's unbelievable how fast these runners run after 26 miles.  Yikes!  I'm so happy and proud of all of them.  Good luck!!

And so January has basically been a sew-free zone what with all the hoopla happening.  That does not make me happy.  But, if I can survive until Thursday (the date the auditors have to sign off on our year end audit), then maybe, (cross your fingers) just maybe, my sewing machine will be humming again this weekend.  So far, this is the only creating I've done (besides my daily drawings).

 This is my niece's college graduation quilt that my SIL asked me to quilt for her.



Hopefully January will calm down and February will be the month that I get to jump start my new year of creative happenings.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see . . .