Happy 35th Anniversary Ma & Pa Kaney!

Tonight we picked up Ma & Pa Kaney from the bus terminal in Rockford after they returned from their two week trip to Ireland and Scotland. I know you're so jealous...and so are we. We're so happy they were able to take this amazing trip to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary though. Thirty five years is a major accomplishment for a marriage in today's society that is filled with divorce. These two are a wonderful example to their children of what a Christ-centered marriage looks like. 

We surprised them by having Ryan & Cory and their two daughters (Rachel & Rebekah) join us as we picked them up and taking them out for a nice dinner at JMK Nippons in Rockford. Sadly, Christi & Justin couldn't join us, but it was a great evening celebrating Ma & Pa Kaney's anniversary.

Congratulations on 35 wonderful years! We know you have many more ahead of you. We love you!!

It's finally over!

The past six months have been grueling. Aaron and I have a pretty busy schedule, and in every second that I had down time, I was trying to fit in a long or short run in order to train for the Chicago Marathon. It really became a chore more than something I enjoyed. I started out this training because I wanted to do something with my sister, and don't get me wrong, I am glad that I was able to do it with her, but I'm even more glad that it's finally over. She'll agree with me, and I'm sure Aaron will also.

Aaron had to put up with my whining and complaining over the last six months..."I don't want to run today...I'm so tired...my legs hurt...my feet hurt...will you bike with me so I'm not lonely?...I'm so sore." He heard it all. Thank you, sweetie, for your support through my training. You are the best part of my day - every day, and I'm so thankful for your support. I love you!

Andrea and I ran most of the race together (at least until mile 20). Our original plan was to cross the finish line holding hands, but my knees completely gave out on me around mile 21. The last 5.2 miles were excruciating for me, but I finished. It was by far the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I knew I was holding Andrea back because she could go so much faster. So I told her to run ahead of me. I'm so proud of her. She did so well. It took me, on the other hand, 5 hours and 15 minutes to finish. I'm actually pretty embarrassed about that, but that's a pride issue I have. It's really too bad that my knees gave out, but at least I finished. Today I am in so much pain from the race. It's going to take me a couple days to fully recover, but I'm so thankful I'm done with the race. No more marathons for me...two is enough. 

I just thought I'd give you a little bit of the facts about our marathon...
The course was beautiful. Chicago in the fall is beautiful in general, and the weather was perfect. There were 1,700,000 spectators along the course. There were 109 countries represented. There were 45,000 bananas available to participants (enough to feed the apes at the Lincoln Park Zoo for 19 years). We didn't die, but one man, sadly, did. And one woman started getting contractions around mile 13 and then finished the race just in time to give birth to her baby. It was an amazing journey, and even though I have some regrets, it is still one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Those 26.2 miles were unforgettable.

Here's a few pics from the weekend...

Getting pumped up at the Expo

We were a little bit excited to see our family around mile 14. We'd been looking forward to it for a while.

Chicago in the Fall

My amazing sister...so proud of her!

Big Sis...Little Sis

After the race...I had to get a pic with my handsome supporter.

Later that night...exhausted, in A LOT of pain, feeling sick to my stomach, no makeup, and hair wet, but I needed a pic with my medal. This is the smile of someone who is glad it's over.

This was my second and last marathon race. Praise God for getting me through it because I couldn't have done it without His strength. Now that the race is over, it's time to pause, reflect, and enjoy other aspects of my life that may have been neglected during my training. Praise God it's over!

Goodbye marathon running...it's been quite a journey.

Sewing Club

I feel like this is typical of my life...I blinked and two weeks went by. Sometimes I think I blink and 6 months have gone by. Life can be consuming sometimes, but this past weekend I was very thankful to get a weekend away with Sewing Club. I've been looking forward to this weekend for some time now, and for those of you that don't know, I'm not a member of Sewing Club and this may be kind of difficult to explain, but Sewing Club actually doesn't sew.

Sewing Club is a group of Christian women that get together once a month to just be women...they hang out, share food, laugh, cry, and share in one another's lives. My mother-in-law has been a part of this group for years, and this particular group of women started about 20 years ago. You have to be a member of the group, and to be a member of the group you have to be invited. And in order to be able to get an invitation someone has to either die or move away. To make a long story short, it's just a group of Christian women that decided to start meeting once a month to escape from the every day demands of life. It's not a Bible study or a "church group" per se, but just what it is...a group of women sharing life. And they each make a commitment to stay a part of the group until (like I said above) they die or move away. There's so much more to it that I can't explain well enough, but you just have to trust me that it's an awesome group of ladies.

That being said, I was privileged to be able to go on their annual weekend getaway this year. My good friend, Heidie, and myself were allowed to go because we were interested in starting a "next generation" sewing club, and they had a few extra spots, so we were able to join them. And it was an amazing weekend!!

This was taken Sunday morning before we left. It's just too bad that some of the ladies had to leave earlier that morning and couldn't be in the picture.

And of course...Sue and I had to get a picture.

I learned so much, and I'm so excited to get the next generation of sewing club up and running. It's so important to have Christian women to do life together with, and I can't emphasize that enough. God made us each unique and wonderfully made, but He wanted us to mold each of our uniqueness's together and walk through life together. 

This past weekend...I learned a lot from a great group of women, but we also laughed so hard that we cried, we stayed up late (ummm...3am) , we ate and ate and ate, we shopped, we got massages, we talked about everything, and we just had FUN. A woman needs that sometimes.

And I definitely don't want to leave out the fact that my wonderful husband stayed home all weekend and worked around the house (cleaning out the garden beds, painting around the outside of the house, etc., etc.). Thank you, thank you, thank you Aaron for allowing me to go away for the weekend, and for all you did around the house! I'm so blessed!

Our Redneck Antenna

On a normal day, we typically don't act like rednecks, but this Sunday was an exception. For those of you that don't know, Aaron and I rarely watch television, and when we moved into our house, we decided not to get cable for that reason. We assumed that we would be able to use our antenna to watch all the local channels from our tv if we really wanted to watch something, but we were wrong. We tried to use the antenna when we first moved in (back in May), and we were unable to get any channels. I guess there's a big difference between the reception that you get living in the city as opposed to a small town of 800 people. We were disappointed, but we let it go because it wasn't that big of an issue.

Well...

Today Aaron decided to try again because of Sunday afternoon and evening football, so he attempted to get a signal with our antenna. He gave up after making several attempts, but not me. After he had gone out of the room, I decided I would try to "save the day" and acquire a signal with our antenna. This is what I came up with:

The cord to the left goes to the plugin in our dining room, and the cord to the right goes ALL the way into our living room to connect to the TV.

Now all afternoon and evening I've been walking through the house laughing at my contraption. I think this contraption just may win me the "Best Wife of the Year" award (if there is such a thing) because Aaron's been enjoying football on our own television all day. Needless to say, I did some research online, and we actually can get local channels through our tv. We just have to buy a new antenna for the roof. It turns out this is a common problem for "country folks". We WILL be purchasing a new antenna this week.

I knew those law books would come in handy some day though.

Garage Sale

I feel like I blinked and the last couple days were gone, but then again, I think I say that about everything nowadays. I was able to help Ma Kaney out with her garage sale yesterday and today, and even though you do a lot of sitting around during the garage sale, I'm still kind of worn out. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Sue the past few days,getting her garage sale ready, and helping her "purge" some things. Aaron and I were even able to make a few extra bucks with some items we sold in the garage sale. I think we may be "garage sale buddies" from here on out.

We make a pretty good team.

A Small Town Celebration

This weekend went by way too fast. We were busy all weekend long, but made sure to have lots of fun...of course. Our wonderful little small town (population 800- if that) had it's Labor Day weekend celebration. The famous "Shannon Days" was this weekend which meant that the main street of our small town was closed for three whole days. Only in a town this small could you get away with shutting down the main street for three days and not get complaints. The downtown area was hoppin' (well...as hoppin' as Shannon can get). There were farmer's market stands, pony rides, a live band in the evening, and most importantly there was BINGO. We kept saying "just one more game" and as always...didn't win anything. The main event of the weekend was the parade though. We haven't been to a parade in years, and we were able to enjoy the parade on Monday. Well, I'm not gonna lie...we froze our behinds off that morning for the parade, but it was fun.

 

 

Aaron refused to use my pink polka-dot blanket because it was too "girly".

Apparently, Shannon has the longest parade in Northwest Illinois. I found that hard to believe, but I guess it's true. And it wouldn't be a small town parade without my favorite things....

Ford Trucks

And Tractors.

 But I could definitely do without....

The Scary Clowns.

I can't believe it's September already, but most of all, I can't believe Fall is just around the corner...along with the cold weather. Lord, please be easy on us this winter. We need a gradual slide back into northern Illinois living. We've been away for a long time.

Homemade Salsa

Yesterday we learned a new thing...how to make our own salsa and can it. We've been really excited about canning and freezing our own vegetables this year. We have quite the stash of vegetables in our pantry and freezer. We have green beans, corn, zucchini, rhubarb, and now homemade salsa. It started out being a lot of fun, but by the time we were done, we were REALLY ready to be done. We spent six hours making the salsa and canning it. It probably wouldn't have taken the average Joe six hours, but Aaron had to work on his trial for tomorrow which left me (Miss Perfectionist) to do the cutting and dicing of the tomatoes. Imagine how long it would take a perfectionist to dice up probably around 40 or 50 tomatoes. No one can try telling a perfectionist not to spend so much time on it and just go faster...it just doesn't happen in my world.

The end result was delicious! Needless to say, we had nachos for dinner last night, and just so you're aware two people can finish off one whole bag of tortilla chips all by themselves within an hour.

Here's the recipe we used: (compliments of Ma Kaney)

2 cups of peeled and chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1-2 jalapeno peppers - seeded & minced (add more for more spice)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of corriander
1/2 teaspoon of parsley
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon of vinegar
1 tablespoon of fresh cut cilantro

Combine all the ingredients and heat it to can it or refrigerate it if you'd like it fresh.
(We did four times the amount of this, but you obviously don't have to do that if you're only making it for yourself and a couple people.)

It's been wonderful harvesting all the vegetables in our garden this year. I think it's even made my husband like vegetables when he wouldn't touch them before. He says "it's different when you grow them yourself". I just laugh. Vegetables are vegetables. The only difference is ours are more work, but they're a lot cheaper and organic. I shouldn't complain though...at least he's eating them.