A little rhythm.

Having fun in the morning.

Amalgam be gone!

This past week I got all 7 of my Amalgam/Mercury tooth fillings removed and replaced. Usually I love going to the dentist (a little strange, I know) but I was apprehensive about this procedure. I am not a fan of drugs and I had to get a local anesthetic in four areas of my mouth. They also started me on nitrous oxide but within two minutes I started breaking out in a sweat and had it replaced with pure oxygen. Drills, my mouth wired open and 3 hours later, no more toxic mercury in this mouth. Thank goodness.

This is about 1/10 of the metal that the dentist removed. Amazing that years ago (and in some dental practices today) it was common place to fill cavities with a deadly poison. I wonder what we will look back on in 20 years and say, "I can't believe in 2010 we used to ______?" (Drink water with flouride, have health care options that were constitutional, think traditional sunscreen protected us from cancer.) Hmmm.

All the tears......

over one bunny. The kiddos had never sat on Santa's lap or seen the Easter bunny at the mall and so I can imagine how strange it would be to be plopped on the lap of a gigantic, moving rabbit. However, they survived and had some fun at the community egg hunt after.

I do not do much by way of "dressing" the boys up but this coat and vest was adorable on Luke and brought back so many fun memories of our trip to Pittsburgh that I had to put it on Eli.

We managed to lose all the eggs we found on the egg hunt but that was forgotten when we arrived back home and had our baskets filled. I stuffed a few eggs with dried fruit, a few chocolate chips and one lollipop each~ Luke got an electric toothbrush and Eli received a ball~ they loved them! Matt could not believe how excited they both got, it was adorable.

Now, this was Eli's second lollipop. His first came to him in a mom's moment of desperation at the mall. The look on his face says it all, "How did I score one of these again?"

Spring is here~

I am not Irish....

but my cousin, Callie McRitchie, is! It was a must we celebrated with her as I have missed so many in the years past. Saturday we went to the parade in downtown Denver. Apparently, it is the biggest parade West of the Mississippi and ever since Luke saw the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on television he has been asking me to take him to New York. One day I am sure we will go but until then green shamrocks, vintage cars and Irish folk dancers will have to suffice.

It was then off to John's apartment where he and Callie had cooked up the traditional corn beef and cabbage, Guinness bread and pasta salad. Thankfully everyone was in their green attire or Luke was prepared to give them a pinch....lots of practice pinching this week.

Kiss me I am (almost) Irish!

Excuse me...

"Excuse me mommy. Can you please be patient? I am talking to dad."

- Luke, 2.5 yrs old going on 13 yrs old.

BlackRock = Big Smiles.

March 1st, that was Matt's official start date at BlackRock. Wahoo! The company has poised itself to be the leader in the marketplace, the team is small but fierce and the manager is phenomenal.

Cheers to new beginnings. We could not feel any luckier.

Half marathon- check!

Oh, the feeling of accomplishment. What a thrill! I only say this because I never thought I could have run 13.1 miles and felt so good. I am not a runner and prior to my training had only run 6 miles once.

It just goes to show what a good pair of running shoes and proper training can do for a girl. My mom, sister and I all participated. My mom had plans of walking the race but she said there was so much energy she ran the first two miles and finished off running too. I was so proud of her as I watched her cross the finish line! My sister, Jamie, and I ran the entire course together- except for the last .5 mile, she smoked me and finished about 30 seconds ahead. We made a total rookie mistake and had to stop at the first bathroom check point. The line was literally ten minutes so all in all we probably ran the race in a little under 2:30. The day was beautiful, my partners were awesome and I had the best cheering crowd around (thanks Dad!!)

I realized something about myself during this whole process. I always thought I was competitive but really I think I like to just set a goal and achieve it. Whether that puts me in first or last place depends on what I set my mind to achieve. Now I just wonder, what is next......