yummy homemade pizza

If you enjoy a homemade pizza for lunch (like I do nearly everyday), you must try these flatbreads I found at Wal-mart. They are $2. The perfect size for a small pizza. Very Yummy!!!!

Bridge Run Week!

It's been over a month, I know. I have had trouble finding positive things to talk about these days (aside from running...) I'm following the same half marathon training plan I used for the Oxford half. I signed up for the Renaissance half in Jackson on April 30. Before then, I have the Bridge Run 10K on Saturday, the Anderson Cup 5K next week, and the Lamar Raider run 10K on the 16Th. One of my goals this year was to PR in a 10K. I PR'd at the Winter run in Ridgeland in February (1:00:35). Now I hope to get under an hour! The Winter Run was really flat and VERY COLD! I sped up just to get finished because I couldn't feel my face. :) The Bridge run is mostly flat (except for the bridge of course, which isn't bad) and the Lamar race is pretty flat I'm told.

So we are leaving Friday for Charleston! (CAN'T WAIT!!!) Mom, Wes, myself, Josh, Ken and Deb are heading there for the weekend. We (minus Ken, Deb & Josh) plan to run the bridge run with Pete & Kelly. (It sold out this year BTW).

We recently got new furniture for the living room. We sold our old red sofa and yellow chair on Craig's List. Wes bought them long before we ever met. Our new stuff has a somewhat leather look to it. I think its called durablend or something. I like it. We got new pillows too. The ones in the picture are the old ones. Notice Wes' latest finished project. We got these stumps from a guy on Wadmalaw Island (SC) after a tornado came through. The island was hit pretty hard. We had seen some similar side table stumps at a hotel years ago and loved them. A few days after the tornado came through, we used our press id's to get through the police checkpoint (they closed the island to non-residents) and drove around looking for already cut trees. We found a guy who had several in his front yard. Wes explained what he was planning to do and asked if he could take some of the stumps. (We got the guys' address and I plan to send him a photo and thank him again.) We got five. They sat in the dining room of our apartment in Charleston until we moved (Probably 6 months or so). For the past 2 years, they have sat in the shed with a fan blowing at them to dry them out. A few months ago, Wes took them down to Dad's shop and spent three or four days sanding away. Now they are our "coffee table." There's another one next to the recliner. Yes, they are super heavy, but cool.

Donation

So I was planning on running the Frostbite Half Marathon next month, but I won't be able to, it turns out. Thats fine though. I think helping another person is more important.
While Wes and I lived in Charleston, we signed up for the National Marrow Donor Registry. They are responsible for finding matches for people in need of a bone marrow transplant. This was several years ago. We had forgotten about it. A few months ago, I got a phone call early in the morning (9am is early for me okay!) saying that I had been matched to a person with Leukemia in need of a transplant. Of course I said yes. How can you say no to someone who has cancer. Well, I've had to have blood drawn twice, filled out a bunch of paperwork and had a physical and now I'm set to donate bone marrow cells in mid-January. Kind of excited about it, and nervous as well.
Since I have a bulging disc, I can't have the normal extraction procedure (they insert a big needle into my hip bone and extract marrow directly from the bone.) I'm giving Periphiral blood stem cells which is the same thing, but a different way of extraction. I have to take a shot everyday for 5 days. This shot "pulls" marrow out of my bones and into my bloodstream. On day 5, I have to be hooked up to an apheresis machine that looks like a dialysis machine, except it pulls blood from one arm and extracts the marrow cells, then returns the blood to the other arm. Here's a link to more info.

Team CoCo blimp in Meridian

Conan's promotional blimp made a stop in Meridian this evening for an overnight stay. Tonight, we went to the airport and took some pictures. Conan's new show on TBS starts next week.

Independence Day Road Trip

We had no plans for this weekend, while everyone else was cooking out and traveling and all that. Mom went to Arkansas and Dad left for his mission trip. Pete & Kelly are in Charleston with friends. (BTW, Pete is back for some R&R. He'll head back to Afghanistan on July 15. Once he returns, he'll only have three months left.) We had no plans, so we decided to take a road trip. Our original destination was Natchez via the Trace. We started in Ridgeland and rode a while on the trace until we decided that would take too long, so we got off and headed to Port Gipson, a charming little town. (Sort of, I guess. Not much to see.) We did see this......
I'd seen a picture of this church steeple before (in MS magazine). It's the steeple on the Presbyterian church. Kinda cool I think. We did a little iPhone searching and remembered there were several ghost towns in the region we'd heard about on Mississippi Roads. We also remembered that Windsor Ruins (wiki link) were nearby too... The address of Windsor is not navigable by google maps or our GPS. We found it anyway. Cool place. I'd never been there. Wes had though. It was destroyed by fire when somebody left a cigar burning in 1890, causing it to burn to the ground! Tragic considering it survived the war.

Notice the iron rails still attached where the upper floor porch used to be. Pretty cool. While we were there, this man asked us if we had been there before. He said the staircase from the house is being used at the chapel on the campus of Alcorn State University.

Here's the staircase at Alcorn's Chapel. The iron rails were also from the house.

We decided to look for the Ghost Towns nearby (according to Wiki). Rodney was the first one. We knew Rocky Springs was nearby too. Rodney wasn't that easy to find. The road that would lead us there was HWY 552. It split off and then turned into a gated private property. We had to go back to Alcorn State (which is really in the middle of nowhere! Why would anyone want to go to school there??!) and find our way through campus to a road that would lead us to Rodney. There was construction at Alcorn which made it difficult to figure out where to go. We found the road....it was dirt. We'll more like an old logging road/trail that hadn't been driven in 50 years! It was terrible! I felt like some redneck hunter in dirty overalls was gonna come out with a rifle like a troll and make us pay to pass or something.... It was that bad! (I should also say we were in the car too). The road eventually got better, then worse, then better again... We were truly in the sticks!

We finally found Rodney. (wiki page) The road went from gravel, to dirt and back a few times. Then is suddenly turned to paved with curbs and gutters and everything. It was nice, but the thing was, it hadn't been touched in years. Grass was overtaking the pavement. Their was this huge pile of dirt/grass/whatever in the middle of the lane. It was weird. Then it turns back into dirt and whalla... there's the "town." This is the Presbyterian church. The one where the "battle" took place (read the links above).

Here's a shot through the window. The wiki page says there are still services here. Looks like there are new floral arrangements in front. The white tassel is the pull for the bell.

Notice the cannonball in the wall above the window.

This is the Baptist church.

This was a commercial building back in the day.

I think this was an old corner store. It was next to the main road. Notice the old gas pump.

After finding out way back to civilization, we headed towards Natchez. We wanted to find Rocky Springs, but it was 4pm already and we had no idea where it was. (photos) There was little to no cell service so we couldn't search for it. It obviously didn't show up on the GPS. Maybe next time, we'll find it.... Here's a few pictures of Natchez. We didn't do much. Just drove around a little and then ate at a restaurant on the river.

EXCELLENT FOOD!!!

Been a while.....

Been busy. Not really just lazy to be honest...

Mom and I went to see Point of Grace and Mark Schultz at the temple last night. GREAT concert!! I hadn't been to the temple in years. Looks exactly the same. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. I did smell like an old drafty house. About halfway through the concert, it got real hot! I mean REAL HOT!! Anyway, enough negative.... the concert was great. I had forgotten that POG had originally started out as a group called "Say So." They sang at OHBC when I was like 7 or something... I don't know for sure. (wiki link) Point of Grace formed later with four women. Over the years, two left to be with family. Now there are three. Two are still original to the group. I've seen them three or four times in concert over the years. I've also seen Mark Schultz before too. I think it was at 15Th Avenue BC sometime in 2000 or 2001. Mark sings a song called "Letters from War." I'm sure by the name you can guess why Mom and I sobbed while he sang it.... I took a few pictures and videos with my phone... here's a picture... It's not that good because we weren't real close to the stage...

Well, Wes left yesterday for South Korea. He called me around 3pm today and said they had just landed. It was 5am there. On Monday morning that is.... He's 14 hours ahead of us. So basically he skipped Sunday completely. The airport must have had free Wi-Fi. He called using the Skype for iPhone thing. It worked pretty well. they flew from Memphis to Chicago and had 6 or 7 hours of layover there. He went into downtown Chicago for a while. (He's never been). He sent me this picture from the Sears Tower. (I've been there before when Pete graduated from Boot Camp). Last year they built these glass boxes that you can stand in and you're basically standing out over the city a hundred stories up.... Pretty cool! (nice legs too!... Wes', not the other persons....)

So anyway, I ran yesterday on the treadmill (hate it) because it's monsoon week. Plus the humidity is ridiculous. I'm not ready for it yet.

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So I have this friend that I haven't talked to in a while. I have no excuse for not talking to them, its just that I'm busy with my own life and so are they. It happens. (It seems to happen a lot to me. I tend to have these selfish periods where I unknowingly ignore others and then it turns to alienation and then when I see them again, it's awkward.) This person has not had the easiest life. They've had a lot of bumps in the road. But they are remaining positive and seem to be happy with themselves now. But, in the eyes of an outsider (which I consider myself to be because I haven't been around them in years until recently), they seem to be walking down the same path that lead them to those bumps and bad choices. I know it's not my place to judge them. I don't know what they've gone through and I can't really relate to them. (This person has children). I don't know the whole situation, but I just don't think their setting a good example for their kids. I can't say anything to them. It's not my place. I just feel the need to say this in general because I care about them. I really do, even though I haven't shown it much. Please pray for this person. They seem to be happy, but I feel like the bigger picture is more important to focus on than happiness in this situation. I don't know if this person reads this, but if they do, I'm sorry, but I just think your main focus should be your influence on your children and not the other thing.

Food, Inc.

Great Documentary. Everyone should watch it.
I don't think I'll ever eat another piece of bacon again.... Seriously!!

The 5K at Camp Binachi was moved to May 8 because of the weather. That's good because I had nothing to do that weekend. But not good because now I have nothing to do tomorrow...... oh well.

Memphis - Lorraine Hotel

Before we left Memphis, we drove by the Civil Rights Museum. It's built around the hotel where Martin Luther King was shot. The hotel isn't open anymore. The museum is build adjacent to it. It was Sunday, so they were closed.

Pineapple plants...

When Wes & I went to Hawaii in 2006, we bought some fresh pineapples before we left to return home. (You have to have them sprayed and sent to the airport or buy them in the airport) These are the tops of those pineapples...3 years later. They haven't sprouted a new fruit yet and they probably won't because we're not in a tropical environment. They've been outside all summer. We brought them inside because the cold weather will kill them. The problem is, we didn't realize just how big they'd gotten.....

I'm standing in a chair to take this picture.