Feliz Cinco de Mayo!!!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have never really been into holidays. Something about having 10 kids in the family makes it hard to do them well, I guess. We never really had any great traditions growing up that I can remember. Anyways, I just never really got into them. However, since having kids, especially now that Carter is getting older, I look for any chance to create fun traditions. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo by having tacos, rice and beans, mockaritas, and I even made flan! I didn't have a mold for it, so it didn't look quite right, but it tasted great! I did look for a pinata at Pick N' Save, but came up empty handed. Next year we will have a pinata and sombreros.
Carter's favorite part had to be the margaritas. I can't wait to have to explain that in church...

Make your life easier...

For all you blog stalkers out there (like me) who can't go a day without checking up on other people's blogs you must try out Google Reader. I was introduced to it by the queen of blog, the wet donkey herself, Karen. It is so easy! You go there , sign in with your Google account info (shame on you if you don't have one--get one today!), add some subscriptions by copying and pasting blog addresses and that's it! You go there, it downloads the posts and tells you when someone has updated their blog. You have just saved yourself a million link-clicks.

The only downsides are: 1. You miss out on the cute templates that people spend hours on. 2. You can't leave comments from here--but you can just click on the post and it takes you right to it. 3. You can't subscribe to private blogs, so you still have to check these the old-fashioned way.

So what are you still reading this the old-fashioned way for? Get your booty to Google Reader!

Thanks Karen!

Walking!

Samantha is finally figuring out the walking thing! I know I should live in the moment, and not just be looking forward to the next phase. Generally, I would say that I am pretty good about that. She has been so frustrated over not being able to walk on her own, though. She wants to walk everywhere, and she gets mad when she can't; she just hasn't been able to get it down! She finally took a couple of steps on Sunday, and has been practicing ever since. I can't wait for her to start chasing Carter around instead of him always going after her. Revenge will be sweet...

Who knew I was so hot?

Mike had a work thing the other night, and we were supposed to dress up, and I haven't really gotten dressed up like that in a while, so I thought I would post some pictures: What? I didn't tell you that I chopped my hair off, got a boob job and lost 30 pounds? I am getting my hair done tomorrow, and I heard about this site, hairmixer. You can download a picture of yourself and mix and match hairstyles. I didn't have any plain head shots, so I just took one after a day of cleaning, no make up. Next time, I will have to try it looking a little more made-up, but what do you think?

Long and Lovely Linda a la Pink

Channeling Lindsay Lohan

I think I may have had an "aha" moment with this one:

Linda for president!

And finally, I find comfort in the fact that if I ever wanted to cross over, I would make a decent looking guy. I actually look a lot like my brother, kind of wierd.Anyways, I didn't find any great inspiration, but it was a fun way to kill some time while Mike watches his 10th basketball game of the week.

Crazy Legs or Crazy Linda???

About 3 weeks ago, my friend Jessica and I decided to join some of our other friends running Crazy Legs - an 8k in Madison today (ok, really I made her do it with me). At the time, we were running about 3 miles once or twice a week, and I use the term running pretty loosely there. Anyways, with 3 weeks of training, we did it! We ran the entire 5 miles. I thought I was going to die during the first mile and a half, but it got better after that. I really had no expectations of being able to run the whole thing, so I totally feel like a superstar. I came in 8023rd out of 27000. Not too bad, right? I finished in 51:12. Jessica beat me by 13 seconds, but we both came in under our estimated times of 55 min. We'll work on speed for the next one.

Me and Jessica pre-race

Whitney, Karen, me and Jessica. My camera was in the car, so we didn't get any great after pictures at the stadium. Just imagine this one, but with red faces and sweaty, windswept hair.

I can't wait for the next one!

Out of it...

My friend Karen introduced me to gomusic.ru, which is a super cheap music site. I am thinking I will go ahead and get myself some new music, since the last CD I purchased was the Backyardigan's latest. So I am looking at the website, trying to pick out some new tunes and I am realizing that I am completely out of sync with the music world. Honestly, in the car I try to listen to my own music, but Carter's requests usually win out. Even when I do listen to my own music, it is all old stuff that I got in college, or even worse, high school. Help! There has to be someone new out there for me to fall in love with. Who are some of your favorites?

Happy Birthday Samantha!

Today was this sweet girl's first birthday! I can't believe that it has been a whole year, it has flown by! Mike took a half day today and we went to the zoo. I think Samantha was just happy to be outside. It was amazingly warm today!

She pulled her hair clip out and was left with this awesome do.

She didn't eat as much cake as I thought she would. She used one of the decorations as a dip stick and just ate the frosting.

She didn't really get the unwrapping thing, which drove Carter nuts. After a little bit of assistance, she got the hang of it.

We love you Samantha!