Ahhhh....the weekend :)

Well...it's almost over :)....but, weekends like this definitely energize me and prepare me for the week ahead :).

Here's a quick wrap-up:
Friday--

~Worked til about 2, then went to the POOL (a rare luxury!) with my good friend Jamie!

~Went grocery shopping

~Came home and cleaned/prepared dinner for some guests. It had been SO LONG since I got to play hostess...and it was great fun!

~We had Jeremy's co-worker and our "new friends", Lisa and Paul, over for dinner. It was great to spend time with a cute, fun couple! :)

Saturday--

~Woke up at 5:45 and ran 17 miles. Jamie, bless her heart, joined me for 9 of those miles! I was so grateful to have wonderful company! She is such a fabulous person, and such a wonderful running partner! I look forward to our conversations :)

~Cleaned/packed

~Ran to the mall with Jeremy to use some coupons that were "burning holes in our pockets" ;)

~Drove to the Quad Cities

~Had dinner at Chili's in Davenport with my parents, sister Megan and her husband Danny, and brother Dan and his girlfriend Laura. It was AWESOME. Having the 8 of us all together...I can't put into words how much fun that is. I could tell it meant a lot to my parents, as well. My dad, in particular, was in "rare form" ;). He was so happy he was practically giddy! Ha!! This is extra-funny if you happen to know my dad

~Drove Jeremy over to our friends Aaron and Katie's and met their new "addition", puppy Wilco! He was super cute! Jeremy spent the night there.

~Drove to my parents' in Geneseo, where I spent the night...I stayed up til after 1am finishing up a scrapbook for my friend Jen's new baby Jackson :)

Today (Sunday)

~Drove to Jen's church to watch Jackson's baptism :)

~Went to Jen's house to hang out with friends/family for a celebration luncheon

~Drove to Moline to pick up Jeremy

~grabbed a kiddie hot fudge sundae from Country Style (MMMM!)

~came home!

~And, I wrote about something running and life-in-general related, here....

I have one other topic I want to write about, soon....the question I hear in a variety of ways from a variety of people....basically "why do you run?" (which is often followed up by, "I don't see the point!" "What can you possibly get out of running that many miles?!" "Don't you know that the first person who ran a marathon DIED!" "I'd like to run, but....(insert plethora of excuses here)." "How do you find the time?", or even sometimes more "loaded" comments which make me feel somewhat guilty...like "must be nice to have that kind of time!", etc.). Anyway, I hope to address all of that/my feelings....soon!

But, for now....I need to head out on an 8 mile run....need to get some motivation, first :).

Have a wonderful day, all! :)