(I took this from "Her Sports and Fitness" March/April issue)
Inspiring accomplishments in women's endurance sports:
1900-women compete in Olympic Games for the first time
1926- at age 19 Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel, traveling 35 miles in 14 hours and 31 minutes
1960- Wilma Rudolph, who wore leg braces until age 11 from polio, becomes the first American woman runner to win three gold medals during a single Olympic games.
1966- Roberta Gibb becomes the first woman to run Boston marathon, sneaking into the race and finishing in 3:21:40. Women are officially allowed to compete in 1972.
1971- Adreienne Beames becomes the first woman to run a sub three hour marathon in 2:46:30.
1972- Congress passes Title IX, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender in federally funded education programs and providing a much-needed boost to women's athletics.
1979-Lyn Lemaire becomes the first woman to compete in the Ironman triathalon, finishing in 12:55:38.
1984- Ameriacn Joan Benoit Samuelson wins the gold medal in the first Olympic women's marathon with a time of 2:24:52. The same year, the first Grande Boucle Feminin, the Tour de France for women, covers 616 miles and is won by American Marianne Martin in 29:39:20.
1992- Paula Newby-Fraser becomes the first woman to finish an Ironman in less than nine hours (8:55:28). Two years later she wins her seventh Ironman World Championship title, more than any other athlete, male or female, and racks up her eighth in '96.
2002-Paula Radcliffe wins the London marathon, her first, with the second best time in the world, 2:18:56. She takes London again in 2003, with a new world record of 2:15:25 in only her third marathon.
2005- Nikki Cleary runs her first race, a 15K. She ran a 5 miler fun run, a 5K adventure race, and a 5K run that year as well.
2006- Nikki Cleary ran her first half marathon in 2:18:05 (I guessed on the seconds)
2007- Nikki Cleary ran a 15K in 1:41:56, just ten weeks after she had her second baby. She ran the Sarasota half marathon in 2:20:55 (just 12 weeks after her baby was born).
The last three milestones may not mean much to most, but to me they are huge. I never ran, in fact I hated running until I tried the Jeff Galloway method in October of 2004. It consists of a 2,3 or 4 minute run then a one minute walk. We train at 3/1 or 4/1 and then we race at 2/1. It is so much easier on your body, in fact I have never had an injury to date (besides your normal muscle soreness).
Run on.....Nikki
Happy Birthday my dear sister in law. I love you. I am happy that we get to celebrate your birthday tonight. I am looking forward to it. Hope you enjoy your blog... and a few other little birthday goodies we got for you. (which you will have to display on your blog when you make it- just a little hinter :)) Enjoy the Hot Fudge Cake we (me and Riley) made for you.
..I wanted a cute little apron while I am cropping or teaching classes. I went to Wal-mart and bought two .99 cent hardware aprons. I cut the strings off of one and sewed it to the other aprons pocket. (that is the pink stitching you see going across the front of the apron) Then I hand sewed on all the buttons. I cut the heart and bird out of some shabby chic like fabrics and sewed those on. I hand drew the legs and feathers on the bird. TFL
...my stomach just did a flip flop when I read that Rouge de Garance is looking for 4 US designers (they are a French co, as if you couldn't tell by the name). I am so excited. I would be honored to be chosen...here are 2 of the LO's I am submitting. I can honestly say that I feel these are some of my favorite pages I have ever done. I absolutely LOVE how they turned out. If you want some of the Rouge de Garance papers for yourself, you better run down to K2 because they are going fast. TFL
My mom was at the finish line to cheer me on as well. What a great day! (Oh, and Brody is 3 months old today.)I am so proud of myself.
This is going to be such a fun and practical class. It is a 3 ring binder to hold all of your take-out menus. I used the new Luxe papers and rub ons, a Fontwerks journaling tag, inks, AC felt thickers, steno paper and K&Co tabs. The tabs are labeled: Italian, American, Oriental, Misc. and coupons (you name them with your families most used categories). The front of every folder I put a piece of steno paper to write the names, numbers and notes of my favorite restaurants for quick reference. When you are in K2 next take a look at it. I am going to be teaching this in April two times (once on a Saturday and once during the week in the evening).
...about how much I love Anna Maria Island (AMI). There is nothing I do not like about this quaint little island. When we arrive (its a girlfriend destination at least once a year) we put on our bikinis, leave our cars parked and hop on our bicycles. We usually shop at the antique stores, have a drink at a few of the local pubs and dance the night away listening to our favorite band Dr. Dave at D Coy Ducks (a local hangout on AMI). The next day we relax by the pool, take uninterruped naps, eat whenever we want to...it is truly paradise.
...thought it was time for a change. Not sure how much I like it, but the more I play around with photoshop the easier it gets. Some day soon it will look like I picture it in my mind... I think I need to go on 2 peas and buy some digital kits.
These are 3 mini (about 3" tall), watering cans. I played around with some paint, alcohol inks (they just got them in at K2), ribbon, rick rack and flowers. We are going to do a class on these sometime before Easter. Either Karen, Candie or I will be teaching it. They may not look like this exactly... but something to this effect. We want those of you who have not played around with alcohol inks get to see how fun and cool they are. (It is a liquid ink applied with q-tips and different applicators). You can use alcohol inks on just about anything...I know I will have lots of fun seeing what I can alter with my new found love of Ranger Alcohol inks. 
All right, I know, it's a really simple LO but it took me over an hour to make it. I am using Photoshop 7 and do not know how to use it. I am trying to teach myself digital scrappin. I used the Tinkering Ink Westminster Collection CD. I just love the colors of this line. I will play some more and post them as I "attempt" (and I use that word loosely) more LO's. TFL
...these pictures are for our friends and family that don't live near us and want to see Brody and how he is changing on a daily basis right now. He is almost 11 weeks old and 14 pounds, smiling all the time and sleeping 12 hours at night. We are blessed with a wonderful baby. All I have to say is thank God for the book Baby Wise... we did it with Riley and got unbelievable results and now with Brody too.
enough said. :)