Are we coming or going?

It's been quite a while since I posted anything on our blog. I know it's a lame excuse, but we are meeting ourselves coming and going because we are so busy. A quick recap of our activities lately....

-The 2007 Legislature is still in session and we have both been busy with our work duties related to that. My agency had one rather large issue that languished in conference committee for about two weeks. After many negotiations, the legislation passed, the Governor signed it and we are now implementing new law at work. Stephen is working on legislation related to expanded gaming in Kansas. As executive director of the Racing and Gaming Commission, he supplies a lot of information to legislators and others on this issue. In case you haven't caught any Kansas news lately, expanding gaming is a big issue this year. Last week, the House passed a bill to add destination casinos and slot machines at three dog racing tracks. Even as a write this, the bill is in the Kansas Senate and the Democrats are filibustering on a motion to concur with the bill passed by the House. It's interesting to me, but it's also wearing us both out. Last Friday evening, Stephen was at the Capitol until about 3am. Tonight, I'm sure he will be very late as well.

-Cate is growing and changing each day. We are trying to spend as much time as we can with her. She's so much fun! I've added a couple of pictures here with this post. Her latest interest is ponytails. Several girls at her day care have ponytails and she asked for one too. One of the teachers at day care put her hair in a ponytail one day and now she asks for one just about every day. She doesn't have a lot of hair, so it can be a little tricky to get it to stay in. She's also shown some interest in potty training. We bought a potty chair for her and put it in her bathroom a few weeks back. We don't push it, but we let her sit on it whenever she feels like it. She likes to read books (as you can see from the photo) and sit on the potty chair.

-We are making good progress on our marathon training and fund-raising. We've run 10 miles a few times and we each had a long run of 12 miles. We are running a couple of days during the week -- as much as we can work it in. We have been very lucky to find a class at Washburn that is training for a marathon. They are generous to let us run with the when we can make it. It's nice to have that group available and the instructor has given me some very helpful training tips too. Our fund-raising is going well. We've received many generous donations. We feel so good about every dollar we raise because we know it goes to a great cause. We are working together with other Team in Training participants on a BBQ tomorrow night. We've got a whole bunch of neat things donated for a silent auction. Some local companies donated turkey and pork for the BBQ -- some competition bbq guys locally smoked it for us. There's going to be a band as well. I think it will be a nice event and I hope we can raise a lot of money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

I think that covers the high points for us lately. Stephen and I will have our fifth wedding anniversary next Friday. We've been together for more than seven years. It's hard to believe.

Enjoying the weather

Cate loves to go outside and blow bubbles. I took this photo this evening while we were outside playing and blowing bubbles.

Reading on "The Chair"

First Haircut

At 5:15 p.m. today, Cate had her first haircut. She did a great job (plus she looked really cute in her red cape). Bear was also part of our first haircut. Bear goes pretty much everywhere with us these days. He didn't get a haircut, but I think he will get a bath this weekend. That is one dirty bear.

It's all about Daddy!

Cate is like a little parrot - she repeats just about everything we say. She is learning new words every day. This week, her best achievement is "Daddy." She has said "Da" for quite some time, but she just started saying "Daddy" this week. She puts emphasis on the second part so it sounds like "DaDEE" and we think it is very cute. I don't think I will ever get tired of hearing her say Mama or Daddy.

We've had a hectic week. Cate has been sick and we kept her home for two days. I don't have any new pictures or video this week because it's all I can do to stay ahead at work and home.

We are doing pretty well with our marathon training. We've made most of our scheduled runs and we are both improving in our time. Neither of us has any goal in mind for completing our marathon in a certain time frame, but it is nice to see the progress each week as we get faster and more fit. Luckily, the weather has improved recently so we've been able to run outside. We got a little snow this morning so I had to run on the treadmill, but it looks like we'll be back up in the 40s by tomorrow. I've always been a big wimp about running the cold, but it's actually growing on me. I've learned how to layer my clothes so I'm not cold. I definitely prefer running outside in the cold to running inside on the treadmill.