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.

The Wiener Dogs

We have two wiener dogs at home. Cate has a growing interest in the dogs and she often chases them around saying "pup." She has learned a couple other words that we often use with the dogs -- no and right now. This is a short clip of her saying "right now."

More video clips

We've been working with Cate on learning various names. She knows the names of many of her classmates (and she can even identify their binkies!). She also knows her "cousin Q."

Cate - The Dance

Cate Martino: The Movie

I decided this week to test my abilities creating a photo slideshow. These are a few photos of Cate from the holidays.

Cool Slideshows

It's cold in Kansas!

We braved the cold today for our long run outside! It was about 15 degrees, but we bundled up and ran approximately 6.5 miles. It was definitely cold, but it wasn't unbearable once we got going. That's a new cold weather record for both of us.

Stephen is doing great so far. He has found time to run every day that we are scheduled. I missed one run this week because I stretched a tendon in my right foot.

I added an older picture of Cate to

the blog today. Even though it's from October 2006, it seems appropriate since the Jayhawks played today!

Marathon Update

Stephen and I made it through our first official week of marathon training! We ran 3-4 miles last week on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. We finished out the week with six miles on Saturday and two miles on Sunday. We are both proud that we managed to make the full six miles on Saturday with less than half a mile walking.

We have two big challenges right now: finding the time to run and the weather. We are both very busy at work, so at least one of us has been getting up at 5 a.m. to run. We know that work will stay busy until the legislative session ends in May. In addition, it's very cold so we are confined to our treadmill. Hopefully it will begin to warm up soon so we can get outside.

We have set up another Web page to help us raise money for the Leukemi and Lymphoma Society. It is at: http://www.active.com/donate/tntks/martinos

Cate seems to be getting cuter every day. This week, we've been working with her on the names of her classmates at day care. She knows Jack, Chase and Josh very well. She surprised one of her teachers at school this week by asking for a hug when it was time to leave. Cate puts her arms out and says "hug" -- how can you resist?

New words

It's just amazing how children grow and learn in their first few years of life. I can't question the importance of early childhood education after living with a young child. Cate is learning new words every day. Just this morning she said "Oscar" and "work." She's mastering the "sh" sound so we've heard lots of words with that sound lately. Her favorite book at the moment is titled "Splash" and she says that very well.

2007 Goals

I don't like to make resolutions for the new year because they seemed doomed to failure just by nature. Everyone makes resolutions and nearly everyone fails to keep them. So instead, I've set a few goals for myself and our family this year. I'm really trying to be realistic with these goals, in hopes that I will actually come close to achieving them.

1) Bring my lunch to work more and eat fewer meals out. After seeing how much money we spend eating out, I am going to work harder to bring my lunch with me to work. I've also got so many added responsibilities at work that it makes sense to bring my lunch and get work done over the lunch hour. So far, I'm doing well and I've been please with how much I get accomplished during my lunch hour. I'm not banning dining out, but I'm trying to cut back a little. Both Steve and I are working on this. We're also trying to eat more vegetables. I do pretty well with fruit, but I never get enough vegetables. Anyone with good ideas for preparing veggies should send them my way -- I'm on the lookout for new ideas.

2) Get back to exercising. It's hard to squeeze in time for exercise when we've got so many other things going on. But we've already come up with a plan (tenatively) to get us both back to working out on a regular basis.

3) Steve and I are going to run a marathon this year to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This is through their program, Team in Training. We are going to the kick off meeting for our group on Tuesday night, so we'll meet the other folks we're training with. We are going to run a marathon in San Diego in June. I've heard that only about 1 percent of the population will ever run a marathon, so that pretty much confirms it's a daunting task. But when I think about all the people who couldn't run a marathon if they wanted to, I remember why we are really doing this. We will each raise money for leukemia research (we have to raise about $3,900 each) and we'll train together for the race. I'm sure you'll hear more about this from us soon because we'll be making our plea for donations.

We've had a much quieter week and I'm thankful for that. Cate is learning new words every day. Our favorite this week is "please." She doesn't pronounce the "l" so it sounds more like peeez. It's really cute. She's also learning when to say it so she's saying things like "milk please" and "help please." It seems like just yesterday she was born and now she's saying two word phrases. I can't believe it.

One Crazy Week

Beginning last Thursday, things have been perfectly crazy around our house. Of course if it wasn't crazy, it would be boring so I can't complain too much.

After struggling with a cough for a few weeks, Cate was sent home from day care last Thursday with a fever. We took her to the doctor who quickly determined she had a virus called Fifth's Disease. It's nothing serious, but it takes several days to recover. I'm pretty sure she also had the flu because she threw up too and that's not a common symptom of Fifth's Disease. We spent most of the day Thursday and all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday cooped up at home. I think all three of us were ready to get out on Monday morning.

The Kansas Legislature has begun the annual legislative session, so both Steve and I are now swamped at work. Both our jobs involve a fair amount of contact with the Legislature. As a result, workloads multiply in January and don't get back to normal until the summer. One big issue this year, both at the federal and state level, is the minimum wage. I talked to a reporter this week from the Washington Post and got a small quote in the story. Steve also had some press this week after his legislative testimony.

By Wednesday evening, we discovered a leak under the kitchen sink. I think our garbage disposal is being replaced as I type this post.

To wrap up our exciting week, we thought it might be a good weekend to go to Wichita. Steve needs to visit the Wichita Greyhound Park for work and we can combine some other errands with the trip. Unfortunately, most of the state is under a winter weather advisory as snow and ice come down from Colorado to Missouri. We decided last night to cancel our plans to go to Wichita (Cate had her swimsuit all packed for the hotel pool) and stay close to home.

Animal Sounds

Cate is learning the sounds that all the animals make. She's happy to demonstrate all the new sounds she's learned.

Jingle Bells

Cate played Jingle Bells this year. She made up her own dance moves to go along with the song.

Scooter

I think Cate must have been really good this year because Santa left a lot of presents under the tree for her. One of her favorites is a Dora scooter.

Cate's Christmas program

We had a great holiday season with Cate this year. She was an angel at her day care Christmas program.