Happy Anniversary!

5 years ago it was a very busy day surrounded by family and friends getting ready for an evening wedding!

1 year ago, Craig was on crutches with a broken leg. We can't believe how much has changed in one year! We are headed to Indy to celebrate our five years of marriage!

Welcome!

Welcome Madison!!! the new addition to the Barton household! No, don't misunderstand! Maddie is NOT an addition to the Craig and Jess Barton house even though Craig has asked for a puppy for the last several Christmases. Madison is Chad and his girlfriend, Sarah's new puppy. She is a puggle, part beagle, part pug. She is ultra cute!

Maddie sleeps hard and plays hard.

Too cute!

Maddie got several "outfits" for Christmas!

She loves to snuggle!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We are heading North and looking forward to spending time with family and friends. Take care and enjoy your CHRISTmas!

Ready for Christmas!

This year we decided on all green lights! It is also all that we had enough of that worked!

Thanks to Aunt Gay and Uncle Bill we have a new star this year!

I love our tree

All the presents are wrapped and under the tree!

It wouldn't be Christmas without the wedding decorations making their yearly appearance!

Poor Craig

It's hard to tell, but Craig is pretty swollen on the right side of his face. Craig had two 3rd molars extracted on Tuesday morning. Poor guy! I hope he gets feeling better soon!

Indy fun

We met at Bosphorus Cafe in Indianapolis for some really different, but very great food!

Then we bundled up and walked around the zoo lights!

It wasn't quite as good as the Lincoln Park Zoo Lights that Craig and I enjoyed a couple years ago for our anniversary, but it was still a great time and great company.

Such love between these two

Sarah. touched. a. shark. !!!!

The White River Botanical Gardens were wonderful...and warm!

Great idea everybody! We had a great time!

Straight No Chaser and Christmas Dowtown

Amazing concert! Loved it! I didn't fall deeply in love with 10 men at the same time like some other women have claimed, but they put on a great show!

Bloomington downtown is beautiful right now! Very Christmas-y.

Christmas Party

Today we had our work Christmas party! The office was closed and we all met at Grazies, the most wonderful Italian place, for lunch.

All of us...

Chelsea, squinty me, and Kim

Kimi, Lisa, Sara

Shari and Amy

Valerie and Stephanie

Marsha and Daniele

Marla, Kim, and Krissy

I work with a wonderful bunch of people! We drew names and everyone was very sweet and generous with their gifts. The Doctors and their wives were very thoughtful and showed all of us a lot of love. I am so thankful that I really enjoy my job and the great people I work with.

Deer!

Last night at my endurance class we did our work-out at the track. It is a soccer field next to the YMCA with a track around it. It was dark and as we were walking over we realized that there were 13 deer on the soccer field! We circled them twice before they ran off the field! I think we interrupted their Tuesday night dinner!
We had a really good interval work-out followed by resistance training. One of the trainers led our group who also happens to lead a boot-camp class. The trainer is pretty used to kicking butts, we got a very good head to toe beating. So combined with the fact that I'm pretty sore today and the lack of motivation, I pushed tonight's run to Friday!

Potter's Alley

This Thanksgiving weekend we visited Potter's Alley in Covington. We picked a piece of pottery and painted away!

Abby was very creative and painted a cat bowl.

Sarah painted a Christmas tree that holds a votive candle.

Mom picked a pitcher with the goal of painting it to match Sarah and Eric's house.

The colors are a little more muted than what they will look like after they are fired.

Craig put a lot of thought into a bowl that will hold his pocket contents at the end of the day...wallet, change, lint...

Eric picked a cute little penguin. It was very intricate painting, but he did great!

I can't wait to see what everything looks like once it is fired! It was a lot of fun and I would recommend it for anyone. We have a shop just like this one in Bloomington that I would like to check out.

SIGN ME UP!

"Thank you for registering for the 2010 500 Festival Races (OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, Finish Line 500 Festival 5K, and the 500 Festival Training Series, presented by OrthoIndy) Entry."

I signed up for the Indy mini marathon: May 8th 2010! in 169 days!

"Congratulations on completing your registration for the fifth annual SunTrust National Marathon, Half Marathon, and Half Marathon Relays in Washington, D.C., the only marathon held entirely within the boundaries of the District of Columbia. The race provides the thrilling opportunity to run past all of the historic monuments, museums and corridors of the city while being the fastest flat-looped marathon in the country and a Boston Marathon qualifying race."

I signed up for a marathon: March 20th 2010!! in 120 days!!

Whoo hoo! The training has begun!

5K/10K Race

No pictures to post today, because we were so busy at the event! Today Craig walked/ran his first 5K!!! WHOOO HOOO! I have always wanted Craig to participate in the races that I do and we finally had the chance today. The YMCA had a 5K/10K race to raise money for their scholarships, so a great cause. We started at 8 and had a great time walking the hills in Bloomington. We ran a lot of the down-hills. I think Craig finally realizes how many hills are in Bloomington to run. As soon as we were at the bottom of the hill, we were soon going up the next. Craig didn't think it was as fun as he was expecting. He told me I talked too much! I thought he was a little hard to handle, but then I thought back to last summer and all the training that we did together for the marathon. Craig really put up with a lot from me. I was wasn't the nicest person to be around when was I hurting, especially during the last mile or two of the long runs. CONGRATULATIONS CRAIG!

We made it to the finish in time for me to go to the bathroom, rip off my long shirt and pants, and take off for the 10K at 9:00. I felt pretty strong on the up-hills. The guy that finished behind me came up to me after the race and thanked me for helping him on the last hill. (The main reason that I passed him was because he was spitting so much - GROSS!) We have been working on hills on Tuesday nights and I think I have finally seen some improvement in my ability on the hills. I don't know if my time was very good, but I felt like I had a good/smart race. I kept a consistent pace with a kick at the end.

So I am thinking and have been thinking since I started the endurance class (Labor Day) ....what is my goal?!? I keep going back and forth if I just want to work on improving my half marathon time or work on another marathon. Pros for doing a marathon: 1) I have a great base for a race in the spring. 2) I have the support of a great running group right now. 3) I have the time. 4) I have no buns in the oven. (Ha ha!) 5) I have a coach who is passionate about running who would be a great resource for achieving my goals. So hmm.... Cons: Time devoted to running, which would be through the busy holidays, snow, and cold! I don't like being cold!

I will submit a request for time off from work for a marathon in March! SO we will see! I have LOVED running this fall. It has been a great experience to run with a group and draw off the experience of my coach and others. My main goal has been the same: to have fun and improve!

Halloween Weekend

Friday night: The concert was really good. Yay for Sara Watkins.

I had a great date! Craig is glistening from the rain! Sarah and Eric were able to make it to the concert after fighting Indy and B-town traffic on a Friday night. We all enjoyed the evening!

Saturday turned into a beautiful day. We enjoyed some coffee and some of the shops around the square.

Then we enjoyed the beautiful Oliver Winery!

We had a great weekend with Sarah and Eric visiting. I had a really good run Saturday morning. Sunday morning we visited a new church that was recommended. We both liked the church and are willing to try it again, but still want to look some more. I liked the extra hour of sleep on Sunday, but at tonight's running class at 6, it was dark! and cold! Actually it was really neat to run as the moon was coming up and really full. Anyway, it was a great weekend!