Girls On The Run...interpret as you wish

Saturday December 4^th

After a few hours of precious sleep, we started out on our next adventure.. girls on the run 5k. This adventure entailed: tutus, leggings, antennas, cooler full of food, and a run around the Pudget Sound.     

We made it to our destination , Seaward Park, Seattle WA.  We decided that we must be getting better at directions or at least reading map quest directions because we made it to the park without confusion and surprisingly on time.  We stepped out of Rosanna’s vehicle and were immediately greeted by the breathtaking, ice chilling wind of the Pacific Northwest! J Beth earlier said to Rosanna “Why???? Are you going to wear long leggings, a long sleeved shirt, and gloves?”  Rosanna's reply “WE ARE RUNNING OUTSIDE!!! It’s cold out.” 

We made our way to the registration booth and we were shocked by the age group that we were going to run with (most of the runners were 8-10 years old).  As you should all know by now, we are CRAZY; and, we LOVE to dress CRAZY.  The theme for this run was superheroes.  However, we decided to dress like fairies.  So not only were we WAY older than most of the runners we were also one of the ONLY ones dressed up!!  Feeling like we stuck out... a LITTLE, as well as, feeling like popsicles we decided to head back to the car and go home….haha j/k We headed back to the car to get warmer supplies.  As stated previous Beth did not come prepared.  All Beth brought for warmth was a vest.  Beth states “I thought if I kept my core warm the rest of my body would be warm.”   Rosanna had a spare coat that Beth was able to use. 

Girls on the run is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to educating and preparing elementary schooled aged girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living.  This run was a graduation for a large group of elementary girls who just completed a 10 week training program.  The run was timed but not a race.  The goal was simply for the girls to finish their run/walk.   When we first got there we definitely felt out of place and uncomfortable.  But when we began and finished the run we felt honored to be a part of this program to encourage young girls to respect themselves and to live a healthy life.

The birthday that emptied the piggy bank

Thursday Nov. 11, 2010

Rosanna has to work on Beth’s birthday which is November 13th.  Since Rosanna can’t celebrate with Beth on her special day, they decided to celebrate Beth’s birthday on the 11^th.

Beth and Rosanna are reading to hit the road again; thank God for rain, poor footwear, ½ tank of gas, full tummies, and pumped with endorphins from 5 lb weight lifting, intense treadmill/elliptical movement, and 12 pack abdomen strengthening exercises.  On that note we are ready to head to Seattle for our next adventure!! What kind of adventure you might ask??? Shopping…for what??? SHOES!!

We successfully make it to our destination…Road Runners Sports with only one minor detour.  We are greeted by extremely HAPPY foot specialists.  “Pedro” was our designated foot specialist.  He had us run on a treadmill and examined our stride, our foot balance, and pressure points on our feet.  Beth discover that she had one foot larger than the other and that her left leg looks like it’s about to shatter every time she steps down on it.  Rosanna was re-informed that she has one leg longer than the other which causes her to have back pain, as well as, over compensates on her right leg.  The greatest discovery was the arch of our feet.  Yes, we have PERFECT feet for stilettos. Go figure!! J

“Pedro” introduced us to our shoe specialist “Pamela”.  “Pedro” informed us that “Pamela” talked a lot…we agree!!! J She selected three different types of shoes for each of us to try on!! We tried all of them on multiple times and felt like we were walking/running on clouds!! Side note…the plan for this trip was to buy ONE pair of running shoes.  Second side note…tight jeans and north face winter attire should never be worn in a running store with treadmills. J

Shortly after we left the store, we were convinced that several employees could have retired on the amount of money we just spent!!  We left giggling and grinning from cheek to cheek with empty bank accounts, arms loaded with three pairs of shoes each, three pairs of designer socks, custom made shoe inserts, and VIP memberships.  But wait…we haven’t actually celebrated Beth birthday yet.  Okay, I guess its time to spend more money!!

In an attempt to silence our growling stomachs we began the search for food.  We make several loops until Beth’s see a big parking lot (so we don’t have to parallel park J) surrounding several restaurants.  We see this really good looking Greek restaurant and decided to go there.  Greek food is delicious!! The garlic flavor in our mouths was good but a little too overpowering.  We thought that some good hot chocolate or coffee would take care of the dragon breath.  WRONG!!! The strong flavor remained still after several pieces of MINT gum!!  

Beth had the honor of driving too Seattle while Rosanna had special privilege of driving home in the DARK, of course!! We are happy about our successful spending spree…but maybe a little too happy.  While pulling out of the big park lot Rosanna suddenly heard “whooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh”…yes that was a local biker that she almost ran over.  Sorry about that!! Rosanna must not have learned the concept of looking both ways before entering Seattle traffic…at a yield Rosanna took the right away and received a long pronounced honk from a local.  Ooops, second driving mistake of the evening within a matter of a few minutes…but don’t worry it doesn’t end yet.  Within a matter of a few more minutes Rosanna almost hit two more bikers and a car at the same time!  Sorry dear bikers and local drivers of Seattle! Thankfully Rosanna still has her Oregon plates!! J

We finally found the on ramp for I-5 after several loops around the town. We entered rush hour traffic with a ¼ tank of gas.  Good thing Rosanna’s car has good gas mileage.  We didn’t want to pay $3.29 a gallon because there just might NOT be enough funds in the bank account for that kind of needless expense.  We’d much rather buy another pair of shoes…maybe stilettos this time…or not! J

By the way, we made it out of Seattle…laughing and smiling!! Today was a good day!!! J

First out of country roadtrip...CANADA

Day 1 Nov. 5, 2010...aka self declared mental health day

The road trip adventure began with little sleep, little food, unclear directions, no map, no GPS, no understanding of exchange rates, and 3/4ths tank of gas!! We are super excited and ready to get out of this COUNTRY!!! :)
The few snacks that we did have were eaten within the hour of our road trip duration.  Rosanna was under the impression that we would be eating dinner at "3pm" so there was no need to bring much food!! Mistake number 1 and mental note to self number 1 always bring LOTS and LOTS of snacks!!! :) Considering that Beth and Rosanna have hypoglycemic tendencies!!

We decided that it would wise to fill up the gas tank before crossing the border.  We stopped in a middle of the no-where town at a rundown, overpriced gas station.  Rosanna proceeded to fill up her gas tank when an older man told her that she could use his gas pump that he was using when he was done.  Just a side note there were 6, I repeat, 6 other empty gas pumps.  Apparently, the man did not understand “No Thank You” and the “Death Glare” because he asked Rosanna again if she would like his pump again she said “No Thank You” and got in the car!! Meanwhile, Beth is using the "restroom" if that's what you would like to call it.  Nothing like washing your hands with dish washing soap and drying them with toilet paper! :)

Woohoo we finally made it to Canada.  Praise the Lord we had no problems crossing the border.   We thought we understood the km/hr instructions given at the Canadian border...30 km = 20 miles/hr.  We begin to drive and see that km/hr goes from 30km/hr to 100km/hr woohoo 90 miles/hr!! This is awesome.  Little did we know at the time that it was actually 60 ml/hr.  We were later informed that km/hr is the small numbers on the speedometer!! We were thankful that we filled up at the dumpy gas station because we had no idea what the numbers/prices meant in Canada. Interpretation please…117.4 per liter was the price. Yes, we are clueless.

Rosanna sees a store sign that says “Save on Foods.”  We stop and go into the store to see what fun Canadian snacks we can purchase.  We come across the store’s amazing bulk section.   We are amazed by the “cheap” organic prices.  For example, the Organic oatmeal is ONLY 49 cents a pound or so we thought.  A local costumer noticed our enthusiasm and informed us that the price was not per pound but per 100 grams.  Our enthusiasm was quickly crushed as we returned the bulk items back into the receptacles.  We have decided that food in America is much cheaper!! We LOVE Winco Foods!! J  We thought it would be nice to get something to ADD to the dinner that was supposed to be at 3pm.  We purchased an overpriced cantaloupe at the Canadian store and quickly left after perusing the aisle for at least 1 hour.    

We finally made it to the townhouse complex. Our vague directions said the third or fourth driveway on the left.  Bit of a problem here…every house looks EXACTLY the same!! Bit of another problem…no house numbers with the address.  Bit of another problem…cannot get a hold of the people we are meeting!! We decided to sit in the visitor parking lot and wait!!! That did not last long because the Born girls have undiagnosed ADHD.  We proceeded to walk around the complex hoping we would the find home.  We finally got a hold of our cousin, Cory, who informed us of the house number.  We found the correct house number, the lights were off, but we still walked to the front door. According to Beth, we were greeted by a scary “little” barking dog.  Beth quickly rushed off and said, “ let’s get some food.”  We thought it would be funny to get a picture by the house number before leaving for food, but we were interrupted by Danielle’s dad talking out of the front door saying, “Hello? Hello, is anyone there?”  We sheepishly walked toward the house and quickly became our bubbly selves.  Our plan for FOOD quickly evaporated.  The cantaloupe gift became our survival food.   We devoured the cantaloupe within a matter of minutes!! Our hunger was quenched but only momentarily.  Why you may ask did we not ask for food? We already asked ourselves that question…  I guess that we have an issue with pride!! We crawled up to our guest bedroom to review the day… at least the past 5 hours.  This was spent laughing, peeing, and more laughing to ease the hunger pains and pass the time because our dear cousins were late!!

Our cousins, Cory and Danielle, finally arrived at 3:45pm in a whirlwind after a crisis situation with one of their dogs.  The house was immediately filled with Cory’s booming voice.  We left in a rush for the Skytrain – Canadian public transit.  While on the skytrain our cousin, Cory, who comes from a hickville small-town decided to stick his head out the skytrain door every time it opened to see if it would close on his head! Yes, I’m sure you can imagine our facial expression!  One passenger on the train asked him, “Are you lost?”  Let’s just say, he calmed down after that.

We finally made it to Vancouver, B.C. where the international Passion conference was being held.  We had a quick dinner that Beth and Rosanna truly and thoroughly enjoyed; with our tummies full we were ready for a night of praise and worship.  The conference was in the Rogers arena – where the ice events for the 2010 Olympics took place.  10,900 people participated in the Passion event!!  We had the opportunity to worship with Chris Tomlin, Matt Redmon (not sure how to spell last name), and the David Crowder Band.  We also heard an awesome message from the founder of Passion, Louie Giglio.

Day 2 Nov. 6, 2010

The day began with a booming voice and a loud knock at the door from our beloved cousin Cory.  He informed us that he was waking us up because we didn’t say good night to him from the night before.  The morning was busy to say the least.  We had a delicious breakfast prepared by Danielle’s mama!! We were happy to have a large breakfast to jump start our next adventure. 

Danielle’s Dad dropped us off at the skytrain to explore Vancouver.  We got off at the very last station to find the seawall and Stanly Park.  We decided to first load up food.  After stocking up on snacks we headed to the park.  On the way to the park we saw a tandem bike and thought this is our ADVENTURE!!! We rented the bike for an hour and cycled around the entire seawall/Stanly Park.  The tandem bike ride began a little shaky and a little swervy.  We are not the best bike riders.  Rosanna decided take the lead being taller, while Beth beginning shorter was forced to be behind.  The tandem bike teaches the art of communication, trust, and to be in tune with each other’s needs.  We have concluded that this is a great activity for couples who are dating, engaged, or married! After our successful bike ride we headed for a warm area.  We purchased some warm drinks.  Beth was super excited about her peppermint hot chocolate.  We consumed our snacks and then went shopping. 

After emptying the bank account we took the skytrain back to our destination.  Unfortunately reality struck, we had to head home to the US before it got dark.   We are now home…recovery from our adventure…we are exhausted; yet, energized by our fun adventures.