Running, Camping and Salsa

It's been a packed few days, lots to catch up on and LOTS of pictures :)

Rochester 5K
This summer I've been training for a 5K (3.1 miles) race to run with my brother. Earlier in the summer I made the commitment to run on a regular basis and be ready for this race by the end of August. Well the day finally came. I didn't quite train as much as I wanted to but I definitely came a long way. 4 months ago I wasn't able to even run 2 minutes without getting completely out of breath and now I ran over 30 non-stop :) I am proud of this accomplishment and am considering new milestones in the future. My brother, my friend Suzanne and I all ran the race and we all did great. I met all three of my goals: to not walk the entire time, to get a time in between 30-35 min and to not be in last place. My brother did really well and got 12th place! Not sure if I'm in love with running but it leaves you feeling amazing afterwards! Here are our stats and some pics (keep in mind this is my first race ever):

Summary of the Race
number of finishers:137
number of females:77
number of males:60
average time:00:28:14

Matt McCasland
bib number: 982
age: 22
gender: M
location: Madison, WI
overall place: 12 out of 137
division place: 1 out of 4
gender place: 8 out of 60
time: 21:10
pace: 6:49
gun time : 21:12

Jennifer Elder
bib number: 914
age: 26
gender: F
location: Stewartville, MN
overall place: 104 out of 137
division place: 10 out of 17
gender place: 51 out of 77
time: 31:43
pace: 10:13
gun time : 31:46

My dad showed up out of nowhere and took these pics








Camping
After the race we went camping with my sister's family in Cannon Falls. We had a great time hanging out, playing games, fishing and playing on the playground. Unfortunately the beach was closed so we couldn't swim. Perfect weather though :)

Matt and Ryan playing baseball (shocker)






I know, I'm inconsistent with my framing








Scott got this great pic of Ryan!


Old Friends and Salsa
Sunday I went on a long walk with my oldest friend in Minnesota...by oldest I mean I've been friends with her longer than anyone else since we moved here. That probably means I've been friends with her longer than anyone in my entire life! Crazy, I never thought of that until now. I've been friends with Jessie Newell since 5th grade! We've been through lots together, even lived together in college and realized we don't do well as roommates but do very well as friends. She's just so great, we went on a walk around Stewartville and caught up on everything that's going on in our lives. I'm so glad we still keep in contact and am already looking forward to the next time we can get together again.

Monday night we went over to Eric and Leah's for salsa night with our small group from church. It was such a fun night and a long night too...we were there until about 11:30pm. Our whole group made spicy salsa, black bean salsa and peach salsa. Yummmm! Thanks to my dad who provided us with most of the tomatoes, we will be providing you with three jars of salsa tomorrow :)

A beautiful display of all the fresh ingredients


Shirley and Leah


Mikayla and Jane

Stand in the place where you work...

When in doubt, take advice from REM. Wow I can't believe I did this! It's a big step and I don't know how it's going to work but as of right now I'm very excited about the whole thing. I have built myself a make-shift standup desk! That's right I'm standing while I type this. Lately I haven't been doing as many virtual tours because I need to be in the office more. Well because of that I've found it very hard to maintain my weight loss success since I'm not moving pretty much at all anymore. I did some research on a standup desk and found a guy who tried a temporary version before making a more permanent solution with shelves. Well we happened to have maybe some of the most perfect solutions for what I was looking for. I actually doubt we'll have to purchase an actual desk because I love this setup so much! I learned that the top of the monitor is supposed to be at eye level and that your arms are supposed to be bent at a 90 degree angle. My set up is almost perfect. It's going to take some time to get used to but I'm very excited about this change.

After doing research I found out that you burn one extra calorie per minute when standing...doesn't seem like a lot but that definitely adds up. I also learned that it's better for your posture, productivity will likely increase and (of course) you won't fall asleep at your desk. I look at it as a win win situation. Just wait until my dad gets back to the office :) I'll sit only occasionally like when I need to write things down while on the phone, etc... so I'll keep my chair handy. Other than that I plan to stand about 95% of the time. Don't know how hubby feels about it yet because I can peek over at him at any time :) Here are some pics:

Before


In process


After


Me working at my "new" desk

Flooding

My dad got some really good pics of the floods that occurred in our area. Just thought I'd share.

Rain rain rain!

Well this weekend was spent mostly indoors because of all the rain! Friday night we went downtown and just enjoyed the night...it was Scott's idea and of course I was all for it. He figured we should probably go outside since we won't be doing much of the over the weekend. He was right. Saturday we spent the day cleaning and preparing for our friends Eric and Leah to come over for games and pizza. Thinking back I don't think I went outside the entire day! It was raining ALL day non-stop. Before they came over I had some time to play around on Photoshop. This is becoming more and more of a hobby for me. I love just playing around with pictures and creating different things with them. I'm getting more and more confident with myself...now I just need to take more pictures. It's a very fun and addictive hobby. It's also fun to see what other Photoshoppers have done on their blogs. Mine are nothing compared to theirs and remember...I'm still experimenting.

Hanging out with Eric and Leah was fun like always, we ordered pizza from the new Pizza Ranch down the road and enjoyed appetizers and dessert from Presto Cuisine (a local place where you prepare your meals at the store and then freeze them like Let's Dish, Dish it Up or Mix it Up). We did photography for them and now we get a deal on their food. I think we will be doing that for dinner more often than not...it's great!! We save money, it's easy, healthy and it's great food...can't go wrong. I don't think our pictures are up there yet but you should see the food they offer...yum!

Sunday was church and then we had planned to finish off our Summer of Festivals by going to Plainview Corn on the Cob days but it was cancelled because of rain/flooding. We visited Robin instead and she gave me more cds with lots of Photoshop stuff...REALLY excited about that! Then another lazy rainy day. Wow some people really got clobbered with this rain though, we're lucky we don't have a basement at this point! We do have a small water spot on our ceiling in our bedroom that we're keeping an eye on but it's nothing compared to what some people are going through.

Tonight for dinner from Presto: Ham steaks with grilled peaches, freshly picked corn on the cob and garlic baked potatoes...everything was delicious.

Enjoy the pics...any comments/suggestions are always appreciated. (You can click on them to see them bigger)

A motion blur effect on a Bears pic


Abby


Me


Mom and Ryan...old photo style


This is my favorite...Laura took the pic and I made it into a polaroid collage, I made a pretend signature at the bottom: Elder Photography :)

Boating on the clock

Yesterday was a first for this job...I got to go on a boat and take pictures! The homeowner, Ron wanted a shot from the lake to show the back of the house and deck/gazebo. It was lots of fun...just me and Ron on his boat talking and taking pictures...very relaxing. They were a little old couple getting ready to move to Ohio to be near their grandchildren. They really enjoyed their 9 years at this house. Ahhh the retired life...they seem to have it good! You never know what you're going to go through for this job. People want you to do crazy things to get a good picture. I was more than willing to do this one :)

The boat


One of the shots we ended up using...I took about a million!

Family and Storms

Well this past weekend was pretty low key. Friday I went up to the cities and stayed over night at my sisters to watch her kids. It was fun to be with the kids...Ryan is talking non-stop now and he even tries to trick me into giving him things like pop and chocolate...smart kid! They both went to bed well and behaved which is always a plus :) When Laura got home the next day I went home and we went grocery shopping and watched Disturbia. Read Scott's review on his blog (Minnesota Movie Freak). That night we had a pretty bad storm and we went to the storm shelter (down the street) just in case since our little home is risky when it comes to severe weather. We just recently got a Blackberry for work and I was glad I had it. I was texting with my Dad plus checking the internet and email updates so we were constantly updated and knew exactly where the storm was and when the worst part was over. That was very handy...the other people in the shelter were appreciative of the updates too. The lightning was crazy...it would constantly lightning! We both love storms though so this was an exciting night for us.

Yesterday was pretty much a bum day. We did normal housecleaning things and I made some food for the week plus I went for a run. I felt like I needed to do something! We've been going somewhere almost every weekend so it was nice to stay home and enjoy the lazy day. We won't get many more of those once we have kids either. Or maybe we'll have lots since we won't be going anywhere.

Today Laura came down with the kids because it's been a while since my parents have seen them. Per usual I didn't get as much done at work as I normally would but I can't help it. How can I resist "Auntie can you come outside with me?" I stayed after for a while and we had hamburgers then the kids and my dad went swimming. Abby can now say "papa" and she was saying it a lot towards the end of the night. It was really cute! Enjoy the pics :)



Wow that dog is patient!




The bubble gun...a favorite toy at Grandma's house


Ryan has to wear this cap for a few days because he has stitches in his head...very cute




Abby loves the water just like her Auntie did :)

Buddies, Blogs and the Business

Well last night our friends Eric and Leah came back from their trip. We had a great time at their house and they made us dinner it was so great! I wish I would've had my camera to take pictures of a few things. Eric made the bread and spaghetti sauce from scratch and Leah made a salad and dessert...yummy! They also shared their trip with us and showed us lots of amazing pictures. What an adventure...not many people get to see all that they did in such a short period of time.

About the blog, I just want to say that I have really enjoyed updating this blog. It's so much fun to be able to capture everything online and invite other people in. Scott even thinks that we do more because of it...not sure about that I think we just make a point to document it more. The best part about this whole thing is that it's memories that will be here forever and I don't have to worry anymore about printing off pictures and putting them in an album or something. I feel like I'm putting the picture to good use and I'll have great documentation of our life. I've recently added two new blogs to my blog list: Eric started one called "Cultured" and Scott started one called "Minnesota Movie Freak" This blogging thing is contagious!

Hmmm, the name of my blog is "Married at Work" yet I never really talk about work. For those of you that don't know, Scott and I work together for my dad. (I guess it says that in "About me"). I used to be out filming a lot more but now I'm in the office needing to take care of things here and we have contractors that do photography work for us. As shown in the picture, we are literally inches away from each other all day (my work space is the more messy one on the right). A lot of times we go off into our own worlds and listen to music on our headphones. I spend the day editing pictures, working on video tours, scheduling and some marketing too plus I am on the field occasionally doing a virtual tour. Oh and of course when my mom is home or my sister comes to visit with the kids I spend a little more time in the house than I should...perk to a small family-owned business. Other perks? I picked a fresh tomato from my dad's garden for lunch the last 3 days, Scott and I left for lunch at Famous Daves, I left early for my other very part-time job (more on that later), I can "borrow" food from my mom anytime, we can bring our dog to work...the list goes on and on. On a normal day Scott processes virtual tours and handles websites...plus handles all of the record keeping and monthly statistics. It just works for Scott and me at work. We don't fight often and don't get on each other's nerves. We must just have the right personalities that mix well together but it's really not as bad as you would think. So many people say that they couldn't work with their spouse...you just make it work and know when to stop talking about the business. Work issues have definitely come home though, how could they not...they do even when you don't work together! That's just life. We love our jobs, love the business we're in and love the flexibility of it (which will especially be nice when we have kids). It's stressful at times but let's face it, almost everything in life causes stress at some point. We can't get it much better than we have it!

SOF - Brat Days

This past weekend for our Summer of Festivals we went to Brat Days in Sheboygan, WI. One of my good friends from HS joined us for the weekend. Unfortunately her significant other couldn't make it but we had a great time with Shannon! Shannon is one of those people who is very easy to talk to and it feels like no time has passed when you get together with her. We met up at the KOA in Fond Du Lac which is by far the best KOA we have ever been to!! It doesn't even compare to the last one. Great for families! We wanted to set up the tents right away because it was about to rain. Shannon and I had an interesting time setting up the one person tent...I just remembered we took a pic of that too I should add it. That tent was the talk of the campground! I don't think people are used to seeing a tent like that at a KOA, it's more for backpacking. We figured the tent out though (thanks to our neighbors).

Then we were off to Brat Days! This seems to be a big event for Sheboygan. There were a few bands there and lots of brat foods. They had regular brats of course, brat tacos, brat burritos, brat pizza, brat nachos, brat eggrolls and even brat stuffed chicken wings! I think out of everything we tried the brat taco was the best.

After Brat Days we went back to the campsite and taught Shannon how to play Ticket to Ride in the tent since it was raining. Her fiance, Jeremy, is really into games like us and Shannon hasn't crossed over yet. So we taught her this game so she could go home to Jeremy and tell him that she learned a new game! Plus it's a fun and easy game to learn. After the rain stopped we enjoyed good conversation and tasty marshmallows around the campfire. Then off to bed.

The Festival














Brat Taco














Budweiser BBQ Sauce tasting (with brats of course)

































Me and Shannon














Ticket to Ride in the tent














The next morning we saw Shannon off and then we headed back home. By the way, we LOVE Marquette County in WI!! We drove through a little town called Montello and we loved it! It would be a great place to have a summer cabin because it has a great downtown area, lots of lakes and it's only 30 min to the Dells plus about an hour from Madison. It's 2 1/2 hours from Rochester which is the perfect getaway. We can dream for now. We stopped at this REALLY cute little sandwich shop. The food was delicious and the donut holes are amazing. You need to stop by if you're in the area...it's called the Underwood Market. They supposedly (according to some locals we talked to) have an amazing breakfast too. We will be back!

Our Lunch

The Donut Holes

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Yay, it's Spencer's 3rd birthday! Spencer is our first and only nephew on the Elder side. He is the cutest little boy and we miss him so much! He calls Scott "Sock." The funniest thing he does is his goodbye hugs. I don't know if he still does it but he will hug you on both sides and then give you a kiss right on the lips, it's so cute.
Where do they learn these things?

Have a great birthday, Spence...we'll see you in September!

Birthday Message


Spencer's unique hug

Minneapolis Bridge

I'm actually posting about things that have happened during the week. This is not normal for me but I hope to do this more often. I am waiting for a video tour I'm working on to finish capturing and I have to moniter it so decided to update the blog.

I wanted to blog a little about the bridge collapsing in Minneapolis. Wow what a tragedy! I first heard about it when Scott's aunt (Lacrecia) called asking if we were ok. When she told me a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis I didn't think it was a big deal. I had the same thoughts on 9/11, it's hard to know the magnitude of a situation when you just hear of a bridge collapsing or a plane hitting a building until you actually see the catastrophe on tv. I called my sister (who lives close to Minneapolis and Darren works there) and made sure they were alright. It's certainly strange having something like that happen so close to home and in a city we've travelled to very often. I can't imagine what's going through the minds of the families who have family members still missing. We're praying for all those family members and rescue workers. It's a big mess to clean up and something we will never forget.