Hi everyone!

It has been a busy couple of weeks since I last posted!

On Monday, May 5, I got together with a couple of friends from work for a nice walk around a local park, followed by dinner.  We decided on a Mexican restaurant, completely forgetting that it was Cinco de Mayo!  We were a little confused as to why the normally quiet restaurant was so busy when we first arrived, haha!

On Wednesday, May 7, Matt and I attended the Nickel Creek concert.  The band has been on hiatus for the past seven years and now they have reunited with a new album and tour.  We had wonderful seats, about 9 rows from the stage in the center.  They put on a great show, and we are looking forward to seeing them again soon (preferably sooner than seven years from now)!

We had great seats!

Waiting for the show to begin

Happy birthday to Dad and cousin Amy on May 8!

On Friday, May 9, Matt and I drove up to the north side of town to celebrate my birthday a little bit early with dinner.  We went to a fairly new Outback Steakhouse location near their house.  While there, they surprised us by telling us that they are sending Matt and me to California to meet my running buddy Anthony and his family!  I was so excited that I started crying happy tears in the middle of the restaurant!  We have not finalized any plans yet, but we are looking at a couple different weekends in September to fly out there to spend time with them and for me to push Anthony in his first 5k!

Out to dinner at Outback for my birthday

Happy Mother's Day on May 11 to all the moms who are reading!  We hope that you all had a lovely day!

Saturday, May 17, was my birthday and I decided to celebrate by running another half marathon.  I ran the Geist Half Marathon in the town of Fishers on the north side of Indy.  I was aiming for a finish in 2 hours and 30 minutes and the race provided "pacers" to help people meet their goals.  The "pacer" I followed was holding the 2:30 sign and he was an experienced runner who is good at maintaining the pace necessary to complete the race in a given time.  The race was pretty hilly, but I did a good job on sticking with the pacer for the first 10 miles.  There was a large hill around mile 10 that finally did me in and I was unable to maintain pace any longer.  I ended up finishing in 2 hours and 34 minutes.  So close!  I was proud of my time, however, since I shaved 7 minutes off my Mini Marathon time! 

I finished my seventh half marathon!

 While I was running the half marathon, Matt ran/walked the 5k.  It was a beautiful day for a run, and after we were both finished, we refueled a little bit before heading home for a nap.

We went for a birthday meal at IHOP and Matt gave me some cute cowboy boots!  Thank you to everyone who called, texted, wrote on my facebook wall, and sent cards!

Happy birthday to Sheila, who celebrated her birthday on May 18!

On May 18, I headed off to Denver, Colorado, with three other Riley PICU coworkers so that we could attend the NTI (National Teaching Institute) Critical Care Conference.  During the conference, we attended lectures given by other nurses who are at the forefront of critical care nursing.  The conference was from 7:30 am until 5:30 pm each day.  In the evenings, we were able to explore Denver a little bit.  On Wednesday May 21, we had "nurses night out" where we received free entry to Denver Zoo and the Denver Science Museum.  We got home on Thursday evening.  It was a neat experience, and Denver is a very nice city.

Hanging out in a helicopter

Yesterday (Friday), Matt and I were able to hang out, get some things done around the house, and go see the movie "Godzilla."

We hope that you all have a lovely Memorial Day weekend!

Love,
Stacey, Matt, and Thor

Mayflowers bring Pilgrims

Hi everyone!

I sent out an email last week, but in case you missed it, the article in the Geist Community Newsletter about Anthony and me has been published!  You can read it by clicking this link-- http://issuu.com/tombritt/docs/geist_8bceba252d7224/1?e=1606101/7677330
The article begins on page 74.

Matt and I did not end up seeing the advanced showing of "The Other Woman" like we had planned.  There were only a set number of seats available for the movie and they were all taken by the time we made it to the theater.  Instead, we went to dinner at Skyline and then saw the Johnny Depp movie "Transcendence."  It is a sci-fi movie about artificial intelligence.  I thought it was just okay.  Matt liked it better than I did.

On Thursday, April 24, I drove up to Westfield to meet with the photographer from the Geist Newsletter so that she could take my picture for the article.  Afterwards, my mom and I went shopping for some new business casual clothes for me for my conference in Denver and out to dinner.  Then, my dad and I went for a 4.5 mile run on the Monon Trail.  It was a fun day.

After a nice run on the Monon Trail

On Friday, May 2, I went downtown for the Mini Marathon race expo to pick up my race packet and to wander around the different stores and exhibits in the convention center.  I bought some energy "goo" to eat during the race to keep me fueled, as well as a new headband to wear while I ran.  That evening, Matt accompanied me to the karate "dojo" (school) to watch me promote from my gold belt to my yellow belt.  After that, we had Fazoli's for dinner to carbo-load before the race!

Doing my kata

Taking down my sensei (instructor)

Yellow belt = earned!

Mini Marathon day (May 3) started bright and early.  Matt opted to stay home while I ran (he hadn't slept well the night before, and he has been to lots of my other races so I let him off the hook :-) ).  A friend let me borrow her parking pass so that I could park (relatively) close to both the start and finish lines.  It was a beautiful day to run the 13.1 miles and there was a lot of energy from the spectators along the way.  There were so many different bands and performers during the race that I should have just left my headphones at home.  The music from the performers was so loud that I could barely hear my iPhone playing anyway!  I ended up finishing the race in 2 hours, 41 minutes, 36 seconds.  I was trying hard to finish in 2 hours 30 minutes (the cutoff for being placed in a "preferred" corral at the start line for next year's race), but didn't quite make it.  However, my time was faster than all three of the half marathons I ran last year!  I am aiming for that goal time again at the Geist Half Marathon in two weeks.  Dad and Eric also finished the Mini.  It was Eric's third Mini Marathon (and sixth half marathon), and Dad's 16th Mini Marathon!

After finishing my second Mini Marathon, and sixth half marathon!

Group shot of the Mini finishers with our cheer squad!

After the race, Matt and I drove up to Westfield to have dinner with my parents, Eric, and Sarah.  We were going to get giant hamburgers at Bub's Burgers, but the wait was long and we were all really hungry, so we went across the street and ate at Scotty's Brewhouse instead.  We still ended up getting big burgers :-)  Matt and I didn't stay too long...just long enough to watch the first half of the Indiana Pacers basketball game.  I was exhausted and as soon as we got home, I coma-slept all night!

That's all for now!  We hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Love,
Stacey, Matt, and Thor