revlon run/walk for women

i just signed up to run another 5k next weekend (saturday may 10). the difference in this one is that it is a fundraiser to support cancer research, specifically women's cancer research. i am running in honor of my grandmas who both died from cancer. if you would like to support me, follow this link to my fundraising page.

so... 10 k on sunday may 4, 5k on the next saturday. i am a running fool!

sponsor me if you want. otherwise, just keep me in your thoughts while im running all these silly races...

!m!

yosemite

we spent the last weekend in yosemite national park. we caravaned up there really really ridiculously early on friday morning and i almost managed to stay awake for the whole trip. we stopped at starbucks in fresno becuase, as kris says, they have the best bathrooms. or she wanted a latte. :) we arrived in the park around 11 and finally made it to our campsite around 1. we had to stop twice for construction.

we spent the afternoon setting up shop and waiting for the smiths to arrive. when they got there and we unloaded them, the boys went off in search of firewoood and the girls reads magazines and thought about cooking. we had chicken and beans for dinner followed by cookies and of course smores. it got pretty cold that night but thankfully kris brought mr. heater. we played improv games around the fire and i fell asleep while everyone else was talking (i was tired and cozy in my blankie. what can i say.)

saturday we got up, ate our eggs in a bag, and headed into yosemite valley to fish and see some waterfalls. jeremy, lance, kris and jennifer fished while i laid out on the "beach" (just another day in paradise). they didnt catch anything, so after our picnic we drove around and saw nevada fall and bridalveil fall. we actually got out and hiked to the base of bridalveil. that mist was COLD!

saturday afternoon the boys and jennifer played bocce and i finished my fourth and fifth books of the trip. kris and jennifer decided that if there was an olympic event for speed reading or replying to email i would win crazy amounts of gold medals. since there isnt, and even if there was i imagine we will all be boycotting this years olympics, whether or not you think that is actually going to make a difference in chinas treatment of tibet and whoever else they are bullying. we ate taco soup for dinner and then played new games around the fire such as the land of nod, the ball game, and riddles. it was pretty fun. i managed to stay awake for all of it which isnt that great a feat considering the 11 hours of sleep i got the night before.

sunday we woke of, ate the eggs in a bag again, and started packing. jerimiah and jennifer took a different route back than us. we got to stop in the snow play area and have a small snowball fight and make a teeny tiny snowman. like a true girl from kansas, i was wearing flip flops in the snow. it was the first time jeremy and i have been in the snow since we moved out here.

the trip home was rather uneventful. we got home to a broken air con (when we replace it this week it will be our 5th air con in the 2.5 years we have lived in our apartment) and a miffed cat. cricket had fun with auntie sarah but was mad that we left her all weekend. also she was mad because she is forced to wear a fur coat even when it is freaking hot in our apartment. thankfully this week the apartment manager is working on fixing up the building for an inspection in a couple weeks so the air con and the outlet (which is the real problem) will be fixed this week.

yosemite was fun. the fresh air, good food and great friends were perfect.

!m!

two days and counting

we leave for yosemite on friday. we are SO excited to get out of LA, take an extra day off work, and be outside. there are beautiful waterfalls and fishing spots and hiking trails up there. we are going with the ochsners and smiths and it is going to be a blast! sarah is coming to stay with cricket and all of our baby plants and keep them safe and happy.

the weather down here is perfect but it will be cold up there! there is snow at a not much higher elevation than where we are staying. brrrr. i havent seen snow in real life in 3 years or more. thankfully we brought some of our cold weather clothes with us - yay silk long johns! :)

american idol was super boring to me last night. i like musicals etc but apparently have only seen 2 of andrew lloyd webber's works: phantom and jesus christ superstar. so last night i only recognized one song and they were mostly all ballad-y and boring. yawn.

kris and i have been taking her dogs out running twice a week in prepartio0n for our 10k next weekend. monday night we ran 2 miles without stopping which is about my limit. thats going to make it really hard to run 6 miles next sunday. oh well. we are going again tonight. cali and zuma get really exited whenever they see me now beause they know we are going out. and then they lick my feet which really really grosses me out. so far cricket has respectfully declined going running with us which is prolly for the best because cali and zuma do NOT like cats. even cats who are their cousins. oh well.

it was really hard to get up today - prolly becasue i stayed up a little bit too late reading plus i biked over 20 miles last night. my butt hurts. :) but the book is just that good!

!m!

exhale 2008

this year for exhale, an event by women for women, i was in charge of the craft. since this year's theme was no makeup required, i decided to have everyone make their own face mask. i found a recipe online, assembled all the ingredients, and printed out the instructions:

put about 2 oz of kitty litter into your specimen cup. add 1-2 drops of your selected essential oil. add water, put the lid on, and shake. voila. done.

some people thought the kitty litter part was weird (100% clay kitty litter is almost identical to the clay formula is masks found at fancy spas); others were off put by the specimen cups (what other choice did i have doing a craft for 100 women to take home something that needed a lid and was disposable? i thought it was pretty ingenious myself).

everyone had fun doing the craft, getting makeovers, and listening to the speakers. topics ranged from relationships to eating disorders to how to do your hair. it was great.

at the end of the day... i was tired! i came home and took a nap before going to busby's with some girls from work.

!m!

priorities

this sunday erwin spoke about recalibrating your priorities. he said that priorities are something that are determined ahead of time (prior to the act) so that when the moment of decision comes one doesnt have to think about what is right. one can just act. i was reading this book called a piece of cake by a woman named cupcake brown (honest to god, cupcake is on her birth certificate) who was a foster child in la and san diego and overcame drug abuse and rape etc to become a successful lawyer and author. one thing she was told that changed her life was this: practice makes perfect so be careful what you practice.

every action that i take is practice for those times of intense stress and decision and my reaction will be what? positive or negative? in line with god's will or way outside the lines?

what am i practicing everyday at work and driving and with my friends? am i practiving what i want to be good at or am i practicing what is easiest and when i make poor decisions in the hea of the moment will i be shocked?

think ahead. i am definitely a planner so this isnt hard... comes quite naturally. if i am thinking ahead and wanting to be good at something i train and practice. case in point: running. i can consistently run a mile and usually more (and have made it to over 2 miles before). less than 6 months ago 1/10 of a mile was a lot. practice does make perfect. i spend hours during the week practicing running.

what else do i want to excel at? prayer? loving people? putting others first on the road? i could certainly use more time practicing all of those things. especially the driving bit.

what do you want to excel at? what are your priorities? are you practicing what you actually want to be good at?

!m!

leatherheads

yesterday we spent the morning in the nursery with the 3 and 4 year olds. most of these kids are really cute and funny and well-behaved but we had a couple that were total brats and if they arent disciplined sometime in the future are going to grow up to be real problem children. annoying. there were a few kids that i wanted to take home becasue they were so samrt and cute and obedient. the church really frowns on volunteers kidnapping children so i restrained myself. after church we drove out to pasadena and shopped for jessie's birthday present along with some stuff for us. jeremy got a set of espresso spoons he has been wanting (strange? yes. but it makes him happy so that makes me happy) and i got some new clothes.

we went to the afternoon showing of leatherheads starring george clooney among others. our friend ryan shively makes an appearance during the muddy soldier scene. it was very very exciting to see him and them watch his name scroll during the credits at the end.

i really enjoyed the dialogue between george clooney's character dodge and renee zellweger's character lexie. very witty. the story was good. not a movie i want to own but it was enjoyable. and the eye candy was particularly nice. :) it is so cool that we can see people that we hang out with on stage and in the movies on a regular basis. i love living in la!!!

!m!

who? what? where?

small group dinner this week was held at lance and kris's. we had tacos and rice and chips and queso. it was yummy. we took our baby crockpot that we purchased specifically so that jeremy could make queso. after dan and bridget and owen showed up we ate dinner and then played this really fun game called who? what? where?

there are three boxes of cards. the who? box contains cards that have the name of a celebrity or character like michael jordan or scooby doo. the what? box says what they are doing, e.g. running or playing soccer or performing surgery. the where? box contains locations, for example, at the mall or in the oval office.

everyone picks a card from each of the boxes and draws the scenario thusly described. after everyone is finished drawing (using no letters or numbers) we pass our drawings around and keep track of what we think everyone else drew. then we go around and everyone says what they think it is and points are scored. after three rounds whoever has the most points wins. it is fairly straightforward and really fun, unless you get a set of cards that read "michael jordan (easy) suffering from a really bad cold (how are you going to get someone to guess all that) in the lost city of atlantis (yeah right)". so that sucked for me. thankfully the next round was adama and eve playing soccer in the mall. easy peasy. i still lost but we had a great time.

owen is two months old and so ridiculously cute. i love him and just want to eat him up! he is starting to smile and we had a few moments of instense soul searching staring. dan and bridgie are great as parents... mostly because they let me hold the baby as much as i want. :)

!m!

brownstone

saturday morning i woke up ridiculously early (by that i mean earlier than i have to wake up during the week) and karla picked me up. we headed down to anaheim for a conference (the california association of private special education schools conference). it sucks to drive right by disneyland and know that i am going to a stupid conference instead of riding the tower of terror. we listened to some senator drone on and on for 45 minutes (about 30 more than he was scheduled for) and then went to three sessions, one of which was helpful and two of which i was very excited about but sucked. oh well.

jeremy picked me up early and we drove to laguna beach (weird town!) to see the world premiere of brownstone featuring kimberly blair shively at the laguna playhouse. kimmy was awesome - the whole cast was in fact. the story was incredible. if it ever tours and is near you, you should go see it! we got to see her after ths show and ryan as well. we dont get to see them as often as i would like. after the q & a with the cast and writer/director, we headed home, picked up our ingredients for queso, and headed to lance and kris's house.

nameplate

This is my first official nameplate and I have been here 2.5 years. I like it but I would have added my degree so it read Meaghan Koci, B.S.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

berry flavored koolaid

jeremy surprised me this week with his and hers blackberries. we were instantly addicted. there are so many cool features that my old crappy old ugly old phone didnt have like instant messaging, e-mail, video and music storage, etc. i am so happy. i can even blog and post from my phone now. you're always just a phone call away!

anyways our numbers and service provider stayed the same (still t-mobile, becuase they are better than everyone else, especially att and all you loser iphone users).

so we have joined the cult, drank the kool-aid, and are on our way to arthritis in our thumbs (or at least carpal tunnel).

i am still in the process of assigning people to groups with ring tones. what do you want your ring tone to be?

!m!

12 angry men

last week (the 17th through 21st) our kids were on spring break an di was very motivated to clean my desk off, do some serious filing, and prepare for our district validation review. wednesday i woke up with a sore throat and feeling lousy so i called in sick. wednesday night, when i called my toll-free number to see if i had to report for jury duty as luck would have it i did. of course. so thursday morning i wake up extra early, feeling like death warmed over and take the train downtown to be at one of la's many courthouses by 7:45 am. we heard all the spiel about what was going to happen and around 10:30 they started assigning courtrooms. department 45 here i come. i was called as juror #1. they started by interviewing 18 of us with 18 spares. 2 days later, when jury selection was finally completed, they were down to 12 jurors and one alternate.

we listened to the evidence from three police officers and the defendant, who was charged with one count of solicitation of the act of prostitution, a misdemeanor. monday afternoon we started deliberating and were locked at 6-6. tuesday morning we went straight back to the jury room, talked some more, and were still locked at 6-6. in order for the defendant to be declared guilty or not guilty we had to be unanimous. there was no way 6 people were going to change their minds, so we tolfd the attorneys and the judge and he declared a mistrial. i think that means it is up to his discretion whether to retry the case or something. anyways, i feel like it was a waste of taxpayers time and money. then we owed the state money on our taxes. hmmm... seems like an area in need of some house cleaning!!!

i will be looking forward to my compensation check to come in the mail ($15/day, starting on the second day of service, mileage one way OR a metro card = $45 and a week pass for the train) so i can send it straight back to the state. stupid.

thats civic duty for you.

easter fun

our third annual koci family easter (the satellite los angeles edition) was a great success. we had a smaller crowd this year (only six of us, and seven if you count cricket, who really liked the ham) and it was very laidback. we ate ham (and i had lamb) and mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and salad and deviled eggs and bread... it was all really really good. i made most of it so yes i am bragging a little bit. after dinner we played settlers with jeremy's new river tile addition (it was a little bit confusing at first but now we have the hang of it) and then had fried fruit with whipped cream for dessert. very yummy.

we had two easter services at our location for church this year - normally there is only one service. that meant we had to get up really early because we were directing. im talking like 4:30 in the morning. sheesh. in between services there was a great brunch and we had a cool dance and video combo. the video portion is below. i get goosebumps every time.

by about 8 pm i was exhausted so i went to bed really early.

baby's first bath...

after a long week of work and two hours at the gym, i came home to help jeremy give cricket a bath. she is so good natured we werent terribly worried about how she would react...

she didnt LOVE it but she was pretty tolerant of us as we soaped her up and tried to get rid of some of her extra hair that floats around our apartment like crazy... she scratched me a little bit when i tried to get her to stand up in the bath but after we moved her out of the standing water and just poured water on her she did just fine. she i sreally really fluffy because she looked so pathetic and pitiful all wet. she reminds me of the old english sheepdog that lived across the street when we lived on arlene... what was her name... maggie or something. when they gave her a bath it was like she lost 100 pounds. hilarious.

anyways, we dried cricket off and brushed her and now she has forgiven us and is watching the colbert report with us. what a good baby!

i'm coming home

to the place where i belong...

jeremy and i bought our plane tickets for kansas yesterday. we fly into austin on may 31 and drive up to wichita on june 1. we will sty in wichita until wednesday-ish and then head up to topeka.

things i want to do while in kansas (besides see family which is the obvious thing we are going there for):
see mandy and jill and beka in wichita
spend at least two hours in manhattan so erica and i can have our satc movie date and i can get sweet love by the fire from bluestem bistro or whatever it is calling itself these days... oh and a fish tank!!!!
see missy in kansas city
eat at n and js

who else wants to play that week? any suggestions?

i am turning in my request for time off tomorrow and then we need to make our hotel reservations for austin. anna are you going to be there? wanna share?

!m!

vet school?

yesterday after work jeremy and i performed surgery on cricket. thats right - our time spent cleaning kennels and holding snakes at the vet school at k-state really came in handy.

we have had our baby cricket for three weeks and it was time for her spay stitches to come out. we could have driven way into the city and gotten them taken out at the hospital where they performed the surgery, or taken her to the vet and paid $50 for a visit to get him to take them out, or dont what we did.

she laid down (because she is the best cat ever and soooo well behaved) and i petted her head and scratched her ears and jeremy got the wire clippers and tweezers and went to work. five or so minutes later we were done. and cricket was so happy to have the itchy stitchies out. i vacuumed because she sheds like you wouldnt believe and i had been petting her which made it worse. so then we were all happy. i had a clean floor to exercise on when jeremy left for his man date with zac.

i was doing my exercise video, minding my own business and i hear a knock on the door. our downstairs neighbor was like "i thought you were coming throught the floor - are you guys ok?" i was really embarrassed and told him i was just exercising and he was all "oh ok just wanted to make sure you werent being attacked or something." thankfully the video moved to abs and stretching after that and we left the loud disruptive cardio far far behind...

!m!