Weekend in Gatlinburg!

This past weekend we drove down to Gatlinburg and spent Thursday-Sunday in a cabin with mom, dad, Matthew, Rachel, Dan, and Allison. It was great to see everyone! It was beautiful up there and the weather was perfect. Sunny skies but cool at night! We couldn't have asked for a better weekend. Mom did an awesome job picking out a cabin for all of us to stay in.
This is our view from the deck of our cabin!

Thursday afternoon we went to play putt putt golf. Allison had a blast but I do believe that dad, Matthew, Dan, and Derrick were competing more than any of us! I am pretty sure that Allison won the entire game though! After golf, half of the crew went to the grocery and me, Rachel, and Allison went back up to the cabin. On our way up the mountain we saw a bear in the road. It wasn't a baby cub but it wasn't a full grown adult either. Allison was so excited to see a real live bear! She called her dad to tell him but I am not sure how much they believe us. Her interpretation of the story was a little silly!

Friday we rode go carts and went shopping! Derrick and I got lots of new clothes! The weather was beautiful. Saturday the guys went and played disc golf with dad and us girls went to craft shops. Matthew's friend, Heather, came up and joined us for the day. We met up and did a little more shopping while Rachel and Dan took Allison to ride horses. She talked about that all day! She loved the horses. That night Dan, Derrick, Matthew, Heather, and I stayed up until around 1:00am playing cards.

Sunday was our last day there. We ate a big breakfast and went down the mountain to take pictures before everyone left. Dan and Rachel left right after pictures but me, Derrick, mom, dad, and Matthew shopped at all the Christmas shops before heading home. We had a great time together.

The whole family!

Creek in Gatlinburg

Mom, Matthew, Me, & Dad

Me and Derrick

Derrick and I got home around 10:00pm and we were exhausted. We had a long and busy weekend but we can't wait for next year. We love Gatlinburg in the fall and we miss the mountains!

Derrick's Marathon Results

So, Derrick ran in the Columbus 1/2 Marathon this past Sunday. He ran the race with our friend, and personal trainer, Kelly. A couple of weeks before the race his foot was really bothering him so I was nervous that he wouldn't be able to run in the race. We just prayed that he would either tough it out and finish or that it would heal before the race.

Luckily his foot quit hurting about 10 minutes before the race (Thank you God for the healing). He was able to run the race and finish! We stood at the 9th mile marker and saw him and Kelly run by. Derrick said that around mile 10 he had to stop and stretch so Kelly was ahead of him by a couple minutes. We ran back to the finish line and I saw him cross! It was amazing. I am so proud of him for accomplishing this goal!! He said he wanted to cry because he was so tired and sore and I told him I wanted to cry because I was so happy!!
Derrick and Kelly rounding the 9th mile

His goal in the beginning was to run a mile in 10 minutes and finish in 2 1/2 hours. Then after a few weeks of training he said he was going to push himself and run a mile in 9 minutes. You can see his results and he exceeded his finish time goal by over 30 minutes and also ran a mile in 8 minutes and 53 seconds.
Derrick sprinting towards the finish line!

Here are his race results:
Derrick Johnson
bib number: 2140
age: 25
gender: M
location: Pickerington, OH
overall place: 1645 out of 5290
division place: 185 out of 374
gender place: 1033 out of 2230
time: 1:56:21
pace: 8:53
10k: 54:03

Derrick right after he finished (he has also just shoved some food in his mouth)

Derrick and Kelly after the race

His mother, grandparents, and aunt and uncle all came up for the weekend. We had Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday since we were all together! I cooked all day and made pies for dessert. Dinner turned out great and we had a good weekend with his family.

Way to go Derrick!!!! I love you!

Date Night

Last night my husband and I had a date night! He took me to dinner and I had gotten us tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance concert a couple months ago. We went to a Japanese steakhouse and it was wonderful. It was by far the best Japanese Steakhouse we have been to!

On the way to dinner we were talking to each other and Derrick was just cracking me up. He was totally acting like we were on our first date and telling me all about him and asking me all kinds of questions about me. He kept talking and rambling on about running marathons and then he would stop and say "Oh, listen to me talking about myself. what do you like to do?" We were both laughing at each other.

After dinner we headed down to OSU's campus for the concert. We had great seats. We were right in front of the stage, on the floor. We were the 8th row back so we could see all the dancing really good! I can't believe I left my camera at home- but I did. We tried taking some with our phones but they didn't come out very good. Here is one that we took just to give you an idea of how close we were.


After the show we were leaving and there was a barricade set up with security so we waited there- in the freezing cold- but we were able to meet all the dancers and I even got their autographs!! I know, how cheesy is that!?!?!! Well, there was a nice mother and son standing next to us in line so they took a couple of pictures of me with some of the dancers and they are going to e-mail them to me. When I get those pictures, I will add them to the post.

Good news.....

My friends Crystal and Eric are engaged!!! YEAH!!!

If you scroll down on my blog you will see pictures of us four at Kings Island this summer. They have set a wedding date for June 13, 2009. I will definitely be making a trip home for that wonderful day.

CONGRATULATIONS CRYSTAL AND ERIC!!!!!

I am so happy for you two. I love you both!!!!

Before and After.....

I have had so many people asking to see pictures of me and Derrick since we keep talking about how much we are working out. Here they are. I posted a before and after so you can compare. It is unbelievable! Derrick has now lost about 50 pounds and I have lost a little less than 30 pounds.

Here is a picture we took about a year ago, right before we moved up here.....



And here are a couple of recent pictures of me and Derrick......

This is us with Derrick's mom at the Columbus Zoo



Derrick is done "loosing" weight. He is just working on toning. I am not quite done loosing just yet. I am definitely toning up though. :) Have a great week!!

Fall is here

Wow, I have been so busy that I have not blogged in a few months! We have had so much going on that I could have written a book by now! Where do I start???

Derrick and I were able to make a trip back to Nashville over Labor Day weekend. It was good because we all drove to Memphis to see my grandparents. Most of the Hamblin family was there so it was so nice to see all of them and catch up with everyone! I have a wonderful family and I love spending time with them. The 4 hour drive there, and then 4 hours back, was a blast because of course I was chosen by Allison to sit in the very back with her. I had very little leg room since a 3rd row seat isn't made for comfort! It was a fun weekend and I am glad we had a chance to go home and see my family.

A couple weeks later was the UK vs MTSU football game in Lexington, KY. Derrick has a dealer who has season tickets to all the UK home games. She knows that Derrick and I are UK fans and she mentioned to Derrick that they were going to be out of town that weekend and asked if we wanted the tickets. She had 6 tickets and a parking pass. We were so excited to have tickets so we called our very best friends, Ruth and Karl Meyer, to see if they all wanted to go to the game. Of course they said yes! We met them in Lexington and spent the weekend in Lexington together. It was so much fun to get to spend time with them. I miss those girls so much!

Since then we have been busy every weekend with ALS Walks across Ohio and Indianapolis. ALS (a.k.a Lou Gehrig's Disease) is one of the main diseases that Derrick deals with in his patients. His company is a national sponsor so he has to go and set up a booth at every walk so I went with him and volunteered. It was a lot of fun but the past 3 weekends have been consumed with these walks. We finally have a weekend off but it will be spent cleaning and preparing for Derrick's family to come in town the next weekend. Most of you know that Derrick and I have been working out and working with a trainer. Well, Derrick has always wanted to run a marathon so he has been training to run the Columbus Half Marathon. He is now 2 weeks away and is doing awesome! I am so proud of him and how far he has come! He will be running on Sunday, October 19th. So, if you think about it that day- say a little prayer that he can at least finish. He doesn't care about placement or time, he just wants to finish.

Ohh, one more thing! We bought a new tree and planted it in the backyard. It is a maple tree and the leaves will be a beautiful red in the fall. I love fall and I can't wait for Halloween weekend because we are going down to Gatlinburg with my family! I am sure another blog and pictures from that will be coming soon!

Kings Island

On June 20-22 I had a good friend from TN and her boyfriend come and visit me! Crystal and Eric spent the weekend with us and we went to Kings Island while they were here. We had a blast at the park running from ride to ride and trying to fit as many rides in as possible.

We were in line for The Beast, a very popular wooden roller coaster, when the skies started getting dark and the temperature started to drop. Crystal and I were freezing and Eric was in charge of giving us weather updates from his cell phone. Derrick and I knew that there were storms coming but we were hoping they would bypass us. Well, they didn't. We had made it up to 3rd in line for the ride when they shut it down due to weather. It rained and the rides were closed for 2 hours. We stayed in line and waited it out since we were under a shelter and out of the rain. Many people decided to leave the line and try the other rides but we stayed so we wouldn't get wet. When the ride finally opened we were first in line!!
We had a great time making faces for all the camera on the rides. We did end up buying one as a memory of the long, but very fun day!

Somehow during the day Derrick had a speech problem and he referred to his "mini van" as a "vini van." So from that point on, everything we said we started it with a "V." We definitely got some good laughs out of all that madness. Even on the way home we were still starting everything with a "V" and it would take us a couple seconds to figure out what the other person was trying to say. Ohh- guess you had to be there!!! Hahaha!!!

We stayed at the park until it closed so the drive home was a long one. We were exhausted from all the walking and laughing.

Derrick and I bought passes so we have been back to Kings Island once and this past weekend we went to Cedar Point with my brother and Heather. I will get some pictures from our weekend at Cedar Point as soon as I have a chance to pull the pictures off my camera.


Derrick and I sneaking a quick picture before the ride took off!

Derrick and I with Little Bill in the kiddie area. That is where you found the good food!

Eric and Derrick with their huge ice cream cones. Those came from the kiddie area!!
All 4 of us in from of the Eiffel Tower
All 4 of us again in the roller coaster car getting ready to take off!
Me and Crystal with our nice hair-dos after riding the Firehawk
Derrick and I by the entrance