The 5K Saga Continues...

I wasn't sure how exactly to include a lot of these photos into my previous sappy post so I decided to just do a separate post with pictures.

If you didn't read My First 5K or Crossed the Finish Line then you may want to do that first so you will understand some of these photos better!

Now, for your viewing enjoyment:

This was taken right before the race started. I was choking back tears in this photo. And wishing that I had better luck with tanning.

I wore my Moo-ville Creamery t-shirt that we picked up in Michigan last time we were there. The kids agreed that we should all wear them at all the races that we enter! I think that's a fabulous idea! We might be hitting Aunt Karin up for a shipment of some bright colored ones soon!

This is my new friend Lori. I'm laughing at her because... she was funny. During our brief conversation each of my kids randomly came up to hug me. When the 3rd kid came up she said, "Is that one yours, too?" Then she said something about having my own little Catholic 'something'. I didn't catch exactly what she said but I laughed. If she only knew. Then the 4th kid came up!

Now, time to wait. Waiting is not my kids' speciality. But, Bear seams to be handling it well!

This event appears to have been absolutely painful for Ainsley. You can see it in her eyes.

Maybe a little for Aspen, too. But loyal... ever loyal!

I have to thank Terra so much for this photo! It is my favorite. The expressions on the kids' faces is priceless as they wait for me to come around the bend!

Getting close!!!

Even closer!

Even closer still!! The guy in the foreground is absolutely astonished by my time! As he should be!

Please, don't ask me what I was doing here. I don't know. The lady in the white tank top is stifling her laughter!

What a beautiful sight! See that bald man on the left? That's my husband taking a 3 second video of me crossing the finish line:

This is when I actually crossed the finish line!

Notice the time on the clock. Minus the 6+ minutes from the start of the half marathoners I finished at 35:33!!!

THIS was there to greet me at the end!

And this! Notice my niece Emma's gorgeous red hair. Andyn, on the other hand, looks like her daddy got her ready that morning.

Emma pretty much loves me to death. It's mutual.

I love this picture.

Sophie, my other niece, loves me too she just doesn't know it yet. And their daddy... well, Jeff was just mad I didn't ask him to run the race with me... who knew?! You're on like Donkey Kong, dude!

Oh, boy. I'm thinking we need to find a charity race for finding a cure for male pattern baldness.

I did it.

I'm a dork. But, I did it.

Crossed the Finish Line

(note: I started this post on Saturday and finished it up today)

Such a range of emotions....

Sad last night. Asked my girls if they wanted to see me run my first 5k and they both said, "I want to but I really want to do such-and-such..." My heart was broken. All my fears of my kids not loving me confirmed.

Sad this morning that my husband and children wouldn't be there. Disappointed in myself that I wasn't better prepared. Upset that I didn't have any cohorts to cheer me on and snap photos with. I felt alone.

But then... Geoff called. He asked if I wanted them to come. Evidently, Aspen woke up and told her daddy that she wanted to come watch me. I told him that would be really nice.

As I stood among the 500+ people waiting to start the race, I saw my clan walking towards the crowd. I cried. I felt supported. I felt loved. All 5 of them gave me hugs and wished me luck. Aspen gave me a rainbow colored sweatband for my wrist and asked me to wear it on my race... which I did. Who cares if people thought I was wearing it for gay pride!

Once my family was there I seemed more like myself. Throwing all caution to the wind, I mentioned to the lady next to me that I wish that I had remembered my deodorant. Thankfully, she laughed. And we began to talk. This was her first race, too. She was planning on walking it because she had only built up to running a mile so far. But this was a start for her. I felt such admiration for her. Geoff snapped a photo of us talking:

The gun 'blew' and the crowd took off. I was still feeling a bit anxious that I would make it but definitely more confident now that I knew I had a cheering squad waiting for me at the end! AND I had my Shiny Toy Guns to keep me going!

My sister also came (with her family) but was a little late so I caught a glimpse of them a minute or so later. For the record: she is my number one fan. And, I am hers. I love her.

As I was focusing on getting my stride down to what I'm used to (and avoiding speeding up to keep up with the others), I became very aware that everyone was passing me. I never looked back but I was pretty sure everyone except the people that were walking were passing me. The positive self talk had to kick in: "Not EVERYONE is passing you. And even if they are you're still going to do this thing!"

I can proudly say that I only stopped to walk a few times. And it was only on the inclines. My legs just weren't used to the slight inclines that were on the course. The first time that I stopped to walk I was starting to feel disappointed but when I noticed several other people doing the same I realized... it's okay. I only had the right to be mad at myself if I had properly prepared for the race... which I didn't.

The best part of the race was coming around the bend to the finish line. Strangers on the corner cheering for me to keep going! A knot was totally welling up in my throat! I was REALLY going to make it to the finish line without quitting!

As I approached the finish line I spotted my family! They were all cheering for me!

I did it. I really did it. My family all hugged and kissed me and congratulated me. And almost immediately they all started talking about doing the next race with me!

Aspen, my 10 year old, told me she wants to run a race with me. This was priceless to me. My children struggle with ambition. They are content with mediocrity. It's obvious that this has been the case for me for years now, so why wouldn't it be for them? I'm hoping to change that. They will, for the most part, be like their parents.

Geoff, Terra (my sister), Jeff (her husband), me, and possibly a couple of my kiddos will be running a 5K together.... soon. That's all we could talk about.

So, when you check-in they give you a 'chip' to be attached to your shoe lace. This records your running time. Because I haven't actually ran a full 3.2 miles and timed it I was guessing that I would probably do it in 40-45 minutes. Apparently, as you cross the finish line there is a clock that posts your time. I didn't see it by my sister did and she said that it posted 41 or 42 minutes. "Good", I thought. That's what I thought. Not bad and gives me a goal for improvement.

But... when I went online to check my actual time I was shocked to see the numbers 35:33!

35 MINUTES! How is this possible??

All of sudden I remembered! They started the clock with the half marathoners 6 minutes prior to us starting! They told us before we started that we would need to deduct 6 minutes from our finish time.

I was very happily surprised. Very pleased. Very pleased, indeed.

My First 5K

Several months ago when I agreed to run a 5K with my friend I secretly thought I was crazy. Then, as I lost weight and increased my endurance for running I thought: I can do this!

I thought I would be excited when race day finally arrived.

I'm not.

I feel like an idiot.

I don't want to go.

My friends have backed out of running for one reason or another and I haven't been training like I should. 

Obviously, I'm the only one that will be disappointed with my poor performance. Disappointed in myself.

Only my sister is planning on being there to cheer me on.

My kids won't see me run my first 5K race because I'm too prideful to ask my husband to bring them... he hasn't offered.

Eight Years Ago Today

Seems like a lifetime ago... yet just like yesterday.

Another year has gone by. Yet... I still remember.

There will forever be a scarred piece of my heart in reference to the suffering and trauma that took place on 9-11-2001.

More About the First Day

When I was a kid I used to shave my legs behind my mom’s back. I don’t even remember how old I was. She said I was too young and wouldn’t let me. So, I took matters into my own hands, filled a drinking glass with water, and commenced to DRY shave my legs. I learned how to shave my legs the hard way. You’d thought I would have given up after having to go to school with pieces of toilet paper stuck to the cuts. But I didn’t.

So, months ago when I found out that Aspen had shaved her legs without telling me I decided that, regardless of their age, I would rather the girls have some instruction on how to do it rather than sneak around behind my back and cut themselves all the time. I told her not to do it again until I could sit down and show her how. Well, they insisted that this needed to happen before they started school on Wednesday.

So, Tuesday night after their showers we all sat on the edge of the tub with it slightly filled with water and I showed them how to shave using conditioner. It went wonderfully. They were happy and I was glad to be a part of it.

Now, I realize that once the my girls share their little secret with their 5th and 3rd grade friends I may have some parents that won’t really care for me. But… it was worth it.

Ainsley on the first day sitting with her 3rd grade class outside getting ready to go in.Aspen doing the same with her 5th grade class only not nearly as pleased that I was snapping a photo. I could embarrass her or something.

Lessons Learned From The First Day of School

Lesson #1:

Under NO circumstances should you let your 5 year old stay up till 9:30 PM the night before the first day of school. Even if it is for a Father’s Blessing and the daddy is getting home late from work. If you do, THIS might happen:

He was the only Kindergartener freaking out. Full on wall-eyed fit. The other parents probably thought I was a terrible mother for actually snapping photos of this.

 

Lesson #2:

When making special First Day of School cookies for the kids. Do not triple the batch. It will not fit in the biggest bowl you own and will really screw up your diet.

Brought to you by the numbers 7 (Asher’s new bedtime) and 50 (the lbs I gained yesterday).

Current Status

I realized this morning that I’ve posted on Facebook about our current living situation but have yet to blog about it.

(Note: most of these photos are blurry… I apologize in advance. They were taken with Geoff’s iPhone which does not take good pictures in low light.)

We finally, after months of agony, closed on our house in Durant. That is a part of my life I wish never to repeat. However, the good news is that we closed on a new house in New City on the 3rd of August…. What a glorious day!!

 

Proof. The keys and garage door opener. Until the moment we signed the papers we did not get our hopes up. Months of disappointment prepped us for yet another house falling through. But, this time it was for real!

Welcome to Andover! That’s right, Geoff, Steph, Aspen, Ainsley, Asher, Andyn, and AJ live on Andover now!! Well, technically we still live in a small 2 bedroom apartment but there is light at the end of the tunnel. It seems fitting that we should live on a street that starts with the letter A. Don’t you think?

 

The kids did carpet angels in our new house as part of the celebration! (Ainsley is cut out because she had a skirt on.) I LOVE Asher’s face in this picture. He is completely and utterly happy. Aspen on the other hand looks dead.

After moving MANY times in our married life and experiencing all the stress that comes with that, we decided this time that we would pay rent for another month and use that time to clean, paint, and pack. Yes. I said pack. Because I had yet to pack a single box…. we didn’t really think it was going to happen, remember?

First on the list was to CLEAN the carpets. Check. We ripped them out. They were heavy smokers and had animals so the carpet was unsalvageable. We decided to just replace it. The carpet guy is coming tomorrow to put carpet in the bedrooms. And then we will be laying laminate in the living room ourselves.

Next on the list was to REPAIR the ceiling beams in the living room. Check. We ripped them out. This is what they looked like (once again, sorry for the quality of the photo). We decided that it was actually going to be more difficult to repair them (they were bowed in several places) than to actually remove them so we removed them.

This is what the ceiling looked like after pulling them out.

This is what it looks like now.

Which brings me to our next project. The fireplace.

This is what it looked like before. Notice the beams at the top of the brick wall? We knew that if we pulled the beams down then we would have 2 big gapping holes in the fireplace. So… we ripped out the brick. Nice, huh? Truthfully, I was SOOO happy to do it!!! I thought this wall was hideous.

This is what it looked like when we were done pulling out all the brick.

As a side note: the POA (Property Owners Association) President just happens to live RIGHT behind us. He poked his head over his fence Wilson style to make sure we understood what we could and couldn’t do according to the POA covenants. He was really nice about it, though.

Back to the fireplace:

This is what it looks like now. Definitely a work in progress. But I am certain that it will look 5000 times better than what was there!

Do you see that door to the right of the fireplace? That goes to the wet bar that connects to the master bedroom. We ripped it out. (:

Technically, I ripped it out.

This guy, Garon, dry walled it for me! I like this guy… a lot. Goodbye, wet bar!! Hello 2nd closet for the master bedroom!

I like this guy, too. Asher has been super helpful!

Oh and this girl…. she is my sister and she loves me.

I can’t forget her husband. His job is harder. He loves me, too. 

But the person who takes the cake is her…. Amber Dahle. This lady drove from St. Louis (7 hours one way) TWICE in one week to be with me in my hour of need. I love her. And I’m betting she loves me, too.

We have been blessed with help from several people. Thank you all.