Kite flying fun!

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Country Music Marathon 2009

I cant believe that after all of the training, that I am now able to blog about my first 1/2 marathon. It seemed like it would never get here and now I cant believe that is all over. It was an incredible experience and one that I will never forget, and I am not just talking about the race itself. The time spent training with the other six girls helped form friendships and we shared so much together during the past 4 months. The 4:30 early morning runs, not sleeping in on Saturday since January, sore muscles, tendinitis, rain, freezing temperatures...it was all worth it
in the end. I am so glad that I decided to do this with them. It hadnt been a goal of mine and I started running on my own before Christmas to lose weight (which as I said before I have lost none...uggghh!) and then decided to join them for their early morning runs so I could have some motivation to push myself beyond the 2 miles that I was already doing. I jumped to 5 miles and figured I might as well train for the race too if I was going to do all of the work with them. I then joined Fleet Feet and really enjoyed those runs as well. Yes, it was not the greatest thing having to get up at 6 o clock every Saturday but once I was at home I was so ready to start my day! I have accomplished so much more around the house and I know it is from my new energy that was from the running. I feel fantastic and even though I am so frustrated because I am not losing the weight, it is all worth it to feel this good. I am afraid to say it (knock on coffee table) but I have not been sick all winter and have had NO ALLERGIES this spring which is unheard of for me! I usually get 3-5 sinus infections this time of year. So, if running keeps the allergies away...I am on it! I hope to do some more 5K-10K's this year since I dont want all of this training to go to waste, but probably no more 1/2 marathons for a while.

The race was an incredible experience and everything that they say about the adrenaline is totally true! The first few miles are always the hardest for me and it was so much easier looking around and hearing the bands, and people holding signs, passing out water, oranges, spraying us with water...it was great! I also got to see some pretty interesting things on the course as well... a man with a top hat, suit, and table with wine on the side of the road, hula guy running in flip flops, and a man dressed as a bear mascot running beside me (interested to know if he finished or not!).

I took a disposable camera with me for the first part of the run and passed it off to Brad for the remainder of the race. Amanda took the rest of the pictures. Thank you girl!

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1st Half Marathon- completed!

Ok, so I did it! Its finally over and I am so glad to say the least. I cant believe that I am still up since I got about 3 hours of sleep, got up at 3 am to head downtown to catch the shuttles and get parked, ran 13.1 miles (at least it wasnt 26.2!), in the HOT HOT sun (a 25 year old Fort Campbell soldier died of cardiac arrest after crossing the finish line and over 4o others were hospitalized). It was a crazy day of mixed emotions and it was an incredible experience that I will never forget! More on that later... but before bed just wanted to show you that me and Jamie made the evening news!!! Our hula gear payed off and got us a little famous! I am not on there for very long so pay attention or you will miss me! LOL

Here is the link...an update on the race and pics to come later I promise. For now I must SLEEP!

News Story

Sweet Stellan

If you do anything tonight...please pray for this sweet baby! Stellan

Last Group Run, Tendinitis, and Thursday!

Me, Jamie, and Rebecca (we missed you Kim, Beth and Alyssa)

One week from today I will have completed my first official 1/2 marathon! I cant believe that it is almost here. I mean, I can but I cant if you know what I mean. My body definitely can and it seems to be breaking down from the training that I have been doing since January. I simply dont know how people train for the full marathon! I have decided that there are some things that are mental and you can push through and make it, and then there are some things that have their limits. I have decided that my body is just not made for this running. Running 3-5 miles...Ok, but not 10 or more. I am sure it is pretty common but I have been battling tendinitis for 3 months and I am tired of having to battle through the pain. On our down weeks when we only run 5-6 mile runs my legs seem to feel better and start to heal but the minute I have to step it up to do another long run on the weekend I am back to square one. I have a knot on my shin and it has been helping me to roll it out on a foam roller. I have tried not to have a negative attitude the past few weeks but it is getting harder as I have been busy with life in general and the time and energy is few and far between. I have thoroughly enjoyed running with the group of girls and making some great friends. Through it all I have learned a lot about each of them...sometimes too much! Ha! Another discouraging part is that I have not lost much weight which is what sparked the running in the first place. Strength training definitely works better for me so as soon as this is over I am going to try to implement that into my daily exercise. I plan on continuing the running, just not at this level. A 5K would be a good run for me!

This Saturday was our last group run with Fleet Feet! It was kind of sad because even though I dont know many people outside of my immediate group, there have been those that you tend to run with because you are on the same pace and you see from week to week. Everyone has been so great to encourage and uplift you from one week to the next. If anyone like me who wants to do something like this and wasnt a runner before, I totally encourage you to do some sort of organized training with a group like this. There are so many in the Nashville area, so I am sure there are in other places as well. Everyone brought a breakfast item to share after the run and we got our goody bags with our shirt that we are to wear on race day. It was a great run this morning and the weather was perfect! I only wish that the other three girls in our group could have been there. One is out of the country (vacation), one is resting her knee until race day, and the other got called into work at the last minute.

Thursday there are so many things going on for me and others....Please pray for...

1) My neighbor who found out she has breast cancer. It is a large lump the size of a golf ball and she tested positive for the genetic disposition that gives her a 75% chance that it will come back. Her mother died of ovarian cancer so it is in her genes. She is choosing to have a full mastectomy (spelling?) in both breasts and a hysterectomy (again spelling?) on Thursday and this will be followed up with chemo later on. She is a strong Christian and has total peace about it. However her husband...not so much. Please pray for them and their two daughters who Connor adore dearly!

2) My best friend Darby who is having an induction on Thursday for her first child! That is if Brock doesnt make his grand arrival before then!

3) My cousin Ronnie who is leaving on Thursday for San Diego to start his training to become a member of the US Border Patrol!

4) Lastly for me...to get a good nights rest and a good meal maxed out with CARBS! Woohoo! I actually get advised to eat as many carbs as I want. I never knew that two nights before is the most important one before race day for eating and resting! Mainly because they know you wont sleep the night before with all of the nervousness, anxiety, and stress!

Easter eggs, baskets, and lots of treats!

Here are some pictures of our Easter morning. Connor was very excited and kept telling everyone, including perfect strangers in the grocery store that "The Easter Bunny comin' to see me!". Of course we also read our book on the very first Easter and learned all about "Jejus" as Connor calls him. He followed along in the story but I think it will be next year until he fully grasps it and what Jesus did for us on the cross.

I decided to make finding his Easter basket fun, by making a trail of Easter eggs from his room, all the way down the stairs, and into the living room where his Easter basket was filled with goodies by the Easter Bunny. He got a lot farther than I thought he would because I thought he would drop everything once he saw his basket, but he didnt. He wanted to finish his egg gathering mission! Brad told me I went a little overboard on all of the eggs because Connor had to have 2 baskets just to get them all. (you will see him holding a different one in the third picture) We had a great time playing with all of his treats until time for church. It was a great Easter indeed!

He did skip a few eggs, but he made sure he went back to gather them!

My son...the candy lover just like his Mommy! His Easter basket was filled to the brim with all kinds of toys and he finds the egg filled with M&M's more exciting! That's my boy!

Hope y'all had a Happy Easter!

Connor's 1st Easter Egg Hunt

On Saturday we hit the road right after I got home from my last long run until the race (can I get a...woohoo!) and headed to Rockwood to spend the day with the Thompson's for a little Easter gathering and Easter Egg hunt for the kids. Since Connor and Kaitlyn are the only ones walking, it was pretty much for them. We had a wonderful lunch, then headed outdoors for the egg hunt and just enjoyed each others company. It was a great day!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My!

We took a little break from our busy week at home doing lots of projects to take Connor to the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. We had a great time and didnt expect the large crowd that awaited us! We thought that since it was a Thursday it would be pretty quiet, but apparently since Williamson county was out of school and it was a nice day everyone had the same idea we did. It didnt slow us down though, we had a great time and Connor loved it so much more this year than last! He really liked the monkeys but they werent very active while we were there. He also really liked the elephants and the giraffes too! Cant wait to go back soon!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Happy Birthday from Connor

Connor wants to wish all of his many friends who have celebrated b-days this month a special message...

This is for you...Baby Chris Barnes, Meeeko (Nico Apple), Eli Owings, and Drew Stooksbury! I am sure there are probably more. I hope I didnt leave anyone out!

Nonna and Grandy played babysitter for the day!

Last Monday Nonna and Grandy came down for the day and kept Connor for me so I could work. Our Ms. Betty was away on a much deserved beach trip and I took the rest of the week off, but decided to work on Monday since I had several things to do. Mom's tea room is closed, and Dad has started working 4- 10's and is off on most Mondays if his schedule allows. Thus they jumped all over the opportunity to come to our house and spend the day with Connor. It was a cold and rainy day, so they made plans indoors and decided to make some Easter cupcakes and dye Easter eggs. These are the pictures that Mom took with my camera. It was on the black and white setting and she didnt know how to change it, so that is the reason behind the dark pictures. I took some of Connor eating the finished product when I got home. He always enjoys visits from the grandparents and hates it when they have to leave!

The boys hard at work!


Yummy icing is the best! He gets this from his Mommy! (yes I know my cabinet doors are off of the cabinet...you will see the project from ---- in pictures soon!)

He looks so concerned to take a bite or maybe it is the anticipation!

Murfreesboro Tornado

Check out this video! A guy that Brad and I work with lived about a mile away from where the tornado hit in the Blackman community in Murfreesboro. This video was shot by his neighbor. I cant even imagine how scared I would be if I had seen this out my window!

What is going on around here?

It seems like I have been hearing nothing but bad news lately. Crazy things have been happening to just about everyone in our connect group at church. Cancer, illnesses, marriages dissolved, deaths of loved ones, its just crazy. Then I hear yesterday that Dan Miller, the longtime channel 4 news anchor died suddenly of a heart attack on Wednesday night while at the Masters. He has been on the news since we lived here before when I was in first grade. I also remember watching him every time we visited my grandparents all of those years. Demetria and Dan have been the news anchors together for like 30 years or something like that. Nashville will be forever changed without him. Since I am pretty obsessive about the news and I am exclusive to channel 4, I was devastated to hear this. Since his passing I have heard all kinds of things about him that I never knew. He was voted the "Most popular news anchor in the US" and he moved to LA for a while to become news anchor and had a show with Pat Sajak. My heart goes out to his family and all of his long time friends at Channel 4. Brad thinks I am crazy, but when you watch a person almost every day to be informed of your local news you kind of feel like that person is your family.

Then today we find ourselves back in the closet taking cover from the storms coming through. There was a picture sent out of a tornado in Spring Hill, but I am not sure exactly where it was. Haven't heard much about that because most of the coverage has been in Murfreesboro. It turns out that one of the tornado's that hit was only a couple of miles from a coworker of mine and Brad's. Luckily he and the other guy we work with were fine but so many others were not as lucky. My heart goes out to them! I am not ready for it to be tornado season all ready. This is when I wish I still lived in E TN!!!

Check out our new hired help!

So sorry this video goes in and out of focus. Not sure why. Maybe because he was moving so much. Anyway, you get the idea.

Thankful

With everything that is going on in these perilous times, this is what has been going through my mind lately...

I am so thankful for my health, and health of my family. So many others are not as fortunate.
As I have been praying for baby Stellan, a neighbor with breast cancer, and so many others in need at church and around me this has really woken me up and helped me not to take these things for granted.

Even though I might complain about the aches and pains from time to time, I am thankful to have two legs to carry me to the finish line. Please pray for all of the girls in my running group. It seems that we are falling apart and we know too well that it is the devils tactics to discourage us from doing something that is very important to us. It is very discouraging when we have been training since January and to get so close to the race and things start going downhill. I am the only one of two in our group who has no ailments at the current time. Rebecca is having problems with her Achilles, Alyssa found out this week that she has to have her gall bladder removed next week, Kim hurt her knee a few weeks back on our run and now has hurt her back, Misty sprained her ankle stretching and it is still swollen a week later, Jamie has pink eye, a sinus infection for two months, issues with a root canal and another one scheduled for the week of the race. This leaves Beth and I who need to strap on cushions and stay inside to avoid joining the rest of them. This week I have been running alone, thus meaning I have not run very many miles. I missed last weeks long run because I was out of town and this weekend is a short run. Next week will be very challenging to say the least. Race is in less than a month!

Even though I complain about rush hour, early mornings, and how hectic it is to get out the door, I am thankful for a job to go to and that my family is provided for. Everyone knows someone that is struggling right now and I feel so fortunate to still receive a paycheck each week.

I am thankful for a roof over my head and means of transportation to any place of my choosing! Even though I choose not to watch Oprah anymore (for my own reasons) I couldnt help but see the show that showed people sleeping in tent cities. These people were sitting behind their computers a year ago thinking that there is no way that could happen to them. Just goes to show that you never know what the future might hold.

Although I dont agree with the policies of the newest administration, I am thankful to have someone to serve as my president and represent this place that we live, which is the greatest country in the world! Dont take for granted all of the freedoms that you have. Be thankful that you can go to the church of your choice, wear a cute outfit, work or be a stay at home Mom, have a voice in politics...the list goes on and on. To be a woman and born in the United States is truly a blessing.

I know there are many more things that I thank God for every day, but these are the ones that have been weighing on my heart the most. Please take a moment to be thankful!