Chicago Half Marathon

I set a goal to run a half marathon before I turned 40 and I did it. My friend Gretchen set me up on the challange and then once I registered for the run in Chicago there was no turning back. (I am not one to let a registration fee go to waste :) Tommy Jr. and I traveled to WI to see baby Lincoln, celebrate Tommy turning 5 and to have a day of fun at Dozer Days. Then we left for Chicago and visited with my friend Mary. Her neighbor, a professional chef, made us a fantastic dinner and then by 6 a.m. we were out the door headed to the race on Lake Shore Ave. There were over 14,000 people racing with me and my friend Rachel, wow it was alive with energy. It was more of a challange to run in a crowded street than it was when I trained where typically I only shared pavement for brief encounters where someone was passing me. I broke my running time of a 10 minute mile and came in at a 9:48 minute mile pace. I finished 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 7 minutes. Tommy and Mary cheered for me at mile 4 and again at the finish line. How fantastic it was to have Tommy present me with a flower, a dandaline, at the end of the race, it truly touched my heart. Mary loaded me up with some devine dark chocolate treats for the ride home and Tommy slept most of the drive back to Indy. Once home, Sammie, baby Allie and Tom had a huge celebration display to congratulate me. Balloons, and ice cream cake, cards, medals, trophies, garland and a spa gift certificate were some of the many goodies I received. Thanks to everyone who helped me make this goal, called with encouragement, asked me how my running was going, prayed for my aches and pains and cheered for me, it really made me feel special. A big thanks to Tom Sr. who put the kids to bed by himself night after night while I was out running. A final note to Brooke, Tommy, Sammie and Clayton, I did not offically win but in my heart and mind I did. :)

My actual running photos are posted here if you are interested:

www.marathonfoto.com

You will need my last name, the race name: Chicago Half 2009, and my bib number: 11878

Dozer Days

Dozer Days was hot but a lot of fun. Brooke and Tommy were able to drive a Front End Loader by themselves and the trained professional and then jointly rode a large bulldozer with Clayton and Mr. Mike on the opposite side.

Visit with the Stanleys

Tommy and I arrived on Friday night at the Stanleys. I got to meet and hold baby Lincoln and got to play with Clayton whom I call 'Cutie' and Brooke. It was like old times, they just started running around together like no time had passed. Saturday morning came the Diego cupcakes to celebrate Tommy's 5th birthday one final time. Clayton smiles below as he knows the cupcake are next. Brooke is concerned about the process of blowing out the candle.

Here we got to see baby Lincoln and Mr. Mike

My words are repeated again.

Tommy got two new books from his friend Blake for his birthday. One was a superhero book. Sammie, who had been practicing writing her letters all day wrote her name on the inside of Tommy's new book along with three library books. I was able to clean up two of the library books b/c she wrote her name on the shinny cover. The other two books she wrote her name on the inside flap. Tommy was crushed. Sammie and I had a talk and she was truly sad for Tommy and apologized. The next morning during the car ride to gymnastics Tommy opened his new book to read. Upon opening it he remembered that Sammie wrote in his book and replied to her, "Do you think this makes me happy Sammie?" Ouch those have been my words from time to time when Tommy has deliberately disobeyed me. Sammie broke into tears and explained that she had already apologized. I was sad; my own words repeated back were crushing. God has taught me a lesson on how badly words can hurt.

WW II Tiger fighters

Tommy was reading a new book from the library and the conversation went as follows: "Mommy, some airplanes are like animals." I responded, "Oh really, what do you mean Tommy?" Tommy opens his book and shows Sammie and I a picture of a WWII fighting plane as pictured below.
I replied, "Yes Tommy, sometimes planes were painted just like a shark back in World War II." Sammie asks, "Is there one painted like a giraffe?" I just had to laugh at the thought of that, can you imagine a war jet painted with a giraffe face? I don't think anyone would be afraid of that. I explained to Sammie that maybe Southwest Airlines, a commercial airline might have a giraffe plane. I guess I will look that up on google next.

Food and Allergy Walk

We participated in the Indy FAAN Food and Allergy walk this year. We were able to raise money to support research to cure food allergies. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to meet others who are managing food allergies for their children who have many more allergies than our crew. Our team name was team Goose. Tom Sr. has nick named baby Allie, "Goose" and has many times called all of us goose. So we went on a two mile walk in downtown Indy and the kids had a blast. They each got a 1.5 ' pixie stick and they waved during the walk that were surprisingly lost as soon as we got home. Can you imagine how much sugar would of been in just one of those? Maybe if they were teenagers on the track team or something, but wow the kids would of been up all night!

Sammie takes a crash

Sammie is having a hard time falling asleep. She refuses to take naps and at night she will sneak out of her room and rest on the floor at the top of the stairs to try and hear what we are doing. A few times over the past two weeks we have found her asleep at the landing at the top of the stairs. Well the other night we found her fast asleep on the stairs. She was in a hard sleep and did not wake up when we transported her back to bed. Good thing she does not wiggle too much when she sleeps or she would of rolled down the stairs!