Halfs

A couple of years ago, living in Virginia, the idea of a runner's second wind got stuck in my head. I have run pretty consistently since I was in High School, but always with 3 miles being the max. I really didn't think I could do much more. . . or really want to do any more than that. But then I began thinking about that runner's second wind, that long distance runners swore was real, and I wanted to find it.

So one day, last April, I ran my three miles and felt pretty good so I kept going. I ran four. I felt pretty proud of myself and it wasn't as hard as I had thought. I roped my running partner, Adrienne, into trying longer runs with me and we started going four and five miles at a time. Then in June, my friend came to visit and she put the bug of running a half marathon in my head. She insisted that it really wasn't that hard and that I could totally do it. She insisted. So, again, I roped my running buddy into the idea of training for a half marathon.

I remember the night before a five mile race I was running, I was dreading it. I knew I could do it but I worried that it was going to be a painful run. But it turned out feeling good. I loved the way I felt when I finished, surprised that it wasn't harder. Each weekend after that, Adrienne and I would dread our long runs, thinking how are we going to do this? When we had to run our first 7 mile run, we were dreading it. We stood outside saying to each other, are we crazy, why are we doing this? But then we did it and it wasn't that hard. So the next week when we ran nine miles, we were kind of looking forward to it. Once we finished that run, we knew we could do the half marathon, no problem.

We ran our first half marathon back in November in Huntsville. Our goal was to run the entire time, no walking, no stopping. We were doing really well until the last two miles, when we suddenly hit our wall and really had to push ourselves. So it slowed us a little but we kept going and finished in 2 hours 10 minutes.

About ten minutes after we finished, Adrienne's husband asked if we were going to run the Mercedes Half Marathon in Birmingham in February and I said, "Yes, Let's do it!" Adrienne, who was still remember the last two miles, said she wasn't quite sure. But it only took her a day or two to commit to the race three months later.

So we trained again and ran the Mercedes Marathon in February. We have had a very mild winter this year, especially January and February- lots of weather in the 50s and 60s. The two coldest days of the year happen to fall the same time as our race. It was 22 degrees as we started running. We had to slow down in all the water stops because the water from people's cups that had fallen on the street had frozen slick. But we had bundled ourselves appropriately and we felt good during the run. It was a fun course, through the city of Birmingham, through the downtown areas and through historical areas with beautiful, old mansions, up hills and down. I really enjoyed it. This time, Adrienne and I felt good and strong the whole way. We finished in the exact same time as our first, 2 hours and 10 minutes. I think we ran this race faster than the first, but we had to slow down every time we went through water areas where it was iced over.

I love training for half marathons. I love the weekly long run. I love the feeling of accomplishing 13 miles. But I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much or even have been able to accomplish it if it wasn't for Adrienne, my running buddy. It made the 11 mile weekend runs flash by, as she is an excellent talker. But she is moving and I am moving, so I don't know what I am going to do?? Running long distances by myself is boring. Boo.

November

I want to get to a point where blogging is part of my life again. I just finished reading My Life in France, by Julia Child, which she co wrote with her grand-nephew at the end of her life. She wrote the book about her time in France, because it was one of the times she was most happy. There was so much detail in the book that I kept wondering, how does she remember what she ate 50 years ago, how does she remember the events so clearly? In the forward, the co-author said they went through years of letters and pictures kept by Julia Child and her husband, that detailed all these memories for her, so she could recall with exact detail what they ate.

I want to be able to remember a lot of the small details of life now, but I am not writing them down, so they will drift away as my children and I get older. I don't write letters to anyone (who does?) and I actually do save my emails (I have like 3000 of them in my inbox), but those don't capture the kind of details I am interested in remembering forever. That is what my blog was doing for me, but life has gotten in the way of recording it. One day I will get back into it, the way I use to love it. When it was a creative outlet.

For now, I will just keep posting pictures of things I don't want to forget. Like the month of November and December. So busy, and so much fun.

Girls Trip 2011- Rosemary Beach, Florida
To start off November, I went on our annual girls trip for the Pittsburgh Girls. This years destination was in my neck of the woods, Rosemary Beach, Florida. This is a small beach town on the gulf of Mexico, with white sand beaches and beach homes that look like a West Indies beach resort. It was a little like heaven. Beautiful!

We rented bikes one day and drove all around the cute little village, and to the beach. This was one of my favorite things we did.

It really was hauntingly beautiful there. I came back dreaming of those white beaches.

I love these girls so much. I had such a fun time, and am counting down the days until I get to see them again!

All the Rosemary Beach pictures were taken by my extremely talented friend, Libby Jones, who is a photographer in the Phoenix area.

Nutcracker

I took the girls to their first Nutcracker performance. We went to a "tea party" before the performance where they had lots of candy and treats for the girls. They also got to meet many of the performers in their costumes. The girls really liked the nutcracker, especially Claire.

Morgan is a photo stinker.

One real treat was when the Sugar Plum Fairy came up to us and said, "Hi, Claire!" She had taught Claire's dance class last summer and had remembered Claire. It made it a little more special to Claire to watch her dance.

We actually ran into several people we knew at the Nutcracker. It was such a neat surprise for us. It's one of the things you take for granted when you live in the same place for a long time- seeing people you know at unexpected places. Being that we have lived in three different states in the last three years, it is a bit of luxury to recognize people you know when you are out and about. It has been fun to finally get to this point here, though we will be moving in the summer and we will have to start this whole thing over again. Oh well.

Christmas

The opening of the Christmas Jammies!

The reading of the Nativity Story!

Cody's favorite gift (well, favorite because he only got two gifts, and the other one was book) was this poster I made for him. It is his pyramid of greatness. I copied the idea from Parks and Rec (the show) but personalized it just for him. He took it to work to hang in his office. He got a good laugh at it. If you want to read the pyramid up close, click here.

My favorite gift, maybe ever in my life, was a Kindle Fire. I love it soooooo much. I had my doubts about whether I could ever betray my love of paper-bound books by going to an e-reader, but the Kindle Fire convinced me. I love being able to get library books just by the click of a button on the computer. LOVE IT!! Plus, I can read it in my bed at night with no lights on. Hot Diggity!

Arise and Shine Forth

I designed this poster to give to the YW for New Beginnings. The theme for the youth this year is "Arise and Shine Forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations".


I thought I would share it here in case anyone else wanted to print it off. I am also going to put one in my girls room because they are lovely words for anyone and everyone.


Just click on the picture and print.

This is an 11 x 14 print.

If you would prefer an 8.5 x 11 print, click here.

Remember, Remember the 23rd of November

Luke turned 2 in November- the day before Thanksgiving to be exact. And since it was the day before Thanksgiving, the day of the ultimate feast, I felt that a simple cake would be somewhat lackluster for his birthday. So we had cinnamon rolls instead. He didn't complain.

He received his first Thomas the train, which was motorized and he was one happy boy. He played with it all night, and slept with the train in his hand for several nights. I haven't ever seen him play with a toy so much. It just must be instinctive in boys to love trains.







Luke is sweet, loving, aggressive, and loud! He loves to yell like he is upset, furrowing one of his eyebrows, but then he tries to hid his smile. He runs, and runs, and runs. He loves hugs and kisses and like to head butt. He is all boy.


He is fascinated with letters. He likes to point them out and name them wherever he sees them. On signs, on posters on the wall, in books. And knows probably about half the alphabet really well. We have little foam letters that are for the bathtub, that he loves to walk around with in his hands, showing them to us repeatedly. That is how he learned his letters so well.

But he doesn't say a whole lot more than that. His vocab is expanding, but much slower than my girls at this point. His favorite word is spider and he says it about 5 billion times a day.

And in case you were wondering just what was up with Luke's hair, Luke's father gave him a faux hawk again. I came home from a mutual activity and there was Luke, with all his cute curls cut off again, and the red-neck haircut in place. Oh well. It's grown out again.


We love Luke so much. He is so much energy, personality, and affection. We know this next year, he will definitely be keeping us on our toes.

Blossoms in Bloom Holiday Sale

If you are looking for some ideas for a handmade Christmas, I will be having my patterns on sale at the shop today through Monday at reduce holiday prices!

Happy Shopping!

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Happy Birthday to my Luke!
He is so full of personality! He likes to run into a room and stand in a martial arts stance, with his legs spread apart. Just because. He loves balls, spiders, trains, and anything else boy. He loves his mommy the most, though, which is just the way it should be! He is also no longer sporting that crop of curly hair. One night several weeks ago, I came home from mutual to find Cody had once again, shaved his head, leaving a short mohawk. I mourned his hair, but left the cut, just so Cody could get it out of his system. Because I love his curly mop too much to have Cody shave it anymore!

We love him so much!

It's Halloween, It's Halloween

". . . the moon is full and bright.

And we shall see what can't be seen on any other night."

Because it is impossible to get a picture of all my kids at once, looking at the camera, smiling, or even just standing next to each other. . .

My two witches!

Luke attracted a lot of attention in his Elvis costume. It was a little too snug on him, which made it all the more cute!

We had a great halloween, with plenty of opportunities to wear costumes and collect candy. Happy Halloween! (I am fully aware that thanksgiving is in four days. How did that happen so fast??)