Shhh...It's A Secret

I really love my blog. It is my little space where I can write about whatever is rolling around in my head that day and not feel bad about it.

This post has been randomly popping up in my head for oh about 11 months now. Each time I'd consider writing it I'd decide that it was not a PC topic to discuss on the blog.

Why? I have no idea.

This weekend at the pool, the topic actually came up amongst real people. It caught me off guard but I finally said it.

I said that I do not think having a kid is hard. GASP! I am still surprised I was not tossed in the pool by all of the other parents within earshot of the conversation.

Then today I read this article. It actually made me mad. The next to last paragraph about being real was what got me. It kind of insinuates that everyone is supposed to walk around saying that being a parent is the hardest thing they have ever done.

We are only 11 months into this gig but we both agree that so far...it isn't.

Do I count my blessings every day that it isn't? Sure do.

We were warned by everyone we came across before Lauren arrived about this and that plus how miserable it was going to be, blah, blah, blah. None of that has come true.

Stepping off my soapbox now but really for anyone else reading this who feels like they can't admit it isn't hard to them.....go ahead and say it. It is fun!

1/2 Marathon Training Week 3 = FAIL

Bum knee :(

Ever since my 7 mile run a couple of weeks ago something has been off. My knee just does not feel stable although it also does not hurt. The run went well so I have no idea how or why this is happening.

I'm giving it some additional time to rest in addition to having an appointment with an ortho soon if I am not seeing any progress.

The good news is I still feel like I'll be more than prepared for Savannah. The bad news is I'm ready to be back out there running. It is making me crazy!

11 Months

11 Months and 1 hour ago this happy little girl was born.

Now she can push her toys up and down the driveway as if she has places to go. No time to stop and visit with the rest of us as we watch her move to her next destination.

She also points at things. In this picture, she is pointing at Tonka. Please note, she is pointing with her middle finger. She uses her middle finger to point almost 100% of the time. It is hysterical. I'd say she is definitely her father's child.

On the rare occasion that she is not pointing at Tonka with her middle finger, she wants us to know that next time I post about her she will be ONE!


The invitations are ordered. We have the location reserved. A lot of the details are in the works.

It has been an amazing 11 months. We can't wait to celebrate it in grand fashion next month!

Happy 11 Months Baby Girl!

Destruction

The pictures in the post below were taken in the same place as the picture posted above. It makes my stomach turn and brings tears to my eyes.

It looks like a war zone.

This is the road that runs through the North Carolina Outer Banks. The same road that took us to beautiful Hatteras Village for our vacation 2 weeks ago.

Hatteras Village is currently not accessible by car due to this happening in several places along the route.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of those touched by Irene.

Beach Bums 2011

Ahhhh, sunrise at the beach. Glorious.

This was the house next door. I really enjoyed watching the wildlife each morning from the deck overlooking the sound.

We alternated our days between laying on the beach and parking it on the sound. This particular picture was taken one day as we relaxed on the sound side of the island. It was really neat to watch the ferries and boats go back and forth through the channel.


Lauren really enjoyed eating the sand.

There were hundreds of these hermit crabs on the shoreline. We also dug for clams and got chased by blue crabs as we waded out into the water each day. The water was so very clear. It was beautiful!

This was our friend's son fishing off our pier. We never caught anything because something kept eating our bait along with the hooks. The good news is we weren't fishing for our dinner so we didn't starve.

Here they are reeling one in...not so much.

The days we were not visiting the sound side we spent our days on the beach. Lauren really loved the water! This was an impromptu visit to the beach the night we arrived to release some energy from our 5 hour drive.

Strange dude we found at the beach.....

This little boy loves the water! He played from sun up to sun down every day. It was so fun to watch.

We climbed the tallest lighthouse in North America.

Good Friends!



And then went to dinner where apparently the smartest person in the world had docked their boat. Go Pirates!



And then watched the sun set on wonderful vacation as someone celebrated marrying the love of their life.

Until next year.......

10 Months Old

Lauren saying hello to the paparazzi while vacationing on the beaches on NC.

This post is about 3 weeks behind, but I wanted to get it up before she turns 11 months old next week.

Just a few short days after she turned 10 months old, we headed to quite possibly the end of the earth where we found the NC Outer Banks.

It was a very fun trip!

Lauren got to experience the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. She also learned how to wave bye bye as you can see above.

Sooo cute!

Once we returned from the beach, we asked daycare to start offering her lunch with the other kids. We fought this battle with baby food and now are doing the same with solids. She just takes a bit to get used to new stages when it comes to food.

The good news is that we are seeing improvement already. Hopefully soon, she will be eating everything we eat during meals.

Other than that she is still the most chill baby. Each day, she gets more and more mobile much to Tonka's dismay.

Finally, I remember in my first few posts I said that I better get to planning her first birthday party because time was flying.

She turns 1 NEXT month!

How is that even possible?!?

1/2 Marathon Training Week 2

Week 2 is in the books!

It actually went fairly well, except for that fact that I am still having difficulty getting my cross training workouts in each week.

This was how my week was supposed to look plus how it actually looked:

Monday ~ Calendar: 30-45 minute cross train. Reality: Rest.

Tuesday ~ Calendar: 2 miles. Reality: 2.1 miles on the dread mill.

Wednesday ~ Calendar: 3 miles Reality: 3 miles through my neighborhood.

Thursday ~ Calendar: 30-45 minute cross train. Reality: Rest.

Friday ~ Calendar: Rest Reality: Rest.

Saturday~ Calendar: 5 miles Reality: 7 miles. Yay!

Sunday~ 1-2 miles or Rest. Reality: Rest.

Week 2 = Success!

My goal for Week 3 is to do my cross training.

Crawling Towards One!

This weekend is rather uneventful for us, so I am working on preparing for a very special little girl to turn ONE!

Incidently, we received the disc of her newborn pictures this week.

Our photographer was running a special on the disc of all of the images, so we went and bought it so we would have them down the road.

Until now, all we had was one print that is still not framed. It is on my to do list :(

But how tiny and sweet was she?!?

Almost one already. Wow!

Time flies.

Miles for Matthew

Next month, I will be running for Matthew. This month, I'm twisting the arms of all my friends and family to get them to join me and run/walk for him as well.

You can read all about him and his family here.

His mom and I are both members of JLG but that is not how his story entered my life. It all goes back to when I was about 16 weeks pregnant with MG on Valentine's Day.

The husband and I attended a benefit dinner to raise money for PPMD, which is the same organization for which the race raises money each year.

We did not know at that dinner that we would go on to lose our first child. His story entered my life again, when I decided to run the 1st Annual Imagine How 10k just 12 weeks after she was born.

Ever since then, I have watched his mom far afar raise money in every way possible that all goes to fund research for her son's condition. It has been amazingly inspiring to watch!

This year my goal is to get as many people as I can to participate with our team so that we can contribute to the cause as well!

So if you are local, then join our team!

1/2 Marathon Training Week 1

Last time I ran a 1/2 this blog did not exist. Also, at the time I just kind of said I'm going to run this race and did it.

My training was all done in a group setting so I pretty much just did what the other ladies in the group did to train. It worked well but I think while I may have been physically prepared, mentally I had no idea what to expect.

Over 4 years later, I am more educated on running etc. although I'm far from an expert. I'll leave that to everyone else.

Since I do not plan on this being my last half, I am going to document my training here so I can look back at it next time. Hopefully next time is less than 4 years from now!

My first week of training officially started this past week while I was on vacation. Good timing huh?

I ran with it and got all of my workouts in (sort of). My runs got completed but cross training was a termed I used loosely since we were on vacation.

This was how my week was supposed to look plus how it actually looked:

Monday ~ Calendar: 30-45 minute cross train. Reality: Walking through the water of the sound and attempting to dig for clams.

I told you the cross training was a term I used loosely this week :)

Tuesday ~ Calendar: 2 miles. Reality: 2.8 miles. Good job!

Wednesday ~ Calendar: 2 miles Reality: A busy day of being tourist plus a 50 minute massage. That has to count for something!

Thursday ~ Calendar: 30-45 minute cross train. Reality: Spent the day at the beach. Did spend quite a bit of time in the water jumping waves. Climbed the tallest lighthouse in North America.

Friday ~ Calendar: Rest Reality: 3 miles. Good job!

Saturday: Calendar: 6 miles Reality: 9 hours in the car. Fail.

Sunday: 1-2 miles or Rest. Reality: 5 miles in hot sun at 2pm. My body felt great the entire run but the sun started baking me at mile 5 so I headed home. I'm actually really proud of my run though because it was the middle of the day and I never run during the day.

All in all a pretty good week! The plan was not followed exactly but I felt like I moved my body quite a bit each day as well as completing my runs. Week 1 = Success!

Are We Headed Back

to here?

Today was spent watching the stock market plunge 512 points. Ouch. It kind of felt like watching money be flushed down the toilet.

One has to wonder if we are headed back to 7,500 or if this is a temporary correction. We will just have to wait and see.

The closing number today was 11,383.68.

I can't wait to look back at this post this time next year to see which way it goes.