Halloween half marathon

My family was so awesome to drive 45 minutes out to see me cross the finish line today! It was the Silver Comet half marathon, and I ran my fastest ever! I've now run 4 and my times went, 2:28, 2:25, 2:15 and today was 2:03! I was so close to breaking the 2 hour mark that I'm a little sad, but mostly pumped to do it again! My training went so great this time, that even with my back injury a few weeks ago, I feel great! A friend from church found me at mile 4 and we ran the whole thing together, she definalty pushed me and the Garmin watch was priceless! I set my goal time and it kept me in line! After Kirk was so nice to rollar my legs while I stood there and shook! lol what a guy! It was a huge bummer to have Mom injured and not able to run, but boy was it nice to have someone there who has felt the pain and knew just what I needed! the shirt and medal are awesome, it's a spider and the shirt says "Use your legs" I love it!

Halloween

As you can see Elle took the pumpkin carving very serious! She drew hers out on paper complete with measurements! AJ carved his to say "No candy for you" which was very impressive carving skills. Elle really wanted to be the Corpse Bride, the makeup looked much better in person, you can hardly see the cool eyebrows I did and lovely blue shading :) AJ really wanted to be a banana, although he had hoped to have a whole body covering banana costume. I went in my race shirt and medal and the boys went as teenagers, which wasn't a huge stretch!

Another trip to the ER

OK I know this looks gross. I came home from running right when the kids were running for the bus so I waved good bye and went inside. I had the feeling I should grab a quick protein shake but I thought no I want to plug my watch into the computer first and see my time. Less then 2 minutes late Connor and AJ come back in the house. AJ is sobbing, his knee is pumping out blood and from what I can see it's too deep and wide for any bandaid I have. SO I carry him out to the car with Connor helping and we drive to the ER. I should have dropped Connor at school but AJ is freaking out and I hate to make him wait. The hospital staff at the Emory Johns Creek is so nice, I should know, I was just there last THursday as well. The nurse looks at his knee and suggests staples which really freaked AJ out. She explained he will have better range of movement with a staple vs stitches. I told them he's a gymnast so movement is important. While waiting I asked him how it happened and he said he was walking toward the bus when he slid on a wet stick in the wet grass then fell and hit his knee on the curb. He says he looked down and saw the hole and immediately started digging in the grass looking for the skin he thought must have come off!! Poor kid!! I got to help hold the knee while it numbed. He would laugh hysterically then act amazed. He watched while the DR stretched it around to see exactly what happened. He completely freaked out when he saw the stapler so I held his hands, but once she did he it he thought it was great how fast it went! But he had trouble bending, so she removed the staple, which again freaked him out, but he watched her put in the next one! We then took Connor to school, he was not happy and they aren't sure they can excuse his tardy... whatever. Now AJ is home with me. The excuse from the hospital says he can't go to school tomorrow, is that weird? But because it says that the school won't let him come!! CRAZY! Don't you love his pose? Isn't he the cutest ever??

Inspiration on the move

While running today, my friend and I were discussing a common subject, my oldest son. I mentioned that in stake conference yesterday I looked over at him and I had a overwhelming feeling of how great he either could or will be. I seemed to feel his potential and it was such a great feeling. Then I was flipping through the Ensign during a long wordy talk and I happened to read about the Brother of Jared. I read about how he wasn't told what to do, he went and melted rocks. He went and did hard sweaty labor and then the Lord blessed his efforts. Today both those thoughts came together in my head while talking. Thats what parenting is. I haven't gotten any ground breaking revelations on how to raise my son. But I've been told to go raise him, I have basic knowledge, then I am supposed to go and do the back breaking, sweaty, intense labor of raising him, and the Lord will touch him and he will glow.

All this came together for me today ay mile 5. This is why I run. :)

Is he 2 or 16?

Matt sure is getting a lot of attention this week. I've told him maybe we need to see a counselor to figure out if he's just trying for negative attention. Surely he knows we love him! As I was leaving work today I got a call from the school nurse, that Matt, my almost 16 year old son Matt, had swallowed a guitar pick at school. She said he could breathe but he was having trouble breathing and seemed to be in a lot of pain. So I ran home got Elle off the bus called my person, who is Mom my resident nurse. The poor school nurse was so worried I took him right to the ER. needless to even say almost everyone there looked at us like total loosers. Me for bringing him without seeing if he could swallow anything more than water and him for swallowing a guitar pick. They did a x-ray even knowing they probably were't going to be able to see a plastic pick! Anyway then they brought him a turkey sandwich which he ate as if he hadn't eaten all day. It went down fine so they sent him home with orders to "poop in a bag and search the poop for the pick for a few days". Great. It's a good thing so some friends organized a girl thing tonight because I need it in a bad way!!

Thank you to my oldest son

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my eldest son Matt, for making me learn to do hard things. I would like to thank him for continuing to help Heavenly Father to teach me patience, by never choosing the obviously easier way. I would like to thank him for helping me run faster as I imagine pounding my feet into his silly notions... you thought I would say face didn't you. I would like to thank him for noticing and telling me when I need to wax my upper lip. I would like to thank him for pointing out that apparently my big hoop earrings are "slutty". I would like to thank him for helping me to know all the music I don't like by playing it in my car. And I would like to thank my family for rallying around me and sharing their stories and love.

And I ask again.... we shouted for joy for this plan???? Jk of course, hurrah for free agency. hip hip... hurrah.

Success

I shoulda wrote this post on Saturday when I was in the middle of my runners high! Well I still kinda am, but it's not as cool. I ran 14 miles on Saturday for the first time ever! I was super nervous but I didn't talk to anybody about it, I kinda needed to hold it inside until I was successful. Well my running buddy knew and one friend who got me some new GU type packets to try lime key lime and something kona, not bad but super sweet. The greenway that I run it exactly 7 miles long, and I've always wanted to run the whole thing, so i was really excited to get to the other side! And what does the other side have?? A bathroom, with automatic flushing toilets, running water and soap! Do you know how many trees I've had to stop behind? Let not mention them! Our side of the greenway has a porta-potty that I have yet to use! Anyway it was a wonderful pitstop before running back the other way! Not only did I run my first ever 14, but I ran it in my fastest time ever!! Can I tell you how double excited I was?? I don't think so. I walked around all day wishing I had a button on my shirt that said "yes, I did run 14 miles today, thank you for asking" not that anyone asked but they shoulda! Couldn't they see my post run glow??

Meanwhile todays 6 mile run, was stinky. We ran super fast and then I didn't have time to stretch so my legs felt like rubber all day. but I re-learned that I can do hard things and I don't quit!

More running mishaps

When I'm running my long runs I want to have everyone have a bubble over their head like a cartoon that says how many miles they are running and if they are training, for what race. Maybe thats because as I pass all these fresh runners and they see my dragging my butt they would see how many miles I logged and I could feel better. I have always wanted someone to ask how far I'm running so I could say something cool. Well it finally happened this weekend, my friend and I passed these 2 women and I hate to be rude so I said hi as we passed and commented on how nice it was the sun finally came up and they agreed and they asked how far we were running, feeling super cool I said 12, how far are you running? 20. What could I say to that, oh wow thats a lot of miles and then keep running by. Someone finally asked how far I was going and they were going almost double!!! thats so not fair! Oh course I could hear them complaining how fast we passed them as we left so that made me feel a little better. Some people run by me like I'm standing still and it drives me nuts! Once in awhile it's nice to be the fast one.

On that note, I totally tripped again today. LAst time as you may recall I tripped but caught myself on my toe, causing that toe to rip and and turn black and blue, well this time I didn't catch my toe so all 10 are ok. The bad news is that means I didn't catch myself which means I flew through the air like super man with arms extended and then slid several feet on the boardwalk. My friend said I looked like I was trying to steal a base I slid so far. I just laid there and hurt, maybe said a few words... then got up and kept running or I may not have been able to if my body cooled down. I put holes through both sleeves on the palms of my hands, glad it wasn't my skin. Did take skin of my elbow and it looks like I have 2 elbows and I'm expected a very colorful bruise on my thigh and hip. What is wrong with me? I'm starting to think something is wrong with my feet. I have to consciously keep track of how I'm lifting them! Maybe I should take a running posture class! Or have my feet shortened... is that possible??