Awesomeness. Lots of it.

The past few days have been crazy insane, but in such a good way.

I went to Oklahoma City and ran a (slightly more than) 5K leg of the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon on Sunday. It was an amazing experience. The marathon itself is a fundraiser for the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum that honors the victims of the bombing there 20 years ago. With over 25,000 runners, this was by far the biggest race that I've ever participated in, and it was incredible.

 I ran faster than I've ever run before, and amazed myself with what I accomplished that day. I ended my leg of the run with a smile on my face, and didn't stop smiling for the rest of the day.

But more on that later....

I got a ton of stuff done outside today. I mowed the grass (always a huge job), finished weeding the huge front flower bed, got some more flowers planted, watered stuff, got some more seedlings transferred out to the garden (hopefully these actually, you know, survive), planted some more flowers, watered stuff....you get the idea.

Baseball season officially started tonight for Daniel. We rode our bikes up to the practice field and on our way back, we got to see some wildlife that we don't get to see very often - at least not sitting still.

But probably the best part of the last few days....

Remember that memorial quilt that I was working on? It was for my friend's mother-in-law, whose husband passed away in January. I was given a bunch of his work shirts and pants to use to make a quilt. My friend gave me a basic pattern idea, we talked about various details, but for the most part I designed it as I went along. I was terrified that the mother-in-law wasn't going to like it.

After we got done running the race in OKC, my team and I went out to eat. We were sitting in the rocking chairs in front of a Cracker Barrel, waiting for our table, and I scrolled through my facebook newsfeed. There I saw it - my friend's post with pictures of her mother-in-law seeing the quilt for the first time. It was all I could do not to burst into tears right then and there.

Right there. It just doesn't get any better than that.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I know I've been nagging on my facebook page, but I'm going to do it here too just in case you missed it. This coming Saturday is the Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis. I am participating in that to raise money for research for a cure for this horrible disease that directly affects our family. If you would like to make a contribution, you can do that here.

But wait! There's more!

In order to encourage people to donate, I've agreed to do a couple of things.

For $1000, I will dye my hair purple (not the wash-out kind, either) AND I will get rid of my ugly rainbow-colored crocs that everyone loves to hate.

Seriously though - please help if you can. It would mean so much to me.

Flight 93 National Memorial (TMOART:12)

One of our stops on vacation was at the Flight 93 National Memorial outside of Shenksville, PA. We hadn't planned on stopping there initially, but we realized how close we were after we missed an exit on the turnpike and saw signs for it. So on our way back west, we took the side trip to go see it.

It is in a gorgeous setting, and the memorial itself is simple and beautiful. I'm not exactly sure when it was built, but there were signs indicating that they are still working on it, and are looking to expand it a bit more. Trees are being planted around the area as well.

There was a place where visitors could leave notes.

And there were places along the wall where mementos could be left.

40 slabs of marble, each engraved with the name of a victim.

It's hard to see it, but after her name it says "and unborn child".

The boulder marks the location of the crash site.

The boulder as seen through the gate at the end of the wall.

The wall follows the plane's final flight path - the crash site is beyond the wooden gate. The site itself is closed to the public - only family members of the victims are allowed to go out there.

Wildflowers growing behind the wall

I am so glad that we got the chance to stop here. We see so much on the news about the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but just not a whole lot about Flight 93. I learned quite a bit about it that I didn't know before, and although the kids didn't totally understand it, they will always remember being there.

Seeing the signs of renewal and reforestation on the landscape along with the symbols of hope left by visitors just reaffirmed in my mind that no matter how horrible a situation appears, something good can come out of it. It might not happen overnight, but it will eventually happen - if we are patient.

Daniel and The Dude - checking everything out together. Probably one of my favorite pictures from the entire trip.