So I did this little race today...

It was the race that almost didn't happen.

I did not train for this - and I really should have. But life keeps getting in the way and making getting out to run harder and harder to do. I almost skipped it because I knew that I wouldn't do well.

Then, there's the whole Lack Of A Running Vehicle issue. But thanks to a wonderful friend who loaned me her car for the day, I had a way to get there and back. So The Dude spent the night last night and we got up bright and early and loaded Daniel in the car and took off for Wichita.

They watched me start, and then they took off to get some breakfast for themselves. And I ran jogged and walked until I felt like I couldn't go any farther, and then I kept going. It was cold, and breezy, and it drizzled almost the entire time - so it definitely wasn't optimal running conditions. But at the same time, it was better than the thunder, lightning, and torrential downpours that we had last year, and at least it wasn't 95 degrees either. So it definitely could have been worse.

My good luck kiss.

The start - lots of people.

Somewhere around mile 10-12.
I was DYING but I refuse to walk
when I see a camera aimed at me.
I'm weird like that.

"Come at me, goose. I dare you."

I spotted Daniel waving at me from across the river.

OK, so he caught me walking. But - I was tired. LOL

Coming up to the finish.

.....and DONE.

Foil cape on my back, medal in my hand, and an orange
heading for my mouth.

Love the post-race hugs.

Another one to add to the collection.
Although this one is a bit..... festive.

As far as my time went - I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but I did better than I expected for my lack of preparation. I hurt right now, but not as bad as I had thought I would - although it's still early. We'll see how I feel in the morning, because I bet it's not going to be as good as I feel right now.

I know that I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again. I couldn't do these races without the support that I get from The Dude. He's the one who keeps encouraging me and telling me that I can do it, even when I don't want to - and knowing that he's there at the finish line waiting for me makes it all worthwhile. He really didn't feel up to this today - but he went with me and took care of Daniel and took pictures for me and drove me home so that I could regroup - and for that I am forever thankful.

My goofy lunch dates

I've been working on a super-secret craft project and needed to get some more materials for it, so after we took the older kids back to Ex1's house this morning, we made a mad dash to Wichita to hit up the fabric store. Because well, I had coupons. And coupons are good. And they were going to expire.

So I had to go shopping for fabric. I had to.

We found a treasure in Ex1's yard.
(I actually really hate peacocks though.)

Random tree that I've always thought
looked really cool.

After we got done shopping, we were tired and hungry and cranky. So we had to stop to get something to eat. We had to.

Obviously, the food cured the crappy attitudes.

Daniel with "Astronaut Guy" - he was found at the bottom of a
swimming pool in Knoxville, TN on TMOART:12. And he's
still the toy of choice.

Alex was allowed to hold Astronaut Guy for one picture.
But only one.

That was apparently some really good ketchup.

Shopping. It wears them out.

Fun, in spite of it all.

The Dude and I got to spend most of yesterday together. We're going through some rough stuff right now but in spite of it all we had such a good time together. I promised to talk about some of those - and I need to offset some of the blah that I'm feeling right now anyway.

You might remember when the universe decided to chuck a rock at my windshield. As it turns out, my insurance does NOT cover windshield damage. But, they referred me to a guy who would still fix it for no charge. So I called the guy and scheduled the appointment, and sure enough he does it for free. Can't beat that.

So we drove to Wichita, dropped off the van, and walked to a nearby Chinese restaurant for lunch. I very rarely eat Chinese food - ever since the time that I rang in the New Year by hugging the toilet for about 8 hours after eating some of it. *shudder* But, it was nearby and it was cold, so we didn't want to walk  much farther than that.

The Dude is the King of the Claw Machine - he can't walk past one of those things without putting a couple of quarters into it, and more often than not he walks away with something. I went into the restroom before we left the restaurant, and he handed me this little guy when I walked back out of the door.

While we were in town, we also took both of my sewing machines in to the repair shop. My "new" one just needs to be serviced and adjusted (gee, I wonder why....) and my "old" one needed to be fixed. I had gotten it serviced about a month or so ago, and then just a few days later the tension knob just broke off of it - or so I thought.

We walked into the shop carrying both machines and the repair guy and I were talking about quilting machines and quilt shows as he wrote up my ticket, and I showed him my broken tension knob. He said, "oh, that's not broken!" and started tinkering with it while we talked. After about 10 minutes, he had it reassembled and handed it back to me - at no charge. So instead of being without both of my machines, I'm only missing one of them and I only have to pay to get that one fixed. Score!

From the You Gotta' Love Wichita files.....

I think someone needs to loose their ad agency. Or the ad agency
needs to loose their proofreader.

Thank you so much, local businesses, for clearing your parking lots.
How about doing the same for your sidewalks? I really didn't
appreciate having to climb over 2' high piles of snow to get to where
I needed to go. 

I'm still always amazed at how he and I can have such a good time doing even the most mundane stuff. But from what I understand, that's what relationships are supposed to be like so I shouldn't complain. There are some other stories that I could tell about yesterday - but some of them I am going to keep to myself. I need to be able to have some blackmail material just in case the need ever arises.

Tomorrow's agenda: church. oil change. laundry. cleaning.

Excitement. It never stops.

Our day in pictures

Town is pretty deserted at 5:45am
I'm still trying to figure out how *I* got roped into getting up that early to
take Sarah to Ex1's church for a youth group thing.

Yeah. It was that early.

But there was a prize involved. 

My van is really starting to irritate me.

The boys and I went into Wichita to run a
whole bunch of errands.

Even the pigeons were enjoying the beautiful weather.

Yep, that's the river. Or, what's left of it. Hard to believe that it was full
and frozen when I did the Valentine's Day run.

Downtown Wichita

This was after 4 or 5 of the errands.

Backseat driver.

That's a mighty big...
...rooster.

Lunch

It's so hard to get a decent picture of this kid. But I need
to frame this one.

Dessert

We had some time to kill, so we went
to a park.

They had a blast.

....and there were tons of kids there to play with.

Fall is officially here.

On our way home after about 6 hours of running around.
This would be right before we had to pull over because
Daniel thought he was going to puke.

Once he decided he wasn't going to puke, he felt like he had to poop.
And we got stuck.

Still holding onto the barf bag, just in case.

So, it was a long day, but we got so much accomplished. We dropped off some donations, delivered some Halloween bags that I had made and sold, dropped off one of my sewing machines to be serviced/repaired, went to lunch and the park, returned the sewing machine that I borrowed, picked up some hand-me-down clothes from a friend.....

....and we came home exhausted. I sat down on the couch to relax and woke up almost 3 hours later. The boys were just watching movies the whole time, so after I got up we made some sandwiches and they got ready for bed. Daniel is now curled up in mine and Alex is watching another movie - but they're both going to be going to bed shortly.

Tomorrow, Alex is supposed to be going with his father for the day, and Daniel and I will go to church and then just hang out and relax for the day. If the weather is still good, maybe we'll go to a park again. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Poo. I still need to unload the box and bags of clothes from the van. I should go do that....

Inspiration from Losers

What an evening!!!

Anyone who knows me well knows that there are only 2 television shows that I will absolutely go out of my way to watch. Two. That's it.

One is "Parenthood" - and since that just started up again this week, I am happy.

The other one...probably my all-time favorite....is "The Biggest Loser". I haven't watched it from the beginning, but I've watched probably the last 5-6 seasons - and I love it. I love the contestants (most of them anyway) and I love to watch how they learn to take control of their lives and turn themselves around and become healthy.

I have to admit, some of those contestants have been huge inspirations to me. HUGE.

So when I saw the opportunity to meet a couple of them, I jumped at it! Ken and Austin Andrews are a father and son duo from Pasadena, CA and they were in Wichita. They did a speaking engagement last night (which I couldn't go to because of volleyball), but tonight they were having an open workout type thing at one of the Ys in Wichita. So after Alex's father picked him up, the other 4 kids and I headed into the city.

We were actually the first ones there, and when Austin walked in, he came over and visited with us. He was a great guy to talk to and didn't make me feel nervous or anything. We talked about the kids, who were running around like maniacs in the gym, and I told him about my hip replacement and the races that I've done since then. Other people started to arrive, and then Austin and Ken spoke.

They talked about the importance of family on different levels, but especially about how parents need to reinforce healthy habits for kids. If the kids see their parents being healthy, they will imitate that - but on the flip side, if the parent sits around on the computer all of the time, the kids will start to mimic that as well.

The next thing I knew, Austin came over to where we were sitting and asked Emily to stand up.

He asked her how she felt about me running in all of those races after I had my surgery and she looked over at me and told him that she was proud of me. I couldn't help it - I had tears running down my face (and I might have some tears now).

I never really thought about it before. I was doing the races for me, to prove something to myself, but I never really realized that it would have a positive impact on my kids. Sure, the girls and I have done some races together, but for whatever reason...it just didn't hit me.

Then, there was the workout. It was led by this skinny little thing who was apparently hired to torture poor unsuspecting fools like myself. You know, the ones who were stupid enough to wear long sleeves and sweatpants instead of shorts and a tank top because it was just a tiny bit chilly outside. Idiot.

And of course, the dorky star-struck fan photo op:

Yeah, we had all just worked out. I worked out in the same group with Ken and Austin Andrews.

How cool is that?

I think I might have missed a couple...