Can it really be 7 years already?

Monday, June 14th.

June 14th always brings several emotions my way! Today is the anniversary of buying our house and moving to Harvard, Illinois. Seven years ago today, we left the great Hawkeye state and ventured out on our own for the first time. I was so excited to be a homeowner, so sad to be pregnant and so far away from my family, nervous to be studying for the bar exam, scared to death that I would not pass. I am sure I could go on and on with the raw emotions I felt on that hot June day.

Looking back, I am so glad that we moved to Harvard. Yes, you read that correctly:) Over the past 7 years, I have been blessed to have met so many great people; people I now call my best friends. After successfully passing the bar exam, I took a great job, which has been such a blessing in my life as well. Looking back, I would not have expected all that I have achieved in 7 years. My babies have grown up here, and truly love Harvard as well!

This June 14th is also pretty important because it marks the first day of my 18 week marathon training plan. If I run every mile of the plan I will run 591.2 miles by October 17, 2010. The plan also includes cross training every Monday. I think I will do the bike at the gym tonight. I set up a training log notebook last night to hopefully do a better job of tracking my runs during this training session. I am also trying to train for the 3 Day walk. I got up at 5:00 this morning, and walked a little over 4 miles before work today. My plan is to keep walking in the morning, and do the marathon training plan in the evening. I will try to update once a week with how its going. I am really excited for this marathon because so many of my family members have committed to this race. Both my brothers, Jasen and Trent, have started training for the full marathon as well. One of the groomsmen in our wedding, Tim, is also running the full with us! I am praying for my friend, Beth, to be able to join us for the full as well. Beth and I shared our first full marathon experience together in Kenosha, and I would LOVE to have her there in Des Moines as well! Also joining us in Des Moines is Dani and Justy! I was supposed to run my first full marathon with Justy in Hawaii, but due to injuries, I only did the half. Dani has done 2 halves and is ready to try for the full! It will be so cool to have so many people I know on the course! My sister Nitasha and her husband Ryan, as well as my sister-in-law Amy, are all planning on doing the half marathon! I can't wait to have all my friends and family there; it should be a great experience!

3 DAYS - 60 MILES!

Do you like the new Widget at the top of my blog? In 8 short weeks, I will once again walk 60 miles in 3 days in the Susan G. Komen for the Cure in Chicago! I am still trying to raise the required $2,300, and thought I would share with you about 2 big fundraisers! The first is a garage sale tomorrow from 8-3 at 1004 Dewey Street! We have a ton of kids and baby stuff, adult clothes, toys, shoes, books! Come out and help us meet our goals!

The second is going to be SO fun! We are having a bowling and bags fundraiser at Westlane Bowl in Crystal Lake on Saturday, June 26th beginning at 3 p.m. The cost is $15.00 per bowler, which includes 2 games of bowling and shoes, or $15.00 per bags player! There will be cash prizes for the bags tournament. We have a lot of fun games planned throughout the evening. Jeff Overlee will be DJing the event! If you haven't been to an event with Jeff before, he is so fun and has GREAT music! There will also be a silent auction, some door prizes and raffle prizes! Come out and support me and my team!

1/2 Day Fridays

For the first time in a while, the girls rode with me on my way to work this morning. We sang, we laughed, and just remembered some of my favorite moments during their first 6 and 8 years. Then Chad got in the car and we tried to get him involved! He pretty much just laughed at us! A few minutes later I got out of the car and walked into work with tears in my eyes! I love them so much! I am so proud to be their Mom. It's been hard for me to come to work the past 2 weeks, because they are home enjoying summer. I feel like I am missing out on so much with them, while I am at work. I love my job, and love what I do, but I sometimes wish I could just be home a little more with them! Chad has been working more and more from home, so they have spent a lot of time with him, and I know they are in good hands with Dani, but I just miss them so much! One of our conversations today centered around the fact that our neighbor has 1/2 day Fridays during the summer. It went like this:

Me: "I wish I could have 1/2 day Fridays!"
Haley: "You should tell your boss that you want 1/2 day Fridays just for the summer, Mom."
Me: "I don't think my boss would go for that, because he wants me to work more hours so I can make more money." [Yes, I was trying to explain the billable hour to my 6 and 8 year old]
Olivia: "Well, Mom, someday, you'll be the boss, and then you can have 1/2 day Fridays whenever you want."
Me: "I like the way you think, Liv!"

While I am missing my kids from work today, I am dreaming about the days when I can have 1/2 day Fridays!

Running and Life

Running, one might say, is basically an absurd pastime upon which to be exhausting ourselves. But if you can find meaning in the type of running you need to do ... chances are you'll be able to find meaning in that other absurd past time .... LIFE.

- Bill Bowerman

The End. . . It's Just Another Beginning

Today is the last day of school in Harvard. Or, using Olivia's lingo, "the last 2 hours of school." The girls are ready for summer! They are looking forward to the pool, softball, and spending time with their friends. I long for the days when I could spend the entire day outside without a care in the world. While today is the end of my time as a mom of a 1st and 2nd grader, it is the beginning of fun in the sun for them. For the past two years on the last day of school, I was a mess. I cried so hard two years ago, as I simply could not believe that my first born beautiful little girl had finished kindergarten. Once again I cried so hard last year, as I realized that I would never have a kindergartner again. Today was different. I didn't cry, but I smiled as I looked at how much my babies have grown and changed during this school year. My normally quiet, studious Olivia has blossomed into quite the little jokester. The entire time we took pictures on the porch this morning, she kept asking to just do a funny one! Of course, as you can see I did let her do a funny one. Haley did not know what to do for her funny one, so we call this her "Sponge Bob Face". My little Haley, who could not stand school last year and just wanted it to be over, can't stop talking about Mr. Beesley and Ms. LaSota. She has learned to love school and all that it entails. They both are good readers, good friends, and make me so proud!

I love you girls! In just 15 minutes, I will officially have a daughter in 2nd grade and a daughter in 3rd grade. On September 1st, when they go back to school, for the first time since they went to day care, they will be entering school in the same building. I cannot wait to see how they interact when they go to school together! Cheers to the beginning of summer, my little princess and pumpkin!

Proud Mamma!

I know many parents hate this time of year because their kids are involved in so many activities it seems like we are always running from here to there. I on the otherhand, love it! I love to watch my kids in all their activities! I am so proud of all they have accomplished! Here is a short recap:

Last week, Haley was "Little Miss Muffet" in the Jefferson School first grade musical. It was the perfect part for her. She loved it! I wish I had a photo to share, but Olivia was in charge of the still photos. She instead used her camera to shoot a video every time Haley spoke. Chad videotaped the entire performance, which was very cute. However, I am SURE (unless you are grandma or grandpa) you do not want to watch 35 minutes, so I will not post it. I often wonder what Haley's nitch will be, and acting just may be it!

Haley has also started softball again, and is really liking it. I am helping coach her team this year, but haven't made it to a practice yet. I am going to try to make it Thursday, and will hopefully have some pictures to post after that!

On Sunday, Olivia had her final regular gymnastics meet for the season. She still has the State meet on June 5th. She was so proud because her Mimi and Papa were there along with her cousins and uncle Jason (and of course Mom, Dad, Haley and my friend Sara but we are the regular attendees:) She did really well scoring a 9.5 on her floor exercise. She placed first in her division. Here are a couple photos from the meet.

Also on the proud mamma note, Olivia scored the highest in her standardized reading test for her entire grade! She loves to read even more than I do I think!

I know its not nice to brag, but I had to just this once:)

I conquered 26.2

My legs are a little stiff today, but there is a smile on my face! Just over 24 hours ago I conquered one of the biggest feats I have ever attempted - a full marathon, 26.2 miles.

The morning of the race, I was up early, and ready to roll. Traffic getting to the race was a little delayed, and we were detoured around a crime scene. I was getting nervous that we weren't going to make it. Due to my parking in an illegal parking spot in the police department lot, we made it to gear check, the port-o-pottie, and the start line just in time.

Beth and I had talked about trying to stay at a 10 minute mile pace for the first 10 miles. And that is just what we did. I felt really good going along. At mile 6 I grabbed some of my power jelly beans and kept moving. Between mile 10 and 11, I saw my awesome family! Check out the girls' shirts! I was so happy to see them, and kept moving.

My best friend, Rebecca and her family came too. Apparently, they saw me at mile 11, because she took this great picture, but I missed them.

At mile 11.5 we broke off from the half-marathoners. Beth and I were walking through the water station, when another marathoner said to us, "this is where is gets lonely girls." Great, buddy thanks for the encouragement. He then told us this was his 9th marathon, and he knew we could do it. That's more like it.

I was feeling pretty good, until between 14-15 when I got the worst IT band pain down my entire right leg. I stopped and used a tree, and laid down in someone's first yard to stretch. Beth and I had a nice laugh about that point, because I said, "We didn't come here to walk," to which she replied, "well I came to walk a little bit." So we did walk a little bit after that. We ran through gravel for a while, and I got a small pebble in my shoe, which eventually led to a large blister right on the bottom of my foot. That irriatated me a little bit!

Just after mile 23, when we had only a 5K left, our family and friends were there again. My girls ran a little bit with me, and enocuraged me.

Beth and I stayed together until about mile 24. I then felt so sore that I just wanted to kick it up and finish. I was only a little ahead of her, but I knew she would finish, and I would see her at the finish line.

Right before the last corner and the finish line, all my family and friends were there again! I was so thrilled to be done. I was a little disappointed with my finish time of 5:11:46, but only because my Garmin said 4:59:35. I forgot that it stops everytime I stop. (So I guess we stopped for about 10 minutes along the course.)

Here is one last picture....
I could not have done this marathon without him. He was there for me for the past 16weeks of training, whether it was watching the girls while I was out on long runs, or rubbing my back and legs after the runs. As soon as I saw him I got so teary-eyed. He is awesome.

One last shout-out - thanks to Rebecca for the awesome pictures. Chad is not a great photographer, so I am glad you were there!