Leaving On a Jet Plane

We head to Chicago tonight and fly out for San Diego tomorrow morning! :) Tomorrow night, we'll have dinner with a friend of mine. I've never met her in person, but she's part of my online support group. It should be fun!

Friday or Saturday, we'll go to the Expo to check out all the cool running gear and pick up our race packets. Then Sunday is race day--starting time is 6:30, although we're pretty far back in the pack and probably won't cross the starting line until closer to 7:00. Live results can be viewed here if you're interested, although in Illinois it'll be church time. I don't know if I'll be able to update while there, but as soon as I get home I'll let you know all the details.

Thanks for all the prayers this week and weekend--it means a lot to both of us.

Prayer warriors needed! UPDATE

Okay, I know this isn't a huge tragedy and there are many better causes, but a whispered prayer or two would be appreciated. I have (I think) a very painful cyst on my left ovary. It's been so bad the last few days that I can barely walk let alone run. And the race is this Sunday! I hate to think of missing it, especially after 16 weeks of training. So I'll be praying that this thing shrinks, pops, or at least goes dormant within the next few days so I can be back to normal by the weekend. Thanks!

ETA: A few hours after I posted this, the cyst popped. Not pleasant, but within an hour I was feeling so much better. Today I'm just a little sore and achy, but planning to get my run in tonight (or at least a walk). Thanks so much--prayers really do work wonders!

Supermom Saving Babies

This is an amazing story.

Dress Up

"I am a beautiful bride, and I'm off to marry my prince!"
























"I pretty!"

Milestones

I've been running for fifteen weeks. As of yesterday, I have lost thirteen pounds and six inches. Tomorrow, I will reach 200 miles. In twelve days, I will run my race. It's hard to believe sometimes.

Update on I Love You: Last night as we put Sweetie to bed, Papa Runner said, "Ni-night, Sweetie, I love you." She gave him a big smile and said, "La-lu!"

Seeing the look on my face, my sweet husband said, "Sweetie, do you love Mama?"

"NOOOOOOOO!"

Then I took her. "Ni-night, Sweetie, I love you." *blank stare* "I love you!" *blank stare* "I love you, Sweetie!"

She busted out the biggest grin you've ever seen and shouted, "LA-LU!" Such a tease!

The Day All Mothers Long For...

...wasn't today. I've been trying to teach Sweetie to say, "I love you," for a month now. Today we were in the baby room at church. Sweetie got so excited as she saw 4-5 babies, pointing and telling me, "It's a baby, there's a baby!" Then she turned to me and said, "I la babies!"

"You love babies?" I asked.

"Uh-huh, I la babies!" she repeated.

"Sweetie , I love you. Do you love Mama?"

"It's a baby!"

She's Talking Up a Storm

I admit, I'm a language geek. So hearing my children learn to talk has been very fascinating to me. Here are a couple cute things Sweetie has been saying lately.

When Sweetie tries to take Smartie's toy, Smartie says, "No-no, Sweetie , it's mine." Now when Smartie tries to take Sweetie's toy, Sweetie says, "No-no, Sweetie , it's mine." Makes me laugh every time.

The other day, we were reading a Dora the Explorer book. I was asking Sweetie where the different characters were. She correctly found Isa, Benny, and Boots. But when I asked her where Tico was, she patted her stomach and said, "Belly-belly!" I said, "Tico is in your belly?" And she lifted her shirt, tickled herself, and said, "Tico-tico-tico!" (Tickle-tickle-tickle!)

Princesses

Sweetie had a blast playing princesses with Paige and Reagan today.

The Lake Run

Since most of our teammates are running their big race in Indy today, Papa Runner and I decided to do our training at the 27th Annual Lake Run. They have three events, a non-competitive 3 mile walk, a 7K run, and a 12K (7.44 mile) run around Lake Bloomington. We signed up for the 12K.

Papa's time was 1:13:44. Mine was 1:31:30. I finished second to last! WOOHOO! In fact, I WAS last for most of the way, but I passed a guy in his sixties (I guess) at mile 6.

One of the things I love about endurance running is that you don't have to be an elite competitor to participate. The only time you need to worry about is your own, and you only need to compete with yourself and your goals. The goals I reached today:

1. Finish.
2. Maintain a steady pace. (I was pretty consistent ~12:15/mile the whole way.)

So yay for us! Just four weeks until our Race Day in San Diego.

ETA: I just checked the official results, and there was someone else behind me. So I was 310 out of 312. And the gentleman I passed was 73! :)

Look-alikes

Some people think my sister and I look alike.






The most recent to think so is Sweetie, whose favorite game at the moment is to call me Aunt A. When I say, "I'm not Aunt A!" she calls me "Bapa" (grandpa.) So I must look like my dad, too.

I wonder if people will say the same thing about my girls some day. Here they are at 16 months. Do you think they look alike?