Perspective

It's been so long since I've written on this blog.  My best good friend, Kristen, reminded me I needed to post something new.  And I know I do.  I've thought about posting something multiple times over the last couple years.  But it's like having a conversation with someone you haven't seen in a while.  An awkward conversation.  What do you write about?  Do you address your two year absence?

So much has changed in the last two years.  I've lost my mother in law to cancer.  I've lost my dog, Jack, to old age.  And I've been blessed beyond words with my beautiful daughter, Merritt Elizabeth.  Jason and I have shared many laughs and tears in between, but I'd say those are the highlights over the past two years.

This past week I feel like I'm being reminded about perspective at every turn. 

At Merritt's 9 month check up this past week, the doctor noticed the creases in her legs weren't lining up they way they're supposed to.  She thought everything was fine, but to be sure, she wanted us to get an x-ray of Merritt's hips to confirm the femur and hip socket were coming together correctly.  As we sat in the waiting room for our turn, Jason struck up a conversation with a lone gentleman sitting nearby.  It turns out, his daughter had already been taken back for an MRI.  She was diagnosed at the age of 3 with a brain tumor.  She is now 12 1/2 and had started having seizures again.  The MRI was to see if the cancer was back.  During their conversation, Jason relayed our friend, Keith, is in the Marine Corp.  When our name got called to go back to the x-ray room, the gentleman told Jason to tell Keith thank you from him for his service to our country.  He also let us know we would be in his prayers for everything to turn out fine with Merritt's hips.  I was blown away.  Someone who was dealing with such a nerve wrecking situation - his daughter and the unknowns of her health - only seemed to think about others.  My heart went out to him and I immediately said a pray for his family.

This past week I also found out a couple I went to high school had delivered a baby girl last week.  What is something that is such a joyous occasion turned sad when I heard the baby girl was born with a lethal genetic condition and doctor's didn't expect her to live long.  Thankfully, the mother and father were able to bring their little girl home for a few days before she took a turn for the worse and they were back in the hospital.  My dad ran into the baby's grandma in the store and again, I was blown away by what I heard.  Instead of proclaiming how unfair it was for her first grandchild to be leaving them so soon, the grandma expressed thanks to God for allowing the baby to at least spend a few days at home.  She gave thanks for the baby being born.  I heard through Facebook the little girl moved on to heaven a couple days ago.  My heart breaks for her parents and I pray they find peace and comfort in the Lord. 

And again, it puts my life in perspective.  I hug my little girl a little bit tighter every night.  I give thanks a little bit more every morning.  I'm so thankful for the health of my baby girl and our family.  When she wakes me up in the middle of the night, I'm not cranky or irritated (although I am sleepy).  I just give thanks as I rock her warm little body back to sleep that I have this perfect baby girl in my arms. 

Half Marathon!

I have so much catching up to do!  I'm afraid to look back at the last time I posted a blog.  I feel our weekends have just been so busy since we went to Kansas City and I get so tired during the week.  Then I think - if I'm so tired now and I don't have kids, how the heck am I going to handle it when I do have kids?!?!  :)

Our first weekend in October started out with a super good friend of mine and I running the half marathon together.  As I watched the weather leading up to October 3rd, the temperatures kept getting colder and colder.  I never did think to buy some pants or tights to run in until the night before the race.  We went over to Kristen and Mike's house and they cooked us an a-mazing dinner.  Mmmm...I could actually go for some again right now.  We went home that night, but were back up at 5:15 the next morning.  The race started at 7:15, but Kristen and I planned to meet up at 6:15, do a little stretching, and be good to go at start time.  That is not how things happened...

We left the house at 5:50 so plenty of time to get to Riverport.  That is - plenty of time until we hit stop dead traffic on 270 North trying to get to 70 West.  Seriously...stop...dead...traffic.  We moved maybe a quarter of a mile in 35 minutes.  It was 6:50 and we were still sitting.  My stomach was a mess of nerves.  Here I am thinking, "I've been training for this race for 4 1/2 months and I'm going to miss it because of stinking traffic!"  Oooo...I almost get knots in my stomach thinking about it just now. 

Jason finally decided to try a different route and EVERYONE must have been sitting in that traffic because NO ONE was on the different route.  We pulled into the parking lot with 10 minutes to spare and Jason and I immediately took off for the starting line.  I looked everywhere for Kristen and was finally (sadly) coming to terms that I was going to have to run this long 13.1 mile race by myself when we found each other.  I think God knew there was no way I could do this race without my partner by my side.  :)

We took off running and got into our pace.  With a small pit stop at a Holiday Inn (ha) I was cruising on my way to my first half marathon completed.  It was amazing to look around during the race and see all the different runners by our side.  8000 runners were there that day.  8000.  That's just crazy.

Mile 9 hit hard and I was really ready to throw in the towel.  Well...I couldn't really throw in the towel.  The marathon organizers must have known that mile was a hard one.  At mile 9 we were running in the middle of nowhere with corn fields on either side.  Corn fields.  Even if I wanted to quit, I couldn't.  Where was I going to go?  So Kristen and I trucked on.  Again, there is no way I could have made it through this half marathon without her.  ***Thank you Kristen!!!!!***

Jason and Mike cheered us on a couple times throughout the race and it definitely gave us that spurt of energy to keep us going.  We finished the race in 2 hours and 22 minutes (and some change).  I am so excited and so proud of myself that I accomplished my goal.  And now, the half marathon bug has definitely bitten.  I'm hoping to run Half Marathon # 2 in May. 

I should have instructed Jason to take pictures throughout the race, but I completely forgot.  This is the only picture I have - Kristen and I after the race.  I don't know that I've ever been so physically exhausted in my entire life.  But, it is a great photo and a great way to remember an awesome day.

Next up...Los Angeles!

Weekend Update

We headed to Kansas City this weekend to go see my mother in law and nephew (it still sounds crazy to say I have a nephew).  :)  Mom threw a small birthday party for Dakota to celebrate the big 1-1.  It was a nice little get together at an arcade/mini golf/go kart place.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

Jason obviously had a lot of fun on the rides.  

Dakota and his Nan.  I love this picture of them. 

Dakota took this so it's a little blurry, but I think it's really cute.

A random statue in the miniature golf zone.  My silly husband. :)

We had a really good weekend and finished it up by going over to the Titus household to watch the Chiefs on Sunday.  They won huge and are now 3-0.  Chiiiiiiieeeeeeefffffs! 

Cute and Fun

Now that the wedding planning is over and has been over for a few months, I feel almost bored now that I don't have crafty projects going on every weekend.  I came across a super cute blog and decided that I would be able to make adorable onesies.  Mine aren't as well put together as the little outfits I saw, but I've got to start somewhere.

Now I just need more babies to be born so I can keep making cute outfits. :)

Silly Dog

Belle absoutely hates the rain.  So much that if it's raining when she wakes up in the morning, even though we know she has to go potty, she will stand at the door and refuse to go out.  I've even resorted to kicking her outside (not literally), and then having to shut the door on her so she can't jump right back in. 

But then there's the garden hose.  Belle apparently loves the garden hose.  Jason was outside last weekend watering our bushes and who decided to jump in the way?  Belle of course.  I can't help but laugh at this silly dog.

Vacation

So I started out blogging thinking I would be one of those people that posts if not every day, at least every other day.  I guess I need to revise my thinking because that has definitely not happened lately.  I do have one good excuse as we got back less than a week ago from visiting our wonderful friends out in the DC area.

Keith and Jason have known each other since high school and have a lot of fun stories to tell of the trouble they got into and caused.  We flew out to DC on Wednesday night so we'd have all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to hang out before having to leave Sunday.

Melissa is an awesome runner and she helped me keep to my half marathon training schedule.  What she also did was make me crave a Garmin Forerunner 405 Watch.  This thing was amazing and I'm still searching eBay, Amazon, and craigslist trying to find one at a good deal.  Hopefully soon I will have one of these watches to call my own. :)

Thursday we didn't do much of anything besides relaxing and it felt amazing. We were able to hang out and spend time with Keith, Melissa, and their beautiful girl Meredith.  I know the first below picture is blurry, but it cracks me up still how much fun Meredith had playing with Jason.  And the second picture makes me laugh even harder because you see Jason with a beer in his hand and a "gorgeous" necklace on with sweet little Miss Meredith nothing but grins in the background.

Friday Jason and I got to lay out by the pool over the noon hour and then went shopping that afternoon.  I don't know if this girl could ask for a better day - get a tan and then buy some new clothes.  Friday night was awesome as we made our way into the city, grabbed some delicious dinner, and headed over to the lounge area for a little of Keith's work.  It's crazy to see all those Marines in uniform and it was even more fascinating to see the Sergeant Major.  You could definitely tell this gentleman deserved a lot of respect.

Saturday was perfect.  Melissa and I started the day by going for a six mile run (I was still drooling over the Garmin).  It took us right at one hour so I felt good about my ten minute miles.  Then the day got even better.  We grabbed a quick breakfast at Dunkin Donuts (yummmmm) and headed out to the wineries. 

We stopped on the way and had to grab a picture by this wall.  I'm such a dork and LOVE American history.  Being out east, I can just imagine this wall being construction back in the 1800's.  Love it!

The weather was gorgeous and we couldn't have asked for better company.  The little sneaks didn't say anything to us, but it was their six year anniversary.  After only being married for four months, I hope Jason and I can be as happy and blessed as Keith and Melissa in six more years.  

Chrysalis remains our favorite winery and we had a wonderful afternoon relaxing under the shade and drinking some delicious 'Sarah Patio Red' and 'Sarah Patio White'. 

Sunday we got to hang out by the pool again before having to head to the airport and come home.  We had an absolutely wonderful time again and can't wait to go back next year for our fourth trip.  The only thing that would make these trips better is if we all moved down the street from each other and could hang out any time we wanted.  For now...we're happy to fly halfway across the country. 

Post Wedding Chop

I realized yesterday I had been officially growing out my hair for almost 22 months.  Jason proposed in November 2008 right after I had cut my hair shorter than it had ever been - right at my chin.  So 22 months later I looked like this:

And today I now look like this!  :)  (It looks much better in person.  These photos were taken after a looooooong day of work.)  It feels so much better and healthier now.  I can't believe how long I let it go!