January
*We painted the kitchen finally!*Davin got his first haircut.
*We got some snow and really enjoyed playing outside in it.
*Brenna continued her first season of basketball.
*Jonathan spent a week on the west coast for work.
February
*Jonathan and I spent 5 days in San Francisco. We spent a day being touristy (Chinatown, Golden Gate Bridge, Painted Ladies, Alcatraz, cable cars, Ghirardelli Square, the pier) and then he had to work the next 3 days so I relaxed and hung around the hotel area). The kiddos split the week between the grandmas.
*Brenna got her hair cut off above her shoulders.
*Brenna got a Daddy-Daughter date with Jonathan to see Peter Pan at the local theater.
*We got a HUGE snow and had a blast playing for several days straight.*I found out that my favorite high school teacher (and her son and her mother) was murdered by her husband. It really shook up those of us who knew and loved her.
*Davin had tubes put in his ears.
March
*Brenna turned FOUR and we celebrated with a super fun Peter Pan party.
*Brenna chose a local chinese buffet for her birthday dinner. She chose Krispy Kreme for her at-school birthday treat with her class.*Brenna started her third season of soccer at the Y.
*I spent a week in Honduras with a group from our church. It was life changing.
*I zip lined across the tallest waterfall in Honduras (I''m not sure if there are that many waterfalls in Honduras, but to this scaredy cat girl, this was huge.
*I took Brenna to the local theater to see Miss Nelson is Missing.
*Davin developed a serious love of basketball.
April
*Jonathan and I went to my TEN year college reunion in Bristol. It was lots of fun to reconnect to friends from that period of my life. We went to a retirement party for one of my professors (Dr. Mrs. Rohr) and also caught part of a soccer game and got to catch up with my super cool RA. And then I got to see friends from all the dorms I lived in (FOUR!) that night downtown.
*Maggie turned EIGHT!
*We spent a weekend in Bristol and got to hung Easter eggs with Jayla and Brady.
*I surprised Sheri at school for her birthday! She, Lisa, and I went to dinner at Olive Garden and to Bubblecake.
*We met Clifford the Big Red Dog at Barnes & Noble.
*J worked on Easter so the kids and I went to our church and then spent time with friends that night at the Herndons' house.
*The kids went bowling for the first time - for Brenna's friend Robert's birthday party.
*Davin got moved up to the preschool class at church. He was much happier!
May
*We had a great Mother's Day at church.*We went to Bristol for Jayla's fifth birthday party.
*We had family pictures made by the fabulous Photography by KT at Murray's Mill.
*Jonathan and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Charleston/Folly Beach with the Hainrihars and other friends to celebrate their 10 year anniversary. It was so good to catch up with Heather!
*Lauren came down and we went to Rachel's wedding shower in Charlotte.
*I got to go meet baby Nora and see Sheri on the day she was born! Great timing!
*We took our first trip to Hickory Dickory Dock for Bren's school party. The kids loved it!
June
*Davin turned TWO and we celebrated with a Monsters Inc party at our house.
*I agreed to coordinate the Go Bananas efforts for the CVC campus of The Cove. We began a lunch program where we fed a local community lunch 5 days a week for 10 weeks.
*We celebrated Father's Day at church.
*I started training for a half marathon.
*Brenna finished up her first year of preschool.
*We spent 4 days at Carolina Beach with my mom. Jonathan stayed for another 4 days with Brandan and his friends for his bachelor weekend.
*We had Cove Kids camp (VBS) at church for a week. Brenna got to ride in her first limo!
July
*We spent 3-4 days a week on average at the Go Bananas site. Davin really took up with a sweet girl named Abby.
*We went to a 4th of July parade in Lincolnton.
*We spent a weekend in Richmond for Brandan and Rachel's wedding.
*Brenna and Davin performed splendidly as flower girl and ring bearer.
*I was driving my in-law's car and hit another car. It was by far one of the worst feelings ever.
*We told the kids about Disney.*We spent our 6th anniversary in Pigeon Forge for the wedding of our friends Emily and Bruce.
*I got to visit with Christy in Bristol and meet her newest baby, Jenna.
*The kids and I spent a week in Bristol and we got to go visit my Great Uncle Jack and Great Aunt Nancy.
August
*We went to Bristol for Brady's third birthday.
*Davin had his first dentist appointment.
*I threw a gender reveal party for my friend Emily.
*We wrapped up Go Bananas.
*Jonathan and I went to the Nationwide race in Bristol. Jonathan went to the Sprint race the next day with Bill.
September
*Brenna started pre-k.
*Brenna got to go to a movie theater for the first time - Planes: Fire and Rescue for James's birthday party.
*Brenna started her fourth season of soccer at the Y.
*We finished redoing Brenna's room.*We spent a week at Disney! It was amazing. We spent a night on the way down and back with our friends the Jaimes.
*I had some terrible knee issues that made my half marathon training less than fun.
October
* We took our annual trip to the apple orchard in Morganton.
*I ran the Hokie Half in freezing cold rain the entire time. My time wasn't fast, but I finished!
*After the race we got to have lunch with Ashley and Curtis before dropping J off at the airport for a trip to Reno for work.*Jonathan's parents and grandparents came down and we went to the pumpkin patch.
*We went back to the balloon festival in Statesville, NC. for the 3rd year in a row.
*Brenna and I went to the Renaissance Festival in Charlotte with Sissy.*We trick-or-treated around our neighborhood. Brenna was Captain Hook and Davin was Smee. It started raining about halfway through but we persevered.
*Davin talked about the Pooh ride and Ariel ride at Disney every day. We made him say "oputupus" several times a day.
*Davin decided he was done with a high chair.
November
*Mom came down for a weekend - and Jonathan and I helped with a surprise birthday party for our friend and campus pastor Michael Strickland.
*We spent Thanksgiving with my family and 2 days afterwards with Jonathan's family in VA.
*We surprised my mom with funds from family and friends to go on a mission trip to Ireland!
*Brenna celebrated Briley's birthday with friends at the science center.
December
*We cut down a Christmas tree in Hillsville, VA on our way back from Thanksgiving weekend.
*Jonathan took Brenna on a date to see Big Hero 6.
*Brenna did fantastic in her school Christmas program.*Jonathan, Davin, and I joined Brenna at school for a PDQ meal.
*Brenna enjoyed Polar Express day in her pjs at school.
*Jonathan's dad and stepmom came down for a weekend. We went to see Nutty Nutcracker at a local theater, to the mall to see Santa, and shopping for the kids' to choose a gift from them.
*We hosted a Christmas party for some friends - which turned into Caroling at our neighbors' houses.
*We took homemade treats to our neighbors and teachers.
*Santa came on Dec 22 - such fun!
*We went to Lincolnton to see Christmas lights in a neighborhood that has a few houses that go all out. We also saw Santa at a restaurant before we went AND at the lights!
*We spent 2 days with J's family and then 3 days with my family.
*I got to see one of my high school BFFs who is having a BABY! 2015 will involve lots of new babies!
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
33Before33 - #1 - Half Marathon!
I absolutely cannot believe I am writing this post. When I made this "33 Before 33" list I just kind of typed that out and didn't really think much bout it. At that time I had run the Huckleberry Trail, which is a 6 mile trail in VA. I honestly have never really liked running - although I go through spells where I do it quite a bit.
Anyhow, a couple of months ago I started thinking maybe it would be fun (ha!) to go run the Hokie Half Marathon in Blacksburg. I had almost forgotten about its spot on the list, but was more thinking that it would be a really challenging thing to do for myself. So I downloaded a few training plans and started not following them right away. Actually I did okay but kind of fit them to meet my needs, which wasn't a big problem. I was able to build up my endurance for longer runs - up to about 8.3 miles. Then the next run was a disaster and had my shins in a terrible mess. At first I thought it was just shin splints, but then realized maybe my running shoes that I wore that day were wearing out, so after fixing that and resting about a week I was back in the game. My knees started really hurting after runs longer than 6 miles so that meant fewer short runs because I needed more recovery time. I had worked up to a 9 mile run and a 9.2 mile run before we left for Disney (3 weeks before the half). This was the day that the registration fee increased, so I bit the bullet and registered for the race.
Of course I had no time to run the week we were gone, but I got lots of walking miles in! When we got home (2 weeks pre-race) I did a 10 mile run (more on that later) and felt pretty good - although it took me like 5 or 6 days to recover enough to do another shorter run 8 days before the race. That one really hurt my knee and it continued to hurt off and on the rest of the week. After much prayer and consideration (and a 1/4 mile painful jog down the road), I decided not to run at all the week before the race - running with rest seemed better than running injured. I had lots of encouragement from friends and family.
The weekend of the race I was a nervous wreck. We dropped the kids off with Jonathan's parents and headed to Blacksburg to get my race packet and run a few errands. My heart was beating so fast during that whole afternoon! I was also nervous that it was calling for rain and a temperature around 50 - about 20 degrees less than what I was used to running in. Plus it was a morning race and almost all of my runs were at night.
Anyway, Jonathan and I left his parents' at 5:45 the next morning and headed to Blacksburg. I forced myself to eat some oatmeal. About the time we pulled into the CRC parking lot near the starting line, it started raining pretty steadily. It was also pretty chilly and just totally not what I was used to. But, 7:34 came and off I went. My right knee started acting up after the first 1/3ish mile, but I prayed for it and it stopped and really never hurt again the whole race! Here are the things I remember thinking along the route...
1. My GPS on my phone is wrong. It was off a little bit by the first mile, it was off by 1/2 a mile by the time we got back to the Christiansburg mall around mile 3.5, and it was off by 2 miles by mile 12. So my GPS thought I ran 15 miles. And it was then that I realized my longest run of 10 miles was probably more like 8.5 - which would make my real longest pre-race run 9.2 miles. Yikes!
2. It rained the entire way. I think it slacked off maybe twice and almost quit for a few minutes around mile 4. I was drenched - I stopped probably 4 times to try to wring out water from my pants - it was making them so heavy that my legs were aching!
3. Right when I topped the hill where you can see Lane Stadium the song "God of this City" came on my playlist. Think God wanted me to pray for the NRV?
4. My husband is a rockstar. He saw me off at the start line, drove to the mall (where I happened to run past him while he was in line to park, haha!), drove down to Merrimac to meet me about mile 5.5, drove to Chicken Hill to see me about 8, drove to some random road on the course to see me maybe around mile 10, and then was there waiting at the finish line. It was SO encouraging to see him every few miles.
5. I remember vividly the day I ran the Huckleberry right before we moved to NC. It is about a 6 mile trail and I even ran an extra .2 miles to make it an even 10K that day. For my half, I ran about 3.5 on 460 from Blacksburg to Christiansburg mall, got on the Huckleberry and ran all of it, ran another 2ish miles on Blacksburg town roads, got back on the Huckleberry for maybe another mile or so, and then ended up back at the Corporate Research Center where we had started.
6. An uphill started at about 12.5 miles. That is just mean.
7. I walked more than I wanted to, but I still feel like I did really well. I didn't stop at all until about mile 6 and didn't stop to walk much at all until I started walking up some of the more steep hills on the trail around mile 7 or so. I walked and ran intermittently for the last 4 or so miles and the last mile was probably more walking than running.
8. My time was 2:41. That is a little over a 12 minute mile. My "goal" was 2:30, so I'm really pretty happy with my time considering how cold and rainy it was. With my wacky GPS I had thought my training runs were faster, but really I think most of them were at about an 11 minute pace.
9. Apparently Sears at the NRV mall is now a Halloween store? Really weird.
10. The finisher medal was really cool. The really long line for chili - not so much.
11. GU gel isn't really all that bad when you are exhausted after the first 7 miles.
12. There were some really sweet people along the way just rooting for us. Of course there were lots of volunteers and EMTs, but there were also just lots of random people standing in the rain. My two favorite signs said - "Seems like a lot of work for a banana." and "Chuck Norris never ran a half marathon."
J had a flight to catch, so we headed to Roanoke after I changed out of my soaking wet clothes and headed to Cheddar's for a post-race dinner. I lucked out and got to see one of my best friends and her husband while we were in Roanoke. It was a great ending to an exhausting, yet exhilarating, day.
So far I haven't had hardly any knee pain. My legs are tired, obviously, but not in the excruciating pain I've experienced the past few weeks. I know that the KT tape, Aleve, and Ibuprofen have helped, but I also know that God has been so faithful during this experience and has answered my prayers repeatedly - and also the prayers of my sweet friends and family who prayed for me on Sunday as well.
So, the jury is still out on whether I'll ever run 13 miles again at one time - but I am proud of this accomplishment! :) I think I get extra points for my first half being a hilly one, in the cold rain, after less than ideal training. :)
Anyhow, a couple of months ago I started thinking maybe it would be fun (ha!) to go run the Hokie Half Marathon in Blacksburg. I had almost forgotten about its spot on the list, but was more thinking that it would be a really challenging thing to do for myself. So I downloaded a few training plans and started not following them right away. Actually I did okay but kind of fit them to meet my needs, which wasn't a big problem. I was able to build up my endurance for longer runs - up to about 8.3 miles. Then the next run was a disaster and had my shins in a terrible mess. At first I thought it was just shin splints, but then realized maybe my running shoes that I wore that day were wearing out, so after fixing that and resting about a week I was back in the game. My knees started really hurting after runs longer than 6 miles so that meant fewer short runs because I needed more recovery time. I had worked up to a 9 mile run and a 9.2 mile run before we left for Disney (3 weeks before the half). This was the day that the registration fee increased, so I bit the bullet and registered for the race.
Of course I had no time to run the week we were gone, but I got lots of walking miles in! When we got home (2 weeks pre-race) I did a 10 mile run (more on that later) and felt pretty good - although it took me like 5 or 6 days to recover enough to do another shorter run 8 days before the race. That one really hurt my knee and it continued to hurt off and on the rest of the week. After much prayer and consideration (and a 1/4 mile painful jog down the road), I decided not to run at all the week before the race - running with rest seemed better than running injured. I had lots of encouragement from friends and family.
The weekend of the race I was a nervous wreck. We dropped the kids off with Jonathan's parents and headed to Blacksburg to get my race packet and run a few errands. My heart was beating so fast during that whole afternoon! I was also nervous that it was calling for rain and a temperature around 50 - about 20 degrees less than what I was used to running in. Plus it was a morning race and almost all of my runs were at night.
Anyway, Jonathan and I left his parents' at 5:45 the next morning and headed to Blacksburg. I forced myself to eat some oatmeal. About the time we pulled into the CRC parking lot near the starting line, it started raining pretty steadily. It was also pretty chilly and just totally not what I was used to. But, 7:34 came and off I went. My right knee started acting up after the first 1/3ish mile, but I prayed for it and it stopped and really never hurt again the whole race! Here are the things I remember thinking along the route...
1. My GPS on my phone is wrong. It was off a little bit by the first mile, it was off by 1/2 a mile by the time we got back to the Christiansburg mall around mile 3.5, and it was off by 2 miles by mile 12. So my GPS thought I ran 15 miles. And it was then that I realized my longest run of 10 miles was probably more like 8.5 - which would make my real longest pre-race run 9.2 miles. Yikes!
2. It rained the entire way. I think it slacked off maybe twice and almost quit for a few minutes around mile 4. I was drenched - I stopped probably 4 times to try to wring out water from my pants - it was making them so heavy that my legs were aching!
3. Right when I topped the hill where you can see Lane Stadium the song "God of this City" came on my playlist. Think God wanted me to pray for the NRV?
4. My husband is a rockstar. He saw me off at the start line, drove to the mall (where I happened to run past him while he was in line to park, haha!), drove down to Merrimac to meet me about mile 5.5, drove to Chicken Hill to see me about 8, drove to some random road on the course to see me maybe around mile 10, and then was there waiting at the finish line. It was SO encouraging to see him every few miles.
5. I remember vividly the day I ran the Huckleberry right before we moved to NC. It is about a 6 mile trail and I even ran an extra .2 miles to make it an even 10K that day. For my half, I ran about 3.5 on 460 from Blacksburg to Christiansburg mall, got on the Huckleberry and ran all of it, ran another 2ish miles on Blacksburg town roads, got back on the Huckleberry for maybe another mile or so, and then ended up back at the Corporate Research Center where we had started.
6. An uphill started at about 12.5 miles. That is just mean.
7. I walked more than I wanted to, but I still feel like I did really well. I didn't stop at all until about mile 6 and didn't stop to walk much at all until I started walking up some of the more steep hills on the trail around mile 7 or so. I walked and ran intermittently for the last 4 or so miles and the last mile was probably more walking than running.
8. My time was 2:41. That is a little over a 12 minute mile. My "goal" was 2:30, so I'm really pretty happy with my time considering how cold and rainy it was. With my wacky GPS I had thought my training runs were faster, but really I think most of them were at about an 11 minute pace.
9. Apparently Sears at the NRV mall is now a Halloween store? Really weird.
10. The finisher medal was really cool. The really long line for chili - not so much.
11. GU gel isn't really all that bad when you are exhausted after the first 7 miles.
12. There were some really sweet people along the way just rooting for us. Of course there were lots of volunteers and EMTs, but there were also just lots of random people standing in the rain. My two favorite signs said - "Seems like a lot of work for a banana." and "Chuck Norris never ran a half marathon."
J had a flight to catch, so we headed to Roanoke after I changed out of my soaking wet clothes and headed to Cheddar's for a post-race dinner. I lucked out and got to see one of my best friends and her husband while we were in Roanoke. It was a great ending to an exhausting, yet exhilarating, day.
So far I haven't had hardly any knee pain. My legs are tired, obviously, but not in the excruciating pain I've experienced the past few weeks. I know that the KT tape, Aleve, and Ibuprofen have helped, but I also know that God has been so faithful during this experience and has answered my prayers repeatedly - and also the prayers of my sweet friends and family who prayed for me on Sunday as well.
So, the jury is still out on whether I'll ever run 13 miles again at one time - but I am proud of this accomplishment! :) I think I get extra points for my first half being a hilly one, in the cold rain, after less than ideal training. :)
approaching the finish
Glad to be done!
That's a long way to run for a free magnet.
notice the umbrellas
I think this picture is ridiculously unflattering - but I don't care. I finished 13.1 miles.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Beach x2
Jonathan and I were lucky enough to get to spend Memorial Day weekend in Charleston with friends. One of our parents (I honestly don't remember which one - I think his mom and stepdad) watched the kids while we took off for a few days. It was Heather and Mike's 10th anniversary and they decided to spend it with friends in Charleston! It was so, so, so good to see Heather again - we hadn't seen each other in about 9 months since they moved to Missouri. She was my absolute closest friend in NC and it was so hard when she left. Heather's brother and his girlfriend, along with two of their other couple friends, were all part of the fun. We spent many hours on the beach talking, listening to music, and just enjoying a little kid-free time. We were able to go out for late dinners and sleep in in the mornings. I got some weird random eye thing (an allergic reaction to sunscreen I think) that ruined a couple hours of the trip, but otherwise it was perfect. We stayed in Foley Beach, which we really liked. Jonathan and I went to Charleston for a little while on Sunday, which was also fun to just go do something with no regard for nap times or kid menus.
reunited finally
during a little Charleston day-outing
out to dinner
right before we had to leave on Monday - so sad!
Honestly this year we thought we may not make it to the beach - but surprisingly another opportunity opened up that we jumped on. Jonathan's brother Brandan was having his bachelor party in Carolina Beach and the only house the guys could find was a week-long rental one street over from the ocean. Since none of the guys were going down until Wednesday, the four of us plus my mom headed to use the house from Sunday until Wednesday. We had so much fun hanging out at the ocean, going to a fun local restaurant called Hang Ten, going down to the boardwalk, and introducing my mom to Trader Joe's. It was a great mini-vacation, and was much appreciated by Brenna who had been itching to get to the beach!
happy beach bum
dinner date
ready for dinner on our awesome porch that overlooked the ocean
trying a Britt's Donut on the boardwalk
love this picture
dinner with my mom
family photo at a cool little park near a dinner location one night
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Brandan and Rachel Got Married
(AKA I have a new sister!)
This big boy started out the trip facing forward for the first time.
selfie on a lunch stop on our way to Richmond
practicing - oh, and it paid off. They walked down the aisle like pros. (Granted, they didn't smile, they walked really slow, and Davin stopped to look at the people in each aisle.) But, they shocked me totally and did it with no tears! And they were relatively quiet on the front row with me through the ceremony (with the aid of gummy bears, I won't lie.)
Davin and Morgan entertaining themselves during the rehearsal dinner.
beautiful flower girl - I was so proud of her
I am a lucky lady!
another just because
mother of the groom and flower girl :)
stole these 2 from their photographer
delirious
siblings
toast
ready for the send-off
the only picture of just us was after everyone else had left - ha!
totally exhausted on the way home
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