On a whim

I have always thought in the back of my mind that it would be great to run a marathon, but for the last few years figured that it was one of those wishful thinking dreams. I wasn't regular enough in my running or exercise to do anything near that! This past April I decided to get my act into gear. Following the example of my father (who is vigilant in his exercise routine), I get up stinking early in the morning and run before Genevieve wakes up, in order to avoid a melt down of me leaving her. Although I only get in about a 30 minute run each day before Dave leaves for work, that half an hour is a great release for me and changes my entire day.

At the end of July, a friend mentioned to me a half marathon that was being held in the neighboring town mid-August. That started to get me thinking, but I still wasn't sure; I was scheduled to be out of town that weekend. Well, my plans changed a bit, and the evening before the race I decided to do it. Dave says people don't wake up one morning and suddenly decide to run a marathon, but with my half, it was pretty close to that! Keep in mind that I only run about half an hour a day, I had been out of town helping my sister with her new baby and only ran once the week of the race (for 27 minutes with the jogging stroller; it was all the patience I could get out of Genevieve), and the last race I had run was a 10k back in 2002. It had been a while! Oh well, there's no time like the present!

My time is nothing to brag about, 2 hours and 14 minutes. Yet, I did it! With a lack of long runs and training, I don't think that's too bad. I had hoped for better, but perhaps next time with some training I'll be closer to two hours. The weather was far from ideal the day of the race, and I wondered a few times to myself, "What in the world am I doing out here?!" I ran in freezing rain, slush, thunder and lightning (within a second of each other!) for the first third of the race. The next two thirds of the race the skies cleared up, but I was soaked through. I am still getting over the cold I caught. Oh well! I still had fun and would do it again! - Dave and Genevieve drove up to see me at the finish line. I was really glad they did; it meant a lot to me. Here are the photos Dave took. No one ever looks great at the end of a race, but I don't care. I'll let you know when I try it, again!

Genevieve's First Hair Cut

After our trip to visit Catherine, I decided to take advantage of being in a city before heading home and find a cute spot to get Genevieve's hair cut for the first time. We had been slow to cut it because it didn't seem to really need it, and it took so long to come in we hated to cut it! But, I figured it needed some trimming to even it out. A friend recommended this very cute kids salon called Lollilocks. As soon as we walked in, Genevieve climbed into the yellow car ready to play. She wasn't wild about the hair cutting part of playing in the car, but she didn't fight it either. I just had to keep her distracted to balls, books, and my keys for driving her car. She did great!, and she loved the little ribbons that they put in her hair afterwards when they styled it. What a cute place!

Catherine's baby

For those of you who don't know my younger sister Catherine, she is amazing!  She is one of those fun-loving, energetic, patient, and selfless people that many of us aspire to be.  Last month, she and her husband were blessed with one of life's greatest miracles, the birth of their first child, Colton.  Needless to say, we are so excited for them!   

The little guy decided to come breech.  So, wanting to meet the newest addition to the family and knowing that a C-section is not an easy recovery process, Genevieve and I went out to help for a few days.  Genevieve LOVED meeting her new cousin.  She is a big fan of babies!  And, Colton is a good one of which to be a fan.  He is darling, small but eats often (too bad for his mom who would love to be able to sleep), and has completely charmed his parents.  I don't know how helpful we were, but we did our best.  I was impressed by how patient Genevieve was with being inside more than usual and how hard she tried to help.  She kept saying "Catherine, mal -(which means hurt in French), help" and was so good because she understood why we were there.  Anytime Colton would cry, she would automatically tell me "water" and grab a bottle because she thought he needed to drink/eat, "suce" which means pacifier (since that always helps Geneveive when she is sad), "couche, mal" which meant she thought he had a diaper that was hurting him, or "night, night".  Those are usually the reasons a baby cries.  I don't think she's quite ready to try it on her own - only being two years old and all, but she was a pretty cute help.  

It was wonderful to be able to go out and meet this cute boy and spend some time with Jon and Cass.  They are going to be amazing parents!

I had better not forget to mention, Genevieve loved the airplane trip!  She had been telling me for a couple of months that she wanted to go on an airplane, so this was a real treat!  I love this picture of she and her baby doll watching all of the planes outside our window.  She was a great little traveller.

Funny pics

These were some photos that I couldn't resist taking this past month. One morning Genevieve pulled out her sunglasses and insisted on wearing them during snack time. I loved that she kept them on and was so focused on getting her raspberries onto her spoon. She was just cracking me up. The last one is from a family bike ride. She decided that she needed to wear some socks and found a pair in my drawer, (despite the fact that it was about 90 degrees outside). She just keeps me laughing. We love this girl so much!

Up at the ranch

One of the moms in our moms group has been into horse riding since she was young and goes a ranch to ride and visit her horse regularly.  Last week, she invited all of us up to allow the girls to run around, have a picnic, and see all of the animals up there.  It was a hit!  Genevieve and I had been up there before with her, but it had been a few months.  It was fun to see her reaction as she is a little bit older and more independent.  The girls loved watching the riding lessons, feeding carrots to the horses, playing with the dogs, and simply exploring.  They were quite good at pretending that they were riding horses as they sat on the water jugs. It was a great time for all!

The best part was that they didn't have to simply pretend that they were riding horses.   They all had the chance to get on a horse and ride a bit!  Genevieve was really excited and was the second one on the horse.  She chose to sit more than ride.  It made her a bit nervous to be up there very long, but she did great!  Especially for just turning two, I was impressed.  Maybe next time she'll get to ride more. Yea, Genevieve!

Music Class

During the fall and winter months when it's not as easy to get out and play, I take Genevieve to a weekly moms and kids music class. She loves this class, and it's funny that I seem to forget just how much she loves it each time until I take her again. There is no class during the summer months, but they do have an occasional drop in class instead. A couple of friends and I decided to take our girls to one, and it was a crack up! Genevieve was so excited to be there that she was up and dancing immediately. (Realize that the rest of the kids were swaying on their parents' laps and tapping drums; it wasn't quite time to be up and active yet, but G just couldn't hold back.)  She got her two friends up and dancing, too, and they just giggled and squealed the whole time. So here they are, dancing their hearts out!, - and they continued to do so throughout the class. I was so glad that we took them and am, no doubt, enrolling her in fall classes again. Yea for Music Together!

Train spotting

With Genevieve's incredible fascination of trains and continual requests to see trains (when we drive, walk, or simply on the computer at home), a friend and I decided to take our girls down to the train station to watch for trains.  Unfortunately, Amtrack always comes through town during nap time, so we simply had to wait in hopes that one would pass through.  After entertaining the girls with snacks and bubbles for a while we were in luck!  A very loud and long train came our direction.  Genevieve and her friend were in awe to see a train so close up and loved it!  When the train finally stopped and let off some steam, we all jumped with the explosive noise.   It was fun, though.  Hopefully, we'll get them down there sometime when they can watch people get on and off of the train and, perhaps, even see the inside of the train themselves.  That would be fun.