A Milestone

During all my half-marathon training I reached another milestone.  I posted about a similar milestone in January of 2009, but I think this one might be a little more impressive.  While I'm not quite impressed with my 11:40 average pace, I am impressed that I've logged 505 miles over the past 3ish years (not counting the 1.5+ I took off when I had Leah :)).

Nike has made some great improvements to the app/ program.  If you have an iPhone and are into exercising I highly recommend this one.  It contains a gps program and will track your mileage, pace and gives you all sorts of neat maps, charts and graphs to go along with it.  

*On a side note: I'm so thankful for this little blog and the fact that I'm able to look back at my posts from 3 years ago and see what I was thinking.  Don't you wish you could look back and see what you were doing 3 years ago? Start a blog today, it's a great way to record memories!

I Did It! {13.1 miles}

On the Sunday after Leah's birthday party, I got up bright and early so I could see this view.  Just kidding, I was up bright and early to run my first half marathon and cross #3 off my "to-do" list. It's been on my to-do list for quite a while and for some reason I decided now was the time to do it.  I had several friends in Kansas City who were training for a half marathon too, so I used them as motivation and "training" partners. (I use the term training partners loosely because I only ran with Dara once, but I chatted with both Dara and Krissondra multiple times about running.  I'm so thankful they were only a phone call away and could give me some motivation!) 

I signed up with my friend, Erin, and we rode down to the race together.  Erin ran it last year and it was so nice to have someone who knew where to park and what was going on.  

I thought the sunrise through the Arch really was pretty and I tried to focus on it instead of the pre-race nerves.  

After the race!  I was so glad to be done.  I'll spare you all the race details and give you a condensed version: around mile 4 or 5 I started feeling my knee hurt, no big deal, I kept running*.  Around mile 8 or 9 my knee started really hurting, it hurt to run and even hurt to walk at times, if I stopped running and walked it hurt and was hard to get going again.  About this same time, I didn't know if I could finish it, but I kept going, knowing Tim and Leah would be at the finish line and knowing that I would be done.  Somehow I managed the last 4 miles and finished, but it wasn't pretty.  Overall I'm happy that I finished the race, I'm somewhat happy with my time.  This being my first half marathon, in the beginning I set a goal to finish under 3 hours, I did that, after my training I re-evaluated my goal and set it at 2:30, which I finished just shy of.  Will I run another one?  Who knows, I'd really like to finish under 2:30 and I think I could do it, we'll have to see what's wrong with my knee and whether or not it can withstand the training again.  One thing I do know for sure, if I run another one, I'd like to lose a few pounds and do more cross-training and strength training instead of just running.  

Erin and I after the race

 I signed up for the Rock n Roll half marathon clear back in June, and I remember thinking after signing up, "Am I really going to follow through with this and do it?"  In June, October seemed so far away, but the day finally came and I did it!

*I'd felt a few knee pains like this after some of my training runs, but nothing like I felt at the end.  I could barely walk back to the car after the race and it still hurt on Wednesday after the race and still occasionally hurts.  I'm scheduled to see the doctor for my physical next week, so we'll see if he has any suggestions.

Pumpkin Carving

I've had pumpkin carving on our fall "to-do" list for quite sometime and I decided that Tuesday would be my last chance to do it since Wednesday was Halloween.

 I lucked out and got this pumpkin from the Gamma Phis after one of their sisterhoods.  

 Leah and I cut it open and pulled all the seeds out.  I was surprised she was willing to get her hands dirty, but she actually loved it.  

 Leah decided on making her pumpkin a kitty cat (imagine that) and Tim helped her cut out the face.  

Our finished pumpkin.

Happy Halloween 2012!

Happy Halloween!

We've gotten lots of use out of Leah's $5 cat costume from Target.  We started Halloween off last Thursday at the library with story time and Halloween Hoopla.  

 I originally had plans to make a tutu to go along with the costume, but once I got the ears and nose on her, I decided it was cute enough and didn't need a tutu.  

 Halloween Hoopla included a story, games, songs and treats.  

 Thursday night we headed to a nearby town for trick-or-treating in their downtown.  I was interested to see how Leah would do with trick-or-treating, but I think it was a little too crowded for her to get the full effect.  

 Over the weekend, we headed to Tim's parents for the day and took the cat costume along with us so the grandparents could see the cute kitty.  

 

 

 Today Leah wore her costume to story time at Barnes and Noble and then again tonight for trick-or-treating.  I'd say we got our money's worth out of the costume!

Yadi and a Kitty Cat

Trick-or-treating tonight was a little cold and Leah ended up wearing her heavy coat the entire time, next year I might have to think up a costume that would work better in cold weather.  

Letters to Leah Day 1

Happy Birth Day Leah!

(Just a disclaimer: this is Leah's "birth story", so if you'd rather not read it, come back tomorrow for another post.  I'm also posting this mostly for my memory and for Leah's baby book.  I tried to leave out most of the graphic details, as I'm not much for those, but you have been warned.  This is also my longest post ever and I realize it's not the best, I'm okay with it, it's documented.)

At my last doctor's appointment on October 14th and with no progress, I figured you'd arrive on October 27th which was the date of our scheduled induction.  Regardless of when you were scheduled to come, my last day of teaching was October 14th, actually it was parent/ teacher conferences, but we figured it would be a nice break for the students and give me a little while to finish preparing for your arrival.  With my free time during conferences, I checked out several books to give me something to do, I figured if I was waiting over a week to be induced, I'd need something to do, (I never did get to those books!).  We spent that weekend preparing the final few things (I honestly can't really remember what we did, maybe had a house showing, maybe packed stuff).  Grandma Debbie came to stay with us on Sunday night because Tim was already working in St. Louis and living at our new house.  We spent October 18th running errands to get a few last minute things and had planned on driving over to Lee's Summit on Tuesday to hit up some quilt shops.

I got up in the middle of the night early Tuesday morning (like 4:00 or 4:30) and thought that maybe that my water had broke, but I still felt fine and wasn't having any contractions, so I decided that's I'd call my doctor first thing in the morning and I tried to go back to bed.  Finally at 6:30am, I decided that I'd better get up and call my doctor.  She said that she wanted me to go ahead and come in so they could check to see if my water really did break and she suggested bringing my bag.  I was still feeling fine and wasn't having any contractions, so I decided I had some time.  I called Tim to tell him that I was heading to the doctor and that I'd let him know what was going on, but to be prepared to leave.  I showered and got ready, took Daisy to the vet for a grooming appointment, (Daisy wanted to look nice to meet you!) and we  headed off to the doctor's office with my hospital bags with us.

I was greeted at the doctor's officer with the nurse saying "What took you so long?  We've been waiting."  Apparently, I shouldn't have taken so much time to shower and drop Daisy off, (oops!).  After being examined by the doctor, she decided that my water did in fact break and that I needed to be admitted to the hospital.  Once I was admitted, I spent the  majority of my time hanging out and watching t.v., I was feeling fine and even after they gave me some drugs to start the labor process I still felt fine.  Finally around 2:30 or 3:00, Tim arrived at the hospital.  I was still feeling fine at this point.  I felt fine until about 6:30pm (I remember because Wheel of Fortune was on) and I decided I wanted my epidural.  About 30-45 minutes after my epidural and a visit from my doctor, I was still in a lot of pain and the anesthesiologist had to come back and give me another one, they decided there was something wrong with the first dose (something along the lines that it got too hot).  After the second epidural and another visit from my doctor to tell me she was going home to put her kids to bed, but that she would be back and she expected a baby around midnight, I was doing fine.  Tim and I watched some postseason baseball, (thankfully not the Cardinals) and the nurses were in and out checking me.  Finally about 9:45pm, they told me we were getting close and that they were going to call the doctor.  After what seemed like forever for the doctor to arrive, (really they were waiting for me to finish dilating) I was ready to start pushing.  After about 30 minutes of pushing, which seemed like a long time, but really wasn't, Leah Elizabeth was born!

I remember being so excited to see if it was a boy or a girl, that I didn't wait for anyone to tell me, the minute I saw it was a girl, I shouted, "It's a Girl!".  

My parents ended up coming back to the hospital after dinner at Oklahoma Joe's and were able to meet Leah.  Papa Greg got a great birthday present!    

We spent the next two days in the hospital and were finally released on Thursday morning, after a slight delay due to Leah's jaundice.  It was so nice to finally be home as a new family of 3!

Happy Birthday Leah! 

I love this picture because I'm pretty sure this was exactly how you were laying in my stomach, I could always feel your little foot poking me.  

Why October, Why?

As I was reflecting on October and how it's almost over, I was reminded of this post from last year.  I thought this October was busy with Leah's birthday party, postseason baseball, and training for a half-marathon, but I'm thinking last year was just as busy.  Luckily, it's starting to slow down and we'll have a little time to catch our breath before the holidays come.  

For now, I'm trying to take time to stop and smell the flowers and enjoy all things fall. 

Because I'm learning it all goes too fast!

I Love the Crescent Moon

Back in early 2011, after staying inside all winter with a newborn and not really meeting anyone in the St. Louis area, I began to reflect on how I met most of my good friends in Kansas City, I came up with two places: teaching and my sorority in college.  Since I wasn't subbing/ teaching and I didn't really have any plans to for the next few months, I decided to give Gamma Phi a try.  Thanks to good ol' facebook and the internet, I found out about the St. Louis area alumnae chapter and the chapter on the campus of Saint Louis University.  I figured I might as well put myself out there and contact someone and attend a few events. I contacted the chapter advisor for the SLU (Saint Louis University) chapter after I noticed they need a couple of advisors to add to their advisory board. .  I ended up becoming their ritual advisor.  After serving as their ritual advisor for just over a year, I found out the chapter advisor was moving on in Gamma Phi and asked if I would serve as their new chapter advisor.  After giving it some thought, I agreed.  I figured since I wasn't working full time, I had the time to devote the to girls.  I also decided that since I had such an awesome experience as a Gamma Phi in college, I wanted the chance to give other college girls the same experience and show them just what a wonderful organization Gamma Phi Beta is.

 That brings us to today, every Wednesday and Sunday night, you can find me on the campus of SLU working with the women.  The role as chapter advisor keeps me very busy and I feel like I have so much to learn as an advisor, but I love working with the women they are so full of life and energy (oh to be a 20 year old again!).

 Aren't they just so cute?!?

These pictures are from their first night of recruitment, which was a whole new learning experience for me.  Since the girls don't have a house on campus, they hold their parties in various rooms across campus, it takes so much work and coordination, but they did great!  

I always tell the girls that I always thought a sorority would just be a college thing, that I never intended to become a chapter advisor or even active in an alumnae group.  That's the funny thing about life, you never know how it's going to turn out.

Working with these women also gives me a completely new view of my sorority advisor in college, who was AWESOME (and still is).  To paraphrase some of her words from convention, which I feel sum up my feelings: "I had a kick a** college experience, and Gamma Phi Beta was one of the main reasons why.  It took the shy girl in the corner and gave her some great friendships and great leadership opportunities."  I couldn't have said it better myself.  While their chapter is completely different from mine, I'm passionate about giving the girls at SLU a similar college and Gamma Phi experience.   I love the Crescent Moon!

The Outtakes

I promise I do more than just take pictures of Leah and I promise posts of more substance are coming up soon.  

For now, I'm sharing a few of the outtakes of Leah's 2 year pictures.

 I love this picture, it seems like she's thinking "What's the answer to 4x6?" (or some tough question)

 In an effort to get Leah to smile, Tim told her there were monkeys in the trees, these pictures show her looking for the monkeys.  Silly monkeys!

Balloons and a Cupcake

When we asked Leah what she wanted for her birthday, she always responded with "Balloons and a cupcake".  Easy enough!  She got a little more (or a lot more) than just balloons and a cupcake at her birthday party on Saturday.

I loosely based her party off the book "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake".  Leah loves cats and loves cupcakes, so it seemed perfect.  I say loosely because really the only thing I did was have people sign the book, made cupcakes, and gave her a cat for her birthday. But when you're two, all you really want for your birthday is a cupcake and a balloon anyway.

I ordered a bunch of pictures from the last year and created a 2 with them.  This is the "after" the party photo.

Leah enjoyed everything about opening her presents, even the cards. 

Letters to Leah {24 Months}

Happy 2nd Birthday Leah!

I can't believe you're 2, where did the time go!?!
- I'm not sure what you weigh or how tall you are, we go to the doctor on Monday, so I'll try to update it then.
- You wear size 24 month or 2T clothes.  Some of the 24 month shirts are too short and most of the 2T things fit pretty good.  You wear a size 6 shoe.
- You can sing all of your ABCs and know all of your colors and shapes.  We're working on learning your letters and the sounds they make, right now you probably know 5-10 letters.
- You have just taken a liking to coloring and will often ask, "Mommy, come color with me!?"
- You're talking up a storm and putting complete sentences together, things like "Hey, that's my grape mommy" if I try to take a grape off your plate.
- We're working on potty training and you usually wear underwear when we're home and you seem to do pretty well with it.  I haven't had the courage to conquer leaving the house in underwear yet.
- You love to play outside with the neighbor kids, every afternoon when we get home, you look for them outside and wave to them even if they're not there.
- You new favorite show is Curious George and your favorite movie is Dumbo.
- You like anything with cats or monkeys.
- You can count to ten and can count to 20 with some help.
- You still like me to sing "You Are My Sunshine" before you go to sleep for your nap or bedtime.
- You love to eat chicken nuggets, french fries, grapes, anything with ketchup, fish pretzels, and cupcakes and cookies.
- You know when baseball and football are on tv and your favorite Cardinal is Yadi and you know he is #4.
- You can recognize and spell your name.
I feel like you're continually growing and changing and I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for you!

Happy 2nd Birthday Leah!