Color Me Rad 5K

Yesterday morning. Downtown Columbia.

Fun!

Not a race for serious runners, that's for sure... wasn't even timed.

But, the thousands of characters who came out to run made it all worthwhile.  And, it benefited Happy Wheels. I pushed Ethan and we both enjoyed giggling our way through as spectators pelted us with color in both powdered and liquid form.

I highly recommend this race for anyone who can walk (or run)! It's scheduled to occur throughout the country.  Here's the website: colormerad.com

South Carolina State Fair 2012

The four of us attended this evening and had a blast. Best one yet.  Andrew is clearly maturing into the protective big brother and Ethan is definitely the daring little kid.

Learned a lot about my camera tonight with the quickly changing fall light. My favorite photo is the fourth one down, where Ethan is waving back from the airplane.

Snapshots of Today

7:40 am: 5th grader L works out her Baja part on lead pan

9:30 am: 3rd graders belt out tunes in prep for Veteran's Day

4:30 pm: Garden spider on our front porch hangs out (been here for at least 4 days, hopefully bagging multiple skeeters)

6:00 pm: Cool kindergartener shows proof of all weekly lessons complete = new Darth Vader Lego guy

7:30 pm: Beautiful sunset from our backyard

Ethan's New School!

Ethan started at a new church preschool at 7:15 this morning.  He was all smiles and we hope he loves it there as much as we think he is going to!

outside the church this morning right before heading into the school

excitedly looking around before entering his classroom for the first time

If I Were Sweating the Small Stuff...

...I would need to buy stock in anti-perspirant. NOW.  

I would be mad that this hole was put in our fence yesterday from a force clearly launched from OUR YARD when WE WERE NOT AT HOME.

 

And, if I were sweating the small stuff, I would also be upset that last week's full moon or barometric pressure or something supernatural seemed to make nearly all children (including my own) behave in bizarre, bad ways, and therefore become even more challenging to teach.

 

I would be annoyed that the van's left back blinker is burned out and I have not had the time to get it fixed.  So, once a day, I can expect to get cussed out when I make a left-hand turn, unbeknownst to the tailgater behind, even though I did really signal, I swear.

 

I would lament, as usual, that I never see my husband during marching band season.  This year, I would sweat it even more, because, due to circumstances beyond his control, he is currently doing all the work of two band directors and has been for over a month.

 

I would rant about Ethan's recent stressful, unfair, emotionally abusive punishment for a potty accident at school that led to our immediate withdrawal from that program and the starting over that will occur at his new school tomorrow.  (More on this story to come, definitely.)

 

Then, if I were sweating the small stuff, I might whine that all this stuff enabled me to badly decide to excuse myself from running all week and therefore kind of blow it on yesterday's 10K.

 

HOWEVER,

 

I will not whine.  Or rant.  Or lament. Or be annoyed. Or be upset.  Or be mad.

 

Because things, right now, although stressful, are still really good!

 

We are all healthy (knock on wood).  And we can pay the bills (knock again).

 

Jon's high school's amazing culinary teacher, who is struggling with cancer, selflessly brought us this delicious dinner Wednesday night because he knew how difficult it had been lately for Jon (and us) as the only band director in a program designed for two.  LOVE.



And, Maddie has the force.  Enough said there.

 

Then there is this sweetheart, who enjoys Momma's cheesy taters as much as the next Mountaineer fan, and chowed them down with me last night as we watched WVU BEAT THE TEXAS LONGHORNS to earn their NUMBER FOUR ranking in the coaches' poll.  THERE IS THAT!

And, Jon Burbank has been maxxing out the single band director thing.  Make no mistake.  I am always amazed by him but am even more so after seeing how he has expertly handled everything that has been thrown at him recently.  Love.

So, I will NOT sweat the small stuff. 

As a very wise friend's very wise dad once told me,

"It's a very short time in a very long life."

My First 10K!

I ran my first 6.2 mile race today with a good friend from school.  The weather and downtown location were both beautiful and perfect. My time was okay, even though we had to run up a giant flight of steps to make it to the starting line before the gun went off (college game day is in town for the USC game, parking was crazy, and we were "running" late) AND there was an enormous hill near the very beginning.  I walked twice, but mostly ran.  My rookie problem was starting out too fast in the spirit of a RACE!  Then, I was spent by mile 2.  ARGH!

Having to walk ridiculously early was the training kick-in-the-butt that I needed since I will need to more than DOUBLE this distance in THE race in about a month.  This week has been very abnormally stressful at work and at home, and I used that stress as an excuse not to run once.  That obviously hurt me and can't happen anymore if I want to successfully complete the half marathon.

Still, it was my first 10K, and I am proud that I did it.

Post race.  My number is askew because I pinned it on literally seconds before the race started. :)
Lindsay is her usual, very put-together self.

Love the cause!

latest ZOO!

Nearly four weeks ago, before Ethan's 3rd birthday party, we spent another great morning at the zoo.  We always love going because the experience is totally new and different every time.  Who knows what animals will decide to put on a show?

It has taken me a while to pick out my favorite shots from that fun September 9 morning.  Here they are.