HAPPY HOLIDAYS

(I'll be back to add links and pictures...I'm still trying my computer back to normal after a surprise upgrade to Windows 7)

First of all, we wish all of our family and friends near and far a very merry Christmas and a blessed new year!

This year started out very rocky. First, Dennis had a ruptured disc in his neck that required surgery. We’re still unsure of exactly how it happened. In an attempt at preventing Dennis from hurting himself more, I tried to get something up high in the garage down and hurt my neck. The diagnosis for that was pretty wide, but we settled with it being a bulging disc. I’m so thankful to a physical therapist friend that worked on me and gave me a lot of advice and stretching activities. It was very stressful January for our entire family and we are so grateful that Mary (Dennis’ Mom) was able to come out and help us.

That was swiftly followed my some major vehicle repairs on our big truck. We went back and forth about making the repairs or getting a different vehicle for a while. Finally, we settled on making the repairs and hoping that it would last a few more years. So far so good, thus far.

That’s about the time that I also trailed off on updating my blog. I didn’t have much fun stuff to write about so I chose not to write anything. The rest of our year has passed in what feels like a blink of an eye. We have all had a very busy year.

Elizabeth is now a first grader and has adjusted to all the new routine of being a grade older. There are only 3 children from her class last year in her class this year. One of them is a little boy that adores her and gave her first love note. YIKES! Thankfully, she is still pretty smitten with two of her best buds. She loves math (no big surprise there) and has been doing well with her reading and spelling, too. She has continued speech therapy this year and is making great strides. We signed her up for gymnastics and she is doing a great job there as well. Her favorites are the floor gymnastics and bar. It’s amazing to see the growth since the beginning of the school year.

Katherine is in the 3 year-olds class in preschool and will turn four in January. This year she is in preschool 4 days a week and LOVES it! She loves to paint and color. Recently she started to ask for workbooks to do while I am working with Elizabeth on her homework. It is amazing to see all of the things she is learning and often times pretends not to know. She originally wanted to sign up for dance class, but that didn’t work out so we signed her up for gymnastics. On her very first day she was designated the beam queen as she refused for any assistance as she gingerly darted across the high beam. She likes the bar as well, but nothing could hold a candle to the beam.

Dennis has almost been with Time Warner Cable for 19 years now. This year he has traveled more than any other and it looks like that will continue into next year as well. He turned the big 4-0 this year and was very surprised by the girls and myself with 40 gifts for 40 years. After his neck surgery earlier this year he decided it was time to start scratching things off of his bucket list by jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Yes, that’s right, skydiving! Our neighbor/friend, Gaz and Dennis both did a tandem jump at Carolina Skydive. The video is amazing! He had a blast doing it and is ready to skydive again anytime! Although, Emma (Gaz’s wife) and I say that we get to do it next time!

I am still staying at home, although, I keep myself pretty busy. I am one of the PTA Vice Presidents for our Elementary school and have had the pleasure of working with an amazing PTA board, school staff, and parents. We have had a very successful and productive year thus far and I look forward to continue being active in years to come. At church, I volunteer in the nursery and manage a small piece of the nursery ministry (the laundry). In addition to that I am still on the list for substitute teaching at preschool. I am sad that I have yet to be available when the opportunity has come up to sub this year. I really enjoyed it a lot last year. Hopefully the New Year will bring more opportunities for me to do that.

Although, we stayed close to home most of the year, we have had several fun adventures over the year.

Early this year we also received a few snow days. There were snow ball fights with the neighbors and sledding with friends down a neighbor’s hill. Our neighbor, Emma (also a Mom), and I were the snowman builders. The kids were tickled with it when it was all done. Although, I think Elizabeth & Gryffin would have been happiest to topple him over. It is funny how snow can turn adults into big kids.

Both girls had spring programs at school (which would have been last year). They were both adorable. They were both singing songs around the house for weeks before the program.

We planted a garden again this year, but the record breaking heat really took a lot out of the garden. I think we will be doubling the size of it next year. We also planted a Peach tree, a Pineapple Pear tree, and two Blueberry bushes. Hopefully we’ll get a little fruit from them this year. Both of the girls took swim lessons again this summer.

At the end of the summer we made a quick trip to Washington DC. That was a lot of fun and a lot of walking. We are hoping to return and see more of the museums when the girls are a little older.

This fall inspired the girls to want to spend as much time outside as possible. They want to ride their bikes every day. I’m certain it won’t be long before they are both asking to have their training wheels removed.

My Mom came out to visit over Thanksgiving. While she was here we took the girls to high tea at a local place here. It went perfectly with a book the girls have both enjoyed, Tea for Ruby. In the book a little girl receives an invitation to have tea with the Queen (who turns out to be Grandma). We enjoyed shopping and visiting Santa in the Mall. They were both sad to see her go.

Grandma Mary & Grandpa Royal will be here for Christmas this year and we are very excited about that as well. It has been a real treat to have family here for the two big holidays! We can’t think of a better way to finish up the year than with family!

MS Walk

This is the 4th or 5th year that I have participated in the MS (Multiple Sclerosis) Walk. This was the first year that I was going to run the event. Many thank yous to my family and friends that supported me in this event. I exceeded my initial $250 fundraising goal! If you wanted to make a donation but didn't get a chance yet, they are still accepting donations until mid June. Here is the link to my participant center.

The local National MS Chapter had changed things up quite a bit this year. We were walking in a new location and there was very little information on the website. That was a little frustrating. There was no map course and the only time listed was for check in. So I was there at 7:24 for checking in. They don't make out your shirt so you have to sign in to get it. There was hardly anyone there. After I checked in I found the coffee tent and got a cup of coffee. Then I found my way to the information tent where I learned that the walk was not starting until 9am. I also found a turn by turn written out course instructions for the 2 mile and 4 mile courses. NO map. GREAT! It really seemed like they were not that organized this year at all. That was a bit disappointing.
With at least an hour and a half to kill I was bored out of my mind. Alison was unable to make the event so I was on my own. I did find another really nice gal, Stephanie, that was walking the event on her own and we started talking. We both have girls similar ages and a few other things in common so we hit it off. She was walking for herself since she was diagnosed with MS not so long ago. I had not even thought about bringing a camera, so Stephanie offered to email me her photos. Thanks to her I have some great shots to share with all of you.

Before we knew it, it was finally 9am and Larry Sprinkle started talking on the stage. They had us do warm up stretches.....only to talk for almost another 30 minutes. They had a beautiful balloon release. Each balloon represented a participant that had MS. for each person

Finally at 9:27 we started to move. The bad part was that the first couple of sections we were suppose to stay on the sidewalks. Imagine 1500 people of different paces trying to all stay on the sidewalks. Some cyclist had showed up to participate and I was sure I wasn't the only runner in the bunch.

I started jogging on the shoulder when there was no on coming traffic and caught up to the lead motorcycle cop. I asked if it was okay for me to run ahead and he said it was fine, but I was on my own for traffic. I was fine with that so I was off and running. Shortly there after 4 other runners joined me. We lost one runner once we crossed the road.

I figured if I could just keep them in sight I could keep going. We all took our own little walk breaks along the way. We'd catch up to each other and then fall back off and on, too. There was not a single water station over 3 miles of the 4 mile course. The first/last water station was when we rejoined the 2 mile course. I am guessing that was at the last mile maker. We really had no idea how far into the run we were at any point.

While taking one of my last walk breaks, I looked over and I was walking next to my new friend Stephanie! I was glad to see that she was doing well on her 2 mile walk. I was loosing sight of the other runners in the mix of the large crowd of walkers, so I picked the pace back up. I joined up with one of the other runners and we finished the last uphill run together. I crossed the finish line at 10:07am. I ran/walked 4 miles in only 40 minutes! That's a 10 minute mile pace. My legs certainly felt it.

I stretched out and chatted with the other runners. We were all surprised that there were not more runners there for the event. Then watched to see if I could see Stephanie cross the finish line. I didn't see her, but she saw me! We chatted a bit more and had our picture taken together. I look forward to getting to know her better.
It was a beautiful, warm, and very humid morning, but it was not raining! Well, at least it didn't start raining until I was almost home. Thank you again for all of your support!

Elizabeth 8K

It was a nice cool overcast and a little off and on drizzly spring morning here in Charlotte. Perfect for nice run! Dennis, the girls and I met up with Therese and her family before the race. Our husbands and girls (they have two girls similar ages to Elizabeth & Katherine) hung out and waited for us to cross the finish line. It looked like the girls had fun playing while the guys got to chat. It was very nice to have them there to cheer us on!

We ran the 3K portion of the Elizabeth 8K. I felt great most of the race. Therese and I actually chatted off and on during the 1.86 miles. We didn't finish first, but we didn't finish last either and we ran the entire thing. We did a good job coaching each other and our paces seemed like they were pretty evenly matched. It actually went by faster than I'd imagined. I'm not sure what our exact finishing time was, but when I glanced at the clock right before we crossed the line it read 26:15. I added a few seconds and then Therese pointed out that was started 5 minutes after the 8K runners. That brought our time down to a little over 21 minutes. Overall, we shaved some time off of the pace we have both been running on our treadmills.

One race down and the next will be near the end of April. I think I'm hooked on running. Who knew I was a runner? I sure didn't! (Sorry, no pictures. Therese's husband took some so I'll have to see if I can get a few to post out here.)

Running Races!

Saturday is a big day for me. I will be competing in a run as a runner. I've walked many many events, but this will be the first one that I will be running. I am running in the Elizabeth 8K on Saturday. No, I won't be running 8K, but the 3K portion of the run. That is 1.86 miles. I signed up for it only a couple of weeks ago when a fellow preschool Mom mentioned it to me. We're going to run it together. I'm very excited about it.

I never thought that I'd really enjoy running. That was mostly because of a bad knee. The strange thing is that my knee has not been bothering me at all. I've actually found that I feel like I should be running on the days that I'm not running. I actually look forward to my daily run.

The plan is to sign up for a 5K (3.1 miles) at the end of April. That will be followed by the MS 5 Mile Walk in mid May. I plan to run that as well. I'm hoping to eventually work my way up to a 1/2 marathon. I don't think I'll try a full marathon, but who knows. I guess I'll have to wait and see on that.

I'll keep you posted on how things go!