On the other side of The Half

The update you've all been waiting for! :)

(Catch up here)

Saturday, the 17th, we ran our very first half marathon.

WOOT!! It was SO FUN! I highly recommend it :)

I'm still having trouble believing it myself.

My parents came over before 6am Saturday morning so our babies could sleep.

((I have the best parents))

I don't eat that early in the morning. Yuck. Add serious nervousness and I was willing myself not to vomit. And I ate anyway. Yuck.

But by 7:30am we were pounding the pavement.

As usual, before we even finished the first mile, I wanted to walk. But I pushed through it and kept moving for 13.1 full miles! And at a consistent pace that was complimented :)

Every few miles we were cheered on by a sweet friend who's in our Life Group! It's amazing how encouraging it is to see a familiar face throughout the run!

At 10 miles, when I officially passed into uncharted territory, Derek seemed to develop a bounce in his step. He had a sort of giddy pride. If you know him, you know what I'm talking about.

He was an amazing running partner. I was a little afraid he'd spend the empty time encouraging me to breath and have good posture and relax, etc. But instead it was a very pleasant all morning date! I love him.

We were coming around the pond and approaching the finish line searching for Marie's bright pink vest but couldn't find it! Just as we were about to cross the finish line we spotted my momma snapping a pic...

Ends up they had trouble finding the finish line and managed to pull up just as we were finishing! So the kids were still in the car. But Marie was very happy to see us and the cookies we (by we I mean me) were willing to share.

The official time was 2:17:05

I accomplished both my goals:
1. Ran the entire time
2. Did not come in last

I was back on the road yesterday. Wow, I really love running.

But I pulled a tendon or something in my foot and was told by the chiro today that I need to take a week off. We'll see.

Thank you for following us on this journey! It was seriously so amazing. I couldn't have done it without all of your prayers! I felt them! I'm not just saying that! I've got a cold now, but the day of the race I felt great. I was so encouraged by all the support.

Thank you.

Thinking about doing another half end of October. Who's with me? :)

Hair cuts and a prayer request

If we're friend on facebook, you know that we (Jack, Derek, and I) got haircuts last night. This will be my second time donating a foot of hair to Locks of Love.

Derek loves looong hair. I mean I've actually been a little concerned if I cut it too short, he'd leave me! (Okay, not really, but he certainly wouldn't be thrilled!) But he loves the new do. He spent like 15 minutes last night brushing it and playing with it. It was nice.

Of course it's not short. It's still long. But it's different! And actually has a little style to it for the first time in... well much longer than I'd care to admit.

Now on to the motivation for this post -

The Half is in TWO DAYS!!!

I'm very excited. Very nervous. Totally pumped. Totally freaked out.

But right now my concern is my health. Thanks to an 85 degree day followed by a 65 degree day, I'm feeling kinda ick.

So please say a little extra prayer for me (and Derek!) that we stay/get healthy and just have a great time on Saturday.  I wouldn't mind being sick in bed for two days following the race, I just need to not be sick for these next two days!

Thank you, Friends. Please tell me how I can pray for you!

Oh beautiful naptime.

The perfect time to count my blessings...

41. An eager-to-learn 3 yr old beauty

42. Fall decor

43. Uncle Erik's soccer games.

44. Cousins

45. Room for 3 car seats in the SUV

46. A husband who tells me just before my first 10 mile run - "You could run 15 if you wanted. It's all in your head."

Taken during a 9-miler.

 47. A sister in Christ who prayed for us and allowed herself to be used by God to bless our family.

48. The Wakarusa children's resale!

Marie is absolutely obsessed with her princess pj's.

 49. Amazing homeschool curriculum!

50. Chick-Fil-A ... My sis-in-law and I got free food for ourselves and the 4 kids we had running around us! Amazing food, amazing service, amazing company!

School!

We just completed our first week of preschool!! It was so fun!

I'm babysitting my neighbor. Marie loves "teaching" Tay.

The first day Marie's attention span only lasted about half an hour. But by day 2, she was all about it! She talks about school all the time and gets excited when I tell her it's time to do school.

And in just one week I've seen a vast improvement in her tracing skills and her understanding of uppercase and lowercase letters. She's also doing amazing with coloring/painting inside the lines, and she doesn't have any trouble identifying any letter. I've never specifically worked with her on what numbers look like, but she blew me away with knowing 1-10 almost perfectly!

There's so much to learn and so little time!!

We know exactly why we're homeschooling. And sometime soon I'll write that out. But for now, I'll just leave you with, we believe it's what God wants for us to do right now.

And we love it!!!

I'd love to read any of your thoughts on homeschooling!

By the way, we're doing Erica's preschool curriculum. Highly recommend it!!

Multitudes on Mondays #31-40

This morning I couldn't stop thinking about all the many things I'm thankful for and had no idea how I was going to stick with just 10 for today.

Wow, in a very sudden turn of events I'm not in a super thankful mood anymore! Both kids had sudden melt downs outside in front of our neighbors and for the whole neighborhood to hear.

I mean the all out screaming-and-flailing-and-throwing-themselves-on-the-ground meltdowns.

Yes, BOTH.

But now, several spankings and snuggles later, they are quiet in their rooms, hopefully ready for seriously long naps.

So that brings me to #31:

31. NAP TIME.

32. Green peppers from the garden

33. Cool, fall weather

"Mommy, it's cooooold!"

34. Hoodies. Woot!

35. Life Group

36. Our amazing house that makes having tons of people over so much more fun!

37. First day of homeschool

38. Amazing homeschool blogs that I couldn't live without - Confessions of a Homeschooler and Blog, She Wrote (and so many more!)

39. A job for the husband, even if he has to work on Labor Day.

40. Unexpected check in God's perfect timing.

Well, isn't that the whole purpose of multitudes on mondays - to focus on our many blessings even when we really don't feel like it?

I really do feel better :)

What are you thankful for today? Make sure to link up!