Good Friday

I saw this Facebook status update earlier today and it struck me.

Today is the day that Peter, the rock, crumbled. Today is the day that Judas got paid, but his debt still stood. Today is the day that we had the audacity to mockingly crown the King Of The Universe. Today is the day that the cries of “Crucify Him” were ours, and landed viciously on Jesus. Today is the day that a Roman soldier looked up and believed. Today is the day Isaiah’s prophecy was confirmed. Today is that day that blood and water flowed. Today is the day the horrible, and immense, cost of our sin was made obvious. Today is the day that the limitless love God has for us was made even more obvious. Today we see how far the East is from the West, and the price God paid to take our sins that far away. Today is the day Jesus Christ died. Today is the day we killed him. Today is the day Christ paid to reconcile the hearts of all of us rebels to God. Today is the day Christ died OUR death. Today is Good Friday, and it is a day the Lord has made so let us rejoice and be glad. Today is the day we celebrate the purchasing, at an incredible cost, of the Grace those in Christ Jesus enjoy. I know I cannot live with out this Grace: so today I will remember what it cost.

This was written by a college student who was my intern a couple of years ago.  I love his words and the reflection it caused.

V.I.B. - Very Inspiring Blogger

This kind of makes me giggle...I checked in on my blog yesterday morning to discover that my friend Jenny named me as one of her nominees for being a Very Inspiring Blogger.  Imagine my surprise since I have only been blogging for a few weeks!  Thanks Jenny!  Go check out Jenny's blog run-halfway.

The award has three simple rules:

1. Thank and link back to the person who nominated you.  (see above)
2. Share 7 things about yourself. (see below)
3. Nominate 15 other bloggers and comment on their blogs to let them know. (see below) 

 7 things about myself.  I'm not sure I can find 7 interesting things about myself but here goes...

1. My job title is HR & Finance Manager but my background/schooling is in Travel & Tourism.  This cracks me up some times.  I keep reminding my boss that often times I have no idea what I'm doing.  
2. I didn't begin running until I was over 40.  Yes, I'm a slow learner.  Probably why I'm lacking speed, I was middle aged when I learned how to do this running thing.
3. I helped bust a drug dealer when I worked at the airport.  Too long of a story to post here but after identifying them as a profile passenger and calling the police, they were arrested.  2 years later, I got a call from the DEA who gave me a very nice reward for assisting.  That was the downpayment for our first house.
4. I love to cook.  I'm no gourmet and will never be.  I love to cook comfort food.  Homemade roasts, soups, pot pies, stews, etc.  Part of why I struggle with my weight.  I cook what I like to eat.
5. My favorite color is purple.  Yes, I'm stretching to find things about myself.
6. I actually enjoy mowing the lawn.  Mostly because we have a tractor and riding around out in the sun is relaxing to me.  When the kids were younger, it was a welcome break to have Mark take care of them while I got outside and rode around in peace.  Shhhh, don't tell my kids that.
7. I LOVE Disney!  Not new news but it is something about me.  My mom worked for the airlines throughout my life and we have family in both California and Florida so Disney has always been part of my life.  They took me to WDW the year it opened in Florida.  I had Mark down there within 6 months of when we got married and over the years, he has come to love it almost as much as me.  It's just a magical break from the real world and it's fun!

Nominations.  I agree with Jenny, 15 is a lot!  I have only recently entered the blogging world and many of the blogs I read have already been nominated by others.  I'm going to nominate blogs that I haven't seen nominated elsewhere.

1. bringing the sunshine - My running friend Andi has such a great way with words.  Her blog is a mom blog about life with a double dose of special (needs).  I am an avid reader of her blog.
2. waiting for our adopted princess - One of my long time friends Sally began a blog as they were going through the process of adopting their daughter from Russia.  Now she blogs about her family as they are growing up.
3. Miss Megan Clara - I began following this blog because the story of little Megan touched my heart.  She was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta and was not expected to survive.  She is an adorable little fighter though.
4. The Blog of Dale Hummel - This is our senior pastor's blog.  He generally blogs when he is overseas training pastors in other countries.
5. No Greater Joy Mom - I blogged about this not too long ago.  This family absolutely amazes me.  You can read what I said about them here.

Since I decided not to duplicate nominations, this is all I've got.  I hope you enjoy checking them out.

Nutrimeal?

So my parents are big into Usana Vitamins & Supplements.  I will avoid describing how hard it is to have a conversation with them without them bringing it up in some way.  They are hooked. 

I can't argue with some of the success they have had since they started regularly taking them.  Especially my dad.  He has Type 2 Diabetes and one of the side effects is Psoriasis.  He had it bad.  His doctors had him on daily injections of different prescription medications, they prescribed creams and supplements.  Nothing worked.  He could not sit at my kitchen table or on my couch without leaving flakes of skin everywhere.  He had scabs and open sores at times it was so bad.  9 months after he took himself off of the doctor prescribed medications and started taking the Usana Vitamins, his Psoriasis is gone.  100% gone.  That's why he's hooked.

Anyway, they have finally worn me down and convinced me to try the Nutrimeal Shakes.  I bought an 18 day supply and started yesterday.  They are meal replacement shakes and I have been promised that if the only change I make in my eating is to replace my breakfast with one of these shakes, I will lose weight.

We'll see.  I'm a skeptic by nature so I don't have a lot of faith that this will work but what can it hurt, right?

So far, after 2 days, I will admit that they taste ok and they appear to satisfy my hunger until lunch time. 

My motivation?  I said in a previous post that I need to focus on losing weight and gaining speed in my running.  This is my somewhat lazy attempt at losing weight.

I'll keep you posted...

Grieving

My heart is so heavy tonight.  A friend of Bradley's was out playing ultimate frisbee 2 nights ago and went into cardiac arrest.  Tonight, his parents have had to make the unfathomable decision to pull him off of life support. 

I've never met this friend and I've never met his family but my heart is breaking for them all the same.  As a mom, I can imagine the pain of having to make a decision like that.  I can imagine the grief they feel.  All I can do is pray for them.

My heart is also so sad for Bradley.  Losing a friend as we are approaching the 1 year anniversary of losing one of his lifelong friends, Austin, has to be so hard on him.  I know it's on his mind more than he admits. 

I feel the need to hug my kids tightly tonight and thank God for them.

Some People Amaze Me

I have a few blogs that I have recently started reading. 

One of them tugs at my heart like none of the others.  It is written by a wife/mom and is about her family.  Husband, wife, 3 sons they had the good old fashioned way, 2 daughters adopted from China who have special needs, 2 daughters adopted from (I'm not sure what country) with Down Syndrome and most recently (like 9 weeks ago?) another son (also with Down Syndrome) and daughter adopted from a notoriously awful orphanage in Bulgaria. That's right, 9 kids, 6 of them adopted with special needs. 

This family, this couple, is amazing!

I have been following along, more because of the story and condition of the daughter they most recently adopted.  Her story makes my heart ache.  She was 14 years old (weeks from turning 15) when she was adopted and I am not even sure of the exact nature of all of her special needs but here is what I do know.  She laid in a crib in an orphanage for over 14 years.  She laid in her own waste for days at a time, she is unable to even sit up because her bones and joints and muscles are in such bad shape because she has Cerebral Palsy.  They found out just days ago that she is also legally blind.  She weighed only 14 pounds when they brought her home.  That is 1 pound for each year of her life. 

How does this happen?  Ugh.  It just hurts my heart and brings tears to my eyes to think about it.  The thing is, she's not alone.  There are other children out there. 

Here I sit in my comfortable, blessed life and I look at this family.  They are making a difference in the lives of these children that they have chosen.  What am I doing?  It makes me feel like a failure in some ways.

God is changing my heart very slowly, I can see it.  I feel like I need to quit sitting here thinking about it and go do something.  Am I being moved to adopt?  No.  I'm pretty confident that's not it.  I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing but the more time that passes, the more confident that I am that I should do something. 

For now?  I'm just going to keep praying and asking God to show me what he wants me to do.

Am I Really Not A People Person?

Mark and I were on a date the other night.  Conversation was all over the place as usual but somehow lead to him making the statement that he is more of a people person than I am.  He also said I am grumpy and short.

That's laughable.  Really?  I am such a social person.  Too social at times.  How on earth could he possibly think that he is more of a people person than I am?

There was quite a bit of laughter between us as we were both trying to make our points.  There's been quite a bit of laughter and teasing in the days following as we are still trying to point out evidence to support our "side". 

I've come to the conclusion that he may be right.  Sort of.  If you use his definition of people person vs. mine.

When I think of what a people person is, I think of someone who loves to be with people.  That's me.  Not sure I need to say more about it, it's pretty simple.

Mark was thinking differently about what a people person is.  He was thinking of someone who is empathetic and compassionate.

If you go by my definition, I am most certainly a people person.  If you go by his definition, I have to admit that he may be a little bit right.

He is a compassionate guy.  More than me in many situations.

I am not very tolerant of stupid behavior.  This would include making bad choices.  In other words, I am not so compassionate when the law of natural consequences rears its head.  I may have been known to gloat over the fact that there were consequences to some people's bad decisions.  Yeah, I'm not very proud of that.

And this is why I shouldn't have a blog.  Now everyone knows I'm a rotten person.

I think I need to stop here.  You really don't want to read about how grumpy and short I can be, right???

Mickey 20

It feels a little "Goofy" (get the pun there?) to be writing about Marathon Weekend 2 months after it happened. It's a little like child birth in that the pain and misery is already fading so I'm thinking if I write it down to remind myself, I might remember how awful it was.  I was pretty traumatized by the marathon, I'm not even sure I have the words in me to properly convey how much.  So badly that I almost didn't run Donna.

I ran the half (Donald) on Saturday with Gail.  It was her first half and we were out to enjoy the experience.  The course was so badly crowded that I felt like it really affected our pace but we finished in under the allowed time of 3:30 and crossed the finish line with smiles on our faces.  I considered it a success.

Sunday morning I woke up and just didn't feel like running.  I knew I was in trouble since running is so mental for me and I just wasn't interested in doing it.  I should have read the signs and gone back to bed.  Mark & I got ready and hopped on a bus from our resort to the start.  We hung at the H tent with all the rest of the ROTE peeps until it was time to move to our corral.  We had a great group to hang with in the corral and there were quite a few of us that were planning on a similar pace.  Things were looking like it might turn out to be a fun race after all.

By the time we crossed the start line, the only thing I could think of was finding the first port-o-pottie.  I will spare you the details but I had multiple "issues" that were making me miserable.  I didn't feel "right" the entire race. On top of that, I had been fighting a headache for several days that I just couldn't shake.  I told everyone to go on ahead and I would catch up.  I didn't want to lose the group so I ran way more than I should have to catch up to them.  It was just like going out of the gate too fast, big mistake that hurt me later.  I think it took at least 2 miles.  Right after I caught up to everyone, we hit the Ticket & Transportation Center and most everyone else wanted to stop to use the bathrooms there.  I didn't need to stop and neither did Rebecca so we decided to keep going, at a slower pace, till they could catch up with us.  They never did catch back up.

Rebecca and I in front of the castle

Photo courtesy of Roberta P.

Things were going ok but not great till just after the speedway.  We headed down that road past the sewage treatment plant and several things went wrong for me here.  First, my brain felt like I should be further along in the race than I was.  This messed with me in a HUGE way.  I didn't expect it to be that bad.  Second, it was HOT and I just wasn't feeling like myself.  The sun was beating down on us and all I wanted was shade and the sponge stop.  I knew that in reality, it wasn't coming till later but that stretch was where my brain wanted it to still be.  At the half-way mark, I knew I was in trouble.  I was already hurting way more than I should, mentally I was messed up and I just felt sluggish.

Looking back, I wonder if I was anemic in the weeks leading up to the race.  I knew my long runs were sluggish and in general, I was feeling run down.  I attributed it to the Holidays and being too busy.  The constant craving for red meat should have been a clue but...  Just call me clueless.

Anyway, Rebecca and I kept trying to interval but we just kept getting slower and slower.  I don't even remember what mile we were at when we came across Patrick but he joined us at some point.  We finally gave up on the running and just walked.  It was way too early in the race to be doing that.   In hindsight, I'm pretty sure this made things way worse for me.  In training, I always push myself to keep up my intervals, even if I change them up to walk more and run less.  My legs are not used to just walking and I think we walked pretty much all of the last 9 miles.  I just kept hurting more and more and so many times I just had to sit on a guard rail or something else on the side of the road to take the pressure off of my legs and feet.  Everything just hurt and I was hot and I didn't feel good and I couldn't seem to find any relief.  I was miserable and had it been a training run, I would have quit.

Mile 20

As much as I was hurting, I enjoyed seeing these 3

My fueling had a ton to do with my energy in the later hours also.  I drank 1 packet of GenUCan before the race and 1 packet maybe 3 hours in and that was it.  I was out there WAY too long for just that.  I essentially had no fuel in me for the last 2 hours I was on the course.  I had serious marathon brain at that point, I had Honey Stingers in my skirt pocket I should have eaten.  I can't think of a reason why I wouldn't have eaten them except I just didn't think of it.  That is ironic though since at mile 14, Rebecca was feeling sluggish and I was reminding her to fuel.

With the exception of running through most of Hollywood Studios, we walked our way to the finish.  I was doing my best to not burst into tears.  I just wanted it to be over so badly.  This picture is also courtesy of Roberta P.  The look on my face is one of misery.

Boardwalk

Patrick is next to me in orange and Jenny is a few steps behind on the right in pink.  We were less than 1/2 mile from the finish line when I had to just sit on a ledge and dangle my feet to relieve some of the pressure.  People were passing us telling us "it's just around the corner, keep going!" and "don't give up now!".  I didn't even care, I was hurting so bad.  We came across Katie just before we hit the gospel choir and I lost it and just started crying.  I think I scared her.

We limped our way across the finish line and it was finally over!  All I wanted to do was sit down.  I made my way to the H-tent where poor Mark had been waiting for 2 1/2 hours and sat down and cried.  I was just so happy it was over.

All I can say is why would I ever want to do this again?

Trying to Figure Out Why I'll Miss It...

I'm sitting here trying to figure out just what it is that is bumming me out.  Why am I having such a hard time letting go?

Maybe I feel like I'm giving up before I've reached my full potential?  Yes.  I know I can do better.  I really didn't push as hard as I possibly could for my PR at Donna.  What if I could lose some weight and do way better?  Like break the 6 hour mark?  I feel like I'm giving up before I've really seen what I'm capable of.

Maybe I'll miss the awesome feeling of accomplishment when I cross the finish line?  I don't think it is a feeling that someone who hasn't run a marathon can understand.  The pride in my accomplishment, knowing that I pushed myself way beyond my comfort zone, knowing that only 0.5% of the U.S. population has ever run a marathon and I am part of that percentage.  It is almost unexplainable but it's one of the best feelings I've ever experienced.

Maybe I'll miss the notoriety that comes when people know I am training to run a marathon?  I'll be honest, I love the reaction I get from people when they hear I am training to run 26.2 miles.  They are amazed that this overweight, middle aged mom is doing such a crazy thing.  It's fun doing something that people don't envision me as able to do.

I'm pretty sure it's all of the above but mostly the first.  I'm making the choice to be done for now but who knows what the future holds?  For now, I'm going to focus on weight loss, cross training and half marathons.  I have plenty of progress I can make in each of those areas.  Maybe when I hit 50 I'll attempt another full.  Who knows??? 

Why Retiring from Marathons Has Me Down

I'm in a funk.

Normally, this time of the year puts me into something known as seasonal blues.  Gray skies for days at a time, cold temperatures, kids getting sick, it all just gets me a bit down.

This year seems to be a little different though.  I certainly can feel that I'm not as chipper as I am when the weather is beautiful but there is another factor in play here.  I think I am mourning the end of a season in my life. 

That seems reasonable, what season is that? 

Well, I am done with running marathons.  What's the big deal you ask?  I wish I knew.  I've only run 4 of them, it's not like I've done all that many.

I have so many reasons why I need to be done running marathons.  The biggest is the time commitment.  I am a wife, mom, daughter, friend, employee and volunteer.  I'm sure there are more that I'm just not thinking of right now.  Anyway, these are all very important roles in my life and they all deserve to be a priority.  I have a very full life and I love it.  The time that it takes to train for a marathon is considerable.  I just don't have that much time to give and I don't want to do it if I can't give it the effort it deserves.

Another reason is that I really need to focus on weight loss.  Even 20lbs would have a huge impact on my speed.  I just can't seem to focus on weight loss when I'm training.  I need to take some time to strengthen other parts of my body besides my legs and I need to find my motivation and self control again.

Reasons 3 and 4?  Running that far hurts and it's lonely.  Yes, I know they are lame reasons but it's true.  Spending hours upon hours running alone isn't fun.  The race is fun and is a reward for all the hard work you put in leading up to it but the training stinks.  My long run days literally ruin almost an entire day in the week.  There are only 7 days in a week and when 1 of them is lost to running, it's a huge impact.  I'm so slow that it takes many, many hours to run (my long runs of 20-22 miles take me up to 5-6 hours and that's not including the time it takes to get ready or the time it takes to recover) and by the end, I can hardly move I'm so sore and let's not talk about my energy levels after I finish.  I have no energy to do anything except sit on the couch with my feet up.  I'm not sure it's worth it.

So there you go.  I've laid out all of my excuses reasons why I'm done.  After reading this, I can't imagine why anyone would want to run 26.2 miles.  I certainly haven't made it sound all that great so why am I so sad?  I'm still trying to figure that part out.

Stay tuned...

26.2 With Donna - Part 2

Sunday morning started bright and early.  I got myself ready, hopped in the car and drove to the hotel next door to pick Katie up.  We were heading to the start together.  We got caught in some horrible traffic on our way to the start.  They moved the start line of Donna this year and there were some kinks with how smoothly they were able to get everyone in to park.  We were early enough that we weren't stressed about making it on time but it was still frustrating.  We parked and headed to the port-o-potties where we found a few ROTErs.  As we made our way to the start, we met up with even more ROTErs so that by the time we were in our corral, we had a nice group to hang with.  They delayed the start for 30 minutes because of the parking issues which was a bummer.  It was FREEZING cold and I didn't love standing around being cold before the start.  Oh well, at least I was in good company.

I need to add that I had the worst pre-race jitters that I've ever experienced.  Not that I've run that many marathons, but by far, this was the worst.  I'm sure it had A LOT to do with how badly my marathon at Disney went 5 weeks prior.   It didn't matter that I knew why I was so scared, I was still terrified I wouldn't be able to finish in time.

I was impressed with the start of the race.  They actually prayed.  Not a fake prayer but a genuine prayer.  I'm guessing Donna is a Christian?  Anyway, that was a really cool part of the race to me.

Finally, we were off.  I had made plans before the race to hang with Deb.  She is much faster than me but was looking to take it slow and have someone to hang with and I was very happy for the company.  Janice started the race with us also and said she would hang with us as long as she could.  We covered the first mile a bit faster than I knew I could maintain for the long haul so we pulled back just a bit.  We were still going faster than I believed I could maintain but I figured I would keep the pace up as long as my body would let me.  I kept telling them that I probably wouldn't be able to maintain that speed and I would have to slow down at some point.  They probably got so sick of me saying that.  I'm pretty sure I was still saying it at mile 15.

I enjoyed the course and the neighborhoods we ran through very much.  I stopped and had mini pink frosted cupcakes from one house and munchkins from another house.  It was fun and the neighborhood support was really cool.  During the race, we kept leap-frogging with Joan and Chris.  It really does make it more fun when you see friends out on the course.  We hit the 2 1/2 mile stretch of beach that I knew was coming and it was the worst part of the race for me.  I was cold and still had my throwaways on and the wind on the beach was so stiff.  It was a headwind which was so much worse than a tailwind would have been.  I endured that part of the race the best I could and I tried not to whine too much.  The beach was where we ran past my hotel.  Patty & Louise were out there chEARing for me which was a nice pick-me-up.  Just past Patty & Louise, we came across Deb (not the Deb I was running with, another one).  She was rooming with Katie and was out there freezing and chEARing on whatever ROTErs she could find.

Once we exited the beach, we caught up to Joey & Matt who were with Joan & Chris at that point.  We leapfrogged with all of them for maybe a mile before Joey & Matt took off to finish the race at their speed.  It was a fun pick-me-up to see them too.

We kept up with our intervals and I'm not even sure at what point I realized that if I could maintain it, I could PR the race.  I kept doing the math in my head every mile to see if I could still do it.  About mile 18, we passed my hotel again and Patty & Louise were out front waiting for me.  They had a banana for me which was awesome!  Just having them out there encouraging me on was really cool.  A couple miles later, around mile 20, we came to the bar that we knew Mark & Mindy were sitting at chEARing.  We paused briefly to say hi and let them know that Joan & Chris were just behind us.  They told us that Joey & Matt had stopped for a drink and had just left a few minutes before we got there.

We kept going and about mile 23, Janice & I were getting pretty tired (I'm pretty sure this was a walk in the park for Deb).  We dropped our intervals down a bit.  I kept doing the math in my head and it still looked like I would be able to PR.  At about mile 24 was where we had the uphill cloverleaf with a nasty camber.  Our intervals really seemed to fall apart in that part.  The cloverleaf lead to the causeway which looked horrible.  Janice saw it and told us she was going to have to walk the uphill part.  I looked at Deb and said lets do 30:30's up the hill.  We did and then tried to make up some time on the downhill portion.  We were so close and I was still on track to PR.  We crossed the finish line in 6:26:40 which was about a 2 minute PR for me.  Pretty cool considering I was afraid I wouldn't even be able to finish the race when I started.  Janice finished a few minutes behind us with a PR for herself also.

The finish line area was pretty deserted and there was no post-race anything left by the time we came through.  They had delayed the start of the race by 30 minutes but still closed up the finish line area at the originally planned time.  I can't even begin to tell you how bummed I was over that.

All the ROTErs who had finished before us had gathered around some tables and chairs to relax and chat for a bit.  That was a mistake, I should have stretched.  Trust me, I paid for that in the days to come.  I was just so happy to be done and to sit down.

It was a great way to finish my marathoning days. At least, I think I'm done with marathons.  That will have to be another post for another day.

26.2 With Donna - Part 1

It seems kind of funny to start a blog just weeks after you retire from running marathons.  I never claimed my timing was great.  Sorry for the length but I want to remember the weekend.

I have been reading about the Donna Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer for several years and decided that it belonged on my bucket list.  Once I made the decision to be done running marathons, I realized that if I wanted to run this race, I needed to do it this year.  I talked Mark into letting me fly down to Jacksonville for a long weekend and then talked two friends into coming down with me.  A girls weekend in conjunction with a race weekend.

We left early Friday morning to fly to Jacksonville.  My friend Patty and I were on the same flight.  Our other friend Louise was on a different airline and would arrive before us and wait in the airport.  We found her easily, claimed our bags, got the rental car and we were on our way.  One of the volunteers working the Donna table in the terminal told us it would be best if we hit the expo on our way to the hotel.  We headed in to downtown Jacksonville to the expo, got our bibs, shirts & bags and then shopped a bit.  We were pretty hungry by this time so we asked around and heard that The Landing was nearby and had plenty of places to eat along the St. Johns River.  We enjoyed a great lunch sitting in the sun outside.  What a fantastic way to start the weekend!

View at Lunch

After lunch, we made our way to our hotel which was on Jacksonville Beach.  I chose this hotel because it had the beach location Patty and Louise requested and it was on the full marathon course which meant they could spectate even without a car.  We checked in and explored the hotel a bit, then it was off to dinner.

We met a bunch of ROTErs at a local pub/grill and had a nice dinner.  It's always so much fun to spend time with my running friends.  Then it was back to the hotel and to bed.  We had a 5k to walk in the morning.

Saturday morning came and I got up and got myself ready.  Once I was out of the bathroom, I woke the other two sleeping beauties up and told them it was time to get ready.  Louise got up, Patty told us to go ahead, she wanted to stay at the hotel and relax.  Since Patty had just registered for the 5k the day before at the expo, Louise & I thought she was joking.  She wasn't.  This will forever be known as "pulling a Patty".  Louise & I headed back to downtown Jacksonville and met up with Mindy & Dave who were walking the 5k with us.

 Dave & I rocking our flowers

 Taking a break

Mile 1!

Can't decide if this was yoga or Karate Kid

We had a blast walking that race!  Dave was our photographer and he kept us laughing and posing.  Louise was walking in honor of her sister who is currently battling breast cancer.  I talked Mindy into walking it with us just days before we left and Dave decided to join us the night before at dinner.   I was along for the ride.

After the race, we hung around the expo a bit and shopped some more, then headed back to the hotel to relax for the rest of the day.  It was overcast and chilly (in the 50's) but that didn't stop us from sitting by the pool and reading a book.

Stay tuned for part 2.  The marathon.

Let's Get Started

I'm not sure where to begin.  Maybe a little background info?

We'll start with Mark.  My hubby is my best friend.  After 21 years, he still makes me laugh and I still love spending time with him.  He's a hard worker but I even that out since I like to play.  We both love traveling to Disney and we both enjoy running.  I love that we are growing older together.

Next is our firstborn.  Bradley is 17 and is a senior in high school.  He is an amazing young man who God has gifted with many talents.  His desire is to go to Moody Bible Institute next year and eventually go into full time ministry overseas.  I don't doubt for a minute that God will do amazing things through Bradley's life.

Matthew is our classic middle child.  He is 14 years old and is a mini-Mark when it comes to personality and sense of humor.  He is such a loving affectionate kid and he's really bright also.  I love watching him grow and mature.  He's my cuddler.

Caitlyn is 10, is the baby and is the only girl.  Can you say spoiled?  Not by us as much as by her brothers though.  She is A LOT like her mom.  I'm so grateful that God saw fit to send her our way.

I work part time at our church as the HR & Finance Manager.  My degree is actually in Travel & Tourism so this job is a bit out of my comfort zone but I love it.  I get to work with some really fun and amazing people and I'm learning a lot!  I just celebrated my 3 year workaversary last week.  I'm still trying to figure out how to balance everything in my life.  Sometimes I do fairly well but more often, I fail.

I learned a few years back that I really enjoy running.  Actually, I call it wogging as it is more like a combination of walking and jogging.  To date, I have completed 9 half marathons, 4 full marathons and many races of shorter distances.  I am what you would refer to as a back-of-the-packer.  I'm extremely slow but I get it done and I usually cross the finish line with a smile on my face.

Lastly, but most importantly, I love Jesus.  I am grateful that I was raised in a Christian home and that I was introduced to Jesus at an early age.  My relationship with Jesus defines the rest of my life.  If you are offended by this, my blog may not be the place for you.

Stay tuned, let's see where this leads us...

Test Post

Ok, here we go.  I'm going to try my hand at this blogging thing.  This is a test post to see if things are working.