give thanks

"give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
His love endures forever."
Psalm 107:1

I take so much of my life for granted- big things, small things, everything in between.  It's so easy to get caught up in the details of life and things that are going wrong that I forget just HOW MUCH I've truly been given.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,
who does not change like shifting shadows."
James 1:17

But today, on this day of giving thanks, I wanted to take a quick break to thank Him- for every good and perfect gift He's given to me... for the good things in my life and even for the bad things.  Because it's through every experience in life I have learned and grown.

"Bless the LORD, O my soul, 
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits."
Psalm 103:1-2

Route 66 Half Marathon Recap

13.1 Miles- DONE!

While this wasn't my first half marathon, this was the first one that I went into the race feeling mostly prepared.  I knew that I could have trained harder, but I also recognized that things like sickness and life circumstances sometimes prevent a perfect training schedule. 

But even still- I was able to set a new PR- 2:08:32, a 9:43 pace.  That's a number I'm dang proud of!  I've worked hard to get my times under 10:00.  I know if I keep working at it, my times will have to keep improving.

This was a fabulous race.  I've never ran this course before, and even though it was challenging (the entire first half of the race was UPHILL), I enjoyed it.  It was very pretty and the race was very well organized.

The first 7 miles went all throughout the historic neighborhoods surrounding downtown Tulsa.  There were some gorgeous homes and lots of encouraging families sitting on their front porches, cheering on runners.  *sidenote: I think it's a new goal of mine to have a house on a race route... I would love to sit on the porch with my cup of coffee, cheering people on- when I'm not running, of course* I was feeling great, and sticking right alongside my running buddy, Julie.  Mile 7 was a particularly steep hill, and I was beginning to feel the hills and humidity.  At one point I started seeing stars and had to step off to the side and slow my heartrate down. 

At mile 8, we crossed a tall bridge going over the river, leading us onto riverside drive.  I was excited to see the stretch of flat road at the end of the bridge.  I was NOT excited to be greeted by those 20 mile wind gusts into my face for the next 3 miles.  This was also the mile where Julie told me to go on, so I was alone at this point. 

By mile 10, I was starting to hurt.  I knew that I was giving this race everything I had, but the humidity was killing me.  I took a quick walk break, turned up my iPod and pushed on to mile 11.  I stopped to walk for a minute or so and stretch out my calves and then pushed through.  My pace was starting to drop, and I knew I was getting dehydrated.  I ate a couple of chomps and kept going to the next waterstop.  I was so happy to see the turnaround (we were running a strip of road parallel to everyone else headed to the finish line... seeing the stream of runners forever away in the distance running towards me was a little discouraging, I have to say.  But it was nice to see a few familiar faces along the way- they encouraged me to keep going.)

Mile 12 was better- we had turned so the wind wasn't blowing directly into my face.  When I saw the mile 13 sign, I dug as deep as I could and sprinted to the finish line.  I stopped my Garmin as I crossed the finish line and saw this:

A couple of my other friends from church crossed right behind me.  We went to gear check and grabbed our stuff.  I was a sweaty mess, but so happy.

With my training buddy, Julie.  She finished a few minutes behind me.  I know I couldn't have run the race I did without her!

The rest of our runners came in and we ate our way back to the hotel for showers.  I'm telling you- post race showers are some of the best ones!  I rank them right up there with the first shower at home after camp!

When the rest of our group got back, we rushed to the finish line to watch the full marathoners cross the finish line.  We missed the first two, but found out when we got there that our third friend, Kristen, had some serious tummy issues and wasn't doing as well as she had hoped.  We waited around and talked with Laurie and Mandy about their race.

This leads to the best part of the whole weekend.  We looked up and saw Kristen rounding the corner with her two daughters on either side holding her hand and her husband with them.  They all crossed the finish line together... Oh man, we were all crying.  It was THE BEST thing that we got to see all weekend   So proud of these ladies for running the full 26.2 miles..

I have had the best time training with this fabulous group of women.  I'm excited to see what adventures the spring holds.  I'm hearing rumors of a full marathon... I guess we'll just have to see!

race weekend

I leave today for Tulsa with some of my favorite ladies to run the Route 66.  I'll be running the half, and this is my first time to run this race.  I'm excited, if for nothing other than the fact I LOVE the ladies I'm going with and I know we'll have a fun time.

Originally, I set out to run a sub-2:00 half marathon.  I know that goal was totally possible, but life got in the way and I'm not sure it will happen.  I'm not too worried about it though, I know I'm stronger and faster than I ever have been before a race, so that's all that matters.

I'll be back tomorrow with a recap and fun photos of the weekend.  If you'd like to track me, follow this link and enter bib number 3745.  It will send you text messages when I cross different check points in the race.  (that's mainly for my mom, but you can follow me too :)

family photos

OH. MY. WORD.
Sara Wheeler has totally and completely outdone herself on our family photos this year...
I cried just looking at the sneak peek she put on her blog today.

So go, check us out now. 

thankful

I'm having one of those days where I take a look at my life and think "what in the world did I ever do to deserve this beautiful life?" 

I have a husband that I love more than anything... and for some strange reason, he loves me too.  Even when I'm cranky and emotional and competitive...

 

I have a little boy who brings joy to my life everyday.  I can't even remember my life before him.  And even when he does things that make me crazy (like put a ball of silly putty in the middle of my favorite blanket), I am so thankful that he is healthy and happy (and hilarious, but that's a bonus).

I have a family that is beyond supportive... a family that has taught me to love the Lord and how to have a relationship with Him.

I have friends that challenge me, love me and make my life fun!  I love people, and relationships with these people make me smile just thinking about them.

  

I get to work with the most amazing students in the world each week.  I never thought I would love middle school and high schoolers SO much.  But they are a part of who I am, and I can't imagine a life without pouring into them.

Overall, I'd say I'm one blessed girl.  I couldn't ask for a better life!


It's ordinary plain and simple
Typical, this everyday love
Same ol', same ol' keeping it new
Emotional, so familiar
Nothing about it too peculiar
Oh, but I can't get enough
Of this everyday love
--Rascal Flatts 

My Halloween Fun

I mentioned yesterday that while JM was at my parents, I got to have a little halloween fun of my own. 

Our friends Dustin & Jessica had a fun little get together of friends on Friday night.  Unfortunately, Micah was out of town, so I was flying solo.  Before I realized he wouldn't be around, I tried and tried to talk him into going to the party with me as Sonny and Cher.  He was less than thrilled, and I'm sure he was secretly happy about not having to be a part of my insanity!  So I went alone as Cher (or an Indian princess, depending on how you viewed my costume).

My friends are all so much fun and we had everything from Ke$ha to Robin Sparkles at our party.

Lindsey, who has awesome curly red hair, went to the party as a beehive.

Lesley, our fabulously hilarious friend found an old Den-mother's shirt at a thrift store and a Boy Scout was born.

I baked some cupcakes to take the the party.  Since we were celebrating halloween, I made (read: found on a blog and printed) mustaches and thought bubbles to "dress up" the cupcakes.  We had a fun time taking photos with them.

I haven't dressed up for Halloween in a long time, so it was a lot of fun to get together and just hang out with friends. 

Happy Halloween-ing

We've had a very fun Halloween weekend around these parts!  John Mark dressed up as a totally awesome robot thanks to my friend Lindsey.

Let me back up and tell you how this funny little costume came about...

John Mark goes to work with me every Tuesday and Thursday morning.  He spends about an hour at me desk, then I walk him across the parking lot to school.  Lindsey works with me (she's a graphic designer, hence the insane craftiness) and always has lots of paper boxes stacked up in her office. 

One day, JM saw the boxes and started taping rubber snakes to the box.  Don't ask where he got snakes at 8AM on a Tuesday morning... people at the office give him all kinds of stuff.  Anyway, he decided that he wanted to be a creepy box for halloween.  What is a creepy box, you ask?  Well, a box with snakes taped to it with him INSIDE the box... as in, me carrying around an almost 50 pound kid in a box.  NO THANKS.

So I asked if he would like to be a robot.  After much begging, pleading, and otherwise negotiating, a "creepy-box" robot was born.

Micah has been out of town for a week, so it was just the boy and me for Halloween this year.  My mom already had plans to watch him overnight for me while I went on a retreat, so he ended up just going to Central High with her.  I came down on Saturday morning and we went out trick-or-treating that evening.

Our first stop was Nanny & Grandad's.  We quickly realized that: a, it was going to be quite a chore getting him in and out of the truck with each stop and b, poor kid couldn't reach around the box to put candy in his own bucket!  He was quite a trooper and went along with getting undressed and dressed at every stop.

Sunday evening, we went out to a Trunk-or-Treat with Micah's sister.  JM and I had a bit of a battle, but in the end I realized that it was probably too warm to make him wear his wire sweat suit.  So we compromised and super-robot was born.

Basically, he put the box on over his superman shirt (and cape) and wore that while getting candy.  Then went as superman for the rest of the time there.  He had a blast jumping in the bounce house, climbing obstacle courses and petting the animals.

I love my little creepy box robot!  We had a fun Halloween and I'm glad we got to spend it with family.  It definitely wasn't the same without Micah around to have fun with!  I also went to a fun halloween party, but that's another post for another day!