birthdays & parties

july 1, lucy turned 4. she'd been looking forward to it for ages and i don't think she was displeased:

as she slept, i covered her in pink balloons and waited for her bubbly excitement to overflow:

she didn't disappoint:

the 1st was a sunday and grant had early morning meetings to attend, making him unable to be around for presents. i let lucy open one (a new dress) before church:

and kept the rest back for after, when grant could watch: 

lucy was super excited to receive her very own scooter:

hazel gave her spiderman action figures:

it was hazel's lucky day too:

she received her own present from aunt jewel, along with lucy's. (thanks, jewel! they love them)

oliver thouroughly enjoyed the carnage:

lucy, after she finished opening everything, wanted to test drive her scooter:

don't let the picture deceive you, she really did have fun. as ever, grant and i are safety conscious. lucy was delighted with her spider-man helmet, knee and elbow pads, and finger-less gloves. in fact, she loved the gloves so much, she rarely took them off the first week:

lucy wanted pizza for dinner and i obliged. she also wanted a pink spider-man cake, but i talked her into cookies-n-cream cupcakes with pink frosting and she was happy to switch:

ok. maybe she was mostly excited to have a #4 candle on her cupcake, but they were also super delicious. i even fancied them up by swirling three colors of icing (pink, light pink, and white) using this tutorial. it turned out fine, but i think my frosting wasn't thick enough:

and finally, no birthday is complete without ice cream:

we took it pretty easy for the 4th of july. the library was closed so grant had to stay home with us. we went back to the spider web park:

it was hot:

really, really hot:

but that didn't stop us from getting a nice run in:

the girls rode their contraptions back and forth along the pathway:

lucy was nice enough to share:

we had lots of fun:

but eventually the threat of heat strokes sent us home.

last weekend, grant went to las vegas to visit his sister, so the girls and i had ourselves a party weekend. we went to the movie brave. lucy thought it was too loud:

but otherwise, we all enjoyed it tremendously.

we posed a bit outside the theater:

before heading home to paint:

sunday after church, we picked grant up from the airport and all was well.

3 flying owls

i'm pretty sure i start most of my running posts by saying how i get really anxious the night before, sleep fitfully, wake in a panic every  half-hour to check the clock, and have an unreasonably short fuse. this was all magnified friday night-saturday morning because we didn't have our car and i hadn't been able to pick up my race packet. we needed to get to the bus stop by 6:30 am. my panic and inability to sleep for more than 20 minute intervals saved us from sleeping in more than 5 minutes late (the alarm grant had set was on a weekday setting and didn't go off). we, and the groggy girls, got ready and headed out. as we waited at the bus stop, i tried my best to calm down but couldn't. i wasn't able to chill out until we had arrived at rice university and walked to the start/finish line. we were about an hour and a half early. yes. i have issues.

we sat around after picking up our packets. lucy and hazel practiced their running stances and game faces:

and looked super cute in their running numbers:

the 5k started at 9 am. the first mile was great. my legs were tight but not too painful and i thought that maybe i would meet my goal of a sub-30 time despite being a little sick. didn't happen. not far passed a mile and a half i started having a hard time breathing. i was feeling light headed and a bit nauseous. so i slowed down and finished in 33:30. not my best but also not my worst.

finally it was time for the real event to begin:

hazel and lucy took their places down the field with the other children:

they did some group stretches and then they took off:

the girls did great. lucy especially loved basking in the crowd's attention:

they each happily received goody bags with water bottles, bubbles, and candies:

as soon as all events were completed, grant called the mechanic to see if the car was finished. it wasn't. they were waiting on a part to arrive from a dealership. a big disappointment. so we trudged back to the bus stop. once again the bus came soon after we started waiting. we made it home, had lunch, and put the girls down for naps. at 1:20 the mechanic called to say the car was ready and could we pick it up before 2. grant hopped onto his bike and pedaled his heart out. it's really nice to have the car back.

when it rains, it pours . . .

grant and i signed up for the surfside half marathon because it sounded fun (this was the one we did last year). and it almost was.

we woke up early to heavy rain and thunder. we packed up the kids in heavy rain and thunder. and we drove down the freeway in heavy rain and thunder:

it was pretty discouraging. as we drew closer, mother nature taunted us by slowing the downpour to a drizzle and even stopping it completely for a bit:

but the drizzling rain soon came back:

and by the time we had parked, it was pouring again:

despite never having been a boy scout, i was prepared:

we. looked. awesome. and so chic.

once we made it to the headquarters, we learned that there was an electrical storm coming through and the half had been pushed back. the girls wandered around, looking like little yellow ghosts in their ponchos (lucy even had to hold her arms up to keep from tripping. it was hilarious and cute. no pictures, sadly). finally, they gave us the go-ahead. grant and i took the girls to the potty and while there, the race began. we hurried and put the girls in the stroller, got our shoes on (in a misguided effort to keep our shoes dry, we'd stowed them under the stroller and wore flip-flops. they still ended up soaked. i had to wring out my socks), and took off.

it was quite the confidence booster starting late, i passed tons of walkers (i really am faster than some people!). about a mile or two in the rain started again, softly at first but by the time i passed the first turn around it was getting harder. i'm 93.42981% sure it hailed. grant doesn't think it did, but he wasn't the one wearing a tank-top.

grant had to remove his glasses and run blind. here's a picture of him around mile 3. the sand was really soft and if you moved towards the water where it was more firm, the beach became noticeably slanted. he's pretty darn amazing. he got around 6 or 7 miles in and the girls started crying from being too cold and wet (yes, spiderman's ponchos failed us). so he turned around and didn't finish. when we passed each other as he was headed back, he snagged my ipod so the rain wouldn't ruin it (and for the record, i did volunteer to take the girls back so he could finish but he'd already back-tracked a mile or so). 

losing my ipod was a real blow. i couldn't hear the waves over the wind and rain that was hitting me head on so there was nothing to distract me from the misery. my ankle (the same one that bothered me during the marathon) struck again. and the #@$% sand!! i stopped half a dozen times to clean out the my socks to no avail, my achilles tendon was being sandpapered. once i hit the final turn around, the wind was at my back and the rain had mostly stopped. i felt great for a mile or so but by then my ankle was killing me. i splashed through every makeshift river and enjoyed feeling the cold water on it. the last time i paused to clean the sand out of my sock, it was covered in blood. the last mile or two were hard. eventually, i saw where the cars were parked. grant and the girls were standing about a tenth of a mile away from the finish and hazel helped me bring it in (at first she ran too fast for me and then i ditched her because i'm a nice mommy like that).

some of our friends who also ran:

me, robert, brittany, and lacey. robert did the full marathon, hence the blue ribbon. and lacey placed 3rd in her age group.

amazingly, i still beat my time from last year. by nearly 7 and a half minutes. i'm glad this wasn't a complete failure.

picture (and one above) courtesy of erin. thanks, friend!

if you know our kids at all, you'll know that there is no way we'd be allowed to leave without some frolicking on the beach:

hazel stuck mostly with the mud:

and lucy . . . well, behaved as usual:

moral of the story: never run on the beach again. ever.

i run they run everybody run run

oh my. so much changes in three years (i can't believe i said, and with such disgust, "who plans a marathon in a loop anyway?" uh-duh). sunday was a big day for us. grant and i woke at 4:30, groggily dressed, ate some cereal, and headed out into the cold (39°) morning. we drove towards the medical center, found a metered parking spot and hopped on the metro rail. to longtime readers of the blog, it will come as no surprise to that i was an anxious mess. i calmed down a bit when i noticed the other runners on the train. we reached our stop and followed the crowd, praying that someone knew where they were going. i took a picture with my trusty dumbphone and sent it to facebook:

we eventually reached the george r. brown convention center and made our way through the 20-odd thousand people who milled about. we pinned our bibs on, checked our gear and headed to our runners' corrals. grant gave me some last minute encouragement, a hug and a kiss, and we went to our separate starting points.

grant did excellent. being unhampered by sand and a double stroller, he beat his previous time by a whopping 25 minutes and 51 seconds! here are a couple breakdowns of his time. he wore his camelbak so he wouldn't have to stop at the water/gatorade stations. he didn't pause for a finisher's photo because he was in a hurry to pick up the girls from church (they had a sleepover at our awesome friends' house) and get back in time to watch me finish. here are his pictures from along the course and his finish line video (he comes in under the left clock as soon as the video starts). he did get his medal: 

as i waited in line, first for the port-a-potty and later for the race to begin, i felt oddly detached and kind of ambivalent about the whole thing. i had trained and while i knew i had the endurance to finish, i wasn't sure i had the speed.

after waiting forever (otherwise known as 15 minutes), the crowds started moving forward and it began.

miles 1-3: "sooo alone" . . . spectator with a sign that says, "most people would pay $125 not to run a marathon" *sigh* . . . "ugh! my feet hurt already." . . . "this sucks." . . .

miles 4-5: . . . "this is a fun song" . . . a stranger cheers me on by name *tearing up* "whoever thought of putting our names on the bibs was a genius" . . . "i think i'm almost enjoying myself" . . .

miles 6-9: . . .  "oooh! i like this song!" *repeat* *repeat* *repeat* . . . "i wonder if i'll see grant or amanda by the half turn around" . . . loudly laugh at a spectator's sign "i hope you run a better race than perry" . . . "ruth!" "amanda!" *hug* "good luck!" . . .

miles 10-11: . . . ipod plays kansas' dust in the wind as i dodge a smashed possum, "well that's ironic." . . . passing between rice university and an episcopal church, "why is that woman flicking that branch at the runners? . . . wait! does that bucket say holy water?! yes, please!" . . . "i bet i can count that as my churchin' for the day" . . .

miles 12-13: . . . running passed my very own cheerleaders, grant's professor and her family (thanks for the support, april, wade and alex! it meant a lot.) . . . "yay! i'm halfway done!" . . . . . . . . . . *sigh* "i'm only halfway done."

miles 14-18: . . . "man, my feet really hurt!" . . . "oooo! orange slices!" . . . *gasp* "what the... hill? i thought i was in houston!" . . . an appropriate song title . . .

miles 19-23: . . . watching the runners across the median "ahhh, memorial park. how i wish i only had your loop to finish." . . . "feet, would you just go numb already?!" . . . "ouch! not you too, ankle!" . . . "uh oh. my toe feels weird. am i going to lose my nail?" . . .

miles 24-25.7: . . . "good thing i didn't give myself a fresh pedicure." . . . "can i still wear my peep toe heels if i'm missing my nail? or would that be too gross?" . . . "who cares. i like those shoes." . . . "uggggghhhhh! how am i still moving?" . . . "sooooo tired." . . .

mile 25.8-26.2:  . . . best marathon moment: seeing grant, hazel and lucy holding a sign that reads, "run like the wind, mommy!!!!!" *sob* . . . "don't cry! you're wasting energy!" . . . still have a half mile to go "i . . want . . to die." . . . "wait! i can hear the announcer!" . . . turning the corner "so close!" . . . "oh! it's amanda and matt! they waited to see me finish!" *sob* . . . and i'm done. 

i did it. a marathon. and i made my goal (to finish before they shut it down) with nearly 8 minutes to spare. my pictures and the video of me crossing the finish line (click on the middle video. i come in under the right clock). i tried my darnedest to not end up with a walking picture but, alas, those photographers are sneakier than you'd expect. my breakdown isn't nearly as inspiring as grant's but here you go (at least i wasn't last).

after i picked up my finisher's shirt and mug:

pretty spiffy, eh?

a celebratory root beer float

i wandered around, grabbed some rice crispy treats and ice cream, then went in search of grant. eventually we were reunited:

we all headed out to discovery green to let the girls run around while the adults chatted. after an hour or so, we jumped back on the "as fast as sonic" metro rail. unfortunately, i had to walk quite a ways to get to the car. my legs, particularly my it bands, were killing me. once we got home, we reheated leftover pizza and tried to watch a movie. i ended up in bed by 6pm. grant followed by 7:30.

monday was the sorest day for me. i did yoga periodically and that really seemed to help. today, i feel just about back to normal (except that my left ankle is still a bit tender).

now i'm sure everyone is wondering whether or not i'll ever do this again (you are, right??). probably. but not for a couple of years. i need to work on my speed . . .