Grand Rapids Marathon 2009

Cheri & I after the race

The morning of the marathon, I woke early.  I drank some coffee and continued deliberating in my mind what pace team I was going to try to stick with.  The pace teams are separated by celebrities marathon race times.  If you’re only doing the half marathon, you can divide it in half to see your ending time.  I was stuck between Will Ferrel’s time and P. Diddy. 

Little Earthquakes

I had planned on writing about the marathon today.  The kids & I have been enduring the ’sickness’ that is flying through the schools and I just didn’t have it in me to emote the events of the race until I felt a little better.  I’ll have to save it for a nearby date though.  A black cloud moved into my life last night and I feel like I need to get it out before I can move on.

I found out last night

Precocious

Apparently, the housing market is so good that even Emma is looking for her first home. 

It started about 2 wks ago.  The house across

Honest sweat

Since July, I’ve been training again for my half marathon in October.  I gave myself 3 more weeks of training this year to make it a solid 13weeks.  My friends, Cheri & Megan, agreed to do the race together just like we had last year.  After consulting our schedules, we decided we’d have to train separately during the week and do our long runs together on the weekends.

In the beginning, it wasn’t so bad.  I learned the joy of running by myself.  Quiet time to think and release the tension of the day.  Smelling the

Cottage pro

I believe I was born to cottage.  I really do.

I’m sure most people think that they were too.  I’m also sure that most would never recognize the degree of skill and fortitude it takes to cottage like a pro.  They might think that they could handle the intense level of vacationing.  They probably believe that they have the stamina to maintain that perfect balance of fun & relaxation mixed with a tinge of work.  But I believe it takes an extraordinary amount of  focus and desire to achieve a perfect harmony in what I have deemed ’cottaging’.  It’s not camping, it’s not being on a cruise… it’s cottaging.

I believe I have achieved a near perfect recipe for doing so.  It will be my life’s work to

Call me the breeze

The core of me is filled with fear… well, correct that… it used to be filled with fear.  It seems like my whole life, I’ve battled with being afraid of things.  Some are rational fears (like heights) and some have been ridiculous fears(lawn mowers).  I’ve tried to work on both the big and little ones over time.  They say the best way to overcome a fear is to just do it.  I can officially add riding a motorcycle to the list of fears overcome.  Here’s some pictures of

My granola don’t crunch

I might be on the verge of becoming a tree hugger.  While the likelihood seems impossible, I feel the stirrings of it beginning.  In my constant quest of becoming and evolving into the better me, I feel myself dipping into the stereotype.  It just might be an inevitable turn of events.

It started with an intriguing book

The world is a vampire, sent to drain

Today is one of those days.  Some might call it a funk, some might say I’m in a bad mood and some might go so far as to blame PMS.  Whatever the case… I find myself in a grumpasaurus rex kind of way.  Nothing is seeming to go right today and if I wasn’t equipped with sanity, I would believe the world was actually conspiring to annoy me in whatever way it can.

For fleeting seconds throughout the day, I keep admonishing myself for delving into the pity party I’m throwing today.  One might encourage me to ‘look on the bright side’, ‘count my blessings’ or some