Little Monsters

My household has been attacked by millions of teeny, tiny monsters (bet you thought I was talking about my boys from the title!). The icky, vacation-ruining, vomit-inducing, headache-causing, throat-attacking, fever-spiking, mean kinds... germs.

Jackson, Harris, and I all were over-run by the Disgusting Tummy Bug Monsters over the holiday, and Harris and I were then knocked down this week by the meanest, ugliest Strep Monsters you have ever seen. We battled and fought our hardest, and our perseverence has finally paid off... we crawled out of the battlefield that is my bed, and we re-entered the real world yesterday. While we are still nursing our war wounds, we are both thrilled to have defeated the Enemies and to start living again! Hopefully we have beat them down enough to protect Jason from the little devils.

Anyway, what I really want to say is that I have so much to post, but I have been unable to get it done. I even have a post half-finished from last week. Hopefully we are really on the mend and I will be able to get back to it this weekend. Be patient... lots of pictures of those cute boys are coming!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are so thankful for so many people. We love you all!

Number Two

I finished my second half-marathon yesterday, the Outer Banks Half-Marathon. It was a completely different experience than my Myrtle Beach Half! I stayed with Tracey, her sister, and several of their friends in a beautiful house... it was great to spend the weekend with so many runners (there were seven of us in all who stayed together and ran the race).

The race started at 7:00am, and at 7:00am it was 43 degrees. It didn't take long to warm up, though, and while we were running, the weather was perfect. Much of the race was along the highway, but it was still very scenic (I would much rather run the highway in Nags Head than in Myrtle Beach!). We took a few turns into neighborhoods along the sound, and the views were beautiful.

I was nervous for this race, as I hadn't been feeling great on my training runs. Just kind of lethargic and lazy. However, I really felt great for most of this run. I'm not sure if it was the views or the company (Tracey ran with me most of the way), but I was happy to be on the road, running my heart out. The spectators were awesome, too, all along the way cheering and playing music. I think it was around Mile 6 that there was a crowd of fans, dressed like the Village People, playing and dancing to YMCA... T and I joined in for the short time we were near them!

The toughest part of the race was definitely the last three miles. At Mile 10, the course took us over a big bridge... not something I was looking forward to after running 10 miles! At the bottom of the bridge, there was a turn north, which took us into a headwind for the last 2.5 miles. I struggled those last few miles, but I pushed through it and finished with a smile.

I just got this email in my inbox summarizing my results:

Congratulations Amanda on finishing the 2nd Annual OBX 1/2 Marathon on November 11, 2007. For your records, the weather was Mostly sunny, low 44 high 53 degrees F, NW wind 8 mph 18 mph gusts.

There were 177 finishers in the Female 30 to 34 age group and 2172 finishers in the 1/2 Marathon Division.

Your overall finish place was 1114, your age group finish place was 77 and your gender finish place was 523. Your time was 2:15:06.70 giving you an overall pace of 10:19 per mile.

Your 6.9 Mile split time was 1:10:29.30, Giving you a pace of 10:13 per mile, Overall place 1147, Gender place 547 Your Finish split time was 1:04:37.40, Giving you a pace of 10:25 per mile, Overall place 1114, Gender place 523

You can find full results on www.obxmarathon.org. Please e-mail us at team@kalerunning.com for results inquiries. Pictures from the OBX Marathon weeekend will be available at http://www.TriDuo.com/obxmarathon at the end of the week. TriDuo.com is offering a special on digital images until November 15th at 3pm. We hope to see you again next year.
Team Kale

My Myrtle Beach time was one minute faster, but considering how I felt about my training, that's not bad! I am tired and just a bit sore today, but I feel great. I am hoping to keep up this level of running over the holidays and to run another half in February. Maybe I'll be up for that full marathon in the fall... Tracey???

Showing Off...

... my sweet boys and the beautiful place in which we live!

Sadness

Goodbye, Maddie Cat.

You will be sorely missed.

I love you.

Bringing the Progress Home -- Day 1

The weekend of my birthday, Jason was out of town for a Boys' Weekend, so my boys and I headed to Myrtle Beach in this crazy rental car to meet Papa and the Progress to help bring it home. (The boys' LOVED this car and were extremely sad I didn't pick them up from school in it on Monday!! They are still asking where the red car is!)As we drove into town, I saw the NASCAR Grille, and I knew that was where we would have to have dinner... Jackson would love it!
We picked Papa up and headed to the Grille... it was rainy and wet, but we were sure to get pictures of the boys in front of every NASCAR we saw. Both boys were beside themselves seeing the all of the race cars.
Dinner was so-so, but there was a TV screen at each table showing NASCAR clips all through dinner. Jackson and Harris fell in love with race cars watching the movie Cars, and dinner only perpetuated this love!
Harris LOVES driving... anything he can drive, he will. There was a game that we let him pretend to play that simulaed driving a NASCAR. Well, the whole weekend he wanted to drive:

Thinking he is the Captain.
We stayed at the Marina at Grand Dunes. It was rough getting the boys down that night, as they were so excited to be sleeping on Papa's Waterhouse. Not to mention, it poured... while the noise of the rain usually helps me sleep, it kept Harris up even later!
We got started fairly early, and I quickly learned why they call the ICW in Myrtle Beach "The Rock Pile". The banks look just ike this for much of the trip. It seems very artificial, and I wondered many times why people want to put their huge houses on tiny lots along these banks.

The boys did a great job of entertaining themselves as we cruised. They played Cars, colored, read, and sat with Papa and me as we took in the sights.
This is a tour boat we saw along the way.
Eventually the steep rocky banks faded, and the scene around us changed... much better!

Approaching Georgetown.
We got into Georgetown early, so I put Harris down for a nap and went for a long run. I love running in Georgetown... it is such a pretty little town to explore. The weather was perfect, and I had one of the best runs I have had in a long time!

Later, we headed into town to explore and find dinner. It as a bit of a crazy time, as both boys had a ton of energy to brn off, but we survived. My birthday dinner was at an Italian restaurant (that wasn't so Italian!), and we were serenaded by a 30 minute bagpipe concert. Between two hyper little boys and the bagpipe music, Dad and I thought our heads were going to explode!!

It was an early bedtime for the boys, and thankfully, they both went down easily and slept like rocks. After a few hands of cards, Dad and I headed to bed... it was a restful night for all.

Bringing the Progress Home -- Day 2

As we left Georgetown on Sunday morning, it was a bit overcast and chilly. However, that quickly changed and it became clear and beautiful.

Both boys enjoyed being outside more that day than the day before. Liek me, I think they enjoyed the scenery more!

I think they were ore comfortable, too, so monkeying around became more fun.
The ride was beautiful, and I think we all felt like we were home. Here's Dad driving us into the Charleston Harbor, his 6 week adventure bringing the Progress home from Toledo had come to an end. While he was glad to get in, I think he was a liitle sad that the trip was over.

Thanks so much, Dad, for inviting us along on your journey... the boy will be talking about their "adventure" for a long time to come! Love you!

Why I Have Children

Pumpkins!

Jacson and Harris couldn't stop talking about Jack-O-Lanterns this month. I think all of the talk at school got them so excited to see what kind of Jack-O-Lantern they could make. Thankfully Papa was here to help, as we had a big job in front of us! While they wouldn't win any contests, my boys thought their Jack-O-Lanterns were the best in town!

Fish Or Treat

Halloween started big for us this year, and we got to show off our two M&M's at the Aquarium's annual Fish Or Treat. It was an evening of trick-or-treating among the fish, turtles, and eels.
I was really excited at how well the boys' costumes turned out... Nancy and I made them! Harris' costume was the first thing I have made wit my sewing machine since my sewing class almost two years ago. What made me the happiest, though, was that they LOVED their costumes and were thrilled to be wearing them.
While the aquarium was packed to the brim with little trick-or-treaters, Jackson and Harris had a great time visiting the fish and trick-or-treating. Harris was too young to remember how to do it last year, but this year, he was all over it, hunting down aquarium volunteers to beg them for whatever was in their bag of goodies!

The boys headed home, happy with their goody bags, ready to take on Halloween in full force the next day.