Clash of the Clans

My mom had read about a race in conjunction with the Scottish Fest called Clash of the Clans.  You had to sign up as a member of a 2-person team, no individuals in the race!  We talked it over and decided my dad and I would run together on a father/daughter team, Ty and Thomas would run together on a male/male team, and my mom would run the 1 mile fun run with Carter because strollers weren't allowed in the 5k.  Partners didn't have to run together in the race as the winners came from the fastest combined times.

The race also had a costume contest so my mom made kilts for all of us including Carter.  I wasn't sure I wanted to run in a kilt.  I was afraid it would slow me down and I was really gunning for a postpartum PR.  The kilt turned out not being too bad.  I wore spandex underneath it and the only problem I had was the kilt kept sliding up my waist and twisting around so my race number was no longer visible.  My stomach also got hot and sweated more, but not too bad.

Waiting for the 5k after Carter finished the mile fun run with Grammy.

My goal going into the race was to run a postpartum PR.  I had run a 22:50 at the Firecracker 5k on the 4th of July.  I really wanted to run 22:30 or under and secretly wanted to break 22:00, but didn't tell anyone that goal.  I hadn't run a 5k since the July 4th race.  I had been running some really great training runs and was getting excited to see how much faster I had gotten.  At the July 4th race I averaged 7:16 pace so my plan was to go out in 7:00-7:15 for the first mile and pick up the pace from there.

I went out a pace that felt comfortable and figured I would be around 7:00 for the first mile.  When my watch beeped after the first mile I looked down to see 6:55.  I had gone out a little faster than expected so my goal was to hold it together during the 2nd mile which is usually the toughest mile of a 5k for me.  We hit the turn around and I looked down to see we had only covered 1.4 miles.  Since I was going for a PR I decided to continue running past the finish line if the race was short.

Heading toward the finish line.

Mile 2 I hit in 7:05.  During that mile I passed quite a few runners and realized I was now in the top overall female position.  I could see a few men in kilts ahead of me and decided to pass as many kilted runners as possible so I could be one of the top runners wearing a kilt.  I felt awesome during the 3rd mile and kept pushing the pace.  As I approached the finish line I saw the clock read 19:30.  I knew the race was short and looked down to see how much.  I was at 2.8 miles.  I ran through the finish line and kept going.  I hit a huge fence intended to keep people from sneaking into the Scottish Fest without paying, turned around, and had to weave through people meandering around.  I quickly hit stop when I reached 3.1 miles and was elated to see I had finished the 5k in 21:30!  Over a minute faster than my goal and much faster than anticipated!  Now I'm excited to run another 5k that is actually the correct distance so I'm not weaving through people to finish!  I was proud that my last mile was my fastest in 6:45.

My dad and I finished 2nd in the father/daughter category.  We were only 9 seconds behind the 1st place group.  The dad in that group finished right in front of me and the daughter finished right in front of my dad.  Ty and Thomas were surprised to find they had also placed 2nd in their category.

Waiting for the award ceremony.

All night long we had gotten compliments on our kilts and everyone was impressed my mom had made them.  When it came time for the costume contest no one else came up on stage.  We figured they had all seen us and knew we would win, so didn't even try.  Looking at Carter, how could anything beat that!

Our sweet boy looked so cute in his kilt!

Linking up with Ashley for Move it Monday:



Daddy Day: The Ring

I started my search for a ring in late August, doing a lot of research online learning about the different cuts and colors and what not. I tried looking at rings online but that really got off to a bad start because I did not like anything I had seen. 

After about a week of that, I approached a co-worker of mine who has a friend who owns his own jewelry shop in Tulsa. I stopped by his office one morning (a Monday) and mentioned that I was looking for an engagement ring for my girlfriend and that I had heard he knew someone in the jewelry business.

One of our engagement photos.

We sat and talked a little about what she liked (at this time I was fairly confident she would like anything and that’s what I told him). Towards the end of the conversation, I told him that actually, she really likes hearts. He said ok, not a problem, I will see what my friend has to offer.

I felt good about that conversation and figured I would give it a few weeks and see what he came up with. The next morning (Tuesday), my coworker walks into my office and lays a piece of paper down on my desk. It had sketches of about 4 rings on it with prices, stone weights and quality. The only way to describe the feeling I experienced when he laid that sheet down is with this phrase: “SH!T just got real”.

I was quite surprised that I had rings in front of me after only 24 hours but he claimed he said he had a ring with a loose stone so he figured he would swing by that night. So there I was with some options that after only a glance, two of them I knew I needed to see in person.

So the next day (Wednesday) he offered to take me up to his friend's shop over our lunch hour so I could see the ones I liked in person. In a matter of seconds, I knew which one I wanted. It was a ring with a main stone, side stones on both sides, and then about 4 chips down each side of the ring itself. The kick was that when you are looking at this ring from the front or back, you can see two hearts cut into the ring itself that allows you to see the bottom tips of the side stones.

I told them I would “think about it” and come back later. That night I started dropping hints to Liz, trying to get an idea of what she would like. Finally I flat out asked, if your ring had hearts incorporated in it, would you like that? She thought about it and said yes, but they don’t make anything like that. I told her that they will make anything I want; I just have to pay for it! To which she responded, don’t do that, it would be too expensive.

That conversation actually gained me two valuable (to me) insights. One: (the original goal) she liked the idea of hearts having something to do with the ring. Two: she assumed since I pressed her so hard on the hearts issue and the fact that I told her I could get whatever I wanted made, she assumed it would take me weeks or months to get a ring so she was not expecting a proposal any time soon. (I found out all of this after the proposal).

So the next day (Thursday) I went back to the store with my co-worker and told him that was the ring for Liz. So he got it out along with a box of diamonds and set them on the counter. Next he handed me a loop, a pair of tweezers and said, “now you get to pick out her main diamond” (all the other stones were already set, the main stone was not). THAT was cool. I felt slightly bad ass rooting around in a box of diamonds. Eventually I found what I thought was the best one and handed it to him. We did the paper work, I paid the man and was about to ask when it would be ready when he told me he was busy and that I probably couldn’t pick it up until tomorrow (FRIDAY!), again, I was struck with that feeling, “SH!T just got real!”.

Here I was assuming it would take a week or more to set the setting and then set the stone. I told him I would be back Friday at lunch to pick it up.

As it turned out, that was good timing because we were headed back to Liz's hometown that weekend and I felt like that was the right place to propose. It was weird sitting in a car with Liz for two hours with her ring not 2 feet from her at any given time in my pocket. We got to Pitt and I transferred the ring into my bag and stashed it in my room at her parent's upstairs. Later that night she even asked to borrow something that I had in my duffel bag at some point and I told her sure, just go get it. I would have loved to have seen my face about 30 seconds after she walked off, me having just given her PERMISSION to go rummaging through the bag I had her ring hidden in. Luckily she did not find it.

At this point I did not have a plan but kind of assumed that I would propose to her Saturday evening. Unfortunately she ended up getting a migraine and slept most of the day and evening (this in turn prevented me from proposing on Sept. 11th…).

So Sunday, her feeling slightly better, I convinced her we needed to go to the wilderness trails and walk to get me some exercise. There, where we went on our first date, I was finally able to propose! (and I am pretty sure she loved the ring).

The Day My Intuition Was Right

Friday after I picked Carter up from daycare and was driving home I talked to both my mom and my brother, Thomas.  They were on their way to our house for a race we were running Saturday evening.  The closer I got to home, the more excited I got.  I knew I would have at least an hour of uninterrupted one-on-one time with Carter and then family would begin trickling in. 

As I pulled into the driveway I looked up and noticed the curtains in our guest room were open.  I felt my heart drop and got the heebie jeebies.  Since we hung the curtains they have never to my knowledge been opened.  I texted Ty and asked him if he opened the curtains in the guest room.  As I sat waiting for Ty's response, I got more and more creeped out.  I was worried I was going to see someone look out the window at me.  I had this sinking feeling that someone who shouldn't have been in our house had in fact been in it.  Ty quickly responded that he hadn't opened the curtains.  I told him they were open and I was creeped out and didn't want to go inside.  Then I began to worry about Harper.  I really didn't want to go in but thought maybe I was over-reacting.

My worry for Harper trumped the uneasiness I felt.  Just in case, I left Carter in the car with the door open for air and went up to the house by myself.  I slowly walked up to the front door and called for Harper through the door.  Normally she would excitedly bark back at me, but I heard nothing.  I called a few more times and eventually heard the jingle of her collar behind the door.  I "unlocked" and opened the door.  At this point my stomach was in knots and I was worried about Harper so I didn't notice whether the front door was actually locked or not.  I looked into our front room and saw the door to our laundry room and the door from our laundry room to our garage were both open.  At that point I knew someone had been in our house but was in denial that we had been robbed.  I grabbed Harper by the collar and walked her to my car.  That's when I noticed one of my shirts and one of my shoes were laying in our driveway.

I called my brother, Jeremy, who lives less than a mile away from us hoping I could go sit with him at his house, but he was at work.  He mentioned that on his way to work he drove by our house and saw a silver minivan and a silver Honda that looked just like mine out front.  He thought it was strange, but figured I was home and someone had stopped by to visit.  Ty was on his way home so I drove around until he made it home.  When I got back to the house Ty was waiting outside and the police showed up moments later.  I was impressed that the police walked up to the house with their guns raised and did the entire walk-through with their guns out.

Once the police confirmed no one was in the house, we went inside.  The first thing I noticed was that our TV was gone which was expected.  I then noticed that a laundry basket full of Carter's clothes was also gone.  I had done a couple loads of Carter's clothes and hadn't folded them yet.  They were in a laundry basket in the living room.  The robbers must have grabbed the entire basket of clothes.  Both of our computers and both of our cameras were also taken. 

Our back window into our kitchen was broken and there was glass all over the floor.  The robber had cut himself and left a trail of blood through our house: on the walls, light switches, door handles, on the floors.  There was even a towel covered in blood on our bedroom floor.

The police said it looked like they were searching for guns, thank goodness we don't have one or it would be in the hands of criminals right now.

My parents arrived shortly after the police left.  That's when I walked through the house to assess the damage.  My mom walked with me.  In our guest room they had pulled suitcases down from the closet and filled them to take.  For whatever reason they got spooked and left them.  Thank goodness because one of the suitcases was filled with my clothes.  When we saw that, Ty joked that his clothes must really suck because they only stole Carter and my clothes which made all of us laugh.  The other suitcase had a random assortment of items: shampoo, partially used makeup, bathroom cleaner, some of Ty's undershirts, running tops, and all the stuff from our bedside tables.  The strangest thing I've noticed they took was my phone charger which was interesting because they took our computer but didn't take the charger for it.

Our bedroom was a complete mess and even had blood on the wall.  When I walked into the closet I realized they had taken my entire shoe rack.  I checked the back of the door for my other shoe rack filled with high heels and they were all still there.  I told my mom, great so I do have some appropriate shoes to wear to work and she couldn't stop laughing.

Some of the shoes fell out of the shoe rack as they took it.  These are the shoes I have left.

I was relieved when I checked in my dresser and saw none of the jewelry I inherited from my grandma was gone.  Then I realized I had put her pearl necklace in a different "safer" place.  My heart dropped when I realized it was gone.  Our passports were also taken. 

To me it was all just stuff.  None of it was irreplaceable except for my grandma's necklace which I hadn't even gotten to wear yet and all of the pictures saved on our computer.  We searched and couldn't find our external hard drive which broke my heart because that meant we had lost all of our pictures of Carter and I hadn't uploaded any pictures to facebook in months.

As I gave Carter a bath last night and I looked down into his face I was so thankful.  Everything we lost was just stuff.  Nothing priceless and only one irreplaceable item.  None of that stuff matters.  I still have the only priceless pieces in my life, my family.  Harper and Skippy are also both safe and accounted for.  Everything changed the moment Carter came into my life.  His safety and well being means more to me than anything in the world.  As long as he's safe nothing else matters.  All the items we lost are just that, items.  My Carter boy, as long as he's happy and healthy, I can make it through anything.

The icing on the cake came this morning as we were finishing our clean up.  Ty found our external hard drive.  That means we didn't lose all of our pictures.  I've been pretty diligent about backing up our pictures since Carter was born.  I hadn't done it in about a month, so we only lost a months worth of pictures.  It was an amazing feeling to see that hard drive in Ty's hands!

My brother brought his computer with him which he let me borrow to type this post.  You probably won't hear from me for a while since I won't have access to a computer starting Monday.

The Proposal

Showing off my ring at the trails after Ty proposed.

It happened three years ago today.  The day Ty asked me to marry him, I said yes, and the whirlwind of wedding planning began.  It was a Sunday and we were visiting my parents.  Ty kept asking me to go on a walk with him and I didn't really want to.  I had gotten a migraine the day before and still wasn't feeling up to par.  Finally he told me he needed the exercise and I agreed.

We leashed Harper up and drove to the Wilderness Trails which was also where we took a walk on our first date.  Ty was holding Harper's leash in one hand and my hand with the other.  We talked as we walked and it seemed like just an ordinary day.

Ty kept turning his head and looking back at some people walking behind us.  I thought it was kind of strange, but chalked it up to him worrying about Harper (she's timid around people she doesn't know).  Apparently he was waiting for them to turn down a different trail so they wouldn't walk by as he popped the question.  After they turned to walk a different way Ty started reminiscing about our first date.  He mentioned how that day was perfect and how he hoped it would be an even better day today.

I was surprised by how sappy he was being, but was still none the wiser to his plans.  We were crossing over a large concrete bridge when he pulled me in for a hug and a kiss.  I laid my head on his chest and noticed his heart was pounding.  He asked me if I noticed how fast his heart was beating and I said yes.  Then he asked me if I knew why and I said, "Because you are exerting yourself?"  He said "No, because I'm going to ask you to marry me."

My mind started reeling and I couldn't believe this was it.  It was the moment I had been waiting for.  But then he just stood there and I stared at him.  I started to feel disappointed and decided he must mean he was going to propose to me sometime, but not today.  Ty later explained that Harper had pulled on the leash and he had stalled in fear she would pull loose when he bent down.

After what seemed like 5 minutes, but Ty swears was maybe 30 seconds, he got down on one knee, pulled a ring box out of his pocket, and asked me to marry him.  As I stood waiting for him to propose it was like my brain had stopped working.  Then when I looked at the ring box and saw it was red I panicked, I had never seen a red ring box before.  I grabbed the box and opened it to see a beautiful ring.  I don't really remember what happened next.  I do know Ty stared at me waiting for my response.  In my head there was no reason to respond, of course he knew I wanted to marry him.  When I finally realized I hadn't given a response, I yelled yes and wrapped my arms around him.  I couldn't believe it had happened.  I was going to marry the most amazing man in the world!

At that point in my life it was the best day I had ever experienced.  I was so happy, so excited, so full of love.  When I look back it was an amazing day.  There were so many emotions.  I imagine the butterflies, nerves, and excitement I felt were no match for what Ty felt (he will be sharing his story tomorrow).  

We have added so many more amazing moments together.  Days filled with emotion.  So many of those days were a mixture of the same feelings: nervousness, excitement, and love.  Our wedding day, the day we found out we were pregnant, the morning my water broke and Carter was born.  When I look back on each of those memories I am filled with love and happiness.  Ty made me so happy the day he asked me to marry him and he has made me happy every day since.  He is such an amazing partner and I'm thankful for every day I get to spend with him.

We copied the picture from the day we got engaged on our honeymoon with Ty's ring.

Carter Loves Laundry

One of Carter's favorite chores to help me with is folding laundry.  It comes second only to feeding the animals.  He loves to watch Harper eat and laughs as she barks and hops around with excitement while we get her food ready.

As I fold laundry he reaches into the basket and pulls clothes out.  He loves to roll around and play with the clothes as I fold.  He also grabs the basket, shakes it around, and eventually pushes it off the bed.  Watching him makes folding laundry so much fun.  I used to save most chores until after he went to bed so I had more play time with him, now I make sure to fold laundry with him.  It's a blast for both of us!  Although it does take me twice as long as usual because I spend half the time watching him, taking pictures of him playing, and video taping him.

Carter's Doll

At daycare the child closest to Carter's age is a little girl who is 11 months old.  Her favorite toys to play with are the baby dolls.  When I dropped Carter off a few days ago the little girl was playing with one of the dolls like usual.  Carter was sitting, surrounded by balls, but was all eyes for the little girl and her baby doll.  She was very sweetly patting the baby on the head.  Their teacher picked up a baby doll and was showing her how to pat the baby on the back, rather than the head.  Carter continued to watch and then began to fuss.  Realizing he wanted a baby doll to play with too, his teacher handed him one.  He very happily stopped fussing, grabbed the baby's arm, and began swinging it around.  Not the most gentle way to play with a baby doll, but he was happy.

Playing with a doll at daycare.

Saturday we were grocery shopping.  As we walked by the toy aisles Ty asked if Carter needed a new toy.  I emphatically answered yes!  We started down the aisle.  I was carrying Carter and held toys up to him.  He didn't show much interest in the first few toys.  Then I got to a baby doll.  When I held it up a huge smile reached across his face and he began reaching for her.  She had a button on her tummy that when pushed made baby giggles and sounds.  He smiled each time I pushed the button.  I figured if he loved her, he would really love the animals that wiggled and made noise.  When we got to those he had no interest, barely even looked at them.  All the way down the aisle we tried toys.  None of them got a reaction like the baby doll.  So we went back to the baby doll, again he smiled and reached for her.  That was it, he wanted that doll.

As we were leaving the toy area Ty saw a huge display of oversized plastic balls.  We stopped as he played with the balls for a few minutes and then he insisted that I play with one too.  So we ended up buying one of those as well, more for daddy than for Carter, but Carter and I played with it at home.

After we paid for our groceries and got to the car I couldn't wait to open the doll and let Carter play with her.  I even sat in the back seat on the way home so I could watch him.  It was so sweet to see him hug her tight and hold her hand.  When he holds her hand he swings her around in the air, it's quite comical.

He's going to be such a good big brother some day!

I'm so glad that Ty is such an easy going guy and has no problem letting Carter get whatever toy he wants, whether it's a toy intended for a boy or a girl.  When we found out Carter was a boy I had Ty read the book William's Doll by Charlotte Zolotow.  It was a great way to open up a discussion about what kinds of toys we would give Carter.  At that point Ty said Carter could have a doll if he wanted one and that he had lots of stuffed animals as a child.

My parents always allowed us to get whatever toys we wanted as kids.  We were never restricted to "girl" or "boy" toys.  Both my brothers and I had all of the surprises: the puppy surprise, kitty surprise, bunny surprise, bear surprise, horse surprise.  We loved those toys and we all played with them together.  We all also had G.I. Joes and transformers.

Anyone else have these as a kid?  Best toy ever!

One year for Christmas my little brother wrote a letter to Santa Claus asking for a baby wanna walk, an easy bake oven, and fake fingernails among other things.  My mom joked that she was a little embarrassed to send the letter in to the newspaper, but did anyway.  It may have seemed strange to other people, but he liked to put the fake fingernails on, pretend to be a werewolf, and chase me around.  I remember praying that Santa didn't bring them because it scared me so much!  He treated the baby wanna walk like a robot.  He would set her up and as she walked across the room he would shoot at her with a Nerf gun until she fell over.  Now the easy bake oven?  He just loved to bake!

Holding her hand.

I always respected the fact that my parents allowed us to be who we wanted to be and didn't force us into gender stereotypes and roles.  As a result I knew that I wanted to do the same thing for my children.  I'm so glad Ty feels the same way so we can allow Carter to be who he was meant to be and play with whatever his little heart desires!

Long Run Done

This weekend I had a 12 mile run on my to-do list.  I hadn't done a long run in a couple of weeks for various reasons, so I knew I had to get it in this week.  I was hoping to be able to dominate the run like I had my most recent long run.  My last 12-miler I went out in 9:00 pace for the first half and 8:20 pace for the second half.  Part of me really wanted to shoot for a run like that, but I also knew it had been a few weeks and I wasn't sure how it would go.

Ty stayed home with Carter while he napped and I took off for my run.  I felt sluggish during the first mile which I ran in 9:00.  Pretty typical for my runs these days, I start slow and feel sluggish the first mile.  I didn't feel like I picked up the pace, but looked down to see I'd run the 2nd mile in 8:35.  I figured I wouldn't be able to hold that pace and that mile must've just felt easy because my 1st mile was so slow.  I was surprised when my I completed my next mile also in 8:35.  I averaged 8:37 pace for my first 6 miles.

When I turned around I decided to pick up the pace a bit.  I knew if I ran the last half of the run in under 8:30 pace I could finish my run with an average of 8:30 pace.  Mile 7 was 8:20.  I felt really good and decided to hold the pace there and then try to pick it up some more the last 3 miles.  Typically I think about a 12 mile run in quarters and chunk it into 4 different 3 mile stretches.  Sometimes I'll set goals for pace within each quarter.  Most of the time I just shoot for my last quarter to be my fastest.

I finished mile 10 in 8:13 and mile 11 in 8:08.  I told myself if I want to run a half-marathon at 8:00 pace I should be able to run my last mile of a 12 mile run in 8:00.  I picked it up for the last mile and finished mile 12 in 7:48.  I felt awesome.  I love runs where I am able to progressively pick up the pace throughout the run.  My 2nd half of the run I averaged 8:11 pace.  I couldn't believe how good it felt.

Back when I set my sights on running a half-marathon at 8:00 pace I was afraid it was too lofty of a goal.  I thought I might have to re-evaluate closer to race time and go for a slower pace.  Now I'm thinking it's something I can actually do.  I'm getting pumped for the half-marathon in November and I still have 2 months of training to get there.  I may not be anywhere near my half-marathon PR of 1:31, but I'm ready to set a postpartum PR!

And just because they're both so cute...

Practicing his standing!

Linking up with Ashley for Move It Monday: