Marathon Miracle

So, back in July, I convinced Chris that he really "wanted" to run a 1/2 marathon with me. Specifically the Rock 'N Roll 1/2 marathon here in San Jose in October. So we started training, and it was actually going pretty well. It was nice to be able to run and spend more time together. He bought his funny looking toe shoes (picture is of our friend Kevin who also bought some) and avoided the dreaded shin splints. We got up to 8 miles, and he was doing really well. Then the following week things sorta started going downhill. Not really, because it wasn't going anywhere. He started having problems with his knee, and couldn't make it more than a few miles without some serious pain. He went back to his regular running shoes to try to cushion his knees a little more. On the next run, he got through about 7 miles, and had to walk the last 2 back to the car. No big, we'd just rest it a little more and try again the next week. That one was worse. He was in pain from the beginning, and finally had to turn around at mile 3 and started limping back to the car. Me being the wonderful and caring wife that I am, I told him to go back a little ways back to a place I knew how to drive to, and I would run back to the car and drive to pick him up. So I furiously booked it back to the car, running way faster than I was used to so that he wouldn't have to wait too long. I was feeling pretty good about my time, and I got to the car. As soon as I spotted it, I realized: CHRIS HAS THE KEY. D'OH!!! I didn't have my cell phone, either, because I didn't bring it because he had his. I found some nice ladies and borrowed their cell phone and tried to call him. I got his voice mail and told him to stay put and I would be there as soon as I could. I called my sister, Jenn, who was at home with the girls, and probably sleeping. I asked her to bring my set of keys to me, since it was only about a 10 minute drive away. I figured that would be faster than running all the way back to Chris, then all the way back to the car, then driving back to get him, especially since I was completely exhausted and out of breath. She got a little lost, and I finally got my keys about 40 minutes later. Poor Chris probably could have walked back to the car by the time I got to him, but oh well. He rested it for a couple of weeks, alternating between icing it and putting on a heating pad. It then occurred to him that he has had knee problems in the past, back when he ran in high school and then again on his mission while he was biking a lot.

So, race day comes, and I really didn't think he was ready to run it yet. But he was determined to try. We had hit traffic and tried to find a parking place, and we got to the start of the race about a minute before it actually started. We got running, and he was a little stiff, but figured he'd loosen up as he ran. He had to stop and walk a few times, and adjusted his knee braces a few other times. By the time we looped back to mile 4, he was in pretty bad shape. I told him we were actually pretty close to the car at that point, and that we could stop. He thought about it and was definitely tempted, but he decided he wanted to finish, no matter how slow he was or how much he had to walk it. So we went on, and he did okay for about 5 more miles. Then he was back to walking a bit, and trying his best to relax and loosen up. I even made him tell me 20 things he loved about me to try to distract him. He got to about #4 and couldn't think of any more. He was just in too much pain, or maybe he was just dumbfounded. :) So at about mile 10 we walked the rest, and even that was getting hard for him at the end. But he was able to run the last .1 miles across the finish line, and we even came in at 2 hours 59 minutes and 47 seconds. He was happy to finish under 3 hours, especially considering how many factors were against him going in. They had towels soaked in ice water at the finish line, and he was able to get to the medical tent and get his knees wrapped in some ice packs. I thought it was pretty inventive of them to use plastic wrap on the packing rolls to wrap it up tight. We got our medals and our pictures taken, and then we found the girls waiting to give us cheers and hugs.

But he did it, and I'm pretty proud of him for hanging in there. He's even almost walking normally now 2 days later. So there's hope for him. I think he'll have to go see his doctor and see if there's any physical problems with his knee or the cartilage and if it's something they can fix.

Update, schmupdate

Wow, it's been a while since I've updated here. I figure most people know what's happening from my Facebook statuses, and this site is incredibly difficult when it comes to adding pictures. But you can't get into a lot of detail on Facebook, so I'll post general updates here and see if I can link to pictures there. We'll see how this goes.

Anywho, I just started up another quarter of nursing school this week. This begins Quarter 3 of a 6 quarter program. I am working in the Labor & Delivery/Postpartum Unit at a private hospital from 2 pm- 10 pm for 6 weeks, then I will switch to Pediatrics at a county hospital from 6:30 am - 2:30 pm for the next 6 weeks. I also have lecture during the week, and another Pharmacology class where we are going to learn to start I.V.s. Things are going pretty well so far. I was in the Well Baby Nursery on Tuesday, and was pretty surprised by the frantic calls down to the nursery to come because there's a problem with the baby. We'd rush down there, only to find that the baby SNEEZED! Twice! They would be worried that the baby was sick or too cold. I guess sneezes and hiccups are pretty common concerns there. I was glad that was the extent of their worry. I know it's going to be really hard to be in the NICU or a Peds ward when the kids are actually sick.

The girls are in school and loving it. Megan is in 5th grade, and is enjoying being the oldest grade in school. She'll go to middle school next year, about which she is really excited. They get to do a lot of activities this year, such as a 3-day science camp, an overnight fieldtrip up to San Francisco, and several projects throughout the year. She is also doing Sunnyvale SUNN, which is a year-round swim team. She enjoyed swimming for our local cabana club's swim team the last 2 years, and wanted to do more. She swims 3 or 4 days every week for 1 hr. 15 min. each practice. They have some fabulous coaches there, and Megan really enjoys it so far. She's excited to get better and to work hard.

Alisha is in 1st grade, and really loves it. She loves being able to stay for lunch, since Kindergarten was only 1/2 day. She thinks the cafeteria food is really good, and is excited to find out every day what they are serving for hot lunch. She goes every day this year from 8:30-2:35. This makes my schedule a lot easier, because I can get a lot of studying done while they are at school, and I don't have to worry about someone having to pick her up early every day like I did last year. She loves her teacher and is really a good student. She loves that her name starts with "A," because she gets to do a lot of their things in class first. She is the tallest in her class again this year, but the other kids are starting to gain on her.

Chris is doing the same ol', being frantically busy and overworked. I have to remind myself that we are glad he has a job and not to complain too much about his workload. He recently turned the big 4-0, and he decided to literally take the plunge and go skydiving. As I watched from the beach, I couldn't believe how high up he was when they jumped. He was a little tiny speck and gradually we could see him and take pictures. He was pretty happy when he landed and wants to do it again. I think I'll watch from the ground again. That was enough to get my heart going, just watching him do it. But we had a fun weekend, celebrating with a few couples at a local fondue restaurant, and he took the day off on his birthday to sleep in and go to lunch with me while the girls were at school. Days like that are very rare, when we can be together without the kids. It was really nice.



This is Chris's Key Lime Coconut Pie. We weren't too sure about adding in 40 candles and melting all of the whipped cream on top. So we cheated and put in just the numbers.


Over Labor Day Weekend, my cutie niece Brooke flew out from Utah to come see Wicked before it left San Francisco. It was so much fun having her here and getting to spend some time with her. She is growing up so fast! Wicked was so incredible, and it was fun to see her face reacting to it all. We also saw the Golden Gate bridge, but it was really cold and super windy, so we didn't stay long. The next day we went to Six Flags, and we all got drenched. It was a quick, but super fun trip.

My sister Jenn is living with us while she goes to culinary school in San Francisco. She's doing the pastry program and learning a lot. It's been a long time since we have lived in the same house, about 14 years, since I left to get married. She's changed a bit in those 14 years, so it's been good getting to know her better. It's been fun to see the things she is learning in school and even more fun to try them when she brings home samples. She has done really well with the program, and will graduate in December. We're really proud of her for following through with this long-time dream of hers.

So, we're definitely keeping busy and I hope I can update this blog again before the next 18 months are up! No promises, though.

Birthday/ Easter

I got the girls dressed for church this morning in their cute Easter dresses. Alisha liked hers, but after she put it on, she looked in the mirror and immediately declared, "I look stupid!" I don't really know why she thinks that. She's SO NOT into princesses right now, so maybe the dress was a little too princess-like. I don't know. I think 5 is a little young to be so fashion conscious. She was pretty cranky all through church, so maybe she was just tired. It was a pretty long week.

Alisha had her Clone Wars birthday party yesterday. She didn't want anything to do with princesses, so she picked Clone Wars, her favorite TV show right now. It's a cartoon version prequel of Star Wars. She had a Darth Vader pinata, and loved attacking it with her purple light saber. I did convince her to have a purple bunny cake, though, instead of a black Darth Vader cake. I just don't have the artistic skill to even attempt such a cake. Besides, black frosting would dye these cute 5 year olds up for their Easter pictures. Not good. She just invited a few girls from preschool, and they had fun playing with the puppy, playing some games, and just running around being silly.

Legoland

What a trip! We flew down to Orange County, and drove down to Legoland for Alisha's 5th birthday. We were in Disneyland for Megan's 5th birthday, so we figured it was only fair to do something big for Alisha. Since she's NOT into princesses right now, she chose to go to Legoland instead. She's really into Star Wars, Clone Wars, Batman, and Indiana Jones right now. We spend 2 days in Legoland, and the girls had a blast! I was just amazed at the replicas made of Legos. The Volvo was to scale, and it looked real until you got up close and realized it was all Legos. It took a team of 5 a few months to put it all together. Alisha went on her first roller coaster, and that's huge for her, since she has to work up to going on the little tiny kid rides that go in a circle.

The only down side of the trip was when we were at a restaurant, Megan had wrapped her retainers in a napkin, and set it next to her plate. You can probably guess what happened next. Yup, she left them there. She realized it about an hour later. We called the restaurant, and one of the waiters started looking through the trash. He called us and said he couldn't find them. So Chris went up there (the girls were in bed by then) and looked through the trash himself. Poor guy went through all the bags in the dumpster, and had to painstakingly take his time looking through EVERYTHING. Pretty disgusting. It's definitely one of those "You know you're a parent when...." moments. Unfortunately, he didn't find them, so we're going to plunk down another $800 at the dentist to have some new ones made. She had only had them for about 2 weeks. Oh well, what can you do, right?

We also went to the beach, swimming at the hotel pool, out to restaurants, and Chris didn't even work the entire weekend. It was nice just spending time together. We all definitely needed it!

Puppy Passions!

For my birthday, Chris gave me a card that said inside that if we REALLY wanted to get a dog, he wouldn't stand in our way any longer. He was the holdout for a long time. The girls have been BEGGING for a couple of years to get a dog. I wasn't sold on the idea, either, since nursing school was up in the air. Finally, I figured I didn't want to put it off any longer, since there was no way of telling when I was to start school. I did some research and found a beagle breeder in the area. I wanted to go see the puppies and just make sure that's what I wanted. Diane and I went while the kids were in school, and fell in love with them. One in particular was being dragged, carried, and stepped on by his 4-year old daughter, but the puppy was still chasing her around, and still was mellow. I knew that was the one we needed, since I knew Alisha would be all over the puppy in the same way, and that it could put up with her. I held her, and her face was just so sweet, and I was hooked. So I told the girls and Chris about her, and told Chris it was his last chance to back out.

We went to Petsmart and bought up a bunch of stuff to bring her home. It was really overwhelming, since I really had no idea what we needed. Luckily, Diane and her kids were there to coach me along with suggestions. They were nearly as excited as we were about the idea.

We went the next day, and brought her home. After going through several names and not agreeing on any, we finally settled on Molly. It took her a good week of waking up several times a night and crying, before she finally got settled. We're still working on housetraining her, and she is slowly learning that our feet are NOT chew toys. But she's a good dog, and she's even wearing Chris down. She runs to the door so excited when he comes home from work. And who can resist a face like this?