Mile 20

Long about mile 20 I ‘hit the wall’ as they say. The course took us to the most industrial part of town. We parked 5 blocks away. The Blond Guy tripped and fell flat on his face twice on the way to the course. The Nog was on my hip and getting heavier by the minute. We made it to the party and found a restroom (thank goodness we didn’t have any accidents today!). We passed the Sun Trust table on our way out and I picked up one clapper and one pinwheel. I thought a variety of gimmicks would be nice to keep the boys occupied. With The Blond Guy already screaming from the loud music blasting in his ear and the fact that I wouldn’t pick him up, I dragged both the boys as far away from the band as I could and got them settled onto the curb. I presented the boys with the Sun Trust gadgets and The Blond Guy was appalled. Gee, mom, what were you thinking? Isn’t it obvious that we BOTH need to have our own COOL toy? Well, at that point I was willing to do just about anything to stop them from screaming. So I dragged them both BACK to the suntrust table past the blaring rock band, and exchanged the pinwheel for another clapper. Then back to the curb where they actually sat for a good 10 minutes.

I also had an embarrassing mile 20 moment. The gentleman standing beside me at the curb was a very enthusiastic cheerer-on of runners. After a while I noticed that he was calling many of them by name. Not thinking much of it, I asked, “How do you know so many people here?”
He paused, looked at me for a moment, and responded, “Their names are written on their shirts.” Oh. I guess that made a lot more sense than the idea that he had personally coached hundreds of runners for the marathon. I had seen one or two runners with their names on but I guess I didn’t connect the two until it was too late and the question was already out of my mouth. I explained to him that this was my first marathon (and my husband’s) so I’m not really sure how they go. He laughed and said, “For a minute there I thought you were just kidding me.”
Um.....

We watched the runners for quite a while and I couldn’t help but feel my heart swell at the thought of what these people were doing. Standing at mile 20, thinking of how far they’ve come, how much pain they are in, how long they’ve been running, and how close they are to achieving their goal, I almost started to get a little teary-eyed.

After a long wait, Stone finally showed up. He stopped and took a few pictures with us.




After the 5-block drag back to the car I caught a glimpse of myself in the car window. This is what I looked like after mile 20.

The Finish Line

By the time we got to the finish line the boys had absolutely no interest in staying put, so I had to watch most of the action from a distance. I watched the runners pressing forward and sprinting for the final stretch and listened to the announcer as he called their names. Things got pretty intense as the clock approached the 4-hour mark and the announcer was congratulating those who crossed before it passed. Again I had to choke back the tears, thinking of what a huge accomplishment this was for the runners, and what a sweet moment of victory they were all experiencing.

After a while I put Nogster on my shoulders so we could stand right at the fence and watch.
No sooner had I approached the gate when I saw an older gentleman (not more than 20 yards from the finish), stop dead in his tracks and try desperately to work out the cramps in his legs. Everyone around us clamored to encourage him onward and I joined in. It was such a heartrending sight to know how close he was to the finish and that his legs were ready to give out. Finally he worked through it and was able to finish.

Stone immediately followed, sprinting down the lane. It was such a touching moment to see my husband about to cross the finish line after such an ordeal. I cheered and screamed. I was so proud of him. Without the boys in tow I would have been able to snap a picture or maybe even some footage. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be. We ran to meet him at the finish line as fast as we could but it was still several minutes before we were able to find him. Here he is…the proud finisher of a 4:07:44marathon.

The Aftermath

We followed Stone around for a bit while he harvested the free calories that were available and tried to stop shivering.

By this time my arm had started to cramp up from carrying The Nog all day and he wasn’t all that interested in being carried, anyway. Finally we worked our way back to the car and dropped Stone off at the YMCA for his shower. Thanks again to our vehicular DVD player, the wait wasn’t bad at all. After the shower we enjoyed a nice lunch at Qdoba. Here’s The Nogster showing off his “My Dad Rocks” shirt.

Here’s The Blond Guy trying to remember the words, “Root Beer.”

Here’s what the back of our shirts look like.

Here we are back at home wearing all of our marathon shirts. If you’re still reading this I owe you a candy bar.

It was quite the momentous day. Next time I’m bringing a stroller.

I've Been Tagged!

...Twice! My sister Angie tagged me in her blog and my great friend Becca Dall sent me the same tag in a wonderful email. So now I get to answer a bunch of questions about myself, which is kind of fun because I get to pretend that everyone else is as interested in thinking about me as I am. You'll have to read all the way to the end to find out if I've tagged you or not....I guess my options are limited to a)people who I know read my blog. b)people who have their own blog. By the way I really tried to stick to the script but couldn't help changing some of the questions here and there....which I deem legal as of this moment. So here we go:

4 jobs I've had
1. I think my very first official job was at BRG research doing phone surveys.
2. Teaching violin
3. Freelance Recording
4. Violin coaching at BCC High school.


Places I've lived
1. Provo/Orem, Utah
2. Winston-Salem, NC
3. Vienna, Austria
4. Silver Spring, MD

Movies I love
1. The Count of Monte Cristo
2. Dead Poets Society
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. Anne of Green Gables and Avonlea
5. Our Mutual Friend
6. Emma
7. Joseph
8. Thoroughly Modern Millie

Movies I like
1. 13 Going on 30
2. The Truman Show
3. Mickey Blue Eyes
4. Disney's The Kid

Movies my kids cycle through over and over
1. Mary Poppins
2. Emporer's New Groove
3. Aladdin

Favorite Foods (It's so subjective. I really have to be in the mood)
1. Fresh Raspberries or Blueberries
2. Banana Cream Pudding
3. Garlic Bread

Favorite Pop Music/Bands
1. Karen Carpenter
2. Francis Cabrel

Favorite Classical Music
Any Brahms Chamber Music. Most Tchaikovsky

If I Could Have One Super Power...
The ability to freeze time. Think about how much more you could get done in a day!
(I shamelessly copied this from Angie. But how can you top this one...really?)

4 weird things about me
1. I get dagger-nose at night or whenever I'm really tired.
2. I get really excited about choral conducting.
3. I check my email more times a day than I care to admit.
4. I never tire of listening to my Winter's Solstice CD, which I'm starting to suspect that Stone may have confiscated by now because I can't find it and I think he does get tired of it.

Favorite Shows
That would have to be "The Office" which I always feel guilty for watching but still am not able to give it up. Other than that I don't watch TV.

Places I'd rather be I'm pretty happy where I am now but if I had to choose....
1. In UT with my family
2. In CO with my Sis who just had a baby

People I'm tagging

1. Claude Richards
2. Becky Rogers
3. Angela Robbins
4. Joy Sorenson

okay, okay, so if you've been tagged and you don't have a blog then just email me...or better yet, start one so we can keep tabs on you.

Pumpkin Days at Butler's Orchard

We had a fun family trip to Butler's Orchard to usher in the Fall Season....even though it still feels like Summer. There were so many fun activities there for kids and we only captured a few of them on camera. For me, the main attraction was the hayride to the pumpkin patch.



We selected our pumpkin and when we got on the wagon to ride back to the festivities, The Nogster insisted on holding the pumpkin the whole way.



The next best thing was the petting zoo with farm animals, which I knew the boys would love. Only the goats seemed interested in us at the time, but they were very friendly and even-tempered. Nogster completely loved them. I never thought I'd say this but I think he needs a dog.



Stone liked the slides. You have to sit on a burlap sack to go down.




The Blond Guy's favorite was the hayloft with big bales of hay for jumping off...




Nogster liked driving the mini John Deere tractors and climbing around the wooden train. On the whole it was a great day. The boys fell asleep in the car on the way home.

The Blond Guy's First Violin Performance

We have a little violin made of felt and other crafty items that The Blond Guy finally realized that he could pretend to play on today. I gave him a pencil for a bow and he was set. Now for my disclaimer: Even though playing the violin, and even asking me to accompany him on the piano was completely his idea, this video makes it look like it was my idea....and that's only because Stone and I were working so hard at trying to capture this moment on film. We had to take a lot of footage to get anything remotely worth writing home about.



Jesus said love everyone,
Treat them kindly, too.
When your heart is filled with love,
Others will love you.

Nothin' like a good pair of underpants

This morning Nogster found a pair of The Blond Guy's underpants and insisted that I put them on him. Yeah, despite being nonverbal he can definitely be insistent. I think these underpants have some superhero powers....at least, they make him look like a superhero.