Life is Crazy

You know those t-shirts that say "Life is good"? Well, I think they should make ones that say "Life is Crazy", because it really is. The summer just flew by and now Fall is right around the corner. Tomorrow will be my third week "officially" back to work, we've owned our house now for a month and a half, I'm almost 19 weeks pregnant, the race is over with, and life is busy, busy, busy!!!

Friday Barney and I went down to Baystate Hospital in Springfield for an ultrasound. The baby is healthy and very active :) Every time the technician would place the wand on my stomach the baby would push it away. The baby was also laying with it's arms behind it's head. We got to look at the heart, the kidneys, the stomach, and the brain. We have some great photos that I will try to scan sometime this week so that I can post them. This baby definitely already has a personality all it's own :) And for all of you people out there wondering if we are going to find out the sex of the baby the answer is no. And we also have not decided on any names. Tomorrow is my check-up with my regular doctor.

Barney and I have been plugging along on the yard. He removed some bushes that I felt were hideous, one of which my mom informed me was the Connecticut state flower, the Mountain Laurel. I told her she could have it! Next weekend we will lay the rock path on the side of the house. Today Barney cut down part of our Rose of Sharon bush, although it looks more like a tree, that was growing sideways. We also ripped out a bunch of the sweet pea plants that have overgrown the garden. There is also a brick boarder around the house that Barney has been digging out of the yard. I'm not sure if we will use the bricks for anything. Next we will borrow the weed whacker from Gary again to cut down a lot of the plants before we start digging out the roots. Our goal is to have a clean slate for the springtime. I'm going to create an album in our shutterfly account just for house pictures, in case anyone wants to see the progress.

Speaking of my shutterfly account, it's been forever since I have added pictures to the site and I have a ton!! Hopefully I will be able to spend some time this week updating the pictures.

Yesterday was the Jail Break 5k walk and race that Barney has been planning for quite a while now. I am so pleased that everything went well the day of the race and that things seemed to run smoothly. Barney took Friday off from work to go with me to the ultrasound and then to run errands for the race day. He had to pick up the t-shirts, pick up the road cones, and get the bags together for the pre-registred runners. After he was done with everything we headed over to Roberto's on Federal Street in Greenfield for Dinner. I had the stuffed shells with pizza sauce, it's one of my favorites :)
On the day of the race Barney was up and out of the house by 6:00. It was raining really hard and I just kept hoping the rain would let up. Kaitlyn and I were up around 7:00 and did some housework before setting out around 9:00 for the race. Luckily the rain had stopped! Kaitlyn walked, well strolled, in the race with Austin, Mandy and Connor. They started at 9:30. The race started at 10:00, I was so nervous that I thought I was going to puke. A few minutes before 10 a cruiser and a van came out of the parking lot with their sirens wailing. Three "inmates" got out of the back of the van and started running down the race route. If you were able to "Catch the Crooks" (meaning come in before all 3) then you received a special award at the end of the race. I was no where near being able to "Catch the Crooks". We were all lined up on Elm Street waiting for the race to start and when it did people took off! I remember thinking to myself "why are these people going so fast" and "there is no way I can do this". Luckily one of our friends, Scott Waldron, signed up for the race with the sole purpose of keeping me going. There was no way I could have done the race without him. I would have been mentally defeated and wanted to have thrown in the towel. He kept me going the whole way by just jibberjabbing in my ear and listening to me ramble on at times. I reached the first mile marker at 12:50 and was at the second mile marker around 26:00. I could not believe how well I was doing as I had never moved that quickly while training. Then came my downfall, the hill. After the hill I knew I could finish the race, but there was no way I could run the rest of the way. I was spent, my body was exhausted. Baby was wondering what was going on. Scott just kept talking to me, I had the golf cart and a cruiser behind me, and another cruiser beside me! Then I saw something great. Liz and Dawn had come out to meet me and run me in. I was so excited to see them and just overwhelmed at that moment. Then as we got closer Barney and Kevin came out to run in with me as well. When I turned the corner to run up, yes up, to the finish line everyone who had finished, well everyone in the race because I was last, was there to cheer me on. I was a little embarrassed and covered my face. Then I just kept running right to the bathroom because I had to pee so badly!!!
I've never felt so proud of myself before and I could tell Barney was really proud of me as well. This is something I've wanted to do for a while and it was soooo hard!! There were so many days I wanted to quit or felt down about my progress, but Barney and Kaitlyn just kept me going. Thank you to everyone for making the race such a success! Some of the other people who ran the race were my mother-in-law MaryAnn, Corey and Liz, Matt and Dawn Kempf, Ruthie, Tatiana who also ran with me and kept me going!!, a bunch of guys from the jail, Mandy and Austin pushed Kaitlyn and Connor in the walk, so many other people that I just cannot think of right now. Oh, Mandy won a gift certificate in the raffle and Liz won Red Sox tickets!! Thanks to Jeanie for making delicious muffins!!

Ok, I have to pack my lunch and iron for tomorrow. Have a good week :)