Christy B’s Weblog

It is Valentine’s weekend and Madison is leaving for winter camp so we all won’t be together on V-day – so………we had our RED party tonight!  I have been reading this really cool blog called: www.whittakerwoman.typepad.com.  She has the best ideas for family night.  She inspired me to do our RED party.  Her princess party was darling, but, I don’t think Madison will be going for that – let alone Jake! :0)  Her kids are a little younger than mine.  (I will attempt to put her blog on my blog roll and her husband’s blog.)  We all wore red – as much as we could – and we ate red food.  Hawaiian Punch, Red Vines, Berry Applesause, Hot Dogs with Ketchup and cookies and cake with red sprinkles.  Madison even broke out my red Christmas tree.  The girls dressed their stuffed animals in red too!  They were so excited!!  It really took very minimal effort and they just loved it!  We watched “Space Buddies” and now the kids are all sleeping together since there is no school tomorrow!!  WooHoo!!  My favorite family night from Whittakerwoman was her melted snowman night.  You have to go check it out.  There is even a video on her husband’s blog that is linked.  (They adopted a little boy from Korea and have videos about that, Linda.  I know you are being Wonder Woman and all, but you would enjoy them in all of your spare time!)

What are your family nights like?

Hello, Race Fans!! I know, it has been two weeks since the race and I am finally blogging!! It was not because I couldn’t walk to the computer after the race, it was just my life taking over! I also wanted to add pictures and they were on Brian’s computer. Today he transferred them to mine. So, here we go!!!

First, let me share a picture of how thrilled my children were for me to have this awesome experience!

I had forgotten that we usually do not bring them to the airport when we leave, but here they were, SO THRILLED we were leaving. Notice Kate’s red eyes. Jake looks like Han Solo just got killed. Madison was holding it together pretty well, but she cried too. Good Times.

We made it to Arizona thanks to my BFF Cheryl. Thanks for the tickets! :0) She was the one who encouraged me to enter the race. We had such fun catching up with my family! Brian, Rick (my brother-in-law), Linda (my sister), Austin (my nephew), my mom and I all headed downtown on Friday to pick up my race number at the Health and Fitness Expo. I printed out all of my forms and at the bottom of one it said, “Signature of Athlete”. I had to show everyone. I have never been called an athlete! My mom and sister said I should cross it out and write cheerleader, but I was starting to feel athletic! The expo was cool. Who knew they had all of this stuff you could buy about marathons! I picked up some cute stuff to scrap my experience. (no worries Heather J.)

The night before the race, I attempted to go to bed early, but I couldn’t sleep. Five o’clock came VERY early. To make it all better though, my dad got up and made me eggs and bacon and of course, nice fruit – a staple at my mom’s house.

He is the best! Brian got up with me too. He was so encouraging!

I walked with my BFF Cheryl, Kristee P. and Susan. Here we are looking all relaxed before the race began.

There are like 30,000 people that race, so it takes a while to even get to the starting line. We just chatted as we waited and a gal in front of us turns around and says, ” You’re Christy & Cheryl!” So crazy that in all of those people we saw Diana who I sang in choir with like 9 years ago! So, we were finally off and it was such beautiful weather!! The atmosphere was fun and crazy. People dressed up, bands every couple of miles – even guys dressed up as Elvis cheering us on!

At seven miles we stopped for a potty break. My least favorite thing about the race – port-a-potties! Thankfully, Kristee P. is a race pro and had hand sanitizer with her to hook us up when we finished. Seven miles was also eventful, because I started to get blisters! BIG BUMMER!! I had been training for months without a blister and here I am, only 1/2 way and I can feel them on both feet! I guess it was the heat that made my feet sweat more or something. The girls were so great and encouraging! And at about ten miles we saw this:

Brian and my dad & mom showed up with signs!!! They had my name and then flipped over to Cheryl’s!!! It totally made me smile so big! It really gave me a boost to keep going. My own cheerleaders!! I am one blessed girl! At about 11 miles though, I didn’t think my feet would make it. My girls were there for me though. They started singing, “Eye of the Tiger” and even had some dance moves! What I appreciated most was their attitude that we were all going to finish together no matter what our time. In other words, they slowed down for me those last two miles. With one mile left, I said, “I wish Brian was here!” I looked up and there he was!! He had walked a mile from the finish line to walk the end with me. I love him. Even though he wouldn’t give me a piggy back ride! :0)

I was never so thrilled to see the finish line!! I had quite the cheering section there for me too!

My sister’s family and friends that were visiting from Canada, my parents and my sweetheart! They even brought me flowers! They were yelling, “Who’s an athlete? – Christy!!” What an awesome sense of accomplishment! There were so many times during training that I wanted to quit and didn’t think I would be able to do it, BUT I DID IT! What was so cool is how much support my friends and family gave me! I felt like it was a big deal, but all of them showing up showed me that they thought it was a big deal too. I felt like an athlete! My sister wanted to take a picture of the athlete’s in our family so she told my nephew, Austin, to stand with me because he is the fastest hockey skater in America, but my mom was having nothing to do with that! She won ribbons in track when she was young and knew that was where all of my athletic ability came from so she joined in the picture as well! :0)

Afterward, my In-n-Out burger tasted so good!! I had never savored a burger more! My nap was great and the recliner became my new best friend. I wore my medal the whole next day and it now hangs at my desk where I can look at it all the time. Blisters aside, I was an amazing experience. I am proud of myself. Blessed by my friends and family and happy to say: “I DID IT!!!!”