February Recap

Whoa. A lot has gone on since the previous post. Let's see...ran the marathon, baby girl turned 3 and Mark left for 5 weeks for training in the Florida panhandle.

The marathon was great. I blogged about it already on MySpace, so I won't bore anyone with the details of it. 2 nights before the race, we all went out on Bourbon Street. I can admit that I had never gone there at night. The last few times that I had gone to New Orleans, I had a nice little bun in the oven, so I couldn't partake in any debauchery. I think I may have made up for it with gusto on the Friday before the race. Needless to say, I was a little hungover the day before the race. I pushed an insane amount of water and gatorade through my system and think it may have been my main saving grace for race day.

When I finished the race, it was wonderful. My friends and my family were there and it was just such a huge sense of accomplishment. However, I can honestly say that I didn't know if I would ever run another full marathon again. Everyone else was already planning their next race, but I was planning on "maybe" doing a half-marathon in December. I love the half marathon distance. It's not short, but it's not ungodly long and painful. A few weeks ago, one of my closest friends in California emailed me and asked me if I would think about running a marathon with her in the winter...it would be her first. I was so touched that she asked me, that I couldn't resist. Amazingly enough, Mark has decided to do it as well. I have to admit that the first thought that crossed my mind was, "CRAP! Now I have to do this ALL over again!" But, I know that I can do it and it's completely worth it. So mark the calendars...December 6, California International Marathon, Sacramento, CA. Woot! I'm actually going to try and improve my time. I felt so incredibly slow on the last one and I know I can push myself a little more.

Okay, enough with the running! Lauren turned 3! She had a princess party with her friend Raegan that lives down the street. It was so much fun! The main responsibility I had was to make this really cute castle cake. The first version ended up lopsided. I am a total perfectionist when it comes to baking for other people, so in the trash it went. The second version turned out great and I was putting the finishing touches on it. I didn't realize how far over the edge the cake was and BAM! On the floor it went. By this time, it's already 8:45pm the night before the party. I head over to Albertson's and found a sheet cake. We baked the remaining cakes and then created the castle cake on top of the sheet cake. Not quite how we wanted it to be, but that's all right. It worked in the end. :)

Mark has been gone for 2 weeks now...starting on week 3 of 5. The last time he was gone for this amount of time was 2 years ago when he deployed. I can't believe that 2 years has gone by already since his deployment. Where did it go?? I will say that these haven't been easy weeks. Mainly because the kids have been sick. Gavin was sick the first week and then Lauren was sick last week. Each time I thought, "Yay! A normal day!", I got the sicky smackdown from one of them. I haven't slept throught the night ONCE since he's been gone...and it's not because I can't sleep without him. Yes, I miss him, but the kids have been waking up. If they don't wake up, then the dog wakes up and starts pacing. I wanted to throw my pillow at her last night. I went to bed at a decent hour and she wakes up at 130am to pee out in the freezing cold! Ack!!!!!! I have been able to get a lot of projects done while he's been gone though, which is good. Things that I've been meaning to do, but just never got around to doing it. I guess I'm putting the DVR to good use. :)

This is the latest update for now...I'll try to get a little better about updating. Sorry it's a little mundane and boring. I'll try to spice up the next one with a little more glitz and flavor. :)