We met my parents in Atlanta on Saturday morning and immediately headed to the aquarium. Carter was excited about seeing the "ish." We had bought him some gold fish a few weeks ago, but they didn't live very long. I guess that's what you get for 13 cents. Carter was extremely impressed by the fish at the entrance and continued to enjoy looking in all the tanks and at all the exhibits.
We ate lunch there.
Once we had enough of the crowds, we walked back to our hotel. We couldn't have picked a better location. We stayed right at Centennial Park. Carter took a nap with Gammy and Poppa while Kevin and I walked over to the Georgia Dome, so I could pick up my race packet and go to the expo. We met up with Anna, and I bought my long awaited "13.1" magnet for my car. Once I felt we had sufficiently checked out all the fun running gear, we walked back to the hotel to prepare for dinner. Anna set us up at Maggiano's. We had a delicious dinner followed by a dessert platter that was on the house. After, we drove around and gawked at the houses off of Roswell road in Buckhead. Then, it was time to go back to the hotel and hope to get well-rested for the race. I woke up every hour because I was terrified of not hearing my alarm.

I wrote this last week and forgot to post it. (Very indicative of my life!)

I did it! I completed my first half-marathon in Atlanta on Sunday. I had an early start at 6:10 when I met my friend Anna in our hotel lobby and walked over to Centennial Park where the race began. Anna wanted to meet up with some of her friends. After, we headed over to our start corral. We heard an announcement at the start of the wheel chair race and knew we would be starting 5 minutes later. Officials began to open the corrals, and we slowly walked forward until we were at the start line and began running. We immediately passed my parents who were waiting outside of our hotel. It was very crowded with over 16,000 runners. By mile three, it started drizzling on us which actually felt good. By mile 9, I was ready to be done. At mile 12, I realized, I could walk and still meet my goal of 2:10. Anna refused to let me walk. It seemed there was a hill around every corner, and the race would never end. When we finally made it to the finish line, we wound through, received our medals, and were offered all sorts of food. My food of choice: 2 oreos! I really didn't want anything, but when offered oreos, I couldn't resist. We continued winding our way through the end and eventually made it into Centennial Park where we began looking for my family. I looked for them along the course and never saw them. They watched me at the end, but I couldn't see them through the crowd. After, we said our goodbyes to Anna and headed back to the hotel where I showered, and everyone else went to get breakfast. After cleaning up, I met them downstairs and enjoyed a wonderful plate of eggs benedict. I didn't feel too great for the rest of the day, but I was very proud of my accomplishment. The best part was catching up with Anna. I hadn't seen her since June 2007. Anna is a veteran racer, so it was awesome to run with her. She even filled my water bottle for me as we ran! Now, it's off to Nashville in April.

All babies need to be accessible at all times
via their Blackberry
that can be kept in a holster on their diaper

Once all the important calls are taken care of, a baby boy can finally get to his chores:

We had wonderful spring-like weather this past weekend. On Saturday after my run, we took Carter to the zoo. It was a great day with great weather, and Carter is at a great age to enjoy the animals. We started by looking at a the monkeys. Do you know the difference between monkeys and apes? Well, monkeys have tails, and apes don't. Did you know that? I didn't until i overheard the little 4 year old answering her mom's questions, so I turned to Kevin and asked, "Do you know the difference...."

After, we moved over to the lions and tigers. The tiger was awake and roaring. Carter was extremely excited. Next, was the carousel. Carter wasn't too thrilled about being on it until it started moving. Every time we passed Kevin, he said, "Da da" and "bye bye" as we continued around. He absolutely loved it.

We headed over to the koalas. If you look very closely to the left of the koala, you can see a baby koala's head. It almost looks like the foot of the larger one.
We decided to go to the zoo to see the baby giraffes that were featured in our paper recently:

Carter enjoyed the animals. He saw the turtles who were "night night" and the alligator who says "chomp chomp." He also go to see a "zzzzzzzebra." We definitely need to enjoy our zoo membership a little more this spring.

As for me, it's crunch time. My half marathon in Atlanta is on Sunday. Wish me luck and hope for no freak weather situations or the forecasted thunderstorms. I'll be running it with m sorority sister Anna. It will be great to run it with a friend I haven't seen in awhile. Hopefully, I will be able to post my results instead of a picture of a snowman this time!

Don't you think every baby needs a coozie on their sippy cup?

Kevin and I are super thrilled to announce we finally have a social life. We just attended the 2nd two-year old birthday party in 2 months. Carter's best friend Aaron just turned two. Unfortunately, Aaron has moved up to the next class at school and left Carter behind. Aaron misses Carter so much that he ran from his mom on Friday when she dropped him off at school, opened Carter's classroom door, and ran to Carter. The director told me that when both classes go out on the playground, Carter and Aaron run to hug each other and walk around holding hands.

They were thrilled to see each other at Aaron's party on Saturday along with their friends Addison and Javon. Here are Carter and Aaron playing in cars while Addison looks on:
Carter also had fun playing dress up:
Carter wanted to sit with Aaron:
So, Aaron hugged and kissed him:

Before we left, Carter and Dada played air hockey with Addison and her grandfather:

I continue to run to prepare for the two half-marathons I have registered for. Right now, I am two weeks out from the Georgia half-marathon. On Saturday, I set my clock for 6:30 and made it out the house at 7:00 for a 12 mile run. The last 12 mile run I did was horrible. I contemplated hitch hiking back to my car on many occasions as my knee locked up and didn't want to bend. On Saturday, I was able to run 12 miles in under 2 hours without walking or stopping once. I just think back to when 1/4 mile was struggle and can't believe how far I have come. Of course, everyone knows I exercise so I can eat. I burnt 1455 calories during my run (thanks, Garmin, for keeping track). I was SO excited to be able to replenish these. Unfortunately, I remained rather sick to the stomach for the majority of the day. I'm sure I will be able to make up for it. That's one thing, I have always been good at!

L

Carter continues to want to be like us. It is too funny to realize the things he observes. Here he is wearing my running shoes:

and wearing Kevin's boots:


Today, he cracked us up. While we were eating breakfast, he was playing with his little vaccuum cleaner. He went in the living room, disconnected the hose and "cleaned" his Handy Mann y chair.

This morning, as we were preparing to leave for the best place on earth (Wal-Mart on a Sunday morning), I noticed Tiger was on the counter. (ok, you may never eat at my house again.) I fussed at Tiger to get down, and Carter went into the pantry and came out shaking a plastic grocery bag. We shake a bag when Tiger escapes into the garage. For some reason, this sound sends him furiously running into the house. We are rather entertained at the House house.

We're still here. I've decided working, running, and taking care of a nearly 2 year old is enough! I don't need anything else on my plate right now like trying to keep the house clean or maintain some semblance of a smoothly running household. We started our week with Carter running a high fever. I had to work last Saturday to interview potential new students for our magnet program. When Carter woke up, his temperature was over 102. He stayed there until after he went to bed on Sunday. He and I stayed home on Monday, but he never knew he felt bad. Kevin had no idea why my hair was disheveled when he got home from work. I explained that trying to put a toddler in time out while he was hanging on my back would do it to a girl.

Myrtle Beach Race Weekend Part IV

We attended our Victory Brunch on Saturday. No one was feeling too victorious, especiually when they handed us our finishing medals without having run. Here is a picture of a TNT snowman who watched us eat breakfast.
Carter and me:
Misty, Carter, and me:

Myrtle Beach Race Weekend Part III

We checked out of the condo on Saturday before breakfast, but took time to take pictures of the snow first:

Myrtle Beach Race Weekend Part II

We made it to the expo with plenty of time to spare. It was also much smaller than I expected. I checked in and got my bib number and a bag. I went to the back to get my T-shirt along with a water bottle and a hat. I looked around and bought a new head band and some throw away gloves. Carter enjoyed my hat and gloves. We had time to check into our condo before dinner. Carter enjoyed exploring it and checking out all the TVs.
We ate dinner at the Marriott Grand Dunes with our team and listened to a mother's story of her sons battle with Leukemia. After, the marathon director spoke to us and let us know he was meeting with city officials at 10:00 to find out if they would still hold the race. I never expected this to even be a possibility. I knew the race had been postponed by 30 minutes. When we left dinner, it was snowing heavily. Around 10:00, I received the message the race had been canceled. Disappointed can't even describe how I was feeling. We were told we would be able to transfer our fundraising to another race and our "victory brunch" was changed to Saturday morning instead of Sunday.

Myrtle Beach Half Marathon Weekend Part I

Anyone who has been around me in the past 5 months knows I have been training for my first half marathon. I did it through Team in Training, so I also agreed to raise $2100 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It has not been an easy 5 months. I started recovering from a SI joint injury. Once we started running more than 6 miles, I began having problems with my IT band, but I persisted. My parents flew in on Thursday night to cheer me on. We met Kevin at San Jose to begin our weekend:

Thursday night continued with my frantic packing and trying to make sure I had everything I needed. After numerous attempts (I'll deny some of the things I did, I finally was able to iron on the list of names I planned to run for:
Dad dropped me off at work on Friday, and one of my coworkers was going to watch my last class, so I could leave early. I was anxious to get to the Marathon Expo and make it to our team dinner on time.

Around 12:20, we found out school was going to be dismissed early due to a forecast for snow. I had been watching the weather all week and knew snow was a possibility in Myrtle Beach.

Carter has started to delay bedtime. We used to have him in bed by 6:30 every night. Lately, he has been stalling. Here he's sitting on the stairs with Dada: Then, he had to sweep the floor: Once we get upstairs, he has to rock in his little rocker, and rock in the big rocker in his room. I'm afraid he is turning into me when I was little.

Here are pictures from the first really cold snap we had on January 31st.

Carter keeps us entertained (usually laughing) nonstop. Here is one of those situations:

We finally let Carter play with his play doh he received for Christmas. He was unsure of what to do with it until I showed him. Luckily, he only tasted it once, but Tiger sure thought it was yummy. Carter was most impressed by the ball I made for him.

It's never been a huge secret how much I hate Valentine's Day, but I did buy Kevin a gift: Unfortunately, Tiger enjoyed the first one.

I am still here. Just trying to keep up with life. I hope to have more time after the 1/2 marathon on Saturday.......Wish me luck!