A Fork In The Road

Back in January this post was written and well as you can tell I lost my focus fairly soon after.

As we near the end of this year, it looks very different than even I imagined it would back in January.  The funny part is I have no idea how it ended up looking this way because it is far different than I had imagined.

The good news is the differences are all good if you can just subtract out the part where I met NONE of my initial 2012 goals.  I am a little sad about that because I like to set goals, reach for them, and achieve them.  I will not be achieving most of that 2012 goals list.

What have I done in the 7 months since I went radio silent?

-Presented MG's scholarship for the 3rd time.
-My husband turned 40, L turned 2, and I turned 30!
-Applied to enter and started my MBA program.
-Resigned for my job to be another wonderful opportunity with a company closer to home.
-Vacationed at the beach with wonderful friends again this year.

This is probably most the high points but man oh man did I get sucked in until this weekend when I finally had time to breathe, blog, clean my house, and relax.

I have truly had a wonderful year.  It has flown by and obviously took a totally different path than I had mapped out but such is life.

We are all happy, healthy, and having fun!  For now, I'll leave you with pictures from my birthday and L's birthday.

And the promise that I will be back blogging more regularly starting now :)

 

 

 

Welcome!

I want to offer a warm hello to those of you stopping by from Kelly's Korner.  This is obviously a topic near and dear to many of you so I'll give you a bit of background on our story while you are here.

The story of our dear Megan Grace is actually a timely one for today since we will be presenting a scholarship in her memory for the 3rd time tomorrow!

Megan Grace was born and passed away on 06/29/2009.  We learned at 20 weeks that we were having a little girl however she would not be with us long once she was born.

4 weeks later in a dark ultrasound room at Johns Hopkins, we learned that it was Osteogenesis Imperfecta Type 2 that would ultimately claim her life.

With a diagnosis firmly in hand we traveled home to prepare for the remainder of the time we had with our daughter here on Earth.

She was born at 35 weeks and lived physically only a matter of minutes.  We miss her every day!

As a way to remember her and create something positive from her short life, we established a scholarship at my alma mater.  Each year, we travel there to present it to a very deserving student.

Also, as you can see she also now has a little sister that we love dearly.  One day when she is older, we will share the story of Megan Grace with her.

If you want to read more about Megan Grace, the blog lets you search by tagged posts and they should all pop up under the tag Megan Grace.

Thanks for stopping by!

Easter 2012

 Happy Belated Easter!  I hope everyone was able to spend time with their friends and families as we were able to do.

It was a really wonderful (and exhausting) day for us, but we would not have had it any other way.

This first picture was not taken on Easter, in fact it was taken a few weeks ago as I quietly panicked about what was wrong with my camera.

My dear friend Christina, came to the rescue and it is now fixed.  At some point, I set it to use the top left focus point instead of the center so basically everything I wanted in focus most certainly was not.

 These blooms were gone the next day after the rain took them all away for the year.  They literally appear over a matter of days and then leave in a matter of hours.  Fascinating!

 

 The rest of these pictures are from Easter Sunday.  

We went to the early service, then to breakfast while we waited for the butterfly release for the kids.  After breakfast,we had a few minutes to kill so we took L to the playground.

This was the result. 

 

 Once she had gotten her fill of the sandbox, we walked to the other side of the church to see the butterflies.

  

 And the obligatory picture with her daddy.  This picture looks identical to the one I posted thought I posted a few weeks ago.  They have the same facial expressions and everything.

  

 Once we arrived home and Lauren napped did not nap, I decided to head outside to see if I could get some better pictures.  I'd spent her entire 30 minute non-nap fixing the problem.  I'm still giddy that it didn't require a ton of cash and a trip back to Canon to resolve.

 

Yodeling.  She loves making noises with her mouth.  Please note the presence of Tonka in the background.  He was plotting his plan of attack.

 

Stopping to smell the flowers.

Where's Tonka?

 

 Ahhh, there he is!  Plan of attack completed.  Easter basket captured!

He was in total play mode as he ran laps through the yard with the basket in his mouth.  There is still a lot of puppy in this 4 year old!

Still running....

.

Taking a break under the tree and daring us to retrieve the basket from his grasp.

Meanwhile, someone is none too happy about this situation.

All in all, it was a great Easter for our family.  I'm so very thankful that we are in the place we are in now rather than where we were just 3 short years ago.

The Climb

If you have a really good memory and have been reading this blog for 3+ years, then you know I actually admitted to liking The Climb by Mylie Cyrus at one point.

For the record, I still like that song.  It applies to my life both mentally and physically all the time it seems.

This weekend, it was physically.  

The Cooper River Bridge Run has been on my "to run" list for a few years now.  

On Saturday, I stood in my corral along with my sister-in-law while we endured a 1 hour delay for the start of the race.

It was a little nerve wracking but not too bad.  At the end of the day, I still really enjoyed the race.

 

I'd been told by many that this was a fun race and not a PR race, so I did my best to stick with that thought process.

Around 9:15am (maybe even later), our corral finally crossed the timing mat for the start of the race.  I never even turned my Runkeeper app on to see how I was doing but decided to run by how I felt based on the advice I'd received.

I felt great!  

Mile one took us up and over the tiny (in comparison) Shem Creek bridge and then down hill all the way to the bottom of this monster.

 

Mile 2 is at the bottom of this bridge and mile 3 is at the top.  A 1 mile climb.  It wasn't bad at all.  Long but not steep and I just kept on running until I reached the top.  It was literally all downhill to the finish from there.

Mile 4.5 is at the bottom of the bridge and from there you run through downtown to the finish.

The crowd support was amazing!  I still felt great all the way through the finish which takes me to the Tarheel 10 miler in a good place mentally.

My only complaint was that due to the late start, it did start getting too warm for my preference when it comes to running but being a short(er) race it really didn't play a factor.

Chip time: 1:11:43.  I truly arrived at the finish still thinking maybe I had a PR but it wasn't even close.  Apparently, cruising past a bunch of walkers makes you feel like you are running fast but nope it was my typical 11:30 minute/mile.  Yuck.

On to the next race!

5 Years of Wedded Bliss

5 Years!

  What better to do than explore a portion of the wonderful wines North Carolina has to offer?

We headed out to visit 6 local vineyards along with our friends who just happen to share the same anniversary.

They like us so much they made us part of their life plan.  We are that cool. Yep.

It was really a great time.  Not only did we take some wonderful wines for a test drive but we also had some great food along the way.

Napa Valley/Sonoma are on my perpetual "to do" list but we truly have some wonderful wines here in the great state of NC.

After you try all the wines on for size you may just end up taking pictures of yourself on a well?  Not you?  Ok then maybe just me.

Do your vineyards have Llamas?  No?  Ok then.

Hmmmm, maybe NC isn't so bad after all :)

And I'm almost out of wine.  Time for another trip!