Tear-jerker

Today would have been Barry's Dad's 61st birthday. To read a beautiful tribute, please click here.

I love you, Barry, you're the best ever! Thank you for being such a wonderful, caring person. I'm so glad you're mine!!!!!

National Dystonia Awareness Week

If you're like me, then you have never heard of Dystonia before today. If you'd like to learn more, please visit this site! It is a blog of a woman who suffers with Dystonia. She is having a little contest this week to help spread the word. Check it out and leave her a comment so you can be entered into her contest, too (and mention that you found the link from my blog). Have a nice day and be grateful for your voice!

"Tewwa"

Here's Alton with his new best friend: Nutella ("tewwa"). If you haven't tried it, DON'T! It's so ridiculously addicting and it tastes good on everything (just a finger works well).

This kid loves it on graham crackers.

YUM!!!

Trip to Barry's Office

Alton loves to help me cook/bake. He certainly adds to the mess, but it's totally worth it to see how much fun he has! Now he can skillfully use my Pampered Chef scoop. =)

How cute is she???

Having our picnic lunch at Barry's office.

Eating some of "Grandma's coot nacks" (fruit snacks).

Alton had so much fun drawing pictures on Barry's dry erase board. He's actually drawing little faces with eyes and mouths now, instead of just little squiggles.

Don't you just wanna kiss those cheeks?!

I forgot to mention...

Just before the race (see previous post), there was a speech, an invocation, a trumpeter playing Taps, and they had all the retired military guys (who were running in the race) do their salute while Taps was being played. Talk about a tear jerker right before having to run 3 miles! I was a wee tiny bit frustrated at first that they would make me cry right before having to expend all that energy to race! But, truly I'm glad they had such a nice little service before hand. After all, it was Memorial Day and the main purpose for the race in the first place. I am grateful to have had the chance to just take a minute to remember, be thankful for, and to pray for all those men and women who have and who still are fighting for our country!

There was also a group of new police cadets (I think it was police) who were not far behind us during the whole race. They really kept me motivated. I didn't want to end up stuck behind them because all their chanting (or whatever you wanna call it) was really keeping me going. It was cool.

I Will Survive!

Yesterday I ran my first 5K! It was quite the experience. I have been "training" to run this thing for months, but I had never quite made it the whole 3.1 miles without stopping. Running is HARD WORK! Some of you might think I'm a pansy for saying that. And you're right. I am a pansy.

Anyway, I was a bit skeptical that I would be able to finish the race, for obvious reasons. And there were many times during the race that I thought I would need to quit. I kept telling Barry "okay, in about two minutes I'm going to stop for a little while, I just can't keep running." But, then somehow I would push myself a bit further and a bit further. Barry would remind me that I could just slow down a bit instead of walking. He was the perfect running coach for me. He was encouraging and kept telling me I was doing great.

I am planning to run another 5K in October. Anyone want to join me?! I am not a fast runner. I finished the whole race in 33 minutes and 31 seconds. I'm certainly no speedy gonzales.

Boy did it feel good to cross that finish line (especially after I got over the wanting to throw up part)!

Thanks for stopping by.

The End.

P.S. I don't have any pictures of the actual race because no one was there to take any. My sister-in-law took a before and after (she ran with us, too), so I will post those when she emails them to me.

New Favorite Quote

So, I don't know if I can say that this is truly my favorite quote, but it really struck me when I read it in an email someone sent me this morning.

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."

Amen to that! I am always so quick to pass judgment on everyone around me. So much of that, for me, is rooted in my insecurities and paranoia. But, that's really no excuse. I know that I don't want people to judge me for the way I act and the things I say. So often I say things I don't really mean. And I do certain things because I don't think first or because I'm angry or frustrated (usually with myself). I want to keep this quote in my head. To remember that everyone has challenges, says things they don't really mean, does things they instantaneously regret, etc. I want to give people the benefit of the doubt. Assume they mean to do good and say the right things. That maybe they're really suffering. None of us are perfect after all.