My first race ever....

I ran a 10k today.  I was SO excited that I even finished it.  My gun time was 102:47, that's just seconds over a 10 minute mile, but I was actually a tad faster because I was in the middle of the pack so I didn't start right at the gun.  It was such a neat experience.  I had no idea if I could even run 6.2 miles.  I had run 6 before, but never without walking at about the 4 mile mark.  I ran with my friend, Mary, and we just chatted and ran like it was any other day.  It was great.  And I didn't even have to walk at all.  I think one thing that helped was all the other runners around me, you sort of run on their momentum.  It was fun and I think I will do it again! I have to brag on Brian a little, he finished in under 50 minutes! :)  I'm so proud of him.  His goal was 56 minutes so he beat his goal.

I know that I have been silent since the whole house hunt thing, but I landed after the Wednesday red-eye and haven't stopped for a moment.  My mother-in-law was here and can I just say that she is a SLAVE DRIVER!!!  She definitely gets some work done.  She would not tolerate a break and even made me eat PB&J one day so that we didn't take too much time for lunch.  :)  She's my kind of gal.  We got almost everything packed, we got my closets and drawers cleaned out, clothes put away for the new tenant, boxes packed with toys and such, ready to ship.  We even have one box already addressed and ready to go.  My only oops is that I have misplaced my new house key and I'm HOPING it's not packed in one of those boxes that I am shipping.  Ha!  That would be so like me.

The house is great.  I love the house we will be in.  It was just the right one.  I think it was a God thing, it was the house we were meant to be in, for sure!  It's got a pool, a perfect amount of bedrooms, and enough space for us to take our sweet sitter, Amy, with us to be our nanny.  She is 23 and majoring in Elementary Ed, but she wasn't in school this semester so it's a win for her and us.  Oh, what's that, I forgot to mention the best part?  Amy is going with us!  I am beyond thrilled, let me tell you.  I was so stressed about how I was going to manage with no "back up plan" and now I have one.  I was worried about the kids not having a tutor in place and me not having any help if I got stuck somewhere in traffic, etc.  Not really being able to estimate how long things will take, it was worrying me that I would get to Target or something and not be able to get back in time, not knowing how long I would have.  I mean, don't get me wrong (I know I'm totally spoiled by the community of friends I have here) I could obviously plan my days where I did all the running around first thing in the morning until I learned it all. It's not that it can't be done.  I mean, people do this all the time without help, so please know that I realize I'm ridiculously spoiled by my lifestyle and I don't take it for granted.  But it does put my mind at ease to know that if I leave to take the boys to school and Meg's not awake, I won't have to get her out of bed and dress her, I'll just leave her there with Amy.  Anyway, I'm debating just deleting this whole part from the post so I don't appear to be a brat.  But at some point, you're going to be seeing alot of photos that include Amy so I'd have to explain at some time, right?

Anyway, we have ten more "sleeps" in our house before we head off on our island adventure.  I'm feeling so much better since we got all the stuff packed and we have a house and school, etc. It is way easier to leave, being able to picture that we are going to be okay with our living space, etc.  I know Brian is getting nervous about the work ahead of him.  I think it's going to be a hard project, which was one of the reasons I really wanted Amy with me, he tends to work long hours when he gets on these big stressful implementations, so this will be a nice safety net for my sanity.  I won't have my girlfriends, so I'll have another adult along to keep me company.  And we'll be living in a gorgeous house, very close to the beach.... yep, I'm ridiculously spoiled.