A Fresh Perspective

At 5am on Sunday my alarm rang after less than 5 hours of sleep (Thank you, Buckeyes....it's a good thing you made it worth my while).  I pulled myself out of bed, walked passed a pile of folded laundry that hadn't gotten put away, stepped over roughly 22 toys and glared at fingerprints smeared on the windows.  After lacing up my sneakers and bemoaning the fact that the dishwasher needed emptied, but there was no time to do it, Cal and I headed to the starting line of the Nationwide Children's Hospital Half Marathon.  13.1 miles later, my feet aching, lungs burning, I crossed the finish line.  I learned shortly after that I missed a personal record by less than 2 minutes.  

I was in a bad place.  The house was in shambles and I didn't meet my goal.  I was pretty low and mopey.  Then Nationwide Children's Hospital posted this picture

Nothing like a complete punch to the gut to put everything in perspective.  Knowing that sweet child was looking on as I "struggled" to beat some meaningless time, helped me see clearly for the first time in a long time.  That pile of laundry is nothing, the toys everywhere are a sign of a happy day, those smudges on the window? At least they are on the window of our home.  I'm honored to be one of more than 10,000 people who ran their hearts out for the kids being treated at the outstanding hospital right in our backyard.  

All done.

A few days later the kids came down with their annual cold (you can almost set your clocks by it, every October).  It led me to think about the very first cold they had.  They were 4 months old, couldn't drink from a bottle because they couldn't breath through their noses, slept in no longer than 20 minute stretches, cried around the clock...it was absolutely miserable.  I'll never forget how completely helpless we felt during that time.  I remember thinking that we'd never survive it, but here we are 3 years later!  Now they can blow their own noses...woo hoo!

This coming Sunday marks a big day for us as well.  I leave for a work trip in San Antonio for 4 days.  It will be the longest I've been away from the kids.  I'm only looking forward to it a little bit.  

The benchwarmers.
I took the kids to an empty baseball diamond and they had a blast running the bases.  

Took the kids downtown with us.  They love visiting the "big city"

....And we're the 3 best friends that anyone could have

Victory!!!

Hudson is Olympic ski jumping, Sloane is looking the wrong way, Dyl might be dancing.  We are ready to race!

Back home in our "little city", riding tractors.

Took the trio to the zoo on Monday, Dylan demanded to wear my medal.  We look like a mess, but we had fun!