I woke up this morning at 4:15. That's actually a good thing because it meant that the little one slept in her own bed that long. 7 hours. Of (potential) sleep. For me. Ahhh.
But, this morning I had planned on getting up at 5 to go to the gym. You see, I haven't been able to run for 2 weeks. The weather has taken a nasty turn around here so my daily walk to school and hours to run around town with the little one in the stroller are gone. I have so much tension built up that it's scary. I even bought 'Tension Tamer' herbal tea in hopes that it may calm my nerves. It didn't.
I woke up this morning with the little one and planned to stay up. Then, the big one woke up from a bad dream. I laid down with her to get her back to sleep, only to go back upstairs and see that the little one was awake again. I angrily got back into bed, assuming that my window of opportunity was quickly closing but knowing that I wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep.
Enter my dear husband who, for any who know him, is not a morning person. In fact, he is basically a zombie until 9 or 10 in the morning. (This is especially unfortunate, considering his required early mornings.) He insisted that I get out of the house, at least for a little bit. And thank the dear Lord that I did! I feel like a new girl this morning. Granted, I had an hour less sleep than I would have liked, but I feel like my well of tension is being shaken loose a bit.

This is my big one with her little snake friend. My husband found it one day while he was mowing. I still get the heebee-jeebees (you know what I mean) whenever I see this. I've always wanted to like snakes and I've always been impressed by those that can/want to pick them up, but I am not one of those people. My daughter, on the other hand, played with this poor little guy for half the day until he was as limp as a noodle. He was still alive, thankfully, so she set him free and hopefully he continued his life thereafter.

Halloween

Halloween came and went without a hitch. Thankfully the costumes went together really easily and quickly. That was good, considering that I started them the day before. The big one was Silvermist, who is one of Tinkerbell's friends in this new movie that a) I'm sure we'll own soon and b) I'm sure will be watched back to back to back to back.

Silvermist in not normally an angry fairy.

The little one was Tinkerbell.

The girls played thier fairy parts well, flitting about gathering candy from door to door.

This is this kid summed up in one picture. If you asked her, she'd tell you that the oven is "hot" and a "no-no" (though it's not actually hot on the outside.) Yet, when I came in the room she was bumping her butt up against it while wearing a pair of misplaced underwear. (And she's obviously very proud of herself.)

Friends

Let me just say that I, and my spouse, are not good friends. And I mean that we aren't good friends to other people. (We're really good friends to each other, because we live together and don't have to worry about keeping in touch.) We are terrible about communicating with other people and thus tend to lose track of any friends we may have had, which is few because we're also terribly shy/awkward. In fact, the only people that we ARE friends with are our family members. Except for one family.
That family is the only family that we've consistently been friends with since we met them in college. We founded our friendship on new marriages and small children and learning about both. Our first years as friends consisted of us living in the same small town and, for a while, 2 doors down from each other. Those were honestly my favorite time of life so far. We'd call each other over for dinner regularly and we'd meet on the rooftop that joined our apartments. It was so fun and so easy.
Fast forward a couple of years and we moved, first to Montana, then to our hometown, 2 hours from theirs. Now, they've moved across the country to the East Coast for grad school I've realized that I took our proximity for granted and now that they've moved, I feel almost desperate to keep in touch with them. I'm thankful for social mediums like Facebook that allow semi-weekly contact to be easy and simple. But, regardless, I still find myself sucking at being a friend. I sincerely hope that when grad school is over, they'll move back to the Midwest so that we can see each other and laugh together. And honestly, I'd really prefer it if they'd move in next door.

Success!

I did it! I actually ran my 1/2 marathon and it was really great! The run itself was event-filled, including being thwarted by a stinky man, sprinting across the arsenal bridge (it's steel grates with the river rushing underneath and a train chugging along above), and chatting with fellow Lewis and Clark refugees. But, by far, the best part was coming around the last corner and seeing/hearing my family cheering for me. It was like Christmas morning! Really.

That's me, blurry me, really excited to see my family.

That's me realizing that my goal time was mere seconds away, so I sprinted with previously undiscovered energy to the finish.

This is me and the girls stretching out afterwards. (Everyone got a medal, if you're wondering.)

All in all, it was a really great experience. I just may have to plan my next one soon.

Unfullfilled

Since Ike made it impossible to finish, let alone enjoy my first 1/2 marathon experience, I've decided to do another... or a first. I'm planning for the Quad Cities race in a week. I planned on just repeating my last 2 weeks of training, but this week I painted the living room instead. So, we'll see, I'm at least hoping for no rain.