A Family Affair: Pre-Wedding Madness!

Wedding prep was in full swing at the end of last week. I raced through a very busy week of cramming work into three and a half days and was very ready to come up for air on Thursday afternoon. That is after I packed Hallie and I's bags with three days worth of stuff, loaded up the car with wedding gear and bags, and finally plopped Emmi in the front seat with me. I was driving Riley's truck since my car's AC was being repaired so I left a little off my game driving the big rig. But Hallie doesn't complain...she loves sitting up nice and tall in his truck. Not to mention she can reach the back of the headrest to turn her movie on and off. Smart little stinker. Anyways, back to wedding. The night before we packed up and headed out we did a little bit of flower girl practice. I mainly wanted to test out the bow I'd had custom made at Michelle's that day. It was big. Quite humongous in fact. But oh so fabulous!!! She seemed to be warming up to the whole flower girl idea as I snapped pictures of her to send to Aunt B....

"Ready for my close-up!"

Riley felt left out and wanted to do some practicing of his own. Of course we let him. He's good comic relief....

Simply ravishing my dear

Not only were we stoked about being in Enid for the pre-wedding festivities but we also had some very important family who had flown in from New Jersey for the week. Cousin Ashley made her second trip to Okie and brought her mom, cousin Marion, along with her this time. They'd flown in Wednesday and had spent the previous day getting settled in. They took a trip out to Shattuck on Thursday with Uncel David and Garrett to visit Meme. Hallie and I got to Enid around the time they were getting back from their trip. Lisa and Dara were excitedly waiting for Hal to show up (what am I? Chopped liver? lol). Lisa had picked up some Papa Murphys pizzas (yum, mommy like!) for everyone and pretty soon four very hungry people walked through the door. It was finally time to meet Marion whom we've sent Christmas cards, graduation announcements, pictures, etc to for as long as I can remember...but I've never actually met her in person. The Jersey girls got big hugs from this girl and I couldn't help but laugh when Marion hesitated to hug me because she stopped to say "wow, I thought you were tall, you are so short!!" We were soon joined by Aunt Lana, Gman and Bailey. Hallie was loving the attention as usual. I'm sure she probably thought it was her birthday because of all the gifts she had waiting for her! Aunt Lisa and Dara had picked out an adorable green and white bathing suit for summer and some new Nike gear which is always well received by my gal and I (we may have a slight obsession). David had picked out a Minnie Mouse lawn chair which she was super excited about and pulled around the house all night with her. Ashley had gone shopping for the little diva back when she made plans to fly in for the wedding. What ca-ute clothes!!!!!!!!!

Hal contemplated testing out the pool water but as you can see the plan was short-lived. She'll wait for it to warm up a bit I guess....

We had an awesome night. Very relaxing family time. Hal learned how to play catch with Aunt Lisa and Dara....

She bummed plenty of "cookeys" from the cookie jar....

We pondered the possibility of Lana and Marion (first cousins) being twins separated at birth....

Hal lounged in her Minnie chair sipping from her favorite cup with Gman by her side....

All in all she was a funny and happy-go-lucky lady that evening....with a lil bit of 'tude thrown in of course....

Sassy sweetheart

I went home around 9:30 to put Hallie Grace to bed. Her and Gman hit the hay very easily while I snuck back over to Dave and Lisa's for an absurd game of Apples to Apples. We've been known to cause a lot of ruckus with that ridiculous game....and Thursday night was no exception. Tons of laughs and sore cheek muscles from smiling so much. That's always good for the soul....

And so is hanging out with some of your most favorite people without a care in the world....

I stayed up way too late but I just couldn't help myself. I didn't want to miss out on a second of the fun! Lil Red slept until 8:45 as a wonderful gift to her momma. Gman had left for work very early that morning so it was just us girls and the three pooches. Hallie spent the morning keeping the canines in line and watching cartoons. Oh yeah, and playing me some of her baby Mozart music....

"Would you like to request a song momma?"

I was feeling giddy about the day ahead and very blessed to have the day off to spend with my family. Hallie got all fancied up and we headed over to Dave and Lisa's for some pancakes and fun. Hal and Enzi went outside for a quick swing when we got there....

Lisa and Marion were my saviors and managed Hal (who was napping most of the time) while Ashley and I took a trip to get our nails done with the bride-to-be. The two and a half hours spent with the girls getting pampered but nothing short of A-mazing!!!

We did plenty of planning and scheming while getting our nails prettied up. By the time we were done it left us just enough time to run a few last minute wedding errands. We divided and conquered to get more accomplished. I picked up Hal from Lisa's and by that time Riley had arrived in Enid and was waiting at my Gman's house. He had been at a work conference Thursday and Friday in OKC and we had been missing our main man. He was my chaffeur (not by choice) as I raced around town to cross everything off of my list. Check. Check. Check. Everything was accomplished. Well sorta. Hallie Grace stayed busy while I hurried around and got ready for the rehearsal and dinner that night. This was a shot of the little toot right before she planted her face in the dog water bowl.....

The anticipation was rising and excitement was in the air. That's the only way I know how to put it! We were stoked for a night with nothing but family, friends, food and fun! Presley and Pauline had driven in from Missouri that afternoon and she came over to follow us out to rehearsal. Heather showed up to ride with us too!!

Hallie and I love a good excuse to get dolled up and wear dresses! She even got a new dress for the occasion and was looking smashing in pink standing out my Gman's pretty pink bush.....

We had a little bit of time for play out in the backyard before we left....

It was HOT outside. Pretty toasty and SUNNY I might add....

"You aren't gonna make me wear that stupid dress tonight, are you?!"

The trip to the winery was about thirty minutes. It was my first time to see it in person and I was in awe. It was gorgeous. How I'd never known about such a place right along the highway I'll never know. It was so picturesque and perfect for a wedding ceremony. A small white chapel sat beside the gorgeous bed and breakfast. The reception hall complete with a huge patio with plenty of tables sat right beside the chapel. We took a quick look around inside and found that they had already set up the tables and chairs, placed the tablecloths on and had begun decorating the room. Lisa and her friend Loretta (who was my wedding planner as well) had spent part of the afternoon getting a jump start on wedding prep.

Here are a few pictures that were taken prior to the rehearsal madness.....

As you can tell Hallie was in the mood to explore and did not have any plans to rehearse her part in the wedding. In fact we had to make some very last minute decisions which ended in us deciding to put her in a wagon to go down the aisle. We were also worried about her dress, of course, and most importantly if she would leave it on. The actual rehearsal was not the most relaxing experience but it ended with a definite plan and everyone seemed content. The main issue was the temperature and the fact that the sun would be shining right on the ceremony come Saturday evening. I think Bailey was just a tad bit stressed and on the verge of tears mid-rehearsal so I was glad when the preacher made a few jokes to lighten the mood. Hallie was still unsure about how she would perform her duties and seemed to be pondering this very hard.....

"To be good or not to be good..that is the question."

Sun or no sun, slanted chairs or no slanted chairs, wagon or no wagon....one thing was for sure.....us bridesmaids were READY to do our bridesmaidy things!

Keith kept everyone laughing....

But it was easy to see that everyone had one thing on their mind during rehearsal....

'Where's the beer?"

My sister was looking mighty gorgeous Friday night. Can't deny that!

And dad was looking mighty stressed at certain points throughout the rehearsal. Can't deny that....

Probably pondering how much he'd spent on the wedding ;)

The pretend vows and rings were exchanged....the stage was set....it was time for a little R&R...and we were ready to PARTY!!!

The rehearsal dinner was hosted by Spencer's parents who pulled out all the stops. These adorable glasses were the perfect wedding souvenir for the party-goers.....

Dara was enjoying the glasses AND the sangria....

There was a huge crowd of relatives, cousins, friends, "plus ones", and the wedding party. We ate, drank and were more than merry....

Stinker doodle enjoyed her dinner so much that we had to strip her down 

Hallie was in her usual form and kept the crowd entertained with her non-stop shenanigans. I was the embarrassing sister who insisted on Bailey and Spencer pose for a picture with their friends....

And of course more group pics followed.....

And finally a few of my two sweeties (one of them was very, very tired...but I'll let you guess which one).....

"I'm not tired...I've got at least two more hours of partyin' in me..."

Momma or Cousin It?

That's better!

We headed home a little before everyone else did. Hallie had been a trooper and stayed up well past her  normal bedtime. She burnt off plenty of energy running from outside to inside, grabbing drinks out of the tub on the porch, sifting through dog toys inside, touring the house while being chased by me, and finally eating handfuls of anything she could reach on Gman's plate. We all got plenty of laughs out of watching her grab fists of potato salad to shove them in her mouth. The more we laughed, the more she shoved.

Mark and Kim have a beautiful home that was perfect for entertaining everyone. A good time was had by all. I know one girl in particular who could not stop smiling. I'll give you a hint: she was going to get married in the morning....

Kisses for the bride

Riley and I said goodbye to Heather and put Hallie to bed. Dara, Garrett and Ash came over to hang out for awhile. In the midst of all of this relaxation something happened. All of a sudden I switched into last minute planning mode. Nazi Ashley had arrived. Dara and I went over to Bailey's to finish up the picture board that was needing a few last minute things done. Bailey came home a little while after and that's when I kicked it up another notch into full-on stress mode. She pulled out two boxes of wedding stuff which contained some things that had been forgotten about. zADXLike these super duper adorable baby chalk boards for each table. I sat there in my panic attack mode finding it hard to think of sweet words to write on the chalkboards. After all, I felt like I was having a legitimate meltdown inside. Control freak much? For the next two hours we sorted through these boxes, made signs, and made solid plans for the following morning. I'm fairly certain that at least one of the three people in the room with me wanted to slap some sense into me. And I'll admit that I needed it. We'll blame it on the exhaustion kicking in. By the time we left it already was 1:30. I left the bride-to-be and her husband-to-be with some sound advice......"GO TO BED AND GET YOU BEAUTY SLEEP!!!" I was stressed and feeling bossy....but it was good advice nonetheless. I can tell you for a fact that they didn't listen because I happened to be wide awake come 3:00 a.m. and felt compelled to get on Facebook and noticed that she had just been on there as well. I'm guessing that the girl was TOO EXCITED TO SLEEP!!! Can ya blame her though? This was about to happen....

Stay tuned for my chronicles of Bailey and Spencer's big day.....

Dad's Garden

Fact #1: I did not get my dad's green thumb. 

Fact #2: His thumb has extra super green powers. 

Fact #3 : Mom would love what he's done to the backyard this year......

I have heard my dad tell tales of hours spent sprucing up the backyard for this spring and summer...I've heard him answer the phone out of breath sounding liked he'd just run a marathon...I've heard him tell me how good everything was looking....but I had yet to actually see it with my own eyes. Last year was the first year in ages that my dad did not pretty up the yard. He had a lot on his mind. I'm sure he still has a lot on his mind but he had the energy this year to get back to what he loves to do......

I was in awe when I saw that everything was already so full and colorful. I couldn't help but take pictures of everything. I'm not sure what all he's growing in the garden this year but it's safe to guess tomatoes and cucumbers will be popping up soon for his eating pleasure....

Now I just need to get him to come to our house and plant things, water them and make them actually grow. That's not too much to ask for, right?

I don't know many men who take this much pleasure in planting flowers, hanging plants and tending to their gardens. Keep up the good work Mr. Green Thumb! It's looking mighty fine!

I don't wanna forget....

Ya know, it seems that life just keeps getting busier. It feels like every weekend Riley and I plop down on the couch on Sunday evening and give eachother that look that says "are you as exhausted as I am?"  Life doesn't slow down just because I'm behind on laundry, have a million chores to do around the house, lots of blogging to catch up on, paperwork to get on top of, and a silly little girl to give my time and attention to. To say we've been busy this spring would be a ridiculous understatement. We've been a good kind of busy...but very busy nonetheless. There have been a handful of days where I've had to leave Hallie behind while I've traveled for showers and parties and this and that. And while I've loved every second of each of those events I miss my baby girl at the very same time. She's the center of my universe and things seem a little off balance when she's not around telling me how things are gonna go. With all that being said, I feel like I've been leaving out a TON of things on this blog about my Hallie lately. Her shenanigans have taken a backseat to the weekend goings-on and I've been hurrying to throw blogs together with some general stuff off the top of my head. But that isn't the purpose of why I write. I write to remember the details. I write to recall specific moments. I write to be able to tell her stories about her silly self someday. I write to share about what makes Hallie who she is. Her little personality is what I want to write about. And so tonight that's what I'm gonna do.....

I've been in awe all day long. After returning home from Aunt B's big wedding weekend we picked up a very excited and very talkative little gal. She had so much to say, in fact, that she didn't want to stop talking to take a nap. Miss chatty spouted off new words and sounds all day long. I noticed today how easy it is becoming to understand what she's trying to tell me when she wants something. She's got the pointing thing down...but the words are coming along now too. She was itching to ring the doorbell today as we walked into the house. Pointing, reaching, and saying something I couldn't understand....when finally I realized what it was that she wanted. So for the next five minutes she stood pushing the doorbell and giggling as the dogs howled with excitement. You best believe we repeated this on two more occasions today. ;)

Obviously I've made her obsession with Mickey Mouse very clear lately BUT I haven't mentioned the interesting spot that she chooses to watch her beloved show. Well here, I'll just show you.....

She squeezes her way in between the couch and table and hangs her arms over the couch and leans there. She has been known to watch two full episodes standing in this position without moving a muscle. And I've been known to come and photograph her without so much as a flinch of surprise from her. Girl, I'd try the couch out sometimes if I were you.

We made a mommy/daughter trip to the park today. It had been awhile it seemed. The temperature was just perfect so we stayed quite awhile. She naturally ventured over to the swing when we first arrived and I began pushing her. It wasn't long before she was pointing at the swing next to hers saying "mama! Ning!" Translation: momma, swing! She wanted me to have fun with her. Ok, I'm having sweetness overload syndrome right now. The girl had my heart flying up to the clouds. So we "ninged" together for awhile while she looked over at me the entire time making sure I was "ninging" too. ;)

She and I have developed our own little way of communicating lately. It's becoming quite fun creating our routines and patterns. She is definitely a creature of habit already and she keeps me in line when I go astray from the norm. Take this evening for example......

.....the two of us sat down for some meatloaf at the table tonight. Riley was outside working like crazy to get his outdoor chores done before dark so we went ahead and sat down without him. I sat our plates down and told Hallie it was time to pray. She didn't bow her head like she usually does when asked. I told her again to bow her head and she responded with a finger shake and a "no, no." I questioned her and said "what?" She knew exactly what was missing and told me "dada" and pointed outside. Yes, yes of course. We couldn't pray without him. So of course as my heart was growing about ten times in size I ran out to the garage to get Riley. He came back in with a grin on his face and she was excited to see him join us. We could pray at that point. It's amazing the things they understand. I'm still in awe and I can't help but smile everytime I replay that in my head.

We decided to jazz up bathtime a bit tonight with some bubbles! Not only did she love seeing "Melmo" on the bottle but she was ecstatic about seeing the "bubbos" everywhere in the tub....

"Cool, dude!"

"Why do you pay all that money for bows when we can just make them out of bubbles?"

We tried to take a bow out of bubbles on her head which she thought was pretty funny. She just stared and watched them move as she splashed around. It's times like these that I can't help but stare and her and wonder how on earth she is such a beautiful creature....

She's happiest when we are all home together. She is a lil lady that knows what she wants and when she wants it. We are all making headway each and every day learning how to communicate and understand eachother. She's got a lot to say but just doesn't know how to say it quite yet. But after today I can guarantee she's almost there. Oh how I love "livin' on Hallie time".....

A Marathon of a Weekend

Whew. What a weekend. I crossed another item off my bucket list. And it feels good. Really good. Well, other than my throbbing legs and toes that feel like they could fall off at any minute. But enough about that...let me tell you about our weekend. Before I even start sharing the ins and outs of our trip let me just say that the half marathon ended up being the easiest part of the whole experience. You will see what I mean later.

We had plans to leave for OKC on Saturday around noon. This left Hallie and I just enough time to go to cousin Peyton's birthday party that morning at Boiling Springs. The weather was gorgeous so Riley was able to have some fun of his own turkey hunting with Papa Bill. I hear that they didn't shoot their guns but I'm sure the pure manliness of his morning suited him just fine. Here are a few pics from Peyton's 4th birthday party which was cowgirl themed. The lil cutie was looking just like Jesse from Toy Story.....

She made a beeline for the playground the moment she spotted it.....

Peyton was so sweet to Hallie and hid colored bean bags for her to hunt down on the playground. I can tell you with 100% certainty that Hallie's favorite part of the morning was CAKE. She was clear about letting me know this. While the other kiddos ate their cake quietly and were satisfied after one piece Hallie was requesting more in a not so subtle kind of way. She crawled up on the picnic table numerous times reaching for some more sugary sweetness. Keisha had made an adorable cake that looked like a horse pasture with a fence made out of pretzels. Very talented momma she is! We enjoyed visiting Aunt Betty, Aunt Alta and cousin Kara as well before we had to head home. This one little girl I know was looking a tad bit rough by the time I strapped her in the car....

"Say what?!?! We are leaving town??"

The runny-nosed, cake coma baby had to fight some very heavy eyelids on the short trip home. We found Riley already packed and ready to load the car when we got there. We hurried as well and were on the road by 12:30. Fast forward through a very bipolar car ride. We went from extremely giddy to giggly to angry to sleepy to groggy to snotty to sweating to happy to mad......yeah, it was fun. ;)

My lady looked pretty rough about mid-trip when I looked back to see her drenched in sweat and looking flushed. Her nose was still running so she was in need of some TLC upon waking up after only an hour long nap. After being pampered from the front seat a bit she was feeling a little better and read me her new Elmo book...

"Melmoooo!"

The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping at three different Lowes stores and one Home Depot in search of Riley's "vision." The man was on a mission to find the outdoor lights that he had been picturing in his head. I was enjoying the shopping but I can't say the same for the munchkin. She was pretty confused about our choice of plans. Riding around in a cart all day was not her cup of tea. Although they did keep things pretty entertaining just by being themselves. Silly.

The shopping went greeeeeaaaaaat. That was complete sarcasm by the way. BUT we did get lots of outdoor goodies for the house. Riley was a happy man! After an afternoon full of whining/running crazy/protesting in the various stores we entered we finally put an end to the madness and made our way over to Laura's house where we found my very eager running partner ready to head downtown to pick up race packets. (I was feeling pretty thankful for my dear friend at that point...after all, she'd jumped on board the half-marathon train with me awhile back). We made it just in the nick of time to the expo to pick them up. Downtown was a madhouse...what with the hockey game, Thunder playoff game, marathon expo and the Arts Festival...holy moly! Riley dropped us off in traffic, we hurried to pick up our packets, ran into Julia and gave a quick hug and had a quick chat and made it back out to Riley pulling the car up in traffic. We had made plans to go to the Blessing of the Shoes ceremony as First Methodist downtown but we quickly made alternate plans upon spending the afternoon with a less than cooperative chick named Hallie Grace. Riley had been pretty pumped about going to this ceremony as we'd heard about it before but never actually gone to one. We attended First Church when we lived in OKC after just getting married and had been looking forward to visiting again. But alas we chose instead a quiet evening of Ted's and relaxation at Laura's house. I'd planned to do carb loading the right way and eat a ton of them the week leading up to the race but that did not happen. Instead I nervously stuffed my face with anything and everything that I shouldn't have. So why not dine on some pre-race Mexican food?! Laura's boyfriend Tyler made his way from Norman to have dinner with us. Four of us were civilized at dinner....and one was bouncing off the walls! I felt like she needed a tarp on the floor underneath her and a net around her waist to catch debris falling from her mouth and to catch the cheese and rice she was slinging off her hands. After dinner the little lady cleaned up and headed outside for some time on the porch.....

Sheesh, it had been way to long since I'd spent time with Laura. If I remember correctly the last time Laura saw Hallie was when she was a wee lil infant. This visit was long overdue...

Hallie the homebody began heading toward the door and giving us signs that she was ready for bed. I guess we were taking too long acting on her suggestions so she found a nice cozy spot to curl up in the dog bed....

"Maybe we ought to ditch the crib and get one of these..."

Riley and Miss Priss had a hotel less than a mile from Laura's so that they could sleep in undisturbed in the morning. After all, my alarm was going to buzz at an alarmingly early time. So I kissed my babies goodbye and settled in out on the porch for some dessert and catch up time with Laura and get-to-know time with Tyler. I was thoroughly entertained by text messages from Riley as he and Hal got settled into their room. Well I'm not sure about him but I have proof that she wasted no time getting comfortable....

"Could you grab me some juice and crackers dad? And it's a little chilly in here, check the thermostat please."

My baby girl missed her momma. This picture made me want to take off running down the road just to give her one last hug and kiss....

"Hi momma"

I wanted so badly to stay up and talk, eat more mango pushups and watch nonsense television but the thought of 4:30 coming too quickly scared me into bed. Slight problem though....a storm had kicked up and lightening and thunder made it pretty difficult impossible to sleep. I believe I finally fell asleep somewhere around 1:00 and woke up on my own one minute before the alarm was to go off. The thunder had given me a nice jolt at least once an hour from that point on so sleep was not easy to come by that night. EEEEEK! Race day. Surprisingly the morning went great. No nervous jitters....no yawning and dragging. One shower, one apple, one bottle of water and one pep talk later we were getting out of the car and there was no turning back. We met Natasha before the race and made our way toward the start line.  

We arrived just in time for the start of the race. No, literally. Just in time. We had about one minute left to get down into the fenced in runners area before the race started. Instead of walking all the way down we decided on a shorter route. The three of us could be seen jumping the fence while the announcer counted down over the speakers "9, 8, 7." Laura had made it over the fence safely. "6, 5." At this point my shorts were conveniently caught on the chainlink fence...score! "4, 3." Natasha dropped down into the crowd of people. "2, 1." And we were off (after an eight minute walk with a giant mass of runners to the start line, of course)!! The race itself was an amazing experience. Having not trained properly for such a distance I had expected it to be pure torture but it wasn't. It was actually pretty fun. We chatted for the first nine miles and then got a little more into checking our mileage and little less into chatting. Mile ten is when our knees started to ache....and mile eleven is when it started to rain. The humidity was atrocious but the precip cooled things off a bit. The last two miles went by pretty quickly and the last quarter mile was run at a pretty speedy pace considering we were surrounded by the people lined up cheering at the finish line. We crossed the finish line, grabbed our medals and made our way to a place to collect ourselves. But the only thing I was collecting at that point were muscle cramps. Holy Moses! I kept thinking to myself "oh yeah, this is why you were supposed to train, Ashley." The run was fairly easy...but the after effects were rather unpleasant. We spent the next thirty minutes walking up and down the street finishing off bananas and Powerade while we searched for Tyler, Riley and Hallie. No such luck though so our tired legs made their way back to the car. Six blocks felt like one hundred. We made it to the car and called our guys. They were both still back down by the finish line so we moved the car a bit closer and walked back down to meet them. It was not an easy task locating Riley and that lil read head but I finally found them! Hallie was so excited when she spotted me walking up. The little runner girl was looking cute in her hat and raincoat.

I was feeling abundantly blessed to have both of them there with me on raceday. It was a great feeling knowing that they were there waiting for me after the race....

It had been since I was 17 years old that I'd run 13 miles. It felt good to prove to myself that it's still possible. High fives all around for finishing in two hours and 16 minutes! We were pretty excited about our time considering we had just wanted to finish. Period. We can only get better from this point on! A tradition has begun!

So what was Hal gal doing the morning of the race? Well, she was probably yawning. From what Riley told me it sounds like she got just about as much sleep as I did. Zilch. I laugh inside everytime I think about how there night must've gone. Riley says that he put her in the pack'n'play around 10:00 and about ten minutes later he heard a big "thump." He looked up to see a little girl walking toward him with a look on her face that said "I hope I'm not in trouble, dada." She repeated her new escape trip two more times after that and finally fell asleep around midnight. Is it bad that I giggle when I think about this? Her lack of sleep the night before didn't stop her from celebrating after the race with me. She was quite fond of my medal and wore it around her neck with pride....

We stopped at one last Lowes store on the way out of town after having lunch at Chiles. I'm still wondering why the half-marathoner girl didn't get to pick the dining location instead of her husband but I'll keep pondering that one. ;) The car ride home was long. Hallie was too exhausted to sleep (if that even makes sense) and I think I may have been too. My legs were revolting against me and it's safe to say that I've never been so excited to pull into our driveway. But the fear of stepping out of the truck was too much to bear so I sat there contemplating my exit for a couple minutes. The legs did manage to support me when I stepped down...but oh my....they were ready for a nap. After we unpacked the car that is just what we did. We decided that naps were a definite MUST....and Hal surprisingly obliged. We all slept soundly from 4:00 to 6:00 and woke up feeling much better. Well that is excluding my knees and my right big toe. All in all, it was a successful weekend. It's not everyday (or ever for that matter) that I can say I'm proud of myself). But I am. I'm proud. And I'm ready for the next race. Bring it on!