thoughts from the deep recesses

Ah, October. There is a tree I see every day on my way up the hill from downtown. Every year I say to myself how fun it would be to take a picture of it daily as it transforms from fully green to aflame in autumnal oranges, yellows and reds... and yet I never do it. Every year when I notice the leaves beginning to fall from it, I am sad that I missed the opportunity another year. I watch the local evening news every night. I tivo it and fast forward through all the boring stuff. But I always look at the seven day weather forecast. Every.single.night. Fall sports are winding down... Savannah has her last volleyball game on Thursday - Kyler has his last league meet tomorrow. He will have districts and potentially State still... I was achy in the strangest places the day after the half marathon... specifically, my left shoulder and my right ankle. My left knee really hurt me from mile 10 to about mile 12 while I was running... I wonder if I was compensating for the pain in a way that i...

Before the race with Julie, one of my biggest cheerleaders on this journey Sometimes I wonder how I get myself into things... I've discovered that I am ridiculously goal oriented in the past couple of years... which can be a really good thing. But it can also create these weird situations where I find myself doing things I never would have imagined doing. This past Saturday was a classic example. Because I ran a half marathon. And I NEVER thought that was something I'd ever do. And the craziest thing about it - was that it wasn't really that hard. It just took the goal... and the training plan... and the determination to not completely embarrass myself... because once I told people I was planning to do it, suddenly I had friends signing up to do it with me... which meant I actually needed to be able to do it. And so I did it. And I actually enjoyed it a teeny tiny bit. Kevin, another Spokane friend who came to Leavenworth to run the half There's a prett...

Kyler is running varsity cross country this year. The varsity team is comprised of the seven fastest runners on the team. Never more, never less. I love the boys on his team so much - they have become a tight knit crew - working together to encourage each other through miles and miles of workouts, weekend trips, practices twice a day and often two meets a week. They spend a LOT of time together. And they're great kids. Two of the other boys have been running with Kyler since seventh grade...  One of my girlfriends posted on Facebook the other day " Going to cross country meets does a lot to restore one's hope in the next generation. Way to go to all those teenagers who inspire others through their fitness, hard work and sportsmanship." I couldn't agree more. I'm so proud of how hard Kyler works - along with all his teammates. I will be VERY sad when he graduates and I no longer have a reason to go to meets... The Lewis and Clark Tiger Cross Cou...