Amy's Red Wagon

Sunday, 5-16-10

Amy got a new, red wagon today!! She was thrilled when Daddy put it together for her and we were able to go for a ride in it. Although the weather was a little chilly, Amy still enjoyed being in the wagon. Of course, Amy also likes to pull the wagon, sometimes taking various toys for a ride! She also pats the other seat, wanting one of the neighbor girls to go on a ride with her! She is simply the cutest little girl!

Also, you can see in the pictures my new attempt at Amy's hair. We are still trying to not cut her bangs, but sometimes it is so hard. Amy tends to take bows out of her hair and then her hair gets her eyes. I would imagine that we will cave and get her hair cut at some point (Kurt probably would take Amy to get her hair cut today if I was okay with it!) but for now we are attempting to put her hair in a little pony tail on the top of her head. As always, she looks adorable!

Mother's Day 2010

So, I am significantly lacking in my blog posts lately. I guess I need to say something about Mother's Day, though what is there to say other than it was wonderful! Since we go to church on Saturday's, we were able to spend the entire day together, just hanging out and enjoying each other. I remember a time when Mother's Day was so painful that I almost became a recluse on those weekends. I had such a longing to be a mother and questioned whether this dream would ever come true. Now, I am so thrilled and happy to be called "Mommy" by one precious little girl! She is the highlight of my day and a reason to smile each day. I feel so incredibly lucky and blessed to have her in my life. I simply can't imagine my life without her. Although, if I am being completely honest, Amy was a little on the fussy side on Mother's Day (obviously not quite understanding that the day was to be all about me!), I still enjoyed being with my wonderful husband and my delightful daughter. God has been so good to me and I thank him every day for Amy.

As a side note, I have to say that I simply love our church in that they recognize that Mother's Day might not be a happy day for everyone whether it is those women who have lost a mother or lost a child or who long to have a child. I get choked up each time when they take the time to recognize those women in prayer and to acknowledge how painful this day can be for people.

My little girl who was thrilled with my medal from the mini-marathon...wearing her cowboy girl hat!

Mini-Marathon

Sunday, 5-9-10

Yesterday was the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, which I have run in for the past seven or so years. Each year, my goal is to improve my time from the year before. This year, however, I have struggled through several of my training runs plus I was sick two weeks before the race, resulting in not being able to get in a few key work outs. Then, on race day morning, I wake up to crazy, insane winds! My mom came up to watch Amy for us so that we didn’t have to get her up so early (we left the house around 6:15am) plus we didn’t really want her in the windy, cold weather. Kurt dropped me and Emily, Kurt’s niece, off downtown and then headed to our friends’ house, Phil & Laurie. They walked to where they stand every year to cheer me on when I pass them. Then, Kurt heads back downtown after awhile to pick me up. I am so grateful that he is willing to drive me downtown every year because I think I would completely stress out about parking if I had to drive myself! Plus, I absolutely love to look forward to seeing someone a little less than half-way through the race. It gives me motivation and I love how they cheer me on!

While standing in line for the start of the race, there were wind gusts of 20-30 mph. The wind tore right through me and I was so cold!! However, once I started running, I warmed up fairly well, though my hands were chilly throughout the race. I was able to give Kurt my vest when I saw him and I was fairly comfortable except for the occasional gust of wind. I kept waiting for the wind to change directions and give me a "push" toward the finish, but I never really felt it! Overall, I finished in 1:52:57, which is a very slight improvement from my time last year (last year I finished in 1:53:34). The last two miles I really struggled and wondered if I would be able to finish. It is at these times that I think it is so foolish to even consider trying a full marathon! So, overall, I feel that this race was a good experience - it was a reminder that training doesn't have to be perfect and I can still finish the race.

Painting

Sunday, 5-2-10

One of Amy’s gifts from the Easter bunny was a Dora painting book. Although Amy has not been very into crafts at this point in her life, we decided to paint one Sunday afternoon. She enjoyed putting the paint brush in the cup of water and then painting on the page. However, she was very concerned with not getting dirty! She didn’t want to get dirty and became quite upset if she got dirty. She painted a little bit on the page, which we then hung up the refrigerator door to admire throughout the week!

Visit with Grandma & Granddad Murphy

Weekend of April 24th

Kurt went out of town for the weekend of 4-24-10 to attend a Nascar race with his brother and friends. My parents were kind enough to come up for part of the weekend to visit with Amy & I while Kurt was gone. They arrived Saturday afternoon and left Sunday afternoon. As always, Amy enjoyed playing with Grandma and Granddad. Because they visited, I was able to get my last long run in before the mini-marathon. When I returned from my run, I found them in the car heading out for coffee & milk! Amy so enjoys playing with them and kept them busy during the time they were here! Thanks Grandma & Granddad for coming to see us!!

Loooong week

Sunday, 5-2-10

Boy, has it been a loooong week! I still need to do a post on last weekend's visit with Grandma and Granddad Murphy. However, I don't anticipate having a lot of time and wanted to at least get this post done about the week. I don't think we ever have had such a week as the one we had this past week.

It started last Sunday. Grandma and Granddad had left and I was getting ready to have the girls over for card club. Kurt was out of town for the weekend, not returning until Monday evening. The girls arrived. Things were going well. Amy was enjoying seeing all of the girls and visiting, though she was being a little clingy with me, which is pretty unusual. I soon found out why she was clingy. As everyone was getting their plates filled up with food, poor little Amy started throwing up. A lot. Mainly on me since I was holding her but also on the floor right next to the island with food and the table where people were going to sit and eat. Oh no. I quickly rushed her upstairs to clean her up and to get new clothes on her...and me. I have such good friends that by the time I came downstairs, they had already cleaned up the vomit. Although they offered to leave, I told them it was fine to stay as long as they were okay with it. Poor Amy continued to throw up periodically throughout the evening. At one point, I put her to bed only to have her throw up in bed. So, I simply held her throughout the evening, though she periodically would get down to play or go visit with some of the girls! My girlfriends are so wonderful and were so supportive. They helped with the continual loads of laundry as well as cleaning up. The girls finally left around 9:30pm or so. I put Amy to bed again, though she threw up at least two more times before it was all over. In addition, she didn't sleep well at all. So, I don't think I slept more than two hours in my bed that night.

On Monday, Amy seemed to be feeling a little better, though was occasionally lethargic. She didn't eat much, which was understandable. Kurt returned home that evening around 6pm. Both Amy & I were glad to see him!

Tuesday, Amy actually seemed worse. She slept almost the entire day. She seemed to have little energy and no appetite. By this time, my stomach also was feeling a bit queasy throughout most of the day. The positive is that Amy had not throw up since Sunday night...though she also wasn't eating much.

Thursday, I finally took her to the doctor. In addition to lingering effects of the stomach bug (which is what the doctor thought she had), Amy also had an ear infection. So, we started an antibiotic after the doctor's appointment.

Thursday night/Friday morning, Amy threw up again. Bless her heart. We rocked for several hours after this and neither one of us slept very much.

Surprisingly, Amy seemed much better on Friday morning. She had an appetite and didn't throw up. She also kept her energy level after she ate and actually played with her Little People.

This weekend, Amy has been more fussy than usual and still doesn't have much of an appetite. We are hoping that she is over the worst of it and she will be back to normal soon. She's having some difficulty with her naps, i.e., today she slept less than an hour compared to her normal almost 2 hour naps. She has been more obstinate today and really hasn't liked anything that we have done! :) I'm hoping that it is still lingering effects of not feeling well rather than the stereotypical "terrible two's" emerging!

As a side note, due to not feeling well myself, I have not had much of an appetite this week either. Consequently, my runs have been terrible!! I wasn't able to run more than a few miles two days this week. This weekend, the runs were a bit longer (today I did 6.5 miles) but it felt very labored. Needless to say, this creates much concern as the mini-marathon is next Saturday. Oh well. There is nothing I can do about it now. I know that I've gotten my long runs in (last weekend, I did almost 14 miles) so I just have to see what the day brings.

I'll hopefully post about our fun time with Grandma and Granddad Murphy soon! We're praying for a healthy week!