On Thursday, October 13, my mom flew in to spend a week with us. How lucky are we! It was her first trip here since we moved into this house, and our first visitor. We were so excited. She got here late on Thursday night and on Friday, she was able to go to Grandparents' Day with Tyler at his school (which I didn't even get a single picture of, darn it!). We were so excited that she was going to be able to be here for it since Tyler has had several Grandparents' Days at school and of course, he never has a grandparent in attendance. Darn that living 2,000 miles away from them all! But she was able to see his school and go to lunch with him and they had a great time.
The next day, Saturday the 15th, I woke up and went for a long run, and came home to start getting ready for a fun day out. We decided we were going to take the boys to a pumpkin patch for our fun activity for the day. As we were getting ready to go, the phone call came...my brother Charlie called my mom (all the boys were on a hunting trip at home while my mom was here) to tell her that Dad had been in an accident and he was headed to the hospital. Ugh...it didn't sound good. And of course, here my mom was, a million miles away. My dad is the man who never took a sick day from work, has never been in the hospital, is as strong as an ox...and he chooses now to get in an accident?! :) So, initially, we were just waiting on pins and needles because we didn't know any details, other than he had been riding a horse and was thrown from the horse, then the horse came down right on top of him. Sounded pretty bad, but we just didn't know how bad. My mom was immediately thinking she probably needed to try and get her ticket changed to go home (she still had 5 more days she was supposed to be here). But we just didn't know! I just felt so bad for her and the situation she was in!
So, we figured we'd still head out to the pumpkin patch and make phone calls along the way and try to find out what was going on. So, finally, she got to talk to my dad after the doctors had seen him to find out that he had a punctured lung, 8 broken ribs, and a broken shoulder. They were going to keep him in the hospital for the night at least, possibly longer, and find out if they needed to do surgery or what. And mostly, they were going to manage the pain. He was in a tremendous amount of pain. And my mom was stuck here with me. It was heartbreaking. She got to work right away on changing her ticket, but wasn't going to be able to make it home until Monday. Luckily, all of our siblings stepped in and took the greatest care of my dad in her absence. To make the rest of this long story short, my dad went home from the hospital Sunday night, in a ton of pain, but still got to go home. My mom made it home Monday and she must have done a great job of nursing him back to good health because he made a miraculous recovery. It was a rough go in the first few weeks, but he was able to heal without surgery and is doing amazing. We were all so blessed and so blessed that Dad is okay. Lots of prayers were said on his behalf, that's for sure!
So, all that being said, I have to say our day at the pumpkin patch was a little stressful. But it was either go out and do something or sit at home, so we chose the former, obviously. Looking back at the pictures, though, makes me realize that I didn't remember much about the pumpkin patch itself. :) There are many other things about that day that I remember, but not the pumpkin patch! But it still needed blogged, so here are the pictures.
I do remember that it was actually very hot that day, so the boys were beat before too long. Needless to say, they weren't too cooperative for getting a picture taken...not a lot of smiles!
I'm so glad I was able to see my mom, even though the trip took a down turn really quickly. But I am so grateful that she'd come all the way to see us. But I'm also glad she was able to get home to my dad, where she was needed the most!
October 29, 2011 came and with it came the New Orleans Jazz Half Marathon (and my mom's birthday--Happy Birthday, Mom!). I look back at these pictures now and almost can't believe I really did this. I set out with a goal and I accomplished it! I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be able to run 13.1 miles. I have mentioned before that I never enjoyed running, but the last two years have been a change of tune for me and I've finally stuck with it to some degree. :) In August I started training and I'll be honest, I had good weeks and bad, I doubted myself, thought I was crazy, wanted to hide under my covers on the morning of a long run, but in the end, I did it! And it felt amazing! My goal was to just finish, to run without walking and finish...I definitely wasn't going for an amazing time. I knew I hadn't been training long enough to work up my speed too much. I was just concerned about endurance. I was very nervous going in to it, not knowing what to expect, but it honestly couldn't have gone better. Once I passed mile 12 and knew I only had one more to go, it was like a new wind in my sails and it was great knowing I was so close. And to see the finish line in my sight once I was getting close, it actually kind of made me get emotional. I just couldn't' believe I had actually done this! Such a great feeling! And now, looking at the pictures again, makes me think I'm crazy enough to want to do another one. Hmmmm.... :)
I gotta say, I was pretty proud of myself. I don't say that very often, but this is one time I will say it. I was pretty proud to wear that medal when I finished and my race bib is hanging on my fridge, reminding me that I actually can accomplish anything I put my mind to!
And I won't even try to describe how it felt to see these two guys and Garrett standing right across the finish line waiting for me. They were cheering me on and I was so thrilled to see them!
