Hello, how are you? It's been 2 years since I've written, just haven't been sure what to write about. So here is a quick update of what has been going on for the past 2 years. I have a 7 year old and a 5 year old, Sarah will be starting 2nd grade and Emma will start kindergarten. I have run 3 1/2 marathons increasing my time each time. My time for my last race in Annapolis was 2 hours 25 minutes. I'm signed up for another race in October in Atlantic City in October. I have lost weight, gained it, lost it and then gained it again. My running was going very very strong last summer, but this spring and summer I have had a harder time finding time to run. But I need to make that more of a priority. I started selling lia sophia jewelry and I do ok with that, but I'm certainly not a top seller or anything.
After a very hard winter and spring with Emma's asthma, I think we finally have it under control. We saw an immunologist at Hopkins and thankfully she doesn't have an immune deficiency. But that was so stressful waiting for those answers. She saw a pulmonlogist at Hopkins and he switched some of her medicines and knock on wood, she has been doing very well. We go back for a followup tomorrow. I'm hoping that they can take her off some of her medicines. She takes 5 a day and when she is sick that has gone up to 8 a day. So that is my big question for him.
She is very excited for kindergarten in the fall. She is hoping to get the same teacher as Sarah had, we all love her. We don't find out until the middle of August though. 6 months ago she wouldn't put her face in the water and now she is diving under to get diving sticks and she can swim some under water. She loves it! She didn't do swim team this year but I see it in her future next year. We are going to sign her up for gymnastics in the fall. Soccer just wasn't her thing. She is an excellent drawer and story teller. She is a very funny little girl.
Sarah had kind of a hard winter too, with Emma being so sick, Sarah felt that Emma had got more special attention and was really acting out. It was very hard, and I didn't quite know what to do. She started having separation anxiety from me which she had never had before. But it was pretty intense, I couldn't walk her to school without a huge fit at the front door. Luckily we have some wonderful friends who are also walkers so they would walk her into school. She started seeing a therapist and I think that has really helped her and helped me. We are still working on impulse control and not hitting, but I'm hoping that will come around soon.
At the end of the school year, my little first grader was tested for 3rd grade math and reading. She just seems to suck up knowledge. She is better at math than me, she must get that from her father. She absolutely loves school. We don't know any of the 2nd grade teachers, so I'm just hoping for a good one :).
She has been doing swim team this year and is so really well at it. She is so incredibly determined and positive about it. I haven't heard a negative thing about it. A month ago she couldn't do that back stroke at all and last week she swam 25 yards in 46 seconds. It was amazing! I think it has given us something to bond over. I have really enjoyed it myself and I might take swimming lessons this fall. She is going to RecPlus Soccer this fall. She will have practice twice a week and then a game on Saturday. One of the practices will be with a professional soccer coach. It's going to be a busy fall.
Seth is awesome! He is my biggest fan and he is so incredibly supportive me in all aspects. He may mutter while I'm gone but is so great about helping me find time for my runs. And he also may mutter about the price of the races, but has always encouraged me to go for it. I know I couldn't do it without him. He is now the official assistant soccer coach for Sarah's team after being the unofficial one this year.
Back to me, I guess, my winter was very hard with both of my girls struggling. I felt like I was failing as a mother. It was just devastating and I felt so helpless for both of them. So I went into action to get appointments at Hopkins for Emma and a therapist for Sarah. That really helped me feel like I was doing something. Also I realized that to take care of them, I had to take care of myself. So I went to my doctor and talked to him about what was going on and he put me on some medicine and I think we finally have gotten right. I giggle and enjoy their laughter. I play games and help them. They sometimes really get on my nerves, don't listen and make huge messes that they don't want to clean up. But that feeling of desperation and anxiety has lessened. I had a fantastic weekend in NYC with my cousins Jessica and Kyler. I just needed a getaway from my icky winter and it was just what I needed.
I'm so glad that I have a race in the fall in Atlantic City. 2 of my friends are going to go with me for a girls weekend and my cousin Jessica might run it with me. It should be fun to run on the boardwalk. , I'm also really hoping to sign up for the Inaugural Navy Air Force Half Marathon in September in DC. I think I need a goal to keep my running on track, I'm the heaviest I think I have ever been but I think I'm still in pretty good shape. I would love to lose more weight though. Maybe the medicines are making it even harder. But I'm not sure I care as much as I used to, don't get me wrong, I want to lose it, but I'm just not feeling as crazy about it. I still feel like I'm a failure at times.
I ran 5 miles on Monday night, I need to get back on a schedule. It's so frickin' hot out though that it's hard to run outside which of course would be the easiest thing to do. I have discovered that I'm a cool weather runner. It's much more enjoyable for me. I ran 8 miles on New Year's Day! Since I started tracking my runs, I have run 1,011 miles which seems unbelievable to me. Now I need to get on it to get to 2,000 miles. I wonder where I could have run if I just kept going.
So I will check in more frequently, life just feels so busy. I thought summer would slow down, but it hasn't. I can't wait for our trips in August. So life stays busy, always changing. I think I get one stage down and then everything changes and aren't I lucky for that. I may struggle but I am so incredibly blessed with a wonderful husband, 2 fantastic little girls, incredible friends and an amazing family.
