Tonight was the Manitou Days parade. Kirra had SO MUCH FUN! I got off work at 4:00pm, didn’t make it home until 5:00pm, had to let Tyler out, and then floor it to White Bear Lake! Of course traffic was bad again, so when I finally arrived in White Bear Lake, I sprinted over to where my family was so that we could get settled in. Kirra LOVED the candy part!!! It was like Trick-Or-Treating without all of the walking!

Went to the farmers market today with Pam. It was such a blessing to take her with since she knows FAR MORE about gardening than I do. I picked up some Zucchini, Basil, Cilantro, Tomato, Peppers, and other herbs for my mini garden. She really helped me out though choosing which ones to plant!

Here is a picture of my garden. (This was taken actually a few weeks later than this post)

What a super great weekend! Friday Jason, Kirra, Frank,Theo & myself went out to Joe’s Crab Shack which sure was a TON of fun!!! I got the big daddy crab bowl, and next time i’ll get just the king crab which was absolutely my favorite! It was all good though. Kirra had tons of fun as well.

Saturday I woke up really early and went out to Lake Minnetonka to pick up my stuff for the race, and then Kirra and I went to the Farmers Market and stocked up. Kirra just LOVES the market. Its kind of becoming our little tradition,that I hope that we can continue thru her childhood as something -we- do.

Then I went to Diane’s wedding shower. It was so great to see all of the aunties,and cousins. Last night we had Diane’s bachelorette party. We went to Sara’s to have spaghetti dinner which was super nummy. She also had this really good slushie deal from Tastefully Simple. I’ll have to get some.

I set about 15 alarms so I could make sure I would wake up for the half marathon today. We all got out of the house ok, and I had an ice cream cone before the race. My tummy was very nervous,so I could barely eat anything.

Got a parking spot, and met up with John & Judy. Amazingly I found my parents, and my auntie too! We got going, and found our comfortable pace. We just kept at that pace the whole time. Judy was helping me pass people left and right. She would go around someone (who I was content to just stay behind) and she would just pass them, so we picked them off one by one, and I think only 2 people passed us the whole race. It felt AWESOME to pass people! I saw my auntie at Mile 4.5, and handed off my arms (these arm warmers I wore so I didn’t have to wear a long sleeve shirt or jacket) Then I got to mile 7.5 and saw my mom and dad, so that was super great too! My mom wasn’t expecting me so fast, but she got her picture in. I can’t wait to see them. I’ll add them.

Oh how I wanted to drop the pace and run slower, but Judy kept me going strong! Pretty soon 8 became 9 and 9-10, and before I knew it we were at mile 12 with one mile to go. We ran up a HUGE hill at the end, which had an equally big downhill which made me run fast, and look really awesome at the end! It was rad!

So we finished officially in 2:21:29. My PR!!! So I was super happy about that. I couldn’t have done it without Judy. Took a long nap today and stretched a lot. Will be stretching a lot this week. Thanks to everyone for the good luck wishes,they worked!!!

My darling Kirra. She just cracks me up every day. Today she went back to Tally’s, and she seemed to have a GREAT day! She got to see all of her old friends again. When I picked her up and we were on our way home, she was just a little parrot, repeating everything I said, so we went thru the usual, and then I went, “Ello Governa”, and she responded, “Ello Governa”, and I laughed hysterically, and so did she, so then I went, “Ello Miss” and she went “Ello Miss”. I laughed SO HARD that I was hitting my knee, and my steering wheel, and so I look in the rear view mirror, and Kirra is laughing hysterically hitting her knee.

Well I was going to do another 10 mile run today, but I asked Coach John, and he said to do an 8 mile tempo run instead, where you run an easy 1-2 miles, and then from there pick up the speed little by little, and keep maintaining that pace. (the faster one). It felt really great! I’m planning to do two more 5 mile tempo runs, and then its race day in 8 days!!! I actually trained for a race, and had fun doing it! My next race is Lumberjack Days 10 Mile, and i’m excited for that one too.

A year ago I would have backed down, and tried to do the 10K, or the 5K, but i’m back, and it feels so good!

I taught pre-schoolers at church tonight, and that was actually SUPER fun. I’m so glad I made the switch. Its fun to do different things, and these kids make me laugh!

Jason did Tattoo today for one of his good friends Lisa. She got the Tree of Life (Celtic) on her back in the same place as my cross. I think it looks great! We’re trying to get Jason’s business moving a little bit, so hopefully he can even do 1 per month!

Jason and I were doing some spring cleaning, and I found this piece of writing I did back in high school,and I absolutely love it! Enjoy.

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The sound of metal driving its way into the ice like a piece of celery breaking is the sound of a figure skater softly and gracefully gliding across the ice.

I love this sound, and I love the frozen pond. The fantasy fairy tale land that give me the chance to express myself both fully, and freely, like an eagle who gets all the space he/she wants to express themselves.

I love to listen to a song,and do whatever comes natural to me,whatever I do is okay ,because I am usually all by myself when I skate,so I don’t have to feel embarrassed or stupid.

The most exhilarating thing that I have ever done was to go out on to the bond on a cold Friday night when the moon was full and skate all by myself with no light but the moon.

The feeling you get is like there is nobody else in the world, but you and the pond. Nothing else seems to matter because you are by yourself, and nobody is around. You really get to find out whom you are inside,because you get to spend quality time by your self.

The moon is my flashlight shimmering brightly like a candle in a dark musk like cave,or like something else that i can not explain. Everything is so still at this time of night, and if you listen close enough you can hear the little snores of the beavers or the sneezes of muskrats.

Sometimes… I like to imagine that I cam out in the middle of a competition, and that there are millions of people coming to watch me as I do my greatest routine ever seen by anyone. When I get done with the routine I stand around and imagine that the crowd is going wild,like people at a rock concert or a super bowl football game when everyone finds out that the team they were rooting for has won!

Then I listen to another song as I go out once more for an encore,for all of my screaming fans which just happen to be the frozen reeds and cattails in the pond.

When I go out and skate all of my fears, my worries, my dreams, my hopes are expressed… solved or forgotten out there. I go out there to think about life and how they relate or interweave into my skating routine.

Sometimes I just skate for fun out on the pond too. I practice my jumps, spins, and other fundamentals that are a major part of skating, and just relax as I enjoy the elements of skating.

I love to let the wind and emotions take over me like a ghost trying to enter my soul whether or not it will be a good ghost or not. I feel like something is there because i just go with the flow and forget about all of my problems with family,friends, school, work, etc…..

Sometimes i like to just lay down on the ice and stare at the stars like the wise men when they were looking for baby Jesus, or when Moses was looking for his way home.

Although I love to skate at night,sometimes I forget where the cracks and divots are in the ice and i end up tripping or falling on a jump, or getting messed up in a spin.

Every once and a while I get kind of lonely and sad thinking of how the world is turning into something like a trash dumpster. Everything is messed up, dirty, and not nice looking or friendly looking. People and stories on the news are hopeless…

Sometimes I think that maybe this is how the world is going to be in the future. But then I think of the pond, and how it makes me feel so safe and then I forget all about the world again, and concentrate on the effervescent feeling that I get when I do something cool out on the ice.

I love to imagine that i am an olympian out on the ice competing an artistic impression routine for all of the people (reeds) in the stands (snow banks) and do some showing off!

Often I go on to the pond without the intent to skate at all. Believe it or not I really just love to lay on the pond and stare at the sky and talk to God without using words. I just lay there and open my soul, and God knows what i need, and what I want. Usually I do this at night. I think about the world, or every once and a while think about absolutely nothing at all.

When finally it is time to leave the pond I feel refreshed and new and had long forgotten about all of my problems that I may have had in the past.

I know that someday soon I will be returning to the place of enchantment… the fairy tale land and the fantasy that I endure every time I go out on to the frozen pond in the woods.