So I announced on this blog a few months ago that I was opening an Etsy shop selling crib bedding- Dnile Design. I thought I’d put my sewing hobby out there and see if anyone was interested. I figured I’d leave it be and if I got the occasional sale, great. A little extra money coming in. I planned on having maybe a sale a monthish.

Three months later, I’ve had almost 40 orders, one side of our playroom has been transformed into my studio, my mailman knows me by name, and credit card companies have started sending me applications in bulk. There are fabric scraps and random threads constantly stuck to our clothes. My arms are covered in burn lines from bumping into the iron while prepping fabric. Most nights and naptimes find me at the sewing machine with Genius mixes of Guns N Roses and Americana blasting from the iPhone dock. Things are a little busier than I expected. I’ve had to raise my prices once already to slow down orders.

This is definitely a good thing. It’s nice to have something concrete to work with a tangible end product and feedback. I love being able to be home and raise our kids while they’re young but as any mother will attest it’s not exactly the most gratifying job day to day. It’s often dirty and frustrating and full of negative feedback usually in the form of a scream. In fact at the moment I’m alternating between typing this and stopping Rhett from swatting the Christmas tree with a broom. Being able to think and create for someone and then hear how much they love it is feels really good. And of course, the money is nice, especially with two house payments and preschool to pay for.

Now I need to look ahead and decide where to go with this. I’m right at the brink of getting more orders than I can keep up with. I’m doing zero advertising or social media networking because I don’t want to bump up sales. That’s tough because I also have this natural inclination to do those things and grow my business as large as possible. BUT I’m limited in time and production capacity so I need to accept that this just isn’t the time for it- not while I have munchkins that I love in need of my attention. I’m thinking of raising prices again but at the same time I don’t want to have a product that normal people can’t afford. We’ll see where we go from here.

In the meantime here are a few photos of recent orders:

So announcing… DNile Design! I’m putting my sewing hobby to use making custom crib bedding and personalized quilts using fun modern designer fabrics. These are for the hip mama who isn’t into traditional boring baby decor. I’ll be working with customers to pick the right colors and fabrics and make a nursery set that they’ll love. Please spread the word, I’ll need all the help promoting my shop that I can get, especially in these early days. You can visit my shop here:  dniledesign.etsy.com. Below are some shots of a sample I made for Lucy in luscious autumn prints. There are a few grandkid photos as well to placate the grandmas.

Tell your friends! I’ll also be putting up gift certificates for custom bedding and quilts as well- great for shower gifts.  AND if you use the coupon code STATEOFDNILE, you’ll recieve 10% off!

But it’s Labor Day and that meant that admission to the Fair was only $1 today. Sold! So we packed up the kidlets around ten this morning and headed to the fair. I thought it would be closer to LA but the fairgrounds are actually just in the next town over. The grounds themselves are HUGE and lay right next to a massive NHRA racetrack. Looks like Grandpa Javy has another reason to visit. Anyways, the fair opened at ten and already there was a fair (sorry) number of cars lined up to get in. We had the option of general, preferred or VIP parking. Patrick was being swayed towards preferred, but I scoffed. “How long can the walk be? A little walk never killed anyone.” You can see where this is going.

So one Battan Death March later, we reached the fairgrounds. The lines weren’t too bad and once we got inside, the scene before us was pretty impressive. We’d been handed a map but we quickly realized that there was far too much crammed on it to be helpful so we crumpled it and shoved it in the diaper bag. Anyways, here’s an overview of the major points of a county fair, along with my opinion of who has the advantage.

Patrick took one look at the sky ride and said "hell no."

Rides- LA

So the rides were basically the same as what you’d find at any county fair, with a few differences.

First of all, at the local Indiana county fairs, you see the kiddie rides and get the feeling that when they assemble them, there’s usually a few nuts or bolts left over and the carnies just look at them and say “eh, it’ll work.” Here, the rides seem slightly less inviting of a lawsuit. Also, when you walk in, you’re greeted by a massive fancy Ferris wheel and a skyride that goes around the park.

Finn in railroad heaven.

Very detailed!

Kind of impressive. The real highlight though, although not technically a ride, is the railroad garden. It is a-freakin’-

mazing. It’s a huge manicured little world of railroad lines and wild west towns, complete with tiny people going about their lives. Trains woosh around looking industrious while grown men in Railroad Garden shirts operate controls from a little house and look like they’re living their childhood dreams. A lot of love has gone into that garden and it’s a joy to see. Finn’s eyes were huge.

There was even a lumberjack hidden in one of the perfectly manicured "trees!"

Food- Indiana

Just looking at it makes me want to yak it back up.

Okay, sure there was more variety in LA. I mean, have you ever seen a sushi bar at an Indiana county fair? More importantly, would you ever EAT at a sushi bar at an Indiana county fair? There was also Indian food, Thai BBQ, lots of Mexican. But that’s not what you go to a fair for. Eating a creamy bowl of palak paneer in the middle of summer under a ferris wheel just seems wrong. So I’m discounting the variety, because it doesn’t really add much for me. You go to a fair for fair food and that’s what I’m judging on. LA was severely lacking in corn dogs, there wasn’t enough funnel cake stands and I didn’t see elephant ears anywhere. To their credit, they did have turkey legs the size of your head, which Indiana doesn’t have, and plenty of fresh lemonade. And they had tons of deep fried things. There were a ton of bars and liquor stands, which you wouldn’t see (and shouldn’t) at an Indiana fair. Do you really want people getting liquored up and then hopping on the Crazy Mouse? Yeah, me neither. Anyways, I sent Patrick to a food stand to get a sampling of the fare (sorry) and he returned with The Mother of All Corn Dogs. This thing was massive. With corn dogs, you get diminishing returns. Nobody really wants to eat a giant corn dog. You just want the taste of crunchy corn bread batter and a small bit of hot dog inside. A giant corn dog assumes that you’re eating it because you just can’t get enough. With a corn dog though, you quickly reach a point where the novelty and nostalgia wears off and you’re really just eating a fat fried hot dog. Patrick had a Western sausage that had the same problem.

I've been trying to talk Liz into moving out here. I know if anything could do the trick, it would be this sign.

Chocolate covered bacon. A marriage of two of the most perfect foods on earth. Surprisingly I couldn't get Patrick to try it.

Entertainment- LA

This was pretty hands down. County fairs by definition attract has-beens trying reunite to make a little extra money, so the question was, which had the best ones. I can’t even remember the acts at the St Joe or Elkhart County Fairs, so there you go. Tonight, the Beach Boys were performing. Next week was En Vogue and Salt N Pepa (which answered the question posed by Cody last week: “I wonder what Salt N Pepa are up to now?”) Also later in the program, Mexican pop star Gloria Trevi, which was significant to me because she actually had a house down the street from us in McAllen. When I was in high school they found a bunch of child pornography in her house and she was arrested for corruption of minors and forcing them to have sex with her manager. Also, she never mowed her lawn. Anyways, this all was way more entertaining than the pre-teen yodeling county singer that we watched strut around the stage at the Elkhart County fair and tell packaged jokes about what a pain her little brother was. Although there’s something kitchy about that that you have to appreciate. Like the magician at St Joe this year who did terrible magic shows and you just imagined him going backstage afterwards, drowning himself in tequila and muttering “what happened to my youth?” Other than the grandstand, there were areas with a Great White Shark Encounter, a Jurassic Kingdom, and other cool things. Plus the shopping areas were massive. Plenty of room to sell you awnings and waterless cookware.

Fair Folk- LA

I’ll admit, this one took me by surprise, though not Patrick. Every year at the fair, we have a prize for the person who finds the best “Fair Folk.” You know what I’m talking about, the lady with the skunk mullet and leather chaps or the dude shoving deep fried Twinkies down his throat while his mean-eyed kids with their shaved heads and wife-beaters cheer him on. Its always a source of pride to be the one who identifies that year’s Fair Folk. Yes, I know its judgmental and mean, but it’s also really fun. Anyways, LA County has WAY more freaky looking people! It seemed like everywhere we turned I was trying not to stare. I felt like we stuck out like sore thumbs, looking like a mild-mannered suburban family. I wouldn’t have even known where to start with the Fair Folk award, I felt like the criteria had been turned on its head. The one that sticks out to me is the lady in the line for “Texas-sized Turkey Legs” wearing see through tights over white granny panties that were wedged uncomfortably in one butt cheek. Then again, there was the 300lb platinum blonde with blue eyeshadow and a very small very distressed looking tube top and hot pants who was yelling at her daughter (who was wearing a cute cardigan over a tank top) to “take off yer damn sweater, just looking at you is making me sweaty!”

County Fairedness- Indiana

The LA fair was a little too polished, a little too corporate. The Ferris Wheels (there were 3, one about the size of the London Eye) didn’t look rickety enough, although Patrick still wouldn’t go near them. The palm trees everywhere just seemed wrong. But most of all, there were no shacks with local 4-H kids selling bunny burgers or homemade ice cream straight from their 4-H pet to you. The ELKS and Kiwanis were nowhere to be found with their famous steaks and pork loins.

So all in all, the LA County Fair felt a little more like an amusement park than a county fair. Plus it’s open a whole month, so it doesn’t have that ephemeral magical summer quality. But it was really enjoyable and as you can see, actually scored high on the fair scale. I’m holding on to the Indiana county fairs though, just out of nostalgia and loyalty. Maybe when I build up more memories a the LA County Fair, like seeing Johnny Jr at the Bear Show growing up, or listening to four Ph.D’s argue endlessly about bear vs. alligator, I’ll give it the edge.

I’ll abridge our trip out here, mostly because everything has been so busy lately that I’ve forgotten most of it. The drive went well though. We picked my dad up in Chicago and kept on driving. The kids were so happy to have him with us. We drove for a few hours and then stopped at a parking lot in nowhere Illinois to let the kids stretch their legs. There was a tall hill that Finn ran up. Rhett and Lucy took off after him but kept slipping. Everytime they did, they’d roll a few feet down the hill before catching themselves. It was awesome. Stopping every few hours was crucial to success. Once we’d stop, the kids would run around happy as clams and then climb back in the van contented and babble or sleep for a while. Making the drive in one shot would have been impossible without a third person. The kids would have been miserable and so would we. Anyways, we made it to Utah in just under 30 hours, right in time to put the kids to bed and have an amazing steak dinner that LeAnn prepared for us, complete with orange rolls, which might be one of my dad’s favorite things ever. The next day we drove up to the mountains and let the kids and Grandpa run wild. It was beautiful up there.

Anyways, after a few days in Utah, we spent a day driving to California. I was getting nervous as we passed Vegas and entered California with the temperature gauge reading 115+. As we got over the mountains in into the Claremont area though, it cooled down a bit. We met our landlords and saw our house for the first time the next morning. I was a little nervous that we’d be living in a total pit. We were very pleasantly surprised though. The house is really spacious and kinda perfect for our family. It has a huge playroom for the kids, a gorgeous backyard with fruit trees, and a gigantic kitchen with tons of counterspace. I’ll take pictures in the morning when it’s brighter and post them.

But surely there must be some negatives, you say. Let me direct you back to the sweating like a pig reference. We don’t have air-conditioning. WE DON’T HAVE AIR-CONDITIONING. I know, I know, a/c is a luxury, blah blah blah. Can it.  I thought California was supposed to be so temperate, so when I found out we were a/c-less I said, hey we’ll make it work. Well August is not one of those temperate months. Instead its freakin’ hot and I spent the first two weeks sweating. We’ve learned how to strategically open certain windows at different times of the day so as to maximize airflow and you can’t swing a toddler by the tail without hitting a fan, so we survived. Things finally cooled off this week and it’s actually been gorgeous the last few days.

We’ve met a few people. Our church ward has been incredibly welcoming. The first Sunday we went was an odd day for them. An active family in the ward had been flying to Utah earlier in the week and their plane crashed, killing them all. An entire family, wiped out. It was a very emotional meeting and everyone was just kind of stunned. They went out of their way to welcome us though and we’ve had several people over to say hi. Today I met a few more young mothers at a swimming party.

Yesterday I ventured to a local park with the kids to join up with a playgroup I found online. The park was incredible! It reminded me of Hyde Park in London with wide grassy spaces and winding shady paths. The playground was maybe the most well-thought out playground I’ve ever been to. It had something for all ages, for both structured play and the more adventurous explorer type stuff. There was tons of sand to dig in and it was on a slight hill so kids could roll in all directions. There was a train set up which Finn was just in heaven with. The moms I met were really nice and their kids and Finn got along well so I think we’ll keep going to this group.

Anyways, that great experience made me high on Claremont. That plus the fact that the weather meant everyone was out on their bikes and walking and happy and Claremont itself is very Stars Hollowy. In fact, coming up on 9-7-11, the city has declared Zip Code Day. (Our zipcode is 91711, as you might have deduced). There are all kinds of fantastic activities, local bands playing, and residents are all invited to the park downtown for a town picture. Seriously! This place is adorable!  Also they have a parade on the 4th of July that all the kids decorate their bikes and ride in.

So in keeping with the fun outdoorsy mood here, today I bought myself a bike and a trailer for the kids to ride in. I’m super excited about it.The grocery store and Trader Joe’s (another thing I’ve fallen in love with) are within biking distance, as is the Village, the quaint downtown area of Claremont. So I can just put the kids in the trailer and bike wherever we need to go. I think the laid-back family friendly community around here and I are going to get along well.

That is, unless the coyotes eat us.

First things first. We biked 20.26 miles total. As Patrick said, we basically biked a marathon. Have I mentioned that Liz hasn’t biked since she was twelve and I hadn’t biked since college. Yeah. So there’s that.

Anyways, we were giddy in the days leading up to it. We were obsessing about what we were going to be packing, what our strategy should be, what we were going to wear. We were so consumed with thinking about it that we completely forget to register and pick up our packets on Friday night. Oops. Luckily we could do it extra early Saturday morning.

Around 6ish in the am, Liz came by and we filled up our bike tires, sunscreened up and headed over to Coveleski Stadium where the race would begin. The parking lot was filled with trim, toned  athletes wearing marathon shirts and oiling their bikes. I dispelled any notion that we were serious competition when I pulled my bike out of Liz’s minivan and promptly dropped it, shrieking and hopping out of the way.

Inside the stadium, the atmosphere was much like Sunburst, music blaring, people getting excited. We were split into Open and Elite divisions (I’ll let you guess which one we were in) and the organizer, a women not unlike Sue Sylvester, went over all the rules. Then the secret maps were handed out and teams fanned out to strategize. We decided to hit the furthest points first, saving the most popular spots around the river for mid-way through the race so we wouldn’t get stuck in lines, like we heard happened last year.

We lined up towards the back of the pack for the start of the race. We began by running a half mile lap around the Cove, then picking up our bikes and swarming in all directions. It looked like most people were headed downtown so our plan was looking good.

Our first checkpoint was the Budweiser distribution center on the west side. Here we had to haul twelve super heavy beer kegs across a long warehouse and restack them on pallets at the other end. People seemed only able to move two at a time per person. Liz and I, however, are used to hauling heavy things. The kegs were large, but at least they didn’t squirm and kick. We had this covered. We hauled three of them at a time on dollies across and heaved them up on top of the pallets like pros. I think we took everyone standing around by surprise. It was a good way to start the race.

At this point, I’m just going to breeze over a few of the major checkpoints. I was going to write a full description of the race but I know some things are repeated year after year and I don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone who happens to google Urban Adventure South Bend. After all, part of the fun for us was speculating what we would be doing.

Anyways, suffice it to say we biked all over the town. We were on the westside for a couple of checkpoints then biked down to a city park where we heaved ourselves down a giant downhill slip n’slide. At the bottom Liz realized one of the safety pins holding her race number had come open and fallen off on the slide. She mentioned it to one of the volunteers who shrugged and said “well, someone will find it.” Ouch.

We headed through my part of town and over to the farmer’s market for another checkpoint, then up the river for another one, then to Potawatomi Pool where  we jumped in the pool fully clothed to swim a lap. Once we emerged dripping wet, we started heading for the giant water slide. The volunteers waved us off, telling us that the slide wasn’t part of the challenge. We didn’t care and they let us do it just for fun.

Now thoroughly soaked, we biked off on a wild goose chase. We had been given a mystery picture of a certain location and needed to find it. We were pretty sure we knew where it was but we were wrong. Like several miles each way wrong. So we headed downtown to the East Race Kayak Course. This is an Olympic training course, so it’s pretty serious. We got into a raft with another team who were slightly more competitive than we were and seemed a little put off when we kept spinning in circles. Nonetheless, we managed not to flip but still got completely soaked. At the end, we were supposed to paddle to the side to grab a rope and be pulled in. We had been warned that another team didn’t make it and ended up floating quite a ways down the river, where a rescue attempt was currently underway. Of course when we got to the end, what did we do instead of paddling to the side? We turned in circles of course and almost found ourselves heading to Michigan. Luckily someone on shore had a pretty long throw and was able to get the rope to us.

We squished our way the half-mile back to our bikes and Liz refilled the water while I overheard a woman talking about where the mystery picture location was. Score! We headed over to the event we’d been anticipating the most, the zipline over the St. Joseph River. After being assured that no one had fallen in the river yet, we climbed up a rickety ladder and got strapped in and zipped off. It went pretty fast and was such a rush! Definitely my favorite checkpoint. Once we landed we rushed back to the beginning to give our harnesses back and headed downtown. There were a variety of checkpoints there that local restaurants and theaters set up. We also headed to the mystery photo location and got that knocked out.

From there we headed several miles north (and unfortunately uphill) to St Joseph High School where we found ourselves wearing rubber gloves and flinging giant dead carp at each other. Yeah, that’s right. Carp. You each had to catch it and if you dropped it you had to go straight to the back of the line and try again. For the first ten minutes we were there we didn’t see anybody catch it, the line was getting pretty long. The grass under our feet was slimy with fish guts and the whole place reeked. We dropped it on the first go. The second time around though I donned a nasty fish gut covered poncho  so I wouldn’t be scared of grabbing that fish. Sure enough, we each caught it this time. We jumped up and down cheering for ourselves and rushed back to our bikes, wiping fish guts off the whole way.

We did a couple more checkpoints and then started heading over to St. Mary’s College for the next one. We were cutting through some grass and gravel when I heard a huge CRASH. Liz was sitting on the ground holding her knee. She had road rash all down her arm and leg and a pretty good scrape on her knee. We had a tiny first aid kit with us so we cleaned it up and bandaged it. Her pants were mangled and torn. We took a few minutes to recuperate and decided to head to the Notre Dame checkpoints. We had four to go. At this point we were dehydrated, hot and exhausted. When we got to Notre Dame Stadium though, the fire department had set up a fire truck with the hose going. We rode through it a couple times and then headed inside the Stadium where we had to run a lap around the field without touching the grass. We sang the Fight Song as we did, wheezing and panting the whole time.

We hit the final three checkpoints and finished with 17 minutes to go (the race shut down at 1pm). We were pretty freakin’ proud of ourselves. We rode the several miles back to the Start/Finish, dropped our bikes and ran the last few yards to the Finish Line. Liz headed straight for the medical tent, where we witnessed a guy with bloody road rash on the whole lower part of his face. Ouch. I wandered off in search of food. We sat in the shady bleachers with sandwiches and water and zoned out in exhaustion.

Urban Adventure was intense in a lot of ways. It really pushed us to the brink physically, as we found out the next day when our bodies wouldn’t work. It was the perfect way to say goodbye to South Bend. It was also a great experience to have with a good friend. I wish I had gotten to know Liz better a long time ago so we could have done lots more fun things before we moved. But I’m pushing for her to move to SoCal so we can live nearby and start an urban farm/kid ranch. Either way, we’re working on a project together that we’ll be unveiling soon so you’ll be seeing lots more of our adventures/disasters. More on that to come soon!

I’m so excited I can hardly stand it.

It’s not that I’ve been in denial. I’ve just been purposely avoiding thinking about and planning for it all summer. I kept thinking that once we sold our house then we could get moving on logistics and everything would come together. In an ideal world.

So we didn’t sell our house. Totally disappointing especially knowing what a great house it is and that it should have sold. Just a matter of bad luck and bad timing. We’re going to take it off the market, get a renter, and then put it back up in the spring. Although it would be nice to be rid of the house and move on, this might work out better for us financially, so we’re fine with it. As long as nothing major breaks in the next nine months.

We may have finally found a place to live in California. Patrick and I went out in mid-June to house hunt and found a few homes that we really liked both in Claremont and Rancho Cucamonga (you can stop laughing now). After thinking hard about it though, we realized that renting for a year would be way smarter. It would give us a chance to figure out where in the area we want to live and allow us to wait for a dream house to come on the market. There’s a house in Claremont just a mile and a half from the university and next to botanical gardens that looks perfect. We have friends who are going to take a look at it for us in the next few days to make sure that it’s not a dump. I’m hopeful though.

So now that we may have found our place, I have a concrete location to think about. Today I woke up with the realization that in a couple weeks we’re going to pack up (or rather, be packed up) and leave our lives in South Bend to start over somewhere else. It feels a little like deja vu, except this time we’ll speak the language. All the apprehensions that come with relocating have popped up. Will we like it there (we’d better! We’re in it for the long haul!)? Will we be able to live comfortably? Will we find good friends?

That last question makes me most anxious. We’ve been spoiled in South Bend in that for most of our time here we had really great friends, the kind you could have fantastic conversations about anything with. Those kind of friends are hard to come by. So I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll find that. It’s always nerve-wracking meeting new people though.

In the meantime, I’m keeping busy. I’m glad that showing the house is all over and done with. Yesterday I had a few hours notice to clean the entire house for an afternoon showing. As soon as I got the message, I went into hyperdrive, scrubbing the kitchen counters of the blueberry fruit leather mixture I’d been making while one twins tugged on my shorts and screamed and the other overturned the laundry basket in the living room and very meticulously distributed the clothes all over the downstairs. Thankfully Liz took my kids for a few hours and I was able to get it done.

We’ve been enjoying summer- spending lots of time outside playing. We went to the St Joe County Fair (always one of our summer highlights) and have gone berry-picking a couple of times. One of the above mentioned friends who moved away came back for a few weeks with her kids and we were able to get together with them a bit. She came over and taught Liz and I how to make bread (she’s a pro!) which just opened up my world. I’ve been such a failure at yeast breads that I’d given up every being able to make an edible loaf. Between Allyson’s help and this amazing book, our house has been filled with the heavenly smell of baking bread for the last few weeks. The other night I made such a beautiful and yummy loaf I was giddy. Like dancing around giddy. Between that and the homemade jam that I made with those picked berries, we’re eating well here.

My beautiful loaf of bread!

My brief respite is over. I hear babies rustling upstairs.

So where to start. How about three months ago when Liz and I were commiserating on how out of shape we were and how we’d both like to be the kind of people who run for fun-except that we both hate running. So we decided to set a goal to run a 5K this summer. The Sunburst Races are held every summer here and are kind of a big deal, with races ranging from a 5K walk to a full Boston qualifier marathon. So we met at the gym on campus a few times and started running. I think we made it a full lap around the 1/8 mile track at some point but maybe I’m remembering wrong. We both felt like elephants lumbering around that track. Then we started tossing around the idea of a 10K, even though we couldn’t run a tenth of a K without falling over. I thought it sounded pretty impossible until Liz said she’d registered for it. Crap. I registered too, we both downloaded the Couch to 10K app to our various iThingies and got started on a three day a week thirteen week program. The first workout was something like run 30 seconds, walk five minutes for an hour. We were a long way away from a 10K.

Fast forward to this morning. I got up around 6am after a nervous night of tossing and turning. I had a protein bar and some Gatorade and did some yoga until Kay, Stacy and Rebecca swung by to pick me up at 7. Arriving downtown was really exciting. The streets had been roped off and there were thousands of people stretching and putting on their numbers. We immediately spotted other friends. We’d all gotten hot pink shirts to wear but I decided to forgo mine because I didn’t like the fabric and I was used to running in my purple racing shirt. Anyways, we chatted nervously and watched the 5K race start. At the front of the pack was a guy running in a graduation robe. Somewhere in the middle was someone dressed as Waldo. They announced 10 minutes until our race start and Liz and I turned to each other with panicked eyes.

We lined up in the 11 minute mile section with a few other friends. I had butterflies in my stomach until we crossed the start line and started running. The race took us through downtown for a couple miles, then up Riverside hill. At the base of the hill was the first water station. I didn’t slow down as I grabbed a water cup and downed it, so of course I proceeded to choke on it and spit it all out. Halfway up Riverside we slowed to a walk as Nadine zoomed past us and disappeared. We started up again at the top of the hill. Liz was feeling really nauseous so we took it easy. It’s amazing that she was able to finish the race feeling so bad. We passed a few people passed out and being treated by medics on the side of the road. We went down Riverside where Jim was waiting with a camera. At this water stop I was slightly more graceful although I did splash a cup on water on my face because it seems like that’s what one does in a race.

The next few miles went in and out of some neighborhoods. We ran most of it but had some walking periods. Liz was looking pretty green. At one point a police escort passed leading the lead marathoner. Everyone clapped as he passed. He didn’t even look winded. It was getting warm but a lot of the houses had turned on their sprinklers so runners could get a quick spritz. We walked up the Hillcrest hill and then ran through the East Race path, which was wooded and pretty. Despite our walking breaks we were averaging a pretty good pace.

We came out of there and onto the final stretch. I got my second wind here and felt great. I was thinking about how I wouldn’t mind doing one of these again someday. We turned down Eddy and had a straight run to the stadium. The route was lined with people clapping and cheering, which felt amazing! As we got onto campus I put “Eye of the Tiger” on my playlist and then almost fell over laughing because it was such a funny song to run to. We rounded the outside of Notre Dame Stadium and I switched to the Notre Dame Fight Song. We entered the tunnel and I’ll admit I choked up a little. I was just so proud to be near the finish and to have accomplished this. We ran onto the field and across the finish on the 50-yard line. Someone handed me an ice cold wet towel which felt amazing. Liz and I hugged and squealed and looked into the stands for our adoring families. We waited for Stacy and Kay to cross the finish and found some of our other friends and got a group shot. At this point I was getting crazy dizzy and seriously in need of sustenance. We went into the stadium where they had fresh fruit, Popsicles, and lots of watered down Gatorade. Our families were waiting just outside the gate for us. Patrick had asked Finn if he thought I’d win the race and Finn said “No, Lightening McQueen will win!” So he wasn’t ever cheering for me. It was great to be met by my family and to have them there at the finish to see me reach my goal.

As I spent the weeks training for this, I realized that this wasn’t just about reaching a goal or getting in shape. I really felt like this was a way for me to reclaim my body and mind. I’ve spent the last 18 months exhausted and non-stop busy raising three little very active kids. The burden of post-partum depression made that time even harder. Every time I got out and ran and reached my training goal for that run I felt like I was winning little victories for myself. When I finished the race today, I felt like I had taken back my body from exhaustion and service to kids and my mind from all the things that had clouded it up and made me feel…not like myself. Crossing that finish line was a huge victory for myself and I’m not too modest to say it. I am damn proud of myself.

Liz and I crossing the finish line.

My running partner, Liz, who blew me away with her resilience.

Our friends!

My proud family. Okay, Patrick is proud, the others are indifferent.