The Jones Journal: It sometimes feels like we're racing through life

Monday, July 22, 2012

I just stopped to think about it and realized that Maddie will be 1 year old in 2 weeks. My heart stalled for a second. It is so bittersweet: I am so excited for her birthday and so happy to have spent the past year with this beautiful, precious, little girl, but I am sad to think that the past year is over. Looking back, it seems to have gone by so fast.

Maddie sits up in her crib every time she wakes up now.
She is pulling herself up onto everything! I am just waiting for the day when
she realizes she can stand up in her crib. She is growing too fast!

We are preparing for Maddie’s birthday party, which will hopefully be a lot of fun. Since Maddie doesn’t really have friends of her own yet, I invited mine. Haha! And Phil’s of course, and our family. The RSVPs are starting to roll in and I am getting to work early on preparing the decorations.

The past few weeks have been busy! We had several outings with some boys, Jacob and Anthony, that we met at the library and their mommies, Vicky and Stephanie. We had a blast at the Petting Zoo and the splash pad.

Maddie's more interested in the kids next to her than the kid that's trying to eat her stroller.

Maddie and I also went to the library’s summer celebration and met Elmo!

One day, she will be excited to meet Elmo. Apparently, today is not that day.

Last week, Maddie and I volunteered at our church’s vacation Bible School. I was interested to see how Mads would do in the nursery for 4-hour stretches, so I kept peaking in to see her. I hope I didn’t annoy the volunteer nursery staff too much! Well, to my surprise, Maddie seemed content; she was happily playing with toys on the floor with the other kids or calmly napping in a bouncer seat every time I checked on her. It made me really happy to see how she is able to cope with other people when I am not around.

This weekend was a big one for me. I ran my first race since October 2011: a half marathon! It was a brutal 88 degrees out when the gun went off and those first few miles were BRUTAL. I was feeling pretty good, though, and just ran at a pace that felt comfortable to me. After a few miles, a cloud rolled in and it started to cool off, thank God! It started to rain when I was at mile 8, but it was refreshing. The most motivating part of the race, though, was seeing my family waiting for me at the finish line cheering me on. Phil was yelling my name and little Maddie was clapping along with the crowd. I crossed the finish line at 2:13:45, a 10:13/mile pace and a personal record for me! With me over the finish line, the sky opened up into a downpour! It started POURING! I mean…this was a monsoon. A very nice man offered us his towel to cover up Maddie’s stroller (Thank you!!!) and we walked to our cars as quickly as possible. Even in our cars, it was hard to see out of the windshield through all of the water. I felt so bad for the people who were still out there running, but grateful that I finished before the weather got really bad.