Happy 9th Birthday Kevin!

From a super cute baby boy........into a super handsome older boy! I can't believe it's been 9 years since Kevin made his appearance into this world. He has forever changed our lives and could not imagine my life without him. Happy Birthday big boy!

Playing Catch Up

So it's no longer Zach's b-day as my post has said for the past 2 months..... I thought I would play a little catch up before it's Kev's b-day tomorrow. I've been busy, as we all are, but mostly I've just been too lazy to sit and write on here. So can I really recap what's been going on over the past two months in one post, without boring you all? We'll soon find out!

Following Zach's day, Easter came along. The boys enjoyed dying eggs, but Kevin showed signs of getting older by not wanting to go to the egg hunt. Zach happily went and found lots of candy and eggs! We had a nice time at Grandpa and Grandma Dee's house on Easter day.

Baseball season started for the boys. Zach was on the Dodgers, playing t-ball like last year. Kevin moved up to "kid pitch" and played on the Padres. Both boys were not hugely excited about playing this year, but they managed to have some fun along the way and we enjoyed watching them improve a little over the eight weeks of the season.

We had a huge garage sale for Team Safe at Second in the beginning of May. We were able to sell $1800 worth of junk! I continue to be amazed at what a great fundraiser these sales turn out to be. We are, as a team, over $10,000 dollars towards our goal. I am up to about 78% of my goal. Feeling good, as we are still several months away from the walk.

I started a few training hikes, as I plan to hike Mt. Whitney again this August. I enjoyed a hike in the Santa Monica mountains in May and just last weekend managed to make it to the top of Mt. Baldy again. Hopefully I will get a few more hikes in before August.

We took a trip up to Santa Rosa to see my nephew Cody graduate from High School. So proud of him and it was fun to spend the weekend with some friends too.

Garrett and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary on June 7th. He made me a wonderful dinner and it was waiting for me when I got home from work that day!

The boys finished up the school year on Friday. We now have a first grader and a fourth grader in the house!! It is amazing how quickly they are growing. They both got wonderful report cards and are doing very well in school.

And last but not least.....we just celebrated Grandma Riley's 90th birthday last night at the Ritz in Laguna Beach. It was a wonderful time of celebration and remembrances. Garrett made a wonderful video and Matt wrote a great poem. The boys had fun dancing around while Dennis played his Uke. Very fun night!

As I write, it's past my bedtime and Kevin is still up working on the new legos he got from the family birthday party we had this afternoon. He's almost finished both sets! We better get to bed soon because tomorrow will be another big day!

Sweet, Handsome, Zachie!

The big guy is 6 today. He's had a day full of pretty much whatever he asked for. Breakfast in bed.....he tried to help and sent him away saying, "You can't help. You must go upstairs and be served liked a king!" At school Garrett brought cookies in for Zach and all his classmates. After school we went to spend a gift certificate from Nana and Bubba. Then we were off to Chuck E Cheese (his new favorite place) where he and Kevin played the games. This was followed by coming home to open family presents. He chose In-N-Out for his dinner. Now he's happily playing Plants Vs. Zombies on the iPad. We will be having Ice Cream Cake in just a little while. Whew! You only turn 6 once right??

Let the FUNdraising begin

It's hard to believe that the 3-day walk is 7 months away. I still feel like I just finished last years walk. But as it is, time just keeps on ticking away and now I need to start thinking about how I am going to raise the money needed to participate in the walk. If it were up to me I think I would just skip the whole fundraising part, put my own money down and enjoy the walk.....and I guess I could do it that way, but then it would defeat one of the purposes of fundraising. Spreading the word about breast cancer! So in asking people to help me out, I am helping more people to know why I am walking and give others a chance to tell their story too. Last year we, as a team were able to raise enough money for all eight team members to participate, plus have enough left over to give each of us $500 to start this year off!

On April 11th we are starting the year off with a Pampered Chef fundraising party. I thought it would be an easy way to start things off. People go to these parties anyway and we get 25% of the profits. Here's how my online blog readers can help out too... you are able to order products online! If you want to check it out, go here, type in Team Safe at Second, and we will get credit. Your orders will be sent directly to you.

Of course the easiest way to help me out is to donate directly. That way I get 100% of the money towards my goal of $2300. Any amount is great appreciated!! You can go to my homepage to see what my progress is. I was continually amazed at the amount of support shown last year. People came out of nowhere and donated. I hope that I was able to show my appreciation and everyone knows how thankful I am!

Hi-Ya

Kevin and Zach have been taking taekwondo lessons since January as a Christmas gift from Grandpa and Grandma Dee. They both seem to really enjoy it and yesterday they were able to test to see if they could earn their yellow belt. We weren't able to make it to the regular testing session on Friday because we were headed out of town, so they tested in class. At the end of the class I asked if there was anything else they needed to do and told the instructor that the boys were hoping to break some boards because that's what they were told they would have to do earlier. When the instructor said they only do that on regular test day the boys were sad and mad that we had missed it. But thankfully, the owner, Master Shin, came and said he had a surprise for them as they were getting their shoes on. You can see for yourself on the videos.

L.A. Marathon

Well, I was able to walk down the steps this morning almost completely normally, so I guess that's a good sign that I'm almost recovered from this past Sunday. As most of you know, I ran in the L.A. Marathon on Sunday. I finished in 4:50:16, which is over 20 minutes faster than my Santa Clarita one. I'm quite happy about that!

After the Santa Clarita Marathon my feelings were that I didn't know if I ever wanted to do one again. I was exhausted and tired of training and my back was tired from the run. After this one, I am almost certain that I will do another. Maybe once a year.... I loved this one more than my first because of the amount of people that were running and the amount of people out cheering. Almost the entire way there was something interesting to look at. I also enjoyed joining up with a pace group. I joined the 4:30 group and was able to stay with them until about mile 18 when I had to make a pit stop. They continued on and I couldn't ever catch up again. But it seemed to make the time go by faster and I could definitely felt myself lagging once I lost them.

Of course, it's always fun to see family along the route. Garrett and the boys were at mile 15 and Paula, Jeff, Susan, and Sandy were at mile 23. The last 2 miles were the hardest as my legs started cramping up. But I was able to push through. It was right about when I made it to mile 26 and I looked at my watch that said, "4:48". I gave it all I could to make that last .2 of a mile so I could get in at 4:50.

A great experience.....now I am just wondering what to do next. Relax and enjoy these cute boys of mine?

Kevin's Announcement

Go see Kevin's surprise!