Happy Birthday JJ!

Today is my youngest son’s ninth birthday! Where does the time go?

I make no secret about his early years…he was a rotten baby. :p I joke that the song that I most associate with his year of birth (2006) is Daniel Powter’s  “Bad Day,” because that child had nothing but bad days. In fact, his “bad days” lasted until he was about four. That would be the reason why I only have two children. 😉

And yet, he has turned into the most happy, outgoing, caring, amazingly positive child! He always has a smile on his face, and he always sees the best in everything. He loves to help people and is so giving and generous, sometimes to a detriment…he likes to give away his lunch to his friends at school. :p That little boy brings me so much joy. 🙂

I was blessed to get to spend an entire weekend with him last weekend, because we went to a hockey tournament together. My husband and Jamie had to stay back for a playoff game, so it was just me and JJ.  We had so much fun! They lost their first three games, but that didn’t deter those little 8- and 9-year-old boys…they had a blast in the pool and at the Kwings hockey game Friday night.

That’s JJ and one of his goalies, who happens to be one of his best buddies. His mom, Jen, was also traveling solo with her son, so we shared a ride and had a great trip together on the way there and back, and we had plenty of fun at the games.

She was kind enough to help me out Saturday morning, watching JJ while I ran 14 miles! I started out the run with my friend Brooke, who is the coach’s wife, and who has just gotten back into running after a bit of an absence.

(That was a shot at BW3s later…I forgot to get one after our run!) She ran the first 2 miles with me, and she was a real trooper! In order for me to get to the first game on time, I had to start very early, before sunrise, and that’s a bit challenging in an area that you don’t know. But she had no reservations, and we had a wonderful 2-mile run that went by very quickly.  After that, I was on my own for the next 12 miles. It was very challenging, because there had been 17 inches of snow just the week before, and the roads weren’t plowed very well, to say nothing of the sidewalks (where they existed). Oh, and did I mention that we were on the west side of the state, so there were hills galore!? The elevation gain wasn’t quite as bad as my half marathon in southwest Michigan last August, but it was still 314 feet. (For comparison, my average elevation gain is about 12 feet.) Although it was a tough run, I had a chance to take some cool pictures.

And the best part was that those 14 miles allowed me to have a really yummy dinner, including a delicious brownie dessert that I split with Jen.

I did the best I could over the weekend, but of course, it’s just about impossible to actually weigh and measure things when you’re not cooking it yourself.  I ran another 7 miles Monday morning before weighing myself, but the results weren’t quite as great as I would’ve liked.

Up 1 pound from last week. Argh. Oh well, it’s not an exact science, right? Despite the weight gain, I will say that I’m feeling a lot better these days physically. I just feel thinner, and not as “big” and heavy as I have in the last few months, so I must be doing something right! 🙂

This morning I ran 4 miles, which is my third run this week already, but for the first time in weeks, the road was clear! I started off faster than I wanted to, and had to force myself to slow down, but by the last mile, I was feeling awesome, and I was just flying home. I’ve been hovering in the mid 11-ish range for most of my training, but that last mile today was a 10:13! That was a good way to start the day. And it allowed me to have a little extra spaghetti tonight for JJ’s birthday. 🙂

Thanks for reading!