5.5 for Ryan Shay

I did a 5.5 mile run on saturday morning in honor of Ryan Shay and thought of his situation during the whole run. It was around freezing when I started and warmed up some during the run. Was busy the rest of the weekend with a birthday party for a neighbors daughter at Chuck E. Cheese and had a good time. It helps that they serve beer at that place. It was suppose to be a hour and half long party and it lasted for double that and we still had to give away extra tokens. Beautiful weather all weekend and really enjoyed the time with family and looking forward to more this weekend.

Love and cherish our loved ones every chance we get!

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We had a great weekend and the trip to Atlanta was awesome. All the kids played non stop and really enjoyed spending time together. I wish my family would spend more time together and would visit us. I love the fact that I come from a big family and I have always made time to visit my siblings. My siblings on the other hand have only spent a couple of hours visiting us. It makes me sad. My brother was away working when we were there but we had a great time with my sister-in-law. They have a young but big dog that I took for a little run on sunday around the neighborhood. I think she enjoyed the run as much as I did. I have no idea how far I ran but I ran for over 30 minutes and even ran fast a couple of times. I really enjoyed as well and wish I could run with a dog sometimes.

We got a security system installed when we got back and we love it. We like having a little bit of security in this crazy world we live, not that an alarm will stop things but it may make the bad guys to think twice about doing something. I am so happy that today is friday as work has been absolutely crazy. I plan on running tomorrow and dedicate my 5.5 mile run to Ryan Shay.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get and MAKE MORE CHANCES!

Tric or Treat

Nothing new and overly exciting to post about. I didn't get a run in this past weekend but I did go for a real nice trail run on halloween day. I was feeling great thru the whole run and the last mile I even picked it up and finished strong. It was a beautiful day and I really enjoyed the run. My thought is to run on the trail every 2 weeks. I had a long list of things to get done around the house so I went home and got the things I needed to accomplish done. I picked the son up from school and we started to get ready for trick or treat. We carved our pumpkin and off we went down the street to party. We hung out with our neighbors for a while until we walked by our house and a friend of my wife and her son showed up to walk with us. It was absolutely beautiful weather and all the kids were having a great time. We walked thru our whole community and hit every house. Good time and the big boy can't wait for next year already.

I watched the NY marathon on sunday and enjoyed watching the excitement of the womans race. It was a battle until the last 500 yards. I had more stuff to do around the house so I didn't get a chance to run. We are headed to Atlanta this weekend to visit my brother and his family and go to my niece's birthday party. Looking forward to that and will enjoy hanging out with family and letting the kids all play.

Hug and love your loved ones every chance you get!

slow down weekend

We decided to take it nice and easy this weekend and only thing planned to do was to get haircuts. Woke up saturday morning and the big guy got his "spikeyboy" haircut. It was still cloudy on saturday but it wasn't raining anymore and the afternoon actually cleared up and was a very nice evening. We had a nice dinner at home and then decided to go thru months of paperwork that was all over our desk. There was nothing on tv and we all hung out in our loft area and listened to the music on the computer.

On sunday we wanted to look into a place to have our big guy's 4th birthday party and we went to Monkey Joe's where they have nothing but those big blow-up bouncy things for kids to run around and slide down. It is pretty cool and he didn't want to go on the big ones at first, but after I went down them he wanted me to take him and we were non-stop after that. We ran around that place for the next hour and half and the wife got everything all planned out to have his party there. We are all very excited and looking forward to having a big party for him. He has only had family parties in the past so this will be lots of fun. When we were done we went home and he and I took a nap together as we were wiped out. We finally woke up and I went for a very nice 4 mile run with no watch on, just a nice easy and steady run. I put him to sleep in his bed that night and I woke up what I thought was around 4:30, but it was only 1am. I went in my own bed and was soon followed by the big guy and I couldn't go back to sleep. I think I finally nodded off around 3 and didn't really pay the price to bad at work the next day. I'm off on wednesday and plan on going to run on the trail.

Make sure we all give lots of love and kisses to our loved ones every chance we can!

I saw puddles

We are finally getting some rain and I am so grateful for any kind of rain we can get. I was so happy to see the rain on my way home last night that I was a little excited to be driving thru some puddles. I was hoping to get a run in tonight but it looks like the wife and I are gonna watch "Blades of Glory" as it is due back tomorrow. I can run any night but a chance to watch a movie alone with my wife is not something that comes along to much. I didn't get a run in this weekend as I had hoped but I am thinking I will get back on the right track this weekend.

Funny thing happened the other day as my son and I were at the library. We were leaving the library when my son sees a display of military figurenes. As I let him look over all the different characters from all the different branches, I notice a Coast Guard figure doing exactly what I did when I was in. That was the coolest thing as I have never seen one before and was excited to tell my son that that was what his daddy used to do. That's right, I haven't always been sitting behind a desk. Seeing that figurine has made me want to put together a collection of pictures and memoriablia from my Coast Guard days.

running buddy

I was thinking the other day that I need some running friends. Not that I need to have companionship with someone to accomplish races with, but just an occasional conversation with. I don't feel a need to run any races for a couple of reasons but the biggest reason is the money. I really enjoyed the running friends I had in greenville and the push we always gave each other. There is a couple of running groups here in Charlotte but it is tough to work all day and then pick the big guy up from school and get home, changed and meet someone somewhere. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy running though my development but I am thinking of a occassional run somewhere different.

small peek at fall

Finally got a small look at cooler temps this weekend and we enjoyed every second of it. We opened all the windows in the house all weekend and we all enjoyed it. We played at the local park on saturday for several hours with our neighbors and the kids had a blast. We spent the rest of the day saturday resting and relaxing at home. I finished doing yard work on sunday and it started to get warm again. I finished the yard work and went for a 4 mile run and could of used a water bottle for the first part of it for sure. I was struggling for the first half of the run but was feeling better after the turnaround. It was hot and no clouds in the sky so I tried to pick up the pace between shades. I kept a 10 min pace and I am starting to fell like I am almost back in the groove.