Monster Weekend Update

I'll post more later. I see an early bedtime in my future tonight because I have to be into work extra early tomorrow. Boo. I had asked for the day off, but I guess it wasn't in the cards. I just got back from church an hour ago. The great thing about living 5 blocks from a Catholic college campus is that they have late services, which fit perfectly into the schedule of a very busy weekend. I indeed have a lot to give praise for today. I am truly blessed with the gifts of family and friends. I had a good race today, and I have the BEST husband in the whole world.

The crazy huge test that I have been obsessing over for months was Saturday, and it was every bit as hard, random, and irrelevant to my practice as everyone said it would be. But it's over for now. I take comfort in knowing that I studied my butt off, and whatever the outcome, there's probably not much more that I could have done. We won't find out the results for at least 60
days, which is stinky, but I'm just going to try and put it out of my head for the next couple of months.

I rushed home after the test to find that Steve had finished cleaning the house. It looked great, and one of the biggest bouquet of flowers I've ever seen was sitting on the dining room table as a congrats on being done with your test/good luck at the marathon/happy upcoming birthday statement. A little over an hour later, we started cooking for our bloggy friend meet up/family coming up for the marathon meal - salad, grapes, spaghetti, grilled chicken, and garlic bread - yum! We got to meet Rural Girl's adorable family, hang out with Stu, and catch up with Robby B and his lovely wife. I think they were all a little shocked to see my family filing in the door - Steph and Borsch were already here, but then my brother Mike showed up with his girlfriend Brianna, followed by Matt, and Mom and Annie weren't far behind. I love having a full house! Before all of our bloggy friends left, we stopped to take this picture:

Steve, Me, Stu, Robby B, Michelle, and Borsch posing for a quick blogger photo.

After finding bedding and figuring out where everybody was going to sleep last night, I passed out and didn't wake up till Steve's alarm clock went off this morning.

Steph, Steve (the chicken), Borsch, Mike (the pig), Me, Brianna, Matt (the cow), Annie, and My Mom before the start of the race

I'll write more on the race later, with more pictures. My awesome sister Steph took a ton of them! It was a lot of fun, and I saw so many inspiring people. Plus, I have a lot of people to thank. Suffice it to say for now that the farm animals were a HUGE success again this year. I'm quite sure that our cheerers have more fun out there than we do. Borsch and I ran most of the marathon together, and I'm so proud to have taken another one to the finish line. It rained, and body glide can't handle over an hour of rain followed by over 2.5 hours of wet clothes rubbing. I have burns everywhere. My time was good. Not great, but good. Given the lack of training I've had for this race, I'm happy with it. Plus, we got Borsch to his first marathon finish line, and that was the main goal today. I know I've made a lot of jokes this year about just winging it, and that's not necessarily the way that I like to train, but it had to be that way for this year. I try really hard not to take for granted the gifts I've been given, and tonight, I know that there are a lot of them.