WOW that hurt!

Well the title of my blog this time is completely related to the half marathon at the bottom, so I will catch everyone up on the rest of the news and then share that story.

Well, Jill and Steve came out to visit us over the Valentine's Day weekend. They decided to take a much needed escape from the miserable Chicago weather. I don't think they have seen the sun in a while and of course, we have plenty of sunshine so they loved it! While they were here we headed down to the ASU campus to watch the girls softball team during their tournament.




Bob's Aunt Linda has season tickets and she was able to score some front row spots right behind the...home plate (why the dots? well had to think about that. I was thinking it was the batting spot or the pitching place or the hitting zone...nope, Home plate :) Bob and I were amazed at how tough all of the softball girls looked. They all had legs like tree trunks and the attitude to match. I am not going to lie, I wouldn't want to be at the other end of some of their pitches.




Even Bob the Giant was a bit intimidated. Well the ASU team shut out the team from Portland, Oregon (sorry Caleb and Anna). The other team didn't even get a run in. Not going to lie I felt kind of bad for them. How demoralizing to finish a tournament game 14 to 0. Oh well, can't win'em all. After the game we all headed out for dinner and then a nice night at home. I love when family visits. Bob and I are so blessed to have aamazing parents. Actually that doesn't even begin to describe them. They are awesome, wonderful, loving, giving, wonderful (did I say that already?) caring, supportive, and strong. Everything that Bob and I are we have learned from them! Here is to the best family in the world!

Okay, so back to the news. On Valentines day we headed over to the Superstition Mountains for the Lost Dutchman Race. On the Saturday before the race, Bob's other Aunt Sue flew in from California to run in the race. So we all got up, strapped on our running shoes, numbers and timing chips and headed to the starting line. As you can see, all of my family was good sports when I whipped out the camera at 6AM.





All of us are ready to go. When we got to the race, we packed up our big blanket and boy did it come in handy!



After my personal best 4 mile time, I thought that I would push myself to finish the half marthon in 2 hours flat. That equals 13.1 miles at a 9 minute mile pace. I have never run for that long at a consistent pace and truly I don't know what I was thinking. Bob, my dear hubby, told me that he would run with me and pace for me. He has an awesome watch that does everything, and tells you every statistic. It does everything but run for you. So, the gun went off and so did we. The first 7 miles were okay and I stayed right with Bob. We were even ahead by 1 minute and 20 seconds. One thing I had forgotten about, was that the Lost Dutchman Race is not known for its flat course. Not even close. It was consistent hills. I knew I was going to be in trouble when Mile 3-5 were all downhill. So mile 9-11 was MISERABLE. It hurt so much. I ended up giving all of my minutes back to the hill plus 3 more. Stupid Hill! Well, Bob and I crossed the finish line at 2:02 (2:04 minus the potty break). So painful.

After the race, they serve breakfast burritos and all sorts of food. We had a great time, sitting down and basking in the sun and food. Best post race experience. Unfortunately, I ended up with 3 blisters and a pulled hamstring. That is what I get for trying to go faster than usual.




Well before I go I am going to give an update on the fertility front. We are still not pregnant and trying to make a decision on our next step. Both Bob and I are open to adoption, but neither of us are ready for it. I guess we are not finished trying for our own or mourning the fact that we can't. One Doctor has told us that we may be good candidates for IUI (artificial insemination, much cheaper than IVF) so I think that we are going to give it a try in May of this year. Depending on how the Doctor thinks we did, we will try up to 5 times. Bob and I don't want to be one of those couples who try the same thing 15 different times hoping for a different result. If after 4-5 trys we aren't pregnant, we will check that method off of the list and move on. I am praying that it works. The emotional roller coaster infertility puts you on is sometimes so overwhelming. We are both so looking forward to parenting and pray that it is not just a pipe dream. Sometimes hope is hard to hold on to. Both of us trust in the Lord and believe that He knows what is best, and pray non stop that it is a little one of our own.