Catch up: My first 5K--for a good cause

An awesome friend was an honoree at this year's Walk/Race for Life for winning her battle against breast cancer and our whole family joined her team.  Paul and the girl signed up for the Walk and I made the bold decision to do the 5K Run last month to help me motivate to start exercising again (and lose some of the weight I gained over the summer with a lot of travel and stress in NJ).

Unfortunately, my training was severely lacking, with my longest distance run less than a week before the event (and not much better, or often, before that):

But I managed to run a 33:29 (roughly a 10 minute pace?) and come in 331st place (out of 640 people--also 186th place out of 426 women), which I can't complain about considering how little I trained. Unlike my running friends who have just fallen in love with running more after initial races and are now prepping for marathons, I have no desire to run longer distances at all.  I will confess that it was a neat experience running through the city and traffic lights with no cars.  And honestly, the groups of people on the corner cheering?  I loved it.  I was pretty moved by it.  My favorite was the middle school marching band playing in the middle of it.  So maybe I'd a 5K again...but I'd like to be a lot better shape than this round.

Catch up: SC pride

The girl and I hit up the SC Pride festival where the music is always jamming:

And the food is fried and tasty.  Here's the girl and me before she ditched me for her friends.

Well, at least I enjoyed a lemon sugar crepe to keep me company!

Catch up: Happy birthday for the Girl

To be honest, coming back from Jersey from my mom's house a week before my girl's birthday, I wasn't at my game when her birthday came.  But we did take her out to breakfast before school on her actual birthday:

And it was a decadent brunch that had loads of coffee, chocolate, nutella, bread, and cheese:

I felt pretty lame about only doing breakfast out considering that I had spent a lot of 2013 up in NJ and wanted to give her a proper party.  So with the help of some of her friends, we were able to pull off a surprise party a week later--she never suspected, needless to say:

And what's not to like when you have friends, an awesome taco bar (a sweet gift from her aunt):

fireworks,

and uh, apparently at times, lack of parental supervision:

Sigh.  My girl is growing up so fast.

I can't believe it's been so long

since I blogged.  I have to confess that my mom's passing threw in a funk.  It's been a rough year, among many, and even though my mom's death was expected, it still threw me for a loop.  A friend said that whether a death is expected of not, it's still going to land hard.  I heard about the various phases of bereavement (isolation and denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) and it seems that they hold some fundamental truths.  I still wrestle with a lot of guilt, regret, and sadness, but I think I'm making my way.  Some days I still lose track of time and think I'm replying to an email from yesterday that turned out to be from last week.  I thought I was behind on this blog a few weeks, but I'm closer to a couple of months.

Anyhoo, I managed to get some things done and I've got some catch up posts but I'm looking forward to getting back into some of my old routine again.

Wish me luck!

A nice positive

when your mom passes is that you get nicely fed.  Like a great meal at the local raw vegan cafe:

Or an awesome cafe brunch in town:

Or someone makes you a vegan blueberry cream cake:

Or your awesome company sends you an edible arrangement:

That even a little nephew or niece can enjoy:

Or a friend sends you home with a huge trough of leftovers:

Or brings fancy take-out:

This was pretty awesome and delicious. If food = love, I am very well loved. On a separate note, I have gained approximately 15 pounds.

Rest in Peace Mom

I love you.

It's been a LONG time

Holy cow.  It's been forever since I posted but for what it's worth the last months have been a blur and a lot of things feel like they were just yesterday.

Unfortunately, my mom hasn't been feeling the greatest and that's really been consuming my time, energy, and attention.  I've spent weeks at a time in NJ (yeesh, I can't remember when I last spent an entire week at home all summer) with a little respites of fun with visits from these cuties:

Also I was thrilled to witness these beautiful weddings:

Kristen and David

Abby and Lars

Definitely a lovely balance.