Monsters & Homecoming

I went on a quick jaunt to New York City last weekend to attend an amazing concert honoring a dear friend. It was a whirlwind 40 hours and I was fortunate to see my uncle & aunt, cousin and a handful of very dear friends in the short amount of time I was there. As you can see above, I had my picture taken with a couple of furry monsters in Times Square. After said picture, Cookie Monster started talking to me- "You make donation now?". I was all "For REAL, Cookie?", but gave him a dollar anyway. Then Elmo chimed in, "You make donation?" and I realized that you can't tip Cookie Monster and then leave Elmo hanging, so I gave him a buck as well. It turns out one of my friends had been trying to warn me that they were going to make me pay for the picture, but I was too excited about the prospect of getting a pic of me with two Sesame Street characters for Max. The look on his face when I showed him the picture was worth a MILLION dollars. :)

This weekend was Penn State's Homecoming. Normally I'd hide indoors and stay away from the craziness downtown, but something about having a super interactive 2 year old changed things this year. The weather has been GOR-GEOUS this weekend, so we spent the bulk of yesterday afternoon walking around campus. My ultimate goal was to take him to hear the Alumni Blue Band play whilst eating Creamery ice cream. I ended up heading in the complete opposite direction at first, thus our long walk. We arrived at the Alumni House just in time to hear the last 10 minutes of their concert AND meet the Nittany Lion! We were fortunate to get a really great spot in front of Old Main for the parade, too. We waited about 45 minutes and just as Max was starting to get testy, lo and behold- a firetruck! He was in it to win it from then on. Tractors, light up floats, bands- he had a blast. We definitely have a little percussionist on our hands, too. He loved the bands all around, but whenever the rhythm section marched past he went totally bonkers- screaming, clapping, screeching, you name it! Michael has decided he'll need to take up the bass so we have a whole rhythm section. We'll be on the road like the Partridge Family before you know it!

We Are! Penn State!

Birthday Party

Last weekend was an exciting weekend in the household. The show I music directed (ALTAR BOYZ) had a fantastic three day run at Penn State and fulfilled all my childhood rock star dreams. :) (Max's as well- see above pic of him at the drumset!)

Then on Sunday we had a joint birthday party for Max, E (our friend Grace's 3 year old) and A.M. (a faculty member's 3 year old) at a local park. The weather was perfect- sunny and not too hot! Michael grilled and everyone brought lots of yummy side dishes, not to mention the CARS cake for the boys. We were very touched by all of our friend's generosity with gifts for Max. He really stocked up on fun books, trucks, cars, Legos & trains!

In general, we've been so fortunate to have made such awesome friends here at Penn State. Every different group has been so amazing with Max and just adores him. He's become a mascot of sorts for all the theatre folk at everything from the paint/scene shops to rehearsal to production meetings. We're so thankful that everyone is so accepting of having a little dude running around underfoot.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Miracle Max!

Happy 2nd Birthday to our amazing son, Maxwell George! It's hard to believe it's been two whole years since we became a family of three. We have treasured every day and look forward to many, many more. We love you more than life and pray that it continues to fill you with wonder.

Specs

This is how we pass the time away in Wal-Mart while we wait for prescriptions to be filled. P.S. This little whippersnapper is going to be TWO this Sunday. What?!


I think the glasses make him look like an Asian version of Sid the Science Kid's grandma. The one with the creepy laugh. I may be biased, but Max is cuter.

Running For My Health

We will continue to post about the Maxster here, but I have started another blog to chronicle my running and health related issues. You can find it at: www.runangerun.wordpress.com.

Double Digits, Baby!

I ran 10 miles non-stop this afternoon. TEN. 1-0. Double digits! Whoa.

M & M are out of town for the weekend visiting family, but I stayed behind because I'm playing aux keyboard for a delightful production of Hairspray. (One more performance tonight- come on down!) So I've got a lot of free time on my hands, which I won't lie- is a big fat slice of heaven. ;) Max has been waking up anywhere between 3-5 am this week for various reasons (thirsty, wanting to play, etc), so it was awesome to sleep through the night last night.

But I digress. I started training for a 10k a couple weeks ago in hopes of running one before Thanksgiving. I've been a pretty hardcore treadmill fan because it's what I can use while Max is in daycare at the gym. Monday of this week I decided to switch it up: I took him to the daycare at the Y branch in town, which is further from our place, but has a 2 hour time limit. (A whole hour more than the local branch!) After I dropped him off, I ran an awesome trail within the vicinity of the gym. I feel like I get a better workout when I run outside and really wanted to kick things up a notch. I ran 5k on Mon and then 4 miles on Wednesday. Knowing I'd be alone at home this weekend and didn't have a time constraint, I planned to make today my 'long run' day.

I headed out with the intention of doing 5 miles, possibly 10k if I had the gumption and was feeling it. It was the perfect day- not humid at all, a nice breeze, amazing views and sunny to boot! I ended up running to the post office in the next 'town' over and arrived at 12:34. I'm kind of a numbers geek, so the time number order tickled me to no end. (Insert geeky *snort* here.) That was about 4 miles, so I made it my goal to run all the way home and top out at 8 miles. Honestly, I didn't really think I'd be able to do it, but I figured I'd be happy as long as I got to 10k (6.2 mi). I was feeling great by 10k, so I decided to extend my route. Again, the numbers were in my head and DOUBLE DIGITS (aka 10) were inching towards the front of the line. I finished my extended route and headed through some pretty residential neighborhoods and was still feeling good until about 8.5 miles. Then I started to whimper and trying to talk myself into stopping and/or walking.

The bull-headed side of me won out. If I was going to do this, I was going to do it without stopping! Needless to say, the final mile and a half was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle slow and painful. If I'D seen me on the road at that point, I'd have stopped and asked if I was okay and needed a ride home.

But I did it. 10 MILES. 3.8 miles over my previous personal best of one 10k on the treadmill! Excuse me while I go take an ice bath...

(Oh! I should note that this run would not have been possible had it not been for my Bondi Band and Mind Over Matter hat! The combination of the headband and hat kept ALL sweat out of my eyes for the WHOLE run. I'm not even joking! This. Is. Major. Note: M.O.M. is a non-profit organization founded by one of my elementary school classmates and her family in honor & memory of her mother. The purpose is to encourage "personal wellness" and "community betterment" – enabling people to help others while helping themselves. Karen has been very encouraging in my running efforts and I'm proud to wear my M.O.M. hat!)