Small Victories, Temporary Defeat

As previously mentioned, I've been working to be a runner again. Well, Friday was my first good run. I made it for 24 minutes and I was so excited! Kate also had her first party she was invited to that morning. She put a painted hand print on an apron for a Nursery teacher's birthday. She had a good time following the other kids around. While I was there one of the other moms mentioned there was a free mile fun run this Saturday before a 5K called the Shamrock Shuffle. I thought it would be great fun for our family to get out in the sun and do it. Jeremy got up and ran 5 miles that morning with a buddy, then we started packing everyone up. Go figure, we got there late and missed the start of the fun run. Being the smart people we are, we decided to sign up for the 5K. So at noon yesterday we started out behind a pack of over 700 people and really planning on just walking the whole thing, but we actually ended up running for over two miles of it, walking for two short stretches, then running the rest of the way in. I was pushing Sydney and Cora in the double stroller and Jeremy had Kate in hers, along with our lunches. I couldn't believe it. Who just wakes up and says lets run a race today? Nothing big, I know. Our time was 34 minutes and 45 seconds. But for pushing strollers and me having my first run the day before, I was pretty darn impressed with us.
This is day one of me making an effort to do Kate's hair. It's long enough and the curls are adorable, I'm just not a fan of doing it. Shoot, I'm lucky if I get to do my own and asking a toddler to hold still while I pull her hair isn't exactly high on my fun list for the day. But I figured I better start, so I took a picture to watch my progress with this hair project.

Can anyone figure out what I'm doing wrong with these pictures? They face the right angle when I download them. Or load them. Or whatever I do. Anyway, here's the lovely girls after we got home from our run. The funny thing is, after the race yesterday I felt so motivated to do anything, truly believing "where there's a will there's a way." Once again, the Lord shows He has a sense of humor. You may have all the will in the world, but sometimes things just don't work out. Jeremy had to teach in church today and we were working so hard to get everyone fed and ready to go to be there on time. I was even able to paint my toenails (hasn't happened since August!). Well, Jeremy made Kate a good size breakfast and right before she finished she just threw it up. She didn't look sick, wasn't acting sick, and we just figured she ate too fast so we packed up and went to church. We sat down and about two minutes later she puked again. I contained some of it with a burp cloth, but we were soon using the baby blankets to catch it and clean it up (are you getting the lovely visual?). We looked at each other and knew we had to go home, so two minutes into church we walked right back out the door and into the car. Kate threw up again when we got home and that's when I went upstairs and realized she'd vomited all over her crib during the night. Jeremy went back to church to teach his lesson, then was home for a couple of hours before he had to go to work.

Kate woke up from her nap and had some nasty diarrhea that went through everything. At least she's not febrile and other than when she's puking does not seem to notice she's sick. But I think I hear her crying in her crib right now and I'm probably about to go change some more sheets. I'm slightly intimidated by the idea of being up with 3 crying kids all night. This is probably one of those nights where Jeremy will actually get more sleep being on call than he would if he were here. Or it may be totally busy and we will both be zombies tomorrow. So in conclusion, yes, the will thing makes a big difference in going places and accomplishing things, but life happens and hurdles get thrown in our way and sometimes we're defeated in a battle, but at least we can start over the next day and try again. My lanta, I am tired. And again, if anyone know what's up with my pictures, please give me a shout.