Happy Birthday, Zack!

Three years ago Zack was born, and it was a very hard day for me. The CNA who did my epidural was having a very bad day. She missed the first time (after missing on 3 IV attempts earlier that day), and then punctured my dura on her second attempt, leaking spinal fluid all down my back and causing a spinal headache. To top things off, she refused to give me enough anesthesia to numb the pain, and so I delivered Zack (10# baby with a 15cm head) and felt every possible pain. To top that off, I had severe hemorrhaging following his delivery. The day he was born was very traumatic. What a hard delivery. But it was also one of the happiest days of my life. It was the day my angel Zachary came to our family. He was a big little angel--just shy of 10 pounds, induced 2 weeks early. And the minute he was born, I didn't care what I had been through to get him here. I knew I needed him and could never be happy without him.

Zachary requsted a Bolt cake for his birthday.
The cousins from Connecticut were still in town and came over to help celebrate.
Zacky loves his big cousin Alex.
The new Pinocchio friend was a big hit.

Everyone always comments on how BIG Zack is. So on his birthday, I printed off a growth chart to see just how big he is. It turns out, that he is exactly the height and weight of an average 5-year-old. I knew he was huge. Nobody believes us when we tell them he is only 3.

Zack was very excited to be 3. He loved his birthday, and he got so excited about everything. As soon as he woke up that morning, he headed to the kitchen to see if the birthday tablecloth was on the table. As I had been out running that morning and just come home, I had not put out the tablecloth. He got it out by himself and put it on the table.

Zack's favorite presents were his orange car (Snot Rod from Cars) and his stuffed Pinocchio. He ordered a Bolt cake, which turned out to be really easy to make (thank you, mom for teaching me how to make 7-minute frosting).

The best part of the day was that the Connecticut cousins were here, and Zacky worships his big cousin Alex. Luckily, Alex thinks Zacky is pretty cool, too.

High Desert Museum

While we were in Bend a couple of weeks ago for the Dorrough family reunion, we went to the High Desert Museum. I know, it sounds LAME. I gave Mark a hard time for suggesting it as an activity. But I had heard from many, many people that it was a great place for all ages. When you see the price, you think, "There is no way any museum could be worth $15 per person." But we had 50 people who needed an activity for the day, and so we figured it was worth a shot. And they had a group discount, which came in handy for 50 people. It turns out that they museum is beautiful inside and out and worth every penny of admission.
The museum had an old prarie homestead living history exhibit. They had a saw mill, house with washboard laundry fun for the kids, stables, and everything that any kid who ever watched Little House on the Prairie would be excited to see in real life. There were people in period clothing walking around and talking to all the kiddos. The kids loved meeting the Shotgun Man for the Wells Fargo Wagon. He let them hold his sawed-off shotgun and his Colt 45 pistol.


To say that I was completely stunned by the quality and variety of the museum would be an understatement. It was beautiful, and it had the most incredible exhibits indoors, and then outdoors was a world of wonder. We first went through the Birds of Prey exhibit, where we saw bald eagles, golden eagles, a hawk having a mouse for lunch, and some great grey owls. But the best part was when we saw that there was someone who was bringing out a Great Horned Owl--Savanna's favorite bird--for a little show. We got front row seats. Savanna was mesmerized.It was an amazing place, and I'm so glad that we didn't let the lame name or $15 entrance fee stop us from going. The best part of the whole day for the kids was running around with their cousins.

Running diary

Here's an update on my running. Skip it if you don't care--I just have to share.

After the 1/2 marathon, I felt like a total weenie. Sure, I ran 13.1 miles and all, but my time was so slow. I know I kicked it in that last 4 miles, and ran a 9-minute-mile pace, but my first 9 miles, combined with an 8-minute IT band stretch at mile 10 added up to a very slow overall time. I had been so anxious about running 13 miles that I saved up WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much energy for the last 3 miles. Still, I was proud of myself for going from 0 miles to training 34 miles per week and finishing the 1/2 marathon without walking. Truly, that was my only goal.

My slow time gave me inspiration and motivation to run another race. This time, I have a time to beat, and I'm not starting from totally flabby-out-of-shape-zero. I'm starting out with runner's legs able to run 10 miles at a 9:40-per-minute pace. I did this last Saturday along the Columbia River. It was my first 10-miler since the race, and I was so nervous to run that distance again. But it was actually not too bad. In all, I ran 33 miles last week. That puts me in the zone for my new training program, which started this morning.

I have 16 weeks until the Las Vegas Rock N Roll 1/2 marathon. I no longer want to simply finish without walking--I want to fly. I want to kick my old time in the butt. I know I can come in under 2 hours. I would love to do 1:37:00 and have guaranteed entry into the 2010 NYC marathon, but that may be a little extreme for me right now. I would have to carry a 7:20 pace for all 13 miles, though. I think my goal will be to beat Abram's time of 1:52:50. A mother of 7 should be able to run faster than her 15-year-old son, right?

Mark is still on track to qualify for Boston in Las Vegas. He ran 17 miles Saturday with 7 of those miles at a 7:00-7:15 pace. He's got to hold a 7:30 pace for the whole marathon to qualify for Boston. We'll see what his body can do in the next 16 weeks.

In the meantime, it's sleep, eat, run for both of us. It's getting darker in the mornings, which makes it a little harder to get up, but the peer pressure keeps us both from sleeping in.

Some good news is that I finally have lost 10 pounds from all this running. The math (1 mile=100 calories and 3,500 calories=1 pound lost) says that I should have lost 20-25 pounds by this time. But my body has a special way of doing things in ways that defy logic and science. Textbook physiology and biochemistry do not apply to Jill's body. Although the weight loss is only 10 pounds, I know that I definitely LOOK like I have lost more than that. I just tell myself that I've gained 10 pounds of muscle. One reason I picked running of all the available forms of exercise, is that after watching the Olympics last August, I really, really wanted runner's legs. There's just something amazing about runner's legs. I didn't really notice that my legs had transformed until last week as I was running and my shoe was bugging me. I looked down at my shoe, and I couldn't believe what I saw--there were runner's legs in my shoes! The muscles I had been dreaming of were right there attached to me!

That's enough to keep me running.

Family Photo

We were in Bend last weekend for Mark's family's family reunion. There were 50 of us all together, and it was very fun to see everyone. All of the cousins were there, which made it a very exciting weekend for our kids. I have many more pictures to post, but I am way behind on that. Thanks, Josh for taking pictures. You did a fantastic job for us and everyone else.
Maybe this afternoon I'll get busy and get the pictures off of Mark's camera to show you what we've been up to for the past few weeks.