My perfect Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas out there!  Did you have a good day?  I had the most ordinary day, but it was my sort of perfect.  

Coffee, magazine reading, breakfast, a leisurely trip to Ames without rushing around for groceries and a few other random things.  Aaron was in charge of lunch - Wendy's. Ha!  I know it's not fancy, but when you have four kids under the age of 7, you don't go to sit down restaurants very often.  After we got home I soaked up the sun by putting my feet up outside with the kiddos, made some oreo cupcakes and then we took the kids to the little league field for awhile.  

 That was totally the icing on the cake for me.  I have about 752 bajillion memories of being at the ballfield with my family.  Taking a little batting practice.  Taking grounders.  Pitching.  Good times.  The best times. 

 Daddy ran our "practice."  Jenna and Brody hit, took grounders and ran the bases.  Blake and Bowen wandered around.  It was good stuff all around. 

 Blakers might end up being my lefty.  Maybe.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

 And then there's Brody.  He sometimes hits right-handed...

 And sometimes left-handed.  We think he looks more natural as a left-handed hitter, but we'll just see what happens.

My heart is melting.  This has made my list of favorite pictures ever.  I mean, the cuteness!!!

 Bowen had fun just wandering around, checking stuff out.

 

 Skinny boy probs...haha!

 I hope these two end up being baseball buddies.  A pitcher and a catcher maybe?! 

 I hope today is just the beginning of many more trips to the field for our family.  They were some of the best times I had growing up and I hope that my kiddos feel the same way someday.  No electronics or technology.  Just green grass.  Fresh air.  Dirt. And ball gloves.  My kind of perfect. :)

 

I asked Aaron if he would please take a picture of me with each of my baby dolls. 

Jenna Jo was my first born and changed my (our) lives forever.  I love this girl.  We will butt heads as she grows up.  We're just too much alike not to. :)

And Brody.  My very first boy.  My very first mama's boy.  I adore his infectious smile and laid-back attitude about everything. 

 The twins.  SURPRISE!  The best surprise!  I cannot imagine my life without these two who can go from eyeball gouging and biting to giving each other hugs and sharing.  No dull moments with these two around. 

 I just felt incredibly blessed today.  God has blessed me with so much.  My heart is full.  I do the best I can every day and I think of this quote often:

“There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one."

Happy Mother's Day!

Half-Marathon

So, Sunday was the big day.  My first half-marathon.  I, impulsively, signed-up for the Drake Relays Half Marathon ten weeks ago.  The closer it got, the more my stomach was in knots.  I was so stinking nervous!!  Guess what?!  I DID IT!!!!  I'm officially a half-marathoner!!!

Frank and Linda were nice enough to come down and stay with us Saturday night so Aaron could come down to the run with me.  He took this picture with my phone.  There was a lot of people and not enough room in the chutes for everybody. 


I did really well the first nine miles.  My knee started to hurt a little, but nothing terrible.  Then, about 9.5 miles I heard some ladies talking behind me about the hills in mile 11.  I turned around and asked them about it.  They said they were going to suck. 

They weren't kidding.  We turned the corner and it was two blocks of pure hill.  I said to myself, "Jamie, you haven't walked for 11 miles and you aren't going to start now.  Just keep going.  No matter how slow, don't stop running."  The 11th mile of hell almost did me in.  It was hill.  Then flat.  Then another hill.  And some more flat.  And one more hill.  I didn't stop running though! 

The last 2.1 miles were the longest of my life.  I'm not even kidding.  I kept looking at my GPS watch even though I told myself not to.  The coolest part of the race was that we got to finish in Drake Stadium on the blue oval.  When we came in and everybody was cheering on the runners I thought, I'm really doing this!  I'm going to make it!  Aaron was ready with his camera and I gave him a big old smile because I was so close to that finish line!!  Official time: 2:23.32  Not fast, but who cares!  Not this girl!

 

This non-trackster loves medals.  I was so excited when I crossed and they gave me that medal.  I wore it for a good solid four hours before I took it off. Haha!  When I got done, Aaron said he was so proud of me, which meant so much to me. :)  I couldn't have done this without him helping with the kids so I could train.  

When you run 13.1 miles, you have time to think.  I got to thinking about how three years ago I remember being so excited that I ran an entire mile without stopping and then there I was Sunday, running every single step of those 13.1 miles.  Look how far I've come.  It's amazing to me.

Jenna made me this sign that she had waiting for me when I got home.  Love, love, love it!!

 

Running is still hard for me.  I don't love it.  I like it when I'm done.  I still have to drag my butt out the door every single time.  Yes, every. single. time.  But, I like how it makes me feel.  I like that I'm a healthier me.  A stronger me.  Finishing that half-marathon made me feel like I can do absolutely anything.

The other cool thing about running is that it doesn't discriminate.  You can be old or young or tall or short or everything and anything in between.  Running doesn't care.  You will never meet a more encouraging bunch of people!  

If you want to try running - do it!  If I can, I swear to you anybody can!  You won't regret it.  

Aaron asked me if I would run another half marathon.   Hmmm....I'm not sure.  Time will tell I guess.  For now, I'm still basking in my runner's high. :)

The Others.

I know I dedicate a lot of time on this blog to Blake because of his medical condition.  It's just an easy way to pass along information to people without having to repeat myself 100 times. :)  There's something that is always on the forefront of my mind though - the others.  Jenna.  Brody.  Bowen.  I think about, almost on a daily basis, how Blake's situation affects them.

Take this example from this morning:  I was in taking a quick shower and heard Brody running from the kitchen to the living room yelling, "Blake's going to puke!" Don't be alarmed.  Kidney kids puke a lot.  I quickly finished and walked into the living room to find Brody holding a towel under Blake's chin (like he has seen Aaron and me do a million times) and saying, "It's going to be ok, Blakers.  It's going to be ok."

I could instantly feel the lump in my throat.  I felt two things mainly, as I tend to in situations like this.  1.  I felt proud of how the others (especially Jenna and Brody) handle Blake.  They are growing up so fast and are just so caring and helpful.  2.  I felt sad that this is normal to them and they probably don't even think anything of it.

I feel like Jenna and Brody understand for the most part what's going on.  We don't hide things from them and have always been honest.  But I wonder about Bowen.  What does he think when he sees his twin brother get a shot?  Or his blood pressure taken?  Or hooked-up to a dialysis machine?  Here's what I do know.  Bowen understands things like we do Blake's BP and temperature every night.  It is Bowen's job to turn on the blood pressure machine and then push the button when I tell him to.  It's also his job to hand me the thermometer.   That's his "job"  and he does it.

Aaron said to me that he thinks because we handles things in a positive manner, that our kids will follow our lead.  Does Blake's situation suck?  Yes.  Can we do anything right now to change it?  No.  We cannot stress about things that are out of our control.  Blake being born with kidney disease is one of those things.  It is what it is.  How we choose to handle it is our CHOICE.  We choose to make the best of it for us.  For Blake.  For Jenna. For Brody. For Bowen.

One more example:  The kids saw a lady walking around town who has a very pronounced limp.  They asked why she was limping and I just told them that she maybe has a bad hip or leg.  And I followed it up with, 'you know, just like Blake has a bad kidney." They responded with, "Oh, ok."  They said it like they immediately understood.

I have to believe in my heart of hearts that all four of my kiddos will be better people because of this.  I hope that they are filled with kindness.  And compassion.  And an openness for people that aren't the same as everybody else.  But mainly, a loving and caring heart. 

If you're still reading this, thank you for letting me ramble.  I needed to put these thoughts down today.  Sometimes my heart just needs to vent... :)

Blake's Benefit 5K

As I said at the beginning of the week, we had the Blake Burdorf Benefit 5K Fun Run/Walk last Saturday.  Last fall, our friend Danielle Toyne mentioned doing a 5K for Blake in the spring and I kind of forgot about it until she emailed me asking for dates that worked.

  

Long story short, it was April 13th.  Danielle and her husband, Jesse, her parents (Brad and Sara) and her sister, Emily, were awesome!  They organized and ran the whole thing and things went really well.

Even though the weather wasn't the warmest, at least it was DRY!  Dry days seem to be a rarity these days.  I think Danielle said there was about 185ish people that had registered. Start of the race...

Because it was so chilly, we decided to not push the boys in the stroller.  Aunt Mandy, Uncle Justin and Uncle Adam did a pretty darn good job keeping the kids entertained throughout the race. 

My sister did the Couch to 5K training program and completed her very first 5K for Blakers!  We decided to run it together and I'm so glad I did.

  Jess said to me afterwards,"I know you wanted to run faster."  That wasn't the point.  The point was that I got to run 3.1 miles with my sister. How often will I get to say that?!  I was SO proud of her!

 And how about Aunt Jill?  Miss I just had a baby seven weeks ago!  She ran.  The entire thing.  What a rock star!!

 The three runners...

 This picture cracks me up.  ALL of our kiddos heading back from the park.  Think we need a few more?!  Haha!

 Aaron post race.  Technically, he didn't walk the whole thing, but he did make it his job to talk to a lot of people along the route. :)

Our Iowa State Dance Marathon family came over to support us!  Love those ISU kids!

 

Three boys and a gator.  Heaven.  Pure heaven.

 

Jenna and Brody helped Danielle hand out the medals.

Aaron gave a very nice speech afterwards.  He's good like that.  I get all nervous, so I put speech giving in Aaron's department.

Our friend, Jay, got first in his age group and gave his medal to Blakers.  So cute. :)

 

Our family that's not our blood family, but we love them like they are.  The Morgans.  They are the BEST.  The absolute BEST!!

 We cannot say enough about the community in which we live.  They are so supportive of us.  Their constant encouragement and prayers keeps us going.  A huge, heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated or volunteered and made Blake's Benefit a success!