Clay Aiken: I'm a Gay Dad

Shocker! Is this really news? Helen Keller saw this one coming...

With the lack of economic and political issues to report on, I can see why CNN had to resort to reporting this revelation on their headlines (she said with sarcasm). ;)

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20228488,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines

Remembering Grammy

The last few weeks have been pretty tough for my family. On my way home from my California vacation, I learned that my mom had just rushed to New Hampshire after learning that my Grammy, her mom, was again in the hospital and being told by the doctors that she wasn't likely to make it out this time. Grammy has had a rough couple of years - Ever since breaking her hip about 3 years ago, she has been in and out of rehab/nursing homes and then recently went into assisted living. It's been tough on her, and tough on us seeing her struggle. Upon first learning that Grammy was now terminally ill, I was, as you can imagine, extremely upset. She had gone into hospice care because her kidneys were failing her and her lungs were slowly filling with fluid. During the past three weeks, every time my mom would call me, I would tense with anticipation of the dreaded news. Last Friday morning, 9/12, a little after 5am, I finally received the call from my mom that Grammy had passed away. In a weird way, it almost came as a relief - No more waiting, no more suffering for Grammy. I immediately flew to NH with my mom where my sister then joined us Sunday afternoon. Monday morning my family put Grammy to rest. I can't exactly explain how I'm feeling now - more comfort knowing that Grammy is resting in peace with my grandfather now rather than struggle through each day. We will all miss her dearly and I will never forget her...Her homemade cookies, donuts, the numerous scarves and mittens she made for us, her teaching me how to knit, planning her days around where we were going to eat next...I could go on and on. I love you Grammy and you will always hold a special place in my heart. Thank you for the loving memories, thank you for making me a better person.

Be Careful What You Wish For

The next time I hope for rain, please, someone slap me in the face. My morning started out so nice - sleeping until almost 8, lounging around, etc. I was all set to hop in the shower for my hair/massage appointments - But figured I should check the backroom of the basement for flooding first just in case...Much to my chagrin I discovered the waters had begun. I yelled for Frank and quickly realized it was going to be bad...I made the sacrifice and canceled my hair and massage appointments (the horror!) to stay home and help my husband bail out our basement. After about 6 hours of work, which included two trips to Home Depot - one for sandbags and one for a wetvac, I think we can safely say the worst is behind us. Thanks to Hanna, Arlington got around 6 inches of rain and we can contribute the worst flooding of our basement to her. Up to this point, we had only experienced minor water problems that were isolated to the back storage room of our basement, but unfortunately today, the waters seemed to be coming in everywhere - even the carpet got wet in quite a few spots. We're hoping to save it (considering it's not even a year old) so we've wetvac'ed what we can and Frank is on a mission to buy a dehumidifier as we speak. I think I need a drink after this day...

Rain, Rain

I have been saying that I want a rainy weekend day so I have an excuse to stay inside and do absolutely nothing. Well, thanks to Hanna, it looks like my wishes are coming true this Saturday! On my agenda:

Sleeping in
relaxing
relaxing
1:45pm hair appointment
3:00pm massage
more relaxing

AHHHHH....Rain, rain, please come on Saturday!!!!

Rock n Roll!

I can't believe how extremely excited I was on Saturday - You would think I was anticipating something a little more exciting than just running 13.1 miles! We made it out of the house by 10am on Saturday morning, and to VA Beach in about 4 hours, checked into our hotel, and then headed to the Convention Center to pick up our race packets. We then met up with Chris, Amy, and Lee for a high carb dinner and lots of water, and then turned in early in preparation for our Sunday morning 5:15am wake up call. Frank & I were on the shuttle bus to the race start a little before 6am. We had expected to step out of our hotel and feel a bit of a chill in the air, but unfortunately we were instead welcomed to typical Virginia summer humidity. There were a little over 16,000 people in our race, plus there was a wheel chair race and an elite men/women's race (for the 'true' runners). The atmosphere was thrilling - I had so much fun! The bands, cheerleaders, and volunteers along the way were great! The bands really got me going sometimes...Pour some Sugar on Me, Sweet Caroline, Enter Sandman, Born to Be Wild - Great songs to get us pumped up! Unfortunately there weren't bands at every half mile - Maybe my time would have been a little better. ;) All in all, I'm happy with my 2:05:58 finish - I felt great throughout most of the race until the last two miles. And I have to admit, a part of me is extremely excited that I beat Frank's time by 10 seconds!!! :) Granted, he has been having foot pain and recently found out from the doctor that he has tendonitis in his foot, but decided to run anyway. He suffered through the pain and finished in 2:06:08. After coming across the finish line and reuniting with the rest of our group, I said, "I'm pretty sure I never want to do that again!", but looking back on it, I can't help but think...I wonder how much time I could shave off next time? ;)

Birthday Madness

On Friday evening we celebrated Kristen's birthday with an early dinner at Sequoia on the waterfront and then headed over to the Kennedy Center for Shear Madness. In all the years I've lived in/around NOVA, that was actually my first Kennedy Center show - Hard to believe, huh? And what a great show it was - I was hysterically laughing throughout the entire show. Definitely one I would recommend - and also something to keep in mind for future visiting family/tourists. After the show, most of the group made it out for desserts and drinks, but Frank and I turned in early in preparation for our Saturday morning departure for VA Beach and the BIG RACE!!!