Just a minute of my time...

Senior year...

 I cannot believe it is senior year for Chelsea, in fact for both of the kids!  Zach is a senior in high school and she a senior in college!  Both of their years are going to fly by!

This year Chelsea is in these gorgeous townhouses, which were just completed with her girlfriends! Recently we went to visit with both the grandmas and I think they both want to go back to college now too!

  It even makes me want to go back to school, and not just the community college!

they literally just finished these town houses and they are adorable inside and out! With grills and patios. She's already planning cookouts for when we all come visit her!

Looking forward to watching my kids as this year unfolds for them.

The Cliff House

Upon arriving in San Francisco, my cousin had warned us to be ready because we were going to hit the ground running, and we did just that!

Our first stop was for lunch and thank goodness since we were starving. As before most flights, I don't have much of an appetite, but once we land.... I'm starved, as was everyone else!  Lunch was at the Cliff House, an amazing restaurant with an awesome view and historic past.

and while we were warned that San Francisco could be a bit cooler at times, we were shocked by how cold we were walking up to the restaurant. Inside, where we warmed ourselves, we enjoyed watching the surfers as they tried to catch some waves in the amazingly beautiful Pacific ocean.

they have  wonderful popovers

liked them so much Shawn asked for more

Remembering

Soon after arriving at my cousins house, her husband reminded me of the last time I went to San Francisco.  I was about 21 years old, and my brother was moving down to Los Angeles. My parents had made a deal with him that if he saved half the money for a music school he wanted to attend, they would pay the other half.  He surprised them and did it and at 19 years old was ready to head out on his own.  My parents didn't want him driving down alone, so I drove out with him and then after visiting with family for a couple days, flew back by myself.

Our trip out was amazing, something I'll have to dig out the scrapbook and reminisce about soon. Just Joe and I driving across the country. Funny thing, I doubt I would let my kids do the same thing, but back then for us, it was the time of our lives!  

 

Me, Joe, Keith and Lisa

I've been thinking a lot about my brother lately. On August 23, 2003, it was 8 years since the day he had his aneurysm. Then he battled for his life for three weeks in the hospital, until the scheduled surgery on September 16th. The results of the surgery took his life, and he died the next day.

I always remember getting the kids ready for back to school, Joel and Zach heading out on their last camping trip of the year, only for me to call searching for them and a park ranger having to go find them at their campsite to send them home.  That trauma stayed with Zach for many years...

 

 

 

More birthdays

In between our vacations we also celebrated Ben's 21st birthday at Mongolian BBQ.  We had a blast with both Ben's family and ours and Ben is such a sport with whatever we do.   

My sister got him the pinata and he destroyed it outside of the restaurant

Jane had spent her summer in Florida, and made it back just in time for Ben's birthday gathering! I just wished I'd of gotten Ben's gram with both the grams...

 the gang after the poor monkey was destroyed!

Meet Rudy

Stranger #9

We met in California, a chance meeting, since I hadn't planned on looking for "strangers" during our travels. But here was someone who amazed us as we stood outside my aunts house while he ran up the massive hill that was her street.  

We had seen him earlier when we were driving home, amongst the many other active people throughout the San Francisco area.  Running  up and down some of these roads that would be tough enough to walk up!  We struck up a conversation about just that, running up these hills.

He was eager to chat, taking a break from the massive hill, to share with us a little about himself and his running.  See, Rudy has been a runner since he was 23 years old.  He told us the day he left college, he looked back at his school buddies who were out of shape and said I am going to take control of my life, of my body and he began running.  He's never looked back... and at age 74 he still runs 8 miles a day and LOVES it.  Including these giant hills of San Francisco!

Rudy was an inspiration in so many ways, on top of running up these hills, you just have to see these hills he was running up with ease.... He also informed us of his  recent heart attack in November, and said running saved his life.  As fit as he had been all his life, with his resting heart rate so low, he was told by the doctors it saved him. After surgery and when he was ready, the doctor said get back out there and continue running, and so he did!

We me up with Rudy again the next morning when Chelsea and I walked up the giant hill of my aunts street to a track where we could get a run in.  At that time he was walking his daughters dogs, and we got to chat some more.  He was thrilled about me taking his picture, and I told him what a wonderful impression he had left on my daughter and I.

He just lived around the corner, up another couple hills from my aunt ...and funny thing, she had never met him.

 

 

Marathon training

18 Miles

Yesterday I ran my furthest distance to date with Chelsea.  We ran in the metro parks and ended up going from Strongsville to Brookpark.  We could hear the planes taking off and realized we were right behind the airport when checking out our route on the garmin.

The first nine were the toughest, once we turned around and started heading back, it seems the run started getting easier.  The counting down phase...

Each week you have a tough week to train, and then a little bit easier the next, and after my couple weeks of vacation time I thought it was going to take me a lot longer to get back into training mode. Thankfully my body and my running stamina fell back into place!  Although a bit sore after we finished, nothing like I had thought I would be.

We have two 20 mile runs before the big day and then we begin to taper down in the training. With the air force half coming up in September, I'm looking forward to seeing how my training pays off on race day.

Vacation time over

Wow, what a crazy, eventful and fun summer I have had!  I had a great visit with my aunt and cousin both here, Cook Forest Pennsylvania and in California, several trips to Wisconsin, including two visits to Madison!  Such a great town that is!  Chicago, which is always a blast and of course a wonderful relaxing vacation with family in Hilton Head South Carolina.  

Madison Wisconsin

Hocking Hills

Chicago

Cook Forest

Hilton Head

Hilton Head

San Francisco

In between I got to see some Indians games, run a couple half marathons and other races, hang out with friends...

And of course fit a summer class in there, for which I got an A!!  I was super excited when I found out that news while in San Francisco!

So besides for two races coming up, a half marathon in September and my full marathon in October, it sounds like my 2011 is going to start slowing down.  

Which makes me think just what can I plan for 2012?  

Jill and I are talking the possibility of a half marathon a month for 2012... anybody else start thinking into twenty twelve?

All about California

Remember when my sister and I made a basket for my aunt and cousin that included all items from Ohio?  Well, they loved it so much they decided to make a California basket for us when we went to visit them.

They filled a reusable bag with all these goodies...

Included: Ghiradelli chocolates, sour dough bread, SF Giants pin and pen, olive oil, soap, candies, mustard and the cutest reusable bags "live smart" bags you can find here

Such a great gift idea for out of town friends and family!

 

My word for 2011

Challenge...

And I continue to find ways to challenge myself.  When we talked about Parasailing, I talked more about the kids doing it, and then while watching I thought, why not?  But for some reason Zach wasn't up to it, so it turned out to be Chelsea, Ben and I.

We had to book it a couple nights before, and decided that a morning "flight" would be a good idea. We got up early and headed out to "Flamingo's donuts" a place where Chelsea found that they make your donuts to order, with all kinds of specialty ones.  Too cute and oh my, awesome donuts!

Then we were off to parasail

Facing my fears has been a huge challenge, with huge rewards and confidence building. After losing Ryan I have always lived in a world of doubt. That if something bad was going to happen, it would happen to me, or my family.  And for many years it seemed I was right, I mean who else has lost their son, father, brother and cousin so premature.  But over the past few years, and especially this year I decided I needed to live my life, challenge myself and take chances, even when fear was involved.... bring on the parasailing

oh yes and getting dipped in the salty water 

Awesome day, would definitely do it again!

 

So much to share

I've been away for the past two weeks and wow what an amazing two weeks I have shared with family and friends.

Once Chelsea finally came home from her summer working with Wellspring in both Wisconsin and New York, we headed out to Hilton Head Island.

A week of hot sunny beaches with my family, swimming pools and relaxing.

Returned home for two days and left with Chelsea and my sister and nephew for a week in San Francisco with my aunt and cousins!

I'm home now and so much to do to get myself back in the swing of things, so many photos to edit and share, getting back to my running, work and cleaning my house... I look forward to the normalcy of it all!

With a trip to Michigan planned in the near future....