While Mom Was Away

This past weekend I got to take a little trip by myself up to my sister Sandy's place. Originally the whole family was going, but then at the last minute we decided that Mike and the boys would stay here so that Zach could play in his soccer game on Saturday and his first flag football game on Sunday. It was a tough decision to come to, as Zach was signed up for yet another kids race up in the Twin Cities on Saturday that he ended up missing. At first we asked his opinion- which would he rather do- go to Minnesota and run his race, or stay home and play in his soccer game and football game. He easily chose his race, because, "I'm already signed up for it," he said. Well, Mike is the assistant coach for flag football, and this being the first game, Mike didn't feel like he should miss the game. We threw around the idea of driving 2 cars up to MN so that Mike and the boys could come home early, but I ultimately put the kibosh on that idea. I said either we all went together and the boys skipped the football and soccer games, or I went by myself. Mike chose me going by myself, so I decided he could tell Zach since it was his decision and I knew Zach would be heartbroken. On Thursday, I posed this question to Zach, "Zach, would you rather go to Minnesota and run your race, or stay here with Dad and Drew and have a boys weekend, play in your soccer and football games, have a movie night with popcorn, and have Winnie (Grandma Linda and Grandpa Curt's dog) stay over?" Zach said, "Stay here!" and after thinking for a minute, "But if there's no popcorn, I'm going to Minnesota." He wasn't joking, either. So, that helped me feel not so bad about making Zach skip the race.

Friday afternoon Grandma Cynthia came over so I could leave home without having to wait for Mike to get home from work. I had to wake Zach up from his nap to say goodbye, and he immediately had second thoughts. "I want to go with you, Mom!" I told him that he was going to stay here, and then every reason in the book came out:

-"I want to see Aunt Sandy!" My response- "You'll get to see her in 2 weeks when she comes to see us."

-"I want to run my race!" My response- "I think they're going to cancel the race because it's supposed to be cold and rainy." I made that up.

-"I want to make my own pizza!" My response- "Maybe you can do that with Dad, or we can do it when I get back." Zach's response- "But I want to make it with Uncle Will!" My response- "I don't know if Uncle Will will be there or not; he may be at the Iowa game." By this point I knew Will would be there, but I had to say something!

There were probably more things said that I just don't remember. Either way, there were lots of big tears and much clutching onto me. So, I did what any good mom would do, and I said, "Maybe watching some Curious George would help make you feel better." Of course Zach agreed, and so I left my son on the couch, watching a previously recorded episode of Curious George. It was sweet, though, because Drew crawled up onto the couch next to Zach and had his hand on Zach's leg, comforting him. So sweet.

It seems like the rest of the weekend went off very well, and that Zach was never upset again about not going to MN with me. The guys had an uneventful Friday night, and Saturday morning started with some flying around the house to the March from Superman.

Then they went to Zach's soccer game, where he scored a goal (for his own team, even!), watched the Hawkeyes squeak out another win, and then headed to Pizza Ranch, Mike's favorite, for dinner. They topped this all off with a movie night, with popcorn, of course! They watched Happy Feet, which I had just taped on the Disney channel last week. Mike asked Drew if he wanted to sit on his (Mike's) lap, and Drew said no, and then crawled over to sit on Zach's lap. They then proceeded to watch much of the movie that way. As much as Drew gets mad at Zach or screams at him, he sure does love his big brother!

On Sunday the guys ran some errands, did some laundry and vacuuming, and went to Zach's football game, in which he scored a touchdown and a 2 point conversion. It sounds like four year-old flag football is pretty entertaining, so I am definitely looking forward to seeing a game next weekend.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, Sandy and I enjoyed some sisterly bonding time. Saturday morning I went out to breakfast with an old friend. Kristina and I have known each other since elementary school, and we've been friends since junior high or high school, when we started playing soccer together. Then Kristina went to Luther College, which was Wartburg's (my college) rival. She now lives up in Minneapolis. I hadn't seen Kristina since I was pregnant with Zach, so it was great to catch up with her.

Later on Saturday Sandy and I went down to the Twin Cities Marathon race expo and stopped by a few other stores before heading back home to Will and Anders. Will made a delicious dinner and we all turned in at a decent time.

Sandy and I were up very early Sunday morning to get ready for our race, the TC 10 Mile. Apparently we weren't up early enough, though, because as we walked up to the starting corrals, we heard the announcer say, "Two minutes until start!" So, note to self- for a 7:05 race, arrive earlier than 7:03. There were so many people running this race that it took us 10 minutes to get from where we were standing when the gun went off to the actual start line. Then it took us over 10 minutes to run our first mile, because we had to maneuver around so many people. Our second mile was slow, too, as we were still maneuvering. From there, though, it thinned out enough that it wasn't so hard to get around people, and we started to get to the pace we wanted. Miles 3-7 were run somewhere between an 8:20 and 8:40 pace. Sandy and I separated around mile marker #5. I ran mile 8 in about 7:55, and my last 2 miles were about 7:25, so I was really pushing it then, trying to make up for those slow first two miles. I wanted to finish close to the same time as the 10 mile race I did the weekend before, and I was close. I finished in an hour and 25 minutes. Sandy was right behind me, finishing in an hour and 28 minutes. The amazing thing is that 407 people crossed the finish line in that 3 minutes, so that gives you an idea of how busy this race was. The official results say there were 5797 finishers, and it felt like Sandy and I had to go around about 3000 of them in the first two miles! I finished 2203 out of all 5797 runners, 923 out of all 3543 female runners, and 208 out of the 747 women aged 30-34, and I'm fine with all of those places. I knew last week's 3rd place for my age group finish was sort of a fluke, possible because there were only 44 women in my age group in the race. Anyway, it was a chilly day, but really a good race day, and Sandy and I felt great. She has a picture from after the race on her blog.

It was so fun for me to get a chance to see Anders again and to see how much he has changed since I last spent any time with him. What a fun, cute little nephew! He has a great, happy personality and is a lot of fun to be around. It was kind of nice to not have to worry about my own kids' schedules and needs while I was up there, too. And of course, it was fun to see Sandy and Will and to celebrate Sandy's birthday with a great race and some bonding. I didn't have my camera with me, but there are other pictures from the weekend on Sandy and Will's blog. Thanks for letting me come visit, Sandy, Will, and Anders!