Weekend of Major Accomplishments

It has been a very event filled weekend at our house this weekend, and a very successful one at that!

Saturday, Marcel had a marching band competition with Skyview High.  I went and enjoyed watching them.  They seemed to do well, but I'm far from the person to ask!  He was very pleased with their performance but like he always does (and like you'd want any coach to do) he knows exactly what to work on this week before the big district competition this coming weekend.  His band earned this:

He was so proud and very grateful for his mentor teacher to tell other directors that he deserved the credit

Sunday was my big race.  My first half-marathon!  I was a little worried after picking up my packet on Saturday and seeing so many professional looking runners.  I told my mom I should have signed up for a casual half-marathon.  I was also a little worried about my eating schedule, because each Saturday on my big runs I would get up and eat 1/2 bagel and a banana and 1 hour later start running.  It was working out!  But today, I got up at 6:45am but didn't have to run until 9am.  It worked out just fine, thanks to the semi-delicious gel they were handing out at mile 6!  The official clock said my time was 2:28:14, which is about 11:20/mile, which I am more than pleased with.  I didn't have to walk, but did stop 4 times to adjust my knee brace which I don't count as stopping.  I may have been faster but a cut on my heel I discovered this morning turned into a HUGE blister that even popped on its own.  Trying to keep myself from thinking about that was the hardest part of the run.  I had a hard time between mile 9 and 10, but after that I was full of adrenaline about being so close to finishing. The weather was PERFECT, sunny but not too warm, with the last 3 miles just about completely in the shade. 

Arriving at the race

Marcel took this wonderful picture of me coming out of the bathroom, and as weird as it is, I think it is so funny so I had to include it

Still full of smiles BEFORE the race

2:28:14 later!



Supporters waiting for me at the finish line!

Marcel has been SO supportive these last 3 months.  Whenever I have wanted to quit, he was there to remind me how hard I had already worked and how upset I'd be with myself if I truly did quit.  It feels SO great to be so deeply encouraged and loved by him!

Marcel's Surprise Date

In early September, I found a great deal on corn maze tickets (thanks to FabulesslyFrugal.com) and knew I had to get them.  They were only good for the first 2 weeks of the season so I sat Marcel down in front of his computer and ultimately his schedule and said, "Find a night where you have 5 hours for a date."  I think before my birthday I posted about us but if this wasn't included it should have been.  Marcel is at marching band on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights and all day Saturdays for competitions, church on Wednesday, so he spends Mondays at home but I have been working at Famous Footwear on Monday, so we have Sundays after Marcel gets home from church to spend together.  Thus, I knew if the date wasn't scheduled before I bought the tickets, they would never get used. 

We picked Sunday, October 3rd and that day when we got home from church, I was so excited because I hadn't told Marcel what we were doing and keeping the secret was getting too hard.  I got online to get the address and discovered they were closed on Sundays.  Good thing we scheduled a "back-up" day!

Date day was last night.  We headed to dinner at Harry's Bar & Grill in Meridian.  It was fun to try a new place and I loved my club sandwich (except since when do they come with raw onions, or onions in general) and Marcel seemed to like his Reuben.  All the way to dinner, Marcel was guessing where we were going, like go-karting, etc, but once we got to the restaurant he admitted that earlier in the day he figured out where we were going.  I felt sad it wasn't a surprise when we pulled up to the farm, but I did what I could!

Before heading out to dinner



Tickets in hand and ready to start

We didn't realize that going on a Wednesday night meant being there with just about every youth group from the Boise area.  It was crazy!  Somehow, though, we made it through the maze without too many kids with us.  They sort of just did their own thing. 

We made it to the bridge in less than 10 minutes and then shortly after found ourselves at a checkpoint.  That's when we realized there was a map we could have used and then hole-punched it at each checkpoint (there were 12!).  We made it our mission to find all 5 on the right side of the bridge (the blue in the picture) WITHOUT the map.  We just walked aimless until we ended up at all of them. 

After 45 minutes or so, in our attempt to find the 5th checkpoint, Marcel said, "You did it. I'm lost."  See, once we made it to the bridge Marcel decided that I had to be the one to make all the decisions in which fork in the road we took because I couldn't keep track of where we'd been but with his strong sense of direction he could and if I made the decisions it would take us longer.  Last year we went to a haunted maze with some friends from Pacific and I told Marcel that it isn't the same because you sort of just get pushed through the maze.  The point of the scary one is not to get lost, but in a normal corn maze you should be lost!

  

On the bridge.  I LOVE this picture.  The sun makes us look so beautiful!

On facebook, Ruth said she thinks this one could be in a magazine.  That made me happy!

At one of the checkpoints we found!

Happy to be lost TOGETHER

After making it out of the maze we went on a hayride.  Marcel wanted to do it first but I was so afraid of not having enough time for the maze so we did it after.  There was beautiful lightning along the way!  It was also how you got to their pumpkin patch.  We're going to go the generic way and probably just get our pumpkins at the grocery store and not do it until it is closer to Halloween, so it feels like fall outside.

Marcel wanted to have the tractor in the background

When we got home I decided it was a great fall activity, but told Marcel, "I haven't had any crunchy leaves yet."  I love when the leaves dry up a bit and fall on the ground.  Nothing like hearing the crunch of leaves under your shoe.  It is the ultimate sign that fall is here and that it is sweater weather, and time to curl up under a blanket with a cup of toasted marshmallow hot chocolate!