I'm in training!

I'm running the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco on October 16th, 2011 ~ Just 28 days after my 40th birthday!! Please support me and make a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society via my fundraising website: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ia/nikesf11/bramseyruc

THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to the tip of my running shoes!

LET'S FIND A CURE!

Caps and gowns have a whole new meaning....

I remember when I graduated from high school 21 years ago this month. I had a large class (326 to be exact) and our ceremony was held in the UNI Dome at the University of Northern Iowa. It was kinda boring, actually. Music, clapping, music, walk across the stage, clapping, music, speech, clapping, blah, blah, blah. I got home that night, threw my cap on my bed, shrugged my shoulders and went on about the business of being a "real adult". Never crossed my mind again to be honest. I graduated high school....so what?

Today I have an entirely different perspective.

Today is my daughter's last day of high school with the grad ceremony on Sunday. I see things much differently this side of the party! No longer is it just business as usual. Graduation is a BIG DEAL!

I'm bursting with pride and fear all at the same time. I will miss tucking her in at night (I actually still do that and she's almost 19!) BUT....have no fear.....I have a plan! Each night she gets 3-4 "tuck in's" to build up and save so that when she moves in August she will have enough stored up until she's home on Christmas break. When I told her that is what I was doing, she laughed (I was expecting an eye roll!).

And when I went to walk away the first night, you know what she said? "Do it again, Momma.....I need more!"

Even if she is old enough to be a "real adult", she still needs and wants her momma to tuck her in. That right there will get me through the roller coaster of emotions surely to come in the next couple of months.

Thank you, God, for a heart that can and does swell over with love and affection for my children. :0)

1 Peter 1:3-9

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:3-9

That tasted JUST.LIKE.CHOCOLATE.....

A bit overwhelmed....

Today is a day where I find myself simply OVERWHELMED. I can hardly get a grip on things. My intense need to control life is wearing me out. It's my own fault, though. I KNOW better. I KNOW it's not up to me and that change is GOOD! EVERYTHING around me is changing. Some for the better, some not. I just need to figure out how to deal with it.

Alli graduates from high school in just 9 days. Her grad party is this Saturday. With that alone, I'm filled with emotions - pride, overwhelming excitement, fear, worry and all that junk...and all at the same time. She is GRADUATING HIGH SCHOOL! Woot! That is an accomplishment for both her and me. My first child making her way into adulthood! Yeah! We did it and without any major scars to our relationship! HAHA!! YES!

And then, before I even get that sentence fully typed, I'm filled with fear and worry. What if's and who will's and my heart wants to protect her and be there. BUT, I can't. She is ready....I'm the one who isn't. Yeah, I've been telling everyone I am but, between you and me, I'm not.

Mark's mom is not getting better....sleeping more, on morphine more each day and it's HARD. Hard to watch her (even though I know where she is going and I WILL see her again), even harder to watch him. She is his mom. She is special to him and vice versa. I never thought it would be this hard. God has it all in His hands and is working this all out before us, but it's still HARD.

I need some stinkin' chocolate.....