Surprise!!

Yup, I was surprised. No doubt about it! I arrived at the Bear's Den in Byron and didn't even notice the photo on the front door.

I was dressed in my red tutu prepared to run 6 miles.

Love those tutus and tiaras Meg, Elaine and Annette!

My tutu was caught in my Garmin velcro and I was juggling gloves, mittens, a headlamp. I set my stuff on top of the juke box and a glove promptly dropped in the trash. Then everyone started singing Happy Birthday. I thought ... "How nice!", listened, and then got back to all my stuff still oblivious to what was actually planned for the evening until Jean and Laura said, "This is all for you, Renee." Then I took a GOOD look around. Oh my. I was overwhelmed. Balloons. Streamers. It was a PARTY!! For me!! First ever surprise party and first birthday party in a very, very long time.

Photos, old and new.

A wonderful cake. (Chocolate carrot cake from Daube's. Yum.)

Cute pink (my fave!) and black napkins.

Jean did a super-duper, wonderful, over-the-top job of pulling this together!! I decided I'd run a mile or two and so headed back out front for the group photo and then took off running.

When I returned I was surprised to find ... my "kids" Matt and Eric (ages 22 and 24). I was sooooo happy!!

This was shaping up to be a wonderful evening indeed. :-) I counted noses (and tutus) and there were at least 69 people there. Wow!! Yowza!!

Thank you everyone who had a part in making it happen, everyone who came, everyone who shared hugs, laughs, cards and presents, and good wishes. You guys are the best!!

You certainly made me feel like a pricess for a day. :-)

Now  ... on to today, and more interestingly, TOMORROW. More on LHF in a bit.

Morning brought a run to the Y to lift and swim. And a quick hello from Tracy McCray on the run home. :-) Thanks, Tracy!

I picked up this cute little bow ring at a gift shop in a truck stop on I-94 on the way to St. Cloud for the 10/31 breakfast run. $2.50 in a clearance basket next to the cash register. I've gotten more compliments on this than anything else I've ever worn. It's TOTALLY fun. :-)

I wore it last night, and today when I went to lunch at Twigs with my friend Kim.

Bad hair day!

We both had something new on the menu ... a spinach salad with Craisins, feta, sunflower seeds, onion, ...

Kim had an adorable little turkey cake for me, again from Daube's.

After lunch it was off to HyVee to buy my "roast beast" (turkey) for next week, among other things (fresh sweet potatoes--just can't do the canned ones smothered in butter, sugar and marshmallows, fresh cranberries--much preferable to that blob thing that slides out of a can, broccoli, clementines--love 'em, bread, milk, ..., the usual suspects before turkey day  :-).

I've been gathering quite a pile of prior to tomorrow's 4 AM lift-off on the party bus for Urbandale, IA and the Living History Farms CC race. Tom O' still wants me, a 50-year old gray-haired woman-girl wearing a red tutu 6 days post-marathon, to race this thing with the rest of our team. What constititues the rest of our 4-person co-ed team? Two really fast twenty-somethings and a 30-something Olympic trials marathoner. What was I thinking when I said yes to trying to"race"??? I ought to have my head examined. I also volunteered to be one of two bus checker-inners, K.P. (Karl-Peter) being the other. KP wants to do the Urbandale checkin so he doesn't have to be in Byron quite so early. No problem-o!! I'll check in clean and sober barely-awake runners over drunken muddy tired ones any day!! In my fluids bag ... water, berry flavored tea and G2. I'll stay stone cold sober I do believe. Someone has to maintain some semblance of order after all ... and someone has to clean up that bus!! There will be lots of super hero underwear-as-outerwear and tutus on display,

Dalene

Superman Andy

Superhero Millie and Nacho

Super-Melby

Bat-O'Leary (and K.C.and Peg)

Annette and Elaine

Action hero Sam

After returning from IA I'll head into the Den for a little while and then head back to Roch to clean up. A few of us are gathering at Zzest for some wine and "small bites" during the evening. Sounds lovely.

I think I'll leave more of the OBX recap for later. I've got about 6 dozen cookies to package up and then I ought to get myself to bed as the alarm is going off at 3 bells.

I'll close with a quote shared by Kim who works at Seasons Hospice. It's from a 100-year old man that she helped care for during his final days ...

"Be kind. Do what makes you happy".

Good night.