Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!!  I've been looking through some old photos and found this one of my mom. I'm guessing it's from the 1950s.

Here's two of her and me:

Look at that hair!

My mom died when I was 11. I've been fortunate to have other special women in my life: my great aunt Violet, my friend Ann's mom Mary, and my stepmom Ada. They all played a big part in shaping me into the person I am today and I am so thankful for their care and concern for myself and siblings, their love, and their friendship. They will always have a special place in my heart.

And I am also a mom, a role that I treasure. There's nothing that can replace the experience of having a life grow inside of you, and the opportunity to mold and shape that life through the years. These are my sons, Matt and Eric. I love them to pieces.

How did I spend my day? I started by meeting some running friends at Panera for another trip down the Mayowood Trail to see the beautiful Virginia bluebells. If you haven't seen them, they're spectacular. They're the heaviest between mileposts 4.5 and 5.0, west of Bamber Valley Road.

Running were ...



John, Pam



Jean

Dave

We saw an oriole in the woods. First one of the season for me.

Dave and I also spotted a cardinal and a blue jay on the way back but I wasn't quick enough with the camera. I did get one of a cardinal when I got home.

The bloodroot was also in bloom in the woods.

After we'd sat around and chatted for a while, in came Jim and Tom after their 20-miler so I sat around for about another hour. Finally left sometime after 11:00. Went home and showered and finally made my oatmeal just before noon.

Then I dinked around on the computer for quite a while until I decided to go clean the garage. I've got another pile o'stuff to put on Craigslist: miscellaneous gardening "stuff", tomato fertilizer spikes, LOTS of rags, skis and poles, flower pots, a bag of HUG pinecones from South Carolina,

a tree root feeder, a contraption for watering flowers that has an extension of about 4', ... STUFF. Stuff that I don't/won't need/use any longer. I used my inside-the-house broom to clean the garage, so I'm going to go buy myself a new broom when I finish posting. :-)

Guess who's coming to visit, and run the Med-City half marathon? Ann-Kristin (our friend from Norway). I'm having a get-together in her honor. Can't wait to see her again!

One note about Spring Classic before I forget ... no, I didn't bake the cookies yesterday. Jean gets all the credit for them. :-) She makes them every year. They've become a tradition (monster cookies).

Spring Classic went VERY well yesterday. My cousin's little boy, Gabe, won the kids mile. I think I heard 7:07 for his time. Whoo hoo!!

It was so much fun to see all the kids running, and the people cheering for them.

Ian Lanza won the 15K.

Here are the water stop volunteers:

Waterstop 1 (Laura and family and students)

Waterstop 2 (Bolder Options)

Waterstop 3 (Greg, Ian and penguin, Dave)

I think Ian had a blast driving the golf cart up and down the path. Dave said there were two speeds: stopped and pedal to the floor. :-)

A big thanks to all the volunteers!!

Liz and Meredith

And to everyone that ran ... good job!!

Tom, Steve, Brad (running)

Ron

Kari, Bill, Cathy (waving)

On the way back in from running sweep, two blasts from my past. Dave and Dave!! So I chatted with them for a bit. It was fun to see them.

After we got the race taken down, it was off to Brothers.

I've had enough of blogging for today. Enjoy the evening!