Wife Mother Runner #loveforlyla Archives

St. Baldrick’s Fundraiser 2017

March 25, 2017

Yesterday was the St. Baldrick’s fundraiser to raise money for childhood cancer. We successfully raised past our goal of $25,000! Thank you everyone!

We lost our friend Lyla to rhabdomyosarcoma on Christmas Day. Our town has been healing since that day and last night was a beautiful way for us to all congregate together and support Lyla’s family as we honor her as a St. Baldrick’s hero. Throughout the year my goal is to raise awareness of this rare form of cancer that affects a small number of children each year. About 350 new cases of RMS occur each year in the United States. This cancer strikes most children under the age of 10. Lyla’s 10th birthday is April 1. I’d like to get a floating lantern and send it up to the heavens with my family on that day. We want to send our love to her in the heavens.

Please enjoy this video recap of our beautiful night last night. Many thanks to all the volunteers and to my daughter’s teacher Mrs. Bannon who organizes the event. She was my son and Lyla’s second grade teacher and started the event three years ago for Lyla. Mrs. Bannon gives her heart into everything and this was an especially beautiful tribute to our best friend Lyla. We love you Lyla! We love you Bill, Jana, Grant and Bennett!

Sometimes You Just Need To Run In The Rain

December 29, 2016

We lost our friend Lyla, to cancer this week. She passed very early in the morning on Christmas Day. It’s been hard the past few days. Hard to get going and to think clearly. We are leaving for the runDisney races in a week. But the kids don’t know about it yet.

We have been going through the steps of grief. Our children have never gone through this before. Especially with a friend of theirs. She was too young. It’s been hard to keep my thoughts straight and to motivate myself to work out and get in my miles.

But I dug down deep and found strength yesterday to do something for myself. And I did the same today. I wasn’t sure I had the strength to run a few days ago. But today, despite the rain, I laced up my shoes, plugged in my headphones and hit the road.

It was a peaceful run in the rain and I used that time to meditate and refocus my motivation. I thought of all the hard things Lyla endured and reminded myself that running is a gift.

Many of us got together Tuesday night to make bows for people in town to hang on their mailboxes or on their telephone poles. It was nice to commune with others and share this love for the family.

As I prepare to pack for the races I wanted to do something to honor Lyla while I was running. So I am going to wear her picture on my shirts for all 4 races to help raise awareness for rhabdomyosarcoma.

We will always love you Lyla. As we go through these next few days I will be relying on her strength to help me get through and help the kids understand that we will still love her always.

Dopey Challenge 15 Mile Training Run

November 20, 2016

It’s time to get back on track. I am increasing my mileage towards the runDisney 2017 Dopey Challenge. I used to follow the Jeff Galloway plan very exactly in the past years. But in recent years I have decided to not do a full 26 mile run prior to the race.

I did a 15 mile run this weekend. I was sure to keep my mileage around 13 miles per minute because I wanted to get the miles under my feet more than I was concerned with pace.

For fuel I packed pretzel gold fish and left over skittles from Halloween. They are the perfect size packages to stuff in my fuel belt. I also had a bottle of water since I knew I needed hydration for that long of a run.

It was a beautiful day and a little warmer than usual for this time of year. It was 60 degrees with not a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze. I was out on the road by 11:30 and got home around 3:00.

The first five miles were similar to my past long runs. They are the hard miles to get started. I took in some pretzels and skittles around mile 5.5 and was feeling good. Between miles 6-10. I was doing well but started to feel thirstier around mile 12. I stopped at the library and filled up my water bottle for the last 3 miles. I also had more skittles at this point as well.

I finished up around 15.2 miles with the last .3 miles up my hill. I felt strong after the run but my feet were hurting a little. I knew that this was the last run with these sneakers so I have to retire them and start wearing my next pair which will take me through Dopey.

I was happy with this training run and was able to enjoy time with the family and didn’t feel spent. I also didn’t have a lot of pain the following morning either. So I think the leg work I have been focusing on is helping me with recovery. I also found 40 cents on the run! Winning!

And nothing is better than a cold chocolate milk after a run!

What I Didn’t Know About The Last Day Of School

June 22, 2015

Isn’t that supposed to be one of the happiest days of the school year?! Well why was I a blubbering mess when the kids took their last day of school pictures and climbed onto the bus and drove off? I knew I was going to see them in a few hours as I go to school to celebrate their last day of school festivities.

Fast forward a few hours and my husband and I went to our son’s class first to take part in their last day of school party. As always, my son’s face lit up when he saw us. I could practically see his heart skip a beat in his chest. The kids participated in different stations throughout the class and I had to restrain myself from kissing him all over. I am so proud of his accomplishments. He showed us that he received an awards for Best Bus Behavior. Then we watched a slide show his teacher made of all the activities they took part in throughout the year. Cue in the sappy music and adorable pictures and the lump in my throat was getting larger. The kids had frozen yogurt sundaes during the slide show, which was a big hit.

Moving On To A New School

While Kevin watched the show, my husband and I went up to have lunch with our daughter. She was full of smiles and her friends were also happy. There was definitely the feeling of the last day of school in the air. All the teachers were smiling; but I was choking back tears. I’m sure if I were a teacher I’d be smiling too! I just feel sad that I will be working all summer and I want to spend time with them. We wait all winter for this time of year and the weather so I am going to maximize my time with them the best that I can during the daylight and evening hours.

We had lunch with Adrienne and then went back downstairs to finish up the party with Kevin. He sat on my lap while we watched the end of the slides and my lap was almost not big enough for him! I was smothering him with love and didn’t care that he was already 8 years old and I was loving all over him in front of his classmates. Soon enough I won’t be able to do that anymore in school. Or he won’t want me to embarrass him in front of his friends. But I needed to hold on to him and keep him small in my arms.

Kevin’s Growth

Mrs. Bannon presented the class with some gifts and a copy of the DVD that we all watched. She got me good when she presented us with the photo collage with the kids’ pictures on it holding up the word that they chose to describe the year. It was when she said Lyla’s word was “bad” which really does sum it up well for her. Battling her third round of chemo during the beginning of the school year was bad. It was hard, the kids missed her and she fought hard and successfully beat it again! What I noticed the most about this class was how much they loved and missed Lyla. When they all saw her picture in the slide show everyone said her name out loud! Then when they saw a picture of her towards the end they all commented that her hair was growing back.

My son told me that his class received an award during their assembly this morning. It was the Community Award. I couldn’t think of a more appropriate award for such a caring class. The children were a community. They reached out to our community to help one of their own classmates who was battling a fight of her life. They all rallied from the beginning of the year when they learned that Lyla had cancer and had to miss a lot of school to get treatment.

There was a Love For Lyla football game, fundraisers, raffles, spirit day, St. Baldrick’s cut-a-thon, hat day, they had a mascot, Spot which was Lyla’s favorite stuffed animal. Spot sat in Lyla’s seat when she wasn’t in school. I am going to miss their class. It was a special group of children. I hope they always remember that bond they had as a community during a time one of their fellow classmates struggled. Thank you Mrs. Bannon for teaching and fostering the children to care. Your giving spirit is contagious.

Adrienne’s Growth

My daughter was emotional the day before the last day of school. She was a timid, quiet girl in the beginning of the year. But by the end of the year, I noticed her hold her head up high and stand up tall when she was around her friends and in school. She had difficulty in preschool with leaving me. There were tears many times. But this year she became so independent and confident. We always worried about her not wanting to get on the bus without her brother; but after one time when he has chorus and she wanted to go by herself, that was it. She didn’t mind going alone. In fact, she looked forward to it.

She told me this morning that she didn’t want school to end. She was going to miss her teacher. That is music to my ears. She has really blossomed. I am so proud of the little girl she is becoming. But, no one told me how much it would hurt seeing her grow up. When we were with her in the cafeteria at lunch today I couldn’t stop staring at her. Her sparkling eyes that smile when she smiles. Her little ears exposed because she had her hair in a french braid. Her muscular little arms in her tank top. I love her so much I wanted to scoop her up and run downstairs and get Kevin and run out of there with them. But I let them stay in school until the end to enjoy the last few hours of their school day with their friends and teachers.

I felt like today I saw them grow up before my eyes. My son will be going into a new school, for the older kids, and my baby girl is going into first grade. I keep telling them to stay little, but they keep reminding me that they can’t. I wish I could freeze time at their ages. I know people say the years fly by; but I didn’t think it would feel this fast. I try to savor every minute and make as many memories, take as many pictures and have as many laughs as we can.

Enjoy The Summer!

Sure, this is the beginning of summer vacation, I give it about a day before the kids start complaining about being bored, or fighting with each other and I’ll be wishing they are going back to school and a normal routine again; but I don’t want to rush our summer away. Kids will be kids. Tonight when we got ready for bed my son came up to me and gave me a huge hug and told me I was the greatest mom in the whole world. I needed to hear that. I LOVE SUMMER and can’t wait to spend it with my family! Summer of Fun 2015 officially begins today!

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