Life Is Good

There have been so many fantastic things happening in our lives the last month or so and we have so many happy things to look forward too, as well!  First of all, Chris found out that he passed his second section of the CPA exams!  He has now passed what he thinks will be the two hardest exams for him, so even though he has two down and two to go, he is considering himself 60% done.  It's such a good feeling to know all of his hard work is paying off!  And, there are only 9 days left in the tax season!  It will be such a relief for Chris to be finished with this busy season, but the end of tax means the start of more studying as he'll be taking another section at the end of May.  It will all be worth it though when he's a Certified Public Accountant at the age of 24 - a huge accomplishment!

A couple weeks ago the track season started.  I am coaching the middle school boys and girls this season and it's going to be a big challenge, but a lot of fun.  There are about 85 7th and 8th graders on the team so the biggest challenge will be getting to know all of them and managing the huge number.  Thankfully, I have some awesome assistant coaches who I can totally trust to take groups of kids and I don't have to worry about what they're doing.  It should be an interesting and exciting season!

The past two weeks I've also been going through some interviews, looking for something to do after my class and part-time job at Aquinas end, and I landed a job at Gazelle Sports.  It's a locally owned sporting goods store, mostly running related, and they are very involved in the running community in Grand Rapids.  So, I'll obviously be working in the store doing retail, but I was also asked to coach some of their 8-week training groups that they host all year round.  I'm really excited to work with the training groups!  As I understand it, most of the runners that join them are beginners, training for their first 5ks and things like that.  My training starts this week, so I'll be super busy until the beginning of May with class, work, coaching, and training.

So, on top of all the good things that have happened already, we have Eric and Andrea's wedding to look forward to on May 14th!  We're so excited!  It's going to be such a fun weekend and it's rapidly approaching!

AND! as may of you know already, we're expanding from a family of two to a family of three!  With the recent announcement and making this public knowledge, I think Chris and I have gotten even more excited ourselves and it's really starting to sink in.  Personally, I think it will be really real when I need to start wearing the pants with elastic in the front :)

We are so blessed to be able to bring another life into this world.  It's such a miracle and we are going to be experiencing it first hand.  Hopefully the rest of the miracle will include less nausea and more appetite. Chris mentioned the other night that it isn't fair that the mamma is the only one that has to feel sick, but I said, it isn't fair that the mamma is the only one that will feel the baby kicking and squirming.  So, we'll take the bad with the good and thank God every day for trusting us with one of His children.

Life is just so good!

Little Accomplishments

Chris and I like to run.  Ground breaking news, I know.  But, Chris actually does it.  He has run almost every day since his last exam even though he's been working 55-60 hours a week.  Me?  Well, I haven't really run in almost two years.  Yeah sure, there have been the injuries and the therapy (or lack thereof) for me to blame it on, but in reality, I haven't run because I've been afraid.  Afraid of being miserably out of shape, afraid of my injuries being a constant nag, afraid of the hard work needed to get in good shape again, afraid of getting in really good shape again then getting hurt...again.  The thought of channeling my love of running into coaching has been my crutch, my justification to take the easy way out, the lazy way out.  Don't get me wrong, I love coaching and I wholeheartedly plan to continue coaching, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be enough.  Not enough to satisfy my competitiveness, or to calm my antsy legs, or to drop the *ahhem* pounds that have snuck their way onto my body.

It's strange, this game I've been playing with myself.  There have been times when my longing has been so great to be fast again, to feel the readiness in my muscles and the ease at which my stride would come.  So powerful that I'll make these grand plans to start again.  Sometimes I'll run one day, maybe two or three days, then just stop.  Make up some reason why it's OK or why it's better for me to not be running.  Then another couple months will pass and I won't even think about running.  It's hard to believe how easy it has been for me to not even think about myself running for so long, when before I couldn't go a few hours without thinking about my run that day.  Hard to believe and sad, really.

I don't think I ever lost my love for running, I just lost my...motivation? strength? emotional stamina? pride? I'm not really sure what it was that I lost, but I definitely lost something, or maybe just forgot something, but for a while, fear took it's place.  

So, to scare the fear out of me, two weeks ago I signed myself (and Chris) up for the Irish Jig 5k that will be taking place on March 19th.  Currently, the furthest I've run is 1.5 miles.  I didn't run at all last week because I got really sick, but this week is going well.  I feel good.  Yesterday I was talking with a friend about running and my upcoming race and how the competitive spirit one gains from running doesn't just go away.  Mine might have taken a little vacation, but I think it's back now.  I said to Erin that when we run, even if nothing else has gone right, we accomplish something that day.  As soon as that came out of my mouth I realized that it was true, and I felt this huge wave of achievement and excitement and motivation come crashing over me.  It was the strangest thing.  I felt like crying because I felt that I had just been reconnected with an old friend.  

This video is a speech that I gave in one of my classes last year.  Watching it makes me think of everything that I love about running (also makes me cringe at the mistakes I made while giving it, ugg).

 

Hopefully I won't get scared again - or roll an ankle - because I really want to put in the work now.  Obviously it won't be easy, but I've done it before, so I can do it again.  My only goal for my first race in over two years is to finish in under 8-minute pace and have fun.  Because I love running.  And I love the feeling of accomplishing something, even as little as a 1.5 mile run.  Plus, someone has to start bringing home some prize money since Chris has only contributed a couple boxes of plaques, a butter dish, two bowls, and a beer glass!

Snookies...Snow and Cookies.

With the looming 'Snowpocolypse', classes on Tuesday night were cancelled and Emily came over for tortilla soup, homework, and some good ol' quality time.  Between chat spurts, I decorated sugar cookies that I didn't make for Christmas.  It's obviously not Christmas anymore, so there was no way I was about to decorate with conservative colors...neon all the way! 

I spy a cookie that Christopher decorated...can you guess which one it was?

My super high tech decorating utensils...

Trying to be artsy with reflection on the bowl. 

Now, like I said, there was a 'Snowpocolypse' on the way...and it actually hit.  I believe the snow started about 11:00pm on Tuesday night and continued until about 11:00am on Wednesday.  In the 24-hours, greater Grand Rapids got about 14-16 inches of snow.  High winds created 3-4 foot drifts and pretty much everything was closed.  Thankfully, Chris was prepared with all the necessities to work from home, so he didn't have to make the trek in.  One of his co-workers sent an email saying that it took 3 tries in his big truck to just get into the parking lot at the office...and then his truck was stuck where it was when he finally got parked.  Our little Hot Hot Rod wouldn't have stood a chance.  

Here are a few pictures from around our complex.  It's not very pretty, but I couldn't walk anywhere to get better pictures because the sidewalks were buried like 5 feet deep in snow from the plows. 

Someone tried to get out.  The tracks go straight back and straight forward.  

Whoever it was didn't get too far. 

My car before the plows came. 

The sidewalk after a snowblower came through.  

The 'walls' of snow were knee high, at least.

My car after the plows.

This is the East Beltline and 28th street intersection at 4:00pm.  These are two highly traveled roads and we still couldn't even see the road/lanes at all.  If you're wondering why we even left the comfort of our apartment...we had to get a shovel to dig out my car.

28th Street

I was hoping for a record snow fall (you know, to beat the record set during the blizzard of 1978).  Everyone always talks about how epic that storm was, and I wanted to be alive for the storm that beat it.  That didn't happen.  Oh well.  At least we have neon sugar cookies. 

New Baby

We got a new toy!  Many of you have probably already heard.  It's taken this long to post about it because I was hoping to be able to get a good picture of our actual car, but it's winter in Michigan and driving 5 feet on the salty roads results in a filthy car.  And that makes for ugly pictures.  So here is one that I found on Google Images and it's pretty much the same color and everything - ours is a little darker blue.

The 2011 Chevrolet HHR (Heritage High Roof, if you ask Chris, Hot Hot Rod, if you ask me) handles wonderfully in the snow, gets great gas milage, has a remote starter, and is very practical.  Also, cash back bonuses and a family discount made this a very affordable purchase.  We took it for a trip to Novi/Ferndale/Ann Arbor last weekend and fully utilized OnStar and XM Radio, which comes free for 6 and 3 months, respectively.  But, the best feature - NEW CAR SMELL! 

I would also like to take this opportunity to clarify for those who have been wondering/speculating.  Chris and I are not expecting.  We'll let everyone know when we are :) 

Happy Birthday!

I thought this deserved a separate post...a few days late.  

HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY CHRISTOPHER!! 

For Pappa Blaxton

Recently there have been complaints about a lack of blog posts.  So, to pacify my father, here's what we've been doing the last month or so...and why we haven't had time to post.

First was the installation of our first Christmas tree.  Thanks to Chris' cousin, Justin, we had a color pre-lit tree that was just the right size for our apartment.  And thanks to Mamma L and Mamma B we had enough donated ornaments to cover it :)

The end of my semester was frantic as always.  Even though I only had one class, the work that I put off was enough to make me hate finals week as much as if I was taking a full load.  BUT! I ended up with an A-

The weekend before Christmas we had two parties.  First was a get together with our friends, hosted by the wonderful Straathofs.  The next day, Chris B and Sabine hosted the Blaxton party.  We met the newest member of the family, baby Cameron, and got to see almost all the family for a great day of food and drinks (plus the Lions won).

Chris had to work through the 23rd so I went on to Shepherd early on the 22nd.  On the way I made a detour to my Emily's house.  She had just arrived home from her semester in Rome and we hadn't seen each other since August - well, we hadn't seen each other in person...Skype doesn't count.  It was so great to see her.  I missed her so much.

We had a full house again in Shepherd - Mom, Dad, Aunt Chelie, Stephen, Tim, Chris, and myself.  Grandpa Blaxton came on Christmas eve and we got to Skype with Philip, Julia and the boys.  It was a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of life.  We played games...

we exchanged gifts...

ate lot of delicious food, thanks to the resident chef...

and had a generally relaxing time...when we weren't chasing the squirrels away from the bird feeders.  Eventually, Dad gave up and started naming them (the squirrels).  Stephen, in all of his mental-health-wisdom, commented that Dad has provided for his family for just under 30 years and now that we're all growing up he has to turn his efforts elsewhere, so the little critters of the neighborhood are well fed and loved by Dad.  Tim wasn't so kind...

Anyway, the day after Christmas we traveled to Bay City for the Leikert family party and then the same night to Traverse City for the Schultz family "Christmas house" on Spider Lake.  

As always, we had a ton of fun with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins.  This year was a down year in terms of numbers - we ONLY had 33 people in attendance.  I know, it sounds silly that 33 family members in one house (well, mansion really) for 4 days is a small number, but we had fun nonetheless.  Here are a few photos from our stay. 

Ok, that's enough.  Enjoy for now. You're welcome Daddy!

Disappointment

Our blog is titled "Live from GR" and we haven't posted anything in about two weeks, so to keep our blog from being retitled "Syndicated from GR" I figured we should post something.

As a lot of you know, I am in the midst of completing of my CPA exam. I took my second section (Auditing) about a month ago and I just received my score today. I navigated to the website where my score was posted and entered the necessary information to check for my score. Before I clicked OK, I said a quick prayer asking God to help me accept whatever happened after I clicked that button. So I clicked..........waited........and didn't pass. I earned a score of 72, a 75 is a passing grade. As you can imagine, there were a lot of things going through my head when I saw that evil number. Maybe I should have studied for one more hour....What a waste of time and effort....Am I going to have enough time/energy/drive to complete these three sections in the next year?

So after a couple of hours and a good run, things became a little clearer. I can't feel sorry for myself, period. I tried (maybe not quite hard enough) but didn't pass and there is no shame in that as long as I get back up and try again. This post is not a pity party for me, rather a realization of two things:
1) Life does not always go perfectly so we need to learn to live with disappointment and
2) It is important to have a well rounded life so that when things aren't going well in one area of your life, you have other areas that you can rely on (my wife, my faith, and my Wii).

I did not fail my exam, I just didn't pass-there is a big difference. I can live with disappointment, but I refuse to live with failure.