Back to Life

So as soon as I got off the plane we headed over to Olivia's open house at Children's Discovery Center.  She was so proud!

 Can you believe she spelled all these words on her own.  If you haven't met her in person, I should tell you that when she spelled "car" "cor" pronounced /c-a-w/ that is how SHE pronounces the word.  I'm pretty sure she may be from Boston since she eats all of the ending /r/ sounds.  But my favorite is "ledebug" and "peg".

 This is her principal Ms. Mays

 And her wonderful teachers Ms. Stipes and Ms. Devore.  We have loved her being her and will be so sad next year when she moves on to Kindergarten:(

 And when we got home the first thing they wanted to know was what I had brought them from Florida.  And I was so proud to hand over my medal to the rightful owner.

 I guess I should say "owners"

 Love these little chicklets!

Today's the Day

Say Hello to the Dallas Team of runners.  Linda, Demekia, Amber, myself, Barbara (all running for Team Juliana) and Ronda running for Team Courtney!  We actually had to catch the bus at 3:30am!  I know, right! But on a serious note, I will never be able to express how it felt to have you all there, all the way from Texas, running for my little girl.  You are an amazing bunch and Juliana and I are so blessed to have you all in our life.

This is my awesome Rett Family!  The four of us ran together last year as well.  Soojung, Tina, Niki and myself.  I love these ladies, it is part of the reason I get my tired old self to Florida to run 13.1 miles.  Don't get me wrong, Juliana is my inspiration.  But these ladies are like my reward for working hard to get there.  They are amazing girls and I am just so lucky to have such incredible ladies that just get this world that I live in. These are the girls that despite the fact that our busy lives do not allow us to talk that often, we can pick up as if no time has passed. It is becoming our once a year reunion and I hope it continues for many years.

We started in corral C

Here is Soojung shakin' it before the start

And here I am at mile 1.

Here is mile marker 2. Isn't it creepy that it is STILL dark out!

This is where I finally entered the Magic Kingdom.  Yes, you will see lots of selfies because I ran this solo for the majority of the race.  Of the 6 of us that came from Dallas, only 3 out of 6 of trained.  So the 3 that did train were far ahead of us and the 3 that didn't were at different levels of readiness.  So we met up a couple times along the way and then went our own way.

Mile 3 is when I met up with Linda!

This was part of my favorite part of the race.  The castle is actually the half way mark!  Here we come!

And here I go

Mile Marker 6 and I was running solo again.  Running with friends was nice, but running solo really makes you think.  And I ran, my thoughts went immediately to Juliana.  How hard we push her and how hard she works every single day to do the most simplest of tasks.  And for the most part she does it with out any complaints.  She is my hero.  In that tiny 6 year old body is a warrior!

Yes mam you do!

I'm on the home stretch now!

This is me at mile marker 12.  

You can tell in my crazy face that I am fighting off tears.  Because right before hitting this mile marker my husband sent the following video text message.

I know it's not that dramatic, but when your mind is already thinking of your amazing family and the reasons why you're doing this and then you get this message, well it pretty much smacks you the face.  And it didn't help that everyone around me heard as well and you heard a resounding "AHHHHHH"

Here I am in front of Epcot, which is also the ending point!!!!

Here we are - the last .1 of a mile is always the worst!

And yes, that crazy face again is me trying to fight of tears.

Ronda and I holding our medals and our inspirations

This is for you Juliana!

Go Team GP2C!

Disney Half Marathon Expo

So the next morning we were up and ready to work the Disney Princess Expo.  It is really an awesome time because you have over 20,000 people coming through and most were really interested in learning about Rett Syndrome and our girls.  So many people signed up to run with next year!

 Then we were off to get our race bibs.  It's official!

 Here we are with Ingrid Harding, founder of GP2C and fellow Rett mom

 Even Wally got into the groove with his flower tatoo!

 More of our team!

 This was really cool.  New Balance had a huge wall of all of the over 20,000 names of all of the runners running this half marathon.  Here I am!

 After working the Expo we headed to Downtown Disney for a stroll.  This was a lego Lock Ness, I guess.

 We decided to go get manicures and then headed to Carraba's to "Carb it Up" for dinner.  After dinner we decided to all cram into Wally and Ronda's car.  Not bad, 7 people in a tiny Nissan.

And We're Off

The time has come and we're off!  It is time for Team Juliana to head to Florida

 This is how we really felt

 We met up with Tina at the Dallas Airport.  She was flying in from Arizona.  Tina is a fellow Rett mom and my friend and roommate for the race. 

 As soon as we got to the hotel, we headed to the GP2C Team dinner. 

My inspiration 

Another fellow Rett mom/friend/and apparently goofball - Kelly! 

 A little drink with Linda and Tina before bed.

 But the fun doesn't stop there friends.  We go up to our room and that's when Tina breaks out with her jean pajamas.  Are you serious?

 I'm pretty sure it's blurry because I was laughing so hard.