The father of my child just broke 9 hours at Ironman Arizona...he is the MackDaddy...ha ha!!!!(Quick reminder for those of you that don't have triathlon beat into your brains 24/7, the Ironman is: a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.3 mile run.) I am so super proud of him. He has been training and working for months with the sole goal of breaking 9 hours at this race. And he did it! His previous record was 9:04:22, his new record is 8:57:02.

He also managed to place 16th overall out of 2,027 total racers. 62 male pros started the race, making this the most competitive race Richard has done as a professional. And though he didn't place "in the money," he put together an awesome race while many of his fellow pros sort of fell apart.

And he rocked the marathon. Typically his strongest leg of the race is the bike (and he still had a great bike in AZ, going from 52nd place after the swim to 38th after the bike) but this race, he really put together the run and passed 22 people during the marathon going from 38th after the bike to 16th at the finish!

Yay! The bad part for me was I didn't get to go to this race and was really bummed to miss it since this was a really spectator friendly venue and he did sooooo great. I really wish I could have seen Richie's big finish-line grin in person instead of on my computer monitor. But a major special thanks to everyone who came over and watched the streaming online video with me - we had our very own finish line crowd here in Durham!!

Flowers for Grannie

I've been trying to figure out for 2 weeks how to post on my baby blog about my Grannie's passing on Halloween this year. I have never been good at things like this and feel inadequate and ill-equipped for expressing my emotions when they're so conflicting and encompassing. But since this is a baby blog, I will make a few notes of what I'd like Mack to know about his Great-Grannie (and she was really great), what I've learned from her, and the hope we hold onto:

1. You have a line of strong women who have come before you young man...and they expect you to respect and understand that strength in all women as you become a man. Grannie was a nurse, but not "just" a nurse. She went beyond standard nursing training and worked for 33 years with the Louisiana Public Health Department coordinating clinics for physically-challenged children. That's saying something for a woman in 1944. Don't ever underestimate us.

2. Grannie was a funny lady and you never knew what was going to come out of her mouth next. In the last few years of her life, Grannie spent a lot of time sleeping but would often wake from her cat-naps with a story. My favorite one began with her exclamation, "I like the men..." She may have seemed like she was out of it but she wasn't at all. I'm pretty sure she was just enjoying her memories and not bothering with the troubles of today...we could all take a lesson from that. Don't ever forget to remember.

3. Size and proximity don't have anything to do with the size of the love we share. My whole family is pretty small and we are very spread apart. Having grandparents in Louisiana and Wisconsin made for long trips and not more than 1 or 2 of them a year. All my grandparents have now passed from this life and I wish that I could have spent more time with them and been able to learn more from them (you don't figure that out until you're a "grown-up" though). I wish I could have had a chance to take a picture with 4 generations in it. But that aside, there's something about family that when you do get together, the time and distance between you fall away and there's just the love of family that remains.

The weekend that Grannie died, Richard and I were at the beach. Richard bought flowers for Grannie and we kept them at the house until the last day when we took them down to the beach. We said a prayer together and then left the flowers to dance in the surf while we walked back. I figure Grannie was dancing right along...and one day we'll all dance together.