self-affirmation

As for other news that is over 2 months overdue....

I ran a 10K and loved it.

That's an action shot of me and Kim approaching the finish line. I know I look like I was walking, but I promise, that is a run. I finished the race in about an hour, which was exactly what I hoped for. If I hadn't found out I was pregnant a week before, I probably would have pushed myself a little harder and won first place. Ha.

Either way, Kyle was proud of me. He will probably make me edit this out, but I remember that he told me at the finish line that he almost cried when he saw me running. Awwww.

I was proud of myself too. There's something so empowering about having a goal and then working hard and achieving it. Our family motto, borrowed from Dale Murphy, is "we can do hard things". It felt good to do something hard. As a mother, sometimes I feel like all I do is dishes and diapers and dinosaurs. So it is refreshing to get an reminder that I can do other hard things too.

(me and my mother friends who ran together)

It is kind of funny to remember that on the night before and the morning of the race, I felt sickeningly nervous. Funny because those feelings are not too dissimilar from my reaction of the recent ultrasound findings! It builds my confidence that things that make me nervous and seem hard really do end up to be a pleasure. Including raising girls, I assume.

Thanks for your votes of confidence. I'm feeling 90% less nervous and I can definitely live with that. :) Bring on the girl.