Pumpkins and Stuff!

Ah, fall....

Colorful leaves, cooler temps, and pumpkin everything are all parts of my favorite time of year.  Not to mention Avett's birthday, our wedding anniversary (6 years this year!), and this year, the NYC marathon (and our first extended trip away from our little dude - zoinks!).

Last weekend, we made the trek up the mountain to return to the scene of the crime best decision of my life to celebrate our anniversary in Boone/Blowing Rock.  It was beautiful weather and a nice time to be able to reflect back on wedded bliss, and how well we've managed to accept and enjoy each others' "uniquenesses", and keep a baby alive and mostly happy and healthy for over a year.  It also marked our first overnight trip away from said baby, which by all accounts was a great success, once we got through those first few miles in the car.

Chetola!

Avett did quite well without us for a night

But we were happy to see him when we got back

As All Hallows Eve approaches and I devour enjoy all things pumpkin spiced, we paid homage to those funky orange gourds with a trip to a local pumpkin patch.  This year was much better received by Avett than last year.

Amazing what a year can do

And as the real deal Halloween is just a couple days away, we used the Boos and Brews 5K over the weekend as a final tune-up for the marathon and to test drive/revive our costumes, with a notable Swee'Pea addition.  Happy (almost) Halloween to you, enjoy these festive pics!  Fair warning, lots of orange ahead.

Searching for the Great Pumpkin

On the go!

Lotta love here

Pretty Leaf

Turn left, Dad

Hi.

Then it was Boos and Brews:

Forest Gump, Walter White, Popeye, pre-race

Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Swee'Pea

Finishing a TOUGH course with a respectable time.  Bring on NYC.

And finally, a recap of some of my favorite Jack-o-Lanterns that I've carved.  Walter White (this year's effort, blessed by the actress who plays Marie on the show via Twitter), Ron Swanson, Yosef, and the Cottonwood Ales logo

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Sick.

Sick, sick, sick.  As in, I'm sick, Ruth Ann is sick, and Avett is sick.  And we've BEEN sick.  For a while.  And I'm sick of it.  And tired too.  About a month ago, RA came home with some crud, about a week after that, I decided to try out said crud, then about a week after that, Avett was feeling left out and jumped onto the crud bandwagon too.

Now I do count us super lucky to have held out this long without Avett having much more than a sniffle.  When we took him in for his one year check-up, they noticed his white blood cell count was up.  Strange, but not terribly worrisome (they just want to check again), but that was a preview of his body amp'ing up to fight off the funk.  A couple days after the appointment (on a Friday, of course), he started to look/sound/feel crummy and ended up running one of those almost-high-enough-to-go-to-the-ER type of fevers.  Lovely.  A trip to the doc, some antibiotics and a couple days had him mostly back to his normal self.  Until a few days ago, when he started barking like a seal and running a fever again.  Another quick trip to the doc to learn that this may just need to run its course, unless it's croup, in which case we may end up in the ER for a breathing treatment.  That sounds delightful!

All the while, Ruth Ann is still fighting crud, and after a brief recovery, my 20 mile training run seemed to be an open invitation for the bug to take up residence again.  Lesson learned through this: families should have at least one healthy caregiver at all times.  We are all trying to mend - RA got meds and I'm working the neti pot like a bawse.  Avett's regularly getting saline up the nose (not his favorite thing) and hanging out with the frog humidifier at night.  Here's hoping that we're all really over the hump this time. This sick kid stuff is for the birds...

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New York City Marathon Update

This past Saturday, I ran my final long training run, grinding out 20 miles in and around Tanglewood Park.  I managed to get my average pace down to 9:56/mile, which should get me to the finish line on race day somewhere between 4:15 and 4:30 (which is a marked improvement over my Big Sur time, so I'll take it!).  I did reaffirm that the end of any long run for me is just tough.  It doesn't seem to matter how fast or slow I start, but by those last few miles, I'm cooked.  I'm hoping the nearly 2 million people in NYC will help keep me motivated when it gets to crunch time.

While running those 20 miles on Saturday and staring down the New York City Marathon which is now less than 3 weeks away, I asked myself some hard-hitting questions that I'll now also pose to you.

Question #1:  Are you deeply concerned about the worldwide bacon shortage that made the national news rounds a couple weeks ago (don't judge me, I have to run through the campground right around breakfast time and almost always smell bacon)?  Fear not, thanks to this informative PSA by none other than Ron Swanson himself.  Prepare yourself:

Question #2: Have you been thinking to yourself, "Self, I've really been meaning to donate to Bryan's marathon fundraiser for breast cancer, but I'll just do that tomorrow, or wait until the end to make sure he still needs donations."?  If you answered "yes", then you're in luck - here's that absolute last minute chance!

Our final planned fundraising event has hit a bit of a snag, and due to unforeseen circumstances has had to be canceled.  So that leaves me teetering right on the edge of making my goal, OR being on the hook to pay out the difference myself.  I sure could use the help if you can manage it.  I'm close enough to taste it, but these final $200 seem to be the toughest.  Here are all of the details to make a donation online, and of course feel free to contact me with any questions.

My Fundraising Page: http://www.crowdrise.com/t-ingnycmarathon2012tpr/fundraiser/bryantimmons

A little background on why this is important to me: http://goteamtimmons.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-need-your-help.html

Think Pink Rocks (Federal Tax ID Number 26-4789024): http://www.thinkpinkrocks.com

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