Baby shower (and crazy amounts of photos and pink)

So this past weekend, my mom and sister came to Georgia to throw us a baby shower.  Amazing, right?  They knew that at 34 weeks I wouldn't be able to travel to Ohio, but I never expected the support that we had.  We had family and friends come in from SEVEN states!  Holy love, right?  I was so overwhelmed with every one's support and generosity.  Baby girl is so set for when she enters the world (if her daddy and I are, is another question!)

Mom, dad and Kristen came in on Thursday night.  Friday we did some running around and just hung out until my cousins came in from Pennsylvania.  My mom's best friend's (and neighbors in Ohio) drove in as well and they stopped by to see the house on Friday too.

Then Saturday, Tom and I got up, enjoyed a nice long walk with Charlie, knowing that at 1:00, our house was going to be taken over with shower stuff.  It was awesome!

I will say, as apprehensive as I've been about having a little girl and all the pink that goes along with it, I couldn't help but smile at everything.  How can you not?  Okay, so ready for picture overload??? :)

My adorable mom and dad with some of the balloons

My sister and my mom made these chocolate lollipops

Tom surprised me with my favorite craving - iced sugar cookies and Chick-Fil-A lemonade

The awesome Costco cake.  Anyone else in love with these?

Nana-to-be and I

The bassinet and nursing pillow that one of my sister's friends gave us to borrow!

My sister and brother in law bought us a pack-n-play!

This should keep her occupied during floor time!

A portable swing

The homemade gifts from my family - my Aunt Jean made the blanket, my cousin Carolyn made her a stocking, my cousin Laurie made her the "A" and my mom actually cross stitched that picture for my cousin Anna when she was born, who gifted it to me now that she's grown.

Bath Stuff

Girl's clothes - too cute

Personalized gifts. And I'll quote "every Southern girl needs a personalized diaper cover". :)

This is the baby of a triathlete for sure

My mom and sister asked that people give us a book instead of a card which we loved... she has a good collection started on her bookcase!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sobbed when I got this.  My grandma bought this for Abigail 5 days before she passed away.  I will give it to her when she is older. :)

My friends Jenn and Matt made us a diaper bike.  Seriously.  It's awesome.

Okay, and then something awesome happened.  I haven't' talked much about the bombings in Boston and everything that went down with that.  It was horrifying and still makes me sick to think about.  I can't tell you how many times I've been at the finish line, waiting for my friends and loved ones.  It hit really close to home.  We had a lot of friends and family running that day and thankfully all were safe.  Tom's mom had finished about 10 minutes before everything went down and was close enough to the finish to see and hear it all.  To say it shook us up is an understatement.  Tom and I were very emotional that day, questioning society and wondering what kind of world we are bringing a little girl into.  I know that we can't shield her from all the bad in the world and that there is way more good than bad, but it's still hard.  So right around 3:30 as the news was breaking, UPS came with a big box addressed to Tom.  I had been putting packages aside knowing that they were probably shower gifts for the weekend, but since this was to Tom, I had him open it.    I couldn't see what it was when he opened it, but he looked at me with tears in his eyes.  It turns out that his old teammates got together and bought us a BOB Revolution jogging stroller, the handlebar console and a hippo toy from our registry as a congrats gift.  We were so incredibly touched by this for so many reasons - Tom is no longer with TNN, but his former athletes were so generous that that didn't phase them.  They are all crazy runners and triathletes so this couldn't be a better reminder of all of them. These are lifelong friends, and we know that.  So Tom now has a way to run with Abigail up the hills of Suwanee (because I will be totally making him do the hard work while we run together!)  It's way awesome!

I'm still, three days later, trying to wrap my hear around people's generosity.  If I every questioned whether or not Tom and I had a lot of love in our lives, Saturday confirmed that.  And what's even more amazing is that this little unborn child has so much love as well.  That's a very very amazing feeling. 

Ugh... off season

I hate feeling blah during off season. I mean, I know I did a marathon a 8 days ago and I need to take some down time, but I get in such a funk. I feel like I've gained a trillion pounds (I haven't, but I am seeing the scale creep so I'm being super careful now, especially with the giagundo bag of Halloween candy that's taunting me in the dining room - I haven't opened it yet!). I have this huge desire to get back into training, but when I start working out and I just want to be in bed... or on the couch... or working (did I just admit that?) Yikes... if I didn't have Beach 2 Battleship in 18 days, I wouldn't mind. Buuuut - I haven't swam since the end of September. How the hell am I going to get through a half Ironman... it ain't gonna be pretty folks!

I heading back to kickboxing tomorrow and I'm super excited. I went before the marathon for my intro class and loved it. But then I had the marathon, then I couldn't walk after the marathon, and then we went to Austin. So I couldn't go. I've drawn out a plan that I'm going to follow through the spring and it allows me to kickbox 3 times a week, swim twice a week, run twice a week and bike twice a week. I'm going to work on a lot of short fast stuff - no rides longer than 80k and no runs longer than 10 miles - that means intervals, intervals and intervals (with some tempo stuff and maybe some hills thrown in for fun). If all goes well, I'll be primed for the start of my season... which is still in the works. I have probably 80% of my races picked out. I need to finish that list.

Austin was great - Tom and I went into it thinking that it was going to be this amazing town and don't get me wrong... it was great, but we didn't want to move there immediately (that's usually how we gauge if we love a town). I will have to say though that the trail along Town Lake was amazing... I would love to have a place to run and bike that was filled with so many fit people. And we loved all the running and tri shops. That was about the only difference than Columbus (and the 90 degree heat, but I could do without that all the time too). Oh... and everyone there worships Lance. Like a lot. Glad we went... I'm not in a huge hurry to go back though.

Oh... and super exciting news - I won 2 blog giveaways!!!!! I never win anything! When I get my goods, I'll post all about them! Friday was my lucky day - although I should have played the lottery... maybe we would have stayed in Austing if I had won the $300+ million dollar jackpot. I could have been neighbors with Lance!

That's really all that's new in my world. We're having a little get together this weekend with 6 couples and I'm super excited. We haven't "entertained" in forever so it'll be nice. Not all of the couples know each other, but we know that they will all get along great and have things in common with each other. I love bringing new people together - especially such great people. Tom and I are really blessed to have such amazing friends. I value friendships so much and have learned so much about myself and my friendships in the lat few months. I can finally say that I'm happy with how things are. It hasn't always been that way and quite frankly - it flat out sucked there for a while. So Saturday will just be a reiteration of how great true friends are - and how lucky we are to call all of these people friends!