Brief Hiatus

After Wayne's mom left, there was a week (or two) where I fell back into our normal schedule and, mostly, focused on getting myself back into my training schedule. Norah has school on Monday and Tuesday, music class on Wednesday, running and/or play group on Thursday, and then we have an "open" day on Friday. So, while I've been doing really well with that, I've been really bad at writing my blog 'updates'. Please accept my apologies, faithful loved ones. :)

And while my training has been going well (half-marathon in 6 weeks), my health has not been great lately. It's a long boring story of a chronic illness and I won't get into it here but suffice to say, my body is not cooperating with my desire to be in tip-top shape and fighting the fatigue has been tough this last month. Despite this daily setback, I'm training 6 days a week - I am determined to defeat Connemara. Or...rather, to not let Connemara defeat me, let's put it that way. Connemara is not a landscape to be defeated.

Last night we got a babysitter so Wayne could come out on one of the long training runs. It was so exciting for me to be able to run with him. (we've done a few together but always with Norah in the running buggy and that's just plain tough) We finished 8 1/2 miles that were particularly greulling and he finished the entire thing, including full-on hobbling with a hurt knee by mile 4. He told us to go ahead and even with this horrible pain, he managed to finish the entire thing only three minutes behind us. I am seriously proud of him.

  Also - the most exciting thing to happen this year - my sister Mimi, little Marko and new baby Simon are...COMING TO DUBLIN! Arriving March 29th. She booked her tickets a couple days ago and I could not be more excited. We've talked about this for a very long time, (since we moved here) and I am elated that they're finally able to come. They will be here for Easter, for my 30th birthday (April 3rd) and for the half marathon (April 7th) that both Wayne and I will be running together. I am so giddy about all that I get to show them and about meeting my newest nephew Simon (he'll be almost 6 months by then!) and for Norah and Marko to play and on and on and on. I am so excited to have them here.

And here are a few random pictures from the last week:

 Norah wanted to put on my coat and hat and then said, "We have to go to SuperValu to get an avocado..." (in her 'mommy-voice'). We can't get over how grown-up she looks here.

 I just loved this. Looking our our bedroom window (down onto the courtyard), I saw this woman with two small children trying to fly her kite. There was no wind, and it was a fairly large kite and I just thought it was beautiful. Her two kids are in the shot, on the left - maybe a 3 year old boy and a 1 year old girl. Clearly, they asked to take the kite out and not only did she agree but she was genuinely trying to get it in the air.

 A walk on the East Pier on Valentine's Day

It's still quite cold but look how light it is at 5:30 pm! When Norah started school in December, I would pick her up at 4:45 pm, and it was pitch dark by then. These we can get used to.  

 Norah chasing Geordan chasing Kara chasing Norah (outside the Bray Aquarium this last Saturday)

"I'm coming to get you Geordan!"