NEW ALBANY WALKING CLASSIC

I did it!!! I completed the 10k walking classic yesterday morning, along with my friend Linda. Beautiful morning for a walk. The weather was cool and crisp when we arrived about 7:45 am, but by the time we started on our walk, it was quite warm! We finished in our own personal record time of 1 hour, 28 minutes and ....seconds. I'm not quite sure what our final time was, but it should be posted soon. We did very well for our first ever walk race. We received a medal at the finish line, and Linda indicated it was the first medal she had ever received, so she was proud of that, and rightly so! She lead the race ahead of me the entire time, and carefully planned our pace. It was great, and I must admit I am a little sore today, but am doing just fine. 

After we completed the race, I headed over to Worthington Christian High School for the Columbus Crusaders Pasta Dinner. WOW!!! Load up on carbs after a race. It was great and I'm telling you it is the best past around. All you can eat salad, pasta, drink and dessert. Next fall, you will have to plan to come.

After I hung out for the Silent Auction, I headed home to photograph sweet Hannah for her senior pictures. Hannah, a senior at Worthington Kilbourne was fun and brought lots of outfits. Look for her pictures soon! They turned out fabulous, and she was glad to be done when we finished up. 

After photographing Hannah, well.....an evening at home resting and doing laundry. It was a long day for sure! Today, I am playing "catch-up" and trying to get pictures downloaded from taking action shots on Saturday at JR Smith Park for the BWYAA football league. 

WIND STORM

We had scheduled a cookout for Sunday afternoon, right about 3pm. I cancelled it after looking at the weather forecast, and boy am I glad I did! The aftermath of Hurricane Ike hit central Columbus area, and we were without power for only 10-12 hours. Well, we weren't actually without power because years ago Steve had wired our house to hook up a generator, because

 we do lose power quite often out here in the country. So after hearing our neighbors generators running, we decided to give it a try, and WOW, we had power for the entire house! We had to watch the Cleveland/Pittsburgh game, and while it was not a good outcome for us Browns fans, it was nice to be able to watch the game, while doing a load of laundry too! 

The boys were out of school Monday-Wednesday, which left Clayton helping Dad clearing the trees, while Andrew worked at his job at Chick-Fil-A. We had 4 - 5 trees split and we lost portions of these trees. It makes me sad to lose any trees, because they truly help keep our

 house cool, and they are great shade trees for photography! Sometimes I think I wouldn't mind losing some of our walnut trees, because I bet we have 1000 walnuts laying on the ground, the driveway, the back patio, the front sidewalk......you get the idea.

I still have friends that don't have power, and that would be awful. My prayers are with you!

Check out our pictures, and a couple of these images Andrew shot. He is becoming the budding photographer!

WALKING CLASSIC

Okay, on Sunday, September 21st I am going to walk in the New Albany Walking Classic, which is a 10k walk, or 6.5 miles. I have been training since the end of June, following their training schedule. I have to admit, I have really enjoyed walking, and sometimes I mix it up with a jog, but not too often! But since August and September tend to be the jump start for my busy season, this past month has been quite difficult getting my training in! It will be a week tomorrow since I have done any walking, and I fear I'm going to be close to last on Sunday. But that's okay. The whole purpose for me was to join some of my girlfriends and striving towards a goal, and having a sense of satisfaction, and to keep us disciplined with our walking schedule. The other "problem" was that my one friend, didn't sign up in time so she got closed out of the walk. That is a bummer, and I was really looking forward to us walking together. We will just have to sign up for some other cause and walk in those too!! So if you want to come out Sunday to cheer me on, the walk begins at 9am on Fodor Drive. 3000 people walking....yikes! Good Luck in finding me!!

SUPER 16!!

Well our Andrew turned 16 back in June, and he has been counting the days to get his driver's license. After a couple of months of "in class" and "driving" classes, on August 21st we drove to the Ohio BMV to have him take his test. While we were waiting for the examiner to come and take him out, he was already deciding that he wasn't going to wear his school uniform shirt to have his picture taken for his driver's license. I was laughing at him and applauded his

 confidence that he was going to pass. Two days prior to his test, he parked my car in our garage, got out and headed into the house with the lights on and the car running! Oh yikes....

He not only passed with 100% on his driving, he only had 2 points taken off his maneuverability test because he started over. 

It is very "unnerving" to watch your 16 year old pull out of the driveway the next morning, with his 13 year old brother in tow. That's where our faith in God comes in. I don't know why I think God needs my help, so I continue to pray for safety and protection in all of our family's lives!

MO HALL FOOTBALL JAMBAREE 2008

Back on August 16th, the Columbus Crusaders Middle School teams attended the Mo Hall Football Jambaree held at DeSales High School. We have 3 middle school teams, and this event hosted 6 teams where they played 10 offensive and 10 defensive plays each. There were 2 teams from the Dayton area and one team from Columbus and the competition was fierce. I had the pleasure of meeting Ohio State's own 2005 graduate Maurice Hall. Maurice introduced himself to me while I was standing on the sidelines and was so kind and great to talk with. I found out that we both graduated from Brookhaven, although my graduation was a lot earlier than his! Maurice holds various football and cheerleading camps during the summers, and you might want to check out his organization's website at www.willyouwin.org. He was very gracious and allowed me to snap a picture of him and Clayton along side each other. Thanks Maurice!