Halloween Harvest Half.

That last week of October was hectic for our family.

The day after we got back from Hawaii my MDX was rear-ended by a high school girl.  It was a pain in my backside.  At first, her Mom said they just wanted to pay for the repairs out-of-pocket.  I made appointments with two body shops to get estimates.  I was trying to be nice about it, because I remember what it was like to be a silly teenager that makes stupid mistakes, and I wish that there had been times that adults would have been easier on me.

Anyway, a few days after the accident, the gal's Mom called me and said they had changed their mind, and they wanted to go through the insurance after all.

Working with Progressive was no picnic.

My car was useless for over two weeks.

To be honest, the wishful part of me kept hoping that they were going to tell me that they were just going to "total" my car.  But the realistic part of me knew that it would be better to just get it fixed, because we don't have room for a car payment in our budget right now.

 

In the end, my car was fixed.  It looks nice.

Here's a picture of the damage.  If you can even see any?  Most of the damage occurred underneath my car.  They had to entirely replace my exhaust/muffler.

Right before we went to Hawaii, I discovered that the diamond in my wedding ring had cracked!  How it happened, I'll never know?!
I was heartsick.
Even worse, is the fact that the company Nick purchased my wedding ring from is out of business.  So much for the warranty.
I  wore the birthstone ring that Nick purchased for me on my first mother's day.  It's pretty.  But it is just not the same as my wedding ring.
I shopped around, and the least expensive loose diamond I could find was $3,000.
I was trying to resign myself to the fact that it would be a while before my diamond was replaced.

One morning, Nick suggested that we go to Fred Meyer Jewelers, just to look.
Of course, the sales associate we met with started off showing me loose diamonds that were priced between $9,000-$11,000.
When I told him that my price ceiling was $2,000; I fully expected him to tell me that he couldn't help me.
Instead, he pulled out a diamond that was $1,699.  And it was actually a larger diamond than the one I had before!
There were extra fee's, like a warranty; and a setting fee.  The sales associate told me that the final cost would be $2,250.  I told him that if he could get me "out the door" at $2,200 I would buy it.
He shook my hand, and we made a deal.
Personally, I thought the sales associate was slimy.  If I had it to do again, I would have tried to work with someone else.  But we've always had good experiences with Fred Meyer Jewelers, so I wasn't unhappy with the way things turned out.
Until...  I went to pick up my ring when it was finished.
I was told that there was a balance of $150.  Even after I had paid the full $2,200.
I was pretty ticked.
I paid the balance.  But I let them know that I wasn't happy about doing it.

What matters now, is that my ring looks gorgeous.  And it has a warranty from a jeweler that shouldn't "go under" any time soon.


Rewind now, to August.  One day I checked my email and noticed a receipt for a half marathon race, for which I was signed up to run.  The only thing was that I had not signed myself up to do this. 
Turns out, my brother-in-law, Jeff, registered me for it.

It was surprising.  But I wasn't upset about it.
My little brother, Brian was going to run it too.

I didn't train as hard for this race, as I did for the Hobbler half marathon.
Don't get me wrong.  I wasn't lazy.  I just didn't push myself too hard on my weekday runs.

I still did long runs on the weekend, though.  I got used to feeling wiped out on Saturdays.

This time around, my half marathon was scheduled to occur 5 days after we returned from Hawaii.  I FAR prefer running a race and then going on vacation (they way I did it when I ran the Hobbler) as opposed to the other way around!
I only managed to get a single run in, while we were in Hawaii. I averaged a 7:22 minute mile- thankyouverymuch!  Running at sea level was exhilarating!  There was so much oxygen, and I felt like my heart-rate hardly budged.  Plus, I was running on Waikiki beach.  What's not to love?!

So, the morning of the Halloween Harvest Half Marathon arrived.
The turnout was larger than I expected it to be.
The course had a total climb of 26 feet.  It was very flat.

My only goal was to beat my little brother.
After the first mile, I was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen.  My brother was lost from my view.

So, I just settled in to my typical 10 minute mile pace; and plodded along.
My poor little brother injured his knee around mile 10.  I ran past him.
And I actually felt really bad.
I still feel bad.  I know, firsthand, how awful it is experience an injury with the finish line in sight!
I accomplished my goal, and beat my brother across the finish line, but it wasn't that sweet of a victory.

The weather was mild, for the most part.  There was a pretty good breeze going on.  And for the last half of the race I had to run in to the wind.  I didn't enjoy that.  At all.  Especially when I was running close to farm fields.  I ended up pretty dusty by the end of the race.  It was gross.

Another annoyance to me were the mile markers.  They weren't entirely accurate.  By mile 10 they were half-a-mile off, according to my GPS.
It nearly made me crazy to have my GPS tell me that I was at mile 11, but then I wouldn't see the official race marker for another half-mile.
According to the "official" race time-clock; I ran the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 20 minutes.  But according to the GPS program I use on my phone; I made it to 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 15 minutes.  That's the time I am going to claim.
It's a near perfect 10 minute mile average ;)

I was overjoyed to see my family waiting for me at the home-stretch.  Minus Nick, and Reagan.  Nick had to work that day.  And Reagan was at Nick's parent's house.

Lori (Jeff's Mom) was holding Cohen, and they were cheering me on:

 Here I am, crossing the finish line.  I can say that I truly ran every step of this half marathon.

Also, waiting for me at the finish line was my neighborhood friend, Rebecca.  She ran the 5 mile race they had in conjunction with the half marathon.  I was very touched that she waited for me to finish, so that she could congratulate me.

My brother made it down the home stretch eventually too.
For the record, Jeff is a speed demon.  He ran the half-marathon in 90 minutes!  And I believe he finished 3rd overall.
As soon as I crossed the finish line, Cohen came running to me.  he didn't want me to put him down (ever since we got back from Hawaii, Cohen hasn't wanted to let me out of his sight.  It's his way of ensuring that I won't leave him again).
So, he's in the picture too.
Three happy-ish runners.  Jeff, Brian, Me, and Cohen:

I felt so much better about my results of this half marathon, as opposed to the Hobbler.  But I do think: if I can train hard and avoid injury; I am going to ROCK the Hobbler next year!

Halloween 2014

Halloween.  A "holiday" I could live without.  And I think it shows too.

Nick and I were invited to an adult costume party.  Nick and I were the only ones that didn't have coordinating costumes.

Nick and me:

We had a good time.  The other couples in our neighborhood are always good company.
We ate yummy food, and played awesome games.  I'd do it again, given the chance.  But it doesn't mean that I've fallen in love with Halloween.

Two days before Halloween the youth from our church organized a trunk-or-treat.  Our kids really enjoyed it.  They acquired a lot of candy, and I was of half a mind to skip formal trick-or-treating and take the kids to a movie instead...  If that Big Hero 6 movie had been in theaters, I probably would have done that.

The day before Halloween was Elsa's preschool program.  That girl is a performing phenom!  (Notice the two other "Elsa's" in the picture.  It's too bad I didn't get a panorama, I believe there were 6 "Elsa's, total).

Later that afternoon I went to the elementary school to help out with Reagan's class party.  I didn't want to wear the Start Wars costume again, because I couldn't see a thing with that helmet on.  I opted to wear a costume that has been saving my bacon for nearly 20 years.  My Mom sewed a costume for me to wear to my high-school Mid-evil fair, back in the day.  I've kept it all these years, and it's certainly got a lot of use.

Tiffany, Jill, and me.  Sophmore Year at the mid-evil fair.  Go Cyprus Pirates.

Halloween was on a Friday, this year.  And the kids didn't have school.
We spent the morning relaxing.  And then I took the kids to my parents house in the afternoon, to show off their costumes.

Reagan was set on being toothless, the dragon.  I purchased the hat off of eBay.  The wing/tail combo was homemade.  I thought it was pretty clever.  And Reagan got so many compliments on her costume.

Elsa was, what else?  Elsa, from Frozen.  Along with every other little girl on the planet, I think?  I do have to say that my Elsa was the only "authentic" one.  That I know of.

It has been fun for Elsa to always have people commenting on her name.  I do wonder though.... 10 years down the road, when people can't remember the exact year that Frozen was released; will they think that Elsa was named after Elsa, in the movie?  Probably.
If Elsa wants to change her name when she is a teenager, she has my permission to do so.

I dressed Cohen up as a skeleton.  I did it on purpose.  That skinny boy has his Dad's frame.  Sometimes we joke that Cohen is a walking skeleton.  I liked to play-up the irony.

Nick got off of work at 4PM on Halloween.  He took the kids trick-or-treating.  And I stayed home to pass out candy.

Cohen wanted to come home after about 45 minutes.  So, Nick brought him home. 

Reagan and Elsa stayed out for another hour.  By that time, Reagan was done.

Just like in years past, I think Elsa would have stayed out all night.

 

Even though I am an economist, I apparently suck at finding a formula to forecast how many trick-or-treaters we will have.  Every year, my estimation is wrong.  There was the year when I purchased 100  full-size candy bars and we had less than 20 kids come to our house.

This year, I purchased 4 bags of fun-size candies.  So, there was approx. 200 pieces of candy in my bowl.

By the end of the night I had less than a dozen pieces left- and I'd only been letting the kids take one piece each.

It was crazy!

The even crazier part was that a neighbor, two streets up from us only saw 12 kids, the entire night!

Anyway, 2014 Halloween is over.  And I'm ok with that.

I managed to get away with no carving of pumpkins, or decorating with Halloween accessories yet again.  How long that will last is anyone's guess!  Along with the number of trick-or-treaters we will see next year.