Day 2 (I promise it won't be a daily tally)

Maybe every other day.

Only thought about her 1,000 time or so yesterday; give or take a few. Pretty much all day. But mostly good, happy memory type of thoughts. The magnitude of Charlotte not being here has hit a few times and I sit and am flabergasted for a bit and then I go back to what I was doing. It really nailed me once last night before bed. I also woke up again this morning thinking I had to go check on CJ. Habits, habits, habits.

Service an reception plans are progressing forward at warp speed. I have very little idea what's happening anymore (that's a good thing).

No dreams about Charlotte but I did have a dream that I was somehow, miraculously allowed the last spot on the PGA tour and had to tee off first in the dark in a big tournament. The first hole was a par 4 and my first drive was short but straight. With a bent 3 wood (no idea) I hit it up onto the green and into the hole for an eagle! For one hole, I was in the lead of a major PGA tournament. I called my Uncle Terry to have him look at the leaderboard because I was certain I wouldn't be there for long! :-) It was a fun dream.

I've started running again. Yesterday and this morning couldn't have been more of a contrast in workout success.

Yesterday should have been titled, "How Not To Run Your First Mile After A Break."
Cold Not prepared for it.
Music while Mark Knopfler's Ragpicker's Dream is a great album and I love "A Quality Shoe," it's not a very good running album. What's worse is I think I've already tried it before and learned nothing!
Pace Started out at my "in-shape" pace when I'm pitifully out of shape. Thought I was going to bust something very early on.

Today was much better. It was colder this morning than yesterday (28 degrees!) but I was ready with layers. Soundtrack provided by local Richmond heavies, Agents Of Good Roots (the album is One By One and totally ROCKS!) Took my time, ran twice as far in almost the same time, thought a lot about Charlotte and how cool it will be to run in a small sea of pink with TEAM CJ in the 10K (Don't worry, getting registration info updated today!)

Tomorrow, if I get up early enough, I might go three miles before we leave for our retreat. Anyone care to join me at 9 Slash Cottage at 7am? (how do you make an evil laugh emoticon?)

In case you didn't know, we invested in a Wii. Got it at Target and what with the sale, coupons, gift cards from the pharmacy, etc...We got it for much cheaper than we could have found it at Costco which is saying something.

Rachel and Kolbey are tearing it up. Kolbey's strength seems to lie with bowling at the moment. Rachel is the hula hoop queen and is getting pretty good at the boxing program (Should I be worried?) I'm still trying to get my head around the tennis trainer. One thing is for certain, and it backs up my earlier opinion about these game consoles, it gets you up off your butt and moving. Not much better for depression than that, I say. (Well, actually, I'm sure it was said long before I got around to it).

Kathy Lesher (from Noah's Children) is leaving for her trip to Thailand and took the time to check in with us before she left. We wish her safe and very interesting travels. Don't fall off the elephant.

Michael and Babz Barnett, founders and still current bigwigs of Romp n' Roll, were on ABC's Shark Tank last night looking to secure an investor. We watched with excitement as the Barnetts stood up the the panel of millioniares and didn't cave when they demanded 51% of the company. They ended up not securing the capital but did show everyone watching how passionate they are about Romp n' Roll (and they looked DAMN good on screen too!). The millioniares discounted the power of the internet and the Mommy Network. We know better, don't we? :-)

Speaking of that, if you saw the episode, please go to:

http://realitytv.about.com/b/2010/01/09/your-shark-tank-fave-ink-flip-romp-n-roll-hells-bells-helmets-twister-golf-ball-cleaner-chef-in-black.htm

and vote for which product you thought was most interesting. We'll show them!

For our addicted followers, we know it may be tough to go three days with no update so I would like to suggest you surf some other sites and send your tremendous energy to other families who are also in "the soup" as it were. A good start would be to return to the Caringbridge site, fish around and revisit our closest friends like Reese, Mikayla, Halle, Mackenzi, Maddie, Allie etc... There are also Gage, Casey, Kylee, Abbie (although she has to approve visitors, she's very much worth knowing), Owen (who has a 5k run coming up in May), "The Zachs) as I like to call them, and many, many others. Some great success stories and some heart breakers. They all could use a good word or two.

Need to get to work on the 10K stuff.

Thanks