Has it really been a week??

44 minutes and 38 seconds...

That was my official recorded time for the 2011 Shamrock Run/Shamrock Stride 5K walk. I had set a personal goal of 45 minutes :) It was difficult simply because there were 5000 walkers who were all released at once. Most of them were simply on a Sunday Stroll to enjoy the walk (in the rain). I must have passed 3000+ people in order to keep up my pace. I was slowed several times by road blocks and being trapped in corners so all in all, I am very delighted with my time.
The Shamrock Stride event did not have a real competition. There were no placings as it was all for fun. The only competition was amongst oneself.
Here I am with my dear husband who ran the 15K event and beat all of his previous competition and training times. I am so proud of him!

You cannot see the rain in the above picture but the ground proves that it WAS raining. I was not sure my new NIKE shoes would recover but they finally dried out.

After the run/walk that day, we treated ourselves to a wonderful Moroccan dinner. We sat on cushions on the floor, were served an amazing 5 course meal and ate with our hands. I really appreciated the cultural experience and will do it again in a heartbeat. The food was SO good!

I was home for a night and was back on the road again on Tuesday. It was mom's 70th birthday. The unfortunate and tragic thing though was that my little sister's husband suddenly passed away due to a heart attack.

In spite of our sadness and grief, we still managed to pull of a pretty nice party for mom, having many of my siblings, my Aunt and Uncle and mom's best friends present.

Yes, I even put 70 candles on the cake!

And with the help of my twin niece and nephew, got them all lit without burning the place down.

And Mom blew them all out in a flash! She was MOST impressed with herself!

A good time was had by all.

Today will find me organizing and putting new supplies away. I'll prep some new kits and just get myself ready to fully go back to work on Sunday. The next few evenings will find me finishing up the hair on Daisy, the custom Berenguer with the reddish hair.

I've got lot's of dolly related news to share and will be covering that over the next week so be sure to check in!

Hugs!