“Running” Tradition

For the past five years, Chad and I have done our best to run the BOLDERBoulder. We even did the virtual one in 2020. This year was, I believe, the hottest and least trained one we have done, and I really felt it. I still had fun though. Where else would I be able to take a picture with Elvis while he sang?

The most impressive sight was the firefighter running in full gear carrying the American flag. I love going to events with so much patriotism especially on days set aside to honor those who fought for our freedom!

Mother's Day

 

I have a love/hate relationship with Mother's Day. I have never experienced a Mother's Day as an adult with my mom. She died with I was barely 18. I am jealous of women who get to celebrate being a mom with their mom. It's not something I thought about prior to her death because the idea of me becoming a mom was sometime in the future. 

I spent many years celebrating with a mother-in-law. My first husband's mom (the better mother-in-law) was never offended by my foul mood on a day that reminded me my mom was gone. She was always very understanding. My current mother-in-law is not understanding of anything. My first Mother's Day with her she told me that I would eventually get over it and enjoy the day. (I hate when I am told to get over it.) I am glad I don't have to pretend to enjoy the day around her anymore now that she live in a different state. The thing is that even when I was with my first mother-in-law, the pain of the reminder of my loss made it difficult to enjoy the day.

Over the past few years, I have come to enjoy being celebrated by my husband and kids. Chad has bought me flowers almost every year since we were married. It is all I ever wanted as a gift. I am so thankful for a husband who listens. Since Eric moved out, he has made a point of coming over for dinner which is all I expect of  him. Seeing him an playing games with him is the greatest present he can give me. (I know he comes over at least once a month. Can't I consider it a gift each time?) This year Noel even bought me something with her own money. I know she doesn't have much, so that makes me feel incredibly special that she would spend some of what she has worked hard to earn on me. All of these things to not take away the sadness of what I don't have, but they have helped me finally learn to love this day. 

Morning Person/Night Person

There are a lot of ways in which Chad and I are similar, but there is one big way in which we differ. Chad is a morning person. He often wakes before his alarm, has more energy, and talks the most in the morning. He hates when we point this out. He doesn’t want to be a morning person because “mornings suck.” I am more of a night person. I have more energy at night most of the time. If I didn’t have a kid to take care of and job to work in the morning, I would sleep in later. I have to have an alarm to wake up in the morning. Sometimes, it goes off for a little while before I realize what is going on. Chad can be a lot of handle in the mornings. I overwhelm him at night on occasion with how talkative I get after 9ish. I know neither of us are going to change, but we don’t need to. We just need to understand the other person does not function the opposite time of day.