1/2 Marathon

I took the plunge! A few weeks ago two of my good friends and I were discussing training for a 1/2 marathon. They completed their registration earlier this week and today I did the deed too. It's official. I am running in the 2009 San Antonio Rock'n Roll 1/2 Marathon.
The race is in November and the vigorous training starts now! I spent the day gearing up with some new running shorts and tennis shoes for extra motivation. Say an extra prayer for me this week. I'm sure training this week will have me pretty sore!

My Mimi

Today marks one year of the death of my grandmother Clawson. Some called her Betty, Mom, and Betty Blue, I called her Mimi. She battled many illnesses in her life time and fought a vicious battle of cancer in her later years.
Today I'll share one of my most treasured memories with my Mimi.
I must have been in the 4th or 5th grade. It was the first year my family made what has since become a yearly trip down the Rio Grande River. I was much to young at the time to make the 83 mile paddle, so during spring break I stayed with my Mimi and Grandy in Austin, Texas. At the time Mimi worked for the Texas School for the Deaf and during my week long stay I would tag along with her and "help" her in her office. I spent the days playing on the playground outside, tagging along with the custodian Joyce, who was deaf, or helped Mimi do "important" stuff in her office. She would give me a few quarters to get a snack out of the vending machine across her office and she'd also pack fun lunches for the two of us too. They spoiled me good by taking me to eat Chinese food (which at the time was my favorite!) and also my very first trip to Taco Cabana. Yum! I remember the two of them telling me how the food used to come down in a little shoot in the drive through. Is that true or am I making stuff up now? During the week we stayed at their house in town where I remember climbing into bed every morning between my Mimi and Grandy to watch cartoons. This was SUPER special as I did not have cable tv growing up, not to mention climbing in between the two of them. On Saturday morning we woke up early and went garage sale shopping. One of my Mimi (and Grandy's) favorite Saturday morning activities. Mimi loved going to garage sales and in true Mimi fashion would pick up most everything to inspect. Some days we would be going to garage sales well into the afternoon. She loved jewelry and anything with butterflies on it.
After the garage sale festivities we headed out to their weekend house in La Grange, Texas. They had a farm house on a few acres with a fabulous pond and lots of land to run and play on. After dinner one night Mimi got her mandolin and Grandy his guitar and entertained me with a few songs. My favorite was Skip to my Lu, which was very special to me as my Mimi always called me LuLu or Lu. In fact, for a few years growing up I thought that they had written that song just for me. I later found out while singing the song in school that unfortunately it was a very popular song that most of the world knew. On Sunday we went fishing in the pond. While Grandy was off searching for a big fat yellow grasshopper to put on my lure I was impatiently walking along the bridge over the pond dragging my bare hook in the water. I remember walking back and forth singing to myself (which I did often) and all of the sudden felt a little tug on my line. I quickly stopped singing and tugged back to reel in a small little perch. Who needs grasshoppers?
Unfortunately the week came to a close and my family picked me up after their week long excursion down the Rio Grande River, but my memories of that week will forever be printed on my heart. A weekend well spent with Mimi and Grandy.




"Till we meet, till we meet
Till we meet at Jesus' feet
Till we meet, till we meet
God be with you till we meet again"