I knew it had been a long time since we posted anything, but had no idea it had been that long. It seems like so much as happened, but yet not much that was worth writing about. We've both been crazy busy with school stuff: I've had teaching and coaching responsibilities that seems to keep me from ever being home in the daylight, and Annalee's work is never done with meetings and workshops and lesson plans and helping teachers. Add to that Annalee's grad courses, Marvin and his 90 pounds of 2-year-old energy, the "joys" of home ownership, my marathon training, and those pesky eating and sleeping habits that we just can't seem to kick, and there just doesn't seem like there's enough time to post to the blog. Oh, did I mention that we have a baby boy due in just over two months?
On the baby front everything is great. We're going to the doctor every two weeks now, and today was our most recent visit. Everything seems to be as it should. At our last appointment, the doctor strongly recommended that Annalee not travel, so we've decided we will be staying in NC for the holidays. It's disappointing that we won't get to go home to Indiana and see family, but at the same time it does eliminate a lot of the stress and pressure that comes along with such a trip that would only be amplified by the pregnancy.
No name yet. We've test-driven a few different possibilities for about a week at a time, but none seemed like "The One." We'll get it figured out eventually. The baby is moving a lot; he seems to move more when there's music playing or when certain people are talking. Could be coincidence, but we like to think otherwise. The baby's room is coming along. We're still trying to find homes for all the stuff that was in there when it was our office, but we're getting closer. Should make some progress over the break. Little by little we seem to be getting the baby necessities, mostly through hand-me-downs from family, friends and co-workers. How wonderful that has been! I don't know if we can ever fully express our gratitude for everything that has come our way. Thank you so much. I can't think of anything else baby-wise right now. I'm sure there's more, but I'll let Annalee add the rest, since he's living in her belly.
This was supposed to be a huge weekend for me. Here was how it was supposed to play out:
Friday was to be a fairly normal day at school. Exams are this week, so we have been mostly in review mode, so it should have been pretty relaxed for me. We had an away basketball game which wasn't my first choice of how to spend a Friday evening, but still not a big deal. Saturday was the Thunder Road Marathon in Charlotte, which I had been training for since August. A big deal, but something I was ready for and not nervous about. On top of that, awhile back I jumped at the chance to take a trip to Indy to see the Colts and Broncos with some buddies from college. I figured, I don't do enough fun things for myself, so why not get on a plane 6 hours after my first marathon and try to spend 24 hours acting like I'm still in college? I even worked it out so I could see some family, albeit briefly, which was fantastic since it would probably be the only opportunity for a while. I would take Monday off to travel back in time to give my exams, and then be off for Winter Break and two weeks of relaxation.
The plan seemed foolproof. It would be difficult but not impossible. And heck, that's half the fun. Here's what actually happened:
I've been busy. It seemed like the to do list never got any shorter. It seemed as though there was never enough time in the day. Needless to say I've been stressed. It was going to take a lot of hard work to make sure everything was in order before I left, but I was determined to make it happen.
Thursday it looked like everything was going to work out, but I was feeling a little bit off. I just chalked it up to the stress. Woke up Friday morning with a bit of sore throat, still a bit cranky and run down. I tried to convince myself it was no big deal. As the day wore on, I felt worse and worse: I was chilled and the throat got worse. I started feeling achy, moving slower. About lunch time I started to worry. About 1:30 I went to the school nurse to see how worried I should be. She took my temperature: 102.4. I can't remember ever having a temperature that high . She told me I probably had the flu and that I should go home. No basketball game for me, and the rest of my epic weekend was looking seriously in doubt.
Now I wouldn't say that I'm overtly stubborn, but I have my moments. I had looked forward to this weekend for a long time, and I was not going to accept that some little virus was going to derail the entire plan before it got started. I was going to do everything possible to hold it together. I went home, stretched out in the guest bedroom (I figured I should try to isolate myself. Sick, pregnant wife = bad news), took some NyQuil and went to sleep. Later, I got up, walked the dog and ate some dinner. I was feeling a bit better. I decided I would see how I felt in the morning. If I thought I could run, I was going to try.
Saturday morning, I actually felt really well. I decided to run. Now the nurse at school, after she took my temperature and I told her I was supposed to run a marathon, told me explicitly not to run. That morning though, it wasn't going to stop me. So I ran, and it was mostly good. I felt fantastic for the first half or so. The last few miles were a struggle, but I think that's pretty typical in a marathon. My final time was just under 3 hours 30 minutes which was right where I'd hope to be before I had any illness to contend with. Can't be disappointed with that. (I could get into much more detail about my run, but I'll do that in a separate post.)
The run took a lot out of me. I felt better than I might have expected given all the circumstances, but I had been bed-ridden a day earlier and just run a marathon. The next decision was whether or not I wanted to get on a plane in a few hours. The wild card in all this is I had to be productive educator at school this week. After much debate, I decided that the trip was not a good idea. At one point that afternoon I was feeling well enough I almost got on the plane, but I certainly wasn't out of the woods in terms of illness or leg stiffness. Getting in a cramped, flying germ incubator, and potentially infecting friends and family with my sickness just didn't seem prudent.
I've felt pretty crummy since then. A lot of coughing and congestion. I think that verifies that I made the right call. Maybe it validates that I shouldn't have run the marathon. Who knows?
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