Atta Boy!

Yesterday was Nashville's (about 9th) Music City Marathon. Unlike some cities that only host a marathon, Nashville runs a half marathon as well, and both Grant and Keri ran in it - and finished happily, I'm happy to say. Although Grant said 40,000 runners were there, the paper today said 31,200 of which 25,500 ran in the half marathon. One 26-year-old young man, who ran in the half marathon, died, the first ever death in the event for the city. How tragic for the family, who has asked that his name and the circumstances of the death be kept private. They did say it was not heat-related although this was the "hottest" marathon ever with tempatures some 15 degrees above normal for this time of the year. The paper made much of the heat, noting its effects on runners, even experienced ones. Now I wonder what the ideal temperature is for running a marathon.

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This was Grant's first marathon; he only began running a few months ago. His time was insignificant as he chose to run with Keri to make it more fun and could have finished faster if running alone. He said that he wasn't really aware of what an "event" it was until Thursday night before the race when he realized how many people ran in it and how far away they traveled from to do so. Also, he said, the bands that played along the running route made it so much fun and made the time go by quickly.

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I chose the two pictures from The Tennessean above because Grant said one of the greatest sights along the route was when he crested a hill and could see the thousands of people running in the race and because, if we had gone, the picture on the right was the viewing spot I had chosen from a map showing the route as possibly a nice shady place to watch from. Turns out I would have been right, and there would have been room to set up a couple of chairs except the fact that there are no chairs makes me wonder if that was a road blocked off to traffic. Anyway, the race started at 7 a.m., with staggered times, and Grant and Keri finished around 9:30 which is just about when I'm drinking my 2nd cup of coffee. Besides Grant is big enough to do what he wants without Mom and Dad saying "atta boy!" I believe. Nevertheless, job well done, Grant and Keri.

We all looked nice on Easter . . . promise.

Happy Easter! Everyone looked nice in their Easter go-to-church clothes. I should have taken a picture as soon as they got here. Erin is still dressed in her church duds. But David and Grant decided they were going to play frisbee golf with some friends, so they changed into their "play" clothes before they left.

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At any rate, it was the 5 of us for dinner. We had a yummy spiral-sliced ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans almondine, fresh pineapple, deviled eggs, ripe olives and sweet pickles, biscuits, and pineapple upside down cake for dessert. In other words, the usual (for us).

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I told David that next year it's some family games after Easter dinner! Please! Bill and I didn't go to all that work to just have them run off. We know they like to be outside with their friends on a nice day, but a couple of days ought to be with family - like Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. And maybe Mother's and Father's Day. And Halloween. And Memorial Day. And 4th of July. And Earth Day. And Saint Patrick's Day. You get the picture.

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We had also been with them on Good Friday for Erin's birthday dinner. We were going to chow down at Taste of Tokyo in Hillsboro Village (Vanderbilt area), but when Bill and I got to the door we looked inside and it was empty. Empty as in no tables, chairs, etc. The kids arrived shortly thereafter and said we could go right next door to a restaurant called Jackson's. It's so nice that they are wealthy enough to have eaten out at half the restaurants in Nashville! We have built-in restaurant critics when we need them. Anyway, it was tasty and we had arrived early so when finished, Grant went to his church (West End Community Church) and Bill, Erin and I went to her Lutheran church, which was on the way home for us.

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I honestly can't remember ever going to a Good Friday service. I mentioned this to Mike and he said, as he remembers, in our day, they were held in the afternoon. Probably true as most people had Good Friday off. I don't know if it just wasn't a big thing in the Methodist Church or just too much hassle for Mom to get 4 children ready for church 2 times in 1 weekend. I swear I don't think it was a big thing in the Methodist Church because I don't remember much about people going when we went to Stow Methodist. Bill liked this service because the minister dressed up as a Roman soldier and talked about the events leading up to hanging Jesus on the cross from the Roman soldier's point of view. It was a very dark and depressing service, which, as I mentioned to Erin on the way out, makes people so happy to go to Easter service. Too bad I couldn't go to Easter service. But when I have to prepare a big dinner, that's all I have energy for. Could be the Lyrica I take for my chronic pain. Makes people tired. Need to take a nap. Zzzzzzz . . . .

Sadly, we're not going green at the VandeH20's

TIMBER! After 12 years at this address, our beautiful juniper tree finally grew too large for our rather small backyard. In 1996, it was probably about 1/4 of the size it was before it met it's demise this April. I didn't want to cut it down because the birds loved it, and we loved the birds (we're getting old, you know - into our bird watching years :>). But it also closed off the v iew of our backyard from our sunporch. For instance, now we can see the beautiful doublefile viburnum and pink dogwood and spirea in the corner with some white iris soon to be in bloom.

And we have sodded the whole dogpen area (inside the crummy looking, but does the job chic ken wire fence) so it now has grass again. The next step will be to decide what to do with the whole area underneath where the tree was. We had mulched that area a few times, and we left that stump since I think I'll move my birdbath over there and just sit it on the stump. At any rate, all in good time, all in good time.

Rome wasn't built in a day and that is about the pace at which these homeowners move. We are getting new countertops next week, though, and I'll take before and after pictures. We're replacing beige with, well, more beige! But, it's bye bye grout!