a sad day in boston

Yesterday I was in flight prepared to write-up all my posts for this week. Spent an awesome weekend with family, saw friends and had a great time. I finished off my weekend as a spectator at the 117^th Boston Marathon with my sister and parents. I have a special place in my heart for the Boston Marathon, and I always will. We watched from Natick at mile 10, before heading into the airport to catch my flight to Denver. Spoke with Al before getting on the plane, I was a tad delayed, but not enough to be annoyed by it. We reached 10,000 feet and I turned on my laptop to get some work done.

Within seconds I had 7 people gchatting me, multiple emails – all with terrible, frightening subject lines and 50+ Facebook related messages and emails from co-workers. I turned my phone on and I had 14 text messages all from different people.

It took everything I had to mask the tears that wanted to stream down my face. I felt pain for all of those affected by the horrific actions of a sick person. And for the loved ones that were unsure where their runners or spectators were. And I felt so much sadness for those runners. The excitement, the anticipation and the accomplishment was harshly stripped from so many of them.

It’s sad to think that after 117 years of running this beautiful route, breaking world records, making history, and having the best spectators in the world, the Boston Marathon will never be the same.

My sister and I, happy times at the Boston Marathon

I’m so tired of the hatred, but I know it will never end. We can wish and hope and pray, but realistically it will always be there. It makes me more and more angry with each occurrence of events, such as this, that takes place. Stripping everyone of the joy, the history and the tradition of the Boston Marathon this time around.

I have to constantly remind myself how there are more good people than bad, and I’ll forever hold the first image I saw of yesterday’s sad event. A photo of a runner knocked to the ground from the blast, loads of runners still coming behind and three cops in action, guns pulled, ready to protect. It warmed my heart and I hope that some, in that moment felt a sense of safety and security. Because one thing is certain, I’m drained and sad of feeling frightened and on alert everywhere I go. I know we can’t live in fear, but I’m finding it harder and harder to talk myself out of it.

Start of the first runners coming through Natick

I let out a big sigh as we began to descend to DIA.  I found myself incredibly thankful for technology yesterday as I could communicate with everyone in flight. I was able to update folks around me on the plane, all of which had no clue what was occurring in Beantown and were instantly panicked upon finding out. I was able to email and confirm safety of loved ones for a flight attended on board and a passenger behind me. In that moment there were a handful of folks, myself included, who were thankful for community and the act of helping, not hurting one another. And I’m so thankful for all of you, friends and family from near and far, who reached out immediately to see if my family was safe. I love the sense of community whether it’s your best friend or someone you haven’t seen in 10 years. That’s what we need to hold in our hearts.

The Hoyt’s, father and son duo

So today, I proudly wear my home state t-shirt as I settle back in to the routine in CO. I wear it because I’m proud, I wear it because I’m sad, I wear it for the victims, the runners, the loved ones affected and for Bostonian’s everywhere. I wear it to represent the city that I’m so proud to be from and to show that we folk from Beantown, we stick together.

it’s spring cleaning time!

It’s Marathon Monday here in Boston today! It’s fun to relive that day a year later and remember all the amazing memories. I can’t believe it’s been a year. We’ll be out there showing our support today!

The weather here in New England is slowly starting to warm up so we took advantage and got started on some spring cleaning this weekend. It felt great to have the windows open and the fresh air circulating.

We started to clean up the yard and get it ready to plant our garden. We raked all of our outdoor space, pulled some weeds and started space planning for the garden.

I washed all of our hats, mittens, gloves, scarves and winter jackets and packed those away for next year. I love when winter concludes because it means I gain more space and less clutter from all these items!

We brought out our warmer weather clothes and went through everything, purging what we don’t need/want. We’ll make a trip to the consignment store and donation bin this week.

We started a bin for yard sale items. My family is planning another big multi-family yard sale this spring so I figured now’s a good time to start collecting sellables.

I cleaned the kitchen top to bottom. Really scrubbed, including the inside of the fridge. This is the time of year for ants and other bugs so I’m trying to keep them OUT as best I can!

I even took some time to catch up on cooking and freezing some GP friendly foods for myself. I pureed butternut squash, carrots and oatmeal.

So, all in all it was a pretty accomplished weekend. At least a good start to our spring cleaning. Still lots of other projects on the list but for now I feel like we’ve made a dent. Are you guys doing any spring cleaning? Any tips and tricks you’d care to share?

my marathon shadow box

Nearly a year later, (this year’s Boston Marathon is on Monday April 16th!) I’ve finally completed my marathon running shadow box. It took me forever because I wanted to make sure to get it perfect.

I had tried a few other shadow boxes, but they were just too small and things were too crowded. So I went big. I picked up this almost 16″ x 20″ one on super sale and with a coupon. It’s original price was $44.99, I paid something like $16 or $17.

I knew when I bought it I’d be painting it white, but it was much cheaper to buy the wood colored one than the white finished one. I used a can of glossy white Krylon spray paint. I put newspaper on the glass and taped it down with painters tape. Would have been helpful if I took a photo of that step…

I had collected all the things I wanted in the shadow box a long while ago. Now it was just a matter of laying them out and putting it together. I included my bib number, photo of me crossing the finish line, my medal, my official race time certificate and my official race splits card.

You’ll also see a hair elastic. Or maybe you can’t see it, but it’s that black circle in the certificate. That was an extra hair tie I had on my wrist just in case. A few miles into the race I started playing with it as I ran. I was holding it, stretching it, rolling it around with my pointer finger and thumb.

Turns out I did that for almost 22 miles. So by the time I finished I felt like I had to keep it. It was almost like a distraction to me while running. If I focused on that I wouldn’t focus on the miles to come, the pain or anything else.

You probably can’t see it in these photos, but in the official finish line photo you can see the hair tie on my fingers.

Anyway, I love how it turned out. And it fits perfectly on a narrow wall in our living room.

Some day I’d love to have it hung in an office or workout room. But for now while it’s still fresh, front in center in the living room is where it’ll be!