We drove up to New York City on Saturday, November 5, and arrived in the early afternoon, as incident-free as can be expected with 3 young children. Mom & Dad and KK & Mike were all assembled at the hotel, so we quickly checked in and boarded the last round of charter buses heading for the Expo at Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.

If you’ve never been to a race expo, you’re not really missing out. Besides picking up your number and race packet (often including your finisher’s t-shirt), you have the opportunity to sample an endless quantity of power bars, gels, and drinks while wandering through countless racks of running shoes, apparel, and other gear. In between, officials from other races press brochures and promotional material into your hands. The cynic in me doesn’t relish being required to attend a marketing/promotional session; the runner in me has to admit that there is a unique air of excitement and enthusiasm for running not found in many (any?) other venues.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the afternoon doing some sight seeing, though Andreas and Maria (and thus Caleb and I) did not last quite as long as the others. After an early night at the hotel and an extra hour of sleep (thank you, end of Daylight Savings time!), KK, Dad, and I arose at 4:30 AM to catch the buses to Staten Island.

About 47,000 people run the NYC marathon each year, and the race takes place in all five boroughs of NYC. (Before this trip, I could not have named all five.) The logistics of shutting down major roads and bridges throughout the city are, I’m sure, insane; it also means that the morning is a long one for most participants.

The “staging area” is Fort Wadsworth, which is on the eastern side of the island. Runners take buses or ferries at designated times to arrive at the fort by about 7 AM, which is when the Verrazano Bridge between Staten Island and Brooklyn closed to traffic. We were split into three different colors (blue, orange, and green) and three different “waves,” starting at 9:40, 10:10, and 10:40 AM. Within each wave, we were further subdivided into “corrals.” Dad was in the first wave, I was in the second, and KK was in the third.

During our many hours at the fort, we were fed coffee & bagels (courtesy of Dunkin Donuts), Power Bars and Gels, water, hot tea and hot chocolate, and Gatorade. We came prepared for the chill of sitting outside for so many hours, but the weather was gorgeous this year and made staying warm relatively easy. Conversation, food, and race preparations passed the time quickly, and before we knew it, it was time to find our respective UPS trucks, which would take our bags to the finish line for us.

Around 10:15, after months and months of training and anticipation and one final rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, I began the race. We began at the base of the Verrazano Bridge, which meant that we were packed in and running elbow to elbow even more than one normally is at the start of a big race. My first mile was thus much slower than my intended pace, but I overcompensated and ran my second much too fast. After that, I settled into a decent pace through Brooklyn and Queens. I slowed a bit coming across the Queensboro Bridge and then decided to start walking through the water stations in Manhattan. Still, I felt energized by the AMAZING crowd support.

Honestly, it was astonishing to see that so many people would stand along the side of the road and scream, clap, high-five, and otherwise cheer on the never-ending stream of spandex and dri-fit clad runners. The only place no one was cheering was on the bridges, and only because they were closed to non-runners.

I continued to feel strong as we passed into the Bronx and then back into Manhattan, but the hardest two miles for me were around 23 and 24, where we gradually ran uphill along Central Park for what seemed an eternity. Finally, we came around the southern edge of the park, passed through Columbus Circle, and entered the Park for the final stretch. I felt strong during my last 1.2 miles, and crossing the finish line was an amazing feeling.

Then came the worst part of the race: shuffling to our UPS vans to pick up the bags. We were not supposed to sit or stop unless we needed medical attention, so we continued walking. . . and walking. . . and walking. Mine happened to be the second to last truck, which meant that I walked about .6 miles- an eternity when all you want to do is get off your feet! After grabbing my belongings and changing out of my sweaty clothes, I again started walking. . . and walking. . . and walking.

We had arranged to meet just north of Columbus Circle, but because of where I exited the Park and road closures, I ended up walking (shuffling) almost 2 miles to meet up with Mike, Caleb, and Simona. All of that took close to an hour, and unfortunately, my chip had a glitch, so my mile 26 and finish times were not recorded. This meant that those tracking me didn’t know if I had finished. . . or collapsed at the end. Thankfully, I found them (courtesy of the highly visible German flags) shortly before they called the emergency number for missing runners!

In the end, it took about 2.5 weeks for the NYC Road Runners club (which administers the race) to determine my accurate finish time (via video recording of the finish line). The delay was a bit agonizing, especially because I didn’t stop my watch at the finish and so didn’t really know my final time. I am grateful to the NYCRR , though, for being so professional and thorough in resolving such glitches. In the end, my time was 3:41:33- not a PR (personal record), but my second fastest marathon and well under my hoped-for goal of 3:45. I was thrilled with the entire experience: the weather, the crowds, the city, the course, my effort, and my time.

We finished off the weekend with Sunday morning brunch with a dear old friend, Leslie, whose dad completed residency with my dad in Chicago in the early 1980s. We lived in the same building then, and our families have kept in touch over the years. I hadn’t seen Leslie since high school, so it was wonderful to reconnect!

One final but very important note: I could not have achieved this without Caleb’s tremendous support. During the many months of training, he took on an extra childcare burden while I mapped out, planned for, and executed my many, many training runs. He sacrificed his own sleep, time, and work-out time to let me focus on this, and I’m extremely grateful. I’ve promised him a break from marathoning, so I’ll be focusing on some shorter runs for the next few years. But come 2014 or 2015, I hope to be taking on the London Marathon. Let’s see if I stick to it!

It has been a LONG road to get here, beginning with submitting an entry to the lottery back in 2009. On April 3, 2010, my suspicion that I was pregnant was confirmed; a mere 4 days later, on April 7, I found out that I was one of the lucky lottery winners and had a slot for the 2010 NYC marathon. Obviously that wasn’t going to happen. After deferring my entry, I spent over a year telling people, “I don’t know where I’ll be living after Caleb graduates, but I know for sure I’ll be in NYC on Sunday, November 6, 2011!”

Then, in late January of this year, about 6.5 weeks after Maria’s birth, I began running again. Miles were slow and felt long, but by mid-summer, I had shed all but the last few pounds of baby weight and was ready to start training in earnest.

I used an official training plan this time (Hal Higdon’s Intermediate II), with some slight modifications, so my training kicked off on July 10. Since then, I have completed runs in Germany, Georgia, Alabama, DC, Virginia, and Maryland, logging 556.5 miles in heat, rain, wind, dark, cold, humidity, and more. I have trained harder for this race than for any in a long time.

And now, two days before the race, I am READY. Ready to run my heart out. Ready to run a PR, but also ready for the fact that it just may not be my day. Ready to take a 5 AM bus to Staten Island. Ready to spend 3 hours pre-race with Dad and KK hanging out in the cold. Ready to have fun. Ready to hurt. Ready to run 26.2 miles through the streets of New York City.

See you at the finish.

We have now been residents of Baltimore, Maryland (or Bawlmer, Merlun, as the locals say), for all of two weeks and have had some excitement!

We spent a week in DC at the beginning of August and then lived in a corporate rental apartment for a week while we awaited the arrival of our belongings, but on August 13, we finally moved into our new (rental) home.  The days have been filled with boring errands: Target, LONG waits to get new drivers’ licenses, license plates, parking permits, etc.; unpacking; and getting our bearings in our new city.  Simona is registered for school, and Nancy is enrolled in an Anatomy & Physiology course at a local community college.  Both of them start next week.

Mother nature, though, is ensuring that we don’t get too bored!  We were all startled by the earthquake here on Tuesday, and we’re hoping to avoid too much impact from the approaching Hurricane Irene.  Baltimore also hosts its first “Gran Prix” auto race over Labor Day weekend, which is sure to bring crowds, noise, and traffic to our part of town.

More to come, with a picture update to follow.

We cannot believe that she is so big (and that we have been parents for so long)! Of course, as her parents, we cannot help but take every opportunity we can to brag, so here goes:

Simona is funny. Just ask Maria! No one can make Maria belly laugh the way Simona can with her silly dances and faces. Simona is also amazingly good at math. She can figure out basic multiplication problems (four times three, etc.) on her own, and she recently was able to tell us that half of sixty is thirty. She is learning some basic reading but is much better at it in German than in English. This not surprising, since we speak German here at home and since it is a much, much more phonetic language than English. Simona also has a kind heart and overall is quite empathetic. She is creative, artistic, and far more graceful and girly than I’ve ever been. She balances this with a love for swimming, bike riding, digging, and climbing. We delight in watching her grow into her own person.

(Just so you don’t think that all of the preceding praise is made up, I will throw in the honest truth: she can be harsh with her little brother, sometimes lies to avoid getting in trouble (bad move!), and doesn’t quite yet get the nuance between being proud and excited vs. being proud and boastful. But she tries so hard to please us and to be a “good person.”)

We celebrated her fifth birthday twice. The first event was a pool party on Saturday at our apartment pool.

Her second party took place on Sunday, her actual birthday, in “Berbree City,” as Andreas calls Oma and Opas house. Opa took the kids swimming and kayaking in their pool (yes, he put the kayak in the pool. . .) and then went on a bike ride to the elementary school playground. Simona got her requested meal of “hamburgers and mac-n-cheese,” supplemented by some tolerable green beans, followed by presents and ice cream cake. Sounds like a successful day by any 5-year-old’s standards, I’d say!

BIG NEWS
Our big news is that . . . we finally know where we’ll be moving! We had planned on “knowing” by graduation, but graduation came and went back in May. Lest you think Caleb was dragging his feet in the job search process, let me assure you: He was not. He spent many, many hours over the past year drinking gallons of coffee at various “meet for coffee” networking meetings throughout the Atlanta area. I think he knows every individual who has ever been even tangentially involved in the real estate industry in this city.

Along the way, we learned that a job search like this can be a bit of a geography bee. There were MANY places we considered moving during this job hunt process. Some of these were serious considerations, complete with actual interviews or job offers, Google map geography lessons, elementary school research, etc. Others ended up being long-shot scenarios– job postings to which Caleb deliberated applying, job leads that quickly dried up or ended up not being the right fit for us, etc.

A few of the cities we considered:
- Piscataway, New Jersey
- New Delhi, India (yes, the country!)
- San Antonio, Texas
- San Francisco, California
- Chicago, Illinois
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Hanover, New Hampshire
- McLean, Virginia (near Dulles Airport)
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Atlanta, Georgia

But in the end, we are moving right back where we started: Washington, DC! Caleb has accepted a job in Baltimore, Maryland. We have been deliberating whether to move to Baltimore or DC, but for a variety of reasons, we have decided that at this point, DC makes more sense for us. We are very open to the possibility that the commute will be too much, so we plan to reconsider our situation after 6-12 months. In the meantime, however, we are excited to return to the District!!

We will be moving out of our apartment here in about 1 week and will spend time in Germany before beginning our next adventure: Round 2 in the Nation’s Capitol!

Caleb graduated from Goizueta Business School at Emory University this week! He completed the One-Year Accelerated Masters in Business Administration, with a concentration in Real Estate and Finance.

He’s not the type to brag, so I will do so for him. Caleb has won award upon award during his one year at Emory, including being named to the Dean’s List, being named a Dean’s Scholar, being inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma business honors society, and being voted as the one-year student who best exemplifies integrity by his peers. I’m proud of him for all that he has achieved, but the peer “integrity” award is especially sweet. I know that I am married to a man who embodies hard work, honesty, and humility, but it’s flattering to know that his friends and classmates see those same traits in him, too.

He also entered two Real Estate “case competitions” (yes, nerdy- don’t worry– I’ve teased him plenty). One was a competition among Emory students, and Caleb’s team won. The second was a state-wide competition, with teams from Georgia Tech, UGA, Georgia State, and Emory. Again, Caleb’s team won.

Besides accumulating these academic accolades, Caleb has managed to spend plenty of quality time with his kids, build lifelong friendships with his classmates, be a devoted husband, exercise (relatively) consistently, and network with just about every living GBS alum in the entire world.

The future for us is still up in the air. We are in the process of making some tough decisions, trying to balance career and family considerations as we try to discern what next steps will be most honoring to God. We’ll be sure to report back once those decisions are made!

Early in the month, we did a family “hiking” day at Fort Yargo State Park. It was really fun and refreshing, and about the level of “hiking” we can manage at this point in our family life. Which essentially consisted of about 2.5 hours of walking, playing, picnicking, and walking some more.

Simona was mostly interested in going UP. . .

. . . while Andreas was interested in what was DOWN on the ground. (Pine straw was especially fascinating.)

After that, we headed to nearby Athens, home of the University of Georgia, to stroll around the town and even eat at a restaurant- a rare and risky experience for our little family! Fortunately, everyone (mostly) behaved themselves.

Maria also traveled out of state for the first time in March. . . more on that to come!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

8.25 pm (approximately): Caleb and Simona call Grandpa Brenneman so Simona can sing her rendition of “Happy Birthday.”  After catching up for a bit, Caleb and Grandpa have a good chuckle about how quickly the baby would need to come in order to still arrive on his birthday.  If they only knew  …

Thursday, December 9

1.30 pm: Nancy attends a routine weekly appointment with the OBGYN as she approaches the end of her 40th week of pregnancy.  After waiting the obligatory hour and fifteen minutes for her 10-minute appointment, she is seen by the doctor.  The doctor insists that she schedule next week’s appointment for Tuesday so we can discuss an induction if the baby has not yet arrived.

This strikes Nancy as a bit over-eager, since her due date is Saturday, December 11, and Tuesday will only be 72 hours “overdue”, so to speak.

3.05 pm: Nancy arrives home just as Caleb presses “Send” to submit his last final of the semester.  Caleb is glad the baby has held off this long.

11.00 pm (approximately): Nancy and Caleb turn the lights out for the night.  Nancy mentally wills the baby to come so that she will not have to face an induction next week.  We’ve always known Nancy is “strong-willed” …

Friday, December 10

3.37 am: Nancy wakes up with a mild contraction.  She gets out of bed, walks around the apartment for a few minutes, and packs some cookies baked earlier last night into a tupperware container.  No more contractions seem to be coming.

3.47 am: Nancy returns to bed.

4.23 am: Nancy wakes again with a contraction that is somewhat painful.  She gets up and walks around the apartment for a few more minutes and starts to get the final things together for the hospital.  Contractions now seem to be coming regularly and with increasing intensity, so she decides to wake Caleb.

4.34 am: Nancy wakes Caleb and says it is time.  Asked how far apart the contractions are, Nancy says, “About four minutes,” without really knowing for sure.  Four minutes freaks Caleb out a bit.  Think about how much more he would have been freaked out if he had known the real answer was “two minutes.”

4.36 am: Caleb calls the doctor and is on hold for two minutes before the answering service picks up.  Oh those precious two minutes …  The answering service says the on-call doctor will call us back soon.  I guess that depends on your definition of soon …

4.40 am: Caleb speaks with Nancy’s mom, Pat, and tells her we are going to the hospital.  Pat is coming to be home with Simona and Andreas.  She says she will be out the door in 10 minutes (with a 40 minute drive ahead of her).

4.41 am: Next, Caleb calls Laryn, a good friend from DC.  Laryn and Janel moved to Atlanta from DC this summer and live across the courtyard in the same apartment complex.  They’ve agreed to be on-call to watch the kids if we need a stop-gap before one of Nancy’s parents can be here.  Something in Caleb’s voice tells Laryn that they need him ASAP, so he doesn’t even bother to change out of his PJ’s.

4.47 am: Caleb and Nancy pass Laryn on the stairs on their way out of the building, and Laryn wishes them good luck.  Nancy has a major contraction in the courtyard while Caleb puts the things in the car, gets it started, and pulls it around.

4.51 am: The mad-dash drive to Atlanta Medical Center begins.  There are eight stoplights between our apartment and the hospital.  All eight are red.  Caleb runs every one of them.  Nancy is yelling (to herself), “Don’t push!  Don’t push!”  Caleb drives faster.

4.56 am: After going around to the wrong side of the building for the off-hours entrance, we park right in front of the Emergency Room doors.  Caleb overhears the security guard radioing for another security officer to bring a wheelchair.

4.57 am: The wheelchair is arriving as Caleb and Nancy enter the emergency waiting area.  The guard from the door asks Caleb if he can move the car over to the lane farthest from the entrance.  Caleb drops the things in the waiting area and waves to Nancy to go ahead.

4.58 am: Caleb dashes back inside, retrieves the bag from the waiting room floor and heads for the elevator.  Nancy and her security guard escort have already made their way to the 7th floor.  The elevator seems to take forEVER.

5.00 am: Nancy, being wheeled down the corridor by the security guard, has an incredibly hard contraction.  She cannot resist the urge to push any longer, and decides it will be OK to just give one push since they are almost there.  Then she feels something coming.  She reaches down, lowers her McIntosh cross country sweat pants, and cradles her newborn baby.  The security guard stops in his tracks, not sure of what to do, and the nurses from the nearby nurse’s station jump up to assist.

5.00 am: Caleb arrives on the 7th floor, reads the directional sign, and heads left for Labor and Delivery.  He hears a baby crying, and thinks it strange to hear that sound before being inside the L&D double-doors.  Then he sees some blood on the floor and a lot of commotion at the nurses’ station ahead.

Caleb comes around the corner to see Nancy sitting in a wheelchair, holding a baby.  With a slightly bewildered look, Nancy says, “Our baby is here!”  Caleb does not remember what he said (if anything) … he does remember the security guard saying only “Congratulations …” as he excused himself as quickly as possible.

Epilogue: after a few more minutes, we were escorted to an actual labor and delivery room.  The midwife on duty showed up shortly and checked everyone over.  Everyone was well – stunned, but well.  Caleb and Nancy found it a bit ironic that one of the forms they were asked to sign about an hour later was a “Consent for Vaginal Birth”.  Fantastic.

So, in summary, a few key stats:

26: Minutes between Caleb waking up and Maria being born

At least 3: Security guards who got a good laugh at their colleague’s expense

8: Red lights run on the way to the hospital

1: Times Nancy pushed

Still counting: Minutes until the doctor called back

27: Minutes between birth and being offered a smashed PBJ sandwich and a bag of Lay’s chips (yum)

Either 85 or 400: Interstate where Maria would have been born if we were going to Northside Hospital, where Nancy was initially scheduled to deliver.

5: Times Nancy has been asked “So YOU’RE the one who delivered in the wheelchair?”

1: Precious addition to our family with a great story to go along

Festivities to celebrate KK’s big day officially began on home turf, though: Her bridal shower and bachelorette weekend took place here in Georgia. Since I’m currently back to being a Georgia Peach, I was the lucky one who didn’t have to travel this time!

The shower was down in Peachtree City, so the night before, we had an old-school family dinner- Mom, Dad, and 3 of the 4 sisters! I don’t know when the last time was we all sat in our “assigned seats” and ate mom’s cooking without any spouses/friends/kids/others at the table. It was just too bad Janice couldn’t be there. . . then again, Oregon is a long way from Georgia. . .

. . . Little did KK know, though, that Janice actually WAS en route to surprise her and attend the festivities. She arrived on Saturday morning while KK was “out and about” with bridesmaid Anamanda.

The surprise!

The shower was beautiful, and KK opened great gifts, including one that was bound to please Mike:

Next, the party pared down to the “bachelorette” crew, who completed a fun video scavenger hunt before heading up to Atlanta for a night of good food and fun.

Matron of honor Linda had arranged for a great dinner, dessert, and night in a beautiful hotel with a rooftop pool in Midtown.

The next three weeks flew by, and before we knew it, we were all in Ithaca, NY for the big day! We stayed at the same house in Brooktondale we had rented for KK’s graduation, so it was fun to have the family mostly together. Simona and Andreas enjoyed some down time with Uromi.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the rehearsal dinner or Polterabend, which took place at Mike’s parents’ house. It was a great evening, including delicious roasted pig, a bonfire, ice cream, and, of course, the requisite plate breaking and sweeping.

The next morning, we headed up to the beautiful Aurora Inn, located on the shores of Cayuga Lake. Though the day was windy and cool with occasional raindrops, it was anything but drab. (And actually, that’s exactly my favorite kind of weather- like a good fall day along the Elbe River in Schleswig Holstein!)

The bride was beautiful, and the bright colors she had chosen contrasted beautifully with the gray sky.

The ceremony took place at a church a few doors down and was followed by a salute from KK & Mike’s crew friends. (I should also note that the groom himself rowed in a race (with his bride watching) THAT MORNING!)

After that, it was back to the Aurora Inn for a night of dancing and fun.

The newlyweds honeymooned in Hawaii before settling down in their current home in Nashua, NH. We’re so happy for you, Mike & KK! Congratulations!

Wedding #3 for us was that of my older (but not bigger!) sister, Janice. She and her (now husband) Gus met in Eugene, Oregon as grad students at the University of Oregon in 2005. Gus has been an unofficial member of the family since about 2007, and we all welcomed the chance to formally induct him to the clan. Whether Gus, an only child used to small, calm family gatherings, was equally eager to join our crazy, busy family. . . well, let’s just say that he loves Janice an awful lot! We have tried to go easy on him, but you know how it can be with the ever-changing, ever-dramatic dynamics of four sisters. Especially in a year in which each of them is experiencing major life transitions. (As my uncle famously says, “Our family puts the FUN in dysfunctional!”)

In seriousness, though, we looked forward to our trip to Eugene for many reasons, not least of which was seeing Janice marry the man she loves. Linda flew to Oregon with S, A, and me, and the kids did really well on the long flight. KK had possibly the craziest schedule, graduating from her nutrition program at Vanderbilt only to fly directly to Oregon. But we enjoyed the final pre-wedding festivities, which included decorating Janice and Gus’s backyard for the “Polterabend” and having an impromptu bachelorette party in Eugene.

The Polterabend was a casual barbecue in their backyard, which was great fun. Between jet lag and tired children, our family couldn’t stay for the bonfire and late-night festivities but still enjoyed the time to catch up with friends and family.

Next, the party moved to the Eagle Rock Lodge, located on the banks of the McKenzie River in the beautiful Cascade Mountain range. Caleb and I thought we had the best room in the bed and breakfast, but so did most everyone else- that’s how beautiful the entire lodge was! In addition to fabulous rooms and gorgeous scenery, the hosts served the most amazing breakfast spread. If you ever find yourself vacationing in Oregon, we highly recommend this place! Our only regret is that we didn’t have enough time to take in the natural beauty and explore the area more.

*Credit for most of these photos goes to my cousin Kai- Danke!

If you ever want the full-blown, all-American Halloween experience, come to Atlanta! More specifically, come to the Virginia Highlands.

For weeks, we have been hearing from other parents that the Highlands is a great place to trick-or-treat. I’d say that’s an understatement! I’ve never been to a neighborhood that puts this much effort (or money!) into the decorations, costumes, and candy. People handing out candy seemed so enthusiastic about it that I felt almost guilty if our kids skipped a few houses here or there. Folks were waiting on their porches, many of them dressed up themselves. Jack-o-lanterns were far more than a simple carved face. We literally could have spent 3-4 hours and come home with bags and bags of candy. As it was, we spent about an hour at one-year-old pace and nearly filled up two entire plastic pumpkins with goodies. . . more than enough for our little trick-or-treaters!

For our family, Halloween festivities this month included visiting a pumpkin patch with Oma and Opa a few weekends ago, complete with hayride, inflatable haunted house, petting zoo, face painting, crazy maze, and a pumpkin patch. (Most of our pictures of this were taken with a different camera and aren’t available to me right now.)

Simona and I also did a little festive arts-and-crafts project of making ghosts to hang up in the kids’ room. I’m NOT usually the crafty, creative type, so this was a bit of me trying to stretch myself. We kept it simple and both had fun.

Simona’s class had a Halloween party on Friday, but tonight was the BIG night. We ate an early dinner and got all dressed up for trick-or-treating fun. The kids wore the costumes Grandma made for them last year, with Simona dressed as an orange and white horse and Andreas dressed as a jack-o-lantern. Simona requested that Caleb dress up as a cowboy to go along with her horse, and he graciously obliged.

As you can see, there were MOBS of families going door to door.

The decorations were intense.

Some houses even handed out “treats” for the (non-pregnant) grown-ups.

Andreas got into the spirit, learning a robust vocabulary of Happy Haween!, Good Light!, Thanks!, Trick-treat, and, at one house, even, “Got it!” after he grabbed a piece of candy. The most fascinating part to him was looking at all of the candles glowing inside the jack-o-lanterns. Simona liked the variety of decorations but was surprisingly shy in her interactions with the adults.

The kids have plenty of “loot” to keep them candy-saturated for some time to come. And Caleb and I have been given strict orders from Simona NOT to eat any of her candy, but to help ourselves to Andreas’s.