Last week was bananas. I somehow managed (with Kyle’s help) to get everything together for the big preschool meeting on Tuesday, kicked it into party-planning mode on Wednesday, cleaned the entire house on Thursday, and just about fell over from exhaustion on Friday.

I woke up at 4:00 on Friday morning in order to make it out of the door by 5 and get 20 miles in before Kyle had to leave for work. I reflected on what I was doing at that exact time two years ago…lying on the couch while my husband and baby boy slept, quietly breathing through increasingly painful contractions that were steadily coming every 5 minutes, wishing I could slow the labor down so Kade could get a few more hours of sleep. I would have laughed in your face if you had told me that two years later I would be training for my second marathon. I also thought about the women and men; like Kate and Kade’s soon-to-be teacher, Mrs. Richards; who were also out at this ungodly hour, starting their 3-day walk to fight breast cancer, not only doing 20 miles today, but the next 2 days as well, and it helped me to stop feeling sorry for myself and move on.

I woke up with a 111 blood sugar so I turned down my basal to 35%, ate about 20 grams of carbohydrates with no bolus and headed out the door at 136. Over the first 5 miles my sugar rose to 150 and it stayed there until mile 7 when the down arrow appeared. I ate one block and by mile 8 my sugar was steady at 148 again. It didn’t budge from that number for the next 12 miles, which meant I didn’t have to force down any more blocks (I am really sick of eating them on a run).

The run helped me clear my mind, work off the stress of the week and the impending birthday party, and gave me some much needed time alone. I felt great at mile 10 and knew that I could get through the next half. I ran at the track for the next 4 miles to give my legs a rest and took off to finish up the last 6 miles before home. At mile 16, when the fatigue was setting in, I saw a woman running towards me and thought it was a mirage…it couldn’t possibly be my running partner, Sarah (it was her birthday that day too and she was going to run later in the day). She waved her arms in the air so I knew she was real, took the reins and steered me through the last 4 miles. I finished strong, thanks to her presence and fresh legs. I owe her one.

I feel rather confident about a sub-4 finish in Chicago now. My 20-miler took me 3:05 and I ran it at a 9:15 pace, which is just a tad off from my marathon pace and this was only a training run. My sugars were awesome (they went to hell after the run, but at least I was home) and I recovered nicely (I didn’t really have a choice because the next two days were beyond hectic). I have two more 20-milers to go before the big dance and I only hope they go as smoothly as this one. I can promise that they won’t be run at 5 AM though.

Once I had washed all the salt off and had the kids and myself ready for the day, we went to breakfast, spent and hour in Target, stopped at Alesci’s to order sheet pizzas, and ordered a back up cake at the Eagle in case my cake wasn’t enough to feed the crowd. I fed the kids lunch, put Liv down for a nap and went to town baking my Ariel cake and cupcakes. Kyle got home, we ate dinner, did baths and bedtime and I started the frosting process. It took a good hour to tint the frosting and fill all the pastry bags (thanks for the extra set of hands, Kyle). I finally sat down to frost at 9:30 and plugged away for over 2 hours. This was the result.

The cake looked awesome next to this, which Uncle B made especially for Liv. He does party invitations if anyone is interested. This guy is super talented.

After cleaning up, organizing for the next day, and having a much needed glass of wine, we headed up to bed at 1:30. It was a long day, I was tired and my sugars kept bottoming out, but the smile on my baby girl’s face when she looked at her “Little Mermaid cake” in the morning was awesome.

That little girl smiled the entire day.

She is only 2 and has a network of friends larger than I do.

She was surrounded by people who love her and who prayed really hard all week that the rain would stay away so we could have this in the backyard.

And yes, she freaked out a little when all of those people started singing to her, but she quickly came around and made her wish.

I think her wish was that we would hurry up with this cake thing so she could get her sucker back, because getting to eat candy seems like exactly what a 2-year-old would wish for.

The gift opening was overwhelming (thank you to everyone for your kind and thoughtful gifts). Liv just wanted to snuggle next to me and read the cards.

Kade just wanted to scope everything out to see what he could play with later.

This was hands-down the best “Little Mermaid” party South Euclid has ever seen. Our friends and family helped to make it even more special. Honestly, without the help from my parents and Britt and Marc, Kyle and I would have been in trouble. We can’t thank you enough.

Ok…maybe we can. This face says it all. It just screams “thank you, I love you…this was the best birthday ever!”