WARNING! Jessica can now open doors (sometimes)

This week Jessica and I were playing in the kitchen and all of a sudden she reaches up and opens the door to the basement. Yikes! I scooped her up, headed to Walmart and bought safety knobs for the door. Crisis averted.

Today, I was vacuuming the house and Jess was running around wanting me to chase her with the vacuum and playing with the cord. I must of been really focused on my task at hand because after a while I realized she was longer anywhere to be seen. I turned off the vacuum and hear a faint "Mommmmmmy!" I couldn't figure out where it came from so I called "Jess, where are you?" I then hear a small knocking on the closet door where I keep the vacuum. I open the door and there is Jessica in the dark closet and all she says is "Hi". I guess she can't quite open all the doors yet :)
That kid sure keeps me on my toes.

My Little Girl

Jessica is different from Ristow is sooooo many ways. Ristow has always been more of an observer at first and then will try something, Jess dives in head first. Ristow never liked to get dirty, Jessica LOVES mud, dirt, water and pretty much anything messy. When Ristow was little he never climbed things he wasn't supposed to or jumped off furniture (nowadays he does), Jessica yells "Parkour!" as she jumps from the ottoman to the couch!

Today we went to the playground and of course Jess wasn't content playing on the little kids playground, she headed right for the big playground suggested for ages 5-12 :) She climbs the ladders like a pro and slides down the big slides with no fear. She amazes me. It is hard to remember at times that she isn't even two yet.
At home she wanted to play outside more and found her special dirt spot under the climbing wall of our little playground. She loves to dig and explore!
She would play outside all day long if she could. Thank goodness for nap time or I would never get anything done inside :)

Warrior Dash

A number of months back I saw pictures of my cousin Carrie dressed in some crazy costume covered in mud. I thought to myself "what in the world is she doing?" Then I read about the race she competed in and how much fun she had and I thought "I want to do that too!"

As soon as I saw that the Warrior Dash was coming to Tennessee, I signed up. I was so very excited about it but wasn't really in shape for it. I hadn't been running in a while and definitely didn't feel strong. So in July I started training with one of Christopher's personal trainers Jason to work on my running and getting stronger. Wow, what a difference. Just in the month of August alone I knocked my fastest 5K time down by almost 4minutes! And, I could actually start seeing the outline of muscles in my arms and back!

By the time Saturday came around I felt super ready (besides the head and chest cold that I got Thursday) I suited up my costume, mostly donated by Ristow's costume bin :), braided my hair for the first time ever and was ready to face the challenge.
The atmosphere was energetic and there was great people watching to be done at the race. Christopher, Ristow and my Dad came to cheer me on (mom was kind enough to watch my sick little girl). The race started off and we faced everything from hale bales to barbed wire to junk cars to climb and giant cargo nets. Crawling on our hands and knees in the dirt to using ropes to pull up over walls. After each obstacle I got more and more excited proving to myself that I actually could do this! As you round the turn for the finish you jump over two rows of fire logs and then dive into the mud pit and crawl across to the finish line! It was AWESOME.
They had a few fire hoses to rinse off in but there were so many people crowding the hoses like a herd of cattle I barely got my face rinsed off. So we threw a towel over the seat of the car and headed home. Of course I was still wearing my fuzzy warrior helmet I got for doing the race :)

I am a still a bit sore today and I have a big bruise on my leg but both of those serve to remind me of what I accomplished and how hard I have worked over the last few months. My training has given me confidence and a more positive view of who I am and for that I am grateful!

I highly recommend the Warrior Dash!