The Chicago Marathon

This Saturday, I went up to Chicago to watch my sister run her 4th Marathon. I went up to watch her because she was raising money for a charity which is near and dear to my heart. She was running for "Run for Autism." In order for her to be allowed to run, she had to raise $500 for a charity. My twin boys are both on the autism spectrum so I thought it was super cool she was running for them.
I can not even walk a marathon let alone run. How people want to run for almost 5 hours straight is beyond me? Unless, you are from Kenya and look like a skeleton and then you run it in 2 hours. Damn, they are fast! There were 45,000 runners. I feel this is an insane amount of people. Heather, my sister, ended up running it in 4 hours and 42 minutes. Normally, she runs it in right around 4 hours, but it was 84 degrees and humid and she was struggling to finish. It was not about time to her, it was about finishing this race because she was running and fighting for something she believed in. Needless to say, I am so very proud of her huge accomplishment and wanted to share it.

Monster Truck Show Hell

Tonight I was looking forward to a night of fun with my family. My kids love trucks more than anything in this world so I thought I should take them to the monster truck show. Boy do I wish I stayed home. We left the house and went to the US Cellular Coliseum and all was good. We got in line at the food stand and paid way too much for food but kids were happy so who cares. The second we get in our seats one of the twins, Taylor, starts telling me that he wants to go home. Then I remembered, he had not taken a nap all day so this was going to be interesting. (Note to self never take children out in public at night with no nap.)

So, they started the show and both my kids jumped in my lap at the sound of those massive machines. Taylor went in to sensory meltdown and kept saying "Mommy, I want to go home." I took him on a walk to calm him down and then went back to our seats and he started bawling. So, I got up again and took him on another walk. Then, we found a big screen tv in the family lounge so I turned that on and Taylor watched Spiderman on the Toon Disney Channel during the loudest show on earth. He then falls asleep on me for 30 minutes at the loudest show on earth. How he does that is beyond me?

I finally got him up again and walked back to where my husband Dan was sitting. He again proceeds to tell me "Mom, I want to go home." I told Dan it is time to go I can not take it anymore so Dan and I and the twins left.

We get to the car and Dan realizes he has no idea where the keys are. It is cold outside and I am with two kids who have not napped in downtown Bloomington at night with the crazies running the streets. UGGH! I felt like I was in a bad dream. He went back to the Coliseum and checked where we were sitting and did an entire walk around and still no keys. He then comes back to where I was in the parking lot, walking the kids in circles to entertain them, with no keys. UGGH AGAIN! He tried calling several of his friends and nothing.

I ended up calling my friend Dave who lives a block down the street to come and rescue me. I gave him my garage code and told him I thought that my keys were in the garage. So we wait awhile still outside in the cold for him to show up and he has the wrong keys. I decided to take the kids and myself with him to my house to look for the keys and left my husband in the cold till we got back. We went to my house and no keys anywhere so then I decided that I was going to go to Dan's shop to get his other truck to come and get him. I then discover in the truck are the extra keys to the car. Hooray! I am finally going to get to pick my car up and take it home.

I will never go to a Monster Truck Show ever again.