Weekend Renewal and Remembering

This past week at school, our grading trimester ended. It was definitely a stressful week getting there. Now that I'm five years into teaching, I am pretty good about planning out when assignments are due so that I never have to take home work to grade. I like to think I use my plan time pretty efficiently too. However, with the swollen corneas, mastitis, and missing school for some professional development that was scheduled before school even started, I've been out of the classroom a lot. The assignments still went on though. So this past week I found myself with a mountain of grading to do before I could turn my grades in on Friday.

I made it though (with a couple of late nights and some help from Eric, who graciously graded some quizzes for me) and this weekend has been all about relaxing and renewing. Ahhh.... *sigh*. I have to say, the Johnson and Johnson's Lavender Bedtime Bath makes a great bubble bath for mommies too. And this little munchkin, in her cute hat and Miami shirt, also helps me feel renewed. It was also a weekend of remembering. I met Fred in the fall of 2006 when I was training for the Disney Marathon with Team in Training. He was training for a marathon in Arizona. We ran at about the same pace and usually ended up running together at our long runs. We also started training for the same bike ride in the spring of 2007, but I dropped when I found out I was pregnant with Cate. I also saw Fred frequently at school since he subbed in our district. As Eric began to do stuff with TNT and was eventually hired by them, he got to know Fred as well. Fred was just at just about every running event in Cincinnati and definitely at anything TNT related. He raised thousands of dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, ran or biked several hundred (if not a thousand) miles in training and in races, and volunteered countless hours for LLS. At mile 22 of the New York City Marathon this year, Fred collapsed with a heart attack. After being in a coma for a couple of weeks, he passed away this past Thursday morning, giving of himself even in death through organ donation. This morning, Eric watched as over 200 runners that knew Fred gathered in the rainy cold to run 4.2 miles (and "finish" the marathon with him). The picture below is of Fred at mile 20, just 2 miles before he had his heart attack. He will be missed.
I also learned this week that the younger brother of a girl I knew from church growing up passed away after falling off of his roof. Her brother is the same age as my brother, so it hit a little close to home. I wish I could've been in three places at once today...with Cate, with the runners, and with the Ball family in NE Ohio. Eric got to go with the runners and obviously I stayed with Cate since she was still sleeping when the runners took off (NE Ohio was kind of out of the question given the stress of this past week), but my prayers and thoughts were with everyone.

So here's to enjoying the rest of the weekend and continuing to remember and be renewed.

~Melody