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My birthday was last Thursday and while it was pretty low key I did get to spend a couple of kid-free hours shopping.  I bought myself a new purse and wallet but more importantly, I got to browse around and look at things I didn't even plan to buy without a kid screaming at me or asking for something.  That was huge!  We had a family celebration on Thursday night with dinner and carrot cake and then went out with some friends on Friday.  It was a great couple of days!

Me and Suki before dessert

Max thought it was his birthday!  We lit a candle for each of the kids so they could help me blow them out.

Post dinner - my two cuties!

Dinner (well, mostly drinks) at Old Town Social

Miggie, Gretchen and Me

I can't wait to see what thirty-four has in store for me!

Running

Well, I guess after 7 weeks of training I can officially consider myself a runner!  I have a love-hate relationship with this new hobby of mine and don't know how long I will keep it up but it has been a challenging adventure so far.  A few months ago I promised my brother-in-law that I would run the Rock-N-Roll Chicago Half Marathon with him if he'd fly out for it.  Of course, he went and signed up for the race right away so I had to follow through with my promise.  I started out running a couple days a week and then started a twelve week training plan about 7 weeks ago.  I have days where I am excited to get up and run and days where I dread the run so much that I end up pushing it off a day or so.  This has been a huge commitment for me (both time-wise and physically) and I am pretty proud of myself for keeping it up this long.  I have never been one of those people that loves to exercise (who are those people anyway!).  The run is only a few weeks away and now that I have a couple of 10 mile runs under my belt I am feeling more confident that I can actually do it!  I will keep ya'll posted on my progress...