Happy New Year!

We went to dinner at Pearl's Oyster House on Main and
met up with Elizabeth for a drink afterwards. Still in bed well before midnight!

The ringing in of 2009 marketed the tenth New Year's that D and I have spent together. Particularly given the state of the world, we had a great 2008. While we still live in Memphis after high hopes of moving to Atlanta in 2008, we've learned to appreciate it and be grateful for our jobs and many blessing. During 2008, I of course learned to run much further, D picked up running, and we removed Cokes from our diet. We've tried to go more green through using only cloth napkins in our house, which really make a meal (even pizza) nicer anyway. Though we know we'll face struggles and many life lessons, we can't wait to see what 2009 brings to the Pattersons on Cherrydale. Happy New Year to you and yours!

Merry Christmas

A little tree with a HUGE bow! (I got a bit impatient this year looking for the perfect tree forgetting the large bow that was ready to go on it. Oh, well.)

M and D before church. The service was WONDERFUL!

Millie tries to be a present.

Mom and Dad

D and M

We've had SO much fun having my parents visit for the holidays. Eating, drinking, and shopping have been our favorite activities. We hope the holidays are living up to your expectations and all of your holiday wishes are coming true.

Morning Beverages!

There are very few mornings when one can sit around and leisurely drink his / her favorite beverages. One of those few guilt-free mornings for me is . . . Christmas morning. I started the morning with yummy coffee, which is a treat for me, as I don't drink coffee everyday. Coffee was followed by water to ensure

plenty of hydration! :) Finally, I got to have my Christmas MIMOSAS! Yummy! I hope you and yours had a very delicious and merry Christmas morning.

The FREAK running in the FREEZING cold!

M on the track in Autozone Park right after the race.

D and M after M changed in to dry clothes.


Courtney ( 1/2) and Mike (full) who both ran personal best times.

M and Courtney. Courtney was a huge help w/ my training.

At around 9:30 on Friday evening, I climbed into bed w/ my Tylenol PM, water, Runner's World, and The Shack. Read a few articles and a bit of my book and drifted off to sleep with relative ease (IE: Tylenol PM takes effect). I was abruptly awoken by my sweet Tahoe running around the house barking. You have got to be kidding, dog. I have to run my first half marathon in the morning. Shut up! I drifted back off and woke again to realize that dog and David were no longer in the room. My sweet husband had spent the night on the couch in the keeping room with the dog, who turned out to be sick, so I could rest. (While "keeping rooms" were supposed to be the warmest place in the house to sleep in the old south, ours is FREEZING!)

My alarm went off at 5:30 am. I asked God to let me push myself as hard as I possibly could today but to know when to stop if needed, grabbed my BlackBerry from the nightstand to read the most encouraging email I've ever received that my brother sent me the night before one last time, and hopped out of bed to get ready for the big day. I remained fairly calm until I couldn't find my race number, which I knew I had placed somewhere carefully the night before so I could find it quickly. Luckily, I found it rather quickly so not too much energy was wasted freaking out about a lost number. My stomach was of course giving me fits, but we had to go so we hopped in the car and off we went.

I went to my corral, which was pretty far back, but that is okay. I was there, and while I would run slower than most, I would run the entire course. After about fifteen minutes after the Elites started, Corral #11 was finally ready to go and away I ran. The race went fairly well for about the first nine miles. At nine miles, I hit a rough patch where energy seemed to be fleeting quickly. I will train better for my "rough spot" next time now that I have experienced it. As I'm running around town, my sweet husband had waited for me at mile 3 for over an hour and never saw me. He grew a bit worried that something had happened. He never heard anything from me so he headed to the stadium. He knew my estimated time of arrival at the finish line and started watching for me, and I didn't come, and didn't come. (I forgot to tell him that I would probably start about 15 minutes after the "official" clock because I'd need to start so far back so my time would be off by 15 minutes on the official clock.) Finally, I made it, and I was so excited to see a face I knew for the first time in over two COLD hours. (All of my friends run faster than me so I'm all on my own on race day, but that's okay!)

My race was dedicated to a little guy Cole Kasper, who's family moved to Memphis to be near St. Jude for him to receive treatment for cancer. He had a 35% chance at surviving and has been declared cured by his doctors. How AWESOME is that? If you aren't familiar w/ St. Jude, it is an out-patient hospital that treats children for cancer, and they never ask for a dime more than the parents' insurance pays. Through work, I've had the privilege of meeting several of the families who are in town seeking treatment at St. Jude and they are amazing.


My soreness today doesn't even begin to compare to the pain these little kiddos are going through. And I can only hope that these children and their families receive as much encouragement and support in their battle with cancer as I received from YOU while training for my first half marathon. I will take a couple of weeks off and get back to running!

Picture time!

Here is the LINK to our family pictures that were taken last week. The password is "cherry". The photographer did an amazing job w/ Tahoe! (The link will only be accessible for about a week.)

Tahoe goes to Camp Lemons!

As you may know, several months ago, a co-worker mentioned possibly keeping Tahoe while we traveled. She already had two golden retrievers and figured one more couldn't be much more trouble. Honestly, I was ecstatic! I hate boarding or taking him to the farm. I quickly told Cindy that we rarely travel so we wouldn't bring Tahoe over much, which she has since learned to be not such a true little story I told. So I showed up for his first visit complete with his organic food, bowls, leash, all natural treats, towel that smelled like Mama (Get the picture?). I was SO nervous! Cindy and I stepped out onto her back patio for the dogs to play in the yard. Yikes! I completely forgot she had a pool. Tahoe doesn't know what to do around a pool. Lucky for us, the pool was covered with one of those covers that can "hold an elephant". Well, it didn't take Tahoe too long to mistake the pool cover for an addition to the patio. The cover didn't completely hold my "elephant". It dipped down quickly and got his feet wet. He was scared to death. But, I would have looked ridiculous if I'd packed up and headed back home so I left him as Cindy assured me she would take good care of him. Summer came and the pool still scared me. (This coming from a girl who wants to one day have a pool in her backyard and her children swimming in it all summer.) I even spent a Saturday afternoon in the pool trying to coax Tahoe in so he'd know what to do if he fell in. He never came near me. Maybe he'll learn to swim one day.
Tahoe quickly became friends with Bailey and Bear, Cindy's dogs. He developed a huge crush on Bear but had NO clue how to act on it. The crush lasted a few visits until . . .

Cindy's husband brought home a kitten! I think Tahoe spent so much time with Ollie as a young pup that he thinks he is a cat. He loves the new cat Festus and doesn't get too worked up over his old crush Bear. Now Festus is his playmate when Tahoe goes to Camp Lemon.

Tahoe is so grateful to have a warm house to go to when Mom and Dad travel! Thanks Cindy, Phillip, and the whole family!

Happy November!

Oh, where to begin. Maybe I need to borrow a friend's kids for a day or two so I have some good blogging material. Then again, I think I'll just stick w/ what has been going on here on Cherrydale. October was my birthday month, which means my car needed to have its emissions test done. Now, our test is quite different from the Atlanta test. Here, you go to the center, get in a long line, and eventually, you get to the front and the government employee does a few "tests" and let's you go. David was sweet enough to take my car, as I don't communicate well with government workers (not including any who might read this blog). He took the 4-Runner, sat in line, had the emissions test done, took the paperwork to the tag office, and came home w/ a shiny new sticker. Thanks, Babe! As he goes to put my new sticker on my car, he realizes, he just had the 4-Runner tested but his truck is actually in my name and the 4-Runner is in his. Hence, the truck's tag expires in October not the 4-Runner so the wrong car was taken to the emission station. Lucky for us, our bright government workers didn't notice. Oh, well.

My 1/2 marathon is just over a month away. Training is going well. I have been incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by very experienced runners who have been nothing but encouraging and helpful. My last "race" before the 1/2 will be in a couple of weeks in The House of Mews 5K. The House of Mews is our favorite no-kill shelter here in Memphis. I can't wait to run for such a good cause. We started supporting the shelter after we lost Ollie Man last year. We have elected to support rather than get another cat. I think Millie will kill us if we bring a kitten in the house. In other running news, we've order an I-Pod Nano to run with. It was supposed to be for David but I can't wait for it to get here. I realize most households already have a Nano, but we're typically behind the times. We also just got our first DVR box. (Again, we're way behind the times.) I think it was so David could watch the UGA / FL game again. Yeah, that won't be happening.

The theme for the month of November: Vote! Especially all the women! There are so many woman across the world who aren't fortunate enough to have this right! Please don't take it for granted.

Happy mid-fall, y'all!