Here, there, and back again

Whew. I just flew in from Charleston and boy are my arms tired! Seriously though, we drove. Beeecause flying would be a little extreme. Last Thursday I returned to our home sweet home in Durham only to unpack, launder, and repack my clothes to head off to Hendersonville for the weekend. And what a weekend it was! Gorgeous weather, precious family time, and yet another spectacular fitness event. We also filed our taxes, but then, so did you, right? Right. Sunday we made the trek back down to Charleston to visit with my parents and so that my Engineer could meet with the folks at Water Missions International about his summer internship. Yes, that would be South Carolina. Yes, we are in North Carolina. Talk about Engineers Without Borders. I married one.

Anyhoo, something I have been begging my Daddy-o to take on over the last, say, 10 years is mapping out our family's genealogy. And he's finally done it. He started his anthropological investigation about a month ago and since then I have been helping a little bit here and there when I am in town. I know it sounds super dorky, but genealogy is SO FUN! Finding ancestors and branches of your family you didn't even know existed is quite a thrill. And it also opens things up for creative family baby names (*wink wink* ...don't panic--no babies here. Just keeping mental notes)! So far we have an Addelaide, Quinlan, Blair, Asa, Josslyn, Imogene (totally the best), O'Neal, Hines, Whitner...but we also have Lazarus, Abraham Moses, Pheobe Magnus, and other grotesque combo platters. The list goes on and on. It's exciting! And this is only my family--not Andrew's--so obviously our kids will have a whole other section of their tree. Coolio. Everyone should do genealogy. Aside from learning how to spell "genealogy", you learn a lot of things. Hey, I bet we're related, you 'n' me.

So, I haven't really told y'all this, but Andrew and I are doing the 2010 Cooper River Bridge Run this year. I have done it a handful of times before but I will be the first to tell you that I am not a runner. A runner I am not. But apparently, this month, I am. The aforementioned fitness event?? Running around the track and Andrew's high school alma mater, (which in Latin means "nourishing mother". No, we did not jog around Andrew's mom. In case you were confused) . Training, if you will. It's a 10k/6.2 mile race with a half-mile uphill portion, i.e. the bridge. (Hence, the name of the race.) I ran five miles on Saturday around the track in Hendersonville, and then in Charleston from the starting line of the race in front of Moultrie Middle School (word) to the apex of the bridge and back, which is also five miles, more or less. Wanna know which one was harder? Yah. The bridge. Oy vey. And that, plus another mile. When we were on the slant side of the bridge, I seriously thought my heart was going to pop off of it's arteries like a water balloon pops off the spigot when it gets too full. Yowza. I'm still going to do it. Andrew says, I just need to get my head right. Mind over matter. Mmm-hmm. More like gravity needs to take a mini-hiatus while I'm running up the bridge. Anyway, it's in a coupla weeks. I'll let you know how it goes. Chances are, if you're a Clemson Tiger, a Charlestonian, or somewhere in the vicinity of the lowcountry, I might see you there. And if I'm on a stretcher please refrain from pointing and laughing.

In other news, I planted my herb container garden just now and will be filling you in soon! I've got mint, basil, thyme, and rosemary. I just pray that somewhere in my ancestry there was a talented farmer whose "growin'" chromosomes got passed down. Here's hoping!