July 2008

It's been a busy summer! It's not over yet, but let's talk about what the Glass fam has been up to so far.

The summer started off with a bang when my parents visited for Memorial Day Weekend. My dad joined me in running/walking my second 5K, the Save Our Skin 5K at Perimeter Center here in Atlanta. I did my first race in April, and shaved about a minute off of my time at the Save Our Skin. I am still doing far more walking than running (and my "running" is very slow!), but I feel like I am making progress. I had originally hoped to do one race a month, but got a little gunshy when it got REALLY hot here in Georgia. (Who would've thought that summers would be hot in Atlanta?) I have my eye on another race for mid-August, and I am looking forward to fall weather when I can really start enjoying the outdoors again.

The weekend after my parents visited, my best friend Jessie came to town with her eleven month old daughter, Penelope. We were totally thrilled to see Jessie and Penelope. They live in Connecticut for now and we hadn't seen them since Nora and I visited the Emersons in August 2007. Unfortunately, all of us moms and kids were sick for the better part of the weekend, but we still managed to have a good time just enjoying each other's company. Jason mostly escaped illness, but Nora and I ended up having cold symptoms for the better part of two weeks.

We have stayed busy with activities. Nora took swim lessons at the YMCA in June and she did really well! She put her face in the water and learned to blow bubbles and "kick kick kick!" Sometimes she practices in the bathtub at home. We took a break from lessons in July since we knew we would be busy with other things, but I think we are going to continue in the fall because she learned so much in such a short amount of time, I want to keep the momentum going. We have attended a lot of fun playgroups with friends this summer. We also discovered Leapin' Lizards, the local "bouncy place" as we call it, which Nora loves. We bought the "Toddler Express" card so we will probably be going there a lot. We are on a break from The Music Class for the summer, but we will start back up in August. Nora saw (part of) her first movie in the theater, a free showing of The Bee Movie. We didn't stay for the whole thing, but it was fun! Finally, we attended Vacation Bible School at our church, Druid Hills United Methodist. Nora was the youngest of the 6 attendees (we're a small church!) and she had a great time. The kids will be performing some of the songs they learned in church on Sunday. Nora doesn't really sing yet, but sometimes she does the hand motions!

We visited Mobile and Pensacola around the 4th of July. We had a great time seeing friends and family, but we weren't able to see everybody we wanted to see. We did get to go to the beach, and Nora loved it! It was a beautiful, calm day and we sat at the edge of the water and played in the sand. She has been talking about it ever since. On the 4th, Nora's grandparents had a cookout and we went to see the fireworks at Bayfront. The fireworks were beautiful, but I think Nora enjoyed running around on the green lawn in front of the Gulf Power building more than she enjoyed the show.

In mid-July, my other best friend, Dara, visited with her family. It was a short trip, but we got to go out to dinner one night and have family time the next morning. We are looking forward to seeing all of them again when they come up for Nora's birthday party next month! I also saw my Columbus, GA-based friend Rebecca one afternoon. I can't believe I've known Rebecca for 10 years now! We met when we started at Barnes & Noble in 1998. We're hoping to see Rebecca again next month, too.

This post has gotten really long. Later, I'll try to post about some of the cute things Nora has been doing and saying lately.