Take Heart: Moments...

In October, there have been some exciting moments had by all. First off, and foremost, my new niece was born to my brother and sister-in-law! I got to meet my baby niece just a couple days after she was born. They had been thinking and thinking about names. Even after this sweet girl was born, they couldn't decide. They had quite a few names they liked and were thinking about. One was Stella. I happened to be pretty attached to this name. Grandma Zaleski's first name is Stella and I had been thinking about that name for awhile (not that we are or will be expecting anytime soon..I just love thinking about names) and how great that we could use a family name someday! As it got closer to my niece getting born, they said that Stella wasn't on the top of their list anymore. So I started talking about it again, and thought if we named a daughter after one of Joe's grandmas, then we should do a middle name of one of mine! My Grandma Clark's middle name was Louise and I thought Stella Louise! How cute is that?! Well, lo and behold, when they finally decided on a name for my niece, it was Stella Louise. I admit, I was a little disappointed. I realize that I am in no place to claim names (I'm not popping out any babies!) and I shouldn't get so attached, but I do. I also loved the name Sadie for a long time (thanks to the OC) and then my sister named her daughter Sadie. I came to know with Sadie, and again with Stella, that they couldn't be anyone else. Sadie is such a Sadie and couldn't be anything else, and I realized that once again as I held my little Stella. She was meant to be little Stella Louise and I knew it as I looked into her sweet little face. I do believe that names are very special and mean more than just that which we are called by others. The moral of the story, I love all my nieces and nephews more than almost anything!! Or something like that.

I admit, as I held her, I got a little baby hungry.

How sweet is she?!!

The other exciting thing that we did that weekend was the Utah Marathon with my parents! Ok, we didn't run the marathon, per se. Joe and my Dad rode the bike tour, which is just the marathon course but on bikes, and my Mom and I ran the 5k! This was Joe's first official "race" on a bike. He was so nervous about it! He kept talking about how he was going to have to make my Dad wait and how scared he was about crashing, etc. Well, the day of the race came and guess what? He didn't crash, he didn't make my Dad wait, he even left my Dad (how rude!) and he loved it. This was great news for me! I had always hoped to marry a man who would be or become a cyclist. Growing up, cycling has always been a big part of my life (see Lotoja post) and I had hoped to continue that in my own family. Joe dislikes running and has been wanting a way to keep in shape and I think he is slowly becoming convinced that he needs to take up cycling. Now to afford a road bike...yikes.

My Mom was the same as Joe. She kept telling me that she hadn't trained and to go at my own pace and then find her when I was done. She joked about coming to get her in 3 hours from the start, etc. When the race started, she and I started out running and man, she kept up a quick pace! We did stop and walk a few times but I was struggling to keep up with her when we were running...or even walking for that matter! Man, for such short legs, that woman can stride! We finished the 5k in 40 minutes. Not world record time, but for two women, one who is totally out of shape, and one who is in her 50's, didn't train at all and has asthma...I consider that to be a feat! Moral of this story? When one is confident, it's nice to be humbled by those who pretend that they are scared/out of shape. Or something like that.

There we are, in all the fall leaves splendor.

The other fun thing we did was go to the Pumpkin Walk with some friends. This is where citizens of Logan make scenes using pumpkins! It's quite amazing. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the scenes but we did get pictures of the stand-up characters they had. You know, the ones you stick your face in and have their body. Oh, you know. Enjoy.