Well there has been A LOT going on around the Gerken household lately, which is why we haven't updated the blog in a while. Since Cassidy is busy with her new school I, Megan, am taking over her blog writing duties this time.The biggest change is that we are pleased to announce that Brian has started on a new career path. He will be working as a police officer for Northern Illinois University, hence the blog title. He was sworn in last Thursday and began the police academy yesterday.
Here he is after his swearing in with his new badge. He traded in his prosecutor badge for a police badge. Same field different side of the job.
Cassidy and I were able to attend the swearing in along with Brian's parents. It was a very serious ceremony and my palms were sweaty just listening to the Chief's speech.
Two weekends ago Cassidy and I went to Minnesota to visit the Schahl's. Kim and I ran a 5K, a hilarious story you need to ask us about if you have time to listen, and the girls ran a 1/4 mile race. They were honestly the hit of the race, and the only members of the kid's race. The race was a charity race to Challenge Aging and it was located in St. Paul, MN. Kim and I decided that next year we want to get the entire Brechon family out running/walking this race. If you are a member of the Brechon family and you are reading this, consider yourself warned.
Our races went around beautiful Como Lake, which is right next to Como Zoo, so of course after the race we headed to the zoo. The girls had a blast hanging out together.
It was a hard race so Cassidy and Molly had to have a snack at the zoon. Somehow little Molly convinced Cassidy that she should hand over all of her raisins to her and she would be the manager of them. She gave Cassidy one at a time to ration them out.
Back at the Schahl's there was some serious construction work going on so we took a nice evening walk over to see the bridge work. Aren't these the cutest kids ?!?
Our last night there we did popcorn/M & M and movie night. The girls had a really good time and after a busy day it was the perfect evening.
At home Cassidy is showing off her amazing fashion sense. What a mom she makes !
She definitely takes after her mom and dad with her love of reading. Brian and I were downstairs watching TV one night and this is what we found when we headed to bed. I guess she had spent hours reading all her books.
If you hadn't heard Brian and I went to GEN CON 2012. It is a gamer's convention in Indianapolis. Brian has gone several times, but this was my first time attending. Myself and two other "wives" went with our husbands. I really enjoy strategy games and there was lots of opportunity to play them. It was quite the experience. I mean seriously there is absolutely nothing like this convention.You can wear any costume, behave any way and it's pretty much acceptable. We went out to dinner in the downtown Indy area and I was able to pose with a stormtrooper, how random.
My favorite game while at the convention was costume, clothing, or character. This means are the people wearing their actual clothing, are they dressed like a character, or is it just a random costume. It really was hard to tell with most people. It became a favorite game of all of us.
Brian and I on a walk after getting ice cream in Indianapolis. This was a beautiful Canal walkway that we both did a run on while we were there.
Did I mention that Cassidy has some amazing fashion sense. We just let her dress herself, which works out well. She gets to be independent and there are no fights over clothing. When else in life can you wear something so ridiculous....oh yes that's right at GEN CON. Perhaps she is in training for costume/character/clothing.
One weekend we went as a family to the annual DeKalb vs. Sycamore high school football game. It is played at NIU's stadium and it's a fun event, because there is a big rivalry between the two school since we are located so close to each other. GO DeKalb.
Here we are at the expo before the Chicago Half-Marathon. We headed in to Chicago on Saturday for packet pick-up, dinner and to stay overnight. The race was Sunday at 7:00 am..
Pre-race was very chilly so Cassidy borrowed Brian's jacket to keep warm. It was a very early morning as we headed out to catch the train from our hotel at 5:15. Good thing we're morning people.
I was able to line-up in corral L. I said I was hoping to run under a 2:15 race.
It's important to carb-load even if you are the spectator.
Have I mentioned I have an amazing husband, well I do. My i-Pod was lost in Chicago (we discovered this at 9pm the night before race day). I had spent hours preparing an amazing playlist that I was so excited to use. I just knew it would propel me to a new PR (personal record). We searched that hotel room for an hour, I dreamt about where it could be, and it never showed up. Brian and I don't necessarily agree on music to listen to. He has angry loud music to lift to and I have fun, upbeat music to run to. Well he stood at the start line and created a makeshift playlist for me. It wasn't perfect, but it did the trick. (Coincidentally, the angry cussing music was blaring in my ears just as I ran by him and Cassidy the first time...too funny)
While I ran Cassidy got a tattoo. I guess what better is there to do while you wait a couple of hours.
Here we are at the finish. My greatest supporters, always there to cheer me on at a race and wait as long as it takes for me to finish. Even without my iPod I did set a new PR, 2:06:59, which was over 9 minutes faster than my last half marathon.
Well that's our update for now. We will update again soon, but our house is going to be busy for awhile. Brian has really long days at the academy so we'll mostly be seeing him on weekends. He will graduate on December 21 from the academy.
