Introducing: Officer Gerken

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.

Fourth of July Weekend

Fourth of July weekend fun.

 I REALLY enjoy talking on the phone now. Here I am chatting with Grandpa Gerken one night.

Mom, Dad, Mom's friend Becky, and I walked down to the park to watch the fireworks. It is about a 1/2 mile from our house, so it was super convenient. Luckily the heat from earlier that day wasn't quite as bad. This was my first DeKalb fireworks, and the only other fireworks I've seen besides in Disney. I loved them.

Dad and I waiting for them to start.

I was a little nervous so I held mom's arm to protect me. We enjoyed popcorn while we watched them. Mom said that was tradition when she was growing up, so I guess we continue the tradition.

Gigi bought me this adorable dress, and I LOVe it. In fact I have taken a liking to all things dressy. Yup, I'm a girly girl.

We spent the weekend after the 4th in Dixon with all of my cousins. here Isaac and I are waking Emily up from her nap. We really wanted to play with her.

Gram and Bakka got a new puppy, Wrigley. I was not a fan of him at all. He tried to bite my toes and my dress and my barbies hair, none of which won points in my book.  Here is trying to bite Emily's toes while we play.

While we had fun Gram put the youngest one, Molly, to work. Thanks Molly for helping Gram so we could play :)

Carly and I love each other. I have so much fun with all of my cousins.

Carly wasn't feeling the best so I let her watch me play on my Dad's tablet. It was a hot weekend so we had to stay indoors most of the weekend unfortunately.

Mom and I ran the Reagan run, it was the hottest race we've ever done.

My race was a half hour before Mom's. Here dad and I are waiting to get started.

Whew, that was one hot race, but as you can see I think it went pretty well. The race was 3/4 mile and I ran the whole thing. I set a PR, mainly because this was a new distance for me. Then we had to wait for mom to finish.

Mom finished in 29:36, which she said she was happy with because it was HOT. The course was hilly and hot. It was 92 degrees and very humid at race time. Mom said she will not be running races in that heat ever again, she got a little sick after the race from being overheated.

Since it was HOT and we had been couped up inside for 2 days we headed up to Emily's house for some pool time. We went down that slide a lot of times, and it was a blast.

Molly and I headed back to Gram and Bakka's house. It's only a block away, but we were tuckered out.

The four young girl cousins in age order, Carly (4), me (almost 3), Emily 2 1/2, Molly 2.  We love to play together.

It rained very briefly so decided to stay on the porch and practice our running skills for our next race.

Gram has this scooter and Uncle Andrew was fixing it up. Us kids thought it was pretty cool, so we took turns sitting on it.

Mommy's taking us kids for a ride. Don't worry we really didn't ride it, we just took pictures.

On Sunday we headed home and then met up with my friend Kayleigh and her family at their local pool. We spent the entire afternoon their playing in the pool. It was a lot of fun and I always enjoy seeing Kayleigh.

Well that's it for now. I probably won't update again until after my birthday party!  1 and 1/2 weeks and I'll be 3!

Cassidy's First Race and First Movie Theatre Trip

Here it is folks, the update from my first race!

 Grandma and I stretched pre-race. I was showing her how to do it.

 Pinning on my first race bib. I was very confused when Daddy called it that.

 Yep, I'm ready to go. I was so excited for my debut in the running circuit.

 Mom, Dad, and I before my race. I was all nerves :)

 I took some time for a picture with Grandma and Grandpa too. They came to visit just to watch me run.

 At the starting line. I was checking out the competition. Really I was wondering why my parents didn't buy me nice running shoes like that girl next to me.

 I didn't realize what was happening when the bullhorn went off so I got started a little late.  What can I say I'm a newbie. I can redeem myself in two weeks at the Reagan Run in Dixon.  Either way this race was a Personal Record (PR) for me.

 Check out my form. I know what I'm doing, or I fake it well.  I did get a little distracted in my run when kids kept running off the course crying. I wasn't sure what that was all about.

 Post race picture with the NITRO squirrel. This is mom and dad's running group "Northern IL Trail Runners Organization"

 To celebrate my first race I got to go to my first movie at the theater. We even got popcorn.

 We saw the movie, "Brave." Mom, the scrapbooker, just had to take pictures of this momentous event.

 Getting all situated before the movie. I was okay during the movie, but I would have been less restless if they didn't have 30 minutes of previews before the movie.  Also, dad was on call for work and he got called out of the movie several times. I really wish those people in Dixon would stop committing crimes so Dad could have watched the whole movie with me.

I was very excited about this huge bag of popcorn.  A good weekend, and it's only Saturday night. Tomorrow is 3 year old pictures (a little early, but I can't imagine I'll change that much in a month)