Weekend Update...it's kinda long & picture heavy

This was one jam packed weekend. It feels so long, probably because mentally it started on Thursday. Thursday morning, Greg had to make ice for Rita's and I had to close the registers from Wednesday & prep for a really busy Thursday. Then we had a meeting with one of the owners about how things were going. So far it seems as though we are doing a good job. phew! We worked basically up until 4:00pm between the meeting and lots of customers. Then we came home and 15 minutes after arriving home, we got a phone call from the girls who were working saying that they were running out of ice. Sssssooo back down to Rita's we went. It's about a 20 minute drive for us, so it's not really that long but when you are on a time crunch and are driving back and forth multiple times it gets to be a little much. Finally by 6:15 we were leaving Rita's stocked full of ice for a busy night. We had to buy dog food and pack for New York. Thankfully we were not called again to make anymore ice for that day. 

Friday morning, we had to close the registers and make LOTS of ice for another beautiful Spring, hopefully busy Rita's day. We made close to 13 buckets/flavors of ice!! But by 12:30 we were off to New York. I was ecstatic...seriously excited to go to New York. We really thought that we would be able to see some things in New York. But sadly we didn't. We were too cheap to pay $21.00 to park our car for a few hours. Plus the whole point of being in Manhattan in the first place was to pick up the race packet--not sightseeing. Maybe another time..like when we hit the lottery, or have jobs. So these are the only pictures I was able to snap on the way & in the city.

I snapped this picture in the car. Greg told me not to take a picture of the projects...
I didn't notice until just now that the Empire State Building is right in the middle of the picture. I thought
I was just taking a picture of a skyline. HA!

As we realized we were driving through Queens towards the hotel, we realized traffic wasn't really moving much at all. Obviously we hit traffic, but this was different traffic. After half an hour to go a mile or something like that, we realized that a block party had broken out in the middle of the street we wanted to go down. So we said hello to a detour that turned out to be soo much faster! Praise the Lord. I will admit it seemed weird to be staying in a neighborhood where I couldn't read or pronounce most of the signs and stores I was seeing. But the hotel was fabulous--nothing special, but so much nicer than I expected. We stayed at a Holiday Inn. First of all--hello KING bed with luxurious sheets. It even had a restaurant downstairs so we ordered take out after a walk in Flushing Meadows park. Here's a picture of the room. Sadly we were only on the 2nd floor so there was no view other than the air conditioning unit and such, but it was dark most of the time we were there anyway.

We had to check out before the race, but they were kind enough to let us keep our car in the parking lot for a few extra hours--which was super helpful. The race didn't start until 9:15 which was late compared to the races in Philly that were starting at 7ish. We walked the 3/4 mile to the race and it was a beautiful day! Here are some pictures of Flushing Meadows & my hubby running :)

Flushing Meadows Park

Flushing Meadows Park

Flushing Meadows Park

Mile 2

Mile 4

Mile 5.5

Tickets @ Arthur Ashe Stadium

Mile 10.5

Finisher Medal

Finisher w/ Arthur Ashe Stadium

Finisher w/ CitiField

Flushing Meadows Park

Overall, he finished at 1:32:12, which is a great time! 41st finisher overall, 39th male, 9th in age group. Such a proud wife am I.

ohh..and Happy Easter of course. I will leave you with just this song that is in my head.

"There in the ground His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain. Then bursting forth in glorious Day up from the grave He rose again! And as He stands in victory sin’s curse has lost its grip on me. For I am His and He is mine; Bought with the precious blood of Christ."

So thankful to know that I have been saved by grace and that Jesus Christ died for ME and for YOU.