Preeclampsia 5k / Weekend in Review

The week last week itself was pretty uneventful, thank goodness. This weekend was full of busy bee-ness and I loved every single minute of it!!!

Saturday started out with a rude awakening from what began as a very comforting dream. I was on a grassy hill with my friend Jen, the one that passed away last August, and it was ridiculously bright out....yet I could see her just fine without squinting. Sometimes I've dreamt of those who have passed on but dreamt of them as they were living again. In this dream, I knew that she was gone and gave her such a big hug and told her how much I missed her. I always picture Jack being looked after by her and some small portion of me feels like maybe Jack was sent back to heaven so that she wouldn't be so lonely without her son who is still on Earth. I know that sounds crazy to think that way but if that were truly the case, it wouldn't really hurt so bad.... at least my son had some purpose albeit not on Earth with me. Anywho, in my dream I asked her where Jack was and how he was doing and wanted to know if she had him with her.....suddenly my dream switched off the hill and Jim and I were sitting on the couch watching TV when the New Lenox tornado sirens started going off. Instead of the weeeooo weeeeooo, it was a man's voice on a loudspeaker screeeeeeamming.... "TORNADO!!! TAKE COVER" and I immediately was jolted out of a sound sleep.

Later that morning I went out for breakfast with Jim, which is always a much better way to start the day  :)  After breakfast I headed out to the city for a "Bridesmaid Brunch" for my friend Danielle. Her Matron of Honor, one of her cousins, hosted the brunch and made us a FABULOUS meal. Not a brunch.. a meal!!!  Nom nom nom.... she's a good cook :)  We also had a few glasses of Prosecco with berries, OMG...heavenly indeed. We hashed out a few details but mostly just gabbed which is fun too :) Her cousins are so much fun to hang out with that I could have stayed all day/night if not for having my friend Sue with her husband, toddler and dog waiting for me at my locked up house!!

When I got home, my friends were waiting in my backyard. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I probably should have left a door unlocked or a key somewhere but... I sorry. It all worked out eventually!! Sue and I went to Portillos to get some dinner for us all and I got a cake shake but it was all shake and no cake....how disappointing!  It was nice that we were actually able to use the fold out portion of our upstairs couch this weekend for someone other than my parents which was exciting. More people should come stay with us, we've got the room!

So anyways.... now onto Sunday. That alarm on Sunday morning went off preeeetty early, let me tell you. We all headed up to Elk Grove Village around 7am for the Preeclampsia Promise Walk. I've been preparing for that day since February when Jim and I decided to do this 5k in honor of Jack. I thought it would be fun to create a team and see what we could do. My goal for donations was $500 and I really hoped that I would be able to meet the amount I set. Well... in donations alone I was able to raise over $1,000 and when you factor in the money raised from the 27!!!  teammates that I had , we collectively raised over $1,700!!!  I'm so amazed and humbled by the generosity of friends and family that donated or came out to support Jim, Jack and I. It was a fantastic day :)

The race itself was interesting.... they didn't have the turn around properly marked so we ended up meshing with a marathon going on at the same time. It ended up we walked about 4 miles instead of 3, which is fine except not everyone turned around at the 2miles mark. My best friend's sister and nephew ran the 5k and his nephew is so fast that he was one of the frontline runners and kept...on....running..... right into the marathon. His 5k wound up being a half marathon by the time a marathon runner found him and helped him back to our finish line area!! He REALLY jogged for Jack!!

After the race, they raffled off prizes and gave out medals. Two of my teammates placed in their age groups (I have fast friends/family!) and another teammate won a prize from the raffle!! They gave me a shout out for helping stuff the goody bags, that was nice of them, I enjoyed helping and I'll do it again next year....either run/walk it or volunteer, something , anything to help this cause.

Here are some pictures of our fun day!!