Little Miss Johnson, Half Marathon

We have a baby! It's a girl! At least, that's what the ultrasound tech thought as he was working with Kris on Wednesday. Since "Lumpy" isn't really a good name for a girl, we've decided on Little Miss Johnson until birthing day. That is, assuming the ultrasound guy is right. If he's not, that "Little Miss" might never live it down. Here's the photos as promised:

Here, Little Miss Johnson's head and face is on the right, abdomen on the left.

Same picture here, but you can also see the umbilical cord on the left between her feet/knees.

The ultrasound tech was trying to get another facial view to see if Little Miss had a cleft lip/palate or not. She played hard to get (way to go, sweetie!) but eventually gave him a thumbs-up, as you can see just to the right of center.

My friend Jeremy's comment was, "Oh, how you're going to be wrapped around her little finger." Is he ever right. When I popped the CD into our computer to download the ultrasound pics, it automatically brought up a slide show. My response was, "wow - there's my little girl. WOW." I'm definitely in trouble - between Little Miss & her momma, I'm going to be a fool for family very, very quickly. But this is how God intended it, I think. At any rate, I'm wrapped around that little thumb very tightly, and I'm loving every second of it.

In other news, I ran the Dick Beardsley Half-Marathon in Detroit Lakes, MN yesterday. It was a beautiful day for a race: cool, sunny, a bit of wind but nothing too terrible. We started down by the lake and headed uptown for the first mile, then cut back through downtown again and split up: Halfers headed right around the lake, 5K folks headed back toward the starting line. It was the fastest start - I think I was in a group of 5K folks at the beginning.

The best part of the day was hooking up with David, his wife Becky and our friend Brad, three fellow Luther Seminary alums who were also running the half. David and I ran together until mile 10, when I just couldn't keep his pace anymore and had to take a short walk break. But David did what I hoped he would do: he pulled me through the first 9 miles in 81 minutes (9 minute miles) and I had 40 minutes to cover the final four and make my goal of a sub-2 hour half-marathon. I did it! I finished in 1:57 and felt GREAT. Considering how poorly I trained for this race and how hilly the course was, it was a fantastic time. Best of all, my loving wife immediately shepherded me to the Gatorade cart and the fruit stands, and I managed to hold off the electrolyte crash that came after the Fargo Marathon. So now I have another medal, an even cooler shirt, and a goal met again. New goal: Lincoln Marathon, May 2007, under 4 hours. We'll see if I can "git R done," won't we?