Jack Lawrence Sullivan

Jack Lawrence Sullivan- Born: September 12, 2009
7 lbs 6 oz, 20 inches long

Still Pregnant...

We took a summer vacation from the blog. It was obvious! Just wanted to update everyone on the pregnancy. Only 2 more weeks to go! Jack is growing big and strong. Here are some recent ultrasound pictures. We are excited!

Leah Brooke Johnston

Cousins!


Jane did come, but she didn't make it in the picture. Sorry, Jane!

I am going to try to do some catching up on our blog. So much has happened...Our precious niece, Leah was born on April 16. I was able to make it to North Carolina in time for her birth. She is beautiful. Congratulations, Julianna & Chris!

Four Years Ago Today...

It's a BOY!!

Well, after a few months of hiatus (we'll just blame Joy's pregnancy) from the blog, it is time to get things up and running around here again. A few things have happened since it snowed, but none more important than the ultrasound appointment we had last Friday.

After being asked at least 3,482 time over the last month or two if we knew what "it" was, we finally got to find out. We got a real clear picture of the baby's anatomy, but I won't post it here on the blog for fear that it might be inappropriate. Plus, the baby would probably be mad one day in the future when it found out that we had posted pictures of it's anatomy in public. So, without further ado...here is the first really good photo of our baby BOY!

So...now everyone can start asking us, "Have you decided what his name will be?"

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We finally got a good snow day today in Atlanta. It started this morning while we were in church and didn't stop until sometime after 6:00 PM. We got home in time to enjoy some of it, and let Georgie get out an play in it for a little bit, too. I'm not sure he could decide whether he liked it or not. Here are some photos...

Our house, from the middle of the street...

Me and Joy on the front porch...lovin' the snow!

Georgie, checkin' it all out. Later, he made some yellow snow.

Me and my mini-snowman. Couldn't pass up the chance to build something.

Leaving a Legacy

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Psalm 116:15


Mr. Raymond went home to be with Jesus yesterday. We are saddened by the loss, but we know he is so much better off in Heaven. Mr. Raymond & Mrs. Ruby Jean have been special people to my family and me. We will miss him a lot! This is a picture from our Wedding Day. Mr. Raymond & Mrs. Ruby Jean hosted our wedding reception in their yard, and they worked so hard to make everything perfect for that day. I am so grateful for all they have done for me. They have truly blessed my life in so many ways.

A Better Christmas Gift

I know Joy was really excited about her new juicer, and yes, we've juiced some oranges and some grapefruit, but we actually got a better Christmas gift than the juicer. And here he (or she) is...

Yep...we're expanding the family. Due September 13th!

Christmas Gift

Scott gave me a juicer for Christmas. I had not really had a chance to use it until this past weekend. I gave it a good test! We juiced almost 2 bags of oranges, and I also juiced almost a bag of grapefruit. We have really enjoyed fresh orange juice and grapefruit juice over the past few days. It is delicious!

A few more pictures...

The whole gang after our celebration dinner at Chevy's.
Leslie & Matt were also in Orlando with us. Leslie ran the marathon! She did great!

Marathon Weekend

We had such a great time in Orlando during the Marathon Weekend. I am SO proud of Scott! He really had an amazing run. Here are some pictures from the Marathon.



The Finish Line
Scott with Steve Platt and David Platt

Change Has Come to America

Or so we think...

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Changefest '09 - Obama's Inaugural Speech

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Funny stuff.

I didn't win, but I came closer than last year!

I'll post more about the weekend later with some pictures, but I wanted to go ahead and put the results of the marathon up for anyone who hasn't heard already or seen it on Facebook.

Needless to say, I was thrilled with the result. I beat my previous marathon time by 15 minutes, beat my goal by five minutes and accomplished my stretch goal. I ran a little too fast during the first half and paid for it in closing miles, but I never stopped and I ran strong through the finish line. It was great to have Joy and my parents there cheering me to the finish, and I'm just really happy with the results. It was a great day and a great weekend, and many thanks to any and all who were thinking about me, praying for me or tracking me during the race!

More later...

It's over. Now it is time to RUN.

It’s over. The training, that is. And now it is time to run. Later this afternoon we’ll hit the road for Orlando to meet up with the Platt’s, the other Platt’s, some more Platt’s and the Droddy’s for our second Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend (Steve and Jamey’s third). Sunday morning, at 5:50 AM the gun will go off and fireworks will explode over the start line as Steve, David, Adam and I head off for 26.2 miles of running fun, pain, torture, exhaustion, endurance, among other things (experiences may vary).

Successfully completing a marathon requires a lot of preparation, no matter how one defines "successfully." I'm reminded of something my mom used to tell me when I was about to take a test in school, and that is that you shouldn't pray that God will give you the answers to something you haven't studied, but that you should pray that He will help you recall what you have studied. So, when I toe the line Sunday morning, I'll be saying a little prayer that God will allow the training I've done over the last 16 weeks to help me run fast, run strong and accomplish my goals.

I did my last, short recovery run Wednesday morning, and with that I pretty much completed this training cycle. Here is my "study" over the last 16 weeks that I'll be relying on come Sunday morning:

• 72 out of 114 days with some type of running
• 550 total miles run
• Average of 35 miles per week
• Average run length of 7.6 miles
• Peak week of 52 miles
• Three over-20-mile runs (just did one last year)
• 79 hours and 40 minutes of running
• One loving, patient and enduring wife

My #1 goal is to finish in under 3 hours, 45 minutes. My "stretch" goal is to finish under 3:40. Here's hoping and praying that it all comes together Sunday morning for me and for all of my friends that will be running as well, including:

• Steve Platt
• David Platt
• Adam Platt
• Suzanne Eason
• Linda Whaley
• Leslie Tucker

If you have any interest if following my progress or the progress of any of the others running, you can enter your name and email address at the website below, search for me or any of the others and then enter your cell phone number or email address to get a message at different points during the race and the finish.

2009 WDW Marathon Runner Tracking

You can check out the course map at this link:

2009 WDW Marathon Course Map

Good luck to everyone running. Looking forward to a great weekend, and I hope to have a full report when we return!

Happy New Year!

We had a great Christmas. We are back to school and work this week. Hopefully, I can post some pictures soon.

From Our Home to Yours...

Merry Christmas Eve! Just wanted to share our Christmas decorations with you...


Our Front Door
Scott's Christmas Tree- It was originally his Grandmother's tree.

One of many vases of ornaments...Thank goodness for plastic ornaments!

Willow Tree Nativity
Our Entertainment Center decorated for Christmas
Our Nativity that we bought when we were in Bethlehem two years ago-

The stockings are hung..


Merry Christmas!

Love,
Scott & Joy

A Look Back at 2008

There are so many things that happen in a year's time. We are so grateful for another year full of so many blessings. As we come to the end of 2008, I am once again so thankful for God's faithfulness and love.
Fall at Stone Mountain
Our Precious Nephew- Beckham Gregg Jarrard born on September 14, 2008
Grandma's Funeral- Bull Creek Baptist Church
Daytona Beach with all the Family
Beach trip with the Sullivans
Grandma's 89th Birthday
My Baby Sister's Wedding- Mr. & Mrs. Hunter Conrad
Easter 2008
Callaway Gardens- Valentine's Day Weekend
Jane's Shower at Jenny's house
Snow in January...Georgie loved it!
Disney Marathon- Scott's First Marathon

Atlanta Half Marathon Race Report

I wasn't too sure how this year's Atlanta Half Marathon was going to do. As I've mentioned before, because I'm training a little different for this year's marathon than I did last year, I just haven't been confident that my overall fitness was as good right now as it was last year. Well...in this race I proved myself wrong!

The day started with the alarm clock going off at 5:00 AM. The race started at 7:00, but I needed some time to eat and digest and get to the start. I ate a couple of bananas at the house and took one with me. Drove to the Doraville MARTA station and rode the train down to the Chamblee station which is basically where the half marathon starts. Temperatures were in the 30's, so it was a little chilly. I wore shorts and a long sleeve shirt, my regular running hat and a pair of knit gloves that I had picked up from Wal-Mart the day before. I found during that 20-miler in 20-degree weather last weekend that I ran much better when my hands were warm.

I stood around at the start for about 20 minutes and then made my way to my corral. I was in the first corral, based on my predicted finishing time. I think that when I registered I had written an expected finish time of 1:45:00. Leading up to the race, though, I had decided that I would be satisfied if just beat my time from last year of 1:50:00. I really wasn't sure I had it in me to get those five minutes off my time.

When the gun went off, I headed off with the masses down Peachtree Street. Even though it was still very cold, it didn't take long to get warmed up and before I knew it we were at the 1-mile marker. I didn't feel like I was running a quicker pace than I typically run, so I was expecting my watch to tell me that I'd run the first mile in about 8-1/2 minutes. I glanced down and to my surprise my watch says 7:48. I'm thinking "Holy cow, I'm flying (for me) and I've got to slow down!" (Typical running mistake for inexperienced runners is to go out too fast with the crowds and then run out of steam before the finish) I knew I couldn't hold that pace for 13 miles, and I knew that I needed to slow down, and I thought that I did.

It wasn't too long until we were coming up on the 2-mile marker. I look down at my watch, and to my chagrin it tells me that I ran the second mile in 7:40...eight seconds faster than the first mile! This couldn't be right, but I convinced myself that since the first part of the course is downhill that I was gaining some advantage from that. Mile 3 came in around 7:42, Mile 4 at 7:40 and on we went. I really couldn't believe that I was maintaining that kind of pace. It is a good bit faster than I ever run in training, but it didn't feel faster. I just felt like I was in a groove.

At around the 7-mile mark they were handing out Sport Beans. This was great because I love Sport Beans, and I didn't have to carry any in my pocket. I grabbed a pack running by and then headed up Cardiac Hill in front of Piedmont Hospital. This is the toughest hill on the course, and is an infamous part of the Peachtree Road Race each summer. The mile that contains this hill and a slightly smaller hill just before it was my slowest mile of the race. I ran that mile in about 8:00. That amazed me, because that morning I didn't think 8:00 would be my fastest mile!

The last six miles of the course is a gradual incline as you head down Peachtree Street into downtown. But here is where I think my Stone Mountain running really helps me. I read all the time about how hard the hills on this course are, but they just didn't seem that hard to me. There are much bigger hills around Stone Mountain. I still figured that I would probably slow down some going up these hills, but I clicked off a couple more 7:40ish miles and even a 7:36 mile. I hit the 10-mile marker at 1:17:00. It doesn't take an actuarial degree to figure out that I could run the last 3.1 miles in 33 minutes and still beat my initial goal. I knew at that point that 1:45:00 was pretty certain and that I had a great chance of going even lower.

I tried hard to just to maintain a steady pace climbing the last couple of hills. I made the left had turn onto Mitchell Street, climbed the last real hill in front of the capital building - they call it Capital Punishment - and then made the last turn onto Capital Avenue and head toward the finish line at Turner Field. The last portion of the course is downhill, and when I started down that hill I gave it all I had. I hadn't looked at my watch in a while, so I wasn't exactly sure where I was in my total time, but as I approached the finish line I could see the Marathon Finish clock, and it read 1:10:something. The Marathon started 30-minutes after the Half started so I knew that I was close to finishing in 1:40:something. I sprinted across the finish line as the PA announcer called out my name, stopped my watch and looked down. It said 1:40:49. I was absolutely stunned. I really didn't think I had that kind of race in me, and seeing that time was one of the best feelings of my running "career." It was so much better than I thought I was capable of. Come to find out that it actually took me a couple of seconds after I crossed to stop my watch, so my official finish time was 1:40:43.

Final results: 710th Place out of 8,697 finishers

Besides just being really happy with my finish, this has given me a lot of confidence that I'm doing the right thing in my training. I was concerned that my running fitness wasn't as good as it was last year. Not only is it as good, it seems to be much better. The pace I ran this half marathon was only seven seconds per mile slower than the pace I ran my best ever 10K race, a race of less than half the distance of the half marathon, back in February and almost 20 seconds per mile faster than I ran the Peachtree Road Race in July! That makes for a great way to start Thanksgiving Day, and I think that I certainly earned my turkey.