Good

It was good.

The Dance Marathon. It was good.

Ally, our...greeter? No, she was more than that. She was the one who took care of Alyssa and Olivia, taking them to the bounce house, to the craft table, just being there to make sure they were having fun. Yes, Ally, she was awesome. Beautiful, sweet, obviously very smart (business major and all that.) She was so kind, making sure that Alyssa felt as welcome and special as Olivia.

Being back in Bloomington after 15 years...wow. I loved that place so much all those years ago. I loved being in school. I loved being AWAY at school. I loved being a college student.

It's still as beautiful, majestic as ever.

Dance marathons are loud. They're insane.

They raise over a million and a half dollars for Riley Hospital for Children.

Amazing! Inspiring. Heartbreaking to hear all the stories of all the kids helped by that hospital. So many tears, mostly of joy but some of sorrow, sadness, loss.

Our hotel was deemed 'uncreepy' by both A and O this weekend.

I was able to keep them both from looking into the windows that overlooked the indoor pool that was RIGHT across from the elevators we used several times.

Next year, if we're invited back, we'll go for both nights so we can make us of that pool.

Exhausting. Olivia fell asleep in my arms fifteen minutes before we went on stage to tell our story of how Riley hospital saved my sanity. I held my Riley kid in one arm, propped against my chest and held the microphone with the other hand. Kind of neat, in its own way.

I was taken back seventeen years to when I was one of those who stood on her feet for thirty-six hours. I remember it being 3am with five hours to go. I looked around at 7am, when these amazing people only had one hour to go and watched some fighting to stay awake, still on their feet.

Then I joined in the cheering and bouncing as the total was announced.

Exhilirating. So much pride in themselves and each other for what they were doing, what they'd done. What we've all done to get to that point.

Relief when it was all over. When we pulled into our garage and unpacked the car, the mundane task of doing laundry, unloading the dishwasher, feeding my children. Glad to be back to the 'real' world. Excited to do it all again in three weeks when we head to West Lafayette to attend Purdue University's dance marathon and share our story again and watch the exhaustion, the exhiliration, the joy, the tears.

What an amazing life, all the way around.