Congratulations to AUTUMN (Liam and Brennan's mom) for being selected as our June Mom of the Month! Autumn has participated in Stroller Strides for over 20 months. She always shows up to class with a huge smile on her face and gives 100%! Keep up the hard work, Autumn!
25 things about Autumn:
1) My grandmother named me. She said I was born about the time the leaves started changing colors.
2) Liam, 4, and Brennan, 2, are my greatest accomplishments! It constantly amazes me that these two little people who can make my heart swell with such joy and pride and love can also make my head feel like it’s going to explode with frustration.
3) I’m from the Farmville area, and I say “area” because I went to school there, but I had to drive 30 minutes one way to get there. We lived in Green Bay, which is a tiny “town” just off highway 360, and you literally have to cross two wooden bridges to get to my house.
4) My husband, Jason, is also from Farmville, but we went to different schools and didn’t know each other growing up. Mutual friends introduced us during the summer of 1998. I always feel weird saying this, but I knew I liked him before we even met; I just had this feeling. We started dating 2 weeks after we met and have been together ever since.
5) Jason and I moved to Wilmington, DE after he graduated from law school for his career. We lived there for 3 years before moving back to Richmond to be closer to our families.
6) I earned a degree in English from JMU. I changed my major way too many times, and somehow ended up there. It all worked out though … I had a couple of jobs here in Richmond before finding my way into marketing and then outside sales for a company that manufactures polypropylene films in Delaware. And I worked in account management for a direct marketing agency after we moved back to Richmond for 2 years before deciding to stay home with my beautiful baby boy, Liam.
7) I am extremely competitive, almost to a fault … in sports, card games, board games, Stroller Strides relays, anything really.
8) I played softball in high school. I was an on-again, off-again exerciser all through college and post-college. It wasn’t until I started doing Stroller Strides in the fall of 2008 that I made a true lifelong commitment to fitness. I am in the best shape of my life, and it feels awesome.
9) I exercise to feel good, both physically and emotionally, and to offset my big appetite … I love food, I love wine and beer, and I hate to diet … as soon as I start thinking about counting calories or cutting out certain foods, eating is all I can think about.
10) While living in Delaware, following an elective surgery, I developed a blood clot in my right leg and one in my lung and learned that I have a clotting disorder, Factor V Leiden. The experience, while very scary and very painful, was a blessing in disguise. Had I not developed the clots, I wouldn’t have found the clotting disorder, and then I would not have been able to take the necessary precautionary steps during my pregnancies to prevent miscarriage or worse.
11) My pregnancies were considered “high risk” because of my clotting history, and I had to give myself a shot of blood thinners daily throughout my pregnancies, but the bright-side to it was after 20 weeks, I had to have ultrasounds every 4 weeks to make sure my little peanuts were developing as they should, and getting to peak in on them frequently was pretty great. Also, I was induced 2 weeks early with both Liam and Brennan because my labor and deliveries needed to be monitored very closely. I missed out on the “going into labor” experience, but I’m a planner so I didn’t really mind. And there really wasn’t a choice in the matter.
12) Aside from being “high risk”, I liked being pregnant. I gained 20 lbs with Liam and 22 lbs with Brennan. And my labor and delivery experiences were easy and pleasant. I did not work out on any kind of regular basis with either pregnancy, and will be very interested to see how incorporating fitness into the equation will be, if we decide to have a 3rd (btw, the jury is still out on that).
13) I started running last fall with my husband – our good friends were organizing a charity run within a 10K for their 6-year old cousin who was battling brain cancer (btw, she is still battling like a trooper and celebrated her 7th birthday last month). I asked Rachel for help, since neither of us had ever run before, and she put together a run schedule for us. We followed it to the tee and finished our first 10K, in the hilly Shenandoah Valley, in 59 minutes. We liked running, and running together, so much that we decided to sign up for the SunTrust 8K the next month, and we did that in 48 minutes (I actually finished in the top 50 for my age group). We ran our 3rd race in March, an 8K in Virginia Beach, and finished in 45 minutes. I am running the Run Like a Girl 8K this weekend without Jason, so we’ll see how that works out. We make a great team, because I struggle the first 2 miles and then find my groove, while he starts out strong and then looks to me for motivation. I have found I prefer trying to run faster rather than running farther – not sure any 10 milers or half marathons are in my future.
14) We live in Westover Hills, in the City, just south of the River. We just bought a new house, about a mile away in the same neighborhood. We are putting an addition on the house before we move in, which will hopefully be mid-October.
15) I love sports, watching and playing. NFL is a way of life around our house on Sundays during football season – go Cowboys!
16) I have become as obsessed with superheroes as Liam has.
17) If truth be told, I really wanted only boys, because teenage girls scare me, but I got Brennan, and I couldn’t love her more. And if we have a 3rd, I really hope that it’s a girl, because there is no bond comparable to that of sisters.
18) Hard-core, pee-in-your-pants, uncontrollable belly laughter in my favorite sound in the world … anyone’s will do, but I am particularly fond of Jason’s, Liam’s and Brennan’s
19) I have one sister, Amber, and she’s three years younger than me. She might be my little sister but she is my biggest hero.
20) I am very thankful for our good friend, Matt Lake, who owns Wine and Beer Westpark … he is awesome at hooking his customers up with very tasty wine for a very reasonable price – everyone should check him out!
21) I am always that girl with a camera. I love taking pictures and filling album after album with memories … I always envision myself as an old woman sitting on a front porch in a rocking chair looking at the pictures, thinking back and smiling.
22) William “Liam” Riordon was going to be named “William Robert” after his two grandpas, but we opted for Riordon (a random name we found in a baby book) after hearing too many “Billy Bob” jokes.
23) Brennan Paige is a third generation “Paige”
24) I fell in love with sailing last year when we went with two other couples in the British Virgin Islands. I cannot wait to go back one day, hopefully soon!
25) We have two big dogs, Bo & Luke. They are the sweet, good dogs, but they drive me crazy with their year-round shedding. They don’t understand why two little people usurped them, but are incredibly nice to them anyway.
1) My grandmother named me. She said I was born about the time the leaves started changing colors.
2) Liam, 4, and Brennan, 2, are my greatest accomplishments! It constantly amazes me that these two little people who can make my heart swell with such joy and pride and love can also make my head feel like it’s going to explode with frustration.
3) I’m from the Farmville area, and I say “area” because I went to school there, but I had to drive 30 minutes one way to get there. We lived in Green Bay, which is a tiny “town” just off highway 360, and you literally have to cross two wooden bridges to get to my house.
4) My husband, Jason, is also from Farmville, but we went to different schools and didn’t know each other growing up. Mutual friends introduced us during the summer of 1998. I always feel weird saying this, but I knew I liked him before we even met; I just had this feeling. We started dating 2 weeks after we met and have been together ever since.
5) Jason and I moved to Wilmington, DE after he graduated from law school for his career. We lived there for 3 years before moving back to Richmond to be closer to our families.
6) I earned a degree in English from JMU. I changed my major way too many times, and somehow ended up there. It all worked out though … I had a couple of jobs here in Richmond before finding my way into marketing and then outside sales for a company that manufactures polypropylene films in Delaware. And I worked in account management for a direct marketing agency after we moved back to Richmond for 2 years before deciding to stay home with my beautiful baby boy, Liam.
7) I am extremely competitive, almost to a fault … in sports, card games, board games, Stroller Strides relays, anything really.
8) I played softball in high school. I was an on-again, off-again exerciser all through college and post-college. It wasn’t until I started doing Stroller Strides in the fall of 2008 that I made a true lifelong commitment to fitness. I am in the best shape of my life, and it feels awesome.
9) I exercise to feel good, both physically and emotionally, and to offset my big appetite … I love food, I love wine and beer, and I hate to diet … as soon as I start thinking about counting calories or cutting out certain foods, eating is all I can think about.
10) While living in Delaware, following an elective surgery, I developed a blood clot in my right leg and one in my lung and learned that I have a clotting disorder, Factor V Leiden. The experience, while very scary and very painful, was a blessing in disguise. Had I not developed the clots, I wouldn’t have found the clotting disorder, and then I would not have been able to take the necessary precautionary steps during my pregnancies to prevent miscarriage or worse.
11) My pregnancies were considered “high risk” because of my clotting history, and I had to give myself a shot of blood thinners daily throughout my pregnancies, but the bright-side to it was after 20 weeks, I had to have ultrasounds every 4 weeks to make sure my little peanuts were developing as they should, and getting to peak in on them frequently was pretty great. Also, I was induced 2 weeks early with both Liam and Brennan because my labor and deliveries needed to be monitored very closely. I missed out on the “going into labor” experience, but I’m a planner so I didn’t really mind. And there really wasn’t a choice in the matter.
12) Aside from being “high risk”, I liked being pregnant. I gained 20 lbs with Liam and 22 lbs with Brennan. And my labor and delivery experiences were easy and pleasant. I did not work out on any kind of regular basis with either pregnancy, and will be very interested to see how incorporating fitness into the equation will be, if we decide to have a 3rd (btw, the jury is still out on that).
13) I started running last fall with my husband – our good friends were organizing a charity run within a 10K for their 6-year old cousin who was battling brain cancer (btw, she is still battling like a trooper and celebrated her 7th birthday last month). I asked Rachel for help, since neither of us had ever run before, and she put together a run schedule for us. We followed it to the tee and finished our first 10K, in the hilly Shenandoah Valley, in 59 minutes. We liked running, and running together, so much that we decided to sign up for the SunTrust 8K the next month, and we did that in 48 minutes (I actually finished in the top 50 for my age group). We ran our 3rd race in March, an 8K in Virginia Beach, and finished in 45 minutes. I am running the Run Like a Girl 8K this weekend without Jason, so we’ll see how that works out. We make a great team, because I struggle the first 2 miles and then find my groove, while he starts out strong and then looks to me for motivation. I have found I prefer trying to run faster rather than running farther – not sure any 10 milers or half marathons are in my future.
14) We live in Westover Hills, in the City, just south of the River. We just bought a new house, about a mile away in the same neighborhood. We are putting an addition on the house before we move in, which will hopefully be mid-October.
15) I love sports, watching and playing. NFL is a way of life around our house on Sundays during football season – go Cowboys!
16) I have become as obsessed with superheroes as Liam has.
17) If truth be told, I really wanted only boys, because teenage girls scare me, but I got Brennan, and I couldn’t love her more. And if we have a 3rd, I really hope that it’s a girl, because there is no bond comparable to that of sisters.
18) Hard-core, pee-in-your-pants, uncontrollable belly laughter in my favorite sound in the world … anyone’s will do, but I am particularly fond of Jason’s, Liam’s and Brennan’s
19) I have one sister, Amber, and she’s three years younger than me. She might be my little sister but she is my biggest hero.
20) I am very thankful for our good friend, Matt Lake, who owns Wine and Beer Westpark … he is awesome at hooking his customers up with very tasty wine for a very reasonable price – everyone should check him out!
21) I am always that girl with a camera. I love taking pictures and filling album after album with memories … I always envision myself as an old woman sitting on a front porch in a rocking chair looking at the pictures, thinking back and smiling.
22) William “Liam” Riordon was going to be named “William Robert” after his two grandpas, but we opted for Riordon (a random name we found in a baby book) after hearing too many “Billy Bob” jokes.
23) Brennan Paige is a third generation “Paige”
24) I fell in love with sailing last year when we went with two other couples in the British Virgin Islands. I cannot wait to go back one day, hopefully soon!
25) We have two big dogs, Bo & Luke. They are the sweet, good dogs, but they drive me crazy with their year-round shedding. They don’t understand why two little people usurped them, but are incredibly nice to them anyway.
