Long walks

I have wanted to take the dog out for a long walkie-hikey-thing for a week now. Our average is about 3.5 miles when we go out. I'm not in it for stats, but I thought, if we're out, why not go for 6 or 8 miles? Heaven knows I usually have the time. I certainly live where its possible. Unfortunately, life got in the way last week. Hannah has a broken foot so she was home from school on BOTH my days off. It kind of killed my want-to. Major disappointment. Thats one of the things in life I don't have good coping skills for; disappointment. Anyway, I had a four day weekend so we finally did a longer walkie-hikey thing on Sunday, it wasn't quite the six miles I had hoped for, but I was worried how long I had been gone (My Honey was home alone with the gimpy kid, Bubba and his friend... I had a little mom-guilt). And it was good. I even ran for a mile and a half or so of it. That's quite an experience, trail-running. As you can see it was a beautiful day, the view is gorgeous and the flowers are in bloom.

Later when I got home we did yard work. Lots of it. I moved this whole wood pile all by myself while My Honey built (another) retaining wall. The yard is coming along really well this year. Funny how prioritizing what we're spending makes such a difference in what we get done.

FYI, that wood pile is about four feet high and two rows deep. I know it doesn't look like much, but it was!

The past week

Oh, I have a lot to say about the past week, but I am still sitting on a few things, trying to tie it all together, so you'll have to wait. In the mean time I do have some "real" pictures to post. I actually took these with my "real" camera and even spent a few minutes editing them.

My nieces and several of our great friends at the parade today!

... No, I did not take all those kids to a parade alone, there were a couple other moms there too!

(Missed you Mason & LK)

Another niece in the parade! Way to go Madi :)

April showers earlier this week. This is my most recent favorite picture.

Seriously, this isn't the west side, Mother Nature.

Dorika and Hannah on one of her (many) days home from school with a broken foot last week.

I'm not sure which one looks cuter in this photo, or which one gets her way the most often!

Roughness

Hannah is downstairs right now complaining to Bubba that I am a mean Mom because I wont get her a band aid for a wee paper cut. We're talking mass tears and hysteria. Oy vey.

Kids for sale.

I was going to work up a description, but I think I will use this picture instead, since it reminds me of how cute they really are...

We had a yard sale over the weekend. The kids sold "refreshments, flys and toys". Hannah would literally walk up to anyone and say "Would you like to buy some refreshments at our stand over there?" It was cute, in an embarrassing kind of way. Bubba was looking for prospective customers for his flies. The kid loves to tie flies (for fly-fishing which he doesn't do yet). Any man in cammo was a prospect so were any boy-kids. Hannah accosted every girl-child and sold her a toy. Here was her technique - "Hi, would you like to buy a toy? They're right over here," and she would take them by the hand and direct them to the toys. She would hover and make sure the kid saw all the toys and picked one out then she would take them by the hand to the parent and say "Your kid picked out this toy, its twenty-five cents." Thats it. She had a 100% success rate.

I'm trying to think of the name of this technique from all the sales books I used to read from a previous life, and it just doesn't fit. About the only thing she did right was not take "No" for an answer. It was hilarious, embarrassing and kind of weird to watch. I finally had enough, I could just hear some parent coming up to me and telling me how aggressive my daughter was being and could I please put her back in her cage, so I finally called Grandma to come get them so I could relax. Funny thing, we didn't sell a single toy after that.

 Samples of Bubba's flies

Ahead and behind

The view ahead of me.

The view behind me.

My goodness what a difference a new perspective can make.

From Sunday

This piece of wood and barbed wire made me think,

"What a tangled web we weave"

Yesterday and today

Actually, the pictures are both from today. One has a bunny in it. Not sure if it's a wild hare (hahaha) or a domestic creature that lives there. In the other, I was trying to capture how the leaves have only opened up on one side of the trees. It looked cool to me. Like how the leaves change from the outside edges and top in the fall.

This time of year

It's time for the trees to get their bud and blossom on! I saw this one at the park today. Note to self: there are too many people at the park, stick to the hillside. We left the park and did just that.

Places I saw today

Not sure of the mileage, I would guess we did about 4 miles total. We saw some pretty cool places.

Easter and a walk

"Run Forrest!! Run!"

The dog needed a walk as bad as I did!

At Grandmas

The goats get Easter dinner too

It's been a nice quiet Easter. Lets keep it that way!

Another day

I'm not sure who taught me to count; "Day 1" and the next post is "Day 3". I must be enjoying my vacation a little too much!

Hannah and I have spent the past two days together shopping an eating out while My Honey worked (except Monday) and Bubba fished. Grandpa took him three times! They didn't catch much, they usually don't, but Bubba loves it. I am really grateful that Grandpa will take him. Fishing just isn't my thing. Too much sitting around (that from me, who can sit for hours and surf or read or knit...)

Speaking of knitting. When LK was here last, I figured out what I was doing wrong in my latest project so I tore all four feet of it out and started over. I'm pretty close to finished now. It's a scarf for one of my lovelies at work. She liked the look of it, so I took it on. What a project! I learned a ton. I learned how to knit a lace-looking pattern. I learned that I can do it, I just have to be patient with myself and the process, I have to be willing to start over from the beginning. To stick with it. Hmmm, just like in so many other things.

Bubba and I spent the day together today. We set out for cinnamon rolls or butter horns for breakfast and struck out. Three times. We finally just settled for these deep fried pancake-things at Denny's. Then it was off to shop. Of course he wanted to check out the fishing things at the outdoor store where we ran into Grandpa. My Honey stopped by on his lunch hour, because we were still there. Bubba finally decided on some hooks and some weights. We then went to Costco to run my errand (a new life jacket for him) and then finally to Fred Meyer for more outdoor stuff, or dollar-toys. There we ran into my sister Michelle and Madi. Nice. We visited while the kids looked around the toy an outdoor aisles. Perfect. The grown ups didn't leave with a thing. Good job us!

Tonite we have all of us together and well for the first time since .... Friday night? Guess I better start thinking about dinner!

Evening Hockey

Well, I went and played hockey last night....

Fun stuff! It's a group of women and novice men playing together. The teams were pretty even and we had a variety of good-to-better players. My game was okay. We played drop-in style, so you get to play whatever position is coming off the ice which means it's different every time. I had to play center a few times, which I am not familiar with, so it challenged me in a good way. The whole night did, actually.

I left home kind of stressing about how it was gonna go and if I would know anyone, turned out the only folks I didn't know were the guys. A dozen of my Banshee ladies were there, so that made me very comfortable to start out.

We played four-15 minute periods, which is a lot of ice time, which equals a great workout and hundreds of calories burned. I even stepped out of my old comfort zone of not asking people their names to asking names! I've become a natural. Well, not quite, but it's getting easier. And at the end, I got invited to go on a hike this afternoon. Maybe I am coming around.

Day 3

Took a walk this afternoon with the dog since My Honey stayed home sick. Poor guy. Prior to that Hannah and I had a little date afternoon while Bubba was fishing. We hit McDonalds for lunch (mmmmm) and then did a little retail therapy and had some ice cream. All in all a nice afternoon with her. Now I'm off to play some coed hockey.

I'm a little nervous.

Vacation day 1

Ahhhh. Off work for 11 days. Whatever will I do with myself?
And my son.
And my daughter.
And the dog.

Did I mention it's Spring Break? We have a whole lot of nothing planned. Maybe a movie, maybe some ice skating (we went to the hockey game last night and I am missing the smell of the ice).

I did get out for another nearly four mile walk today. Hopefully we wont get caught trespassing up here. Its really close to home an a nice hilly walk for us.

The hillside

The dog was finally able (and ready) for a walk and it was a good thing because the hillside called today.

It's been really gloomy and a bit rainy and just pretty much crushing my mood for the past few days. I'm glad we went. There were even a few flowers poking their pretty, purple heads out.

Out and about

The dog... Well she had another surgery so I had to walk without her today. I tried a new route north, it was about four miles and if I ever get back into running it will be a good, hilly route. It was kind if grey and a little sprinkly out, but I did it.

Yes

Made myself go out on this 50*day. You'd think I wouldn't have had to drag myself out there, but for some reason I did.

Later I get to drag myself to my last hockey practice. Maybe I'm just starting to grieve?

Word of the year

"Fear disconnects us from compassion and clouds clear thought."

Yes. Thank you, Kristin.

Years ago I followed Kristin's blog, and now she's back with the same thought provoking, intellectual posts she used to have. That line from her post from the other day really resonates with me right now.

The word "compassion" is my word-of-the-year and I have noticed that giving into it a bit has resulted in a different kind of assertiveness. While I certainly don't feel "fearless", maybe I am acting more out of compassion and the fear of saying/doing/being the wrong thing just slips away ...  I just hadn't thought about the two being connected, but maybe they are. I'm still sitting with all that, I'm sure I will have more to say later.


No walk Saturday, so no pictures to post. I'm trying to talk myself into a walk today (it's already 11:00) and I'm just not finding the motivation. But I know if I get out there and do it I will be so much happier and feel better and all that .... yeah. It's not working.

Just a few miles

Have I mentioned run keeper? I'm so in love with it!! It makes me want to go further.

Signs of spring are all around. Trees budding, blue skies, sunshine and bee hives. Yes, there was a wee bit of snow this morning, but the sun is melting it all away, just as it should in March!

A little wet and a little cold

Another walk! I really wish we could go each day.

I was recommended an app to keep track of mileage and such, Runkeeper. It does it all. Mileage, miles per hour, mapping and you can run a playlist through it. Plus you can add a "street team" if you're cool enough to have peeps you run with, or want to compare yourself with others. I'm not cool enough and I know I suck so I don't have any street team-ers.

One of these pictures shows some cool looking clouds rolling over the hill, the flowers are from my yard. We cleaned it up last weekend so I took some of the forsythia and forced it in the house. The kids have been enjoying checking it's progress every day. The last one  barely shows a rainbow. I was using my iPhone zoom so they're a little grainy.

Out and about

Finally the dog and I went for a walk. She was spayed last week so this is the first walk in a week. We both needed it!!

Well ... part 2

The Doctor and I chatted a bit, he twisted my knee this way and that, asked me some questions about how I fell, what position was my knee in (I had no idea), and where is the pain (here), do I feel it clicking, did I hear it pop, has it given out on me (no, no, no). He had pictures taken, it looks just fine. No swelling, so go home. You might consider a brace, if it feels good, you can play hockey on Friday morning. The end. Oh, if it still hurts in a week or so come back. The end.

I also had a visit with the Chiropractor. He was a tad bit more informative. He thinks it might be a slight tear in the meniscus, the shock absorber between the cartilage. Its the kind of injury that can get better or get worse ... Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, but can I play on Friday? Same advice, try it and see how it goes. Its usually a certain position that makes it hurt the worst, and you will know when you're in that position. Not much you can do for it, it will heal itself, you can wear a brace to remind yourself not to hyper extend or bend it too much. And then he fixed up my back and neck. God bless him.

So, long story short, its alright (kind of), I can play on Friday if it feels okay. I really don't need to have it checked unless I am experiencing the clicking or locking up or giving out on me . I could look into physical therapy, which would probably be a good idea, but I don't know if I need a referral from a doctor (remember, I don't have one right now) or not. So, I'm gonna play my last two practices and go searching for a new Doc. It shouldn't really be that hard, the old one plays hockey with me, I just need to remember to ask her who she would recommend when I see her Friday. Question is, can I interview a new Doc? When I was having kids it was all the rage to interview Pediatricians. It makes a lot of sense, you want to have someone you can talk to, you're going to be seeing them frequently for a LONG time. But a regular/girl-parts doctor? Is that acceptable? Seems like it would be. But I just don't know. Anyone?