Break4

I went trolling around the back yard looking for my daily shot. This is what I found. Better get on it for today!

Had a marvelous time with my girls poolside this afternoon. One of the unwritten, but strongly adhered to rules is "adult time." After an hour and a half or so we declare the pool an adult only zone for 10-30 minutes while the kids do something else. I wasn't on my A-game today, usually I get them a snack, but they just played (sort of) quietly while we chatted. What a nice, quiet treat.

Break3

All parking lots are required to have plants and stuff in them now. Stupid if you ask me, they just grow roots that damage the asphalt. Anyway, that's the last thing I saw before I went into the building to go to work yesterday.

What a night! There was a storm warning issued for 11 am to 11 pm last night. The storms started several (more) brush fires, the most significant were several hundred acres of wheat fields above town. The storms knocked out our power so we ran off the generator several times. Thank goodness for that!

Another storm warning is in effect today, same hours ... could be another busy night!

Break2

Swim lessons started yesterday.
Miss I loved it!

Break1

Yesterday's day. Went golfing with My Honey. Very nice afternoon.

Game Night

Miss I raced the Coyote at the baseball game last night ....



And the winner? Well Miss I of course "I ran the whole way!"

Bubba and I got to answer a trivia question and then all the kids went onto the field to sing "Take me out to the ball game" at the seventh inning stretch. (And then we waited in line for a free sno-cone.)



Fun night!

A T A D

I got rid of something!
Six (6) bags of clothing and miscellaneous crap to Goodwill. Yay me, now I can go shopping! (Kidding!) But I didn't take a picture. It would have been a good one. Six white trash bags full, stuffed in the back of the Explorer.

Speaking of cars, we're in the market for a new-to-us truck. Something to pull the boat, haul kids and us at the same time, and maybe a load or two of gravel in the dump trailer. Oh yeah, and it has to have cruise control. We test drove one yesterday that didn't have cruise control. I know! How weird? Not only that, My Honey got the experience of his life at a Dealership.

Apparently the Dealership had hired a company (has anyone seen "The Goods"?) and they won't even tell you a price until you drive the car and "fall in love with it"? But wait! There's more, they have you sign a contract that you will buy the car if they can come up with an agreeable price. (They had no idea who they were dealing with.) My Honey signed the contract, but the price they quoted him was $4,000 above the blue book value (because he had researched it) which was not an "agreeable" price. The dealership was appalled! (Go figure.) My Honey 1, Dealership 0.

We'd rater go through a private seller anyway, and guess what? We might have found one. Same rig, one year older, less miles, full package (including cruise control) and a much more reasonable price. Yay for Craigslist!

Talking

I am kind of nervous thinking about "the August break". A month in pictures. An interesting way to capture my world, my feelings, my desires, my life. Of course I want to be king of organized about it, have a purpose each day, but that's not really the point is it? Just go with it!

Or maybe I will do A Thing A Day and take a picture of the thing a day I get rid of???

I've been kind of cooped up with a sick kid. Miss I came down with a fever on Tuesday evening (it was 104!) and then spent Wednesday feeling pretty bad.
She was hallucinating on Tuesday night, "Mama is that dog okay?"
"You see a dog?"
"Yeah, right there."
"Yeah honey, he's okay..."
Poor thing was dizzy on Wednesday morning "Mama, I can't hold on." And then this morning she actually spewed so I thought we'd be spending the day doing nothing again, but she ate some toast awhile ago, her fever is gone, she's getting her "laugh back" as she put it and asking where we are going to go today.

Originally the kids and I were going camping with DW and another family this weekend but my plans changed when Miss I was so sick. Bubba was totally disappointed this morning. Now, however ... maybe we will still go? Or at least head out there tomorrow to play and maybe spend one night?

About work. Night shift is going really good. I sure do like it. The busyness, working with new people, challenging myself. But some of those cops ... cranks! Mostly I don't let them get to me. Mostly I try to treat them nice so they will treat me nice. I had success on Tuesday night, I got a notoriously cranky, impatient cop to repeat himself when his radio was crappy and later he complimented me. Made. My. Night. The simple things.

Traditional

Last week's Sunday Creative word was "traditional." I finally got a picture edited (my goal is NOT to post one unless it's edited) and the link is closed. Oh well. I wanted to capture something traditionally vacation-y


I share the weekly word with Bubba. It is actually a good English language definition exercise. His first thought about traditional was off a bit, I don't remember exactly now. So we talked about it as I drank my morning coffee and gave him a few examples such as drinking my morning coffee. He picked up the little camera and took a picture of me and my morning coffee.


(that one was fun to edit!)

This week's word is "naked." There was a disclaimer to keep it clean, kids view her blog, but, there are many other directions to take that word. For instance, it just occurred to me that there is a mixed drink called "skip and go naked" maybe I will mix a batch and take some pictures? Served in mason jars, it's pretty photogenic I think! It could be a flower bud (naked, no petals), an organic garden (naked, no chemicals), a barren tree or field (naked after harvest), and then there is just plain old nekkie bums!


I might just use this one of my niece!

And I'm off

Back to work today. It was a very nice vacation.

We swam, we golfed, we boated (three times!!!) found a great little beach on the shady side of the river in the evenings and had picnics there twice. This morning it was on the SUNNY side so we had a great time and got a little burnt I think!


We did what the kids wanted; go to the park, fishing and see a movie. Such simple requests. We even did the touristy thing and went to Leavenworth where we had dinner and did putt-putt golf.


That was a fun day.
Good times :)

Mo' photography

the August break

I cannot figure out how to link a badge to my blog. So blond sometimes! I am sure it's easy, logical even, but NOOOOO, I can't figure the stinking thing out. But I am going to try Susannah's "the August break". Sounds interesting. I like how other photography challenges have gotten me out there, and more over EDITING my photos.

Join me, link the stinking badge to YOUR blog just to show me how easy it is!!


** I tried (again) I even followed the directions in the "help" file, no luck. I think it's actually the layout design. Every time I change that it gets messed up too. Too bad. **


**** Stinking thing! Oh well, I chose a neat-o new background. Thanks for the tip LSL, I tried doing it as a photo (great idea!) and the html link thing too... ****

(and then ... I figured it out! Thanks again for the tip LSL! You rock! *sigh* my hero)

Staycation

We're on vacation this week. We chose to just stay home. It's been really nice, actually. We live in a great place, it's warm, there's water, golf, good restaurants, we have a pool, air conditioning and comfortable beds! Just like a hotel, only we don't have to drive there and back!

We tend to vacation in July each year around our anniversary and have spent many of these vacations on the Oregon coast where the weather is a crap shoot. It might be mild, it might be cool, but either way it isn't "summer weather" and we always come home saying "why did we leave THIS? The weather is perfect, we have everything we need and wouldn't have to drive there! People come HERE for vacation." So we tried it. We like it.

We have golfed, played in the pool, played at the park, spent some family time together, spent some couple time together, we're taking the boat out this evening for supper on the water, I have a massage scheduled for later this morning, and we're going to go see a movie this afternoon too.

True, it ain't no Wild Waves or Disneyland, but it's been nice. Casual. A slower-than-usual pace. I've liked it.

Another big bonus: babysitters are easy to come by!

Results

Here are my official race results:

Swim 22:52.4 (1/2 mile in the oceanic Lake)
T1 4:38.9 (transition area; getting out of my wetsuit, getting my shoes and helmet on)
Bike 46:32.8 (13 miles)
T2 1:25.6 (changing out of helmet to running cap, getting out of transition area)
Run 40:46.8 (5K)
Final 1:56:16.5

I am happy I did it in under 2 hours, but disappointed the bike and run times are higher. Perspective: I did double the swim.

Last year's results:
(maybe I don't suck as much as I think ...)

Swim: 6:68.1 (1/4 mile)
T1: 3:13:6
Bike: 49:36.9 (13 miles - HEY, WOW, I did it faster this year!)
T2: 2:21:1
Run: 38:0:26 (5k)
Final: 1:40:1

What do you know, the bike time ISN'T higher. Yay me, thanks Arlberg for the loaner! Maybe I will buy that bike after all!

Likelihood of next year? On a scale of 1-10, today I am about a seven.

Am I sore? Nope, not like you would think. My back is sore which I think is from the bike, I should have adjusted the handlebars, but my legs? Nope. My neck is from looking up the whole time, keeping my eyes on the buoys. The rest of me? Not so much.

Do I feel like I pushed myself? I know I did. It was overwhelming, actually. Still working on that part of the story for you all.

One-Zero-Six-Nine

(There has to be a joke in there somewhere!)

1069, that was this year's race number in the ChelanMan Triathlon. My gal JP and I did the sprint distance, which really pushed me. The ONLY impact was double the swim length (1/2 mile instead of 1/4 mile) which really shouldn't have been a big deal. The water and me, we are friends. Or at least I thought we were!

The water was cold-ish (thanks JP for the wet suit), the water was choppy, and I wanted to give up several times ("If I can make that buoy .... Okay, maybe at the next one ... Swear to God if I make it to the shore-line buoys I am done!") Alas, something bigger than me won the battle and I made the swim. And the bike. And the run. Really, when I think about it, it was the wind that caused all my problems.

It wasn't without *many* swear words, a lot of wishing a rock would fall on me or a car would hit me or a shoelace would come undone! But I made it. (Serious, folks, I had ALL those thoughts. More than once.)

I will be mulling it over for awhile. Look forward to a post later.

For now, I am going to have (another) glass of wine and some pasta for supper.

The Day Before

I'm going to chill today. Sit back, relax, and pray the wind goes away.

We went out to dinner last night at Olive Garden. My Honey hadn't been there yet so I warned him there would probably be a wait time. Sure enough, at 6 ish on a Friday night there was. Fortunately there was a table open in the bar. Unfortunately the bar service was poor last night. For some reason they didn't notice us sit down? Oh well, it all worked out just fine, we had a nice dinner.

After dinner My Honey suggested maybe we should go to a show. I called the babysitter-Auntie and she said no problem, go to the show. We checked out all our options (because the two theaters are only a few miles apart) and decided on "Grown Ups" mostly due to the fact we had no idea what the other films were and we didn't want to see "Toy Story" or "Despicable Me" without the kids. We had about 30 minutes to kill so My Honey says to me, "how bout we park at the theater and go get a drink." So we walked down to the bar, had a drink, then walked back to the theater.

Funny film, then again, I love Adam Sandler, so it was a no-brainer. It was just an easy, slow, cute film.

All in all a nice (day before our) anniversary.

Eighteen

It's our 18th anniversary tomorrow!

I know! Eighteen years!

I have the weekend pretty much all booked up with triathlon stuff, tomorrow there is a mandatory meeting at 7 which pretty much blows as far as trying to go out for our anniversary, so I thought maybe I would find us a babysitter and plan on going out to dinner tonite.

Everything worked out, I texted My Honey to invite him to dinner and then let him know all the arrangements were made. And then he brought me home roses at lunch. 18 of them :) What a good guy.

A few weeks ago My Honey asked me if I could sew a button back on a pair of shorts. Well, of course I CAN, but I hadn't gotten around to it yet. He asked again today so I did it. What good timing, my word this week was "connect." Which is exactly what I did with the button!

2 days

I must have pushed myself harder than I thought yesterday, my legs were like bricks on my ride today! Heavy! Could be that I had no fuel for energy since I didn't eat breakfast before I headed for my ride? But since I was in the "pushing myself" zone I went for a run right after. It wasn't the easiest thing, I am pretty sure I should have done a few of those "brick" workouts this past month and not just two days before the race.

I am going to take tomorrow off and just enjoy some family time. We're still down one kid, but Bubba needs some mommy time. He hinted that he wanted to stay home today, I really wanted to get my workout in today. (I know how selfish.)

So what am I going to do now? Well ... we have this basement full of all the crap we took out of the living room. Since we haven't needed any of it in the past two or three months I guess its time to haul it all out to the truck and then City Dump, here I come! I suppose I could go green and take some stuff to the Goodwill?

And, I have a photo project I would like to complete for this week's word "connect." I have a lot of ideas bobbling around in my head, not sure what it is going to turn out to be. I also have a photo I took a few months ago that would work really well too, but I think I would rather go on a creative excursion and find something new. But where?

Cont'd

I really want to get out to the Lake to practice, but just to be safe, I want to take another (swimmer) with me so if something happens I have a back up. Unfortunately my gal JP was sleeping after a 12 hour shift last night and DW couldn't go (plus she's not a face-in-the-water swimmer) so I decided I would go to the outdoor pool for either the noon or 5pm swim.

Noon ended up being lunch with My Honey which is turning into a nice daily habit. Even when I work I can be up in time for lunch with him. So I swam at 5. In keeping with my earlier comment about pushing myself, I decided to step it up a little. Lately I have been swimming 10 laps, resting and then swimming 10 more. Tonite I just swam the 20 laps. Really, it's not much, it took me less than 20 minutes. It's a little over the distance of the race so it was good practice. But again, I finished and I was barely winded, and I don't find myself sore right now. It was nice that I found a good rhythm and the wind was blowing a little which made the water a tiny bit choppy.

I remember last year how it took me awhile to find a rhythm in the Lake. All those people, feet, hands and arms flailing all around me, the wind, the choppy water. Not what I had expected or anticipated. I remember stopping in the water, looking around me for a path and telling myself to pay attention to the water to find a rhythm. I couldn't make the rhythm like I can in the pool. It took a minute or two (because the swim only took seven minutes) but I found it. Me and the water. I also remember that I had to look at the shore for markers, I couldn't watch the lane lines on the bottom because there weren't any! So I would look at a tree, then the next tree or a pole or the bike racks. I have been thinking about that as I swam the past month, watching the windows at the indoor pool, not the lane lines. I am getting the feeling it is going to be a different experience this year than last. A good kind of different.

For tomorrow I am planning ... well, I hadn't made a plan yet. Bubba is at day camp again, Miss I is still in Portland so that leaves me with all day (except lunch hour.) I am thinking another ride around the loop (or two) would be good and maybe a run. I could actually do a bike-run brick which would be REALLY GREAT. And, since I will be getting to bed early-ish, I can get it done before it gets too hot.

Speaking of hot, summer is finally here! Its been warm, I've been working on my tan and I am sooooo happy about it! I spent an hour cleaning the pool out today, then a couple hours lying in the sun, dunking myself when I was too hot.

What a great day; breakfast with my boys, early bike ride, coffee with DW, lunch with My Honey, pool time, a swim, dinner with the boys, story time with Bubba and now a little more quiet time tonite while My Honey takes care of some stuff at work.

3 Days

I took some vacation time and left work early last night.

My poor Bubba, he's so lonely this week. His sister has been gone, his mama has been gone, it's just him and his dad. I called around bedtime last night and he was all tears, missing me, asking me not to work nights anymore. It's only been five days! It was a big week for him though, all that plus he went to a day camp program all week so he is exhausted. They run the kids hard, swim lessons, outside play time, crafts, all that kind of stuff. Poor little guy. Luckily we are on vacation next week so he will be good and sick of me by then!

Since I went home early, I got up with the boys this morning, made Bubba breakfast and then went for a ride on the borrowed bike. It feels pretty much the same. Like a bike, but I shaved 4 minutes off my ride time around the loop. I don't know if that is because I was thinking about it or because it actually goes faster because its lighter, but ... well, 4 minutes is one transition, so I am glad for it!

Speaking of thinking about things; I went music-less today, as I have been doing for the past couple weeks, no headsets allowed in the race, so I was thinking. I was wondering, actually, why I don't challenge myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, doing the race IS a challenge, I realize that, but as far as performance, why don't I challenge myself?

I did not end my ride huffing and puffing and panting as though I had tried to make a personal best time. In fact, I was quite ... "normal" no shaky legs, not breathing too hard. Hmmm. It's a good thing, really, but I just makes me wonder what more I have in me and how to tap that? How do (first place) winners get into that zone? Mind you, first place is not my goal, never has been, not sure it ever will be, but I wonder, sometimes, how would that feel? To win. Scary mostly, then the bar rises, the expectation goes up. If you win at one thing, don't you have to win at another? And another? And everything else?

Interesting, I just read a fitness blog by a friend of mine referring to her inner strength to do one more set. THAT's the part I am missing. (Funny, I typo'd "part" as "party".) If I wanted to push myself I could have gone 'round the loop one more time, I definitely could have handled it.

5 Days to go

I didn't work out yesterday, but I got up today and considered a ride a run or a swim...

My Honey had the Explorer and the bike doesn't fit in the Jeep (I tried yesterday) so unless I wanted to ride from home (which I didn't) a ride was out. As for a run ... Eeehhh. I was wishy-washy, it was windy and I really wasn't in the mood. So, I checked the schedule for the pools. The indoor pool had a lap swim till 1:00 and the outdoor pool didn't start until 12:00. It was only 10:00 so I decided to head down to the indoor pool.

Keep in mind, I CHECKED THE SCHEDULE. I know the lap swim goes until 1:00. I head to the front desk to check in and the very nice YMCA employee reminds me that lap swim doesn't start until 11:00. DOH! Of course it doesn't, that is EXACTLY what the schedule said. Silly me, it's only 10:30. So I considered my options; Starbucks or home. I headed to Starbucks. I drove one block in that direction, turned around and went home, put on my new runners and went for a run. From home. Up the hill. In the wind.

One good part was the wind wasn't too bad and it's not too hot today either. I actually did much better on the run than I anticipated and I think I might even be able to do that blasted hill by the end of the summer. In fact, I actually thought "this hill isn't too bad" today as I walked the steepest incline. Weird.

Another good part was it didn't kill me. I am starting to wonder if I might be able to run most of the distance. Yeah, I know, its the last thing (swim, then bike, then run) but I keep wondering... Practicing on the hill has been a good thing. I might even keep it up.

THEN I went home and got in the car and went down to the pool for my swim. Noon is a weird time to swim. I was surprised at the number of older people (60's-80's). I had a good swim, came home, ate some lunch (or breakfast, really) and now I am trying to decide what else to do before work.

Oh, I know. Grocery shopping.

Sleepy time

Mmmmm, I started night shift on Saturday night. 5pm-3am.

Sunday morning I woke to Miss I coming in to tell me "Mommy, I leave today for Portland, I am so excited." At 6am. Then she woke me again at 8:30 when she actually left with Grandma. I hope she has a blast. She went down to spend the week with Grandma and Auntie and her younger cousins. I hope Grandma survives three kids under 4 years old for several days while my SIL works!

Then at noonish, Bubba came in to invite me to lunch with him and My Honey. So I went. We had a nice drive in the Jeep (with the top off) and lunch at Sonic. Not a do-over in the summer. All they have is outdoor seating and it was already one hundred degrees out. We drove out to take a look at the giant raging wild land fire burning just outside of town too. That didn't last long either, again it was one hundred degrees out and really not that exciting to watch from across the river. Night time would have been a different story!

I've had a little sleep today, but I think I will head back to bed for another nap, since I can!

******** EEEK!!!!! *******
I just realized that I should really do a workout, the Tri is on SUNDAY.

Sunday Creative

This week's word was "denim".


My Honey helped me with this photo. He did a pretty good job huh?

Aaahhh Summer

Spent the last two days working on my tan. I love summer. The pool was cool and refreshing yesterday, one dunk at a time. It was much more tolerable today to hang out in for a few minutes at a time.

I got up early-ish and took the wet suit to the City pool. It was just as embarrassing as I thought it was going to be. Who goes swimming when it is seventy degrees out (yes! at 7am) in a wet suit? WE DO! One of the other lap swimmers actually teased us which gave us the chance to say we were practicing in them for the Tri. Then we felt better about it. They sure are restraining. I don't like it at all, but I made myself do it. I have a friend that lives near the Lake, she's actually been in the water and said it isn't too bad once you get used to it. Maybe we'll be okay without them? Still looking for a way to go (safely) next week and do an open water swim.

AND! My bike is ready. Well, sort of. The bike repair guy called, told me he fixed what he could, and recommended borrowing a (lighter) bike that is for sale at the shop to see how I like it, oh, and why don't I use it for the race because it will be safer! So, I came home with two bikes and I can't wait to check out the new-ish one. It sure is lighter! Maybe I can shave a couple minutes there since the swim might take me longer in the wet suit. (As if I am worried about the times.) I am planning on riding tomorrow morning to check it out.

Less than two weeks

I lost my motivation on or around the 27th.
Then I got it back on or around Monday.

Good thing too, there's less than two weeks before the race!

Monday night my gal JP came over and we ran. Pretty good run, we were both kind of tired.

Tuesday night I went to the pool and swam. Good swim. Two long stretches that felt really good. And since I was feeling so good, I decided to go for a run. It was a really good idea. The run good too. I had read a pretty inspirational story just before I left for my swim and I think it was just what I needed. Thanks LSL!

Wednesday I dug the wetsuit out of the boat. We have a couple, actually, so I texted JP and asked if she wanted to go do a test swim at the pool. Boy did I feel dumb going swimming at an indoor pool in a wetsuit! But it was a good idea. We knew it would feel different, but we didn't know it would make our arms feel like they weighed eighty-five (85) pounds EACH! Holy mother of all things wet and heavy! We did it though. We're trying to arrange an open water day, but we're running out of time and our days off are different so ....

This morning I had planned to run, so I dragged my lazy bum out of bed, checked my text, just in case JP was up, and she was, so we ran again. We did the 2.5 mile loop from here, but had to walk part of it as usual. We did run a small section of the beastly hill though. WHEW! THEN, THEN, she made me do more stuff, push ups and squats and some triceps dips. On that evil B! I am going to be sore tomorrow!

Tomorrow we are planning on a swim in the outdoor pool in the wetsuits. I will admit I am a little embarrassed, but I gotta do it. The lake is freezing cold. Sixty-six last week. brrrrrr.

In other news, we had a great time with family here on the 4th for my nieces 3rd birthday party. It was too windy and cold for the pool, but luckily my gal DW had offered to loan me her jumping castle so we had something for the kids to do. What fun! They all loved it. Many thanks to her! My dad-in-law and brother-in-law had been out fishing the day before so we bbq'd fresh salmon for dinner, it was delicious and later we took the kids to the park for the fireworks. Turned out that one of my favorite semi-local bands, Red Means Go, was playing at the park so we got to hear them while we waited. But it made for a late night and then a VERY early morning.

Speaking of early mornings, I am starting night shift on Saturday so I blacked out my bedroom today. Turns out the curtains I bought for the living room that didn't look very good look kind of nice in the bedroom. It really needs to be painted tho .... KIDDING!!! No more painting for awhile. Maybe in November :)

Happy 4th

I know I posted this already, but I like it and its fitting for today.

It's here!

I came home to this! It looks great. That corner didn't photograph really well, but it sort of shows the colors of the carpet and vinyl. We moved the love seat upstairs and we actually have a living room that looks and feels like a living room right now! Just some more artwork and doo-dads and this room will look GREAT!

More good times

Another beautiful day in Chelan. The weather turned windy later in the afternoon, but we did get some good pool time before lunch (which means I got a good tan) and it seems to be turning into a nice evening.

This is the life

I think I have mentioned before that I love Lake Chelan. It is my favorite place EVER. It relaxes me just driving into town and smelling the smell of the lake. Luckily my sister is up here this week so I get to spend some time chillin this weekend while the new carpet is being installed.

YES! You read that right, the carpet and vinyl are being installed! I left yesterday, took one last look around my bare-wooded floors and the old vinyl and thought "this will all be different when I get back." And I was happy about that! I am also very happy that we get to have my niece's birthday party-BBQ at our house on Sunday. She is a 4th of July baby and its my honor and pleasure to have the party at my house!

Bubba was invited to spend part of the week (without me) up in Chelan, so Miss I and I ran him up here Monday after work. It was nearly 8 when we left to go home and the sun was setting as we pulled into town around 9. I noticed the sunset was very pretty and then I hear Miss I exclaim "Mama, what is that?"
"What do you see?" I ask her
"The sky is all pink. And its following us!"
It was a mom-moment for me. Once in a while a kid will have a new awareness of something and its always a thrill to my mom-soul. This was one of those moments (my daughter is noticing a sunset ...)
I told her it was the sunset and she asked if we could stop and watch it. So we did. Another precious moment. I pulled over and we watched for a few minutes. She leaned her head against the seat and sighed. It was so cute.

"Fanks mom."

Hard fall

Huh. Pretty much ruined all that working out with the Snickers, Skittles, Reece's, Diet Coke and chips I binged on yesterday! My girl Mustard tried to stop me but I was in a mood.

No workout yesterday or today. Yesterday I ended up working until 5pm, today we had a graduation party to go to and then My Honey went golfing. Tomorrow I hope to do something. Maybe I will get up a half hour early and run... Probably not. That would mean 3:30 in the morning. The sun isn't shining yet. The moon is beautiful though.

Mo' Training

Tuesday - i did at least 30 minutes of swimming
Wednesday - I ended up taking my rest day Wednesday. The bike guy called, its going to be a week and around fifty bucks for parts. He's doing the labor on his own time ... ideas to "repay" him? I am REALLY bad at that stuff.
Thursday - Yesterday my gal JP and I ran the loop from my house. We did pretty well, ran a little further than I did earlier in the week. It was really nice to run in the morning. First, I was fresh from a good nights' sleep, second, it was way cooler.
Friday - I got up and went swimming this morning. It was nice. Time to break into the open water though. I checked into the schedule at the City pool, looks like Tuesday nights and Friday mornings will do it.

I've had an interesting couple days. I went to a conference here in town for folks in the dispatching profession from around Washington. They had some great speakers. One of them was in Oklahoma City dispatching the day of the bombing in 1995. He was speaking about being prepared for critical incidents. It was really good stuff. Another session I went to was about bullying in the workplace. Very, very good stuff. The gal that spoke was fabulous. She had some great research she had done, some wonderful examples and a couple things she challenged us to do. Today, our keynote speaker talked about the difference between leaders and supervisors. More good food for thought. I haven't quite got it all worked out yet, but he also had some good information and challenged me.

Training

I want to keep better notes this year. Here's my training this week:
Tonite I am going to swim at least 30 min
Last night I ran the (nearly) three mile loop - well, I ran and walked it.
Friday I swam 30 min

I think that's it. The loop from my house is, by my own definition "grueling." It is hilly, into the wind and not easy for me. I have yet to run the hills.

The swim is easy. I go to the indoor pool and just swim laps. I have been thinking I should head to the outdoor pool to get used to the water temperature. I just read the lake is only 66 degrees. Brrrrrr! I actually have no idea what the temp was last year so I don't know how to compare it, but 66 degrees sounds cold.

Biking.... My bike is in the shop. The back derailer (I don't know, is that how you spell it?) is broke, or sticking or something. My friend's hubby works for a local bike shop and is going to take a look at it on Wednesday. Unfortunately the bike is 15 years old and, based on last year's experience with another old bike, I am afraid that its going to be not-so-easy to get parts. We shall see. If it is back, I hope to bike to work on Saturday. The bike TO work is easy - all downhill. It's the ride home that will test me! I only did it once last year and it was HARD!!

Hopefully tomorrow I will get another run in, Thursday a ... rest? Or maybe run again or an outdoor swim in the afternoon, and then a swim Friday morning. Ride to work on Saturday, or run in the afternoon. I could do an "easy" run on the loop after work since I will be close. Sunday a ride if my bike is fixed or a run depending on how Saturday works out. Shew.

Smile

The last word prompt for the Creativity Boot Camp is "smile." This is a picture from my April archives. Bubba and Miss I in a rare moment of getting along. Actually, truth be told, its happening more frequently, for which I am very thankful. It might be a good summer after all!

Megan, the author of the Creativity Boot Camp is going to do The Sunday Creative starting at the end of the month. A weekly creative prompt to create to. I am looking forward to it. The Boot Camp was very fun, challenging and made me think that I could do something like that with my kids to keep them thinking and creating all summer. Now we can all have the same word to think on and see what we come up with during the week.

The first week of Summer Vacation went well. Bubba and Miss I stayed with grandma while My Honey and I were at work. It was nice enough that they could play outside which helps. Next week Bubba is going to a Physics Camp (similar to last years Super Cool Science Camp) so grandma will get a bit of a break from him. Yesterday grandpa came and took him fishing so I painted (yeah, still painting) while Miss I just did whatever she wanted.

I hated the white doors in the hallway so I painted them brown. I think it looks a ton better. My Honey also painted the inside of the exterior doors brown. The white trim is so super cool tho! We are also getting all the touch up stuff done so when my carpet guy calls I can be ready. I had hoped that we'd get vinyl this past week but it didn't work out that way. I am still hoping for final install on everything before the 4th ... but I know it might be after that. I just hope not.

I worked hard on the old floor today, it needed to be cleaned really good before install. Have all the paint drips cleaned up and stuff like that. Back breaking work. Hands-and-knees work. It looks really nice tho. Maybe we should keep it.... NO WAY!! I just want the new stuff to look good. My Honey ripped out one of the last sections of carpet. We are going to leave the stairs until just before install, but he ripped out the upstairs hallway. Again, the wood floor has been nailed down in several places. I wonder if it looks horrible in Bubba's room too?

I was a triathlon training slacker this past week. I went for a short run, a really short bike ride and swam twice. I am hoping to ride and run tomorrow. I intended to do that today but I just never got motivated. Next week I need to run, ride and swim at least once each. I may try to ride to work on Saturday. Thank goodness the pedestrian bridge is open now!!! I would also like to complete my Creativity Boot Camp assignments: "smooth, hush and full bodied." And I am going to cross my fingers that my carpet guy calls and sets up install for the carpet and vinyl on the 27th. (Is that asking too much? Is that even a week day?)

Adventures

Auntie and Miss I

We took a drive up in the mountains today to check out some camp sites. It was a nice afternoon for all of us.

Drizzle

Okay I did it.

Drizzle

Hmmmm. I worked today and thought about this, maybe twice.
Unfortunately its a really nice (windy) day so my original thought (rain drizzling) isn't going to work. I also thought of going through some archived photos, but I don't take pictures in the rain so you will have to be satisfied with my thoughts on drizzle.

I also thought of syrup drizzled over pancakes - too bad we had spaghetti for dinner.
and chocolate or caramel or strawberry drizzled over ice cream - which I forgot to buy when I went grocery shopping.

Dang. Now I am going to go peek at others' work and see if it inspires me.

Fly and Ornament

Saturday and Sunday word prompts:
FLY

ORNAMENT

Fluid

Today's word prompt is FLUID.
Hmmmmm. Here's what I came up with:




Not too bad I don't think.

Its been a nice day, going to the park for those pictures was hardly a chore. Getting the flying flag was a bit more of a challenge than I thought it would be. The wind wasn't blowing when we got there. Weird. It's been blowing for the last 3 months! The other picture was my 4 year old helping me by pouring water out of a bottle into the river. I took a lot of pictures, this one was the most "fluid" looking one.

It was the last day of school. *sigh* onto Summer. At least it is feeling like summer now! It might even be eighty degrees outside! And sun is shining! We're headed to an outdoor venue for a concert tonight, I hope the weather holds and the wind is not-so-much. Highly unlikely out there, but you never know. I am hoping to sneak a camera in so I can take some pictures. It's a really beautiful place.

GROW

Today's Boot Camp word is "grow." This is at Grandma's house. Her grandkid brag wall. One of those little dudes graduates tomorrow!

I am training for the ChelanMan Triathlon again this year. Last year was my first time and it went pretty well. I was reviewing my notes (what few I kept) and it looks like I did the same thing: waited until the 6 week mark to get going! Shame on me. It would be so much better if I just trained year round. Not only that, once spring and bathing suit weather roll around I wouldn't look at myself and go ... "Really? How did you let yourself get here?" But its kind of like the school year belongs to the kids and their activities and the summer is when I can take care of me. Hmmm, I guess we need some balance don't we?

Here's what I have done this week:
Monday: ran in a very strong wind from home. The course is a hilly 3 miles. I walked at least half of it.
Tuesday: I swam. I was at the pool for 30-40 minutes maybe, and I ran into a friend and we talked tri, but I know I covered the distance of the swim and then some.
Wednesday: that stupid bike ride and then a walk up the hill. The ride was actually good, an easy ride around the loop - but it was windy again so the first half of the ride was into the wind. That's gotta count for something!
Tonite is yoga night.
Friday I am not sure what will work out. Bubba gets out of school at 11 and Miss I will be home all day with me. After My Honey gets off work we are heading out of town for a concert at the Gorge. So ... Maybe I will call it my rest day.

Heavy Metal

I went for a bike ride after My Honey got home from work. I have a triathlon in 6 weeks so I am working out after he gets home from work.

I loaded up the bike, drove down to the 7-11, parked and started to ride the loop. I got part way around and started to wonder if my chain was okay, it had skipped the last time I rode and it was making funny noises. Oh well, I decided to just go on anyway. I got toward the end of the loop and noticed a sign:
"LOOP TRAIL CLOSED MONDAY 7PM THROUGH FRIDAY 7AM"
oh. shit.
And then the chain came off my bike.
double shit.
Huh. So I walked it to my sister's house and begged a ride to my car. Luckily her hubby is a bike guru so he fixed it and gave me some advice on how to prevent it from happening again. So this is today's picture:

Freaking thing was "heavy metal" pushing it uphill :)

Multilayered

These pictures are for Creativity Boot Camp
(Boot Camp link on the side bar. Thanks Ren Mama for putting it on your blog.)

Picnic

Look for it. There's a fly in there somewhere :)

Okay, you guys win

These nails. Every eighteen inches, all the way across the room.

Part of the fireplace. All white! Notice the trim, isn't it pretty? (Right below the air conditioner, LK.)
The upstairs hallway. Closet, master bedroom, and closet doors all white. 6 hours of my life painting these doors. First person to scratch them pays the price!!!

These don't really show the color very well, but its a very nice brown.

The Day

Tomorrow is The Day. I am going to order the new carpet and vinyl. A weekend of listening to the echoing of the kids voices, the keyboard being tapped and dog claws did it! (Payday helped too.)

Hopefully this means carpet by My Honey's birthday. Wouldn't that be great? I have been thinking about how to take pictures, but I just don't have a clue how to capture the room. I guess I better try first. Quit thinking about it. Just do it. I would really like to get a picture of the nailed wood floor, the old vinyl, and the hallway. I was just sitting here, looking at my newly painted doors thinking "that area is going to REALLY look good with new shag carpet!"

Thankfully yesterday was sunny! I mean REALLY sunny. the sunniest day we have had since May. I might even have gotten an eentsy-weentsy tan. Bubba and I did a public education project for my work outside so it was really nice that it was sunny. And warm. Today? Rain. More stinking rain. I read that we set a record for rainfall in May. Actually, it was a record for rainfall. Period. Ever. HELLO? Mother Nature? I live in Central Washington, its supposed to be arid, dry, like the desert here. Remember? For some reason we are getting Western Washington weather. Stop it already!

On Friday night something happened. The new neighbors moved in. They have a kid. A boy. He's eleven. Talk about DRAMA. Poor Miss I is going to learn some hard lessons about being A Girl, being the Little Sister and being left out. I feel bad, but what can you do? I am really thankful that Bubba has a neighbor kid to play with, that it's someone a little older and that he's right next door, not across or down the street. But, it was quite the challenge yesterday, "Can I go next door and play too?" every fifteen minutes. UGH! I'm sure when the newness wears off it will be fine.

It's the last week of school! Yay! Tuesday is Field Day so I am going to dress pirate-ish and hang with the kids all day. I hope the sun comes out!

Weekend

Ahhhh, its my long weekend. No workie until Monday.

I got a LOT more painting done yesterday and today (I know! could I be done already?) That hallway is kicking my butt. I was amped to get started on it but when I got done painting yesterday it looked horrible. Like, really bad. Streaky, the paint didn't cover very evenly, that kind of stuff. I was pretty discouraged, but determined to put a second coat (and even a third) on it to see if that helped.

This morning I dropped the kids off at school/day care and then got to it. WOW! It's going to look pretty good. The second and third coats of paint are really helping. I am still worried that the paint is going to chip, its on the bedroom doors, but it will look good for awhile I hope.

I don't remember leaving the house for much yesterday except to pick up Miss I from grandma's and then to pick up Bubba from school. We all went to a birthday party yesterday evening and then Miss I's preschool end-of-the-year performance. How cute is it to listen to 3, 4, and 5 year olds sing "I have the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. And if the devil doesn't like it he can sit on a tack!" A-Dorable!

Today, I met my girl DW for coffee and a nice long chat, later, I had lunch with one of my girls from work. I am a little people'd out I think. Weird. I usually like hanging. Must be the paint fumes. They're making me cranky and a little loopy too!

Spring Nights

By now it should be in the eighties and sunny every day. I should be tan-ish and looking forward to spending the weekend in and out of the pool. I should be wearing shorts and looking forward to it cooling down in the evenings.

Reality: I am still wearing jeans. It's been raining all week (which is really starting to piss me off) and the pool isn't even set up yet. Let's not even talk about the top being off the Jeep.

However, it was nice enough to clean out the tree house and the kids wanted to eat up there earlier this week.

I did read somewhere it is supposed to warm up this weekend.... Yeah. Right. I will believe it when I feel it.

Some fun from the last few weeks

One of our few nice days (May 15th to be exact) and it hasn't been nice since.

Future Issaquah inhabitants.

Good day for sleeping. Exactly what I did until noon. I guess it wasn't "allergies."

Pics?

Nah, I won't post any pictures until it's all done. Too bad for you!


This one is a cute one from tonight. My gal JP came by to visit! What a bold one this girl. Rides a motorcycle (how cool is that?) wears cool colors in her hair, and came by to show me her new piercing - lower lip. Not my thing, but she can definitely pull it off!

I forgot to mention one of the other things I did while on vacation, my mom and I went out for Mother's Day dinner. She wanted to go to the Olive Garden so we did. It was a really nice out for just the two of us. A little wine, a little pasta, a little shopping... perfect.

I'm off to bed, day two back at work and "allergies" are kicking my butt. (I say "allergies" because I really don't feel like it is a cold.) Not to mention two 12 hour shifts coming my way Saturday and Sunday. Ahhh, Memorial Day weekend in a resort area. Should be entertaining!

The End

Did I really have eleven days off? WOW! I got so much done!

We spent Sunday just getting things finished up. Light switch and outlet covers back on, the trim we could put on nailed in, and the fireplace painted. I considered putting the curtains and my prized photograph up, but I had painted the window trim and I'm just not ready for the photograph yet. I kind of seems like that should be the last thing to get done. Crazy, I know. The inspiration for the room the last thing to go in it... Weird huh? Anyway, I did bring it in and set it against the wall, it's going to look very nice. I also bragged myself up to EVERYONE that would listen today including the guy that framed the picture. He thought it was a little over the top that I re-decorated around that picture. Yeah, maybe. But I love it.

It was back to work today. I had a law radio that is usually less busy but they were bustling today. It was fun to work hard on my first day back.

Day Nine, day Ten

Whew! My back is starting to kill me! All that painting. Unfortunately I found another section going up the hall from the living room that will look nicer painted, so I cut that in today and will finish it up Friday while Miss I is at day care.

One of our neighbors is a handy-man. His most recent handiness has been building houses. He came over to see our work and talked My Honey into using new trim instead of painting ours. In fact, he even had some left over from his house projects that he gave us! BONUS! And it was painted! And it LOOKS GREAT! What a nice finish.

We had been talking about what to do with the fireplace. We decided to paint it white. Its going to be very white! But it will break up the wall really nice and the kids got to help prime it so they felt like they got to help with the living room too. The actually worked together for over an hour on that project without getting paint on each other or making too big of a mess.

Tonight is our soccer team pizza party - yummy! Looking forward to that, and I was invited out by my girl DW for drinks later. Tomorrow we should be getting the house put as back together as we can while we wait on carpet and vinyl. We did decide on what to get, just going to get the cash together before we do it. So smart that Honey of mine :)

Looking forward to a "relaxing" dinner and some fun with my girls.

Day Eight

Paint, paint everywhere!

Nearly done. There are these two small sections in the kitchen that need to be done and that's it! (Well, except for the trim work.)

I am going back across town later to check on vinyl. The samples we brought home yesterday just didn't do it for us (me) so its back to square one.

Miss I and I did our random act of kindness this morning and ended up on a lunch date with a good friend afterwards. Not only that, we pulled off a fun surprise and helped out a precious relative in the process.

I did get up and go running with my girl JP this morning. We only got about 2.5 miles in, and part of that was walking, so we need to step it up for the triathlon in July. We're going swimming tomorrow morning. I still need to get on my bike! I am going to start riding to and from work on the weekends, that will help - well the ride home will! It's all up hill.

Plans for tonight? Sit and chill, maybe watch My Honey paint trim, maybe help him? Tomorrow Miss I is at day care all day so we should be able to get a LOT done around the house and maybe put some of the art on the walls and put up some shelves. Dinner at the Cave B Inn should round out the day really nice. Saturday and Sunday, not much planned at all. Our soccer game was re-scheduled to Friday but the end of the season pizza party is Saturday night. A little family time on Sunday and then back to the grind bright and early Monday morning.

What a great vacation.

Note to self: Vacation in May = good idea!

Day Seven

Will this vacation ever end? Not for a few more days!

We got the carpet pulled today! The wood floor is in great shape except the row of nails every 18". Apparently they did that to keep the floor from squeaking. It works, but looks horrible so I get new carpet and vinyl in the kitchen. We checked out some samples today, the guy comes to measure tomorrow morning and we're off. We are decided on carpet, the vinyl will be a bit trickier.

I finished my second coat of cutting in in the kitchen and should get to finish that part of the painting tomorrow. The rest of the painting are the doors and trim around the doors and windows, we are doing the trim white and the interior doors the same color as the walls. We are also going to paint the fireplace bricks white. I think it will look really sharp. I am getting anxious for the whole thing to be done, but here is where I have to take my time and go slow so it doesn't get buggered up.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get the rest of the walls rolled, maybe a little trim work or the doors primed, and a random act of kindness if Miss I isn't sick. She had a gunky eye tonight, not sure if it is a pink-eye thing or related to a runny nose she has. She tends to get gunky eyes with her colds, so we shall see in the morning.

Friday I would like to tackle the fireplace and see how that goes, maybe hang some curtains and shelves. I checked at Target today and found some nice looking floating shelves that I would like. I should also probably get some grocery shopping done for next week. I do have to go back to work on Monday! We have also been invited out to dinner on Friday night. It should be a fun night. Good company and a very nice meal at Tendrils at the Cave B Inn. It's beautiful out there, I can't wait to go back!

My Honey, he's so cute. The living room is torn up so I moved my laptop to the bedroom today. The only outlet is on his side of the bed so I am sitting here writing when he came up to give me a kiss goodnight.

"Are we changing sides of the bed?" he asks. "No," I told him, "this is just where the laptop is. Unless you want to change." hahahah, I crack myself up. We are making a TON of changes this week, the walls, the windows, the curtains, the carpet the vinyl, a vacation to a new place, as if he would like to change one more thing. "No," he says, "I like it the way it is. Maybe tomorrow." Right, tomorrow... What a cutie.

Days four through six

Holy guacamole!

Day Four: Pack, drive, eat, drive, unpack, play, eat, play, sleep.
Day Five: Wake at 5 am ... serious. Wait. Eat, welcome family, play, eat, play, eat, play, sleep.
Day Six: Wake at 7:30 am!! Pack, eat, play, change clothes, drive, get caught in traffic, drive, more traffic, eat, drive, HOME!!

We took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge. What a freaking blast! We thought it would be a 5 or 6 hour drive and weren't looking forward to it, but it went really well. (Except that last hour-and-a-half.)

We arrived, checked in, changed and hit the water park right away. They have a great tide pool, several kiddie slides, a couple junior-size slides which are okay for littles, and adults, and then a big-kid/adult section. The first night we spent a lot of time in the tide pool. It was a huge swimming pool that went from 0" to 5' and every 10 minutes or so a machine would start the "tides" rolling. What fun! There were inner tubes you could ride the waves on or you could just let the waves do the carrying. Miss I preferred to let the waves carry her away or crash over her or what ever. She was hilarious! Bubba liked being in the tubes. It was a lot of fun, and totally tiring!

LK, Hubby and Boy-Cousin came down from Bremerton to play with us yesterday. It was great to have them there. Boy-cousin is very adventurous and LK frets a lot less than I do. She is also very persuasive. That, plus Hubby being Miss I's new favorite boy got her down the slides. And then she never stopped! Bubba took a lot more convincing. Finally, today, an hour before we left he tried the slides for the first time. He was glad he tried, and went down them a few more times, but he was just plain ol' wore out so it wasn't much fun for him. Miss I never seems to run out of energy! That girl is constant motion! Even now, she's having trouble sleeping.

It was awesome having another family there because we could kid swap! They got to go on some rides together and so did we. I can't remember ever going on a ride with My Honey. We aren't really adventure-park types. But it was fun to experience the big-kid rides with him. I did NOT like having to climb 6 stories of stairs to get to the top of these rides. I wished I had a waterproof camera most of the trip, but especially when I was at the top of this ridiculously high staircase. I am not a fan of heights and I really had to not think about the fact that I had climbed STEPS to get to the top of this thing and I was going to go down on an inner tube or in a raft through a freaking plastic tube. YIKES! But it was a ton of fun! Worth every step.

Today we packed, ate and then played for awhile before we left. The Lodge has a wonderful check-in/check-out policy where you can start playing in the water park before your room is ready and you can play after you check out! Theoretically, you could arrive on your check-in day at 9 am, play until check in at 3 pm, continue playing until the park closes at 9 pm, stay the night, play all the next day, even after check out at 11 am until 9 pm. If you had die-hard kids this would be very cool! So we took advantage of the check-out deal and played until 1 pm, because our kids have to go to school tomorrow :) we had a long drive home, and we were all watered out!

On the agenda for tomorrow: Finish painting the walls and pull out carpet. I am so looking forward to this project! End result? Really pretty wood floors, distressed wood floors or new carpet.

I can must say, so far, this has been a great vacation!

Day Three

Another productive day! Got my new Mother's Day flowers planted and some other stuff in the yard cleaned up and weeded and re-arranged.

Worked a little tiny bit on laundry (there's still PLENTY more of that!) Took the kids to the Humane Society to drop off some plants to a friend. Of course we looked at the animals. They had some precious black kitties... No! No new animals today.

We hit the Costco, and then did take-two at the park for lunch. Last night's dinner was rained out, today's lunch? Big success until Bubba got a belly ache. Hopefully it's just a passing thing? We're supposed to head out of town soon.

Now, we're just sittin' chillin', waitin' for My Honey to get home from golfing. Miss I is playing Nintendo, Bubba is fast asleep. I think part of his belly ache is that he hasn't slept well the past week and he might be a tad dehydrated. The kid never drinks water. EVER.

I still need to get some more paint and dog food before this day is out.

Side note: My skin feels tingly from the sun. I love it!

Day Two

Well. I didn't DO as much to day, but I got a lot done.

I went for an early swim, took the kids to school, them met my girl JP for coffee since DW was camping and then helped in Bubba's class. At 1130 I met another friend for lunch at the (not-so) new Olive Garden. Yes, we have OG here in my leetle corner of the world.

After a wonderfully adult lunch, including some fancy EIGHT dollar drinks (!!!) we went to Lowe's. I needed more re-decorating supplies. I had time to look closer at their curtain choices and I found something I think will work. We shall see. I picked up some ceiling paint (remember the boo-boo's from yesterday?) and the trim paint. Then I picked both the kids up from school/day care and then on to gymnastics.

We decided on a picnic dinner. We did these for a time last summer on Friday nights, they were a lot of fun. The kids would eat and then go play so My Honey and I got some adult time. Tonight it didn't quite work that way, it started to rain! We packed it up and headed to Lowe's. I didn't get the right paint, we needed a semi-gloss not a satin. Luckily it was only a quart. The trim is going to look very cool. It's white, but it will off-set the brownish color of the wall really well. We also needed some new box-type knives for cutting out the carpet. That is going to be such a dirty job! I cant wait to get this grungy stuff out of here! We looked at carpet tonight to see how much it was, just in case.

Once the kids were in bed I got antsy. The walls all needed a second coat of paint so I set to it. OOPS! I am going to need a third gallon of paint. But my walls look gorgeous! I still love the color.

We took all the small stuff, end tables, toys and crap like that out of the living room to be able to paint. It's kind of nice to not have anything in here. Wonder how to keep it minimalist? Just the essentials. My Honey likes it too. We shall see. Another thing I would like to do is spruce up the fireplace. Tile or something.

One thing at a time! get the painting and then the carpet done and see whats left. Budget and energy-wise!

Tomorrow's agenda? Goofing off :)

Day One

Well. It was a LOT more successful than I thought it would be!

Kid to school - check
Massage - check
Hair color - check
Pretty up Miss I's hair - check
Lunch with Miss I - check
Buy paint - check
Look for curtains - check
Find curtains - not so much :(
Paint - check - and then some
Get kid from school - check
Homework - check
Paint - check
Dinner - check, with help
Kids to bed - check, also with help
Paint - check

I got a coat of paint on everything. I knew it was time to stop when I started to get it on the ceiling, but I just told myself "slow down, you only have five feet to go." So I slowed down and got it done. I LOVE THE COLOR!!! Good job me! It's dark, but I think it's delicious.

Now its time to get some sleeps before a swim tomorrow morning. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I ran this morning! Super good, fabulous, great day!

What's the chance .... naw, there's no way the rest of the week will be this great.

Is there?

Ahhhh

It's vacation time for me! YAY!

On tomorrow's agenda: massage, hair color, buy paint and get to work! I've been wanting to paint for a LONG time, and the time is finally here. I found a great color, tried it out a couple weeks ago, it received thumbs up, and it is going on the walls. The holes were filled and primed and now I'm ready!

Friday's agenda includes finishing painting, and maybe some yard work, it just depends. Saturday we should be able to wrap up the painting, and yard work. My Honey is going golfing, maybe we will buy a new pool(?)

Sunday we are getting out of dodge! I can't wait! Later in the week we are ripping up carpet.

I am hoping I spaced things out enough, I think so. The only thing I want to do is actually finish one of my projects - well, make that three. I want to get the painting done, take the hard-top off the Jeep and rip out the carpet. Pretty much in that order, with set up the pool thrown in if we can get to it.

Too much? I hope not!

Good times

Hmmmmmmmm, how to describe my trip west ...

There was rain, snow, a car crashed into the hillside (not mine), deer, vomit (also not mine), sunshine, LOUD MUSIC, more driving, rain, snow, a motorcycle on its side, milkshakes, unpacking and then a hockey game. All in the span of about 30 hours.

All-in-all it was fun! The Tacoma Dome seemed to be a good venue for the Nickelback concert. I thought they did a better show there than at the Gorge last summer. The drive over wasn't that bad, until Miss I puked. Five minutes away from my dad's house. I had some worries about leaving her overnight, but what can you do? Grandma assured me it would be fine. And it was, until she puked again. Poor thing. She slept all night and was fine the next day.

And that's about it.

I work the next three days and then I am on vacation for 10. I can't wait! We have plans to take the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge, paint the interior of the house and do some yard work!

Gotta get me some of that

Heading west tomorrow and I'm not excited yet...

I woke up feeling kind of crummy tho, so maybe that's why?

I did take a minute at the store and get us our "concert t-shirts" that perked me up for awhile!

Maybe there's just too many things left to do; work, pack, take the kids to school tomorrow?

Hopefully by this time tomorrow I will feel better and my excitement will have found me.

***** update 1015 pm *******

After about two hours at work, a few Diet Cokes, and some Skittles, I found my excitement! Now I can't wait!

Neither can the kids, they were still up at 9:15 when I got home.

Busy-ness

Just finished Apple Blossom weekend. Not too bad to work for us day-shifters. Oh, how I would have loved to work nights just for the action. July can't come soon enough.

My week will be busy though; I work Monday-Thursday, we have soccer games on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, hockey tickets for Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday nights and a little concert in Tacoma I am going to on Friday. Yep, me and my gal KC are going to Nickelback again. We just didn't get enough the first time. I am really looking forward to it!! It should be a great time!

Sounds like a lot doesn't it? Thankfully I am on vacation starting on the 13th for a week and a half. Not like I am going to sit around though. We are taking the kids to an indoor water park and painting the interior of the house and probably pulling up carpet, maybe starting to re-finish some wood floors. Could I pack any more into a month? Probably!! How about I have some company or plan a party or a bar-be-cue or something? :) Kidding, Honey.

We took the kids to The Park for the Apple Blossom arts and crafts dudes and dudettes, they love to get a painted Frisbee. I packed us all a picnic lunch and we ate and listened to a great musician, Camielle Bloom. I loved her! I love the conceits in the park. Small groups of people, great bands, the kids (and adults) can go dance like crazy if they want to (not me of course). It's a lot of fun. Not only that, I always see random people there that I don't see anywhere else. That part is fun too.

So that's my busy-ness.
In other news, just a little over 6 months and I will be forty.
Hmmm, not sure how I like being "almost 39 and a half."

Maintenance

It was a maintenance day. Haircut, oil change, that kind of thing. I also bought some paint. We have plans to update the living room; paint, pull up the carpet to see if we have nice hard wood floors under, that kind of thing, in May. I just realized that its getting close! The paint I chose is pretty dark. I am still trying to decide if its TOO dark. I put some splashed up on each wall around the living room, but I think I am going to have to do a whole wall to see what I really think. I like the color, but will it be too much?

I've needed a haircut for awhile. I never schedule out for the next one, I just call and say "can you get me in tomorrow?" If not, sometimes I will try to plan it out, sometimes not. Luckily, my gal had an opening. And while I was there, I planned for a color next week. I had Miss I with me and she did really good just sitting, playing with something, watching. Of course she wanted a haircut too, but she really didn't need one. Not after the hair emergency we had a couple weeks ago. The one where I had to take her to which ever salon I could to repair the damage... Yeah, that kind of emergency. Nearly every kid tries to cut their own hair. I did. And the neighbors too!

It's Apple Blossom time! I wish the weather was nicer, it's been hard to get into it. I think it started with not being able to go to the opening-day festivities. Or maybe I'm just not in the mood this year? We have gone to lunch at the park a couple times and My Honey has treated me to ice cream after work a couple times.

We did do the kids parade last Saturday. Miss I wanted to be in it, Bubba wanted to watch. It worked out really well because Miss I's group was number 17 and we had some friends watching the parade near the end so we did both. We all walked in the parade then found our buddies and watched till the end. It was a lot of fun and a really nice day for it. This Saturday is another parade, but I work so I think either a friend or an Aunt is taking the kids.

I did happen to catch this gem though at the park after the parade:


And finally, another sweet soul passed away yesterday.
I posted this about her in November 2007:

"Last week I heard about a young couple who will soon be separated by death. The woman has cancer, she has 2 weeks to 2 months to live. I CANNOT IMAGINE. This couple has dealt with one type of sickness or another for at least the past 7 years, nearly their whole marriage. They are a beautiful example of standing by each other, seeing it through to the end. I know a few men (and women) who might have given up along the way. I am keeping them in my prayers."

We were blessed with two and a half years.
I still cannot imagine.

Sweet child of mine

Oh, the trauma.

Bubba had 4... One. Two. Three. FOUR. teeth pulled today (and a filling)! Unfortunately, he loves the dentist as much as I do (which is to say we would both rather NOT) and the thought of it caused him to break out in hives all week. Well, that's what I think it was, he doesn't have food or any other types of allergies and all of a sudden the day before yesterday he has hives all over...

Anyway, we ventured out to the dentist for what I would consider a major mouth overhaul. Two teeth on the top and two teeth on the bottom, all in the name of making room for the big 'uns trying to come in. I figured he'd need me close, physically, but not that I would be so traumatized.

I sat by his side and held his hand, or rather, he SQUEEZED the ever-lovin everything out of mine. Occasionally, I had to hold down his legs because they wanted to curl up. I had to close my eyes. Duck my head. Couldn't even watch the dentist pluck them out. I wasn't actually sure I would make it without vomiting. But I did. I did NOT make it without crying and I am still on the verge now. I HATED seeing him so uncomfortable. KNOWING how much I hate having stuff like that done in my mouth. I could just go cry for a few hours and then sleep for the rest of the day to get away from how bad I feel for making him do it.

In hopes of making us feel better, we went shopping! He got new Lego's and Avatar and modeling clay. (And he still expects the Tooth Fairy to show up tonite.) I don't feel any better, maybe I need to go to Maurices tonite?

I don't think I can do it again. Teeth pulling is going to have to be a Dad Job. Sorry Honey.

Soccer

Well, we are full-on into soccer. Practice, games, pictures. We gave up Karate this year. I am relieved. It puts a lot less pressure on me to get kids where they need to go and dinner and homework and all that. We may start back up toward the end of May, we will see how it goes.

Bubba's first game was Saturday. U-8 is a whole new world. In the U-6 and U-7 leagues they don't have a "keeper" or goalie, the kids all protect the goal when the time comes, but in U-8 they have a keeper. Bubba had a chance to play keeper at the end of the game and he blocked a goal! He was so proud because he used a move he learned at soccer camp during spring break!

After the game we went to get a warm drink (9am is still cold around these parts) and then window-shopped downtown for awhile. My Honey was sick-ish and Miss I had been home from school on Friday with a sore throat so they stayed home.

Later in the day we had team photos and I took the kids to an event called "Touch a Truck." It was put on by a local non-profit, The Toybrary, where you can check out toys for a couple weeks (like the library). Anyway, they had big trucks for the kids to see and touch and climb into. They also had a helicopter from MedStar and a fire truck with a hose running so the kids could "spray" the hose, a few motorcycles (Miss I's favorite), tractors and some race cars. It was pretty cool. I kind of drug my feet getting us there, but I am glad we went. It was neat.

I was pretty restless Sunday tho, so the kids went to grandmas for awhile and I took a walk. Turned out to be twice as long as I anticipated, but it was really nice to get out.

Sunday Adventure in pictures

I hope this looks as cool here as it did on Picnik.

This is a collage of our Letterbox adventure. We had to find the sculpture "Perfect on Petra" downtown then cross the "Riverwalk Crossing" bridge over the train yard. The path leads to a green caboose near the "Pear A Dise" building which houses a miniature train that runs on holiday weekends and frequently throughout the summer. There is a building behind and off to the side which is where we found the pigeon box (which I fell in love with) and the Letterbox would have been in one of those holes or on the top if it had been there. Anyway. That's the adventure in pictures.

As for today. After a relatively quick trip (30 minutes) to the clinic, I have three new prescriptions. One for my daytime cough, a robitussin with codine to help me sleep and something for the gunky eye I have. What are the chances I would get this sick? Very irritating. Thankfully, My Honey is coming home early to take care of me.

OH AND ITS SNOWING. On April 2nd. And I dont mean a little snow, its sticking and going to kill my lilacs and all the orchardists must be stressing. I think the wheat farmers call it "pennies from heaven" but not everyone feels this way. Its

Perspective

It's a good thing I wrote such nice things about my kids the other day because I sure ain't feeling it today.

My wonderful, maturing son, the one who can't get himself dressed, can't seem to find shoes that match and cannot stop singing The Star Spangled Banner no matter how much I yell.

My darling, thoughtful daughter who must antagonize us all. She is a little thing, I tell you. Unfortunately, she is a lot like me and I can't help myself but laugh. I truly don't know what to do with her. When its the two of us we do alright, throw that third person in there and all hell breaks loose. It's almost like she is a show off and trying to see how far she can push us, which is fine, I can ignore her. But her brother must be a tattle tale and keep me up to date second by second what is going on. Mostly, if she's not going to hurt herself or anyone else, I don't care. My motto is "if I see a problem I will take care of it" but there is some kind of fairness button in Bubba that gets pushed and he just feels the need to intervene.

Heaven help us! So today, after being with them for nearly a week, I finally said "TIME OUT!!! EVERYONE TO THEIR ROOMS." Actually Bubba suggested it and I totally said YES! So we all rested. *sigh* I should have set the timer for more than an hour! But is was nice and they are totally chill right now which is relaxing.

I am sure its all the hype that has been our Spring Break. Soccer started, we had 3 days of family at our house, daily soccer camp, 2 days of a sick mom, 1 day of a sick Bubba, more family in town, Easter coming, hockey game playoffs this weekend and .... I am sure I missed something. It's been and gonna be busy till Monday when school starts back up and we get back on a schedule.

I am tempted to take the kids on another Letterbox adventure tomorrow with the intention of replacing the one I know is missing and then hunting for/replacing a second one if we find its not there.