Run, Fat Girl, Run!

I know it's not that big of a feat, but tonight I went out for a 2 mile walk tonight (with 300 feet of climbing) and I RAN HALF OF IT!!! I'm pretty proud of myself, even if it was a fat girl's kind of running (shuffling of feet). I haven't ran a mile since high school. Now I've ridden my bicycle 100 miles since then, but haven't pounded pavement since I had to do so to graduate from SWHS.
I have to admit, it was easy to run home as I watched the sky turn fuchsia over the purple mountains (majesty). Ah Bellingham, how I love thee.

How to run like a girl: cell phone, pedometer, ipod (complete with BEP's, Brian Wilson, and Adele), and a stick to poke any bad guys. I really did run with that stick in my hand the whole time, with a plan of attack in the back of my mind... if I ever turn up in a ditch, look for the DNA evidence I gathered ;) On our way home from dinner with our folks (all of 'em) I saw this cloud that looks like a feather. I also had 3 glasses of wine courtesy of my father-in-law, so I may be wrong on this.

***I'm starting to believe that each of my posts must have the obligatory blurry photo. I think I've dropped my camera one to many times.

It's All About the Chrome

...According to the cool Harley-Davidson t-shirt I won tonight at the Betties Bout.

After a sunny afternoon lakeside with some friends, I headed to the bout with my sfam (can you guess what that means?) Tracy and others and watched a great bout despite the betties getting their vampy asses handed to them. The Jet City Rollergirls were just plain meaner and faster. We're just not that way in Bham. But Everett? Those girls...those girls are, well, they're Snohomish county girls, they have a certain reputation. I mean one of their secondary teams is called the Camaro Harem. It fits Everett perfectly.

I know, Erin, I know! But how can I not comment on how stinking cute he is??!!

A little family of ducks that our children scared out of hiding.

Blurry, but brutal. There is a lot of "rumping" in derby.
I decided these two girls played "lets reach into our closet and wear whatever we pull out." That is the only reason I could rationalize their wardrobe choices: Girl #1 wore a tweed vest over bikini top with olive green skirt (with "girl boxer" underwear underneath) finished off with striped woolen socks and sandals. Girl #2 had a purple striped spandex tank with corseted lace rose skirt with tie-dye tights and green plastic peek-a-boo high heels.

Then we couldn't help but notice the awkward flirting that was happening between these two... which then made Tracy and I act like 13 year old girls. Lots of elbowing, pointing, and giggling.

Josh and I had similar reactions to this hairstyle, along the lines of What the Hell? His buddy had an interesting mustache for a fella in his 20's, but the hair? Ponderous man, really ponderous.

I keep it Stanky

After Kate and I walked from Memorial park to Whatcom Falls and back...

After Kate and I walked today (and I walked some more) when all was said and done, my pedometer said 8.23. Not bad. But as I stated, I'm stanky and my feet hurt. I get really hot feet (yet another reason I'd like to live barefoot) and the balls of my feet are on fire! Anyone know some remedies?

I rewarded myself by reading a magazine and having a glass of iced tea (passion) on the deck. Nice.

Ski to Sea team names

The results are in, that means finding out how well our friends did in each leg (nice work on the bike, Brooke!). And searching for the results also means laughing at all the creative team names.
Back before Costco sponsored their own team, their team name was "Our Members Come First" a little tongue in cheek about our customers as well as being an all-male team. But on to my favorites:

*Franks and a Bean (7 men, one woman)
*Well Hung Jury
*Kicked in the Nooksack (the name of a river around here and other things)
*Menaces to Sobriety
*REI Speedwagon
*Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot (WTF to the lay person)
*Wine before Ski except after Sea
*Sofa King Fast (the 12 year old boy in me likes this one)
*Lactic Acid Trip
*Unsafe At Any Speed
*Urine Trouble
*Octomom's Kids
*Undertrained and Overconfident
*The Costco Dogs (Costco's "other" team, an homage to the $1.50 deal)
AND
*Venus Envy (an all women team)

Happy Memorial day!

Just before bed last night I was walking through my dark house and this wave of gratitude washed over me. I am so thankful for where we live.

When I was 13 I took a trip to Washington D.C. and New York City with my girl scout troop (#1443 in case you were wondering). I was at that age where I was rebellious and discovering all the classic music from my parents generation like the Beatles, Country Joe and the Fish, and the Mamas and the Papas. When we arrived in D.C. I realized (in a 13 year old way) what all that music was about. I visited the Wall, I saw the gravestones that reached past the horizon at Arlington National Cemetery, I watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. I watched my girl scout leader who was an Army nurse find and touch names of her fallen friends, and I watched her weep for them. That trip made me understand what being an American meant.

So today as I enjoyed a beautiful day with family and friends, I wasn't taking advantage of a "day off"; I was celebrating the fact that I get to BBQ, laugh and be free to love who I want, free to have a drink on my deck, free to walk down the street, free.

Week of celebrations

Mt. Baker at 9:15pm from Kate's driveway.

Mmmmm...S'mores.

On the run.

My daughter is so lazy. How lazy is she? She is so lazy, she has people slip and slide for her! Ba-dump-bump!

Natalie after her graduation ceremony at Elizabeth park.

Up close and personal with Katie. Just how she likes it.

Friday we walked down to pick up Brady from school and were delayed due to a marching band crossing. While we were watching the band, someone tried to pull into their house. We were joking that she thought that she'd won the publishers clearing house sweepstakes! How often do you get a marching band in your front yard?

Besides my friend Kate and her hubby celebrating 8 years of wedded bliss on Tuesday, Natalie also "graduated" on Thursday and now she is an official preschooler. Thursday evening was also graduation from swim lessons, and both kids get to move on to the next level!

Thursday was also an odd day for coincidences: a gal who is doing some contract work for us at our office and I went down south to attend a Medicare billing seminar (woo-hoo!) and we got to talking about this and that and it turns out she and I basically share backyards! I can see her house from my back deck (we both live at the end of our cul-de-sacs)! Weird! Then, as we pulled up to the medical center (which is quite large) I said "I think my Aunt Jane works in this building" not knowing if that was true or not, let alone what doctor or floor. Well, the directions to the seminar were wrong, and we ended up on the 3rd floor where we decided to find someone to ask. Who do we find to ask? My Aunt, of course! It's like we walked right to her! That was a nice little treat.

Then today we went downtown to watch the Grand Ski to Sea parade. We met up with Erin and her boys, and found Brooke and EB in the crowd and they joined us as well which was a nice surprise (EB is at that age where they are everywhere and nowhere all at once making mommy work double time!) I loved all 2 hours of it, minus the CHAIN SMOKERS (who happen to be parents of a classmate of Brady's. God I love public school). Besides it being disgusting to be trapped in a crowd with 2 chain smokers, we also were with Ashenafi who we all know has TB (don't ask me to spell it). Tuberculosis?

Once again, I forgot to bring sunscreen with me to the parade (sunscreen doesn't come on to my radar until June). So now I have a pink patch on my chest and a nice stark contrast of pink/white on my arms.

THEN we headed straight to the Rankin ranch to celebrate their new home with some of their friends and family. The kids had a wonderful time, except the boys seemed to be always short one gun or one light saber. The food was delish and it was nice to visit with Kates' dad (I may adopt him) et al.

The kids were still awake when we got home, so we all jumped in the bathtub to scrub our feet of earth and wash the marshmallow (and more earth) from their faces. All are clean and cozy in bed.

Don't put the cart before the horse? A one-horsepower engine? Actually both are wrong since it's a mule.

Seriously??!! Check out her toenails!

The full profile. Very cute. Don't ask me what they were in the parade for.

Hey, did anyone drop a baby in the road? Anyone?

Guess what genius photographer didn't realize the shutter was half open?

I think the half-open shutter gives my photos an artistic edge. Yeah, that's it; artistic.

Hey, here's that marching band that has the habit of wandering our neighborhood!

500!

This is my 500th post! And I couldn't have anything cooler to post about than this:

I won a Dryers Ice Cream Neighborhood Salute party! I get to throw a party for 100 of my neighbors and friends on Dryers! I won a gift (thank you Pioneer Woman!) that I get to give as a gift, how cool is that?!

I don't know any more of the details (like when), but you know I'll be posting about it when it happens! And you're all invited!

(Hopefully) only in a mom's purse

I noticed that there was a stain on my purse the other day, so I emptied it out looking for the culprit (I assumed it was either lotion or maybe a chapstick that lost it's lid).
I finally found the culprit. A half-eaten McDonalds hashbrown crammed into the pocket (hey, they put it back in it's wrapper.)

Whatcom Falls

We headed to the park yesterday after Brady had early release from school (he actually goes in earlier and stays longer than usual for "early release" days since he's an afternoon kindergartner).
Katie joined us and we planned on doing some fishing. Not a bite. Even the ducks were leery of us (perhaps it was the retriever we had with us?). But it was a nice distraction from the housework that was not getting done at home.



I know it's not a great photo, but I love my kids' expressions.
Brady practiced his swing-jumping technique.
She had flowers in her hair...

And I quote "Oh, Mom! I don't know where to start!" when she discovered this patch of flowers begging to be picked.

A day with Brady

To get this one...

There were 4 of these:

I swear this boy is going through something. He woke me up this morning snapping very loudly, a skill he mastered only moments before (the "real" snap that is). So he spent most of the day snapping his fingers in my face when he wanted to sass me. Real cute.

Then I went to put the dog in the back yard and noticed something strange. We don't have a male dog anymore, and it was a little high anyway. But wait a minute... Brady is about that height! "BRADY! DO NOT PEE ON MY GATE!" "Sorry mom, it was an accident." Huh???

And you'll notice that Brady had his hair spiked today, that was completely his own doing. Then just now, as I was writing this post, he came running upstairs exclaiming "I need to spike up my hair again so I can go show the girls." Complete with the open shirt (Karate outfit, whatchamacallit) and hillbilly teeth. His hair is white from the amount of crap he put in it. I didn't get to him before he had done it, and I noticed he was using my Aveda hair pomade $$$!!!


Then, while my mom and I were assembling Josh's high school graduation announcements, we caught him doing this:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The JUNIOR Ski to Sea parade

Our Motley Crew. Can you tell we've been standing in the crowd for awhile waiting for the parade to begin?

Christian has a cool Grandma. My kids have a cheap mom.

The holding pen. Moo.

There is a comedy bit by Tenacious D (Jack Black to the lay person) where he goes through a drive-thru and orders all kinds of things small "because he's on a diet", so he gets the JUNIOR bacon-cheeseburger. I digress.

The weather was once again lovely (I do believe I see a touch of pink on my cheeks and nose) for the Jr. parade. Not to be confused with the Grand parade next weekend. We'll be on the curb for that one. This one we participated in.

Luckily, Ashi didn't want to stroll, because Natalie didn't want to scoot, so her scooter went into the stroller and she walked and chucked left over Halloween candy (shhh) to the crowd. The boys rode their bikes at .34 miles an hour (and didn't fall or hit anyone, their mothers are very proud). Then we had the bright idea of KFC for dinner. I'm pretty sure we didn't say our bright idea out loud, but someone picked up on the vibe because there was quite a crowd. Someone even asked "Yo-yo is this Kentucky Fried?" The lady said yes, smiled, he smiled back, placed a quarter and his order..."

It was very handy having a marching band (and a good one) behind us. The kids kept a good pace with 50 middle schoolers breathing down their necks! They provided a good beat for Natalie to march to as well.
I'm still not sure if they were part of our group or the ones behind us, but either way I was impressed with their "float".

5 seconds of your life you'll never get back

Please watch this. This clip plays frequently on a news program we watch. We always stop and pay close attention, and then laugh. Every time! And seriously, it's 5 seconds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjFxJVeCQs

Grinds in my coffee (sung to You're So Vain, Clouds in my coffee...)

I have to be to work er-lay this morning, so I started the pot of coffee so that a cuppa would be ready the second I hopped out of the shower (usually coffee precedes everything I do in the morning).
Larry has a bad habit (?) of stopping the coffee flow to steal a cup while is brews. He must have done that yesterday, because I didn't specifically check that this morning and sho 'nuf, there was only half a pot brewed, and the rest sat in the filter.
So now I'm sipping on a sieved cup of coffee, occasionally sticking my finger in to fish out another grind. I think I officially get to order a Venti Iced Americano with Cream and a Splenda this morning.

On Mothers day

I was reminded today by my son that today, Mother's Day, doesn't necessarily mean you get to have a day of leisure or day without "mothering". Quite the opposite. As I held him during one of his half-dozen tantrums this morning, I started to get angry that he was behaving this way on "my day". Then I said the name of "my day" to myself. It's not "my day", it's "Mother's day", and getting over myself and trying to help my son get over himself is part of being a mother I suppose, and he was truly testing my mothering today. We don't get to pick and choose our children, and when Larry and I decided to jump into this new life of parenthood, we both agreed that we were prepared to love our child, regardless of any challenges they may present to us. We had open eyes to the reality that it is a pure miracle that most humans are born whole and without challenges. Our children are healthy and happy. We just have a few glitches here and there ;)

Sneakin' quick shots of the banjo player (and that odd little boy under his elbow attached himself to us. He sat with us, ate our snacks, followed us on our walks... his folks volunteer on the train. Actually his mom volunteered, I watched his dad drive off on his motorcycle.)

Uh-Oh, busted.

Doesn't this little church sound inviting?

Fur Baby

I bought a shedding comb for Katie today, the yellow dog hair on tobacco colored floors is just becoming to much for me to ignore. I think the comb works, don't you?


Oh, and if anyone has seen my son's brain, could you pop me an email? Tonight he got a little mini water-toy/sand box and I told him to bring up a bucket of sand from his sandbox to put in it. He came up stairs with the pooper-scooper full of sand. ICK. My logic? At least we had a really hard rain since the last time I scooped, so it got washed a bit. But not enough, you know? Then, he saw the big pile of Katie's hair and grabbed a scoop and rubbed it all over his face while sqealing "Oh, Katie girl!". So it was hanging on his ear, caught in his own hair, and stuck to his shirt. To make amends, he got the broom to help me sweep the hair into a pile. Halfway through sweeping he high-sticks the broom and shakes it. Got hair in my wine glass this time. Unforgivable!
Somedays I wonder why I can't keep a clean house, then days like this come around and I understand.

I clocked out early tonight and started Mother's day early. Turkey-spinach-feta burgers on the grill and a glass of sangria (pre dog hair)~

**I'll post about our adventure to Wickersham tomorrow (or not), but right now I've got to finish a little gift for some mom's I'm celebrating with tomorrow!

Drunk posting

I try not to post while buzzed, I figure my sentence structure is shaky enough without alcohol.
Christian came over to play today, and Erin came over after work to have dinner and let the boys continue to play. She brought Lemon Drop mix. The first one went down too easy, then Erin the math-genius poured the next batch... funny I didn't hand her the shot glass to measure with until after she was done shaking!
After dinner, we decided it was a nice evening (and the mild buzz increased our body temperatures) so we let the boys and Natalie hop in the hot tub while we had a slice of German chocolate cake and... a Lemon drop. Then a neighbor girl found out what we were up to, so she grabbed her suit and joined our 3 already playing. She actually balanced our group out really well, as they were getting a little rowdy and bored, and being bored means picking on the little sister, even if she's not technically your sister.
9:00 rolled around and we finally got everyone going in their direction home, now I'm yawning in front of the computer screen. I guess I either need to have another drink or go to bed. Hmmm...

Detour ahead (I can't stay on topic)

I'm pretty disgusting to be around in the morning, and none of it's really my fault.
I woke up this morning with sore feet and tight calf muscles from my evening roller skating with Tracy last night. I think she was trying to get me to consider becoming a Betty, but I think she's over that idea now. She is a pretty decent skater, but we both paled in comparison to the "skate crue" in Skagit county (did I just sense your redneck radar tune in?). There was the 8 year old boy with the feathered-dye job hair wearing a spandex unitard who also played air guitar while skating (some people are just born that talented); the middle-aged men there with their families, but skated together most of the evening with their hands in their pockets; there was a mama-mullet sighting complete with mama-jeans (the two almost touched each other her pants were so high and her mullet so long); and then there was the king of the skate deck: a young man who had finally matured enough to grow his first full beard (don't hate, he kept it trimmed up), wore a "Tapout" baseball hat that he would occasionally tuck into his back pocket where it complemented his grey wife-beater and green studded belt perfectly. But that boy could skate. He was even break-skating. He was impressive to watch, especially as I rolled precariously along, occasionally slamming into the carpeted wall, or involuntarily flinging all my limbs into the air trying to recover my balance (and would often tweak my back into a spasm as I did so).
But, I did have a couple of good laps, and I feel like I could have actually gotten some real exercise if I could just stay in motion (and I wore better socks).

Where was I? Oh yeah, how gross I am to be around in the morning. So I've got the sore body which makes me hobble around the house like a crotchety old man, I've got ass-breath from wearing my new retainers (seriously, I funk myself out), then right behind retainer-breath is coffee-breath, mixed in with some serious bed-head (if you knew how much hair I have...) Oh! I almost forgot about the mucus! With spring in full swing, the pollen count makes me wake up and blow my nose before I can breathe properly, then my eyes cant' focus for at least an hour because they are so nasty from allergies... good times around here.

Payola

I had a bit of a childcare crisis this morning. I had an appointment for my "annual exam"(wink, wink). All my options were not viable and of course the one week my husband works early is this week.

I was pleasantly surprised (and so was the doc) at how well behaved and respectful my children were! Totally floored.

So as a "thank you" I surprised them by taking them to Rocket Donuts (owned by X-Files executive producer Bob Goodwin). My theory was to reward my children even when there wasn't a promise of a reward, showing that good things happen to you when you do good in the world. Donuts being the karmic payoff. My theory is sound, no?

Guess what kind of donut Brady chose?
Natalie hangin' with Gort.