Note to Self

From Scott's snip snip (if you know what I mean), vacation with a baby, getting our attic finished, and training for a triathlon....I have learned quite a few things lately.

1. Wear glasses when riding my bike unless you want to have bugs swimming in your tear ducts for hours after the ride only to resurface the next morning. GROSS!

2. I not only learned to spell Vasectomy, I found out that you should not have your husband go through that procedure when you have a child that cannot walk since you will be the one who can lift him for three days. I applaud all single moms all the time.

3. Also, do not plan your vacation the week of a procedure that keeps your husband from helping you load the car for vacation. I tackled and won the battle of putting the shell and huge monster black suitcase on the roof of the car all by myself while the framers working on my attic had a break and watched me.

4. There is something to be said for children who like to eat sand at the beach and stay far away from the water. Dane (who puts everything in his mouth except sand apparently) crawled like a mad man toward the ocean with no abandon. No fear!

5. You know you are a carpenter's daughter when you see light coming into your family room (compliments of the contractor who thought it was a pocket to run plumbing)  and water dripping into your bathroom from the framers hitting a pipe and don't freak out. I'm not happy but I know these things happen unfortunately.

6. Wonderful greasy goodness (John's dolphin boats in Kitty Hawk) are an annual splurge and could send my three kids to college. Wow that was expensive!

7. Keeping up with training while on vacation can be hampered when running in smoke and humidity. It just so happened that the wind would shift each morning I ran to bring the smoke to the beach. It would conveniently go away after the run.

8. Scott is hilarious on Valium...glassy eyed and laid back marveling at his final progeny.

9. When I thought about the attic, I thought Dane's naps would be interrupted. Instead I found out his can sleep through anything except his sisters' voices.

10. Will there be any 86 year olds at the tri on Sunday to beat me in the swim. Probably....

3 Things Thursday

After a long hiatus, I must just pick up and run with it. Scott has taken over the computer at night while he took a five week class. He finished on Sunday, so now I'm back but very behind.

1. The difference of a year...

Here I am at Tate's recital last year at around this time.



 And here I am at this year's recital.



 And here is a little man who I have cuddled and squeezed every day in between!

 2. With my big break in blogging, I need to mention the awesome trip to Atlanta that my mom and I took with the girls. We went during the girls' track out from school. We took them to the American Girl Doll Store where their dolls got their hair done and ears pierced. Now when can I sign up for that? We also went to the Atlanta aquarium which was awesome! We capped it off by watching the wedding of all weddings...Prince Will and Catherine of course. Fun!

3. I love to garden but don't have tons of time for it right now. Here are some highlights from before the heat hit and everything started to shrivel.

Here is our garden the day we planted it...squash, sunflowers, banana peppers, red bell pepper, tomatoes. I'll show you a new picture of it soon but we still have no fruit. Hmmmm....

Did you say TORNADO?

Yes, I knew storms were brewing for last Saturday. The weatherman had told me that all week.

Yes, I felt like I would be blown away Saturday morning watching the girls play soccer. They each got a goal by the way! Woohoo!

Yes, I forgot to watch the news while I made my appetizer for the happy hour at Laura's we were going to Saturday night.

So yes, I was unprepared for the beeping on the radio as me and the kids headed home on Holly Springs Road after P had been at a birthday party.

If I had watched the weather, I would have known that the storm was expected to hit at 3:30, but instead the nice mechanical voice on the radio told me....a tornado had touched down in Sanford and Holly Springs residents needed to take cover.

T freaked and wanted to know what we were going to do. I stayed calm and said, "We are going home," since we were less than a mile away. It was raining hard, but I did not feel in danger.

We got home and I immediately turned on the TV...satellite already out. Outside it was pouring rain and very windy. It was progressively getting darker. It was time to get into the half bathroom. Dane was in my arms talking up a storm. T was shaking and curled up on the seat of the toilet. She kept asking me what would happen...what would be do. P was quite stoic (surprisingly because she is the one that asks if we are near that place when bad storms or tornadoes are talked about on the news.) She told me she would outrun the tornado if the roof came off. She was glad Dane was wearing his helmet.

I was OK until the pinecones and branches started hitting the windows and sounding like bombs exploding. That along with the thunder and lightning made me question my calmness for a few minutes at the height of the storm. The electricity went out and it was pitch black in the bathroom. You would know that happened as I ventured to the stairs where T's baby and P's blanket (their security loves) were at. I could tell it was close by. Outside looked foggy and black and a confetti of leaves plastered all the windows. By the way, Scott was at work!

Finally, the thunder and lightning started to sound further away and in a matter of minutes the rain let up. The yard was littered with branches but no trees.

Here are a few shots from my drive to church the next morning:

After talking with neighbors outside and hearing one sided cell phone conversations, we found out a tornado had come down Holly Springs Road (the one I was on when I heard the warning) and done a lot of damage. Only streets away, roofs were off, trees were down, power lines were snapped. It took Scott an hour and fifteen minutes to come 11 miles home. He was sure we would not have power for days.

That night we did go to Laura's for a camp light happy hour. It was fun and luckily the lack of light meant my neighbors and friends did not get to see that I had yet to have the shower I meant to get before the party.

Power was off Saturday for about nine hours, Sunday for four or five, and Sunday it was off and on four or five times. Tuesday I finally ventured to the store to replenish the fridge since we lost a lot.

The girls did not have school on Monday since the school did not have power.

We are safe and so lucky! I am so thankful...and now I can no longer tell P that we don't get tornadoes.

On a different note....Dane is nine months today! Slow down will ya Father Time!

Field Day Friday

 Colored tongues are in style at the snow cone station.

 You can't catch me!

 Go soccer girl!

 The sack is as big as she is...ha!

 More colored tongues in the making!

 Hand ball!--she was supposed to do that actually.

 This plastic egg has nothing on me!

You never get too old for the good old parachute!

Week of Crapola You Have Been Ordered to Cease! The Hi Days are Taking Over!

Last Friday LOW: Tate does end up with conjunctivitis after fighting a cold all week.

Saturday HIGH: Run seven miles and Paige gets another goal at her game equally four for the season.

Sunday LOW: Sniffles invade. My voice is off. The first sign...

Monday HIGH: Swam race distance at gym with minimal breaks. Watch out White Lake

Tuesday LOW: Learned that NC ranks high in strawberry production while helping Tate with her project way too late in the afternoon. Paige home with strep for the third time this year.

WEDNESDAY WILL BE A HIGH AND THE CYCLE WILL BE BROKEN: Volunteer luncheon at school, a treadmill run if it rains, prep for painting must start, with zicam and lots of water I will ROCK the Cherry Blossom 10-miler on Sunday!

New looks and interviews

There are some new looks in the house these days. Dane got his helmet two weeks ago and is doing great. It may not seem like much but this week the measurements show an improvement of 3mm on the diagonals.  Here is the big reveal...

Six more weeks to go and then we will hopefully be done and get to smooch that cute head of his. When we take it off at night for an hour, he spends about thirty minutes scratching his head. Scott says he is getting the circulation moving. He immediately became a belly sleeper once he got it.

Tate and Paige are two weeks into the soccer season and they both have winning records so far! Go Fury and Magic! Below you'll see Tate kicking a goal kick. She has a foot on her for sure and now wants to punt the ball every chance she gets.

Paige got a new do last week. Out of the blue last Monday she came home wanting a bob. I went with it and said we would do it the next time we got our hair cut. Well, next time was not soon enough for her. She talked about it every day and then started telling her teachers and friends on a daily basis that she would be getting it done. She would then have to give them excuses when the next day she would come back to school with her long hair. I decided to go ahead and take it since it was the most important thing in her world at that moment. It makes her look older to me. 

Excuse the ice cream from the creepy ice cream truck. I'm plotting a way to sever the music cords while he is stopped in front of my house next weekend.

On to the interview....

Yesterday on the way to dance, Tate interviewed Paige. Below is the result of this impromtu exchange that I just thought was cute.

Age: 6
Food: Applesauce
Drink: Kool Aid (Interesting since she has only had it twice in her life)
Plant: Strawberry plant
Night or Day: Day
Sisters: 1
Brothers: 1
Pets: 1
Toy: None (REALLY! Nothing...not even my itouch she lost! Yes, it is lost in the house)

Now I want Paige to interview Tate. I just love the questions they ask. So random.

One running note...

Last Friday I ran 15 miles with Holly. It is the longest I have ever run. It was such a confidence builder and learning experience. I was hydrated, fueled, perfect weather, perfect running buddy, slow pace...overall awesome time. At mile 14 I learned that my body must become stronger before I run a marathon next year. I quads, glutes, lower back, and lower abs gave out on me at mile 14 and I finished with sheer determination. Now I know what needs to be done to get ready. Better now than next year during training.

A numbers game

10 weeks until my sprint tri and I seem to be avoiding the pool. I love my new bike and running is awesome right now. I must get my gills wet! I really need a new swim suit.

I bet I end up with 8 trips to the grocery store this week. I already have 3 under my belt. I always hit Trader Joe's on the way home from church. Then I did our regular shopping at Super Wal-mart. Tonight during soccer I had to go back to Wal-mart to get a carbon monoxide detector to replace the one that died yesterday just weeks after the 5 year warranty ended. Now we are out of dish soap. Can't go long without that. Does hand soap work the same?

My 9 year old is so cool. Today she fell belly first into the mud while playing soccer on the playground. While many would be embarrassed, she went to the office and got high water pants and a over sized shirt and went about her day. I love that she could care less about stuff like that!

I ran 7 miles on Saturday between Tate and Paige's soccer games. I still prefer any day to run with friends, but I am building my solo self confidence with some long runs lately. I'm running 15 on Friday with H to get out of my head the idea that I can only run 13.1. I'm super excited and hope it goes well.

Dane has had his helmet 6 days and it already stinks. He is doing great with it and has become a belly sleeper. We go back tomorrow for the first check. I'll be able to write a book about the things people say by the time these eight weeks are over.

I pruned 5 crape myrtles over the last week. Crazy how sore my arms are after all that clipping. I'm in need of some weights for sure.

Nothing like seeing 3 guys washing dishes at your sink. Scott and some friends are brewing their latest batch of beer and transferred it yesterday as they get ready to bottle. So funny watching them work and take notes in their handy dandy notebook. The beer is awesome!

2 weeks until Scott's birthday. We saw Seinfeld to celebrate. Hilarious!

T asked me to buy her 1 stick of deodorant. She is growing up!! She brought it down tonight to ask me when she is supposed to put it on. Cute! She was so serious.

0 books I have read in months. I can't get into anything. I need that "it" book to lure me back to the dark side.