Mathematically challenged

Here’s the deal…when it comes to math, I ain’t so bright.

I realized last night, when I got woken up by some random two year old and then couldn’t get back to sleep, that I am embarking on a bigger deal than I ever realized.

That ½ ironman thing I signed up for. It became clear in the middle of the night why they call it the 70.3 race.

IT IS A TOTAL OF 70.3 MILES!

What have I done??? Reality is just now setting in.

Neighborhood kids

I love hanging out at the park and listening to the kids talk to each other. A few days ago I heard a 2nd and 3rd grader having the following conversation, just after they had finished doing “the worm” on the paved pathway:

2nd grader: I hate meditating.

3rd grader: Wait…I know you can’t really float in the air!

Give it

Over the past week I have received a couple gifts from friends for absolutely no reason.

The first gift was from my friend Aimee. It is a little carving of three monkeys. One has his hands over his ears, the second has his hands over his eyes and the third has his hands over his mouth…how appropriate is that? I love it and it sits on my kitchen window sill and I look at it everyday.

The second gift was from Jen, a silicon swim cap. I never thought I even wanted or needed a new swim cap, yet a silicon swim cap, until today when I put it on my head. Ohhhhh, it’s like butta.

Receiving these gifts was just that, a gift. What a treat. What a surprise. How very thoughtful that someone went outside of themselves, their day and their busy life to think of me.

It’s not everyday we get gifts for no reason. When is the last time you gave a gift to someone for no reason?

Go ahead, give something to someone you care for today, just because. I promise…they’ll love it.

Toddler quote of the day

When I be a man…I will ride on a cowboy.

Bunched UP

I’ve got mind clutter. The kind of clutter that consists of lists of have to do’s, have to buys, have to organize, have to plan, have to schedule for, have to find time fors, have to have to have to and I can’t seem to get it done. And if by chance I do get something accomplished, the next time I turn around, it’s undone again.

I’m spinning and can’t seem to wade through it and make sense of it and put it all in its place and keep it there.

These “things” that I feel must get done are, I am sure, not so important if I could stand back and see the larger picture. But right now, it feels like the only thing I can control and when life feels this unruly; I feel crazy and undone and so very off kilter.

Portrait of GG

Adam’s Grandmother died last week. She had a massive stroke. The news spread quickly. Her four grown sons and their wives made it to her bedside to tell her how much they loved her and to say their goodbyes. Then she passed on. On to be with the only man she ever loved, the man that left her, prematurely, thirty years ago.

We will miss you so much G.G.

Annual

Every woman gets to do it. That “once a year” visit to have your girly parts looked at.

Yesterday at my annual, I realized as I was disrobing that my socks were worn to the nubbin and hole laden on the right foot. I couldn’t figure out which was going to be better for my OB to look at while I was hang’n out in the stirrups, my hole filled sticky old socks or my nasty yellow callous filled raw feet.

I’m just going to believe that she didn’t notice my choice at all because she was so enraptured with my beautiful nether regions.

Firsts

KP and I were on our way to meet my parents for lunch. We decided to eat at a burger joint. To get there I drove down an old time Main Street. As I was sitting at a red light I was looking at all the old stores and restaurants and my eyes landed on Hoagies Family Style Restaurant.

Hoagies is one of those old fashioned diners with the original metal stools and the old time waitresses with 1950 style aprons and a cook named Mel sweating in the kitchen. As I sat at the light and saw the restaurant, I was flooded with a memory so strongly that it passed before my eyes like a quick time movie.

I was a freshman in college and home on a random break, it was still cold and we both had jackets on. My dad and I were sitting in a back booth waiting to order. The waitress showed up, he ordered coffee and so did I…my very first virgin cup. I had never drunk coffee before. As the cup landed in front of me and a bit splashed over the side I started questioning my dad on how to drink it, with milk or sugar or black and what the big deal was about coffee anyway and why he drank it everyday and how can it even taste good when it smells so rank.

And on that cold day, we sat at Hoagies eating flapjacks, drinking coffee and talking about that amazing cup of joe. I never thought in a million years that habit would stick.

Do you remember your first cup?

Can we just go back to last Wednesday?

Last Thursday my dad went in to see his doctor for back pain he had been having for several months.

His doctor took x-rays.

His doctor took one look at those x-rays, walked down to see a radiologist for a brief consult and then sent my dad for a bone scan the very next day.

On Saturday morning his doctor called to tell him how sorry he was that his life was going to change forever.

My dad’s doctor informed him that he has metastasized prostate cancer in his bones, from shoulders to femur to be exact.

After a full week of tests and consults and prodding and probing we now know that there is no cure for this. But there is treatment. And if the treatment works, hopefully we can spend a few more precious years together.

First sign of spring in Minne

Today I spotted the first flip flop of the season.

That’s what I love about Minnesotans. Still snow on the ground but it has hit 45 degrees.

GET THOSE FLIP FLOPS ON!