Haiku for all seasons

It’s really starting to sink in that my dad is gone.  As of late, the littlest of things can trip me up.

Last week I saw someone I hadn’t seen in several months and she asked how my dad was doing,  I burst into tears.

Driving by the cigar shop that my dad hung out at,  I burst into tears.

Having Easter hopping into our lives and CT’s birthday landing right on it, is hard.  Easter was my dad’s favorite Catholic holiday and he loved it when it coincided with his birthday.

About a week after my dad died, I received a card from one of my parent’s friends and on it was a Haiku.

I thought the worst thing to happen is that you would die –

but then you stayed dead.

Yup, that’s the worst.

Waaaay to much fun

Thanks to Dooce, I spent the weekend taking photos with my iphone and the Hipstamatic App.

Foxi Roxi and her 41st birthday cake.

St. Joan’s Palm Sunday’s Service.  This is darkness coming over the land!

KP pondering life.

Lucy pondering a duck.

PJ pondering her ever changing creative abilities.

Me, moments off my bike, pondering how I will survive the next 6 months of training.

What are you going to shoot today?

First times

For my mom, this year has had its bumps, but she is moving through it the best way she can.  And I must say, she is doing a great job.  Changing what you have known for 40 some years is hard, even for the best change agent in the world.

If you have been around me at all in the past months, you have heard me utter, “2010 is STILL going to be a good year”.  And I do honestly believe that.

I said this exact thing to my mom last night, while we sat in the ER waiting for the second of two CT scans to be done and her lip to be stitched up.  When I said it, she gave a a very grim…”When?”

She fell while on a walk, during a stunning spring day, with her friend.  Simply caught her toe on some winter-heaved-pavement and down she went, on her face.  Lots of stitches, lots of swelling, lots of bruising.  She said I could post the photo, but…I’m restraining myself.  She thinks it looks worse than it feels.  Yup, it’s hard to look at.

This year has a lot of firsts for her.  Her first time to the ER.  Her first stitches.  Her first decisions by herself without a partner in crime.

She is finding her way.  She is amazing.

How lucky I am to be the one to hold her hand as she got her first set of stitches.

Where’s NuNu?

Getting close

Here she is, Cedar Lake.

My kids dipped their toes in yesterday and announced it was still cold.

Cold yes but at least there is open water and sand and if you throw a big enough rock it will break the ice.

The joy!

Down to one

At one point in time, our family had seven animals living in the house.  As of yesterday, we are down to one.

Whiskey “bit it”.  It was sad but no tears were shed.  My kids are getting the hang of the circle of life.

KP’s night time prayer went like this, “And I pray that Grandpa and Whiskey can now be together in heaven.”

I’m not sure Whiskey is going to feel the same way after last Easter.

And I pay this guy

I have a coach to help me through the mind field of training for the Ironman.

I meet this coach, along with a few other ladies, on Thursday mornings to run exhausting hill workouts.

This is the type of coach that tells me to bring my “A” game.

And today, as he laid the workout out there, my heart started racing and I buckled down to do what I was told.

I ran up the hill, the hill I was suppose to run in under 2 minutes and 40 seconds, TWICE.  I found the blood rushing out of my arms and legs, my body aching and falling apart, my mind started screaming as everything was going to shit, DEAR GOD HELP ME,  DEAR GOD HELP ME, PLEASE!!

Seriously, I was thinking, “I have to blog about this because this is crazy.”  So crazy it felt like my vagina wasn’t even getting oxygen.

So very, very crazy-dumb-stupid-idiotic.  It is so wrong to push your body to the point of feeling like your going to fall over or vomit or pass out.  It is so wrong on so many levels.

But…it’s so right.  It is so right,  that I did both hills in under the time I needed to.

HEEEEEELLLLLLLLLL YEAH!

Ironman or bust BITCHES!

Hell yeah…

What else is there to do in Minnesota in March?

Adam and the “No Daddy No” team took to Lake Calhoun for the Polar Bear Plunge 2010.