My life’s new tag line

Once again I found myself at baseball last night, our new beloved pastime.  I sat on the bleachers with my in-laws, PJ running about the park with her new girlie friends and KP trying his hardest to find someone who would give him money to feed his candy addiction.  Lucky enough, Papa was there to give the kid 25 cents.

After his injection of neon green icee that spilled all over his white shirt and a spattering of drool from the bright blue airhead juice, he sat down in the dirt and dust of the ball park to pull some weeds, that turned into a bouquet for me.

He brought them over and climbed up into my lap.  He looked down at the mess that was all over himself and said, “Mom, I need a bath.”

I responded, “Oh, we’ll get you all cleaned up tomorrow at swim lessons.”

The mom sitting next to me burst out laughing and said, “Well…at least you have a plan!”

Where the hell have I been?

I’m not sure what is going on here, but I’m home and summer has kicked into full swing.

Just a few updates due to shlocky blogging:

The best parts of the San Fran trip where: 1.  Trying to get rush seats to Wicked and seeing it.  2.  Seeing a naked bike race.  3.  Swimming the Bay and not getting eaten by sharks.  4.  Walking the Golden Gate and watching the Escape from Alcatraz Tri on my birthday.  5.  And then there was just hang’n with my girl Ellen.  It was a GREAT trip.

This past weekend was the first triathlon of the season.  It was a little short course, the Lake Minnetonka Tri. Due to the trip I was not sure how my sloth like behavior was going to affect my performance.  Somehow, the I’m just going to do the best I can and have fun, seemed to pay off.

I ended up 15th out of all the woman and according to the results 5th in my age group.  But when it came time to give out awards, we HAD to stay because T-odd finished third in his age group, to my surprise they called my name and handed me a third place trophy.

To the dismay of all my kids I have emailed the race director to ask him what gives and who the trophy really belongs to.  So, I’ll keep ya posted.

Father’s Day was good.  I bought books this year for the dad’s.  I decided on The Last Lecture for my dad.  When I brought it home, Adam told me I might want to rethink that gift, the author just died.  I sometimes do have the tendency to circle a little too close to the sun.  So Adam was kind enough to run out for a couple cigars.

And to end…I gave PJ a new pair of Crocs (for no reason, which rarely happens at our house) and when she put them on I asked her how they were.  Her response, “They are a little too small and a little too big…they are perfect.”

Oh and our AC is not working.

And it is now 11:00 and I am drinking  my second beer to keep me cool, which will not go well for my run at 5:30 in the morning due to sweating all night.  Certain deydration.

Let’s here it for summer!

Later

I’m leaving town for San Fran tomorrow at 7:00 am with my girl Ellen.

We have worked really hard at planning our trip.

Here is what we have nailed down:

• Confirmed flights
• Shuttle to hotel
• Hotel

Oh and I have three books in my bag.  That should just about do it.

One of the best parts of summer

Our first veggie box of the season made it to our house yesterday. If you don’t belong to a CSA you should, it’s magic in a box every week.

Year long photo project: 3 of 3

KP turned five, as you know, last Friday.  That said, I have embarked on his 5 year photo project, which I love to do and gives me a reason to have my camera at the ready everyday.

I decided when CT turned five that I would do a year long photo project, a photo a day, of each child of their fifth year.  Then ultimatly, I would compile it into a book for them.

I can’t believe I am at the end of the line.  The books have not been made yet.  I want to give them out once each one has theirs complete.  In fact, CT’s photos have not even been compiled yet.  God bless flicker, it made it so much easier to keep it all organized with PJ’s project.

So off we go.  But I’m already wondering if I should do it all again at 10.

What will they be doing then?  What will they look like?  How much will they change?  It’s amazing the change you see throughout the year when you’re looking through a lens.

You should try it.

Confidence booster

We had a new babysitter last weekend.  The girl is the younger sister of one of our “regular” babysitters and I see their dad everyday down at the park with their dog, so they know our family.

When she arrived on the job she walked right in and the kids were very excited to see her.  She is one of those girls who is supper cute, bubbly without being obnoxious, very confident yet waaay laid-back.

I gave her the run down of the night, bed times, routines, etc.  I asked her if she had any questions, she did not.  Then I asked her what her rate was so I would have enough cash to pay her when we got home.

Her response, “I don’t have a rate, I don’t really babysit.”

AWESOME!

Santas in town

So I had a long bike ride yesterday.  I chose to do two laps of the trails around our house for ease and due to time constraints.  It was pretty windy out and several times during the ride I found random strangers drafting behind me.  For some reason this made me mad, like seriously people cut your own wind, if you’re going to use me at least say HI or tell me your name or something.  Needless to say, it just gave me more vigor so I would speed up and try to shake them.

One particular drafter however, was delightful.  He initially passed me at a street crossing and when he did, he was a vision to behold.  I would put him at about age 65 with very white hair sticking out of his helmet, a beard, a tight white sleeveless shirt, red tights and over the tights were tight spandex black biking shorts, a black fanny pack which carried jingle bells that you could hear if you were close by and he donned roller blades, very fast roller blades.

So I call out that I am passing on the left, he hand gestures for me to go ahead and then sticks with me for a good five miles.  I am on a bike, going about 19 miles per hour, he is on ROLLER BLADES.  He takes me on a hill and as he passes he tells me what a great pace I have going.  I tell him I love his jingle bells.  He tells me its to keep his elves in order because they don’t really listen.

Then off he flew.

Me and my VERY part time job

I teach swimming lessons on a very part time basis, like 1 to 3 half-hour classes a week depending on the session.  So really, it does not take up much of my time and the added bonus is a free membership that feeds my beloved addiction.

All that said, when a kid goes down sick, it just so happens to be during the smallest increment of time that I am suppose to be somewhere earning a minuscule amount of money.  But still, it’s a commitment.  A commitment I take seriously and want to find a solution to the problem that does not impact anyone else negatively (like getting sick).

We have been battle coughs for two weeks now (Adam, CT, PJ and KP).   Yesterday KP spiked a temp.  After a day of movies and Tylenol I was hoping he would wake up with no fever and he could go to school and I could go teach lessons.

Instead, he slept in until 8:30, woke up glassy eyed, still coughing and still with fever.

So what to do with the job?  The following is the email I sent to my boss:

Hey Y,
I have a sick kid who can’t go to school today (cough and temp).  That leaves me with canceling classes today, you or some one else doing them for me or me bringing him into the gym daycare and infecting kids.  Thoughts?

M

She called 5 minutes later telling me should would call everyone and cancel them.  Hmmm, that was easy.  I clearly spent too much time worrying about how I was going to fix that problem.

Shack Nasty 09

Let’s see…the Shack…hmmm.

I’ll just let you see for yourself.

Get this party started

I’m not a big fan of costume parties, however, once a year the Shack Nasty comes around and I will do my best.

This year it happens to have a historical theme.  You must dress up as someone/thing that was born and died before you were born.  At least I think that is the case.

The first year we went, Adam went as Britney Spears with her shaved head and umbrella.  I went as K-Fed. I hate dressing up as men!

The second year we went, I was on a girls weekend and Adam went as Captain Jack Sparrow.  Thank God for good friends that kept him on the straight and narrow because I know from stories that he was feeling NO PAIN.

So this year…Adam is going as Adam (after his fall from grace) and I am going as the Blessed Virgin Mary.  You are going to have to wait to see how that turns out.

The halo is a bitch!