Thursday, March 31, 2011

This is all about ME!

Reed had a "LOOK AT ME! TAKE MY PICTURE!" day at gymnastics.

It actually kinda warms my heart.
I mean, let's be honest...
As an only child, I'm still living a LOOK AT ME! TAKE MY PICTURE! life.




I call this shot, "Stealing Kyle's thunder".

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Washin' the Wears

So this is one of those posts my mom will read and probably say,
(insert Texas accent about 5X stronger than mine) "Oh my goodness! I can't believe she's putting that out there on the Internet!"
 
But I think it's funny, so here goes.

I do the laundry twice a week.  Always on Mondays and then on Thursdays or Fridays.
I did laundry on Friday last week, so that means yesterday I washed clothes that were worn on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Here's the clean underwear. (Don't worry, Mom, not mine!)
That's one pair of underwear for JR, and ten pair for Kyle and Reed!

That means in 3 days:
JR didn't change his underwear! (hiding my head in shame)

And Kyle and Reed?
Welllll, It looks like Kyle's been changing his underwear every time he puts on a new outfit.  (Which, as we know about our fashionista, can be quite a few times a day.)

But that's not the end of the story. 

All day I was so upset about my lack of parenting of JR.
How could I not notice that the child didn't change his underwear for 3 days?

But then...
last night...
I was almost redeemed!

As JR was getting undressed for his shower, he said, "Oh! I have on two pair of underwear."

You can't imagine how excited I was to see another pair of underwear.
I hadn't been an absentee parent!
He wore clean underwear to school on Friday, not changed them Saturday, (which we can let slide since he's a 7 year old boy) put on a new pair Sunday morning, and then in a morningtime fog, put a clean pair over the old pair Monday morning!

Yes!
Yeah me!
I'm not a bad mom!

Except.....
I had no idea my poor child wore 2 pair of underwear all day long. 
Oh yeah.  Oops.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Interview With the Naked Chef


Many people think it's the chef's hat that's the most important part of the uniform.

As you can see, it's really the...um...elbow length pot holders???
that let everybody know you're a "cooker".

And in case you were wondering, Naked Chef was busy creating a birthday cake when this photo was snapped in his kitchen.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Do You See What I See?

We were speeding through the library the other day,

(We have to get in and get out before the mean, ol', crotchety, grey haired librarian kicks us out.  She gives us one stink-eye warning, and then we're asked to leave.)

when I saw this book displayed on the shelf. 

Is it just me, or does this kid look like JR?

Friday, March 25, 2011

Fashion Fabulous Friday



What? You didn't know Spiderman was the Brian Boitano of superheroes?


 Let's take a closer look
My favorite part is Spiderman's wearing a helmet.
Cause, you know, safety is always fabulous!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

A Post About Soil. No, Seriously.

Whenever I'm traveling with my dad, a former biology teacher, we're always enlightened by stories of the different flora or fauna of the area. 
(And yes, the actual words 'flora' and 'fauna' are always used.)

So even though I didn't have my dad on our Moab trip this weekend, I did have Kylie, who also happens to have a degree in biology.

So here's what I learned this weekend:

Many areas in Arches National Park are covered in cryptobiotic soil/crust. 
 This crust is alive, made up of bacterias and algae, and is basically holding the desert sands together. 
 Not to sound all environmentally hysterical, but if you don't have the cryptobiotic soil,
 things like this  
crumble and fall down.

Cassidy and I were pretty excited about the soil situation, especially since it has such a cool sounding name.  We even got nervous we were going to accidentally step on some and have the cryptobiotic police put us in environmentally friendly cryptobiotic jail where we'd spend our days composting!

Here's what cryptobiotic soil looks like

Cassidy and I also tried our hand at bouldering.
Look at us being all environmental AND outdoorsy!

But don't worry. 
It wasn't all learning and rock hugging on this trip.

We found plenty of crazies to laugh and giggle about.

Check out this dude.
We were at least 10 miles from town, and this guy's got camping supplies and a skateboard!
He's probably buddies with the dude that ran the half marathon barefooted in a 3-piece suit. 
 (BTW, barefooted 3-piece suit dude smoked me!)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Tales from the Dinning Room

*I'm going to the doctor today about my foot, but today's post isn't about that, we'll be heading back to spring break vacay to talk more about our cruise!*

 One of the things people enjoy most about a cruise is the food. 
The kids were actually really good to go to the "fancy dinner" with us each night.

Kyle was always my "date".

We had the same 3 waiters each evening. 
Our waitress, our assistant waiter, (who the kids called "The Bread Man" since he passed out the dinner rolls) and our head waiter who spent lots of his time cutting up JR's steak and Kyle and Reed's chicken fingers.
(All of them ordered the same thing every night!)

Our kids, being as cultured and sophisticated as they are, really appreciated the finer things dinner had to offer:

Fine linens placed neatly in the lap.

Admiring the delicacy of the stemware pattern.


A foodie enjoying the layered flavoring of the sauces.

Black Tie Optional

And just a small taste of desserts...

just to cleanse the palate.

The ship also had a Johnny Rockets on board, so when they weren't feeling so Tom Colicchio-ish they enjoyed eating there.


Although the chili cheese fries left something to be desired.
Like chili!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Duh! Winning!

I know you're dying to know how my half marathon went this weekend...
Duh?! Winning!

Isn't that what happens when you have to walk the last 6 miles?
That's right.  I'm cool like that.
I walked (a running race) the last 6 miles.

So, let's back up.

Here we were freezing waiting for the race to start while the 30 mile an hour winds blew.  The only reason we wore our sunglasses was to keep the dirt from blowing in our eyes.  (Which I obviously needed in this picture to cover up my puffiness.  But this was the only picture I had with Niki.) 
(Marcia, Niki, and Kari)  Too cold to show off our matching shirts!

They finally got the race underway (without a starting line banner because it was getting ripped up in the tornadic/hurricane-like winds)

The first 5 miles were fine, (besides Marcia and I getting separated at the 2nd mile water station and not finding each other again until mile 6) but as I passed mile 5 every step I took was excruciating.

So let's back up again. 
Why was I in so much pain?

Well, 2 weeks ago Friday (before we left for spring break) I got my right foot up under me wrong and kind of stumbled over it.  It hurt, but I didn't think much of it.
It didn't feel better the next day, and (unfortunately) hasn't for the last two weeks.  I was just doing the elliptical machine at the gym trying to let it heal.

So while it definitely didn't feel good when I was running on it, the first 5 miles were bearable. 
Around mile 7 I told Marcia I was going to have to walk.  As we started up again I literally squealed out in pain. 
(Now I know I'm dramatic, but running this race was something I really wanted to do, so I certainly didn't want to be hollering out.)

I told Marcia to just go on (Kari and Niki were way ahead of us and finished with amazing times) that I was going to walk.  Marcia was so worried about me she went straight to the medic tent after she finished the race convinced that I had had the medic truck bring me in.

I kept going, so upset I was having to walk and embarrased about my time.
But some time around mile 10 I realized I needed to be happy just to finish. 
I was seriously worried the "sweeper truck"  (It "sweeps" the slow people off the road so they can open the road back up to traffic.) was going to pick me up.

But, I actually did finish.

With a rock star-warlock-tiger blood-duh winning-time of 2:42:52 (12:25 pace) I hobbled across the finish line.
I went straight to the medic tent (where my friends were waiting for me) and asked them to look at my foot.

After handing me 3 Motrin (Thank you very much!) and examining me, the nurse said for me to have my foot X-rayed if it still hurts in 5 days.  (And since it's hurt for 2 weeks, I'm pretty sure I'll be heading to the doctor's office sometime this week.)

But here we are in our cute T-shirts. (They say: Most girls blend in. We prefer to make a scene!)
And where was Niki for the matching shirt photo-op? 
She finished so far ahead of me she was already back at the hotel taking a shower!

Big smile from me. I'd just taken 3 Motrin!
(You can tell Moab's just like Durango.  It's not enough to have the trash and recycling bins...you also have to compost!)

But the weekend wasn't a total lost.
I actually had a blast!
I loved getting to hang out with Marcia, Kari and their husbands (they came all the way from Texas for the race.)

And my Durango friends Cassidy and Kylie came with me to make it a super fun weekend.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Beachy Keen

After stops at 3 tropical locations, it seems I have only one true beach lover:

Kyle

Not that the rest of us don't like the beach,
We just have our issues.

JR doesn't like the saltwater.

 Reed thinks his job is to clean the shoreline of seashells.

I prefer that the sun not actually touch my skin.

And with the three of us having issues, Jason is forced to do pool duty.

Which is just fine with Kyle.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Fashion Fabulous Friday


Goggles.  Not just for swimming anymore.


Actually, not for swimming at all.




Thursday, March 17, 2011

Pining for Speed

JR's picture was in the paper this morning! (And I got a little shout out too.)
I certainly don't love this picture of JR, but it definitely shows how excited he was.

Here's a better picture of him with his car (that's really a truck).

And if you're wondering how he did in the Pinewood Derby...
Well, let's just say Jason and JR are much better chefs than race car builders since I'm pretty sure JR was dead last!