Sweating

I went to a baseball game last night and when we walked through the gate and sat in our seats the temperature was 105 degrees. That is hot. Smoking hot. Not only was it hot - it was humid. Double whammy. At 9:30 p.m. it was down to a crisp 94 degrees.

That is crazy hot. I had sweat dripping from my hair. Sweat on the back of my hands. Elbows were sweating and causing my arm to keep sliding off the arm rest.

So dang hot.

We were in the shade and there was a breeze blowing, but it was like a blow dryer turned on super hot blowing right in your face.

Sweaty. Hot. I think my blood was boiling. Felt like it anyway.

Did I mention how sweaty that I was? Ridiculous.

Sweat dripped into my ears from my hair. Rolled down my back. Shorts sticking to me in a way that was not comfortable and most certainly not attractive.

Couldn't drink enough. Tried to ignore the heat and watch the game. It was hard.

I jumped in a pool at my earliest convenience and it was the most blissful moment of my life.

Sweet, sweet relief. The cold chill getting out of the pool was glorious. I never thought I would feel that cold again. It was the best. I was so happy.

Ten Totally Random Tidbits

I realize these "Ten Totally Random Tidbits" are coming more and more frequently. It is so easy to resort to this method when I have just a little to say about a lot of things. So here we go:

1. Exercising is continuing to go really well. I haven't posted my weekly updates lately because it was kind of boring me. But I am doing something just about every single day. Monday is easy walk in the hood. Tuesday is hard walk in the hills. Wednesday is long, hilly bike ride. When I say long I mean like 16 miles That is FAR! Thursday is walk in the hood. Friday is swimming. Saturday and Sunday are longer and longer walks. This past Saturday was a 10 miler and Sunday was a 6 miler. That is a bunch of exercise and I feel pretty good. Haven't weighed myself, but I don't feel any different so I am probably staying about the same.

2. We went to Bingo last night with Peggy and JV. It brought back so many memories of my years working in the old bingo parlor. I got down to needing one number a couple of times and really felt like Louise was going to intervene from heaven and help me yell Bingo, but it didn't happen. I thought about her a ton though and it was good.

3. School is coming. Much faster than any of the little people in this house want to believe.

4. We are going to see the Red Sox/Rangers series this weekend for Hubby's birthday.

5. This morning Chip says to me "Man, I am so glad you are my mom. I just like you so much." Smile.

6. My fingernails are growing. I am going to be able to get a manicure and will be able to mark #32 off of my "Things to Do Before I am 50" list.

7. Making homemade ice cream #26 will be following shortly!

8. Harold drove the Suburban home from the neighborhood pool this weekend. Probably a 1/4 mile and one turn. I always thought parents who said they were too nervous to teach their kids to drive were a little nuts. Turns out it is kinda frightening. He was driving so close to the curb, wasn't letting go of the steering wheel enough to let it straighten out. Just very little things, but it was a bit stressful. I know it won't take long for him to feel more comfortable, but these first few little lessons are doozies!

9. My neighbor Karen kept an eye on our cat the last time we were out of town. While we were gone she came over to borrow a can of Ro-tel. When we got back she told me about her attempt to borrow, but she said my pantry was such a hot mess that she couldn't find anything. Then she said the next time we were gone, she was going to organize it for me. I should be embarrassed, but I'm all "Hell yeah! Knock yourself out!" I am going to take a before and after picture so we can all see what kind of magic she works. Maybe she will do my linen closet next.

10. I love Fall and am so ready for cooler temps, a fire in the fire place and College Football. How about you?

Hope your week is off to a great start and Hump Day goes easy on you!

Hero on a Lily Pad

This afternoon I took the boys over to a city pool to entertain them and to mark another Summer Fun Idea off the list. Chip was very perplexed about why we were going to a different pool and not just our neighborhood pool. BECAUSE it is on the list munchkin - Keep Up!

At this particular city pool, they have this lily pad crossing where kids hold on to a thick wire over their head and try to step across the huge lily pads across the pool. It is hard because the lily pads are slippery plastic floating devices tethered to the bottom of the pool and are not steady at all. Super hard to cross the pool on these babies.

So I am watching from across the pool, reading a little of GWTW (on page 228 out of 1448!) as the boys make many attempts at getting across. Harold is good at it. He it tall and can reach his legs far and he is strong enough to hold himself up on the wire. He is wiggly, but under control. Chip on the other hand is a hot mess. He takes one step on to that lily pad and is stretched to his maximum height to hold on to the wire. He is wiggling back and forth and it is a heroic effort to make it to the third lily pad. He doesn't care, he just keeps trying.

As I am watching, I see Harold talking to this little girl who is probably six or seven years old that is ahead of him in line. When it is her turn to go I see Harold step out on the lily pad and bring it close to the edge for her to step on. She is stretching with all her might to reach the wire, but is just shy of reaching it. I see him pulling it down with all his might until she is able to jump up and grab hold of it. He reaches out to make sure she is steady and then he steps back up on the side of the pool. That little thing started working her way across the pool on tip toes. When she is about half way across the life guard signals that Harold can start across. He goes monkeying on over handling it fairly easily. He catches up to the little girl before she reaches the other side. She is clearly stuck and can't get the last lily pad close enough to the side of the pool to step off. She is either going to hang there all afternoon or drop in the water. She is stuck in no man's land. I see Harold squat down on his lily pad and push her lily pad over close to the edge so she can reach. She hops on to the side of the pool and just beamed at him.

I was so proud of him for helping that little girl. Just made my heart swell with joy.

Later, during a 10 minute lifeguard break the little girl comes over to where we are sitting and says something really quiet and shy to Harold. He says something to her and she walks away.

I said "What did she say?"
He said "She asked if I could help her cross the lily pads again."
I said "What did you say to her?"
He said "I told her I would when the break was over."
I said "That is so sweet honey."
He shrugged and said "Why do only six year old girls dig me?"

I might be biased, but I think lots of girls are going to dig him.

Now, you might be wondering...did he help his own brother across? No. No he didn't. My heart would not only have swelled with joy it probably would have exploded from shock!

He's not perfect people - but he is sure headed in the right direction.

Weekend Recap

Good Monday morning to you! Got to tell you that Monday rolled around alot quicker than I expected or wanted. Nothing new there, Mondays have a tendency to show up every seven days or so.

We ran the roads pretty good this weekend and it just flew by. I started off with a nice 10 mile walk with 5 of my girlfriends. We started at 7:00 a.m. and got back about 9:40. Ten miles is far. Stuff was hurting. Body parts were aching. It was hard.

Came home, hobbled up the stairs to shower and within 45 minutes we were on our way to Waco. The V Family came with us on our family field trip and we caravaned with two way radios in each car. Why does a two way radio makes me say things like "10-4 good buddy" and "over and out"? It is beyond me!

Their handle was White Ghost and ours was Death Star. Yes, we all have cell phones and yes we could have used those, but what is the fun in that?

About 30 minutes into our field trip we were all starving so we stop at Schlotzsky's for lunch.

Remember when Schlotzsky's had computers with those space video games? Well, our Schlotsky's took them out years ago, but this one still had them. They looked like antiques, but the kids loved them. We played, we ate, we got back on the road.

We arrived at the Mayborn Museum close to 1:00 and it was so hot. Just imagine being in a sauna with someone pointing a blow dryer right in your face. An air conditioned museum is just the perfect place to hang out on a day like that.

This is a cool little museum - and I don't just mean the temperature. We started in the Natural History of Texas section which had some really cool displays. This is a whale jaw. Not sure you can tell the size, but it was 16 feet long!

The giant replica of a sea animal that lived a gazillion years ago. Can't you see how much I learned on my trip to the museum. I could look up the specifics of its official name and wow you with how old it is, but really the effort makes me tired. Go there yourself and you can study up on it.

Next we ventured into the Mammoth Pit. Near the museum is the official dig site of a huge family of mammoths that was found fairly recently. They recreated the scene here at the museum and it is under a glass floor you walk on. Very cool.

The official site was discovered in Waco in 1978 and in the years since they have uncovered 22 mammoths in this location. It was a herd that was buried in a flood about 68,000 years ago. The dig site is actually now its own museum and we would like to check that out one day - maybe when it cools off a bit.

We also came upon this little Texas native that is perhaps, maybe, could be living in our neighborhood. Small pets are missing, halves of deer are turning up and a couple of folks have seen a mountain lion roaming the big farm across the street. A person from the Texas Park and Wildlife Department is coming to our neighborhood to do a presentation on how to live with a mountain lion next week. Seriously, person from the TPWD, can you please just capture the big scary mountain lion and relocate him? Seriously.

They had cool displays of Indian tee pees, grass huts and log cabins.

This was a favorite. This long hallway was called the music hallway. It had some sensors played musics if you were in their area. It showed all the controlled areas on a tv at the end of the hallway. If you were real still and didn't move a muscle no music would play but if you all jumped around and got all the sensors going it was like a symphony. We stayed in here a little too long!

Next, we hit up the Communications room where you could stand in front of a green screen and do the weather, run the camera. Kinda cool.

Bugs and critters.

A tornado machine.

This was also in communications - a long wall of typewriters. Old antique typewriters, like the kind I learned to type on. How in the world did my 7th grade typing instrument end up in a museum already. I am not old enough to have my youth represented in a museum am I? It was kind of neat to walk down memory lane and load the paper, hit the return, and revisit the good old days of white out!

This table had the symbols that hobos would use to communicate. Some of them were hysterical and we had fun writing messages in hobo.

Giant piano.

Hello, hello, can you hear me?

How many adults does it take to put the organs back in a human? Three apparently. And where is that bladder?

The bubble things were super cool. This is a huge bubble screen.

Here is RV pulling up a giant bubble around himself.

It could get about thigh high before he caved in and popped.

JV playing with the balls. It looks like he thinks he is a magician - Waa Laa!

This was an electric current demonstration. That bright light between the two metal rods is electricity.

Kid favorite here - they beat these drums to death. You could hear them way down the hall. Chip put on an Indian costume and was doing a rain dance. Lots of laughs.

Jousting in the Lego room. It was a great museum, not too crowded, not expensive, tons of hands on activities, lots to learn and look at. Very enjoyable. Little did I know the Texas Sports Hall of Fame was right next door. We will have to do that one the next time we get to Waco.

We hit the Dr. Pepper Museum, with visions and mouth watering to try out the real soda shop inside.

Although you can't see from this picture we took, but the place was packed. There were probably 25 people in line to get a DP float and only two workers behind the soda counter. We decided the wait was not worth it and googled another ice cream shop close by that we could enjoy!

Cold Stone Creamery was right down the road and we walked right up to the counter. I had a Coffee Lover's thing that was absolutely DELICIOUS!!

He headed home and I took a little siesta in the car - I slept so hard that I am sure I was snoring. After cooling off for a while at home we headed downtown to eat at the Spaghetti Warehouse and try an Austin classic - Gourdough's.

Gordough's is a trailer that serves some major doughnuts. Some of them have bacon on them! Interesting and our mouths were watering when we saw the menu! How about Cream Cheese Frosting, Bacon and Jalepeno Jelly? Or Cream Cheese Frosting, Heath Bar pieces and Coconut? Or Cream Cheese Frosting, Grilled Bananas and Brown Sugar? Weird, right?

So weird that half of Austin was there and on Saturday night at 10:00 p.m. there is a 45 minute wait! We just couldn't wait so we did the next best thing.

Went to Krispy Kreme for some doughnuts hot off the presses! YUM! We will save Gourdough's for another day.

Fell into bed at 11:15 and slept like a rock!

We had more fun on Sunday with a 6 mile walk and a matinee theatre performance of The Wedding Singer. Great weekend. Went way too fast and work is calling!

Hope your weekend was great and Monday isn't hurting you as bad as it is hurting me!

A Good Night of Sleep

I went to bed last night at 9:00! So many consecutive early mornings finally catch up to a girl. As soon as I said goodnight to the boys, Chip asked if he could come lay with me for a while. I said sure.

We both snuggled up under the blankets, propped up on our pillows. I was reading Gone With the Wind (Random Side Note: GWTW is a gagillion pages long and I might be 50 years old before I get through it!) and he was reading a book about a Hamster. He is reading and starts chuckling out loud to himself. I ask him what is funny. He says this part in the book where the hamsters are naming streets. Listen to this...

He proceeds to read a section of the book to me and he is laughing. I can't understand a word he is saying, which kind of makes me laugh. He says "Isn't that funny?" I just nod my head and still have no idea what in the heck he said.

We only read for about 10 minutes and then it was lights out.

Best night of sleep I have had in a month. I needed that!

Busy weekend ahead! Here is how it is shaping up...walking 10 miles on Saturday morning, then we are taking a little family field trip to Waco to go to the Mayborn Museum on Baylor's campus and the Dr. Pepper Museum. Sunday, it is a 6 mile walk followed by a matinee performance of The Wedding Singer. Need to find some time to catch up on laundry, because I have been on a hiatus for a few days and it is starting to stack up! Also, want to find some time to go furniture shopping for some new chairs for my bedroom.

Should be fun and we are marking lots of stuff off of the Summer Fun list!

Have a great weekend!

It's My Birthday

Don't you remember as a kid how excited you would be when it was your birthday. Counted down the days, got excited about the presents. I miss those days.

These days, birthdays have lost their glow. I know the alternative to not having a birthday means you are six foot under, so I get that it is better to have them than not have them. But dang, can't they just go quietly, no fanfare, no big plans. Just get out of here already. I know I am 44, no need to keep talking about it.

I do however get a huge kick out of my kids reaction on my birthday.

Kids: Mom, Happy Birthday! What are we going to do today?
Me: I have to work but we will be going out for dinner so I don't have to cook.
Kids: Oh. Don't you want to go swimming, putt-putt or to the movies. We can do anything you want to do. It is your special day. You pick.
Me: Nah.
Kids: Mom, seriously. You can do anything, its your birthday.
Me: Can I pile up on the couch and read a book all day?
Kids: No, that's not fun.

So, I will squeeze in some kid approved fun today and maybe go swimming at lunch time! Woo Hoo. Already did a 16.5 mile bike ride this morning with my little peloton of girlfriends. I didn't wreck and made it all the way without having to push my bike up any hills.

I was looking back through some of my old emails and found one that I had sent to my parents on my 34th birthday. It went something like this:

Where has the time gone? Wasn't it just yesterday that...

I was waiting patiently on the curb for you to bring home my new baby brother?
I was a Brownie or was it a Girl Scout?
Me and Ange shared a bedroom in our tiny little house on Nike Street?
Mom made me that blue angel costume with wings made out of hangers and Christmas garland?
You had to pick me up to put me over the fence to play with Daisy?
I cut my toe jumping in a mud puddle while playing in the rain? Or was that Ange?
We built forts out of pine needles.
I jabbed that nasty nail into my leg and got stitches?
We drove cross country to spend a glorious week at the beach house?
I celebrated my birthday with a pink ballerina cake at Grandma and Grandpa's house?
We went walking in the snow at night in Heilbronn.
I roller skated all the live long day on the blacktop at Fort Story?
I ran home from the beach and away from those attack flies?
I had to be home when the street lights came on?
I begged and begged for a dog? Remembering my sweet Brandy - I loved that dog.
I was borderline obsessed with horses?
I was a softball all-star bringing home the championship?
We spent our weekends walking among castles in Germany?
I cried my eyes out leaving Rhonda?
I learned to drive in the old Ford LTD?
We made so many awesome memories at the Sea Dome Inn?
We tried making jelly out of those grapes we grew on Town and Country?

It seems like just yesterday that I started the chapters of my life that include getting married and having kids. Those chapters are priceless and have given me such joy and adventures I couldn't have ever dreamed were possible.

What I am thinking about today though is that the memories I have from my childhood are the kinds of memories my boys are making right now. I hope they can look back as fondly on their childhood as I do on mine.

So much to be thankful for on my birthday and most especially for my parents. I know that when my children celebrate their birthdays I always step back for a minute and realize that I am the lucky one. To be blessed with a child means you get to do childhood all over. Seeing the world through your child's eyes is fun. I hope they have gotten as much joy from seeing me live my life as I have gotten from watching my boys live their lives.

Happy Birthday to Me!

What the Heck is for Dinner????

Tell me I am not the only one who dreads this 5:00 hour when you know in just a short while you have to put something delicious and nutritious on the table!

I mean one of the hardest parts of every evening around here is figuring out what the heck to put on the table for dinner. My family should be easy, since there are so many things they won't eat, and a very short list of what they love to eat. You would think I could keep a good rotation going with some kind of meat, pasta or rice, and a vegetable. And, I have. For the most part they really like what they really like. I am just so sick of cooking the same things over and over.

Here is the drawback with cooking something new though...it is painful. It throws my boys into some kind of funk, like they are on Survivor and I am asking them to eat a bucket of live cockroaches.

Children: What is this? It smells like cockroaches.
Me: It's not cockroaches Honey, it is a meatloaf. Not sure what cockroaches smell like, but seriously you are in the clear.
Children: I hate meatloaf.
Me: Oh, I didn't realize you hated meatloaf because I am pretty sure it has never crossed your lips, traveled over your taste buds, down your throat and into your sweet little stomach. Maybe you could just try it. It is alot like hamburger, which you seem to love.
Children: How much do we have to eat?

They proceed to bury it in the carb of choice, be it some kind of pasta or rice, and choke it down. Looking at me with pleading eyes saying "Why are you trying to kill me with this thing you call a Meatloaf." Thirty minutes after dinner they are in the pantry or the fridge looking for something better to eat.

I get it, because sometimes I cook something and I don't want to eat it. I'd rather have a bowl of cereal than eat that crazy SPAM fried rice they love. I have eaten it plenty, but I am just over it with a capital OVER IT!!!

So let's get some comments going again! Who plans all their meals for the week and who wings it like I do every night? How much variety do you try to add?