Few minutes...

I only have a few minutes to post as I have to go pick up Ray at a Starbucks near our office since he took the hard top off his Jeep without putting the soft top back on AND without looking at the weather today. So he is parking it in a parking garage a couple of blocks away and getting Starbucks.

Just an excuse really for me to get a Venti Iced Black Tea.

Easter was good - Ashley fought off a slight stomach bug, but was okay otherwise. It was warm enough on Easter for the girls to enjoy a slip and slide at a neighbor's house. I went all of Lent without drinking one soda, and I still haven't had a soda. And I don't think I will. No more diet cokes at bedtime for me.

The pool opens Mother's Day weekend here...I really need to order a bathing suit. I need to update everyone on my boot camp adventure these last two weeks, next time. Need to go get my Starbucks...

Updates

Ray's parents are moving near us, and so this past weekend we were moving Ray's brother out of our house into their house about 4 miles from our house. We knew there would be storms in the area, so we were keeping an eye on the weather. We had just returned home from taking a load of stuff when the storm hit.

I have never heard thunder as loud as I did on Saturday. And then it got dark, like middle of the night dark. And silent, which was weird.

But our street was lucky. No damage at all. Two streets away? Houses with trees on them, shopping carts from a Lowes Food store a mile down the road in their yards, insulation from a bank a mile away in trees. All the power lines down the main street in our town were taken down by trees as well. Not sure how well you can see the power lines in the above picture... And trees on cars. The kids weren't scared of the storm, but seeing the damage it did scared them. Ashley's school was closed today due to lack of power. Probably the first time in the school's 15 years it was closed due to a tornado.

Let's hope we don't have any more storms like this again....

Wow, is it really Thursday already

This week has literally flown by. I can't believe it's March already.

Ashley is getting ready to track out of school for 4 weeks. I have her signed up for camp for the first two weeks, nothing yet for the second two. Still trying to figure out if she can go stay with the Grandparents for a few days. It's hard because even though she is out of school, we still have all of our activities. She does Girl Scouts every other Monday, tumbling Tuesdays (to get better at tumbling for cheerleading in the fall), piano practice on Wednesdays and dance on Fridays. She can't miss dance since they are gearing up for their recital on June 4th. Same with piano. I guess tumbling she can miss as well as Girl Scouts (I am the troop leader, I think I could fill her in on what she misses!). And yes, having dance on Friday nights sucks, but it was the only time we could get for the class she wanted.

Oh, and I still haven't run yet. I need to since I have a 10 mile race and half marathon in April!

Wake County NC

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Disintegration
http://www.colbertnation.com/
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> Video Archive

Yup, this is about the county I live in. Love Colbert.

Happy Belated Birthday Ray!!

His birthday was Saturday and considering he was in Las Vegas for 4 nights, I think he had a pretty good birthday. And he actually came home ahead which I think is a first. He actually wasn't there to celebrate his birthday but a good friend's 40th birthday. But it helped that it was his birthday as well.

So I was on my own with the kids which really wasn't too bad considering they had about 12,482 activities on Saturday alone (that is only a slight exaggeration). I got in trouble with the school for having Ashley ride the bus home with a friend on Thursday, but other than that, there were no snafus.

And in turn, I am leaving this weekend to spend with some friends, and leaving Ray with the girls and on Friday afternoon alone they have to be in 3 different places at the same time. Bwahahaha!! Good luck Ray.

I leave on Thursday for Boston to meet up with my friend who moved back to Texas over the summer. The same one I am running the Austin Marathon with in February. We get to run together in Boston which should be fun, but cold. Considering it is supposed to be 83 here tomorrow and the highs in Boston this week are 50s, I am not looking forward to running in the cold, but I will deal.

And in more so-so news, I will most likely be furloughed at work in November. Merry Christmas to me.

In the spirit of Halloween....

I love ghost stories and ghost shows and ghost tours and anything related to the paranormal. I DVR Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures.

I saw the first Paranormal Activity movie and it was freaking scary. Thankfully I saw it in the comfort of my own home so I could cover my eyes and scream when I wanted to.

But I have a huge issue with the Paranormal Activity 2. Have you seen the previews? It involves a toddler, maybe 1 - 2 years old. It just crossed over the line with me. I will not be able to watch a movie where a toddler is messed with by a ghost or demon. Just can't do it. If you go see the movie, just let me know how it is.

Disney

I have tried to type this sentence multiple times to try and capture just how great a vacation we had. I will have to download some pictures over the next week and share some stories about the week, but it was great. Fun was had by all. We had great weather, we enjoyed the parks and the pool at our resort multiple times, rode rides, and ate great food at the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot.

I only ran once though, my only regret from this vacation. I plan on getting back on track this week as my half marathon is a little over a month away.

For now, it is back to school for Ashley after being tracked out for 3 weeks. This morning was only slightly rough after getting home at 8pm last night. And of course with stuff every.night.this.week, we jump right back into the chaos.

I wish I was back at the pool drinking my Tangerine Dream drink....

It's only Tuesday...

Random bullets for today:

• Everyone at work thinks I am good at finding out information. IT'S CALLED GOOGLE. Or the HELP MENU.
• My right shin is tight for some reason today.
• I am getting new running shoes tomorrow.
• Ray met Jon Voight on Sunday night at a bar in Dallas, Texas. He just walked up to the table Ray was sitting at and asked him the score of the football game, like he was just some random person. Ray snapped a photo with his iPhone.
• Grandma is here, so that means that one of the girls is sleeping with her each night. Which in turn means the other one is sleeping with me.
• My kids are bed hogs, even in a king sized bed.
• Did 6 miles last night, have 18 more to do before Friday evening.
• I woke up this morning thinking it was Wednesday and wishing it was Friday.
• The leaves are starting to change here, yet it is still in the 90s during the day.

Dinner Games

We often play the Family Time Fun Beginner Dinner Games because the girls like it (my kids like to talk) and it's often better than the how was school conversation.

Last night we drew a card where you got to wave around the magic spoon and say three things you would wish for.

My wishes:
1. A running skirt
2. A new van (And really, I'm not sure why I said this as our van is only 2 years old and perfectly fine. I think the girls had me frazzled demanding I answer so they could.)
3. And I never got to say my third one as mentioned above, the girls got a little anxious about saying what they wanted.

Ashley's Wishes:
1. For everyone to take care of the Earth (very nice of her and frankly I was shocked by the fact it wasn't a material item.)
2. A horse
3. A scooter (Yes, there are some kids in our neighborhood who drive around on their scooters, and unless a Grandparent is willing to buy her one, she is never getting one from Ray nor I.)

Audrey's Wishes:
1. To get hugs from Mommy all the time (I always tell her she gives the best hugs)
2. To never die. (Yes, she seriously said that. Hmm.)
3. To go to Marbles, the local kid's museum

Beach

I may or may not have mentioned here about 1,000 times that I love the beach. And thankfully the rest of the family does too...

We had a great weekend of swimming, boogie boarding, eating and having fun at the beach. I am not too happy about returning to work in the morning....

I realize it's been forever since I posted

I breezed right through Mother's Day and my Dad's Birthday (Happy Birthday Dad!). Mother's Day was spent doing something I enjoyed - going to the grocery store without my kids. And since our vacuum cleaner broke this week, I am thinking that's going to be my belated Mother's Day gift. Yea for me.

I have had 2 crappy runs this week, with hope that speedwork at the gym tonight will be better. I am just so sick of running in my town and really, really tired of the hills. I need a new place to run. Although that won't be in Chapel Hill since some woman yesterday was almost kidnapped running IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY on a very busy street.

Audrey's dance recital is Saturday and her dress rehearsal is tonight. I need to figure out how to hold it together so that I am not a sobbing mess for the recital. Seriously, I cried over the email from her teacher about the specifics of Saturday. What is wrong with me? Ashley is still a few weeks out from her recital, maybe I will figure it out by then.

Mickey Mouse and Happy Neurons...

First off, the Mickey Mouse thing. I have to admit, seeing the video on this blog post brought tears to my eyes. HOW FREAKIN COOL!

So we had book club on Monday night, and the book was Still Alice by Lisa Genova. I think all of us in book club agreed that it was kind of weird saying we enjoyed a book about a woman with early-onset Alzheimer's, but we did. It was exceptionaly written and interesting how the different family members reacted.

One of the things in the book the woman has to do is take mental tests during her doctor's appointments. I often sit at my desk at lunch eating my Lean Cuisine, and instead of cruising the gossip blogs, I actually enjoy going to some of the websites that have brain games. The connection to the book mentioned above? A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that subjects frequently participating in cognitively stimulating activities had a 63% lower risk of dementia/Alzheimer’s than less frequent participants.

So the most recent website I found was HAPPYneuron. Between memory, language, attention, executive, and visual-spatial games, I was set. And let me warn you, some of the games are hard. Or maybe I shouldn't tell you because maybe they are just hard for me, but whatever. It's nice in that it gives you a summary of how you have done as well.

Some things just really, REALLY piss me off

I have to vent for a few minutes, bear with me.

I have a friend on Facebook who posts frequent status updates. She also works doing a home business, which I think is awesome. She doesn't live anywhere near me, so I often get a laugh out of her updates and catching up with pictures of her and her family on Facebook.

Until today when her status update was something along the lines of "I get to have cupcakes with my daughter for her birthday at preschool because I don't have a mean boss and I don't have to take off work in order to be there for all of my kids' events" yada, yada, yada.

And maybe I shouldn't take offense to this. I mean, she is also frequently posting updates to try and get people to join her sales team, and this is most likely aimed at that as well. You know, work for me and you will only have to have 2 parties a month and make thousands of dollars.

But DAMN, I am there for all my kids stuff. I volunteer monthly in Ashley's class. Friday morning muffins for Mom at Audrey's school? I will be there. I have had lunch with Ashley so many times I have lost count (it helps that I work from home one day a week...).

I held back from responding to her post. I could have, maybe should have, but in the end I don't like confrontation. And as I said before, I don't think it was her intention to slam Moms who work outside of the home at a 9-5 job.

Okay, I think I have calmed down now.

If I had a million dollars

The kids' guilty pleasure is to watch America's Funniest Home Videos on Sunday nights. They crack up at that show (and that show solidifies my fears of my neighbor's trampoline that doesn't have enclosures). Sunday night's show gave the winner $100,000. I asked Ashley want she would do with that money, and she said she would become a pop star. Evidently she thinks you can buy your way onto Radio Disney. Forget talent (although some of those Disney stars do not have talent, just saying).


What I would do with $100,000, taking out the need to pay off a home or cars or send the kids to college?

• Go to a personal trainer regularly.
• Run a race every month of the year in various parts of the country. Should probably hire a running coach for all these races so I don't injure myself again.
• Go to Disney Land in California with the family. Go to Disney World for a 2 week vacation with the family. What, are you shocked?
• Buy every cooking gadget I want.
• Buy one of those running skirts (I just can't spend $48 on something I run in, shoes, yes, but a skirt? Can't do it. Yes, I am cheap.) in every color.

And that would probably be all the money.

My funk just got bigger...

I had typed out a post, only to have blogger eat it. Good times.

I was bad last week, and only worked out once. Not good for me. Even on days I don't run, I normally do the 30 day shred DVD (Audrey really likes working out with me, if that's what you call it). So last night I headed back out to the gym and did hill work on the treadmill. I can no longer just run on the treadmill, I use it for intervals or hills. Otherwise I get bored and don't last.

Let me just add a side note on the gym. We belong to a Lifetime Fitness, and pretty big gym that is a nation chain. I go at night after the kids are in bed, so I see some interesting stuff sometimes. Like last night, the guy working out in jean shorts. Really? And then there are the women that I swear just come to the gym for the steam room and sauna. I never, ever see them in the workout area. Although now that I think about it, maybe they just swim. Who knows.

Last week was just crazy. Ray had something every night, and then he was gone Thursday through Saturday. Ashley entered her first science fair, so Thursday night was spent at her school for math and science night. Saturday the girls and I ran errands (Ashley is signed up for swim team and we had to go get her $50 bathing suit...) and yesterday was a birthday party for my friend's 3 year old. I also attempted to get organized for our street's yard sale on Saturday and clean the house, and I failed on both parts. I only partially cleaned and got nothing organized for the yard sale. So I guess I will be working on that a little bit every night this week.

Let's hope I get out of my funk sometime soon...

Spectating

I am going to be spectating my very first race ever on Sunday. My friend Tracy is running the Tobacco Road half marathon, and I am going to cheer her on.

And yes, I am going to make a poster, one of these probably:
"Toenails are overrated"
"If your feet hurt, it's because you are kicking butt!"
"You paid for this"
Chafe now, brag later"
Running is a mental sport, and we are all insane!"

I am going to try and see the start, mile 7 and 9, and then the end. I think I will need some luck too.

I also finally got to meet another runner that lives in my town a few weekends ago. We happened to run into each other at the park, and she recognized my kids. I am hoping she will do some runs with me in the future....

And I have also signed Ashley up for her first Duathlon! It's at our town park, and it is a .5 mile run, 2 mile bike, .5 mile run. The bike portion Ray is going to ride along with her just in case. I love the fact that Ashley thinks running is cool and wants to do it.

Taking a break

Being pissed off from crappy spam comments on this blog, I am taking a few days break.

Plus, it is finally warm outside - the ice cream truck even made an appearance in my neighborhood on Sunday. 60 degrees last Sunday meant we were outside all day.

70 degrees today means I am pissed off I am in a building and am counting the hours until I leave.

But warm weather brings kids who inhale their dinners and sleep well at night. Bring on summer! (Yes, I am completely skipping over spring...I like it hot.)

Drama

There is a little bit of drama surrounding the neighborhood adjacent to ours, and one that has a park we often walk to.

You can read the story here.

So basically there is a group home in this adjacent neighborhood that had a stabbing this weekend. Residents of our neighborhood and that neighborhood are pretty pissed about the group home as multiple complaints have been filed with the police. And even just yesterday, one of my neighbors drove down this street to check the house out, and there was a guy standing on a street peeing. I am assuming this was one of the residents of this group home as both our neighborhood and the adjacent neighborhood are unbelievably family friendly.

I would say in the past six months or so, we have let Ashley go ahead of us on her scooter or bike to the park in this neighborhood. We are always right behind her, but she is often out of sight. Other neighbors let their kids walk around the pond that is between our two neighborhoods.

Now that one of these residents stabbed another resident in this group home with a screwdriver, I think I will be a little more cautious until the group home is closed.

I also had a chat with Ashley this weekend about "stranger danger" and what to do in certain situations. I gave her a bunch of whatifs, and she understood, but she also said she didn't want to talk about it anymore as it scared her.

As if having a group home with stabbings wasn't enough for this weekend, something else happened that brings me to tears every time I think about it.

One of our neighbors, a Mom of two girls the same ages as Ashley and Audrey, died Saturday after a long battle with cancer. I did not know her well, just well enough to say hi when I saw her. But that doesn't matter. She fought an unbelievable fight, and from what I have read and heard her close friends say of her, she was amazing.

Is it spring yet??

Yes, Ashley went to school today. AN HOUR DELAY.

And yes, I feel better writing that in all caps.

And what do we have in the forecast for tonight/tomorrow/Saturday?

More crap. Possible freezing rain tonight. More rain, possible snow flurries Saturday.

So instead of going to school for her makeup day on Saturday, Ashley is supposed to have her basketball breakfast/pictures/game. I am thinking that none of that will happen if the forecast stays the same.

We moved to North Carolina to get away from the most of the snow (which we did considering where we are from in Virginia is supposed to get "paralyzing" amounts of snow this weekend). I really don't want to move further south.

On another sort of school related note, the school board for our county is holding 4 meetings over the next few weeks about the school calendars. Wake County, NC has traditional, year-round and modified calendars for its schools. Confused yet? Anyway, Ashley is in a year-round school and we love it. So I registered to speak at the meeting next week and I am speaker number 11. I am not sure what I will say, but I am sure speakers 1-10 will give me enough to speak about because I am sure someone will get up and say year-round sucks because we go to school longer (WE ALL GO TO SCHOOL 184 DAYS REGARDLESS OF THE CALENDAR) or we miss our summers (vacationing in Disney World in December was AWESOME). Look for a riveting post about that next week.

No School

Temperature check: 50 degrees

Snow check: Not much left at all on the ground, can see mostly grass

School check: Ashley is on her third day of no school

Great job Wake County, NC for cancelling school today when the sun is shining, all the private schools/daycares/preschools all have school (except for the ones who stupidly follow Wake County...).

Audrey is at school today. She was at school yesterday in fact.

So what does this mean in terms of makeup days? Since Ashley goes to a year round school, this means 3 Saturday classes. One this Saturday, one May 1st and another May 8th. They are half days of classes each.

And call me a horrible parent, I really don't care, but I am not sending Ashley to school this Saturday. She has a basketball game that morning, and I gave her the choice of school or basketball. She chose basketball. I am not worried about makeup work as Ashley missed an entire week of school for the flu in the fall, and had no trouble catching back up.