You Don't See That Every Day

It has been 2 weeks and one day since my last run. 2 long weeks of coughing and sneezing and headaches and naps. It was sunny outside yesterday - glorious day! So I took the girls out for a walk. I figured a little walk around the neighborhood would do all of us some good; plus it was a little measurement of how my lungs were doing. I had hoped I could start running again this week. But after walking less than a mile, coughing half the time, and then needing a nap later in the day, I figure I won't be running yet. Last night I made it through the night without coughing - that is a plus! But I still think I am going to wait a little bit until I hit the road again. It's hard not to - knowing I am getting behind in my training, feeling my muscles atrophy. On the other hand, our boy is running again. Track season starts up next week, and he went out after school with some of the kids, for a 2 mile run. Makes my heart sing.

Wow what a long weekend that was! What? It's Tuesday? The Weekend has been over how long already? Oh yeah. that stomach-bug induced fog I just came out of ... that has really thrown me off. The above picture has nothing to do with our weekend, our stomach bug, or my sickness induced emotions. Actually it might. It's a picture of my dad holding the hand of my youngest. Back when I was a kid my dad was gruff and tuff y'know. Working hard to keep the family afloat and educated. With 10 kids it took a lot of work. With 7 of them being boys, it probably took a lot more on his part than I will ever know. Not to neglect my mom's role in all of this. She cooked and cleaned and canned amazing massive amounts of food to keep us fed and growing and educated. There must have been pretty good teamwork between the two of them to get all of us where we are today. As far as I know, 8 of the 10 attend church faithfully, 7 of us have children which we have raised and are raising,...

I finally made it to the beach! After months of pining away for the sand and wind and waves, I got to see my beloved coast. In Oregon going to the coast does not necessarily equate with flip flops, shorts, sun, swimsuits. As you can see in the photos. Even though there was NO WIND blowing, it was still cool. We had a lovely walk on the beach and then we visited my sister, brother in-law and niece. After another walk on the beach with them, I noticed baby K not acting like herself. Her head felt very warm - too warm -- and my mother instincts kicked in. I knew something was wrong, but not sure what. When we made it home that night, her fever was up to 104 and she was having little twitches, what I would call seizures, with her arms and legs. They went away with acetaminophen, but came back later the next day. We took her in to the doctor that evening and the good doc was able to diagnose - red sore throat, and fever ulcers on her mouth. A bug that is going around, lasts 3 to 5 ...