You Don't See That Every Day

A few years ago, like maybe five or so, the Girl Who Swims did some kids triathlons. And she loved it. Fast forward-- now in high school, she runs, she swims, she runs some more. This weekend she and the Mr. did a sprint triathlon together with a number of guys from the church. It was a beautiful day although it started a little early for a Saturday! We were up at the crack of sunlight to get to the lake in time. Thankfully we could go in two shifts so the non-participants slept in a few minutes more and didn't rush quite as much. The Mr has been training for this for just over a month. He runs regularly, and has been swimming ever since he started rehab on his shoulder. But putting the bicycling part into the rotation made the difference. The pants that were getting tight are now loose! And he had a great time just doing the course. He was pretty nervous about the swim section, since he isn't a swimmer. He did just fine, staying at the back of the men's heat, and ge...

This past weekend was a unique one. I had one child with me for over 24 hours. And it wasn't the Littlest one either! " Dash " and I were the only ones at home this time around. All the girls spent the 2 days at my brother and sister-in-law's house making cookies, decorating cookies, eating cookies and watching movies, and having a lovely time getting spoiled by aunt and uncle. Meanwhile Dash and I spent a very cold but fun morning volunteering at a road race. It was the first time either of us has done something like this. We've helped at cross country meets, and this was a little bit similar but on a larger scale. He got to stand and help keep traffic out of the shuttle area, while I helped out wherever I could, eventually winding up at the finish line, cheering on the runners, and handing out water bottles. It was so much fun to see all the different runners, all ages, all sizes, all types. I thought it was great to see little kids - like 8 years old and yo...

Should I start with the good news first or the bad new first? That's probably one question my husband does not want to hear. Today started out like so many other days we've had this summer. My son and I got up at 0 dark thirty while the young 'uns slept in. (Because, really, why wake a 3 year old up before 6 am?) This part I consider the ugly. No one but my husband and baby girl wants to see me at 5.30 am. We drove out to my dad's farm and helped harvest enough garbanzo beans for our morning count. I managed to make it back to our house by 8.15 am and get cleaned up for the next event of my day. So I guess that was a good part. Thankfully my sister could come over and stay with the kids while I was gone. (Good part.) But as I was backing out of the driveway my terrific hard-bumpered pickup introduced itself to her little Subaru's plastic bumper. It wasn't pretty. So file that under the bad and the ugly. And even thought I wanted to stay and DO something abou...

(I had hoped to have this up earlier in the day ... but my truck broke down, and that threw a wrench in everything. Forced to stay at home, I turned to projects that really needed taking care of - like curtains for my girls' bedroom. One down, one to go.) We had two meets in one weekend this time around. Or rather, She did: Saturday morning was her swim team's first meet of this year; not sure when the next one will be, but she was pretty excited to finally be using her skills that she has been practicing twice weekly for eons. On Sunday we drove to another town for her (and ours) first ever triathlon. into the pool - the one in the red cap It was so much fun! I would have joined her if I could swim. And by the time it was over, the other girls were clamoring to do a tri also!  The course was not too long, just right for a 12 year old. She swam 100 meters, biked 2 and half miles, and then ran half a mile. Since swimming is her strongest point - and her favorite ...

April is full of birthdays in our family. Starting last Thursday and running through to the end of the month, we'll have 10 family birthdays (this includes my family and G's family also.) So we celebrated G's birthday yesterday, just the 7 of us having a fun time at home. He almost got breakfast in bed; but a certain almost-3 year old thought it would be fun to sit on his head. So he didn't stay in bed. Instead he got a special breakfast, made by his children, served to him as he sat and watched some TV. This in itself was pretty amazing - not that the kids made breakfast but that he actually got to sit and watch some Sat. morning football! Not too much was really exciting during the day. Birthdays get like that as a person gets older. Although I was pretty stoked when we actually went down to a store and handed over the $$ for a brand new dishwasher!! Wahoo! And then - it gets even better - G installed that evening and he even loaded it and ran the first batch of dis...

Yeah - this is about 3 days later now, but I was on vacation (which you'll see in the next post) Mother's day and all you know... We're off and running again. The Big Day has come - Miss M's first race. She has been training with me for about a month now. Back before my half-marathon I would take her out once in awhile when I could fit it into the schedule. Afterwards I tried to make more effort to get her out and running. And she was always ready to go. So this past week we worked her up to 2.5 miles. With some walking.  I wasn't sure how this race would go. She has never in her life run 3.1 miles. But this Saturday she did it! With only one walk, because I Made Her Stop and Walk up a hill! My girl amazed and delighted us. She kept up the pace the whole time, and really enjoyed passing people! She ran the whole thing in 31 minutes and 19 seconds. Wow! I think the deal her dad made her at the start of the race also motivated her - ice cream if...

The 13.1 mile race is a thing of the past. But what a great day it was! (you'll have to click on the pic. to see me. I'm behind this guy) The sun was out, but not too hot, there was a slight breeze and more importantly - no rain! A big deal for spring in Oregon. The alarm clock at 6:15 am was not welcomed. I was a little nervous as we drove to the race. But my usual pre-race jitters weren't really a problem. G and I started out together. Which was a good thing, and which helped me pace myself really well. G bought a heart monitor for his own pacing awhile back, and so he knew when we needed to slow down or speed up. His fancy schmancy watch also helped with our mile-pacing. Made it to the finish!! I felt so good the first few miles. G however had a hard day. I don't know if it was from planting a ton of potatoes on Saturday, or working on the remodel of the house, or what, but on Sunday he just wasn't running his best.  And so I am trying hard no...

  Here are the kids working on their cars before turn-in day. We had a short time to do the work on them, and we invited the neighbor to join in on the fun. (We?! oh, yeah, it was the kids and G who did it all. I was just transportation and chef.) Saturday started bright and early. A little too early for me, after I was up late Friday night at an OSU gymnastics meet - fun times.  Here Miss M is getting ready to throw a beanbag at the pin in the middle: The two older girls had Awana games all morning. And they did awesome! Their teams placed 1st and 2nd. Here is S, preparing for a relay. She did a lot of running this year, and her legs hurt afterwards  On the drive between Awana events Little K found an innovative way to hold the lunch Mom wanted her to eat, and the snack she wanted to eat. She did manage to eat them both eventually.  She and I were able to take a little break at home, to feed the dogs and get some drinks. I just love the look ...

There's a show I like to watch. Probably the only show on TV now that I watch, besides my netflix movies. It's a reality show about racing around the world and having to take on different tasks. In my everyday world I like to imagine I am on that show, racing to complete certain tasks in a strange environment. Today was one of those days. It was time for our annual trek to Portland for an appointment and OHSU. My girl has scoliosis, like me, and we have to get it checked out every so often. So we had to follow directions to get there, because I certainly don't remember from last time. And we had a time crunch, because it's OK for a doctor to be late, but not the patient. Then we had to find out which floor and area to go to. That last part wasn't so hard thankfully. We were "training for the race." And then The Girl had to answer questions - basic ones, but I wanted her to answer for herself. There was a waiting period too. In various r...

This week it was the girl's turn to run! The city here has a yearly run for all the school kids to participate. The girls were so excited, they were up before my alarm went off at 6:30! We got to the track in time, checked in the first runner, and sat waaaaaaayyyy up in the grandstands to watch. Our oldest daughter was first up this morning. She ran really well, even though her asthma flared up and her chest really hurt by the end. She ended up in the top 25 though! Next was Miss M. She also ran well, even though she said her side hurt most of the time. But we saw her down on the field having a blast with some friends she bumped into. And finally, our younger Miss M ran for the first time this year. It was a little hard for me to leave my 5 year-old on the big field with strangers. But she was able to find us in the grandstands and we waved back and forth to each other. She was also interviewed by someone with a microphone (not sure which reporter it was) and cameraman. My hu...

For the past few weeks my son and I have been 'training' together. We signed up for a 5k race, just so we would be (more) motivated to go out and run. Well today was the showdown. The Day of The Race. We had to get up early in order to get our fan club together and moving in time for a 9 am race start. Thankfully all the girls, and my husband, were ready to go in time. The weather teased us the whole drive to the race site, with sprinkles of rain. And then we saw the sunbeams shining through the clouds. (I always hear an "Alleluia" being sung in my head when I see sunbeams breaking through the clouds.) My husband calls this Jacob;s Ladder. I had not heard it called that until today! But I like it! We got there in plenty of time, and checked in and warmed up. I tried not to 'coach' the boy too much, but just a few last minute tidbits of advice. Adoring fans along the route I thought we would race together for maybe the first mile, but my son had d...