You Don't See That Every Day

April is a month of birthdays around here. The Mr. had his birthday this past week. It was a very busy day and evening - Wednesday's usually are pretty crazy around here. But we were able to have some time in the evening for cake and presents with my in-laws at our house.  This past weekend the Mr. and I were able to get away to the coast for a short time. It's the first time we have left the kids home alone overnight without a sitter, or 'chaperone'. Now that The Boy is 17 we figured he and his 15 year old sister could handle things for that short time. We did ship the two youngest off to my sister's house, so that I could relax and not worry, and so that the older kids wouldn't have to be responsible for a 5 yr old, and so that there would be less possibility of them fighting while we were gone. It all worked out great. I don't know why we haven't done more of this earlier! The coast was just gorgeous. Cool of course, it IS Oregon after all,...

What happened to our sunshine? You'd think that by now having lived in Northern Oregon for half of my life, I would be used to this rain. But since my childhood in southern Oregon is what formed me, I am missing the sun! We had a few weeks of beautiful weather, until now. Of course, I was sick the whole time the sun was out. This awful cold is just not going away. Twice now I have felt like I was getting better, so I went for a run - and then, bam, a day or two later it was back like unwanted house-guest. How am I suppose to get in shape for all those 5K's that I want to run this year?! Track season has started - my high-schoolers began long before Easter. And the track meets - so far we have been blessed to have sunny and fairly warm meets. But then my poor middle school girl - her track meet this week was an experience. One I told her that she can tell her kids some day. I still remember the track meet where I got to run in the snow and hail. And I never fail to tell my ...