Dang! I’ve fallen way behind again! The problem with that is losing the
details.
Good news: we have a yard! We did hydoseeding to get the
lawn in. The best is when we’ve been
gone for a few days and the change is more obvious. The girls always attribute it to the
fairies.
I ran a half marathon.
Sort of. I have not been training
regularly but since the race entry was free, figured it would make me get at
least one good long run in before my next Ragnar. So I talked by bf into going with me. We ran the first half of it and mostly walked
the second half. But since she started a
new job and I never get to see her anymore, the best part was just getting the
chance to catch up.
We had an AMAZING girls weekend. It’s become and annual tradition and
certainly worthy of its own post, I just waited too long and fear forgetting details.
The girls and I arrived Sunday evening to the condo (rented
through my sister’s timeshare) and were amazed how big and luxurious it was. It took awhile for everyone to trickle in
that night but then we spent three days swimming, watching movies, doing crafts
and more. The kids loved making bead
bracelets and painting suncatchers. We
brought a few toys like dolls and dress ups and ponies. We rented the movie theatre to watch Baymax
with marshmallows and cotton candy. We
went shopping and played at the park. We
had our etiquette lesson and fancy dinner at a restaurant. And we ate a ton of good food and delicious
desserts. It was all the women from my
side of the family, from Grammy down to the babies (which works well since most
of the grandkids are girls) and we had a fantastic time together.
The one terrible moment was when E got her hand smashed in
the car door. No one saw it happened but
I raced over to open the door and scoop her up, horrified to see how bad it
looked. I climbed right back into the
car holding her in my lap while Grammy took the drivers seat. In a last second decision, we took a sobbing
L with us, just to reassure her that sister would be ok. Husband met us at the hospital ER where they
had to do a digital blocker twice to get her numb enough for a closer
look. With a tourniquet and irrigation,
the damage wasn’t as bad as we feared.
The bone was intact and while there wasn’t enough left to stitch it back
together, the skin was able to heal back together. A week later we followed up with a hand specialist
who confirmed there’s no damage to its ability but the nail germination matrix
suffered the brunt of the impact. The
nail has fallen out and it could be a year or even more before we know if it
will recover properly. but, at least she still has a finger.
Grammy celebrated her 60th birthday. But since her and Papa were about to leave on
a two week cruise, we celebrated before they left with a surprise family dinner
party at Olive Garden. For a gift, we
put together a basket of 60ish presents, every family contributing fun little
things. There was a lot of purple,
mickey-themed, pampering, treats and more.
We spent a few days up north with family. We started at Grammy’s house to “help” them
pack for their trip. (Mostly play and be
in the way.) We spent the night at I
snuck in an appointment to Grammy’s stylist for a Brazillian blowout hair
treatment (love!!!!!!!!) Then after we
sent Grammy and Papa off on their trip, the drove to the next valley over to my
brother’s house. We found them trying to
get ready for a home inspection (for doing a refinance), while 8 months
pregnant and four small children underfoot.
So we put ourselves to work, helping to clean and organize as best we
could. We spent the night and then took
the kids out of the house for the day (mostly to keep in intact before the
inspection, and partly to go shopping). We played at the park and had a great
time with cousins. And then since my
sister in law was having regular contractions, we spent the night again, hoping
my new nephew would arrive. We even
broke four wishbones, but each time the top snapped off and flew away, apparently
telling us no.
I ventured into the world of permanent cosmetics, encouraged
in part by allergies and in part by getting tired of sweating my make up off. I LOVE my new eyeliner. Yes it hurt.
(not as much as you’d imagine) And it was totally worth it.
I ran the Dirty Dash! It was a last minute decision; I
bought the bib off a friend the night before, showed up and ran with them. It was girls I knew from an online running community
but didn’t actually know well in person.
We had a great time together, tackling the obstacles and getting very,
very muddy. So incredibly muddy in fact,
that the girls wouldn’t come near me until after I showered. We did the 10K challenge and because of the
many obstacles, it took us over two hours.
We celebrated an incredible milestone with husband’s
company: the official opening and ribbon cutting ceremony at the new production
facility. They gave tours of the plant
and invited guests from the state, county and from their various projects. For me, it was so much fun to see friends and
be apart of the excitement, knowing what a great step this is.
I ran the Ragnar Wasatch Back race. Two years ago, this was my first race. This year it was my tenth ragnar (and I’ve
ran 6 half marathons). I joined a new
team, one I’d never met but found on an online forum. We had a team dinner on Thursday night at the
captains house. And then on Friday, I
dropped the girls off to my sister’s house and waited for my van to pick me
up. I was runner 7, a challenge that I
had eagerly wanted. My first run was
long but strong, in the fading heat. My
midnight run was short but tough with my stomach acting up. And my third leg was Ragnar Hill, 10.5 miles
up 2500 of elevation. Fortunately, two
other friends on different teams ran the hill before I did and sent me texts,
warning and prepping me for the experience.
So I felt really good about the run, finishing in my anticipated time of
2.5 hours. Meanwhile, my team went out
for pizza. But since by then, they knew
me well and it had become a running joke that they had to stop and feed me
every three hours, so they saved me some!
I didn’t linger at the finish line party though. Actually I got home as soon as I could
because I had invited friends from my usual Ragnar team over to BBQ. This team has raced together many times but
since most of us are from the area, we split up for the Wasatch Back, often
running with teams from work or with teams that will let us run for free. So we got together for dinner and enjoyed the
evening together, comparing our race stories and future race plans.
The girls are loving their busy summer. We've gone swimming a few times at a neighborhood play group. We attended the library's superhero party for games, bouncehouse and face painting. We've had friends come over for play dates and spent lots of time riding bikes, doing chalk drawings and eating popsicles outside. They attended a day camp to make surprises for Father's Day and filled out fantastic questionnaires about their daddy. (there was a strong theme of fixing stuff and making popcorn). And they attended a weeklong dance camp. L attended "Jump Start", required for next year's competition team while A and E went to "Snow Queen camp" while dancing, crafts, storytelling and puppet theatre.
And then, as we settled into the last few days of chaos
before our trip, my sister in law had her baby.
We immediately pushed off all packing, laundry and cleaning to race
north before he arrived. I went to the
house to relieve my other sister in law who was on sibling duty and spent the
night there. We had a rough night as the
kids were very wound up. The next day,
we went to the hospital where I got to hold my new nephew for a few minutes and
soak in his sweet newborn perfection.
