silly me

I can't believe I actually thought I would have more time once summer started and the kids were out of school. Having all three at home 24/7 has really put the hurt on my blogging time. Although there's probably no one out there actually reading this blog anymore, for my own sake I've decided to write a post summarizing what we've been up to this summer.

Running

Way back in March I wrote a post about my new commitment to running and losing weight. I'm very proud to report that I've stuck with it and lost over 12 pounds so far. I never thought it was possible, but I actually enjoy running. At first I could barely run a quarter of a mile but over the last four months, I've worked my way up to three+ miles. And not just ordinary treadmill miles, but outdoor, up and down big hills miles. I'm running about 8-10 miles a week which isn't exactly Olympic or anthing, but it has changed my life. There are so many life lessons in running like:

1. If you're running up a big hill it's best to just look at your feet and concentrate on breathing because if you look up you'll never make it.

2. If you're running a long distance it's best to look way off on the horizon instead of your feet or you'll never make it.

3. Second winds will always come if you can just get past the next big hurdle.

4. Do it even when you don't feel like it and you'll be glad.

So now that I've learned a little physical discipline my next goals are to achieve spriritual and financial discipline.

Pergola

I want to brag on my handy husband a little here. Our big summer home improvement project was this pergola. We had a contractor come out to bid it and then kicked him out of our house. My husband was able to complete it in a fraction of the time at 1/6th the cost. Here are the before and afters:




Texas

We finally made a trip back to Texas as a family for the first time in two years. It was great to see everyone and the boys especially loved hanging out with their cousins. But apparently our blood has thickened up a lot since we've been in Colorado. It had been raining for about a month in Texas and the humidity was stifling. Suffocating. Intolerable. My hair never completely dried the entire time we were there and I didn't need any lotion. There were mosquitoes, scorpions, and fire ants. Things that native Coloradans have never even heard of. Our middle boy got pink eye and we were not the least bit sentimental about seeing out "hometown" again. But here is a funny picture from our plane ride home:


Genetics are a strong thing.


Birthdays

The summer is always a big birthday time for us. One in May, June and July. (I'm working on the last b-day post). It is a lot of work and you wonder if your kids really even appreciate it. After all the generous gifts from friends and family and the grudgingly written thank you's from our boys, we are re-thinking all of it. We refuse to raise ungrateful, spoiled kids and we need to figure out how to avoid that. We realize it's not their fault that they have never known hunger or want. We are all blessed for that. But it's time they knew that others do know what it feels like to be hungry and to not get a big birthday party every year. In the little "suburbia bubble" we live in it's easy to forget how most of the world lives, but I am feeling more and more convicted to do something. Being foster parents may be the route we take.

Neighbor

I have a neighbor across the street that has two boys the same ages as my two oldest. When we first moved here we never really talked to them and had the impression that they were not very friendly. They weren't rude or anything, just not overtly chummy. We lived here for over a year and then somehow our boys finally started playing together. And now they are joined at the hip. My boys wait for them to come home and when they do they spend the entire afternoon playing together. They exchange Pok-e-man cards and play video games. They play in the sprinklers and ride bikes. We cannot pry them apart. And the funny thing is now that I've gotten to know my neighbor (who I thought was not friendly) I've found out she's just like me. She loves to read, she likes her space and she's totally independent. She's a few years older than I am and she's kind of become my role model. She's really laid back and practical. She's almost the only woman I know who is not catty or insecure. If she has a problem, she will say it. And because of that I can always look her in the eye, knowing she's not hiding anything. The other day we were talking, kind of complaining about our kids as most moms are prone to do, and she said, "I love my life....but it can be tough." Something about the way she said "I love me life" got to me. That was the first time I'd heard anyone say that, flippantly or not, in a long time. I love my life, too, and it's good to confirm it in my mind. No matter how hard it can be to be a stay-at-home-mom of three boys, I count myself blessed to be able to do it.

It has been a lesson in how wrong we can be about people. If it hadn't been for my boys, I would have never known my neighbor any better and would have missed out on her friendship.

Hammond's

On a lighter note, in addition to the camping, swimming, parks and other recreational activites we've done this summer, we finally made to to the Hammond's Candy Factory. We'd see it on the Food Network before we even moved to Colorado as one of the top food tours in the country. It's a free tour (but I get the feeling they count on you spending some time in the candy shop at the end as we did.) They were featured in Oprah, Martha Stewart and the Today Show. It was so kid friendly it wasn't even funny. They gave out free samples and then led us on a tour of the factory. When I asked the boys if they'd seen the Oompa Loompas or Willy Wonka, they looked a little scared. Tee hee. Here are some pictures:



Got an itch?



Mike

Now on a more serious note. Last week I was checking the news when a familiar face and name came up: Mike Coolbaugh. I was stunned. Surely it couldn't be the guy I went to high school with! Our star quarterback who was hit in the head with a clip-board by our hotheaded coach during our biggest game of the year. But after doing more research I found out it was indeed him. He was only 35 with a wife and two young boys and a baby on the way. Killed in an instant by a fluke ball.

He was a year ahead of me in high school and I was on the dance team with his little sister. I didn't know him personally but everybody knew of him. He was a nice guy, a star athlete. Gone in an instant.

It left me with an unsettled feeling all week, especially since my husband was sicker than he'd been in our entire marriage. He, who normally goes into work no matter what, missed five days of work. In my mind I was wondering if we would stay here or move back to Texas when he died. Ridiculous, I know, but then again, you never know.

Thank goodness my husband is on the mend now thanks to some powerful antibiotics.

Katrina

It's a guilty secret of mine but I am morbidly fascinated with horrific events. Hurricanes, tsunamis, terrorist attacks, I can't stop watching. And it's coming up on the 2nd anniversary of Katrina. I'm reading a book called The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley and it is completely fascinating. Over 600 pages of personal accounts, details and facts about what happened before, during and after the storm. I wasn't surprised to read that Mayor Nagin was the main culprit in what went wrong instead of the President, as many wanted to believe. But the actual level of his incompetence and hubris is staggering. Brinkley has written many historical books that I will probably read next. He lays it out in such an organized, factual way that I can't put the book down. I highly recommend it to anyone else who is morbidly fascinated...

Church

We finally returned to the Episcopal Church this weekend after "running the curcuit" for the past year, trying out every non-denominational mega-church in our zip-code. And it seemed right. I can't believe it but I actually missed "screaming organ #1" and "screaming organ #2." But seriously, there is something comforting in something so old. Compared to the modern services we've been trying out, it was nice to participate in something that felt sacred and intellectual. I know there's a niche for churches that entertain and reach an audience that otherwise might not be reached, but I guess that's not for us after all. I'm looking forward to becoming a part of the church again.




So that's all for now. Summer 2007. A time for physical, spiritual and other personal growth. And only two weeks until school starts!!! Wooo hoooooooo!!! I'll actually have four whole hours a week with NO KIDS AT ALL.....

Imagine the possibilities.

To those of you out there who have four hours a week with no one nagging you or otherwise needing anything from you, if you aren't doing something amazing with that time, shame on you. It's a gift, don't squander it.

lazarus

A few weeks ago we made a fateful trip to a local park that has a crystal-clear stream running through it. I brought along nets and buckets for the boys to catch things in, naively thinking they would be content to look at whatever they came up with and return it to the water when we left. Needless to say, we came home with a crawdad.

Thank goodness for the internet. I was able to research how to create a crawdad habitat and after a quick trip to Walmart and about $20, we were set. The crawdad seemed content in his new home and besides the fact he had sharp claws and couldn't be held, he seemed like a pretty cool pet. He was also apparently a healthy, growing little guy because after just a couple of days he molted, shedding his skin in what appeared to be an exact replica of himself. Totally gross. But thanks again to the internet we learned that this was a good sign and we should leave the skin in the cage for him to eat to replenish his calcium supply.

A couple more weeks went by and it was time for our family vacation to Texas. We enlisted a neighbor who was not intimidated by caring for our animals while we were gone. Our cat, fish, lizard and crawdad were in good hands.

Then on the 4th of July as we were visiting with family and friends in Comfort, Texas, we got the call. Our neighbor informed us the crawdad was dead. Ug. My husband asked him to remove the body but leave the water filter running so it wouldn't get stinky while we were gone. Then we had to decide how to break the news to our son. The same son who had lost a hamster just a few months earlier.

My husband thought that maybe if he presented it in a matter-of-fact way instead of a doom-and-gloom way, our son would take his cue from us and not over-react. He was wrong. After hearing the news, our boy collapsed in a heap, sobbing uncontrollably. We explained to him that it wasn't anybody's fault and we would get him another pet when he was ready. He said he didn't want another pet. He crawled into bed and wanted to be left alone. It didn't help things that he had just contracted pink-eye the day earlier and looked like he'd been beaten with a stick. The "vacation" was not ending on a good note. When he finally recoverd enough to get out of bed, his big brother asked him, "So do you want to die so you can see your crawdad again in heaven?" to which he replied, "No. He's in crawdad heaven." Well duh.

We flew home the next day and didn't get in until late. As we transferred our sleeping children from the truck into their beds, our son peered into the aquarium next to his bed and said, "Dad! I saw my crawdad!" My husband somberly shook his head. "No, buddy. I'm sorry but he's gone." He rolled over and went to sleep.

The next day I got up and started unpacking and getting things back to normal. I checked my email and sadly deleted my crawdad information links from my list of favorites. I wandered into my son's room to open his blinds and lo and behold, there was a crawdad staring at me. I thought, "Great, he left the body in there after all." But then it moved. It was alive. My husband called our neighbor and asked if he had somehow replaced our deceased pet but he said no. When he heard that there was a living crawdad in our tank he said, "No way. I pulled a whole animal out of there and flushed it away." Then it dawned on us: The crawdad had molted, not died! I was elated but my soon-to-be five-year-old boy played it cool. After all the drama when he thought it was dead and he couldn't muster up a whoop or anything. Typical guy.

So the crawdad, previously named "Rex" is now dubbed "Lazarus".

Long live Lazarus.