Long Time No Post

I lost my oomph for blogging (obviously!) this summer but mostly because there was so freaking much going on. When so much comes at me, I get caught up in figuring out what to post about and before I decide, whoosh here comes something else. Before you know it I am abysmally behind - but having a great time. So there you go. Here are a few highlights from my summer:

We celebrated some birthdays and had some of our "other kids" come visit. (You know five just isn't enough so we've semi-adopted a few along the way.)


We fed people.


We fed people A LOT. Lots of people, lots of food, at many random times. I'm telling you, our kitchen is THE place to be.


We took this crew to the beach. The good news is everyone was fed and nobody drowned.


The bad news is that not everyone listened when I said to reapply the sunscreen after getting in the water.

We celebrated our "triadiversary". Yay! We still love each other!


We went to a party that had a swimming hole - which is so quintessentially summer, don't you think? Much fun was had. There were also some big changes around our place.


Before:


After:
Gotta love that Cash for Clunkers program! My beloved, yet 14 year old Isuzu Rodeo getting 13 mph, was replaced by a cute, little (affordable!) Honda Fit. With three teenagers eligible to drive and another one next year, it seemed smart to get a car that has top of the line airbags, doesn't roll over, and which wouldn't be crazy hard to fix/replace if it got crunched. Just saying.

Another Before:


After:


And After That:
He shaved his head. Not entirely sure why but, hey, it's his head. I think he misses his hair already though. I bet he grows it back out.

We had some new beginnings too:
Isn't he cute trying to look all tough? He's taken skills classes before but this is the first time he's played on a team. He's mostly on offense, but he loves when he gets to play defense. Why? "Because tackling people is AWESOME!" he tells me. Sigh. NFL and Fantasy Football started back up. Woo hoo! I warn you - do not even think about friending me on FB if random chat about football bugs you. This is such a GREAT time of year!!

I had some personal new beginnings. I got a part time job at a local gym. (Yay!) And then before I even finished getting trained, the guy I was replacing came back. So I'm back out of a job. (Sad.) I'm filling out another dozen applications this week. Wish me luck. In the meantime, I got back into tri training consistently. (Which is a good thing. Do you see that counter up to the right ticking off the days ever so quickly until the B2B half iron?!)

We did the Hillsborough bike fest. I'm on the left, Donna in the middle, and our friend from TN is on the right.


Look at this spread! There was incredible support at this ride.

And oh, how I love North Carolina. Not only did they have trash and recycling bins at the ride, but there were compost buckets out too! How smart and eco-conscious is that?

And finally, I got a new look:
To go with my new career. I started school again - today! (That's the profile picture for my class website.) I'll be in school until May, and eek - it's terribly new-fangled. Online forums, teleclasses, videos for homework: it's all veeeerrrry different from the last class I took*. I'm training to be a life coach. I want to specialize in weight loss coaching and in working with blocked artists. Warning: next semester I'm going to need some peeps to coach so I can get my certification. Once I have some tools to pass on, I am going to need guinea pigs. Keep me in mind if you know anyone who could benefit from working with a (soon to be) fabulous life coach! Peace.

*Which was a graduate level Existential French Literature seminar btw. I promise you my life coach training is going to be a billion times more fun than that one.

TODAY I LOVE: that back-to-school feeling

Help! I've Fallen...

Off the face of the planet apparently. Sorry 'bout that! In answer to the the question "Where the heck are you?!" I can only say - here is where I've been:

When last we blogged, I think we had just celebrated our daughter's one year anniversary as a vegetarian by taking her to the AMAZING Indian restaurant Spice & Curry in Durham. Next up was a party we threw on the night everyone was supposed to turn their lights off for an hour.


Playing board games by candlelight is more fun than you might think. (Please excuse the blurriness of the above photo. You take what you can get when you give the middle schooler the camera to go crashing around in the almost dark taking photos without a flash.) Then came Easter.


The original peeps. (John makes these every year. He would probably like not to have to because they're quite labor intensive but we beg him. Aren't they darling?)


Doesn't everyone have an Easter Egg Hunt for their dogs?


Tallulah was wicked fast at finding the eggs with her hound dog sniffer. And then it took her a whole nanosecond to figure out how to crack them open in one swift chomp to get the pup-eroni or milkbone inside.

Wasabi? Not so swift. He needed some help at the egg hunt, but he sure is cute in those bunny ears, isn't he? After Easter, we discovered a new running store in our area - right next to one of the main access points of the Tobacco Trail.


Bull City ... Durham Bulls, get it?


Seriously - these guys are super. Friendly, informed, well-stocked, community minded - it doesn't get better. If you are in the area or passing through - stop and see them! What next?


Oh right! Travel to Nashville for the boys' first communion. Actually as they were raised in the Episcopal Church where communion starts as soon as they're old enough to hold their hands out at the altar, they've taken communion a bunch of times - but it was their first time taking communion in the Catholic Church. It was a lovely and powerful service. In the picture above are (starting on the L) Sheumais, Uncle Richard, Grandma Doris, Angus, and Iain. Next we celebrated more family milestones.


My father's birthday. That's his baby sister in pink. My dad is the oldest of six kids and she is the youngest - so she's actually much closer in age to me than to him. In fact, my parents had been dating for three years before she was born so she sometimes forgets that it's my dad she's related to by blood, not my mom. (Even though my parents have been divorced for twenty years now.) Ahhh, family. :D


These aren't necessarily a "milestone" of any sort, but Tennessee is busting out with irises and I just LOVE them! (This is a drive by photo. Wish I could have gotten closer.)

My mom (AKA Marmie - on the left with Sheumais) and her cousin Sharon (on the right) took us out to a great new hamburger joint. Hmmm - still trying to figure out how to eat vegan at a hamburger joint. (Black bean/corn salad nachos - no cheese, please. Delicious!) It was a gorgeous evening sitting out on the deck looking at the lake. LIFE IS SO FREAKING GOOD!! In case you were fooled by that smile I caught on Sheumais' face above, he took a "self-portrait" to prove he really is a scary dude.


OMG - I absolutely love this picture. I'm seriously considering getting an 8"x10" print made to put in the slot next to his previous years' school photos. It's like "Eighth grade, ninth grade, tenth grade, EGAD! What happened here?"


I've gotten to see my guys play sports. I have to work hard not to be that crazy, fan mom. Cheering for my kids is just so much fun! Iain is number 9 and made a huge save right before this picture. (I was too busy cheering to take a picture before he was headed off the field!) Lacrosse is a great sport for him.

He doesn't like helmet hair so he sports a bit of 80's style as soon as he walks off the field. Gotta love it! Angus started a football skills camp this week for the first time.

He'd probably sleep in his pads if he was allowed. He is so excited. Two hours every night for two weeks and then a scrimmage game. He told me that as much as he loves throwing the football, tackling people is even more fun.


My favorite football picture ever!!! He should become an NFL player just so this picture can get splashed on national television someday! (Of course - I'm pretty sure they do not send scouts to or have pro day where he wants to go to school so maybe I should go right ahead and give that idea up, eh?)

As for training? I took an unscheduled rest week somewhere in the middle of all that - but I'm almost back on schedule/the training plan. (Not sure how I'm going to do a 35 mi bike ride today as I'm still in Nashville without bike gear - but details, schmetails.) I've had some great swims, one great run and quite a few bad ones, and we've signed up for our first trail race! I get back on Friday (after one more event - Confirmation - here in Nashville.) Then we race on Saturday. Woo hoo! I probably won't ever catch up with my Google Reader as I'm still hundreds and hundreds of posts behind. I'm clearing that sucker out and starting fresh. Again. Thanks for being patient with me. Y'all are totally ace tri peeps!! Peace.

TODAY I LOVE: getting back in the groove!

**Edited to add: I TOTALLY left out that John and I celebrated our anniversary on Earth Day by going to see the movie Earth. I don't have any pictures because I forgot to have our waiter at supper snap one of us - but we looked fabulous and had a terrific time together. When I get home, I'll dig up a picture from when we first met.**

In Which I Am Hardcore And Eat Bee Pollen

Did you get that? I am hardcore and I ate bee pollen this weekend. (Not I am hardcore because I ate bee pollen. The bee pollen is totally a side gig.) I am hardcore because yesterday I rode my bike on the trainer for 45 minutes then went OUTSIDE in the RAIN and FORTY-FOUR degree weather to do track drills* and run three miles and then went to the pool for my swim workout. That is the hardcorest (hardest core?) I've ever been.

[Insert your own segue here because I can't come up with one] on Saturday, Donna and I went to Whole Foods with the following list:
(<--)Bee pollen, wheat germ, kale, edamame, wine**, eucalyptus soap, barley malt, flaxseeds, and almond butter. The barley malt is for John's bread making endeavors and the soap is Donna's favorite. The rest of the bizarro things on the list? All for eating. I put them on the list. Me! Eating shit like kale and flaxseeds!! How did this happen?

As little girls in the 70's, my sister and I got dragged to the Good Life Health Food Store. It smelled weird. The walls were harvest gold, the letters on the sign were chocolate brown. (Those letters were the chocolatiest things in the whole place. Who on earth came up with the idea that "carob" is an adequate substitute for chocolate? Can we shoot that person?) Anyway, my mom wasn't uber crunchy but she loved that health food store. At seven, I tried to like it too, for her sake. The flowery herbal hair conditioner was nice. The vanilla protein snack sticks were ok. The carrot candy and oily peaunut butter? Not ok at all. They squicked me out. Did I mention the place smelled weird?

Then along came the 80's - woo hoo! High school meant my mother (whom I no longer wanted to please) was working as a news producer (i.e. never home). My friends & I were hanging out at McDonald's, the arcade, and the food court in the mall. Coca cola! French fries! And also bulimia! The 80's - not so healthy for me.

Then I was in the Navy and it was back to someone else being in charge of what I ate. I assume the food at the chow hall was moderately healthy. To be honest, I don't remember thinking about it one way or the other. What I do remember is lots of black coffee on watch, lots of exercise at 5 am and lots of alcohol on the weekends I didn't have watch.

Then I was in college - and ridiculously poor. I ate the most substantial food I could given my $15 a week (yes, a week) budget. There was a "Co-op" on campus that my friends dragged me to once in a while. (I was never entirely clear on exactly what the cooperative aspect of it was.) It was in a corner of the basement of the student union. It was part health food store, part weirdo cafeteria and was staffed by people with dreads and berets crocheted out of hemp. You know the kind of people who rub lava rocks on their pits and try to tell you that it works just as well as the toxic and environmentally irresponsible deodorant you use - when you know for a fact it doesn't work at all, much less as well - because boy, do those people smell bad? Yeah - the co-op. It was enough to put me off health food again for another decade or two.

Then came mommyhood and moderation in all things. I was now only moderately poor but also moderately obsessed with walking the right line between health food and junk food to feed my family. Of course I wanted my kids to be healthy but I also did not want them to be picked on. No way was I going to be that mommy who uses applesauce instead of sugar to sweeten brownies or the one who puts rice cakes soaked in carrot juice into the Spiderman lunch box. I was the kind of mommy who had family dinners by candlelight (because kids who can't see that it's green eat it without rebelling) and also the kind of mommy who would mix peanut butter and gummy bears into oatmeal. I think I must have found the right balance somewhere along the way because even though my kids live to be allowed energy drinks and pop tarts - they also eat their veggies. Saturday night the dinner menu was roasted chicken and veggies (broccolini, carrots, potatoes, garlic and kale) with Bakerella's Cake Bites (by way of Pioneer Woman's blog) for dessert. At the end of the night - there were some leftover cakebites but the kale and broccolini were gone! Three of the five kids had gone back for seconds on the kale. Woo hoo!

Somewhere along the way - I've found the right balance for me too. I no longer see the world divided into two camps: the smelly, lentil- loving, breathing-through-one-nostril, yoga folks on one side and the mostly manic, chardonnay sipping, tiny, overly perfumed and estee laudered, aerobics ladies on the other. I can be a little of both and neither, all at the same time. I can have my Zone and Eat Clean too! I am excited about my training for the half ironman and love learning more about nutrition so I can fuel properly. I'm braver in all ways. I don't mind trying a supplement or two. Bee pollen (for energy), wheat germ (for fiber)***, flaxseeds (for a healthy heart, hair, and skin) - sure I'll try that!
<---Tosca Reno is pretty damn hot - and she puts all that muck in her oatmeal*** every morning. You BET I'll try it! Did you know she's ten years older than I am?! Yeah, she doesn't look like she smells weird either. So now I'm off to eat a bowl of crunchy fiber twigs ****while I read race reports from the weekend! Ciao.

TODAY I LOVE: trying new things (even if some of them turn out to be yucky)!


*Didn't fall down once thankyouverymuch. And? That karaoke one? I ROCK at that! Those long ago tapdance lessons and aerobics classes (where we did the same thing but called it the grapevine) paid off more than I thought. Woo hoo!
**See? We may be turning into crunchy weirdos but we still like our White Burgundy every once in a while. Only, RATS! We forgot to buy wine even though it was on the list!! I think we got too distracted trying to figure out where barley malt would be.
***Do not believe anyone who tells you wheat germ tastes good sprinkled on popcorn. It doesn't. It tastes vile. And weird. And since I'm throwing out advice on this hippie food - let me also tell you that bee pollen is not sweet and delicious like all those bee pollen pushers say it is. It is dry and a little rank in a citrus-y kind of way. It tastes the way the froth from an Orange Julius smells. If you mix it in your oatmeal, you are condemned to a whole bowl of that taste. Next time just pop a teaspoon of it into your mouth and wash it down with a glass of water. Same burst of energy. Way less suffering. (Oh - and skip it entirely if you're allergic to bees or honey.)
****Crunchy fiber twigs?!! Who the hell thought the idea of eating twigs of any description, much less crunchy and fibery ones, was a marketing bonus? If that is the best that can be said about this cereal then I'm giving the rest of the box to my hound dog who eats deer poop. I'll let you know how it goes.

Foto Friday

A few images from the week. (They should all be clickable for better detail.) A new community center pool opened about 2 miles away from me. It is clean and bright and has ten lanes just for lap swimming.

It has this little pool over on the side for swim lessons, aerobics, etc. Note the wide ramp. It is so accessible! My only question is if there are two separate pools then why oh why oh why do they keep the temperature of the lap pool at 80*?? It's nice for that first 50 meters but after that I'm sweating in the pool!
Another great thing about the new pool is the amazing, artsy, mosaic-ish floor in the lobby. I wish the colors had come through in this picture. The glass stones are in jewel colors.
It is beautifully reflective and crisp looking. I'm sure there were cheaper flooring options, but I'm so thankful they went with beauty. I stand and look at that floor for a few minutes every time I go to the pool.

This past week, Donna and I switched rooms.* This is my new space. (Fancy bedside table I have, don't you think?) Donna has much more traditional furniture. It's beautiful. But I have more books. You would not believe how much I love my books. This is the other side of my room now. The magic table makes me happy. (I found it for free the day after I said, "I'd sure like to have a plain, white wooden table big enough for my art quilt projects and small enough to be a writing desk." Hence the magic-ness of it all.) I will confess to tidying up the running shoes (and flip flops and doc martens and slip on clogs) out from underneath the table for the picture.

This is a picture of a delicious pasta dish that John had at a very shi-shi restaurant. I had one bite - which was heavenly and perfect - but I think I enjoyed looking at it almost as much as tasting it. So pretty!

This is the guard bunny right outside of Donna's door. (It's a rock.) It is completely whimsical to have a tiny rock painted like a bunny to guard you when you are sleeping. I love it so. These two are the real guardians. (Ha!) Tallulah is nesting in my pillows, on top of her most favorite pink blankie, using fluffy Wasabi as a pillow. She could only be happier if she simultaneously was perched on top of one or more humans. She takes snuggling seriously.
I am out the door for another three mile run - this one with those crazy drills I mentioned the other day at the track first. I ran three miles yesterday and this workout wasn't scheduled until Sunday - but the weather is not cooperating with the half iron plan. Today is supposed to be near seventy degrees and tomorrow rainy and 40, Sunday rainy high 30's, and Monday possible snow. Bleck. So the Upper Body/Core and a swim with intervals are on the weekend's agenda instead of a run. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

TODAY I LOVE: the focus on intentionality that Lent brings me


*Different poly relationships solve the bedroom dilemma different ways. We each have our own space. Given the number of kids we have - that is a LOT of bedrooms for one house. Someday- when the kids are flown - I hope to have the part of my quilt studio that is in my closet have it's own space. But for right now - I am thrilled to have the room I do! Please ignore the half built glass brick wall. It has been a saga to get it this far. Remember the day I raced Donna to go get stitches in her leg? Yeah - it's the same wall. *

Loose Ends And A New Week

Left over threads (a great excuse for bullets):

• Thank you for the good job mojo! John's interview was long and intense and interesting to him. He thinks he did well. He certainly came away pumped about the company. We're hoping to hear something soon about whether he gets to the fourth round! (This or something better - that's my plea to the universe!)
• I didn't mean to leave you hanging on the (future) hedgehog's name - but there's explanation that goes with it - so when/if we get one, THEN I'll tell the whole story. Oh, weirdly, hedgehogs turn out to be compatible with having dogs! The gal we knew who had a hedgehog also had a big lab (or retriever?). We do have a hunting dog - a Redbone Coonhound named Tallulah, but she's never actually hunted. And her breed is the type to tree an animal and wait for you to do something with it. Though I have to admit, she is scarily good at shaking the stuffing out of her toys. We would be VERY careful and do more research before we ever put the two together.
  
• Donna and I ran four miles on the Tobacco Trail on Saturday. It was gorgeous weather and I was so very much looking forward to it. But it was not a good run for me. I was tired and empty and flat almost from the beginning. I think a week of barely sleeping and lots of stress caught up to me! I had good fuel that morning but not much the night before. I was disappointed but it made me more committed to ALL of the aspects of training. On the plus side - I was proud of myself for sticking it out; I made sure to have my recovery drink (strawberry milk* per Lisa's comment); and I stretched/iced a twingey knee afterwards.
• Sometimes the universe works in mysterious ways. Two separate pieces of info came together unexpectedly. 1) Donna got denied the grant to go to the National Math Teachers Convention at the end of April. (Grants are hard to come by in this economy.) 2) I have been planning to go to my sons' first communion in Nashville "sometime in May" since mid-September. After repeatedly pressing for more specifics, I found out a few weeks ago that the date was set for May 2nd. Then last night my ex calls to see if I'd be okay if they moved it to the Saturday night mass on April 25th. Sure. I will be there absolutely whenever. But then I looked at the calendar more closely. What does all this mean? I hope it means we get to trade this race that was on our plan for this half! Now if the universe would help us out in the moola department so we can register, that would be fine and dandy!
• I found a non-chocolate protein bar that totally works for me - and SCORE it was on sale this week so I stocked up! (Is this a good time to mention that I spent a total of $327 at the grocery store on $586 worth of groceries? Because I totally have to brag on myself. That's $259 in savings between coupons and sales - on stuff we always use in the brands we prefer. Woo hoo!)
• I met my last week's goal of 3 1/2 hours of training and I'm ramping up to 5 hours this week. I'm trying to build slowly to a level I can maintain through the training plan. Consistency is my new watchword!
  

Hope all y'all are off to a great start this week!

*Hey did you know they had BANANA milk? I suppose it's no weirder than strawberry milk (although I think strawberry milk is fairly odd so maybe that's not saying much!)

TODAY I LOVE: vanilla yogurt PowerBars - on sale even!