every day i'm shuffling

each second that passes it becomes more and more apparent.

Sometimes

Just nope.

Hiking BINGO

Made a list of things to spot while hiking during this holiday weekend. These are the BINGO squares we were able to mark off:

Dog on a trail marked as No Dogs Allowed (1)

Hiker wearing blue jeans (2)

Hiker wearing a bikini (2)

Hiker hiking in sandals (1)

Hiker smoking - actually just saw a cigarette butt so this technically might not count. 

Park ranger - who gave the lady with the dog a ticket (1)

Hiker sharing music with the entire mountain (2)

Lost hiker asking for directions (2)

Hiker in winter coat despite it being 80degrees (1) - happened to be one of the lost hikers...

Tiny baby in a front carrier (1)

Giant toddler in a backpack (1)

Selfie stick (1)

Social Studies

The 4th grade teacher sent home an email.  It said the class was learning about the Oregon Trail.  Each kid had their own Oregon Trail name and they were getting close to the end of their journey. 

The email said, find your kids name, write a "letter from home" to be delivered along the journey.  Put it in an envelope with your kids Oregon trail name then put it in another sealed envelope with the teachers name and have the kid give it to the teacher.  It will be fun, the kids love getting a "letter from home" on the long journey on the Oregon trail.

So I got some parchment paper.  I cut it and folded it into an envelope.  I cut another peice, and eric helped me singe the edges to make it look old and weathered.

And then I went on to write the letter:

You left on your journey.  You have now been gone for 4 months.  I can't beleive you left me. You left me here alone.  You should know, I am with child. YOUR CHILD!!!  

Won't that be exciting to open and read to te class!

That will teach the teacher to stop giving the parents homework!!!!!

Just kidding, I didn't write that but I totally wanted to.  

I did bring up drinking clean water, dysentery and the dangers of fjording rivers. 

Chiro

I have seen 3 chiropractors in my life.

The first was a woman and she used her funny little clicker thing and adjusted my ribs where they attach to my sternum.  That was weird.  Then she used her scary chair and jostled my brains.  Then she tried to bully me into pre-paying for some rediculous treatment plan where I would come to her office like 40 times in 2 weeks.  No.

The next time was Dr Jeff.  I liked dr Jeff. He was a cute little guy and we talked a lot and he was nice. He cracked me and he did that graston horror on my hip and I will never in a million years ever let anyone do that to me again. But I liked going to see him.  But then he broke up with me.  He said I wasn't getting better.  He said I had some underlying something that he didn't know what it was, but he said he couldn't see me any more until I went to my GP and got checked out.  So I went to my GP, who I had been seeing for many many years, who was my kids' doctor, who I trusted. And she was MAD! She was mad at the chiro for telling someone like me that they might have an underlying health problem.  She gave me a physical, did some blood work and found nothing wrong with me.  The ln ya know what happened?  I had a brain tumor.  Undiagnosed underlying health problem.  But by the time I got through that dr Jeff had moved away.

So now I see dr Stephen.  I see him every once in a while.  He fixes me right up and sends me on my way, which is good, because that is what he is supposed to do, but it is sad because he is so cute and I like to see him.  

The last time o was him was like almost a year ago.  I had trigger finger and he had to hurt my hand to make it better.  Funny thing about the trigger finger, I noticed it while brushing my teeth.  This is important for later.  But  OMG it hurt so badly, but he fixed it all up.  Since then I have actually shot guns! But used the other hand for the triggering so that's weird.

But then almost 4 weeks ago I did a  treadmill workout. I was worried it was going to be hard and it was but I did it and I did it well and I was all proud of myself.  Then I went to work and sat at my desk.  The next time I got up to walk around, I couldn't actually walk.  Oh the horror.  So I went to see dr Stephen today.  I anticipated some ART and maybe an elbow in my ass, but there was none of that.  

Oh there was pain and all, but there is nerve problems and other stuff. Yay! God fun!  But I had to lay on my stomach and out my oily face all over the chiro table face paper, which he told me it was the paper's job, the paper's destiny to have fave oil on it.  So then I asked if paper sits around at the paper factory hoping that it get to be chiro face paper and not normal doctor office table paper that gets sat on by bare butts.  I didn't even think of the poor paper that winds up as toilet seat covers...  Then there was the work on my back where he was like, do you feel that?  Do you feel how your skin doesn't move when I do this?  To which I replied, of course it doesn't because I am so lean there is nothing there to move.  He laughed a little bit more than he should have.  

The I learned some exercises one of which made me instantly think of this:

Now I just hope I get better soon, I was making such good progress. But I am going to San Francisco on Wednesday!!! Hooray!

Movies

Now that the Oscars have passed, I have to share the two most important scenes in the history of cinema!!!

One:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh2iyPmucFk&sns=em

And more recently, two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd8qocJNO7Y&sns=em

2016 is upon us

Wow, as always a ton has happened since the last post, but I have gotten lazy and also I have had less, or maybe more time.  I don't know.  But let's explore some things that have happened in the last few months.

Eric demonstrates that he has giant hands.  He is a giant.  Sometimes when I am feeling big and blobby, I should rememebr this photo.  I am small.

Maybe you recall, I was laid off from my one job back in November 2014 and there was more drama and unheval from that then there was when I found out about that tuma.  But I got a job quickly, started it in Jan 2015.  I worked downtown and rode the bus every day.  There were shenanigans and hygincs and barfing and man porn.  And although I liked what I did and loved the people, I just couldn't do it anymore.  So I got a NEW job which started in October.  It is much closer, I get to drive. And I like what I do!  I am slowly making friends, but I must say I am so much happier.  I think the family is happier too.  

This girl decided to do a few cyclocross races and she proved to be quite a racer!    FYI. She is 11 and wearing the women's XS shorts.  She is now almost 5'2"!  

As I was leaving my old job back in October I discovered that I had 2 weeks to spend $1108 in flex spending dollars otherwise I would lose them.  So I bought these rediculous prescription sunglasses.  I also bought new normal everyday prescription glasses and some prescription Rudy projects for cycling!  I still had $108 to spend so I went to the drug store only to find I wasn't able to used those dollars on over the counter medication so I bought $108 worth of bandaides. 

My advice to you, if your kid wants to be a ghillie monster for Halloween, trim the bottom 4-6" off the ankles before they head out otherwise they will bring home the entire neighborhood.

We went to Yakima for thanksgiving and I made pie!  Pie is delicious.  

Xmas happened too and we found a great tree this year.  Last year we were late to the Xmas tree party and it was also a bad year for trees, but this year we got out a week or two earlier.  eric made the kids carry it to the car.

I attempted another 50k.  A few things were going on leading up to this race, but I was pretty excited.  I started a new kind of growth hormone about a week before. Same does, just different manufacturer and I have to mix it myself.  My big toe also started hurting.  It still hurts.  But it didn't bother me to run, just to walk or when I was hanging out.  Janet drove up with me the night before.  We had an interesting exchange with the hotel manager that resulted in him giving us the honeymoon suite.  I felt good and optimistic in the morning!  At the starting line they told us they might have to make a mid race decision to cut the race to a 25k due to high winds.  I had mixed feelings about this.  The race started out pretty well, the course was good.  Leslie and I had gone up about a month before to do some pre-running.  This was helpful.  On our way back across the bridge, it was raining sideways and was butt cold.  I almost shed some tears when they told us to keep running and didn't have us turn back to the starting line.  The whole 50k was happening.  A bit before this though my legs started to hurt.  Just from right below the knees down and to my feet.  My feet were killing me.  I kept going, did the big steep hill and respected the balds and meadows.  Then there was a mile or so of pavement.  It was exposed and windy and cold.  And my feet were a mess.  I walked and every step hurt like a mo-fo. I started to think about a DNF. The next part of the race was two 6ish mile loops and I thought about heading out on one of the loops,  but 6 miles is pretty far, especially when you are in pain, and when you don't know what the course is like.  So when I hit the aide station at mile 15ish I threw in the towel.  BEST DECISION EVER.  It really was.  There was no way I was going to manage another 15 miles when I was in so much pain.  Janet came and got me, I fell asleep in the car.  I was very thankful that Janet came with me.  This was such a different experience from the 50k this summer.  Maybe I'll try it again next year.  I don't know.

the new Star Wars movie came out!  Xtie took all of us to see it at the cinerama!  And The General hung out with this storm trooper! 

This was a sad moment.  I dropped my mouth guard and it bounced off the counter and landed in the litter box.  Sad sad sad.  I have now had mouth guards that have been peed on by little girls on airplanes and mouth guards that have landed in litter boxes.  Is this because I have such a potty mouth?

Seamus ran the 10k at beat the Blerch!  She did awesome!  She ran cross country at the middle school, so this was a peice of cake.  She also ran the reindeer romp in December, beating me by a few minutes!

Eric put in our new Windows!  He started them this summer but then stopped. Just didn't finish them.  I was struggling with wanting to bag him about it but then also trying to be sensitive to the fact that he spends all day almost every day doing this stuff.  But when he told me he was going to buy a PlayStation 4 when we have a perfectly good PlayStation 3, I did some negotiating.  Yes, get the 4, but finish the Windows first.  Voila!  

Which look amazing with the floor and all compared to the old carpet, paint and Windows.  But because the glass is so clear without the frame things, the birds won't come to our bird feeder any more.  

Skate skiing!  Omg, it is so fun.  I didn't go at all last winter.  Really no one did because there was virtually no snow.  But this year it has been so much fun.  And then this one time we went up and these jack ass kids drove their truck up onto the groomed trails and got stuck.  Best part was that they got stuck, so they called up their jack ass friends to go  get their truck to tow them out and they got stuck too.  So all of them spent the night out there until the morning when the funny snowcat towtruck could come pull them out.  

For Xmas the kids got to go to Ifly.  Sirus has been before.  That was when he was 5 when we went to Ogden.  Seamus didn't want to do it, and this time she was pretty nervous about it too.  But turns out she is kind of a natural!  She did so well that the instructor let go of her for a bit and she was able to control her position on her own!

Seamus joined the washington student cycling league since she is now in middle school.  She loves it.  The team did the Stinky Spoke.  This is heart attack hill.  You can see her on the left with the yellow helmet and black jacket.  She road that whole way up from the right!

Sirus has been wanting to play soccer for a long time.  We are not a soccer family.  He wants to play tennis and golf and tennis and we are clueless.  So we put him in the I-9 soccer this summer and that was pretty lame.  So I decided to sign him up for indoor this winter.  This was partially selfish on my part because indoor meant no standing out in the cold for games!  But I also thought maybe he would prefer to not be in the rain either. The bummer is that they don't have practices and the team structure is kind of weird so all his friends from his school are on a different team and he is on a team from a different city.  But he had fun at his first game, volunteering to be goalie.  It was a tough game, especially for a kid who hasn't really played much soccer at all but we are looking forward to the next one!

And then it was our anniversary!  #14

What?