Run for Honduras

 September is for football and 5ks.  I kicked off my fall running this past weekend at the Run for Honduras 5k and 1-mile.  Among the 5K runners were Quincy, Jessica, and myself.  The course was located at the Country Club and was really hilly.  In fact, you had to climb a pretty big hill at the end to get to the finish line.  I finished with a time of 25.50 and placed second in age group.  Quincy and Jessica both placed as well.

Following the 5K, there was a one-mile fun run.  Olivia and Natalie were registered to participate.  Owen had to sit out due to his recent surgery- and he was not happy about it.







The girls started off strong.  I tried to run with them but they left me in a cloud of dust.  They got tired pretty soon, though, so I was able to catch up.










Both girls gave a really good effort the entire race.

 As we were running back toward the finish, I spotted a familiar face on the course.  Someone had convinced his Aunt Quincy to let him walk the one mile.  The race organizers gave Owen a medal even though he wasn't a registered runner- I thought that was really nice of them.




Here are Olivia and I at the finish.  I really like this picture.  I have the not-so-secret hope that she will want to continue to run with me and that this being something that we do together.

And here's the bling shot.  Medals for all = successful morning.

My First Triathlon

After competing in the Megan's House Heels and Wheels duathlon for the past two years, I decided to attempt the tri this year instead.  I knew that the running part would be okay, and I've been cycling with a group of girls I work with, so I felt good about the bike.  The swimming was what I was worried about.  I am a terrible swimmer (and this was confirmed by my pathetic swim time).  Not only am I a poor swimmer, but the lake at Laura Walker Park has gators in it- so I was a little nervous about that.  That's not all, I also convinced myself that I would surely get either flesh-eating bacteria or the amoeba that goes up your nose and eats your brain from the water in the lake.  I'm really quite surprised that I got into the water at all- but I did.  Since I was registered in the "novice" category, I was in the last wave to start (with all the other newbies).  My quarter-mile swim was so bad that it was almost funny.  I got tired about a fourth of the way in.  I had planned to do the freestyle- but I ended up switching between dog-paddling and floating on my back.  Did I mention that my swimming leg was really bad?  I could not have been any happier to get out of that lake.


Once the swim was over I entered transition to get ready for my 13-mile bike ride.  I have done this ride as part of the duathlon, so I knew what to expect and the ride went well.  The same can be said for the 5k run- it was not new to me and I did okay.  I finished with a time of 1:38:28 and placed 2nd in the "novice" category.  I'm really kind of happy with this time.  Even though the swimming was bad, I actually enjoyed the triathlon.  I plan to do more of them.  Guess I better start hitting the pool.

Adiós, Appendix

On Monday Owen woke up with a slight fever and was complaining that his stomach was hurting.  I figured that he had a stomach virus and so I asked my Mom to watch him instead of send him to school.  When I went to pick him up that afternoon, Mama said that she didn't think it was a virus because he wasn't throwing up. Instead, he was grabbing his side and acting like it hurt to walk.  She suggested that it may be his appendix.  So, I took Owen to the doctor's office for him to be checked out.  The doctor examined Owen, and ruled out a virus.  She said she couldn't tell if there was something wrong internally without blood work- and they didn't do that at the office.  She suggested that we go to the emergency room.  And so we did.  We arrived in the ER at 7:30 and we sat... and sat... and sat for several hours.  During this time, they took a blood sample and ordered a CT scan.  Finally, the doctor came in and told us that Owen had acute appendicitis and that she had already called in the surgeon on-call.  As soon as she left the room, a parade of hospital staff began filtering in to prep our little buddy for his appendectomy.  I know he had to be miserable, but he was a real trooper.  They rolled Owen back to the operating room a little after midnight and he was out of surgery about an hour later.  He had to spend some time in recovery, so it wasn't until after 2 a.m. that we were able to see him- and he was zonked out.  Poor fellow.  He did great, though, and was even allowed to come home about 12 hours after surgery.  He is still recovering, but he seems to be bouncing back fast.  Still, he will be out of school for the rest of the week.  Monday was certainly a rough day for little Owen, and I am glad that it is behind us.

Harry Potter

If you'll recall last summer, Olivia and I began reading with my sister and her kids in the hopes of forming a kids reading group.  Unfortunately, this excellent idea fizzled out once school and extracurricular activities began.  There just didn't seem enough time to keep things going and stay on pace.  Since I wasn't reading with Olivia, I decided to re-read The Hobbit for my own enjoyment because the movie was about to come out and I wanted a refresher before I saw it.  This was in late October that I started reading.  Olivia saw me pick up the book and asked me to read it out loud so that she could hear it.  I obliged thinking that she would be uninterested and give up within a few minutes.  This didn't happen.  She ended up sitting there and listening to the whole first chapter of The Hobbit.  The next night she asked for the second chapter, and we kept going like this until the book was finished.  I couldn't believe that she actually sat there and listened to the whole thing!  She loved the book and we went and saw the movie together at the theater.  This got me thinking that if she could handle The Hobbit then she could handle the best series of books ever penned.  I'm speaking, of course, of the Harry Potter books.  We decided to give it a go.  So, last December we began reading The Sorcerer's Stone.  This went well, and we continued with the next book in the series, and then the next, and so on.  After completing a book, we would watch the corresponding movie.  Olivia REALLY got into it.  She started dressing up as Hermione around the house and using "spells" to turn the lights.  She even got in trouble at recess on day because she was chasing other kids around the playground with her "wand" (a stick).   We finished the last book of the series on the night before school started back.  Olivia was practically jumping up and down as I read the final, climatic scene.  We have really enjoyed reading these books together.  After being in "Harry" mode for half a year now, I'm not sure what we are going to do next.  She is already asking if we can start back over and read them all again.  We'll probably move on to another book or set of books.  It's going to be hard to top Harry, though.

Back to School

 It's that time of the year- time for back to school.  This year Olivia is in the first grade and Owen is in Kindergarten.  Both kids have been anxiously preparing for the first day of school.  Last week we went shopping for school supplies and a new outfit for the first day.  New gear in hand, the kids arrived at school on Monday and had a great first day.  Olivia and Owen both like their teachers and their classes.  The only complaint that I heard was that it took a long time for the bus to get from their school to mine.  Hopefully things will continue to go well and we will all have a great school year.

Beach Collage 2013

 Here are some miscellaneous pictures from our beach vacation.  One thing that we did was to make a "Hulk" picture.  That was a lot of fun to do. The one above was probably the best, even though Quincy is in the process of photoshopping all pictures taken to make a super-Hulk picture.  That should be interesting to see.

Quincy's improvised beach chair

The kids loved being thrown by Uncle Bobby

Bailey and her friend McKenzie are popular with the kids

Visiting the "shark"

Here's the kid version of the Hulk picture

Fishermen In Training

The private pier is one of the main reasons that we stay at the same condo complex every year.  The boys love to fish- especially at night (for sharks). One the last night of our vacation, the boys decided to take the kids out and let them fish a little.  The kids loved it.

 It's a little unnerving to realize that sharks are swimming a few feet from the the beach.  The boys pulling up fish like this doesn't help calm our nerves.

 For those of us who don't fish, the pier provides a nice view of the beach and ocean.

It's also a good place to blow bubbles.