Ahi's new bling

Ahi got a new collar: pink with white polka dots! It looks great contrasted with her shiny black hair!

A day at the lake

We all went to the lake today to do some kayaking, napping and game playing.

Girls Weekend

We had two factions this morning:

Hot biker babes and;

Hot couch potato babes!

The beauty of being at the cabin strikes again!

Falling over

Am I old or what - I keep crashing and burning....

1. I crashed a few weeks ago on my mt bike and got all bruised up
2. I took two tumbles while backbacking two weekends ago

And then last nite, I was washing my hands at my bathroom sink, stepped backwards to get a towel and completely fell over backwards.....over my speed bump of a yellow lab who was laying down RIGHT behind me! There was no hope. I did not see her and the next thing I know, I am on my back on the floor! I hit my head on the marble floor. Stupid dog!

At this rate, I am going to break a hip before I am 45!

Interns

I took my interns from this semester out to lunch today as a thank you for all the hard work they did. I had a team of 4 at the beginning of the semester and two dropped out. So these two did the work of 4 all semester and did a nice job. I had them do a project that consisted of comparing the program I manage to the same programs at 5 other companies and then make recommendations on where we beef up our program.

It was a nice lunch and I got to pick their brains about what its like to be in college with the thought that Drew is going there soon!

Guest Blog - Lucy and Me!

I am writing this blog for my friend Heather - this is her experience - and was so hilarious that it has to be blogged.

My friend Heather is a smart, funny, kind woman.....who works too hard and has too many kids! :-) She is like all of us moms - totally overworked!

So on Mothers Day, she was taking her sweet dog, Lucy, out for her morning walk (you have seen Lucy on this blog - she is a brittany spaniel that we take care of sometimes). Heather decides that since it is Mothers Day, she is going to treat herself to a Starbucks and sit outside at a table and drink her coffee with her dog.

So she walks to Starbucks and ties Lucy to a table and goes in to order her coffee. While inside, she is relishing the beauty of the morning and looking forward to the quiet time with her coffee and her loyal dog.

At this point, she looks outside to find her magical thoughts broken as she sees Lucy running down the street, towards a 4 lane road, with the Starbucks table being pulled behind her! Apparently Lucy freaked out about being left alone, started running, causing the table to go over and still being tied to it she thought the table was chasing her!

Luckily Heather saw this - SCREAMED - and went running after Lucy!

Luckily, Lucy got herself, and the table, wrapped around a tree before she could make it to the 4 lane road!

By the time Heather got to Lucy, she (Lucy) was so scared she litterally scared the poop out of herself!

Luckily a nice man came and carried the table back to Starbucks.

Heather and Lucy sat down on the sidewalk in an effort to calm down and have a little bit of that quiet time that Heather was looking forward to.

Instead of Marley and Me....this story is called Lucy and Me!

Backpacking

Overall it was a great backpacking trip. We did 11.5 miles in 6 hours the first day: up and down hills, along creeks, by a bunch of waterfalls, down a fire road and into our camp site. That evening we hiked to the top of the hill and checked out the ocean. The next day we hiked 9.8 miles in 4 hours. We shared the trail with a bunch of crazies doing a 10k and 15 k fun run thru the forest!

There is always drama: We rescued a woman on a mountain bike whose chain had broken and then had to rescue my blueberries from the mouth of a racoon! Good thing Super Kyle was there!

All in all - I successful trip! Good times and good friends. Thankful for both!

Nature

There was a lot of beauty and natural awe on the pack trip. We saw endless amounts of banana slugs and newts. That super ball/gel looking thing in my hand is a newt egg sac. It is filled with baby newts. We found it a ton of them at the bottom of a waterfall. It was super cool to check that out. We also saw a lot of wild flowers and lots of different types of ferns - which are a favorite of mine.

Food!

So....when you walk 22 miles in 2 days, you get really hungry and just about anything you eat tastes good! Here are some examples of what we ate. That is a pic of Marty's chicken breast dinner with mashed potatoes. You can see the mashed potatoes looked more like soup. That was probably the biggest bomb of food that we all had. He ate most of it but could not finish it. The other one is his breakfast - scrambled eggs and ham. Remember - this is all freeze dried food that you add water too. I had mac and cheese, green beans and corn. Jim had veggie lasagna. Those things were pretty good. Mari and Kyle at ramen. For breakfast the rest of us had oatmeal - with dried blueberries! Yum!

One of the best things we had was the ice cream sandwich! It was really yummy! However, it was the first thing we all ate after 11 miles! We probably would have eaten dirt and thought it was good!

Bad Mojo

Remember the Brady Bunch episode when the Brady kids tried taking the tiki figure and it caused all kinds of bad luck? We felt a little bit of that bad mojo on our pack trip. It started with us finding that little green statue of the witchcraft type lady in the tree by our camp spot. Then I found the little clear crystal in a knot hole on a tree....I took the crystal out of the tree and was going to bring it home for Gracie.

But, in the middle of the nite, I tree fell over and landed about 20 feet from where we were sleeping. When Mari and Jim went to check it out int he morning, they found the little blue crystal! We decided it was some kind of warning to leave the crystals there. So we put the blue and clear crystal together in the same tree, next to witchraft lady statue.

Freaky!

After backpacking

After we had completed our backpacking trip, our wonderful friend Tina met us with a huge picnic (plus 4 kids and 2 dogs!). We all changed shoes (hot feet) and ate like pigs! We had watermelon, pineapple, pizza, garlic garlic dip, carrots, chips, salsa, brownies and sandwiches! We were so loving it! So we all hung around about 3hours playing games, reading, and as you can see from one of the pics - napping!

Backpacking

This was the big weekend for backpacking. There are lots of stories to tell but I am too tired to tell them now - but here are a few pics for fun!

Wacky Workplace

On Wednesday, I stopped by the restroom on my way out of work since its a looooong ride home. I walk in and there is some woman standing there with her shirt off and in a sport bra - the kind that hooks in the front. She was talking to another woman, who was standing close to her.

I go in the stall, do my business, come out and now the sports bra is opened up and the woman is showing her friend her breasts. When myself and another woman in the restroom walk by, the boobie woman announced that she "just got them done"!

WHAT!?!?!?! We are at work, you don't need to be showing your boob job to coworkers!

This is a soap opera that should be called "From Butt Cracks to Boobies"!

Farm Fresh to You

I am so excited! I signed up to have organic farm fresh fruits and veggies delivered directly to my house every 4 weeks. Here is the link:

http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php

I have heard GREAT things about it. And it's cool, because they deliver whatever is in season - so you might get things like strawberries, kale and dandelions! I think we are going to love it. My guess is we will have to order the extra large size because we will scarf it all down in one day.

Soccer

Drew has had great success with soccer lately. First - he received a scholarship from his school for excellence in sports. It's not a lot but anything is good and its a great process to go thru to get the scholarship.

Second - he won the coaches award from his junior high soccer team coach! Him and Jim went to an awards dinner and potluck last nite and apparently the coach went on and on about how he was a great player but even more than that held the team together and never gave up even though they had a rough season.

We are so proud!

Family Photos

I just hope we never end up on this site:

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Lizard Update

This is a pic of the lizard I caught about a month ago. He is really cute. It is about time to let him go though.

Ouchee!

Two weeks ago, I went out with a 30 pound pack in my running shoes for 5 miles and came home with a sore toe. It hurt for about 5 days. Last nite I took off my toenail polish and found a purple toe! No wonder it hurt!!!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Uncle B!

Brain Teaser

When you look at this picture of Daisy Mae, your brain gets a little confused....

Gracie decided she needed eyebrows! It is hilarious when someone notices for the first time.

Mothers Day!

For Mothers Day we are having the family over for a spaghetti dinner! Here is the pile of meatballs we made ---- minus a whole bunch that the kids ate when they came out of the oven.

This morning Drew and I went on a Mothers Day mountain bike ride! It was a three hour ride and we are both beat! We brought Marty with us and almost killed him. He had a big breakfast and then tried to ride 1.2 miles straight up hill! He was almost heaving.

Each of us took a spill - I did a slow motion fall onto my shoulder and hip. Marty fell onto his butt in the weeds and Drew fell is a soft spot of dirt and landed in the weeds. I am too old for this!

Happy Mothers Day to everyone!

Safety First

After Ahi almost drowned falling off my kakak, Grace and I decided she needed a life vest. It will be fun to be able to take her out swimming with us in the middle of Cherry and not worr about her drowning!

Hot Dog - Hot Day

On my lunch break, I have been walking with my pack on up on the hill by our house. The dogs go with me and enjoy 5 miles of activity in the middle of the day. But today it was 80 degrees and they were HOT! When we got home, Ahi laid down on the placemate where her bowl of food goes! Not sure what she was thinking, but it was so funny I took this pic!

What happens when you die?

My mom's Uncle Doc just died in Florida. (He was 96) My mom went to Florida to help his wife, Aunt Loretta, go back to Illinois for the service. That included flying Uncle Doc's body to Illinois -- which led to all kinds of conversations in our house.

Here is a conversation between Drew and I:

Drew: How is Uncle Doc getting to Illinois?
Me: He flies in the belly of the plane.
Drew: In a coffin?
Me: Yes
Drew: Ewwww, that's gross. When you die, do you want to fly anywhere?
Me: No, I don't have anywhere to fly to, I want my ashes sprinkled at Cherry Lake.
Drew: That's right. Well, I guess I will have to drive you there.
Me: Right. Just make sure you bungee cord me into the car, so I don't spill all over when you go over a bump.
Drew: I will put you in my cool ski boat I will be towing. Right next to the wake boards.
Me: Can you at least put me by the fishing gear?
Drew: OK
Me: I want to be by the pink power bait.
Drew: OK - but that might be where Dad wants to be.
Dad: Nope - I want to be by the chartreuse power bait.
Drew: OK

Glad we have that all worked out!

Workout Minutes

I have been using a website called sparkpeople to track nutrition and fitness goals. I have done this because it is really hard for me to lose weight and I wanted to show that I truly do burn more calories then I intake --- and still lose weight VERY slowly.

So - for the last week, my goal is 360 minutes of cardio a week, which 60 minuts of cardio a day - 6 days a week, which is what I normally do for a work out schedule. But my normal schedule does not allow for any weight loss. So, I exceeded my goal this week, by 335 minutes! Total cardio minutes was 695. Total calories burned was 4536! This equals 4 whole days of caloric intake! It's really cool to track all that to see how your caloric intake relates to your caloric burn.

First Communion

Saturday we went to Sam's first communion. He is wearing the very cool new cross necklace I got him and is soooo handsome.

Always Worried about My Next Meal

Here is our new backpacking stove and our backpacking food. The stove fits right into the container that you use to cook in. And notice our colored sporks....mine is pink! Our food is: beef stew, green beans, veggie lasagna, pasta primavera, corn and blueberry cheesecake. I will be the only woman who backpacks 22 miles in 2days and gains weight!

Test backpack

Last nite Jim and I did a spur of the moment backpack hike with all our gear on. We did 3 miles of up and down in 1 hour. We were really hoofing it and were sweaty bettys at the end. But it was pretty easy, making us think 11 miles is going to be manageable. Not easy - but manageable.

Tomorrow is a cycling day - keeping the cardio strength up for the hike!

Stay tuned for more drama.

Family Sunday

Today Gracie and I went to Pleasant Hill with Grandma Anna (Jim's mom) to attend a baby shower for the wife of Jim's 3rd cousin! Sounds like a distant relative but the family all sticks together, so it really isn't that distant. We had a nice drive up catching up the whole way (about an hour) and then chatted with Jim's aunts and other relatives while there.

Swimming tryouts

Gracie did a tryout for the swim team today. Try out is a loose term. All she had to do was swim accross the pool without drowning! And she did it - so she is on the team.

The Swine Drew

Drew came home from school yesterday with a 99.9 fever and flu symptoms - sore throat, aches, headache and fatigue. So he stayed home from school today. Normally I would load him up with advil and send him off but since everyone is freaking out about the Swine Flu, I felt compelled to keep him at home. I talked to the doctor and unless he is REALLY SUPER SICK they don't want to see him. They won't give tamiflu to anyone who is not super sick or doesn't have a compromised imune system. So for now, he is just laying around on the couch.

Hiking Boots

These are the boots that I got for our backpacking trip. I really like them!