I got up at O-Dark-Thirty today and rode my bike to work.
It’s 13.3 miles from the trailhead to the office door.
It took me one hour.
It was dark when I started.
I’ll have to start later next time so I can actually see the trail.
I’m thankful that our office has a gym with showers. I’m sure my coworkers are thankful for that as well 
And a few words . . . come on! It’s me! Did you actually think I was capable of not writing ANYthing? 
We had our first spring soccer games on Saturday - we got to play on the brand new artifical turf at the new YMCA! I was a bit concerned when they said it wasn’t grass, but artifical turf . . . but, they put all these teeny tiny little pieces of ground up rubber in the “grass” and it makes it soft and squishy just like real grass . . . it’s actually really cool. Anyhoo - it went down to the wire - it was sunny, but it was COLD (25 degrees for Jason’s game!) and WINDY (almost 40 mph wind at times). But, the kids played and actually had a blast - they’ll play in anything if you bundle ‘em up
Here’s my Cheetah scoping down the field for someone to pass to. Yes, they chose the Cheetahs - which was a huge relief after the previous name-choosing fiasco. My Cheetah scored one goal in a 6-1 win (no, they don’t officially keep score, but yes, the kids always know the score!).
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And here’s my Wild Pony (which outvoted the Ladybugs this season) heading toward the goal. My Wild Pony scored 4 goals in a 7-7 tie
She INSISTED on wearing shorts, because that’s what you wear for soccer. Ironically, that’s the only part of her uniform you can’t see She’s got on long underwear, a long-sleeved shirt, the orange hoodie, and her Y jersey in addition to her shorts and her brothers extra long soccer socks so I could pull them all the way up and roll them all the way down again for an extra layer. I think the pink hat adds a finishing touch to her whole ensemble.
It was SOOOOO nice on Sunday, that the minute we got up, we knew we were going hiking. My behind has made marked improvement in the past 3 days, and for the first time in 3 weeks I felt like actually walking. It has truly SUCKED not being able to get any exercise that past 3 weeks! Anyway, the kids got dressed and got snacks and Duma’s stuff ready while I sorted and started the laundry. Then we headed to the grocery store to grab donuts and OJ for the drive (mmmmmmm, nutritious breakfast!). We chose Red Rocks because there was too much snow up north at one of our favorite hiking spots. We had a great time!
I love watching Jason and Keira together, especially now that they get older. For as much as they may argue and bicker, they are really good together. Here’s Jason pointing out a hawk to Keira.
Of course Dude is never happier than when he finds a snake or some other “thing” to pick up and inspect.
Keira was long gone screaming I love that my kids love the outdoors as much as I do. I guess that’s probably WHY they love it . . . because ever since they were babies we’ve been outside hiking or playing or riding bike or something. But still, I have to believe that they actually like it or they wouldn’t ask to go and wouldn’t have fun. And I also love that for as little as their legs are, they’ll hike almost anywhere. They especially love the hike up in to the quarry.
Do you see ‘em up there? Here’s a close up - notice the fun steps to go up to get there . . . it’s actually pretty steep - Duma was not impressed and needed a little coaxing.
They love playing around in the quarry. There’s so much to climb on! Duma liked the little water to play in, and Jason and Keira found a way out to the “island” - amazingly, neither one of them fell in
So there’s the fun part of our weekend in a nutshell . . . the rest involved things like laundry and scrubbing kitchen floors and other fun stuff like that. Definitely not blog-worthy!
What did you do this weekend?
Well, turns out I’m a big fat liar. This 300th post is not questions I’ve answered from all of you, and it is not the recipe for the best margarita ever. You wanna know why? Because I spaced out on Random Recipes this morning, and I really want to play this week because it’s “whatever recipe” week, and I like Pam at Random Thoughts and can’t think of anyone better to use my 300th post on. AND, because I can’t find the recipe for the margaritas . . . grrrrrrr . . . so I’ll save it for closer to Cinco de Mayo when it can be put to good use
Anyway, here goes . . . the yummiest chicken dip ever (thanks to my SIL for this)!
Ingredients:
Method:
Keira has learned how to spell my name. So now, every paper of work she brings home from school has this written in the Name spot . . .
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I guess I should be glad she’s writing it rather than calling me that
Got my Jeep back - of course it was FREE since they messed up. They didn’t fasten the fuel injector connection harness properly, so it wiggled off . . . therefore, no fuel injection, which means no running of the engine when you’re not forcing gas into it. It was still a pain, but hey, I got it, we’re good, and it’s just in time for the snow. Now to get reimbursed for the towing . . .
They got all the tires filled up on the buses, so they were running on schedule today, which is a bonus
Finally, for the first time in a couple weeks, nobody in our house is sick! Woo hoo! I’m not even going to knock on wood - I’m sure that will come to bite me in the behind, but we’ll see
And speaking of my behind (nice transition, huh!), it is SOOOOO much better! I can finally almost do everything - just no quick movements with pressure on my left leg, so no volleyball last night for me 
I missed it . . . but, hopefully next week I can play. But I’m so happy that it’s so much better! I might even go ice skating with the kids this weekend.
Princess got bit on the arm yesterday at school. A little boy was pretending to be a shark, and when she, apparently the minnow, walked away, he attacked her and bit her on the upper arm - enough to make her bleed! When we got to school today the little boy just about attacked her to say that he was sorry and didn’t mean to hurt her and and and. It was really cute, actually
Dude was so sweet to Princess last night. She was sad because she’d gotten in trouble for messing around at the table while I took Duma out to go potty. They were watching a movie and Dude said “Hey Princess. Do you want to sit on my lap? There’s lots of room in the chair for both of us.” So they snuggled up for about 15 minutes, then went and made themselves popcorn, and came back and snuggled up for the rest of the movie. He’s so friggin’ sweet!
We have Muffins with Mom at Dudes school tomorrow morning. We have to be there at 7:00 a.m. . . . bluck! Early to bed tonight for them for sure! It’s so fun, though - the kids think it’s so special when you go to school with them for this kind of stuff. Princess has her Muffins with Mom in May, right before Mother’s Day.
Off to catch up on another day of work . . . and maybe I’ll even find something worthwhile to post about tomorrow . . . it’s been a while
Once again, I was reminded by the powers that be that I am not the one in charge. After getting a goodbye kiss from Hubby on his way to work for a week, I get up to wonderful temps and great blue skies. Nice quiet house with kids sleeping and dog hanging out. Then I see on the news that Dude’s school is 2 hours late today. WTF?! I come to learn that the buses were vandalized over the weekend. Nice. So I hop on e-mail to send my boss and coworkers a message to let them know I’ll be a bit late. Not the end of the world. So we get ready and head out the door to take Princess to school. We get about a mile away and the check engine light comes on - and immediately the wonderful Jeep that I love love love (no, I’m not being sarcastic) kills - no brakes, no power steering - nothing. Nice. I get it started and try to turn around to head back home . . . it stalls in the intersection. UGH! We finally get it going and limp back home, leaving it parked in the road because I know the tow truck will have to come get it. Yes, this is the same vehicle that was in the shop for an entire week last week! We got it back on Friday and drove it all weekend just to make sure it was running fine - grrrrrrrrr.
So I’m totally pissed off - so much so that I’m crying - I cry when I get really pissed off. So I head downstairs to email my boss to let her know that I’ll be in even later after I get the Jeep towed and get a ride all the way to the airport to get the car (anyone remember what happened last time? Um ya - Queen Taunya and I got rear-ended on our way to the airport - good times!). This is when I see another email from the school district - it went something like this . . . “We know you parents have nothing better to do, so we’re cancelling bus service this a.m. because someone let the air out of the front tires of 150 buses -Â but school is still opening two hours late. So feel free to try to get all 21,000 students to school today sometime before 10:00 a.m.” Nice. So now I have a daughter who is late for preschool, a son who has school but no bus to get there, and ME with no vehicle. I pick up the phone and call Queen Taunya and all I have to say is “I need you” and she’s at the door in 15 minutes. I LOVE QT! IÂ hope you all have a QT that you can depend on as much as I can depend on her.
She takes Keira to school while I call the neighbors to see if they can take Jason to school when they go. Yes - thank you! Then I make a few more calls and this is what happens in front of my house . . . Dude will be disappointed that he missed the truck with the flames, even if they are pink . . .Â
Um, no - unfortunately, this is NOT the vehicle I want to replace!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
We follow it to the shop and I talk to the guys about what’s up. Then I go out to pay the tow truck driver - and what do I see? A puddle of some kind of liquid under the engine . . . who knows . . . at this point, I don’t care. And did I mention that it’s supposed to snow this week? And that the vehicle above on the tow truck is the only vehicle we have that can make it up the hill to our house when it snows? Nice.
I’m so pissed.
The kids went to a friends house for a sleepover on Friday for our April Kid Swap. We boarded Duma for the night (she can’t be home along that long - and we left at 4:30 p.m. and werne’t getting home until after 11:00 p.m.). So, Dan and I had a date night - complete with a movie and drink afterward.
I learned that . . .
What did you do on your last date night?
Well, soccer started Thursday, right on schedule Ya gotta be ready for anything in April! Keira did not wear a princess dress - it was snowing - but she did put on long underwear to be warm I suggested that maybe she would want to put some pants on over her long underwear
Coach Nick is great with the girls - they had a great time, even in the cold snowy weather!
Here are the Ladybugs/Wild Ponies (they’ll choose next week) at the end of practice
Being the Minnesotan that I am, I love the snow! But, I do hope it’s a bit warmer next week - just warm enough so the snow doesn’t stick to their soccer balls and start making snowman parts as they dribble down the field
As I mentioned earlier, Keira starts soccer practice today. We got an email from her coach last week . . . I was just rereading it to verify time and location and this part made me giggle
“In the meantime, have your girls be thinking of a good team name. Like maybe the Ponies (hint, hint), because Ponies run fast and play hard and have fun! (I’d like to avoid names that don’t evoke running fast and trying hard. Already knowing most of the girls, I expect them to want to be the princesses. I’d like to avoid that. We don’t want to be thinking of being pretty and twirling, we want to be fast and even a little tough.) I always let the teams pick their own names, if all the girls already want the same name (Ponies? Hint, hint), we can avoid any sadness about our name not getting picked.”
Luckily, my daughter, who wanted to be the Barbies last year, has rediscovered her stash of My Little Ponies and is all about being called The Ponies. I am, however, contemplating sending her to practice in one of her princess dresses today, just to see the look on Coach Nick’s face
Yesterday I’d planned on catching up on all of your blogs since I haven’t had a chance to do it for like a whole week. But, alas, that didn’t happen. Hubby and I went to test drive vehicles instead. We though it would take us a couple of hours . . . 4 hours later we got back home, just in time to pick Keira up from school. During that 4 hours, I fell. in. love.!!! Now we just have to start saving, and in about 18 months we can bring my new love home
Jason is still sick He started feeling a bit icky on Sunday, but was fine on Monday and went to school. Monday night he was up vomiting, so we kept him home Tuesday. He felt way better yesterday and was eating and ready to go. So he went with us to test drive cars. He even wanted to go to the park to launch his rocket, so we did. Then early this morning he was up vomiting again. So he’s home again today. Poor little guy He hasn’t been to school more than 1 day since March 20th, with parent/teacher conferences and spring break and now being sick. Going to have to go pick up his homework today.
And, my backside hurts. It still REALLY hurts from the snowboarding fall on my tailbone. Chiropractor is helping a bit, but there’s such a deep bruise on the muscles around it and on the bone that it’s just going to take a while. It’s SOOOOO annoying! I can’t play on my volleyball team or go to the gym. I even have a tough time taking Duma on walks because if she pulls on the leash, I can’t hold her back since I can’t put much pressure on my left leg without much pain rushing through my butt. So I’m really annoyed that I haven’t been getting the exercise that I want and need to. Gonna be LOTS of catching up with that in a week or so when my behind is better! So that really sucks! And, apparently, my behind was numb from the hard landing . . . I didn’t realize it, but now that I’m starting to get the feeling back in the skin, it is ANNOYING . . . my skin itches constantly! It’s like when your foot is waking up from sleeping . . . but it’s ALL. THE. TIME. UGH! At least I can walk now and go up and down stairs . . . now to just get over the last hurdle and I’ll be ready to injure myself with some other sport
My house is a complete mess . . . well, that’s not true because I have a wonderful hubby who always helps out with that. But my bathroom - ugh - I haven’t been able to bend over to clean the tub . . . so I need to tackle that tonight since I can almost bend over to put pants on and tie my shoes now . . . so I think I can kneel by the tub to scrub it.
We are finished with gymnastics and ice skating for a while . . . taking a break for summer. But, today we start soccer. Keira has practice on Thursday nights and Jason on Friday nights. They both have games on Saturdays. I like to have their practices on the same day and at the same time, but I decided not to this year. The reason? The coach for both of their teams is the same, so I figured they’d never have games at the same time, which is always stressful for me when Dan is gone. They’re still so little to leave “alone” at the park with their team if I had to - they play right next to each other, but still. Anyhoo, my “plan” worked . . . and their games are never at the same time. In fact, it turned out better than I’d hoped! To accommodate their coach, who is coaching 3 teams (OMG! What a saint!) the Y each of his team’s games at the same time - so all of Jason’s are at 9:00 a.m. and all of Keira’s are at 11:30 a.m., which is perfect if you ask me. No rushing in the morning and we’re done before afternoon fun starts AND, they even made sure all of his teams are the home and away team on the same days . . . so, Jason and Keira will always wear the same color jersey on the same day. That all may seem trivial, but it sure takes a load of my mind - just one less thing to think about in my already full full full brain.
Duma graduates Puppy Kindergarten tonight She’s doing great with her sit, charge (lay down), stand, stay, come, etc. She’s also taking a break from training, partly because we just want only soccer right now, but also because she gets to go under the knife to make sure there aren’t any little Dumas running around the backyard in the future So after tonight, no more 40 mile round trips to dog training every Thursday night for a while!
The Jeep is in for repairs. We took it in last Friday for an oil change . . . they kept it all week! Why? Because the head gasket blew and they needed to machine and replace it and all the bearings and stuff . . . a lovely price tag coming our way tomorrow! The great thing is that the place we take our vehicles to is awesome! They give you a free loaner while your car is being fixed. They’re nothing fancy, but point A to point B is all that matters. However, last Sunday we took Duma to the dog park. On the way home, the check engine light on the loaner came on . . . so we had to take it back and they gave us a different one. But THEN, the check engine light on OUR other car came on! OMG! How annoying is that?! We thought it was just because the gas cap hadn’t been screwed on tight (past experience), so we filled it up and screwed the gas cap on tight. Drove it for a couple days, but the light didn’t go out. I topped off the gas again just to make sure. No good. So we called and asked if we could drop the car off as well - didn’t want to ruin anything. Luckily, the check engine light went off the day we were going to drop it off - so at least that’s one less thing on the master To Do list!
I want to say a big thanks to my hubby, who is awesome! If he weren’t home taking care of Duma when I couldn’t walk, hanging with the kids during spring break, staying home with our sick Jason, and generally keeping the house in order, I’d be a complete mess right now, as would my children, my house, and my dog.
Tomorrow night is kid swap night . . . our kids get to go stay with some friends after soccer practice until Saturday afternoon - hopefully that will give me and Dan a chance to catch up with each other, even if we haven’t been able to keep caught up with much of anything else lately
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