A lot happens in 6 months...

I'm going to row again. All because of this. I got inspired.

That's the latest, anyway.

Filling you in, in reverse order, on my life over the past six months...and trying to keep it brief...here's what's been going on...

Halloween happened.

Miss C kept changing her mind on what to be. I don't even know what she ended up trick-or-treating as, but she got this great big sucker that made her very happy. X was a faceless, voiceless shadow, AKA Chromeface. G was Fizz the Tidal Trickster and Q-Man was a ninja...like many other fourth graders at his school.

We hit up the very expensive, local pumpkin patch. Lots of bouncy castles and slides for the low, low price of $10/30 minutes per kid. And pumpkins were NOT included. It's such a racket. But the kids had a BLAST!

A few days before Halloween, she got an Elsa dress that, while delightful to twirl in, did not make the trick-or-treating cut.

That crazy, 10-day Fall break at my kids' school happened...

We played CandyLand and got an Anna costume...that also did not make the Halloween cut.

We went to the beach to see the sun set, ran races at the San Francisco Zoo, and did speed work at the local track.

We also did some hiking in a princess nightgown that was worn for 5 (not kidding) consecutive days.

Ragnar Napa Valley happened...

I was invited to drive for Team You're the Wine that I Want. It was so much fun. Kind of more fun that running it probably would have been...at least for me! Cathryn, Jen, Jess, Sabrina, Amanda, Janet, Jim, Matt, Rich, BT, and another Jen (?) took me on a fun trip that involved too many inside jokes and a triple espresso. I can't wait to do it again :)

Summer vacation happened...

Lots of camping in the redwoods and hiking in the East Bay hills. My hip is officially GOOD. Actually GREAT!!!! My oldest son and I got up to over 13 miles of hiking...pain-free...except for the pain in my ears from his whining...actually he wasn't really THAT bad :) And I'm feeling awesome enough to have entered to walk a marathon. I fell in love with the Humboldt redwoods and so decided to walk in the Avenue of the Giants Marathon next May.

And that's my life in a nutshell since May 12th.

What's the best thing that's happened to you in the last 6 months?

Random picture of yummy grape sorbet from a fancy Napa restaurant.

The Vacation Post You've Been Waiting For...

Summer vacation has been going on for a whole THREE weeks. Everyone who has been reading this blog for the last 6 or more months knows what that means... school break = time to go to the zoo.

Yes, another ZOO post.

How many times can you go see the same zoo animals without wanting to poke out your eyeballs? Well, if you're three years old, there are no limits...

Happy!  :)

But if you're 12 going on 13, you've seen it all and done it all. And riding the stupid train is particularly boring...especially when your mom makes you leave your 500-page, hardcover library book in the car...

Not happy.  :(

Personally, I never get sick of the zoo. You never know when you will see something that makes your jaw drop...like an elephant penis...or something that makes you go "awwwwwwwwww"...like an adorable baby giraffe.

Baby is next to the tree on the left. See? It's the small one. ;-)

I let the kids take most of the pictures this zoo visit. I could have made several thumbnail collages of 'finger shots' but opted not to. Instead, I am sharing some very mundane animal pictures...sorry, no penises...

Left: the zoo now has 7 otters. They were frolicking wildly in the water and having a blast. It reminded me of my kids fighting, but the otters looked like they were having fun. 

Center: this is the first time EVER that I have seen the warthog. I actually used to think they were lying about having a warthog. Right: the emu was out of the corner.

We went to the Reptile Room. I try to stay out of that place because there are a bunch of 'quiet please' signs posted all over, and my kids have sign-blindness. This time, though, they begged. And were relatively quiet...and took lots of pictures. Thankfully, for the sake of the animals, without the flash...

Left: the frozen frog. Another visitor kept insisting that it was a fake...but I could see it breathing.

Center: Big G insisted this turtle is his 'spirit animal.' He launched into a 20-minute dissertation on what that means and why he believes this. I have no idea what the other 3 kids were doing during this time.

Right: super cool bright blue frog that was only photographed because I insisted it be.

Big G did eventually get with the Fun Program. He was the primary photographer and even played nicely with his little brother...

Pretending to surf on top of a swimming tortoise. 

Q-Man went on his first-ever roller coaster ride with his more-experienced sister...

...and loved it! 

And for some reason, there's this picture of dirt...

...not entirely sure what that's all about. 

And it isn't even in focus. 

Maybe I took that one...I've been having real 'focus' issues lately.

Happy weekend to all :)

Spank me... I'm a baaaaad blogger.

It's been a rough summer.

I've got all these kids and they had lots going on and my husband left the country for almost two weeks.

It's been a rough week.

I'll be leaving these kids for four days... the first time I've been away from them in forEVER... like, their whole lives. While I am really fine with going away and know they are in great hands and will be a-okay, they are struggling. They aren't talking about it... they are acting out about it :(

Way to make me excited about coming back home, kids :P

We joke about blogging being narcissistic. Well, maybe some of us are in denial. I want to acknowledge my apparent, complete self-absorption these past few months. It isn't because I don't care. It isn't because I want to be so non-participatory. And it isn't that I am not reading all of your fab blogs. I just have too many friggin' plates spinning on those weird, teetery poles... and some of them dropped.

Housework dropped first.

Commenting dropped next.

I keep trying to toss that commenting one back up and get it going again (the housework one I just leave in pieces on the floor), but between having an insane 2-year old, being out of the house something like 16 hours of the day and my phone not cooperating in the commenting department the vast majority of the time, that plate keeps slowing down and slipping and falling. I sincerely hope to let each of you know individually and more frequently how much I love reading about your lives, plans, funnies, etc. and how much I appreciate all the support you've shown me :)

My recent distraction is about to unfold.

Hood to Coast Relay is this weekend! O. My. God. I really can't believe I am about to join my Nuun Platuuners and do this thing! I can only imagine how boring seeing my crap all in piles to pack must have been. And I know that my detailed, skewed analysis of my relay legs confused a whole lot of people. But I am hoping my excitement is infectious and not just super annoying :P and if you are wanting to follow us as we fly down Mount Hood, plod through Portland, trot across the Coastal Range and screeeeeeeeem down into Seaside, here's how you can do it...

1. Follow Nuun on Twitter (@ministryofnuun) HERE
2. Follow me on Twitter (@xlmic) HERE
3. Follow Nuun Platuun on Twitter (@NuunPlatuun) HERE 
4. Follow AfterNUUN Delite on Twitter (@AfterNUUNDelite) HERE 
5. You can also like my Facebook page HERE
6. And Nuun's Facebook page HERE

Please know that this baaaaaaad blogger will soon be sharing the love a lot better than she has been ... this EPIC madness of a race is over soon AND my kids go back to school at the end of the week AND the 2-year old will be starting preschool a couple of days a week! Wooooooo Hooooooo!

It'll be "Moms Gone Wild".

Announcements...

I want to thank all seven people who participated in my giveaway... you all rock and know a good deal when you see one ;-)

The winner of Catch Me If You Can is danny who blogs over at A Quest for Running Perfection. Congrats to you, danny... the smartest running blogger in my blogroll. And the only one who had a really good law-breaking life-experience... that he was willing to share ;-) If you have never visited his blog, you ought to ... he puts such a different twist on things. Going from my blog to his is like going from Twinkies to brown rice and grilled fish with a side of spinach. Go there and you'll see what I mean.

The runner-up prize of that Baby-Ruth-in-the-swimming-pool classic, Caddyshack, goes to Jennifer from Chase-ing the Dream. She is a super smart mom who even reads books!  Someday I will read a book again, too.

So that was the first announcement.

The second one is this...

I want to thank the people at Nuun for realizing that a nun running at noon really needed to be on their team. Yes, I was selected (the crowd cheers), along with a slew of other amazing women bloggers. You can check out the whole list here....

just click on it...

While I am very excited, I am also very nervous. Not so much about the running but about the whole rest of it... What if they hate me? I'm not kidding. You like me... that's why you're here reading this... theoretically. But there really are people who don't like me. I am abrasive and obnoxious. What you get here is a miniscule glimpse into how I am in real life. Scary, right? Soooo... nervous and a little anxious.

The third thing I want to announce is a parent thing... a stay-at-home-parent thing... only they will probably get the magnitude of this announcement.

I just signed my 3 older kids up for camp for two weeks!  Starting Monday! Woooo hooooo! and during their second week, my 2-year old will start preschool two mornings a week!  Woooooo HOOOOOOO!!!!  I know parents always say this... and we mean it.... I love my kids, but I am so looking forward to a little break :)

It'll be like Moms Gone Wild for three and half hours on both July 5th and 7th. Please give me some suggestions of what to do... it has been so long. I am worried that I will just sit in the minivan outside of the preschool, speechless and immobilized by the overwhelming feeling of freedom. And by the time I snap out of it, it'll be too late to do something.

I am thinking... running in the daytime.... oooooooo......