Random Happenings

We had wacky weather the other day... pouring rain that turned into pelting hail!  

And produced this:

This happened right as we arrived at school... without raincoats and only one umbrella for 5 of us! And

 the umbrella broke!  

It was hilarious!  The kids were super troopers about it all... nary a whine nor a complaint... lots of giggles and smiles :)  

LOVE it when that happens 

... not the broken umbrella part; the kids having fun part ;-)

Right now my kids are On Break.  It is a 10-day long Break.  Must be nice...

I have written before about this school's penchant for days off.  This particular doozy is that whole "Ski Week" thing that encompasses the President's Day (or is it Presidents' Day... it is about two presidents, right?).  Oh, and while I am on the topic of President's Day... what the heck!!!???  Remember how I mentioned that I was going grocery shopping with all 4 kids in tow?  So we get all in the car (not easy) and they are all fighting and screaming before the car doors are even closed... actually before I even get into the car myself... I debate whether or not this is such a good idea.  But Monday is Grocery Day and we are down to a "cocktail onions and mustard" sort of situation... hmmm... what can I make with ketchup, unsalted butter, cornstarch and bacon?  We had to go.

It was closed.  

Yes, you read that correctly.  A humongous, big-deal-not-mom-n-pop, Whole Foods-ish grocery store was CLOSED for President's Day!  I laughed so hard.  The kids were concerned.  Is mom off her rocker?  So we headed to Trader Joe's and picked up what we could.  

They were perfectly behaved.  

I think the insane-lady laughter may have had something to do with that ;-)

We had lovely weather and headed to the park today to meet some friends.  It was a group of wee ones who are around Miss C's age.  The olders were not thrilled to be going to Totland *snicker, snicker* but since Miss C is forever being carted around to all their goings-on, it is only fair that they need to suck it up on occasion.

Here's Q-Man, all bummed out on the swings:

Baby X climbed to the top of the highest thing, 

setting off a toddler climbing frenzy as they all tried to imitate her... much to their caretakers' collective dismay:

And Miss C was happy to just hang :)

Big G was not there... he was home SICK.  Of course, it is vacation... someone has to be sick.

What would you do with four kids who were on a 10-day Break? And leaving town is not an option.
– we were going to do fun stuff like go to the Children's Museum, the local Little Farm and see the baby pigs, the zoo... but rain and sickness just don't really work with outings.  Today we made pudding and went to the park.  Tomorrow we are going to make teeny tiny cupcakes and who knows what else.


Did you have lots of holidays when you were a kid?
– we had some that other kids didn't get... Malcolm X's birthday, International Women's Day, MLK's birthday before it was nationwide... but that's because it was Berkeley ;-)  And I remember having Lincoln's AND Washington's Birthdays creating consecutive 3-day weekends.  I liked that.  But I'm telling you, my kids' school has WAY more days off than I ever had.

Rescued by The Funky Bunch

Sunday was planned to be a big running day... well, big for me anyway.  The plan was to run 3 miles.  Three miles is farther than I have run since November 2001.  I was nervous.  I was going about getting ready as if I were heading out for a significantly longer run.  Finding the perfect top layer took on monumental importance.

You see, it had started to rain... for the first time in a very long time.   My friend, Stephanie, had given me a lightweight fleece pullover with a half-zip that would be ideal for a drizzly run... staying warm even when wet, easy to get off when too warm, all that jazz.  I could not find this pullover ANYWHERE!!!!  Oh, man.  I tore the hall closet apart.  Not there.  I went through my car.  Not there.  I tornadoed through the laundry... dirty AND clean... wet AND dry.  Not there.  It was nowhere to be found.

So I decided to find a different shirt.  A plain black, long-sleeved cotton t-shirt.  Not too big, not too small.  Not too heavy, not too light.  Not going stay warm when wet like the fleece, but whatever... it'd do.  Went through the same search drill.  No black t-shirt.

All of this searching took at least thirty minutes... about the amount of time I was planning on running.  Finally, no longer amused by my searching frenzy, my husband said, "Just put something on already and GO!  What is the big deal?  A half an hour after you finish running you aren't even going to remember what you wore.  Get outta here!"  For once I listened to this smart man the FIRST time he told me the best course of action.  I grabbed a heavy cotton sweatshirt (the antithesis of what I wanted) and left.

I started off in the nice drizzle.  It was such a nice change.  It's finally feeling like fall here... although the whole summer was pretty fall-like actually!  About 10 minutes into it the mind games started... the slowness, the "shortness", the raininess ... and all of the comparisons that one should not be making at this stage in one's life and level of fitness.  I had forgotten all about "just happy to be here" and finding joy in being able to run AT ALL and what a glorious place I get to run and how good it feels to breathe hard and break a sweat... I had started tanking big time.  I just wanted it to be over.  The sooner, the better.

My music wasn't helping.  When I run alone I listen to music, and it had been just sort of droning in the background, providing no inspiration, no motivation, hardly even "white noise" to remove the voices in my head... About one mile out, the temptation to turn around was huge.  Hey, 2 miles is about what I was up to and isn't so measly and not much more measly than 3 miles...

 Enter:  The Funky Bunch.  

There is nothing like a kick-ass song to kick your ass into gear!  I smiled and sang and ran kind of fast for a little while.  I started to feel like I used to feel when I ran... like it was easy.  And when the song was over, I wasn't.  The "Good Vibrations" from that one tune carried me through to completion.  I was able to notice how beautiful it was out.  I was running past one of my favorite places...

It may not look like much, but I LOVE this slough!

The run ended up being 3.8 miles... in 36 minutes!  Go, me!