My hat!

So when Molly was in town she and I went to WOF together to ride the big roller coasters by ourselves. B isn't into that, so I have to go by myself if I want to ride them usually. It was fun! I got this dumb hat because I spent so much trying to win the ring toss so the kids could get a huge Scooby. Notice- no pic of the scooby....G thinks this hat is hilarious.

Mira
Bad pic of mommy.
And cute pic of Dad and G.
Not too much has been going on around here. Work has been slow which has been really nice because I've been able to be off which has helped with my stress level. Brooks asked today if I was secretly fired or something since I haven't been working. hehe. I'll probably be out of vacation sometime soon, but oh well. Today my task is lining up all of my receipts so I can get them to Medicaid. It'll be nice since the kids will be at school I can spread everything out on the table and get it straight.

I took my dad to the dr yesterday and he will start chemo on Monday. I'm supposed to work that day, so looks like I'll be using my FMLA. I have 2 weeks where I get paid for free of it and then I have to use my vacation again. Grandma will be taking him on Tuesday and Wednesday so hopefully he doesn't get too weak or anything. It takes about 3 hours and he goes in at 1 pm. Anyone who wants to stop by the cancer center at Heartland from 1-4 on M, T, and W can ;)

Otherwise, things are good. Mom and I took the kids to Oceans of Fun last week (without the camera, of course) and it was a blast!! We upgraded our season passes to include Oceans, so we'll be back.

Mayhem!

So I did my last planned Tri of the 2010 season today. I suppose something could come up in september, but right now my plan is to move on to 1/2 marathon training for one in the fall. I'm tired of the swimming and getting my bikes in is proving to be difficult.

This was the first race that I had done that it was HOT. So humid this morning. We lucked out and it was cloudy until about 1/2 way through the bike, but the run was terrible hot. It was the hardest course I've done so far- the hills were outrageous. On the bike you would go down a HUGE hill and pick up speed but then take a SHARP turn so you had to slow all the way down. As you turned you would immediately start going straight up. AH! The swim was probably my best and most confident. In all I was pleased with my times and effort.

Every time I do a race I get that, "What the heck am I doing here?" feeling. I felt really awful when I woke up this morning. A week of eating out nearly every meal has caught up to me. I've been uber stressed.... During the bike I prayed over and over...."God, just let me be proud of my accomplishments and show me what you've allowed me to be able to do." By the end of my run I was feeling great and my spirits were up. It is pretty amazing how far I've come in about a year and a half.

I had a FAN CLUB! It was awesome. They were in the perfect spot to see me before and after each event! So fun!!!Mira had fun making posters.

Cute! This one was a bit different- you did a treading start so we were already in the water. There was a lot more kicking which was irritating, but I felt like my time and energy were better and it was a lot less dramatic.

This lady who was 55 and doing her first was pretty freaked out. She was holding on to me! hehe.
You can see which one is me and it's so exciting! Look how high my elbow is out of th water!!! All that stroke work is paying off! WOOT!
Bike out! Right up the hill. The theme of the day! SHEESH!
Running back around the lake.
Running in!! Finally done- good because it was getting HOT.
Went out to eat for lunch and then took a long nap with the kids. Feeling great!

Stats if you care:

Overall place 111 (not broken down between women and men). I think there were about 190 some people in the short course)

Swim 11:44

Bike 46:12 (pretty slow:( )

Run 29:54

My run goal is always 30 mins, so not too bad considering the hills... the bike was as stated before, so oh well...! Overall= satisfied.

Catching up on Kid pics.

I think this is the absolute sweetest picture of Mira I have since about 4 months...

Mira's finished sign.

Our new sandbox!!! Griffy LOVES it.
Party!
Griffy and daddy lighting smoke bombs.

G and Mom.

Wow.

So it's been 10 days and a LOT has happened. I feel like everyone who reads really already knows, so I won't go into too much detail.

Last Thursday at work I got the call that my dad was diagnosed with terminal malignant melanoma in his brain and lungs. It's really quite tragic- he has destroyed himself with alcohol first and now this. It's hard to tell which symptoms are truly caused by which pathology. Molly flew in Friday morning to help get things arranged and we have since spent about 30+ hours in Saint Joe plus driving time. I'm absolutely exhausted. We got him a room at Carriage Square and he seems really content....that part seems a little strange to me, but as long as it's taken care of, it's fine with me. I went in just a few short days to not speaking to him at all to taking control of his life as his power of attorney. I don't really think the emotional part has hit me yet. For now we are just waiting to see if his Medicaid will go into effect and if he gets his disability pay. We have a little more money to spend to make him poor enough to qualify. After that I think I'll be able to breathe a little. I'm pretty worried that I'll somehow screw up the bills. He does pretty well for now- most of the time he can carry on conversations and get around fine, but he gets pretty confused and unsteady. It's supposed to just go downhill from here.

Really, I just want it to go fast. It's actually a bit nice to be able to spend time and talk with my father for the first time in many years. Though obviously altered, he's much better than he's been in a long time. We still have to empty the apartment, but I just can't deal with it right now. I'm going to leave it as is for a couple of weeks and then get my uncles to help me.

In the midst of all of this- the kids had their last day at Pepper's and their first day of preschool!!! G was teary when I dropped him off, but they enjoyed the day! They go back tomorrow for one more 1/2 day and then next week they start full time. I am sad at how much their life has changed with this, but also excited. I think they will learn so much! Mira is right at the age where she loves making friends and there are lots of little girls in her class. She also had her first sleepover with a friend last week. Pretty big stuff!

Yesterday they kids had their daycare physicals with Dr M. G is loosing ground again- due somewhat to our being lax about making him eat and because I cut back his pediasure because he was eating better. He's now 15% for height (as opposed to 40) and 7% for weight (24.8 lbs). Woops! So I ordered the pediasure..... Mira is great! She's 35 lbs- right at 50% for weight and 75% for height!

Griffy is doing great with potty training. He still has to be reminded to go, but sometimes he'll recognize it before we ask! He wears underwear all the time at home but diapers still at nap and when we're out. I know if I just had more time with him he'd be done, but I don't....so we're taking the slow road! Plus if I potty train him now, I'll be at least a year with NO BABY IN DIAPERS! AH! I can't imagine! (Well, except Mira who won't give up her overnight pull-up....)

Triathlon 2 for the season coming up on Sunday morning. I am done after that. I have too much going on right now and I need to focus on other things. I am still going to be running a lot- I'd like to do a 1/2 marathon in the fall, so I'll keep up my workouts, but it won't be as stressful to get them in! Let's just hope the pounds don't start pouring on!

Nothing else to report, as if I needed something else going on in my life right now! I'm just trying to keep my head above water in the day time and my ambien on board so I can sleep at night. Today I am working so I can try and think about someone else's issues for a few hours!

3rd

Last night we went over to David and Lana's for a little get together to extend the holiday! Here are the kids eating their chips. All G ate all night.

It rained a bit at the beginning of the night. They liked playing in it.
FAST!
B helping the kids light some smoke bombs and such.
Water guns!

It really wasn't warm enough for the sprinkler, but they played in it anyway.

So fun.
Kids had fun, food was good, what else would you want? Maybe some temps above 70?

The party is at our house tonight. Our neighborhood has a CRAZY party.

"Painting" our cookies this morning. The arms kept falling off all of the stars :( Irritating, but obviously, no one cared.
AAAAhhhh! He says to me, "I NO EAT LUNCH. Only cookies..."
Silly.
Have a safe and fun 4th!

Pre 4th!

We played outside last night for quite awhile after we got home from seeing Toy Story 3. The kids LOVED the movie and were great through the whole thing!

Here are the kids with Kirsten our neighbor. Had a great time playing with smoke bombs, sparklers, and poppers.

Here is M making a sign for tomorrow. She LOVES crafts. If she can cut and glue she's in HEAVEN!

Worlds of Fun.

We took the kids to WOF last night after B got home from work. We got there around 7 and had a blast!

We always start out at WOF in Camp Snoopy at the airplanes. They really like the ride.

Mira has figured out how to go high and now she won't let G ride with her because he screws it up!
The little train.
On the caterpillar. It's the little roller coaster- Mira said she liked it but didn't want to go on it again because it was pretty scary.
G was a sport!
They LOVE these horses. The ride makes noise like galloping and it's pretty fast.
At 8 they turned on these bubble machines and a ton of lights. It was really cool to see and the kids loved it!
On the "Roos."
YAY!
We did a few rides and then headed to get some food. Griffy and I ate pizza and Mira and Brooks split a pretzel. After we ate we took our first ride on the big train. They really liked it!
They LOVE the "bugs." They ride it at least twice every time we are there!
Griffy loves his sissy. If she gets on a certain car or ride, he wants to be right with her.
We saw this princess fairy that Mira loved but was too shy to get very close for the picture!
On our way out we walked through and looked at all of the lights. It was really quite neat to see! This is our 3rd visit to WOF already this season! We're gonna get our money's worth this year!