Dec. 2014

What to say when 3 years has gone by without a post? Mike says to stick with current events. So that would be Christmas and my first stab at installing tile.

Christmas was great. We had the proper amount of chaos with two little boys, 3 dogs, 1 cat, and a grandma running around. Christmas is always slow in making an appearance here. It's no secret that it's not my favorite time of year. I love December for Ben's birthday and I pretty much refuse to acknowledge Christmas until after the 17th, so that doesn't leave us lots of time to plan. At any rate, thanks to Grandma Rita's visit, mom and dad got a chance to go out together and play Santa Claus. Spending quality time with my husband spoiling our kids - THAT is fun and reason enough to get into the holiday spirit.

We put off getting a tree until just a few days before Santa's visit. When we finally did head out to get a tree, Lowe's was cleaned out, not even a stray needle left around. The sales clerks were kind enough to suggest we try the local nursery. Yeah, at a sale price of "$what the heck are you smoking" we opted to cruise on over to the grocery store for a tree. Score, great tree for a pittance. Perhaps we shall make it a tradition - grab a mystery tree (they are all wrapped up so you just don't know what they will look like) from the grocery store at the last minute.

Anyway, the tree went up, Grandma made a pile of cookies, presents were wrapped and we finally got to bid farewell to that d*** elf on the shelf. All in all we had zero to do except play Santa Christmas Eve, first time ever I think! We watched the traditional "Bad Santa", said goodnight and were off to bed. 

The boys, well, they slept in until 7:30! What???!!! Presents and then breakfast, lots of playing, baked some bread for Christmas dinner and off we headed for round two with Aunt Stephanie & Uncle Michael. More presents, more food, games, fun day all around.

Oh yeah, and we wished our sweet little Arthur pup a happy first birthday. Apparently he's a Christmas babe!

Now for the tiling. Long story short, our shower needed to be recaulked. As most home improvement projects go, one thing led to another and next thing you know we are tiling around the shower. Alex, dear boy, spent over an hour picking out tile with his ol' ma. Quite a boring project for an 8 year old kid, but he was a trooper. It's always a little disconcerting starting something new. Fingers crossed that I actually knew what I was doing. Tile went up on the wall, we shut the door and went to bed. Morning comes, happily it's all still on the wall. More goes up, more drying, grout goes in, and that's where we are. Today I caulk, and what we set out to do 4 days ago will finally get done. It only took 4 trips to Lowe's, 4 days longer, and cost 4 times as much as originally planned. But it looks great, and apparently I did it right, because it hasn't fallen off the wall yet.

I am a Triathlete!

Yep, that's right, I AM A TRIATHLETE! (and just a little bit proud.)

I set a goal, I trained hard, I succeeded.

Sunday, Oct. 2, I competed in (and I think finished rather well) my first sprint distance triathlon: 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run. Toatl time: 2 hours 19 minutes.

Technically this was my 2nd triathlon, I did a mini-tri a couple of weeks ago. That was only a 300 meter swim, 2 mile bike, 1 mile run. It was so small and short I didn't really count it as a race, but it was.

Long story short, I loved it all and can't wait to do it again.

Things I learned along the way:

1. It's REALLY hard to get up and ride/run for nearly 2 hours at 5:30 in the morning on Saturdays :-)
2. I love to swim!
3. Baby powder is a triathlete's best friend on race day.
4. Open water swimming is WAY more fun than laps in a pool (and a whole lot easier too)
5. Pace Bend park has LOTS of hills.
6. I am a triathlete

I might come back to this post and add a few pics. In the mean time google Trek Women's Triathlon - Austin for the details of the race.

Yes, I am proud of myself :-)

Just Because...

I haven't posted a picture of the boys in ages, so here ya go. Here is a picture that Grandma Rita took of the kids in January. It was so hard for them to be anything other than silly and I just love it! Who needs a posed picture anyway???

Drip...drip...drip...

So goes the kitchen sink. It's been a job trying to get the drip fixed. Today a plumber came out for the 4th time! Looks like an end might be in sight though. Cross your fingers that the manufacturer of my faucet is true to their word about warranties and will replace my faucet for free. Then the plumber can come out and install said faucet (again for free) and there will be no more drip...drip...drip...

Can I blame it on Winter?

I've decided that I'm not really a huge fan of the cold weather. Maybe it's because I have now lived in central Texas for over 7 years where we don't get much cold weather? Maybe it's because I am getting older? Maybe it's just because when it is cold outside the house is so darned cold it's almost unbearable. (Anything below 50 outside and the house feels like an ice cube, we're lucky to see the internal temp reach above 52 and that is with the heat running.) It's hard to be anything more than sluggish at best when it is so cold inside. Anyway, I'm blaming my lack of posts on winter. I figure I have to blame it on something, so why not winter?

In theory, we still have a little more winter to go. It's not unusual to get a late February/early March freeze. I'm banking on it being over though. It's been in the mid 70s for the past week and just so lovely! I'm so happy not to be cold.

In all honesty though, 2010 was kind of a rough year. The job loss/new career was hard on Mike, hard on all of us. Alex started preschool. I love that he is so happy but I miss him terribly and it is only a sign of things to come as he will be heading off to full day kindergarten in the fall. I kind of wish the boys could stay this age forever. There was the heartbreak over not indulging my little business whim (the right choice, but hard nonetheless). There were the unexpected expenses with the cars and the house - part of life but not fun when everything plops on you at one time. There was Tucker's blown out knee. The boys both got real honest to goodness illnesses for the first time.

And the loss of grandma and grandpa - really still too painful to think much about.

There were so many good things too: Disney World, Bazaarvoice, 2 overnight trips sans kids, more curling, visits from family, fun holidays, trips to the zoo, many fun things.

I think I'm not going to play catch-up from the last 4 months. I'm just going to start from scratch. If I think of things I really want to post about that happened during my time away from this blog then I will post them, but I'm not going to make a conscientious effort to play the game that can't be won.

This year has started off well. For all the wrongs that happened last year, we seem to be making up for it 10 fold this year. All the little things seem to be falling into place. A few big things seem to be working out too. So I'm crossing my fingers that the 10 remaining months of 2011 leave me as happy as the first two have.

No promises on the next update, just hope that since I have found my way back here once I'll be able to do it again more frequently. So I'll see you later. I hope you are having a good 2011 too.

An Art Filled Weekend

This weekend was the annual Texas Clay Festival. This is a fantastic festival for anyone who is a potter or interested in pottery. It features potters from all over Texas. There are lots of demo areas and everything imaginable made out of clay. I could easily have spent all weekend there. But, with two little guys who are much more interested in playing than looking at a bunch of things they aren't allowed to touch, we only spent a little time at the festival, most of which was actually in the kids tent messing with clay. For the first time I did not bring home anything and that is only because I didn't have enough time to look and narrow down my selection. It was worth the drive (about an hour to a town called Gruene) just to get the inspiration to go back to my wheel. There was also an added bonus of lunch at the Gristmill.

The art festivities continued on Sunday when we met Steph & Michael for the reopening of a gallery here in Austin called Arthouse. Very cool place. The main exhibit was glass bottles that had been reformed and made into dishes. Sounds kind of weird and the picture in the paper didn't do the exhibit justice. It was just really well done, really neat. Of course the boys sniffed out the kids craft room. They have a knack for finding the project areas wherever we go. They seemed to like the gallery too.

As for the rest of the weekend, lots of the usual playing and watching football. I curled Sunday morning, lost my game by about 1/2" on the last rock thrown. Heartbraking, but that is the best way to lose. Way better than being completely thrashed by the opponent. I'm still looking for my first win of the season. Technically we won a game, but at the time we agreed before starting that the outcome would be a draw no matter what.

I finished Alex's halloween costume. He will be the best looking chef ever. I'll post pictures when I get them.

Tucker's leg is healing, we are midway through week 2 of 12 in the crate. He gets his staples out this week and hopefully that means the end of the cone of shame.

The boys recovered quickly and fully from their illnesses, good Alex seems to have returned and that's about all I;ve got for you for now!

What a week - blah.

Alex got his first stomach virus last Thursday. He was sick enough that he wasn't even upset about missing school. We thought we were out of the clear and were celebrating the fact that none of the rest of us got that nasty little bug when...

Ben got croup. Fortunately it wasn't a bad case. Nights have been a little rough, but he is almost better. Just to be on the safe side we took him to the doctor. In doing her routine exam she discovered that he has a nasty ear infection.

Then Tucker injured his leg last night. Turns out he blew out his cruciate ligament. The only cure is a very expensive surgery. It's very unfortunate that there is no health insurance for pets.

For a house where people/animals/things virtually never get sick, it's been a nasty week.

Oh and Alex has decided that it's time for him to take a little vacation and be replaced by his evil twin Horribly Fussy Grumpy Alex. I really hope it's a short vacation, because mama is REALLY short on patience right about now.

Ok - so I'm done grumping.