Home Alone

My children's eyes rolled to the backs of their heads as I sang one of the little songs my mom taught me as a kid (with a few words edited to my benefit)...

Today is a wonderful day!
For you are going away!
Not to the circus, not to the pool...
Can't you guess you are going to school!

Okay, don't get me wrong...I love my kiddos! Very much so! And we've had a wonderful summer:

• Great vacations (Sunriver, trips to Idaho, out to the beach, Terry to Europe, etc)
• Zach's fantastic baseball season
  
• Swimming at some different pools
• Enjoying the new trampoline Doug the pediatrician convinced me to finally put up
  
• Playing in the neighborhood--my water bill has covered enough sprinkler parties to keep all neighborhood kids soaked for the past 2 months and my food bill has provided enough popsicles to keep the same set of kids wired for those same two months

(Trevian, Zach and Trevian posing for the traditional first day of school photo--each holding up the number of fingers for what grade they are in. Yes--Zach really is 3 grades ahead of Trevian!)

But alas, it is time for school to start again. My oldest started middle school today and my youngest started first grade. So today I am HOME ALONE! ALL DAY! Trevian told me last night she knows how sad I will be to eat lunch alone today and how lonely I will be without her home with me. She was so excited though to get to have lunch at school and have TWO recesses instead of just one (like in kindergarten).

Zach is now the "responsible" Leonard family member at Cooper Mountain Elementary. He's our 4th grader this year! It's his job to lead the way to and from school each day (we live next door to the school so walking takes about 90 seconds). But nonetheless, he is to look out for Trevian and get her safely there and back each day. But he's ready to rise to the challenge! :)

And Terry is thrilled to be in Red Hall at Highland Park...at least probably until after school today when he gets home and has homework to do. Oh, and the return of the school-year video game playing time rules will be a rude awakening for all of them.

So summer is officially over...there's actually that fall "nip" in the air on a beautiful day...the kids are all excited about their new experiences at school...and my house has stayed clean for more than 20 minutes...Today IS a wonderful day! :)

Hood to Coast 2009

Hood to Coast** 2009 is in the books and it was our funnest year yet! Okay, I only say that because quite honestly, I kicked butt this year! First year I was sick and spent too much time scouting out honeybuckets. Second year was good but I was more worried about my marathon training so I didn't focus much on H2C. But this was MY year!!!! :)

(Doug and I at the starting line, the view up to the top of Mt Hood from Timberline Lodge)

Weather was perfect this year...high 70s, low 80s. So it poured rain on me on my 3rd leg...it felt great! And we're hardly hard-core H2C'ers. We firmly believe that all van-mates are entitled to a REAL shower after each leg and a place to catch a few zzz's during the night that doesn't involve a tarp, fairground fields and 10,000 other people! (thanks to our sponsors this year...Kevin, Shelbe, and Jake for use of your homes for each of our showers/naps)

2009 Team Name: Team Carebear (yeah, we didn't pick it). Teammates included "I Don't Care Bear," "Chafe Bear," "Shut Up and Run Bear," "Why am I doing this againBear?" etc. Actually, our great van mates included Heather, Doug, Ryan (Doug's brother), Kevin (my brother's father-in-law, who filled in last minute and did AWESOME), Kristan, and April (friends). And we had a ball...who wouldn't with 197 miles to cover, Miley Cyrus's "Party In the USA" as theme music (yes--I confess, it is a favorite running song of mine now), only 90 minutes of sleep, and a cowbell to ring out your window the WHOLE WAY!!!!

We saw stellar performances this year from Ryan and Doug who stepped up (or down) and covered legs 1 and 2 for us...dropping 3500 feet in elevation over their combined 11 miles, Kevin for running through the rainstorm and the wee hours of the morning, Kristan (who found a new level of "hard" in her racing experience but still conquered her first H2C in great time), April for giving up her bike for the weekend and trading out for her sneakers (she cruised right through it), and Heather for running the FASTEST 5.67 miles she has ever run as she found herself smack dab in the middle of a stolen car scene at midnight complete with 4 cop cars, large firearms, and people being cuffed and hauled away (I've never run so fast and I have never wished so much that I wasn't sporting a reflective vest, flashing light and headlamp in the dark of night---I wasn't slowing down until I was out of possible gunfire range!!!!)

(Doug's final leg...finished...6 miles with a climb of a few hundred feet in elevation followed by a fast 1/2 mile downhill)

(Heather's Rocky Balboa moment as I finish my final leg and click the "EASY" button! 3.6 miles of uphill, climbing 600+ feet followed by another 2.5 miles downhill...they post Prefontaine quotes along the climb just to keep you inspired until the end. Toilet paper finish line at the crest of the mountain courtesy of Doug)

Doug told me he was retiring after this year, but of course he said BEFORE we ran. He's ready to commit for round 4. Anyone want to run with us? We've got 4 seats in Van 1 up for grabs! :)

**For those of you unfamiliar with H2C, it's 197-mile relay held every August. It starts at Timberline Lodge on top of Mt Hood and ends on the beach at Seaside, Oregon. It was the first relay of it's sort and there are 1,000 running teams (plus some walking teams and high school teams) for about 20,000 participants. There are 12 people on a team, divided into two "vans" (or SUVs). Each person runs 3 legs of the 36-leg course, varying in distance from 3.5 - 7.5 miles in length for a total of 13-19 miles each over the 24-30 hours it takes a team to finish. It's crazy, but so much fun...197-mile-long party!!!

The Vacation Update

I got an update from Terry this morning on his vacation. He's in Italy now. What a week actually---Doug is in California, Terry's in Europe, Zach's going to Cub Scout camp all week, and Trevian is going to a parks and rec day camp all week. We are each on our very own agendas this week. And me...I'm just running mad between keeping it all straight!
Nevertheless, the vacation update from Terry. He's been spending the past few days in Venice and is off to Rome now for a few days. He went for a gondola ride and actually got to help steer the gondola. As I updated Doug about what Terry was up to, we both sort of sunk into this glum thought of how very unfair this is...Terry is 11 and seeing the amazing sights of Italy while Doug and I were oh so close to going back in April but had the trip frozen on us. It's just not right....Terry in Italy and me at home blogging about how I wish I was in Italy with him.
A message to Uncle Clint and Aunt Malisa....thanks for taking such good care of Terry and putting up with his "charming" personality all week. Feel free to stop feeding him. Cut him off...he's likely built up enough stores to see him home. :)

Cool blogs to check out!

Okay, so I don't do the best job keeping up my own personal blog, but here's a couple of links to blogs sharing material from me (okay...from my work really). Nevertheless, enjoy reading my summer tips for slimming down on either of the links below. And check out some cool blogs in the process.

http://girlgetstrong.com/2009/07/14/slim-down-while-summer-heats-up/

http://mizfitonline.com/2009/07/09/2579/

Vacation...it's all about the food?

Terry was given the opportunity of his 11-year-old lifetime this summer. He has gone to Germany with his Nana for two weeks. Doug's brother Clint is in the Air Force there and Nana agreed to let Terry go with her to visit. The trip also includes a visit to some other cities, and today they spent the day in Paris.

Each day I talk to Terry and I get the 2-minute travel report of what they have been doing. Yesterday's report began with "Guess what I did today Mom!!! I had 3 different kinds of German sausages!!!" Today he called and he said they went to Paris. I said "oh wow! What did you see?" Terry responded with a laundry list of items he had eaten today--he must've gone on for a minute about everything he ate. Finally I interrupted him and said "Terry, I said 'What did you SEE?' not 'What did you EAT?'" "Oh," he responded. "Um, we saw the Mona Lisa."

Hello! Really??? Seeing the Mona Lisa is an afterthought??? I just hope there are more than pictures of German sausages and meatball subs on those rolls of film he's burning through.

Have fun Terry! Don't forget to write in your journal every day. And if you bring me back food, make it some good German chocolate rather than a good German sausage. :)