Sunday, June 20, 2010

Sunday, June 13, 2010

The sunny side

At the splash park enjoying the summer. Notice the control freak with her foot on the restart button so no one else gets to hit it when the water turns off.

Joy!


With Baba on a hike above Ouzel Falls during his recent visit. She's getting really hard to carry, but she's also able to walk a mile or more, so we manage to still get in some good combo hikes.


1 - I ran a 4-minute 10K PR yesterday! For those of you who aren't running dorks, that means I ran 6.2 miles about as fast as I possibly can. I finished in 47:59 and placed 3rd in my age group. Too bad the awards were for 1 and 2. Double too bad the 2nd place woman my age was only 3 seconds ahead of me!! Many thanks to my wonderful running friends who paced me a pushed me.

2 - I've decided to get even crazier in my running and am joining a 10-person team to run the Wild West Relay http://www.wildwestrelay.com/index.html in early August. I'll be running 3 legs in the mountains between Ft. Collins and Steamboat and am likely to run 6 or 7 miles in the middle of the night, possibly down hill, in open range. For you city folks, that means cows on the loose! Never mind things that eat cows - I'm chosing not to think about those.

3 - We're loving our new house. Thanks to a few days of cold and rain, we did a bunch more unpacking this weekend. Just a few boxes left! Hey you Texans - it was 55 and rainy here today. I ran a race in capris yesterday. Come visit!!

4 - Hannah is amazingly grown up. She's been saying things like "So, um, Mom...." and I actually caught her putting the word "like" in the middle of a sentence. What??

5 - Despite my best intentions, Hannah had become quite the "kid food" eater. We set a goal of eating "big kid food" this summer - as in way fewer meals of fish sticks and freeze-dried veggies - and she's taking to it quite well. Of course it means she ends up in bed later because we cook for all of us together, but for now she's still napping (knock on lots of wood), so it seems to be all good. Feeding has been one of the most challenging parts of parenting since the beginning, so these little milestones are huge for me!

6 - Did I mention that it's summer and I'm break? I'm loving getting to be a stay-at-home mom for a while again! Of course Hannah's still going to school a little bit each week, so I also get some time to work around the house and take some long runs by myself or with friends. Very nice.

7 - Saved the best for last. We were running an errand in Boulder the other day, and Hannah asked, "Why is that man was standing by the road holding a sign?" So I did my best to explain begging and some of the realities that go with it. (Twice, because she often asks me to repeat my long answers.) Her response: "Not us, because we're on the sunny side of life." I cried and laughed the rest of the way down Arapahoe. We've listened to the song a few times in the car recently, but certainly not had some great discussion about the meaning of the lyrics.

First verse and refrain, for those of you aren't familiar with the song:

There's a dark and a troubled side of life
There's a bright and a sunny side too
Though we meet with the darknest of strife
The sunny side we also may view

Keep on the sunny side
Always on the sunny side
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help us every day
It will brighten up our way
If we keep on the sunny side of life