"The Feast"

To be a fly on the wall in this dining room...

OK this is fun...

I promise to not illustrate everything from now on- but right now I'm shloshed on V8 and this seems like a good idea...

I call it-

BATHBOY GARRET!

family time

I've been amused by some bloggers that use illustrations in place of pictures to tell their stories.  Well I just had to give it a try so may I present...

Family Time

Where were you when Oprah said good bye?

 I know that tomorrow is her last show, but I had time to sit down today and catch the farewell- part 2 episode.   And I'm offended I wasn't invited as a special guest.  Did she forget the success of my visit??  (see here)

I have to admit, I was caught up in the glorious array of tributes to Miss Winfrey.  She and I may not agree completely on politics, religion, and what makes a good book, but GOOD GOLLY that woman has done some great things over the years.  I teared up as all those GOBS of candle-carrying college students walked in to thank her for her part in their education.  Wow.   And the clips of those African school girls?  Oh my. 

I say, "Good for you Oprah!  You deserve this!"
and, "Thanks for helping me find the right bra size!!". 

Even though I wasn't a very frequent viewer, I think I'm going to miss her...

And now for the important part of this post-

While I watched (and for some reason, had my camera) Suzie provided the real star of the hour...

"Birdie"

You may need to squint your eyes.

contagious birds

We got a call yesterday morning from the school- "Brenda threw up."

Mike picked her up and she was comforted with a popsicle and Star Wars.

A few hours later the school called- "Garret's sick."

Garret was nestled with PJs, and Toy Story.  (He doesn't like popsicles.)

And while I did get a few things done (mowing, dishes, mounds of laundry, de-scarifying under Brenda's bed...) my main duties were puke clean-up, and discovering the fascination with "Angry Birds".  You know, that game everybody's got on their cell phone?  (What a fabulous waste of time that is...)  Thankfully Brenda figured out how to run to the garbage can when her stomach started to rumble.  And Garret just stayed in bed so we just kept the sheets and pillows going through the washing machine. 

They shlumped.  I shlumped.  We all shlumped.  And by evening we were all clean, warm, comfy and relaxed.  All done with the ickies.

So the kids are home today for recovery.  Hopefully no more puke clean-up and FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, don't let me start that game up again.  Those birds just keep coming!

singing and running and dancing

Would you like to know what I've been up to the past few days?  Hmmm?  

It's not that interesting.  But I'll finish it all with a bang.

So Friday, Mom and I tackled our last long run before the big day.  Thursday I was careful to rest my muscles, not eat too much, and get to sleep at a decent hour.  Good girl, Lindsay.  Good girl.  I have found through experience that I can run strong on very little sleep.  I can run fast through the rain.  And I can even set personal records during certain times of the month...

But I can't run in the heat.  

The sun won on Friday.  It squeezed every bit of energy out of me and left me with a glowing red scar-

If the hot sun shows up at the beach on June 4th, I'm gonna be crying for 26.2 miserable miles.  I'd rather it rained!  (It's Oregon, so I'm pretty hopeful...)

Brenda has been pointing to my neck and asking, "Wah-is dat?"  I say sunburn and then she laughs.  No sympathy.

We finished 19 of the 20 miles we had planned on.  And those 19 were drug out with many walking breaks in the scattered shady spots along the trail.  

I've had moments where I've wondered Why am I doing this?.   But more often I'm reveling in the realization that I can do this!  I CAN!!  (Unless it's too warm apparently.)

So anyway, in the next few weeks I'll be facing a more mental battle than physical.  Lots of pep talks for Lindsay...

Now, moving on.

Friday night a few girlfriends and I got together for an evening of old classic musicals.  Of course it took us hours of jabbering to even get to the first movie, which was the ever fabulous Music Man.  Darn me drifted off a couple times.  (Did I mention that after the 19-mile "run" a friend and I went on a 6-mile power walk?  That's 25 miles on foot in one day!)  I was pooped.  But not too pooped to sing along with the best parts...

"Good night, my sweetheart.  Good night, my love...."

and

"Madame Libraaaaaaaaaaarian!"

I sounded awesome.  (Or as mayor's wife, Eulalie Shinn, puts it, "Lovely ladies, lovely...")

...And I ate all the popcorn.

Wasn't I a good partymate?

Well, there's more to tell.  Like about the scout auction, another movie, a crazy nightmare...  But this post is taking too long so I'm just going to end with the promised "bang".

BANG!

trickle, trickle, trickle...

Hey sister, go sister, soul sister, go sister...

Now you've got that song stuck in your head, right?  haha!!  You're going to hate me in a few hours...

But look, I do have some pictures to back it up-

Gitchi Gitchi Ya Ya Da Da...

America's Next Top Ham-

I love my mom

Last year I was so excited to find, in my box of childhood stuff, a letter to my mom.  Posted *here*.  It was perfect.  Now here we are, a year later and I can't find another card like that one...
 So I'll just say that my kids are lucky that I had such a good mom.  Otherwise I'd have nothing to go on and they'd be toast.

To motivate Monica-

She'll know what this is about.  Everyone else just bear with me...

It's raining and my hair is frizzy.  Ummm, so cocoa sounds pretty good now.  I'm not sure why but I always have to watch my "cocoa" spelling.  For some reason I want to spell it "coacoa".  Weird, huh?    The kids are watching The Magic School Bus and Suzi won't stop saying "BUS!" until I respond, "Yes, bus!".  I like cookies.  And I like naps.  Yesterday was lots of church business stuff.  It's fun and it's stressful and it's silly and it's heavy.  Today I'm making cinnamon rolls for a bake sale.  Yummmm.  I think I'll make 3 dozen.  6 for the sale and ummm (doing the math) 30 for me.  I think that making those separated "sections" in plates was a genius idea.  Am I right folks?  But not good for stacking my cinnamon rolls.  I'm making cinnamon rolls today.  Yummmmm.  Somebody come mow my lawn please.

OK, Monica, let's see what you got...

What this fish is running with these days- (sequel to yesterday's post)

a fish can breathe out here...

So, as I have mentioned before, I like to run.

I'm not super fast, or super strong, or super sleek, or super cool...

But I get to run here:

and here:

and here:

...with just a short little jaunt from my front door.

Don't hate me.

Come join me!

p.s.  Here are the pics you requested, Mom.  I, uh, used them in my own blog...