More road trip planning

It's that time of the year again.

TMOART:15 is just around the corner.

If you haven't been around for very long, that stands for The Mother of All Road Trips: 2015 Edition. It's our annual (for the most part) road trip from here in Kansas to my parents' house in Pennsylvania, usually with a few (or a lot of) other stops thrown into the mix.

This year, we're keeping it simple. Renting the short bus last year cost us a small fortune, so we're taking my van this time - which means that luggage has to be kept to a minimum. Side trips are going to be eliminated due to finances and time and overcrowded seating arrangements. But we're still doing it. We're going to spend more time with my parents (including a reunion of all of my siblings, something which hasn't happened in a lot of years), more time relaxing and less time running around like idiots trying to see everything and do everything and run run run run constantly.

Of course, along with planning the actual itinerary comes planning for all of the crap that has to be done before we can even pull out of the driveway. There is a lot of stuff that we need to do first, things like an oil change in the van and weeding out the garden and flowerbeds and mowing the grass. And of course my constant obsession over the financial aspects of it, budgeting for gas and food and fun stuff and (please no) emergencies.

The lists are running rampant. On my phone. On scraps of paper. In my head. On my gigantic new-to-me white board calendar that I got in a thrift store in OKC earlier this week.

But the funny thing is that even now, as we get down to just over a week before we leave, I'm not spazzing out about it like I usually do. We've done these trips enough over the years that I know that no matter what, unexpected things are going to happen (remember The Great Flying Boulder Incident?) and we'll just make the most of it and have as much fun as possible before the reality of another school year starts less than 2 weeks after we get back.

The kids are excited to go, I'm more than excited to get away from reality for a while, my parents are looking forward to seeing the kids, and it'll be nice to have some real quality time with The Dude.

I'm so ready.

Observations from the day

Today has just been one of those days when I kept seeing things and saying to myself "I should write something about that" but then when it came right down to it, I couldn't come up with the words. So instead, you'll just get my random thoughts and a few pictures.

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For whatever reason, whenever the sky looks the coolest, the stupid panoramic feature on my phone camera refuses to work. So instead of getting a really cool panoramic view of this....

I end up with this kind of garbage....

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Facebook is such a funny place. For real. I enjoy it most of the time, in spite of the haters. But it's so ironic that I can post things about having a glass or 3 of wine when most people know that I'm the only adult in the house and no one bats an eye (having one right now, thankyouverymuch) but when I post a picture of a lightbulb, it sparks intense debate (not just tonight - every time I mention that I use CFLs it happens).

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And this one....this one might just be my most favorite observation of the day. It would have been cooler still if I had noticed it two days ago, but still - I'll take it.

A girl with a vision. A mom with power tools.

It's a good combination.

It all started out a while ago when Emily decided that she wanted a bookshelf for her room. The three basement bedrooms are small, don't have closets, and all have at least one cement wall - which makes adding shelves more difficult. We've had to get creative with storage down there (remember the beds that we built?), but so far the kids have done well with improvising.

Emily decided that she wanted basically a bigger version of some cubbies that I had made for the girls many years ago. I told her to draw up what she wanted, and we'd figure it out from there. So she came up with this:

She drew it on her iPod. Whatever works, right?

We finally decided to do it yesterday, so we went out to the garage and poked around in the plethora of scrap plywood leftover from other projects. Once we found the wood we were going to use, we got started. She decided to change some of the measurements a bit, but that was the fun part - we created as we went.

She decided that she wanted a back on it, but rather than use plywood, we used a scrap piece of paneling that we found in the garage to give it a different look - and make it not be quite so heavy to move around.

Once we got it assembled, she went to work with the sander.

Then she dug around the cans of paint in the basement until she found the one that she wanted - light colored so that she can doodle on it and decorate it however she wants to.

It actually is square - but the picture
makes it look wonky.

I really can't complain about a kid wanting more room to keep her books - and I'm even more thankful that she was happy to design it and help build it rather than insist on something store bought. We had a fun few hours doing it, she's happy with the final product, and it didn't cost us a penny.

Pretty awesome in my opinion.

Take a step back

We had some pretty nasty storms yesterday here in our neck of the woods. They didn't last long, but they packed a punch with a lot of wind and rain. We got stuck driving home in it, and for the first time in a long time I debated pulling over until I could see better, but at that point I was only a few blocks from home and wanted to get the boys inside in case it started hailing.

Luckily, the weather passed quickly, and we got cleaned up and headed out to Scouts and then to the library for a bit. We didn't get home until close to 9pm, and after the boys went to bed I went downstairs to work on a sewing project.

This morning, when I finally rolled myself out of bed, I looked out the window of my bedroom like I usually do - and then without even stopping in the bathroom I put my crocs on and went out to my garden.

Or what was left of my garden.

A good sized branch came out of the neighbor's tree and landed partially on their fence and partially on my garden. I couldn't really tell at that point how much damage there was,but I knew that the only way I was going to find out was to get in there and start cutting. I went back inside, went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, and went over to the neighbor's house to make sure that they were even aware of the situation.

She came to the door and said that yes, they knew, but they didn't know how bad it was on my side. I showed her the picture that I took and she gasped in shock. I told her that I would clean up my side as best I could, and she said that they had already called their son (they are both in their mid to late 80's) and hopefully he would come over after work to help clean up the mess. I assured her that I would help clean it up since I knew that they would be unable to help.

Then Alex and I started cleaning. We got the clippers and started cutting the smaller branches to remove them to see just how much damage had been done to the garden. Once we got the worst of the branches out, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the damage was contained to one potato plant and possibly a raspberry bush.  That was it.

I was thrilled.

We went ahead and did a quick weeding since the ground was wet, and then he helped me to stake up some of the more wobbly plants and we piled all of the branches we had cut into the wheelbarrow.

There were a lot of branches. The wheelbarrow was completely covered.

But then I took a few steps back and looked again.

And a few more steps.

A few more steps back, and I started to see just how much bigger the problem really could have been.

And at the same time, I started to realize how small the problem really was in the grand scheme of things.

Perspective. 

Sometimes it takes a blinding storm to see things a little more clearly.

Not quite a day of rest...

After running the 5K yesterday, I figured I'd do a whole lot of nothing today.

I figured wrong.

I don't know what got me started, but I was outside, just kind of puttering around in the yard. I've noticed some bricks that were hidden by dirt behind the house, between the patio and the firepit area before - I kind of thought that maybe it was a walkway, but I wasn't sure. So I started poking around.

Now, we have already found a ton of bricks around the property. I don't know what the previous owners did with all of them or where they came from, but we've used them for various projects, including the firepit.

Not knowing exactly what I was getting into here, I started to dig.

And then I got the wheelbarrow and started to dig some more.

And then the broom to see exactly what was there.

And then Alex came out and started to help me - until he got bored, then he'd go back inside and out of the heat.

There were parts that were under almost 6" of dirt and grass that had just overtaken it.

By the time I was done, I had removed enough dirt to fill the wheelbarrow twice, and I uncovered an entire walkway made out of bricks. It's uneven in spots, and it's considerably lower than the level of the grass, so I'm going to have to do a LOT of work if I end up keeping it (I debated digging it up and reusing the bricks elsewhere). I have a few ideas in mind for things that I can do with it, but I have to figure out just how much work it's going to take, not to mention how much money.

For now though, I think I'm just going to leave it as is - until I come up with the ideal plan. And a lot of extra time. And win the lottery.

Or at least until after we get back from vacation.

So did I tutu or not?

Last night, I wrote about how I got roped into doing a 5K today.

Well, I did it. And I survived. Barely.

Since I hadn't run a step since the half-marathon in May, I knew it was going to be hard and that I was going to pay for it. And before the end of the first mile, I wanted to die. But stubbornness prevailed for a while.

The first mile was all in the sun, and even though it was only 8am and it wasn't that hot out yet, there wasn't a lick of a breeze and it felt HOT. The second mile wasn't so bad - it wound in and out of a bunch of buildings (so much so that it seemed like a drunk designed that portion of the course) so there was quite a bit of shade.

The third mile was totally out in the sun again. And while we don't have real hills in this part of Kansas, there was enough of one that I had to give up and walk for a bit. I was mad and frustrated by that point, but I also tried to give myself a little bit of slack since I did this one (stupidly) without training at all.

Once I got up that hill, the course made another sharp turn and headed toward the finish line (and it was downhill!) so I knew I could make it. I spotted The Dude and the boys waiting at the bottom near the finish line, and seeing them always makes it better.

So I did it. My time was not fabulous by any stretch of the imagination, but I did it. I'm not in it for speed or medals or prizes - it's only for my own personal goals. And now I have a little bit more motivation to get busy and train over the next few weeks so that I can do the race in PA without dying on the mountains.

But the question remains: did I tutu?

He missed the shot when I was flipping him off.

I did not tutu. I just wasn't feeling the tutu, although I brought both of them along to the race before I made my decision. I decided that the sparkly sequins were a little more festive for the 4th of July than the tutu was.

However, The Dude did tutu momentarily - at least long enough for me to get a picture.

What a stud.

I do have to give him a shout out though. He's not feeling well - some kind of summer bug - and honestly, he was downright miserable. But he dragged himself out of bed to go along with us this morning to keep an eye on the boys and act as my photographer. I couldn't do this stuff without him, and I appreciate him more than words can say.

(And he lets me post ridiculous pictures of him. Bonus points right there.)

Wait, tomorrow?!?

Ah, The Dude. He should know that conversations like this never end well for him.

But being the good guy that he is, he usually ends up dealing with whatever crazy scheme I've cooked up for us.

A friend of mine messaged me today and informed me that there was a local 5K happening tomorrow. I had heard little bits and pieces about it, but didn't really pay attention to it. I think I was trying to hide from it because if I actually knew about it, I'd want to run it. Because I'm weird like that.

Anyway....I haven't run a step since I did the half-marathon back in May. I've been wanting needing to get back out there again but just haven't really had the initiative. But I want to do a 5K when we're in PA on vacation, and if I'm going to do one there in the mountains then I need to at least get my butt in gear and start running again here where it's flat so that I don't die mid-race and fall over a cliff or something because that would kind of put a damper on the whole vacation thing.

So yeah. Because I have nothing better to do than to make a fool out of myself first thing in the morning....

So I guess now the only question is:
tutu or sequined skirt?