6:30 a.m. It’s time to make the biscuits.
Or was that another commercial?
I put on some running shoes and headed down to check-in for race volunteers.
Yes, 6:30 on a Saturday was early even for those of us who get up early all week long.
Yawn.
Kristi Fridell was there.
Along with lots of people. As the sun crept up, the runners crept in moo.
First was the Mile Fun Run.
Then the 5K started.
Kristi and I ran along together.
She’s a lot younger and a lot faster than me so after running 1.5 miles when she said, “I haven’t been running a lot lately” —
I believed her.
After the race, saw the Cardwells. Mary Claire won her division and Dad placed somewhere in his.
All smiles.
It was a great morning. For those who missed it, there are plenty of races close by left in the series to run.
I hung around thinking I might take home a bit of hardware and I wasn’t disappointed.
I missed my two older boys.
The Fighting Blue Hose of Presbyterian College held their Spring Game and all the incoming freshman players were invited to join in the festivities.
So Dad and our first born headed up that way today.
If you’re in Madison this time next year….you’ve got to join in the fun.
With a whole year to train, what’s your excuse?
This Saturday, March 31 the Chick-Fil-A Race Series will stop in Madison, Georgia.
Proceeds from the race go to the Northeast Georgia Food Bank in Athens.
I was with a group of volunteers hanging with the Methodists tonight stuffing bags for race day. (There is a coupon for CFA in there — along with four safety pins.) So racers, you’ve got that going for ya.
If you get a bag short of safety pins, I’m sorry. I was at a table with two very nice, organized women and their attempts to sort and organize our table and bag stuffing…
Throughly confused me.
The race will start downtown.
This was news to me who thought the race was starting out at the Chick-Fil-A like last year. If you ran last year,
DO NOT HEAD TO THE RESTAURANT.
The volunteer coordinator had nice graphics to show us what to do.
They’ll have a jumpy and all kinds of awesome-ness.
So show up for the Mile Run at 8 a.m.
And the 5K at 8:15.
You can register on race day, but if you sign-up by tomorrow online you save $5.
So hope to see you there. I’ll be helping out at registration till post time.
Is it post time for people? Not sure.
Carving pumpkins and dying eggs.
What will I do when I have no children under foot?
The jack-o-lantern will be easier because I can tell myself it’s for the children knocking on the door…
But eggs?
No crowd comes to enjoy our decorated eggs in a basket but those of us around our dining room table.
So for what is about year 17….
Looks like we are gonna have some kind of party.
I’m very old school when coloring eggs.
Water and vinegar…the fizzing color tablet.
We invited the neighbors over.
And got to work.
And once the eggs were all wearing their new purple and blue cloaks…
I set them on the table.
Maybe I’m getting all sappy because my oldest is graduating? Who knows?
When my children are gone will one of you come over and sit on my stoop while we drop hard-boiled eggs into red Dixie cups?
Kids.
Kids want critters in the house. As a child, I chose the common toad as my critter of choice to stuff in a jar.
More frog teeter trickled across my palm as a 8 year old than as an adult with three infants combined.
My eight year old son brought back a boatload of anoles (your common outdoor lizard) with us from Florida on Spring Break.
They went straight in the tank with our tortoise and turned brown as pine bark — because that’s what they lived on. Well, coconut bark. They existed on that and water for we hadn’t managed to catch any crickets in two weeks.
Today before school my son said, “I’m going to let my people go.”
Not really, but it was rather biblical. Freeing the captives from the desert into a land flowing with crickets.
So today after school, we set out to free five anoles.
The Beast — or one of them.
I couldn’t do it. It freaked me out. They bite. Now they might have been so weakened they couldn’t bite a mini-marshmallow or they could have been really cranky and crank out a nasty flesh wound.
What to do?
What would Ross Allen do? What would the Crocodile Hunter have done?
What would the Swamp People do? (Oh yeah, they’d just pull out a pistol. I hate that show and every male in my house LOVES it.)
I channeled my inner reptile wrangler and grabbed a…
Yes, it might look like a common athletic sock but in reality it’s a high tech tool of the anole wrangler.
Anole Whisperers around here? Heck no.
We take care of business.
They all are roaming free as we speak. And turning green.
Well, once they make it off the driveway.
What was your critter of choice?
My life.
There are definitely people/things/services that make is easier.
And that is the list suggested this week by Terri @ Terri’s Little Corner for Stasha’s weekly Listicles. So here it goes..
10. My 18 year old.
Granted, it wasn’t our plan to have children so far apart. But as the Lord taketh, He also giveth and now it is wonderful to have a responsible young adult to ferry our two younger kiddos here and yon.
Problem: He doesn’t have his own car, so at times his desires for freedom conflict with my need to run somewhere.
Problem II: He is leaving for college this fall.
9. Work.
Granted sometimes it’s hard to juggle writing assignments and obligations with everything else. But having a little extra money is wonderful these days. I’d love even more work to come my way. Need to spend the time searching for more outlets.
Eight and Seven are a Subset of Work.
8. Google. Whether drafting an article, column or writing a blog post, what did people do before Google?
Rip their hair out at the library I suppose.
7. Spellcheck. Whether drafting an article, column, blog post or email, what did we do before spellcheck?
When I do try to look something up in a dictionary, I can’t read the print. <<< Insert ripping of hair and gnashing of teeth >>>>
6. My in-laws.
Living a few houses over, they have been lifesavers. When we are short a car, short a sitter, short of air conditioning — they have rescued us over and over.
5. My garden.
Now it’s tough getting it planted. I have help..but once things are growing, whether it’s lettuce for a salad or sandwich or a tomato — everything is just a few steps away. Shelling peas might not make my life easier but they certainly add a touch of heaven in the summer.
4. Living in a small town.
Spending a week in Florida with my relatives made me realize once again — it doesn’t matter how much you love a place — if you are a crabby mess because of traffic — things are less wonderful.
Granted, I always feel this way when I visit Atlanta too.
Life in small town is much more laid back.
3. Pre-cut veggies and fruit.
This seems to completely contradict number 5 but so be it.
2. My car.
It’s falling apart on the inside but the motor is still humming strong. I really consider her a family member.
1. My iPhone.
My calendar that alerts me to appointments I always forget, the beast that wakes me up in the morning. Keeps me in touch with those I need to be in touch with and those I don’t. I tried to be good one day at Disney and go off unplugged without my phone.
Within an hour, we had separated to ride different attractions and it suddenly dawned on me.
YOU IDIOT. How in a million years was I going to find my husband?
I borrowed the person-sitting-next-to me-on-the-curb’s iPhone.
Technology. Can’t live without it.
What makes your life easier?
"Wal*Mart after church.
With the children.
"No." "No." And "No."
I said "No" to objects for ourselves. We were to buy
birthday presents and cards.
In the card aisle my daughter hands me one.
"This is you..."
Okay. Maybe that is me on certain mornings.
Then she showed me this one.
I held my breath.
"This is not you."
Thank God she said that.
I can take the "you're mean" the "you're not a cool mom."
But the old lady on the greeting card?
That would have hurt.
Yes, I am pulling myself together for this post after the Gators LOSS.
John was the coward and started Tin Tin while there were still six minutes left in the game. Of course, at that point the Gators hadn’t gone belly uppppppp.
But I digress.
* * *
I did this race last year with my Hannie. I thought what a wonderful mother/daughter tradition. She wasn’t interested. So I thought, I could really enjoy sleeping in on Saturday.
But last Wednesday, on the last day possible, I registered us.
So here we were at the start — 8 a.m. this glorious spring morning.
A great crowd as always.
We got to talking with Patty and her daughters. They live just around the block from our in-town house of ten years.
I was sterotypical mom and pointed out to my Hannie how these girls had their hair in lovely braids. But then I looked at mine in these photos. Ugh.
I am the mom right? That counts for something, even if it is wearing your hair just like you told your daughter isn’t the most becoming of a young lady. (Or not so young lady.)
We were off.
* * *
Complaining……
She complained her little heart out. But I took some deep breathes. We are making memories right? No one remembers the heat and long lines at Disney World. The eternal walks across The Mall in D.C? The “event” meals that you pay tons for where the kids fight.
No. You gloss over all the unpleasant and distill things down to the essence of experience with your child.
So.
I kept my mouth shut….and opened only to encourage, “If we run a little now, we’ll finish that much faster.”
Notice the love cast my way at the 1.5 mile water station.
And I coaxed her all the way to the finish.
“You’re the lady with the blog right?”
Meet Marcia.
Seems yesterday googling for pictures of this race (her first) she came across my blog post from the race last year.
She looked at Hannie, “You beat her right?”
So that was cool.
And by this time Hannah was loving the fact that she completed the race.
Kids are funny that way.
We made our traditional stop on the way out of the city.
Hannie watching the lady as she loaded up two dozen.
Why not?
It was great day.
The Atlanta Track Club puts on a awesome race. Runners and walkers of all levels of fitness are celebrated. Those of you who have seen what they can accomplish with 55,000 on July 4th should join us next year on the third week in March.
I’ve got 365 days to talk Hannie into it. right?
Have you done anything like this with your children, nieces and nephews?
Two weeks.
Easter is in two weeks. So I thought it high time to take down the St. Patty’s Day flag in front of the house and find the Easter decorations in the attic.
We don’t have lots but we have some white bunnies and chicks that I like to place around.
They end up looking silly, out of place — like one of those SwampPeople at a concert at Symphony Hall — for I have no panache for setting out tchotchkes.
But I do try to set them out and create a homey, Poorman’s Pinterest Easter atmosphere for my children.
I found these wee babes.
These were mine when I was a very little girl.
I loved their ears off. If you look close there is glue on about every part of their little brown ceramic bodies.
Seem to recall another story about a fluffy stuffed bunny who was loved to death.
Or loved to life.
Which was it?
I always forget about these babies till I unwrap them.
I loved them so.
Maybe when my ear falls off my children will still think I’m beautiful?
Their tips are starting to fray. The tips of my ears not the tips of my children.
What about you? What have you loved to pieces?
Hotels.
Linking up with MamaKat — I chose prompt number 5: What was the occasion? Write about the last time you stayed in a hotel.
Hmm. Let’s see. About a month ago, we travelled to Disney World to run a 5K as a family.
Unpacking…in hotels.
Do you or do you not?
I was never an unpacker. My suitcase from Spring Break is still on my bedroom floor. When did we get home? Dear goodness, it hasn’t been a week yet, has it?
But lately, when I get to a place, if we are staying a couple of nights, I unpack and arrange our clothes in the stiff, unnatural furnishings of a hotel.
This is a sign that even the most unstructured of humans CRAVES order.
I have gotten so that I hate clothes all jumbled up after they have been pilfered through in a suitcase by husband, children or me.
If ever there is a LAND of QUICK CHANGES, it’s Disney.
Run in, run out to the pool.
Run in, run out to eat (where’s my jacket.)
Wake up at 4…where are my running clothes? Where is that flipp’n race bib?
Chaos in a chaotic place.
I have discovered that I like the little things…like finding clean shorts. And finding clean underwear. Clean, dry socks.
Maybe occasionally a bra?
Runners are forever looking for socks at the last minute race morning. What a pain to be rifling around in a tub of a suitcase for a clean pair of rolled socks.
I feel so grown-up.
Unpacking and storing our clothes in hotels did that to me.
Wow.
Do you unpack or no?
Looky what I found under a car seat.
I love him.
I christened thee…Tebow II.
He sits when I ask him to sit.
He stays when I say “stay.”
No pooping on the floor yesterday for me to step into racing out the door to a teacher conference.
No needing to walk outside at 5 a.m. (Or 10 p.m.) No. He’s just happy to sit on my dash.
No black dog hair all over my white subway bathroom tile. Hair that NEVER completely goes away even after I tried cleaning the floor with my tongue.
No bumping my arm relentlessly as I try to type. No, he never gets jealous of my prolific, below-poverty-standards writing career.
He’s so very cute.
They really could have been separated at birth.
Well, I guess he’s not really Tebow the first.
