Hula Man

My boys are pretty sports-minded and have excelled in many athletic endeavors.  One I didn't know about was....

I looked up at the reunion and there he was...CBT hula-hooping away.

I always knew he had his daddy's rhythm.  I could never get the knack of the hula hoop - he definitely had some moves!

Is that Monkey or Tarzan?

I love Memorial Day weekend every year.  My aunt and uncle host a family reunion of sorts every Saturday before the holiday.  They bought the house and land where my maternal grandparents lived.  Then they bought the land next to it.  Then they built a pond between the two.  (They were very busy people.)  I don't know of many more peaceful place in the world.  There is this wonderful old barn where the walls have been replaced with screens near the home they built.  I'm sure it was my aunt's idea to hang a bed from the ceiling - she is so creative.  I have never even sat down on it because I know I would immediately want to take a nap.

Any way, they host us all...there are 11 grandchildren in my generation.  21 (with one on the way) make up the next.  7 "adults" comprise my mom's siblings and spouses....with the occasional other family members that show up, we have quite the crowd.

The food is awesome and the kids have so much fun.  There's the pond with pedal boat (or is that paddle?).  There's usually some kind of pick up game of something if not several things. Then there are all kind of water things to play with and finally there are the zip lines.  My guys love the zip lines.

This year, though, it seemed to be Christopher who was really into it.  After trying heroically to get the handle to the platform (only to see it slide away as he climbed up onto said platform), an adult went to help.

The orange shirt is my brother's son.  I just adore him - love, love, love getting my Bear hugs from him when I see him.  (Although this time, I did have to ask twice.  I guess they all get to that age at some point.)  Red shirt is my cousins son - brother of the cyclist.

Photography friends, I know these aren't the best.  You have to cut me a break.  You could feel the water in the air and the lighting was just impossible.  Use your imagination - certainly, it's good enough that you can imagine Tarzan.

This year I saw him do something I had never seen.  He put his feet up with his hands.  You can imagine what horrible thoughts were going through my mind.  (At that moment, it was not that I had found the missing link or how much he looks like a monkey.  More akin to "I wonder exactly how far is the hospital from here.")

I should have cropped and exported at a higher quality but, you know that I'm just getting back into the swing of things.  It was either bang this out or wait days to have time to do all that editing....regardless, this was a look of sheer jubilation.  Throwing his head back with absolute glee.  Oh, to be eight again.

Thanks, Aunt Pat and Uncle D-

Just Call Me Her Majesty

What do Charlemagne (pictured above with Peppin the Hunchback), King Arvirargus and King Henry III have in common?  They are all names that showed up in our family tree, either on my side or Keith's side.  We went to Troy for Memorial Day and for some reason I signed onto my Ancestry.com account.  I finally made Christopher go to bed at 3am and at 5am I figured I needed to get a few hours sleep.  

I just kept going and going....it was so interesting.  There were more famous names because, as I realized the more I looked at this, the royals kept it all in the family so once you're linked into royalty seemed like you were there to stay.  The most fun part was that my guys knew about all these medieval people.  I had never heard of Peppin the Short, but they knew all about him.  This project certainly made history come alive.  I need to do some more research to be convinced that my line goes back to Mark Anthony, but how much more fun to study history now!  I'll keep you posted - as if I don't have enough obsessions hobbies.

Along the lines of it seems like a small world, I actually ran into people I knew on this trip.  We were in Sikes and Kohn on the way to Troy.  (If you have never been in Sikes and Kohn, you really must go.  The biggest selection of flip flops I have ever seen.  I LOVE both pair I got.)  Any way, I looked up and there was one of the kids from my church in Tuscaloosa.  That was 20 years ago.  Russell hadn't change a bit, except that he was not in junior high any more.  Of course, I had on no make up and spend no time getting myself fixedup - who runs into someone at Sikes and Kohns?!

Then the next night, Keith took me out to dinner for our anniversary.  As I was sitting there, I recognized a guy my dad coached when I was in 3rd grade or so.  He would come back to visit us along and along after my dad left that school and quit coaching.  When my dad retired, he got my dad's job.  He had always told my dad that he inspired him - he must have because he called my dad the "Bear Bryant of PE."  Now, in these parts, that is about the highest compliment you can give anyone.

Hopefully, I am now back on a more regular basis.  I was sick and then our wireless network fritzed out.  (I really don't like Comcast sometimes.)  I've missed you guys.

I'm Back!

My last blog was May 6th....wow.  Seems like it wasn't that long.  I seem to recall that I had skipped a bit due to schedule.  Not long after that last entry, I developed a sinus infection that put a whuppin' on me.  Combine that with some air time and I have been in no shape to be coherent in a blog.

I have some many things to update you on.  I have actually started a list.  (Ok, for those of you who know me, you know I have a list for everything so that is really not a big deal.)

I'll start with two things and hopefully, get you all caught back up later.  The first is that the diet is working.  At least when I am faithful to count my calories and what I'm eating.  I suppose that is a fair deal.  I am hovering at 5-7 pounds lost so that camera is getting ever so closer.  There has even been some talk of upgrading to a 50D.  I have the Consumer Reports printout to really study the issue.  (Thanks, Molly.)  My anniversary is coming up so maybe I can work that into the negotiation.  LOL

The second is way more exciting.  I am not even sure I can do a funny/cute/creative lead-in.  (Maybe it's the decongestant's I am still taking.  I can rationalize flower pollen, but this tree and grass stuff is killing me!)  Any way,  James won the Georgia State Road Race Championship for boys 10-12 yesterday.  It was very cool to watch and he got a very cool jersey for doing it.  Now, he can wear that in any road race for the next year.  He's already talking about wearing it Nationals.  His teammate, Brody, came in 2nd.  They've been trading off wins all year and James out-sprinted him in this race.  

I hope you all have a wonderful day...I'll be back soon.

Mommyhood

There are some moments that I really love being a mom more than others.  There are those moments of being impressed at races/baseball games, moments of pride when they do the right thing, sweet moments when CBT just comes up and gives me a hug....and then those moments when they just make me laugh.  The other night, CBT got in the bed and waited for me to tuck him in.  It took longer than it should have.  When I walked in, I almost laughed out loud.

He was dead asleep with a Santa cap on.  He loves to dress up even for bed.

Sunny King Crit

Today was the Sunny King Crit.  It was supposed to be raining at 7am, clearing at 9 and mostly sunny and 10 and 11.  James and I got to Anniston (after riding through some rain) to find it very cloudy.  It just wasn't clearing up.  As a matter of fact, the clouds looked a lot like these...which were at my house when we got home.  Apparently, it rained at this race last year.  Clearly it was called Sunny King after a dealership and not the weather.  

But, alas, I am getting ahead of myself.  His race started without rain.  He looked really good and strong and even attacked here (as shown below) just at he passed with 1 lap to go.  His teammate, Phillip O'Donnell attacked and stayed out for many, many laps.  He eventually won.  James's goal was to stay in the main pack (with the 13- and 14-year olds).  He almost got away from them (them, the pack but them not including Phillip because he was long gone), but in the end stayed with them (the pack) and finished 3rd in his age group.    I was very proud of him.

My cousin Lisa's son was racing the next race with the older juniors.  I wanted to get some pictures so I walked to the other side of the course.  Next thing I know, one of the officials said, "Here it comes."  Oblivious, I was thinking "here what comes?"  Then I knew.  The absolute bottom fell out of the sky.  Immediately, I am running and my camera and trying to cover it with my body.  That was not a pretty picture.  Did I mention I was wearing flip flops and the water was flowing over my foot?  A very nice man and his wife let me stand under their tent during the worst of it.  The poor guys on the course.  (By the way, Lisa, I did get a couple of decent shots.)  The cousin's son had a great race.  Of course, I am thinking anyone that didn't crash had a great race.  He didn't crash and he finished near the front.  As I as standing under the tent I kept thinking about about poor James, who didn't have a way to get into the van.

By the time we hooked up, I was soaked, he was soaked and it was still raining.  We rushed to the van because one of us had a dry change of clothes.  While James was changing, I got in the front seat to talk to him for a minute.  As I got out, I told him to be sure to lock the van.   Maybe I would dry out some now that it had stopped raining.

Well, he locked it and even double checked it.  Later, when we were visiting with the  aforementioned cousin, I realized my van keys weren't in my pocket.  This is not a good thing.  I found a very, very nice Anniston policeman who called the PD a.k.a the Police Department (I have the lingo down now) and asked them to send someone.  (James pointed out to me a couple of times how embarrassing it was for your mom to look her keys in the van, especially as I stood there with the policeman.  I pointed out to him it really wasn't my fault - we could tell from where they were sitting, they fell out of my pocket.)

But, back to the story.  The PD (they also called the people PD) stood there with me for a long time.  He eventually said he needed to get back, but would check on me in a bit.  After a grand total of about 30 minutes he came back....with ice cream....to tell me someone was just minutes away.  Little did he know the new PD was bringing him the tool with some comment about how busy they were.  I think it may have had more to do with the fact that the bottom had just fallen out again.  Literally, as we got to the van from the awning we were hiding under, these huge drops started falling.  (You would think someone up there could hold on to that bottom better.)  So, the two of us are standing there in the downpour.  I am holding his almost totally eaten cup of ice cream and he's trying to break into my van.  He commented a couple of times about how hard it was for this van.  At one point I started to wonder why I am holding this couple since it now had about twice as much rain water as it did ice cream.

In the end, he was my hero, but he did get the van open.  I almost hugged his neck, but did I mention I was absolutely sopping wet?  I won't tell you about sitting in the van and taking off my shirt to put on my dry fleece.  Or, how frustrating it was to have an umbrella in sight during all this and not be able to get it.  Or, what I wanted to say to the guy at the Taco Bell drivethrough when he said, "You look like you got wet."  I was probably just on edge since we sat in line for 10 minutes actually at the order thingy waiting on him and his brilliant comments.

Fortunately, we made it back, but not after driving about 40 mph on the interstate past dozens of cars that stopped on the side of the road.  I was so glad to get home and get dry.  And, James, if you're reading this, I hope one day you lock your keys in your car so you understand that it's not just embarrassing when your mom does it :)