Back home again

Wow, back home again from the big trip to the big city of DC. It is hard to believe I was gone since now I am surrounded with laundry and making dinner, but the memories will stick with me because after all there are great memores. When else will I get a chance to to Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland all in one weekend. Probably never. When will a friend go with me and comb racks of pants to find yoga pants just for me? Probably never. Who will watch me buy four-yes four pairs of shoes and applaud my efforts-can't think of another person. Who will let me cook in HER kitchen and tell me what I made tasted fabulous (when I know her cooking skills far exceed mine).Gracious as always

I will let Karen share the rest, she is always better with words then me...Thanks for the visit friend.

List for karen

Mango Salsa ingredients
Pork with green salsa ingredients
Boots
Purse
Yoga pants
Wine

Think that about covers what I need!

Fall foliage, then and now

I have pretty much given up on family fall pics each year. It used to be an annual thing. Matching clothes, perfect hair, and plenty of candy on hand to bribe toddlers and preschoolers to be good. I am not sure if I have become less patient with the whole proces, found candid photos that work just as well, or just plain lazy. Still not sure which.

But today I was inspired by an early morning ride on the Mickelson Trail with a friend. So I gathered up boys and dog (I had forgiven her by now for the underwear fiasco). Here is the funny thing, I didn't have anyone change clothes or comb hair, we grabbed the camera and a bag of chex mix, with electronics in hand, and away we went.

I have to admit, the old feeling came back, with the same faces, eye rolling and bickering at the start of the walk. Where's the water? Can we get in the water? Is this poison ivy? ARE YOU SURE? Wait I need to put water on my legs I think it is poison ivy...I may have threatened to turn right back around to the car. But the beauty and nature took over and....here we are a little flashback to the old fall foliage days and some new ones to share. Dang, not bad for weekend photographer if I do say so myself. I love these guys, just what I needed this weekend.


THEN

 

 NOW

 

 

Oh so little 

And now, not so much 

 

Hmmm maybe not so changed after all

Who knew?

 

 

 

Number 4

4.
This is the number of MY underwear that MY dog chewed while we were at soccer this evening.
Needless to say we are not speaking to each other.

5 words

Today was a good day. I don't know if I have said that since the school year started, which gives you an idea of HOW the school year started. I think I actually told my boss and co-workers that working at Starbucks was looking PRETTY GOOD for a career path.

But...

Today was a good day.

18 days

In 18 days I will be here, and this is the only monument or historical excursion I will make my friend Karen take me on.

Just have to take a pic so I can tell my dad I was there just for him. AND I promised Small Fry I would not take one step in any Smithsonian Museum without him.

A little lonely upstairs

So what does one do when the hubby is a grump (even though he doesn't think so), and you have a huge faux pas by correcting him in front of the children of how he is being grumpy with said children for no reason. AND you can't even text your best friend about it because of a wee little texting argument the day before that just doesn't feel quite over yet. Blog, that is what you do.

The weekends event, hot, dusty, hot Aberdeen. Way better than hanging with the soccer crowd, just saying. Here is how I know. No refs get berated (there was a little complaining about the heat and taking too long), no one is gossiping about teacher or principals or other people-well around me anyway. All the moms scream for all the kids as if they were their own and Big Fry is always a big hit with the little riders, he is very entertaining.

Of course it isn't a sport if there isn't a little drama. Small Fry as usual has BIG visions of going to Aberdeen and kicking some, ummm you know what. He always underpeforms, not because he is outclassed though, because his head messes with him. He threatened on night one to QUIT after the weekend was over. In my excellent parent experience I may have said "can you do us a favor and do it now, saves us the 55 dollars for the rest of the weekend registration". Yep I admit it, I said it. Then I explained that if we really thought they were that much better we would TELL him. I then may have said, take a risk or stay in the back and just have fun eating road trip food all weekend. As usual, he perseveres and guts it out for Sunday when it counts, bouncing into the stands with the biggest grin. He finished not in the top three that he would have liked, but made the main race and wasn't last. I will take it.

Big Fry gets better each year, fought off some tough kids to make it into the main, a gate malfunction gave him a bad start but he stuck with it. We DID NOT stay for state plates, after the debacle last year. Big Fry's words this year were "We are NOT staying, after you said I may get a plate and my name didn't get called, my heart hurt the whole way home." So we didn't. But we did get the text that he go fourth place out of all the 13 year olds, he was estatic.

And here finally is why I love this sport. As 200 riders come and go from the gate with their matching jerseys pants, helmet and all the cool gear. Here comes Big Fry to the gate, AC/DC short sleeve shirt, with pads, beat up helmet and non-matching pants. I lament to the mom next to me about his lack of style and not going with the flow-what kid doesn't want those cool colorful outfits...she promptly replies "Ya well, and that is his statement in itself don't you think,you gotta love it"

Yep I love it, congratulations to both of you boys