We started the week with a trip to the park.  It was actually Monday night.  There was no school on Monday and we celebrated by doing absolutely nothing.  Actually, I sat in the yard all day in the dappled sunshine reading a book – ahh, my favorite thing to do!  We had a picnic dinner at the playground by the tennis courts.  Can you tell from this picture what a beautiful day it was!

Tuesday was back to the chaos, I mean, back to school.  I really don’t want it to be chaotic!  So far . . . I don’t know why I can’t figure it out.  I’m going to try a few things different this week and we’ll see if it’s any better.  I hope so.  Wednesday I was so mad at everyone who was messing me up, that it was truly scary.  I do not want that.  I will conquer this! (Darcy says that in Pride and Prejudice!  Of course, he doesn’t conquer it, but we won’t go into that . . .)

On the bright side, I canned tomatoes twice this week!  (That was during the relatively peaceful time while the older kids were at school).  I have time to can tomatoes on days when I don’t do laundry.  Which is weird because I never thought laundry took up that much time – but I guess it does.  I also ran twice this week – 3 miles each time and it is getting easier!

My kids are doing cool things.  Of particular note – Sarah made the tennis team!  Exciting!  So she stays after school each day for that and comes home around 4:30.  She’s getting lots of exercise and having lots of fun.

Mariah is just amazing on the soccer field!  I love to watch her!  In her Saturday game, she scored two goals right in a row.  She has a good team and they’re all starting to “get it.”  By that I mean they pass the ball to each other.

Kevin and I coached the twins in two soccer games this week.  When they got a kick in to the huddle that actually connected with the ball, we were proud – and so were they!

Bethany went poop in the potty!  (I know that might not be exciting to you, but for me . . .?) ((insert from Savannah) Just for your entertainment I will tell you that my mother is not perfect and had a hilarious typo before I fixed it. Instead of Bethany’s name in the above sentence she put Mariah's. Think about that) When she sits on the potty and nothing happens, she raises her hands in front of her and says with true perplexity, “It’s not working Mommy!”  It’s a process . . .  She continues to call Kevin and I, “Daddy-o and Mommy-o.”  It is very cute!

Kevin had a very exciting weekend, as well!  Along with a team of 10 other people, he ran 186 miles in 26 and a half hours. Yuck, huh?  :)  Just kidding. They took turns, handing off the baton as they went, two vans with 5 or 6 runners each, driving to pick up a runner and drop the next one off, starting in daylight, running through all the hours of the night, and finishing miles and miles and several mountains later where the banner finally stretched across the trail to announce the finish!

This is Kevin’s report of the event:  “By the Numbers-- 186 miles, 26 hours 23 minutes--I ran 23.28 miles, my average pace 7.97, ran for 185 minutes, climbed 1315 feet, went down 2530, burned 3425 calories, lost 5 pounds. Created great memories--thanks to a great team and everyone else for your support, especially Diane our volunteer and Margaret for sandwiches in Cedar.”

One of the cool things about the run was that Kevin got to run with our new brother-in-law, Jason, who married Diane two years ago.  He is very fast.  One of Kevin’s favorite things about the weekend was, “watching Jason fly.”  Here is a picture of the two of them at the start of the race.  Beautiful scenery, huh?  Good lookin’ men, too!

 

There were 176 teams who ran the relay and Kevin figures that they did it fast enough to have finished in the top twenty!  Whenever anyone passed a runner from another team, they called it a “kill.”  Nice, huh?  Jason got 32 kills.  (!!!!)  Kevin didn’t do so bad either with 12 kills.

Diane came up and volunteered for part of the race.  Here she is being supportive of her man!

 

Here is Kevin at the finish line holding the honorary baton that is given to every team that finishes the race.  Go Kevin B!

 

This is a picture of their whole team.  Go mighty runners!!  Yay!

And here is proof that later that day, Kevin was thinking of me:

What a sweet guy.  He came home feeling really sick and not at all sure that he had a fun time!  But, he did it.  He says it was great and horrible.  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . or something like that!  He has recovered really well today though, it seems.  I had the misfortune of twisting my ankle on Saturday, so in a bizarre twist of fate, I am hobbling around and he is not?  How wonderful that his health is so good again and he could engage in such madness and live to tell the tale.  Hooray for good health!  Hooray for hanging in there until the wheel turns once again!  Hooray for Kevin!  I love you.  I love watching you fly.  :)