A Fun Mother's Day

I was so surprised today! Out on the porch I saw this:

I am thrilled! I've wanted a kayak for a few years now. The reservoir is full this time of year, and it is so fun to paddle the fringes in the cooler hours of the day. I borrowed a kayak for a season a couple of years back. I loved going in and out of the trees looking for ducks and egrets. It's so peaceful. We took it for a spin today. Not much wildlife since we were out mid-day. I'll look forward to a solo trip soon. You can see more pictures here:
The Maiden Voyage of our new Kayak!

Also, try the video below again. I think I fixed it so it can be viewed. Enjoy!

Soren's Solo Debut

I'm new to this YouTube thing, but I'll give it a shot. At the last minute, Soren agreed to perform in the school showcase as a soloist. He chose Mary Had a Little Lamb because it was the first song he ever learned. He feels so confident playing it. His teacher and I thought it was a good idea to let him play exactly what he wanted to play. He was so poised and confident. The compliments were a bit overwhelming for him afterwards, but I think it was a very positive experience for him.


He already has a couple of more complicated pieces he is working on for the Winter showcase.

Happy Birthday Andy!

My sweetie is 40! The kids and I drove up to have lunch with him. I let the cat out of the bag at work so everyone started wishing him happy birthday. They brought out a piece of cheesecake with a candle on it after lunch.

Spencer told everyone he saw today that it was his dad's birthday, and Soren thought it was so fun to tell everyone that his dad was now 40. They got a lot of birthday wishes to bring back to Andy.

We had a pink cake with large clumps of sprinkles on it. The kids think it is a fantastic joke each year to make pink icing for a *gasp*...Man! Andy pretends to be deeply offended which makes the joke even funnier to them.



The pink cake! My camera is terrible. Please excuse the poor coloring. It says: "Happy 999th Birthday" (which was a joke from Soren and Spencer) Note the pudgy little finger just dying to poke that frosting.

My Race Photos

Here is a link for race photos. I'm especially fond of the one where I look like death warmed over. Ah yes...I am one photogenic lady. I don't think I'll be purchasing any of them as a momento.
Napa Race Pictures

My bib # was 366. So, if that only brings up the event homepage, you can type in the bib #.

The Napa Valley Trail 1/2 Marathon Race Report

My apologies to those of you who have read this already. I decided to post it here too so my family could read it if they would like to.

On race day it was about 42-45 degrees. Cold for me! I woke up early, had one glass of water, one of coffee, and two cheese sticks 3 hours prior to race time. At race time, I started verrrry slowly knowing I had 2 miles of uphill to do. I was definitely near the end of the pack. At one point, I'm sure I was last. About 1/2 a mile into it, I could hear people all around me gasping for air. Some were already walking/hiking. One girl said, "This is way harder than I thought it would be." It was a lot of single track so it was difficult to pass people. I decided to just hang back and not sweat it. I expected about 800 feet of elevation over 2 miles. um...no...

After two miles, I got ready for some downhill.....NOT! By 3 miles, we were still going uphill and some little downhill sections here and there. I got lapped by some pretty intense 10K'ers that made me giggle a little. By mile 4, I looked at my Garmin and thought, "crap...it's already been 1 hour!" Right then, we had some very steep downhills. I loved this part! I've always been a fan of downhill trails. I feel very comfortable stream crossing and rock hopping. So, I sped up a lot! I was happy to see some 7:30 and 8:30/mile pace. I was expecting 2+ miles, and before I knew it, I was at the start again and ready for my 2nd loop. I was shocked. My garmin said 5.34 miles. I drank a cup of watery gatorade and thanked the volunteer and started again. My thought was "thank God this race is short." LOL!

Loop 2 was harder. I started it out with a really cool guy named Rick. He was 67 (I originally told people he was older than that. I looked up his results and found out he was only 67. Oops!). He had ran 100 marathons (in 29 years!) and was working on 100 1/2 marathons. This one was #64. He planned to run one per month and would finish in 2011. Amazing! We ran/hiked together for quite some time. I hiked most of the uphills this loop. I didn't even try running uphill for most of it. I felt great! I couldn't have pushed much more, but didn't slack either. I just stayed as steady as I possibly could. By mile 7, I drank my first swig from my water bottle. I had been training without water or GU packets. I didn't need it. That felt great too. At about mile 8, I told Rick I was going to start running again. We crested a hill at that point. He wished me well and then fell down! I stayed for a minute or so to make sure he was ok. He assured me he was fine and encouraged me to go on. I knew I only had a bit more to go, so I turned on what little speed I had.

Once the downhill started again, I saw a lot of hobbling from people. I was really excited that all my downhill training had paid off. I had worn my knee brace just to be on the safe side, but my knees were holding up beautifully. I had no pain, and nearly no weakness in my thighs from overexertion. I think some were finding the downhill really difficult. I know from hiking, that intense downhills are as difficult as uphills. I am sorry I didn't practice more uphills, but I'm not sure it would have made a difference on this race for me.

When I knew I had about a mile or so left, I sprinted as much as I could. I slowed down when I need to. I felt like I still had a lot of gas left in the tank. I passed a woman who looked like she was having a bad leg cramp. I asked her if she was ok and if I could do anything to help. She said she was ok. I also passed a man who looked really bad. I asked him if he was ok. He said he was out of water. I offered him mine, but he would not take it. I tried!

I turned the last corner and saw my Andy, the kids, Jim, Sandra, and my nieces. I shouted hello to them and they all started cheering and jumping up and down. It was so sweet! I finished strong and energetic at 2:27:10. My goal time was 2:30 for this course. Yay me!

This was, hands down, the hardest run I've EVER been on. I was so proud of the way I felt then, and feel today. I know I trained in a very healthy way. It looks like in my age group, I was 10 out of 19. I can live with that. I really think trail running is my niche. I just loved every minute of it. I did my best to cheer people up on the trail. Some of them just looked so miserable. It was tough! I think anyone who finished what they signed up for deserves applause.

After I ate hand fulls and hand fulls of food, I got very cold. Andy said my lips were blue. I drank about 1/2 gallon of watery gatorade and headed to the car for my clothes.

It was such a fun day and a great and challenging race. I checked out my stats today from my GPS. Total ascent: 4351 feet! Holy Cow! No wonder so many of us found it so difficult. Total descent was 4252 feet.

We've had a busy week. Nothing out of the ordinary, but enough to keep me from blogging. I'm supposed to be doing my March meal blog-a-long entry, but tonight was just spagetti, sauce from a jar, and some french bread I bought at the store. Instead, I'll post a cute poem that Soren wrote yesterday.

Winter is Gray,
Summer is Blue,
But the Sky is better
Than both of you.

When I first read it, I thought he was being silly and making fun of Andy and I. I asked him if he thought the sky was better than us. He said that the sky is better than Winter and Summer. I think it is a wonderful little poem.

I'm enjoying watching his language arts skills progress. He is quite a good speller. The whole family played team Boggle the other night. Andy and I were so amazed and thrilled with both Soren and Airon's spelling skills. The last time we played, a few months ago, both were having a difficult time. It ended in some tears so, we put that game on the back shelf and played other games for awhile. Both boys have had a recent reading and vocabulary explosion. The spelling has followed naturally.

March Food Blog-A-Long Week 2

Pizza night! Everyone loves pizza night. We're all very specific with our likes and dislikes. This is one of the only foods I can honestly say that I enjoy preparing and baking. I try to make it every weekend. It is so satisfying to have a decent crust pizza. I owe thanks for the dough recipe to Sandi, a cyber-friend. It is a Cuisinart recipe that takes about 7 minutes to prepare. She told me it would only take 5 minutes, but I find I'm slower than she must be. It's definitely my kind of recipe. I don't really want to type in the recipe, but if you really want it, I might be persuaded at a later date, or I'll just give you Sandi's e-mail and you can bug her. Just kidding Sandi!

Ready for the oven:


Another satisfied customer.

March Food Blog-A-Long: Week 1

This is a very challenging project for me. Most people who know me at all know that I have a contempt (bordering on loathing) for all things cooking-related. It's something I'm working on, but well... I've been working on it for a few years now, and the progress has been excruciatingly slow.

I chose quiche mainly because I had four dozen eggs in the fridge. (Proper grocery shopping isn't one of my gifts either.) All of the kids eat it, even the picky one. He just has to tell me how much he hates it before he eats it anyway. He feels more like he's doing me a favor if he can at least tell me how he feels about the whole thing.

So here is my recipe with some pictures. It's just a slapped together thing so all you foodies out there can start gasping in horror right now.

• 6 eggs




• Some broccoli




• 1/2 onion chopped




• grated cheese




• salt and pepper to taste




• any spice such as oregano, basil, or sage (my personal favorite)




• Pie crust. I'm not ready to give away my secret recipe for this yet, but I'll give a hint: It starts with "Pills" and ends in "bury".
  

Saute the onion and broccoli in a pan with olive oil for about 5 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, a cup or more of grated cheese, and spices to taste. Add the onions and broccoli to the egg mixture and pour into the unbaked crust.

Bake according to the directions on the secret pie crust box. I baked at 450 degrees for 35-45 minutes. I put foil around the edges of the crust to keep it from burning.

Serve this delicious meal with salad. My recipe for salad includes opening a bag and slicing a tomato. Serve it in the bowl you intend to store the leftovers in, and you will not need to dirty another dish. Brilliant! Oops! I overcooked this a bit. Maybe turning down the oven to 400 degrees would be a better idea.