Summer Bucket List

Summer is here and now starts of daunting task of keeping two little kids happy for the next two and a half months. Thus the Summer Bucket List has been compiling in my head. It isn't complete but it's getting there. Here's what I have so far:

1. Swimming Lessons for Wesley
2. Zoo Trip(s)
3. Geocaching
4. Trips to the pool
5. Colorado Vacation
6. Fishing
7. Hiking
8. Wildlife Park

I wanted to get started on the list so I started at number one. Called around and found out that the new YMCA, that's fairly close to us, is offering swimming lessons for preschoolers. Went in there today and discovered that it's nearly the same price for a family membership as it is to just get the kids in there for swim lessons. So now we have a lovely family membership to the YMCA for the summer and I couldn't be more thrilled. We took a tour of the facility and I am so excited to start going with and without the kids. The pool looks great for the kids and the workout facility looks like a blast for me. I'm trying to figure out a way to escape without the kids that doesn't involve getting up at 5:30 am.

In the meantime we thoroughly enjoyed the indoor pool today (the outdoor pool was closed because it wasn't 80 degrees). It was the first time the kids have ever been in a big, non kiddie pool. It took some coaxing to get Greta in but after awhile both were hamming it up in the water. Swimming lessons start June 11th for Wesley, Greta will go next summer as she's too young and they don't offer any for her age group at this YMCA. I expect to be at the pool several times a week. And if today was any indicator, we will all be pretty exhausted by the end of the summer.

Last weekend we attempted a little Geocaching. If you aren't familiar with geocaching I'll sum it up for you. Someone creates a "cache" or what I call a treasure box. They put "swag" in it, or treasure. Then they hide the treasure box somewhere. Anywhere. Then they get on the website (www.geocaching.com) and put in the coordinates to their treasure box. You then plug those coordinates into your GPS (or Hubby's smart phone in our instance) and walk around until you find the cache. Once you find it, you open it up and write down your name and date on the little sheet of paper inside. Then if you want, you can trade out a piece of swag for one that you brought.

So off we went this past Monday in hopes of introducing the kids to the wonderful world of geocaching. I picked three easy caches all within a few miles of each other (they are EVERYWHERE folks). Got to the first one and hunted all over that bridge for something, anything....but there was nothing. I climbed completely under the bridge and even found the perfect spot but it was gone. Strike one. So we headed to the next coordinates and once again found nothing. Talk about frustrating. The kids where getting bored and tired and I think even the Hubby was starting to think I was nuts. We headed out to the last coordinates which happened to be in a cemetery. Now mind you it was Memorial Day. Perhaps not the greatest idea to be tromping around a cemetery on Memorial Day but it was empty so we went ahead.  Found the tree with the cache but also found it to be inhabited by a very angry mommy bird who wasn't about to let me near it. So we completely striked out. But, as one of my favorite movie quotes says "Never give up, never surrender," we will head out again soon to find some hidden treasure and this time we will not give up until we find one.

A home for Cecil

Cecil is our leopard tortoise. We've had him for eight years now. When we got him he was just a wee hatchling and cute as can be. While he's inside he lives in a tortoise table which looks like an old fashioned wooden coffin on legs. During the summer he occasionally goes outside to soak up the sunshine and feast on weeds but he's never had an proper outdoor pen. Until today. I've wanted to build him one for a few years now and finally got to it this weekend. He's a desert tortoise so I wanted to make it as a arid as possible. Desert tortoises that are housed on grass and moist soil tend to develop fugus issues with their shells so we located the pen in an area of the yard where grass isn't growing too well and put down pea gravel over the dirt.

We made the pen 5 foot by 5 foot and constructed it out of old deck wood from the torn out pool (the wood is actually almost gone...finally). I thought it might be a good way to hide the old unsightly pine stump.

Next was the hinged top panels. This allows sun in but keeps predators and Minions out. I just used regular zinc coated wire mesh from the local farm store and pressure treated 2x4's (oh and an awesome Hubby to cut it all for me).

Nearly done! All screwed together with hinged top on.

I told the kids they'd better be good or they'll go in the box. Naturally they wanted in there anyways. Silly youngins.

Time to go get Cecil and introduce him to his new home for the summer.  He looks so small in there. He'll still come back inside at night for safety.

I told Hubby poor Cecil might be lonely in there all by himself. Might be time to get him a friend. Have I mentioned how much I've wanted a Sulcata (another African tortoise)?

Hubby said he's getting pretty good at building animal enclosures. He never knew he was going to work at a zoo when he grew up. I have an awesome husband.

One foot in front of the other

I'm still running. Hard to believe the half marathon was four weeks ago. I've been keeping the weekly mileage pretty small ever since, between 4-6 miles. I'm just running on the weekends now and I've had to revamp that lately. Last weekend I went for a four mile run in town around 3ish in the afternoon and it was 83 degrees out. No biggie right? Wrong! It was hot and humid and downright miserable. I started getting goose bumps around mile three and decided I'm done with afternoon runs. So this morning I got out nice and early and ran a glorious six miles on the dirt roads. Felt great and thus I've found my new summer routine.

During the week I've been messing around with weights in a desperate attempt at creating a swimsuit ready body. The kids are having swimming lessons next month and I cringe at the thought of putting on a swimming suit. Jillian Michaels has been helping me too. I love her new DVD titled "Ripped in 30". It's much like the "30 Day Shred" but offers four different workouts instead of three and changes it up quite a bit (I was getting a bit bored with the 30 Day Shred). The only problem I'm finding these days? Now that both kids have officially given up nap time it makes it darn near impossible to get even a 25 minute workout in. They jump on me when I'm doing sit ups or take off with the weights. It's a bit frustrating. But oh well, they will both be in school soon enough and I'll have so much time to myself I won't know what to do (I just giggled like a school girl at the thought). Well, off to get some work done.

Hay, Fencing and Welding

Whew, another busy weekend done. I always wonder if the average person works as hard on weekends as we do. We just fall into bed at the end of the day. Anyhow, it's the time of year when I run out of hay for the horses and goats and usually have to scrounge around begging some local farmer to sell me a round bale of last years cutting which is usually brown and gross. So you'll understand my delight when I find a local guy (7 miles away) selling round bales of this years hay. He literally cut it last weekend. It's beautiful green and smells lovely. I love the smell of hay, call me strange. The kicker here? It was even not all that badly priced. Coming off of a summer last year where round bales were selling for $90+ because of the drought, I think these $60 looked pretty good. I suppose it's still astronomical compared to just a couple years ago when they were $30. But I'll take what I can get. We don't have a trailer so my awesome Father-in-law offered to follow me in his truck so I didn't have to make two trips to pick up the hay.  They even unloaded them for me, how sweet.

On the subject of trucks, I got my truck out this past week and the kids and I gave it a much needed bath. It's stored in the shop and rarely gets much use these days but when we do need it, it's sure nice to have around. I don't think I could get rid of it really. I've had it nearly my whole adult life and I love my truck. I get this strange attachment to vehicles that I like. I bought it new when I was 18 years old and I just turned 33 this month, you do the math. Looking pretty good for an old truck.

On Saturday I batted my eye lashes and asked very sweetly if we could redo a section of the horse fencing in between the corral and the lagoon. The goats have done a number in that fencing (much like they do to all fencing) and it was, as I like to say, "a vet bill waiting to happen". The fence was fraying and loose wires were poking everywhere. The goats and horses like to rub on everything (myself included) and a fence is the perfect scratching post. It got so bad that the younger goats were squeezing under it and going back and forth between the corral and lagoon. So we took down the old fence, pulled the t-posts and pounded in new ones. This time we put them four feet apart instead of the usual 6-8 feet apart. Ha! Try and get under that fence you punks! Rich was visiting for the weekend and offered to help. Thanks Rich!

My tractor is coming along nicely. It needed some things welded so Hubby took advantage of his Dad being here and got everything welded. The mig welder that he brought back from the farm all those years ago finally got used today. The tractor is moving along bit by bit. Hope you all had a nice weekend!

The Wednesday Write-Up

-A big milestone in Greta's life happened over the weekend. She officially moved into a toddler bed (or toddly bed as she calls it). She likes to show anyone and everyone that comes to the house her new, awesome bed. She had been climbing out of her crib for some time now and we decided it was time to get rid of it. The crib has earned a new name over the years. I like to fondly refer to it as the "Woodchuck Crib". It literally looks like it housed a family of hungry woodchucks or beavers. My children have both sharpened their fangs on every available wooden surface in the once beautiful crib. We'll be lucky if we can give it away in the condition it's in.

-I haven't written much this year about the garden, but it's growing! I have to admit that my enthusiasm for it is pretty low this growing season, not real sure why. I can hardly keep up with the weeds even though I've been getting mulch down. I've mentioned in past gardening posts that I'm a mulcher, not a rototiller. I never rototill the garden, instead I just pack mulch on all winter and in the spring just uncover each row and plant.You know, the lazy method. The problem? This past winter I failed to mulch. So now my mulch is thin and weeds are making their way through. Plus some of the weeds look like the blasted crop itself. Like corn, I have this weed that looks just like the corn stalk and I sit there trying to decide which one to pull...and in the end just don't pull either and give up. But there is stuff growing back there. Lots of corn, bell peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes, bush beans, sugar snap beans and cucumbers. Oh and lots of cilantro, cilantro goes on everything in my kitchen. I also went colorful this year and planted about every other row with flowers, zinnias mostly since I had such good luck with them last year. Can't forget sunflowers. Gotta have more mammoth sunflowers.

-Greta has been changing a whole lot over the past few months. The terrible two's is gaining a whole new meaning. She's growing into her own and she's not taking any guff from her older brother. He pushes her, she pushes him back harder. Wesley's been coming up to me crying more and more lately because little sis is beating him up. I can't help but smirk a little because he's finally getting some of his own medicine. In response to her new attitude he's started expressing himself through his artwork. *grin* He spends about half an hour drawing these big, brightly colored pictures and usually somewhere in the picture is a representation of Greta's head with a big "X" through it. It makes me laugh out loud each and every time.

The Graduate

My little boy graduated from preschool tonight. *sob* Hard to believe we are already here! He had his program this evening where he and his fellow classmates sang songs and he got to walk across the stage and collect his "diploma". He's certainly growing up and I couldn't be more proud of my little dude. He's off to Kindergarten!

 

Opening graduation presents from the grandparents. Greta got a little outfit as a gift for the non-graduate. She preformed a split second outfit change in the parking lot, flinging her cute dress to the pavement in record time.

Wesley got an awesome Captain America shield that shoots stuff. He loves it so much I believe he's sleeping with it right now. Thanks Papa and Noni. Congratulations little Captain America.

Little horse aerobics

Part of the outside menagerie includes two miniature horses. Rocky and Desi are both gelded boys and they spend their days in a corral. I had purchased them initially with the intent of them being backyard grazers but then learned quickly that miniature horses can't handle too much grazing....or any in our instance. Desi came to us morbidly obese and had foundered in his last home. They didn't control what he ate and he literally ate himself sick on a giant round bale of brome. Rocky, whom I've had since he was six months old, used to be let out to munch on sweet grasses but would also get sick quickly. He had problems with colic in the first couple of years of life which our vet eventually narrowed down to food. Feed was switched and grazing was ceased and he's had no problems in years.

They are healthy little horses, but bored little horses. Luckily they have each other. Every evening they perform their little ritual of trying to murder each other. They've done this for years and I have watched it like a little TV show in the corral. I think they like to imagine they are tiny little dueling stallions. This goes on for about 20 minutes and then they are best friends again. Silly animals.

Weekend Progress

  We had another lovely weekend with Papa Rich visiting. He makes some fabulous waffles on Sunday's and I politely asked if he could make them while he was here. He agreed and so yesterday he was in the kitchen preparing his specialty. It was time he passed on his skills to another generation so Sean was stationed in the kitchen as well, taking notes and learning from the Master. I hope he took good notes because I'm expecting some homemade waffles and black berry sauce when Rich moves back to New Mexico.

My "honey-do list" has been having a lot crossed off lately. Sure feels good to accomplish stuff, stuff that has been on the list for years. The koi pond has an electrical outlet that runs the pump that runs the waterfall. The outlet hasn't been functioning for at least a year and a half, so Rich and Sean tackled that this weekend putting in a new outlet. I love having the waterfall back up and running, the sound of flowing water is relaxing. Might even have to go get some new goldfish this year. 

Getting the pump down in the pump box is always an adventure. You clean it out the best you can then you just stick your hands down in a deep box full of murky brown water. Luckily this year there were no snakes! Minion helped me out, jumping on every frog she could find. I also got to spend a couple of hours pulling reeds and roots that clog up the pond. It's looking better but still needs some TLC. Oh and NO the kids do not swim in the koi pond, they had their floaties on because they were out swimming in the kiddie pool....not the nasty snake infested koi pond. 

 And there's more! I've dreamed of having the well up and running for years now. Luckily we have rural water and aren't dependent on well water. But when it comes to watering a garden, filling a koi pond and keeping a stock tank full the well water will come in handy (as well as save us some money!). So Rich and Sean pulled the well pump, figured out it just needed a new fitting (the old one seemed to have just disintegrated). So after a trip to Lowes and a soldering job in the basement we now have a working well again! That is so exciting. Sean keeps talking about a sprinkler system for the yard and now it could actually be a possibility. Thank you boys for all of your hard work!

Mommies Minions

The neighbor was given a cat who was pregnant. That cat had kittens, three to be exact, and then she disappeared. The neighbor didn't want kittens and tried giving them away but there were no takers so she kept them back in this old shed in the back of her property. That shed was a stones throw from our horse pen so every day I'd go out and feed the horses and then walk to the back of the pen and lure the kittens from their shed. They'd run over and let me pet them through the fence. They were wild kitties but slowly became tame (to me anyways). Over the weeks they became more adventurous and would get into the horse pen and sleep in the shed in the pile of uneaten hay. I'd find them all curled up with each other sleeping away the day.

Then I decided they would be mine. So I bought cat food. And lots of it. Every evening I would woo them up to the shop with the sound of a can of cat food opening. They'd come running, winding their way through my legs. I forgot how much I missed cats. I'd sit out there and these now tame kittens would climb in my lap and purr like they were in heaven. They became my minions. They have no names, just a collective name: "Mommies Minions". Welcome to the menagerie my little minions.

P.S. All three kitties have already been spayed and neutered thanks to my wonderful neighbor, glad she had that done before they adopted me. :)

 There are two solid black females and one black and white male.

 Brother Minion is super friendly and fearless, going after a large snake yesterday.

 Even Greta is in love with the Minions.

 Brother Minion is sweet but not the sharpest tool in the shed. Took this pic moments before he fell off the roof of the shop.

Sister Minion sleeps in the shop and catches her weight in mice. Gotta love barn cats!

13.1

I did it! I finished my very first half marathon today. Whew! That was sure something. Woke up at 5 am to the sound of rain, thunder and lightening. I went ahead and got ready and headed out just in case it slowed down. It didn't. Ran the whole 13.1 in a downpour. Torrential at times.  It would have been funny if it didn't suck so much. Actually it didn't suck, it was awesome. Running along with some 1500 other people that came out to run in the rain was awesome and an experience I won't soon forget. By mile marker three I was soaking wet from head to toe and the shoes were sloshing. I thought the iPod would drown but it kept on trucking. I kept on truckin' too! I ran the whole darn thing.  I didn't walk at all. I surprised myself even. It's good to surprise yourself once and awhile. Prove to yourself you can do stuff you didn't think you could do.

This was a fitting end to a year of running. A year ago I bought a treadmill with the sole desire to try and run one mile without stopping.  After several weeks I was able to do that, so I challenged myself to run two miles and so forth. Treadmill running lead to road running and my first 5K last October. Along the way 18 pounds came off which was a welcome side effect. All in all this was a life changing year and today was no exception. Thank you to my awesome husband, Father in law, kids and parents for braving the nasty weather to come watch me cross that finish line. It was sure nice to see people cheering you on at the end. Hmm what's next, perhaps a full marathon is in the future. The distant future!

Official time: 2 hours 13 minutes Woo Hoo!

 I ran with Hubby's phone that has a running app on it. Kind of forgot to stop it so the time isn't correct.  Check out the calorie burnt box in the upper right hand corner. That's nearly 1600 calories baby! Really didn't feel bad about stuffing my face with pancakes after the race.

Assorted Pictures

There have been a few pictures over the past month that don't fall into any particular blog but are still worthy of keeping and sharing.

 

 Rich and Sean swung her for over an hour last weekend and she finally just fell asleep.

 We sure enjoy having Rich here on the weekends. So does Chance.

 An accurate depiction of everyday life. Alex and Abby were over when Granny Randi was here. I believe she was the tickle monster. 

 Tomatoes, bell peppers and hot peppers ready to go out to the garden. Too bad they froze last weekend and I get to replant everything.

 Trip to the fire station yesterday with Wesley's preschool class. He had a blast.

 Little kid in a big hat.

 Little kid in a big truck.

Little girl who was stuck to my leg the whole time.

Week from today

A week from today I'll be running my very first half marathon. That's 13.1 miles. The training has been going ok. It was severely derailed early on with the sprained ankle but it's been ramping up over the past several weeks. I was supposed to do a long run last weekend (12 miles) but I only got 8 done due to the 400 mph winds we were having. I kid you not, I would open up my mouth and the wind would blow out my cheeks like I was in a wind tunnel. I felt like a football player running into one of those padded sleds. It was horrible. So technically I never got in the really long run...which is worrisome. But I'll be fine. I've done several 7+ milers and today's 5 mile run was awesome with a 9:40 average mile ( a good time for me). I don't think I'll die.

I'm going to share with you a runners secret which I've just discovered. They are called energy gels. Little packages of condensed calories and electrolytes that you suck down 15 minutes before running and 45 minutes into the run. I went to our local sporting goods store and picked up several to experiment with. I got the GU Energy gels and two packages of the Honey Stinger energy chews.  The GU Energy gel is like chocolate frosting with caffeine. So yum! I tried the double espresso flavor (not a coffee drinker but still good) before today's run and was so jittery (but in a good way) when I got out of the car that I think I could have did the run doing cart wheels. It was awesome. Oh and the energy chews are like candy that you eat every 10 minutes or so. I'm hypoglycemic so these little jewels will work at keeping the old blood sugars level. I'm so happy I discovered this stuff, it will make this race doable.

So anyways, send good vibes next Sunday morning at 7:30...I'm going to need them. 

Tiny Memories

When we had new carpet installed a few weeks ago we had to take everything out of the closets and move it to the basement, along with everything in each room. It was a huge undertaking and we loaded the basement to the ceiling. I really should have taken a picture, it was a bit disturbing. But anyways, this week I have started the daunting task of moving all of the stuff back into it's former location. I was hauling the giant wedding dress bag up the stairs and both kids were super curious about what was inside. So I got out the old wedding dress and Greta immediately wanted to wear it. I got some pretty cute shots of her. Perhaps some day she might even want to wear it when she gets married.

Of course not wanting to be upstaged by his little sister, Wesley even took his turn in the dress. Camo shirt and all. Hehehe.....I fully plan on showing this at his wedding.