Hiking in Hades

This past weekend we decided that since we haven't been able to pull off a vacation or even a mini-vacation this summer, we'd spontaneously go to Buescher State Park and go hiking. It was a great plan until we were there, 4 miles away from the car, in 100ºF weather, having taken a wrong turn and having to hike a mile back to where we had taken the wrong turn.

But, that's about how most of our vacations go. We decide to do stupid things and then call them fun afterwards.

The MS150 bike ride goes through Buescher and Bastrop State Parks, so we've ridden our bikes through there 10 times, but had never hiked in the park. It really was very nice - so nice that we think we'd love to go back there and go camping and hiking again sometime when it gets cooler. Like in December.

The kids did a great job and didn't complain too much. We ended up carrying them for the last part - me with Fellan on my back for the last mile, my husband carrying a very tired, nearly asleep little girl for about the last two miles. Here they are before we started. No pictures of after the hike, we were all too tired and sore to even hold up a camera. :)

Worth the effort?

Ugh. I keep having such a hard time posting because I wonder if it's really worth the effort! I would like to have all these funny stories on my blog about the things that our kids do that make me laugh every day, but when I get to work, all of my fun life seems to disappear into thin air. And then all I can think about is work and I don't want to write about work on my blog because I'm paranoid about getting fired over saying something about work and so I never post anything anymore because I'll just say this: There are some things about my job right now that make me very angry.

Whew!

Let me see if I can get back into my happy thoughts again... This past weekend was my husband's birthday and he's now as old as me again. That makes me happy! :)

We spent much of the weekend sitting on the couch, working - each on our own laptops - and then went for a bike ride Sunday morning and a pool party Sunday afternoon. Very exciting, I know.

AND we've both decided (finally) that we can't stand our fat selves and that we really, really, really want to get back in shape. So, the weekly weigh-ins have started once again - we write the results on our mirrors in dry-erase marker so that we'll be able to chart our progress and it will serve as a daily reminder of our fatness. Not sure I really need another reminder, but maybe it will help.

Anyway, I'd better get back to work. I'll try to remember some cute story to post next...

Wow - more than a month!

Wow! It's been more than a month since I posted something? Sorry, Courtney! (since you're the only person I know who regularly checks in on me - I think even my parents have given up!)

Anyway, I guess nothing really exciting has happened in that month, otherwise, I surely would have posted about it, right?

Let's see, Fellan's last day of school was at the end of May, but I missed it because I was in Cabo San Lucas with some friends celebrating one friend's 40th birthday! (don't get too excited - we mostly went to bed early and just lounged next to the pool - the perfectly relaxing vacation for all of us since we all have kids under 6 years old) Also, my dad was in Houston at the end of May/beginning of June for a conference. We all had great fun with Grandpa! We took him with us on "family bike ride" night and he only fell down twice! :)

Then there was Father's Day and then we went to New Orleans last weekend. My parents were actually in New Orleans for another conference, so we went over there for a little "quality time" (my mom hates that term - Hi, Mom!, just in case you're reading this...) with the grandparents.

Now we're just in summer-mode, I guess. The kids have been taking swimming lessons for about a year now and they're both getting really good. We're actually to the point where I don't freak out at all around water. I'm fairly certain that they won't drown if I take my eyes off them for a few seconds.

We've re-discovered our neighborhood pool now, too. We visited it once a couple of years ago (or maybe last year?) but didn't really spend much time there. But, they put in a water slide sometime last year and the kids LOVE it. I was surprised - when they suggested that they try it out, I expected them to get to the top of the stairs and then be afraid to come down, but they didn't hesitate at all - down they came! Of course, they wanted my husband and I to be at the bottom of the slide for moral support, so that lead to about 30 minutes of treading water in 9ft-deep water for us. At least that was good exercise!

This week, my husband's parents are out of town, so we're checking on their cat whom they left behind at their apartment. Last night we rode our bikes over there, played in the apartment complex's pool for a little while, and then rode home. Tonight, however, unless it stops raining, it looks like we'll either skip it tonight, or go by car.

So, everything is pretty normal around here - nothing spectacular. Except that my fingers on my left hand keep tingling. I was kind of worried about it until this past weekend. When we were in New Orleans, there was no tingling. But, when we were driving back, about 50 miles from Houston, they started tingling again. I'm really ready for this project to be done...

I'll try to write with more frequency again, but I can't promise anything. 'Til next time...

Blur

The last two weeks of work have been an entire blur. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong and I can't keep up with the ever-changing wants and desires of each member of the clients' team. I have developed a tick in my right eye and I'm hoping that my four-day weekend will cure me of it.

On the bright side, there WAS Mother's Day a couple of weeks ago. My husband asked them what they wanted to do for me and Fellan decided they should get me a gift card. "To Target! - Her favorite store!!" (he knows me quite well)

Marxo said that she wanted to make me muffins. (she had been hearing about "Muffins for Moms" for the previous two weeks)

So, for Mother's Day, I got a gift card to Target and Marxo made me some muffins - with some help from my husband. :) And then to top it off, Fellan said, "Hey, I know what would make mommy really happy - we should go for a family bike ride!"

He was correct once again. We rode our bikes - Fellan on his two-wheeled bike - about 6 miles, stopped off for lunch at a non-busy restaurant, came home, and went to Target, where I used my gift card to buy myself a cute skirt and some other stuff.

It was a good day! Now, if I could just get rid of this eye-tick thing...

UPDATED:
Yesterday afternoon, I was stuck in the meeting we were told we wouldn't be having yesterday and one of the guys leading the meeting came back to the bathroom and informed the entire room, "Somewhere between my breakfast burrito and my gourmet sandwich there was an material incompatibility."

My tick is getting worse.

Muffins for Moms

Fellan's school does this thing every year: "Muffins for Moms" It's a get-together at the beginning of the day where they have muffins for all the moms (of course) and then everyone gets together in a big circle and the teacher reads this book called Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and all the moms cry. It's usually held on the Thursday before Mother's Day, but because of some field trips and other scheduling conflicts, they had Muffins for Moms last Monday (a week ago today).

This was both good and bad. It was good because then for the rest of the week, Fellan and Marxo kept asking if it was Mother's Day yet - they were really looking forward to it! It was bad, however, because it poured on me as I was leaving the school.

So, I sent my husband a text message saying, "Raining - I'm soaked." A couple minutes later, I received this Haiku from him:
Raining I am soaked
Wet are the clothes on my back
My heart full of joy

Clever, eh? :)

Great Bike Ride

We tested out the girl on the trailer bike this past Sunday, taking her for a 12.5-mile ride. She did great! When we got home, she was still happy, she never complained and she seemed to be ready for more.

So, we told both the kids how they had done a great job on the bike ride. High-fives with "Great bike ride!" were exchanged all around. Then I turned to my husband and said, "High-five! We make great kids!"

Fellan gave us a funny look and said, "No, you make great parents!"

Aw, shucks... :)

Two Trailer-bike Family

As of last week, we are now a two trailer-bike family!

We've been riding with Fellan on a trailer-bike for about a year now. Lately, however, Marxo has been begging to ride the trailer-bike, too, so we've done some short rides around the neighborhood with Fellan on his own (on two wheels) and Marxo on the trailer-bike.

Now, our original plan was that by this time, we would be fabulously wealthy (cough, cough) and would be able to get a Comotion Periscope Tandem for Fellan to move up to and then Marxo would be able to use the trailer-bike.

Since that plan has fallen woefully short, we opted to get another trailer-bike. And it showed up last week! Yay!

We tried it out a couple of times last week, and then went on a little bit longer ride last night with it. We have to kind of ramp up our mileage to test Marxo out and see how long she can stand riding it.

So, far it hasn't been a problem. We did seven miles last night and she sang for most of the way. :)

Kindergarten Round-up

Last night we attended Kindergarten Round-up for our neighborhood school and registered Fellan for school this coming Fall. I can't believe it! He's getting to be so big. :)

I expected the experience to be somewhat painful. We had been told beforehand what we were supposed to bring, but I was sure that whatever we brought would somehow be wrong. I expected that we would be there for hours trying to work through the process and just trying not to make the registrar-people mad. (too many bad experiences from college, perhaps?)

Anyway, it was not painful in the slightest. In fact, they had snacks for everyone, they were friendly, and they even made copies of things that I didn't know I had to have copies of (SS card and driver's license). I was shocked and pleasantly surprised.

One of the reasons we are sending our children to the neighborhood school and not a private school is because we've heard great things about it and we like the idea of sending our kids to a "neighborhood school". All of the kids' friends are going to be within walking distance and he will have a great variety of friends.

So, it seems that people are not lying about the fact that the school is worthwhile. Our first experience with it was definitely pleasant. I'm looking forward to next year.

Kids on Skis

So, we got back from our skiing trip a little more than a week ago and since that time, I've been consumed with getting caught up with work and trying to get back in the swing of things.

The trip, however, was great! We put the kids in ski school on Monday morning, not knowing if they would like it or not.

It turned out that they LOVED it! (much to our delight!) So, they did a half-day of ski school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. By the end of the day on Wednesday, Fellan was skiing on his own and shut down the lift. (magic carpet) Marxo was well on her way to being able to ski on her own, but she was really worn out from three days of skiing.

We took the day off on Thursday - went sledding instead - and then went skiing together as a family on Friday. We found a great little lift that was basically isolated from the rest of the mountain and spent most of the day there working with Fellan on turning and "slow skiing" (he only wanted to GO FAST!). We decided to finish the day with a couple of trips down a long green run, which turned out OK, but we pushed Marxo a little too far and I ended up skiing with her between my legs for the last half of the last run.

But, the week was definitely a success - both the kids were able to ski on their own by the end of the trip, which far surpassed our expectations. We can't wait for next year now. :)

My morning yesterday...

My morning yesterday started off by waking up at 7am and racing to work (I'm supposed to be to work by 6am!). Then, I get to work, and my supervisor takes one look at me and says, "What happened to your face?!!!" Nice. (Male engineers - you gotta love 'em...)

Well, you see, this past weekend, I ended up with a very sore throat. It was a little sore on Thursday, more sore on Friday, and by Saturday morning, I had trouble swallowing and talking. I finally decided to look in my throat on Saturday and it was very swollen with white spots on my tonsils.

Great. I immediately assumed that it must be strep throat and started trying to figure out where I could go to a doctor. My regular doctor's office is only open M-F, so I decided to try out one of these RediClinic things for which I've seen commercials. I was in and out of there in about 30 minutes. It was amazing.

The doctor did a strep test and it came back negative. But, she thought it looked like some sort of infection and since I didn't have any congestion or cough (like a virus would cause), she gave me a prescription for antibiotics.

I haven't taken antibiotics in at least 10 years (except for back in December), so when she asked if I was allergic to any drugs, I said no. Well, I don't think I'm allergic to amoxicillin, but it has definitely caused my face to break out! Hence the comment, "What happened to your face?!!!"

Next time, I think I'll try to steer any doctor away from prescribing me amoxicillin. But, I still have 5 more days of taking this stuff. I started using my "heavy-duty" moisturizing stuff with retinol and it's definitely better today. And my husband says that I don't look hideous today, so that's a step in the right direction. :)