snooze fest

I got sick like a month or so ago. The old sore throat stuffy nose, sinus thing going around. Not too long after Derek got it, (I still have the stuffy nose) he hardly had a voice for a week, not so great when you are a school teacher and football coach. Then before I knew it James was sportin a fever ( i still had the stuffy nose) and most recently we have added Alli to the list. I keep thinking they are over it, then suddenly it's back. Pretty lame. Also, my reoccurring nose business, pretty lame. But overall a decent sickness to deal with because of the sleep and all. Note the photos below. My only regret is that I couldn't time my sickness and the children's to all be at the same time so we could have done some serious slackin around. Instead, I was draggin my feet way back when and now that I feel better (with a dang stuffy nose, it's embarrassing) I'm twiddling my thumbs while they, (mostly Alli, James seems to be over it) carry on with the fever.

Although the clothes or locations are sometimes the same, these were taken on separate days. Poor little children.

And the saddest part of it all. We had to cancel our family date for Derek's birthday tonight. I thought as both children were sound asleep at 5pm that it just wasn't going to be a good day for that.

So I made supper just for us and Derek's favorite cake. I knew Alli was really sick when she didn't even care about cake. I dragged her up to sing happy birthday. She's gonna kill me someday for this pic, but it is too funny not to share. You can't fake this look.

She is trying so hard. And like I said James isn't really sick anymore, but still sportin the ragged look. He is still up at 10 pm because of that nap so he is not so sick anymore. But the sick kid cuddles over the past week have been great!

Couldn't do a birthday post without telling Derek what a great guy he is. Not every dad lets the kids give him a haircut. The snapshots aren't great, but bathroom light at night is non ideal.

Derek really is a great guy. He is just all around swell. Probably the nicest, most patient, non judgemental, non complaining, guy with no temper I know. (what a sentence) Just what a gal like me needs! Frankly, I quite enjoy spending time with him. Happy Birthday, Love you!

And 'Anon' from the last post. I meant I beat 772 overall for the running, not the whole thing, jeesh. Who are you rootin for anyway? It's my blog and I'll brag if I want to.

i don't know why i'm doing this...

I could skip over this event like it didn't happen, but what would be the fun in that?!

So a few weeks back Derek and I decided to do a triathlon. That term is used pretty loosely around here. I mean, you do all 3 events, but the distance can be quite varied as in short enough for me. We decided to support the local village of Stirling because when you don't train you don't feel so bad about only spending $20 to do it. It was 300meter swim, 10km bike and 3 km run, so nobody needs to be too impressed with me.

I hit up the local pool once the week of. I almost drowned. The lifeguard handed me a flutter board. I didn't even ask for one, what does that mean?

(that's just me doing a leisurely back stroke during a triath)

These days when I ride my bike I am getting zero benefit. The kids love to ride their own and those little legs of theirs can only go so fast. So gone are the days of pulling them in the trailer and getting a workout while doing my errands around town. I'm pretty sure it's the equivalent of sitting on the couch and shifting positions in the calories I burn while riding with them. Therefore, it is safe to say that I am not in bike shape.

So I was holding out for the run to do ok in, but that is the last event you do so I didn't even know if my legs would work by that time.

ANYWAY, long story short, and I mean swimsuit short, I forgot my shorts. Yep, I get out of the pool and go to the 'transition area' and put on my shirt and my shoes and NOT my shorts. Because I forgot them. ( I wore sweats there if you are wondering if I just showed up in my swimsuit ready to go and they were in my car over in the parking lot.)

(there's me in the background most likely asking that guy if he has any shorts. and there's derek finishing his bike as i start my bike)

What else could I do but carry on and ride my bike in my swimsuit. (and tell everyone I saw that I did in fact forget my shorts and that I wasn't some sort of triathlon poser) It was a little cold so I had a long sleeve to put over my shirt. Yep, 2 shirts, no shorts. I'm awesome.

(your welcome for the faraway shot of no shorts me. my dad thought this was great and kept snapping away the closer i got! not pretty)

I'm hardcore, but if there were no shorts for me when I finished my bike I would not have done the run. I do draw the line somewhere, because no one wants to see that. My nice husband Derek took off his running shorts and put his swimsuit on after he finished (because he was in the 1st heat and freakishly fast and was done the whole thing by the time I rolled around) so I could look so cute in his giant basketball shorts.

(here i am beating this guy, but not really, because i crossed with my right non chip timed foot and he crossed with his left chip timed foot and so his timer went off first. but my overall time was faster than his so HA! to random stranger on my blog.)

So there you have it. I hope you laughed because I did and that's all you can do!

reunion business

I better start with these pictures from our Steed reunion way back on August long weekend. Sheesh, it's only labor day weekend by the time I get these up!

We started out the weekend in Waterton. It was the most perfect day in Waterton. No WIND and hot and sunny. The kids couldn't stay out of the freezing cold water.

James was just cracking me up as usual. Here he is doing his push ups in the lake.

I was handing out treats to whoever would duck under. Alli wanted nothing to do with treats business, money only! So I told her I'd give her dollar if she went under.

She was a little leery, and didn't think she could do it.

No worries, Dad came along to help.

Sidenote. When we were talking about if anyone would go under we look over and see James coming out from going under. He just went and did it! I was bummed I didn't get any pics of him doing it. But he heard the word treats and he was in!

We all walked down to the old house my Grandma (dad's mom) grew up in. You can see the roof to there. I'd take that view everyday! They must have been snowed in on a regular basis.

Well, that is about the total of pictures from the weekend. Guess I didn't feel like pulling the camera out too much! It was a lot of fun to hang out with my cousins, it's been so long. We see each other here and there at weddings and stuff, but it great to just relax and chat and let the kids play too.

One of my favorites from the reunion was when my aunt was talking about our ancestors. She talked about how it's great to know our ancestors and that whatever we are going through we know that our ancestors went through similar trials and we can always look to them for strength. I learned so much about my heritage over that weekend and I have a true appreciation for the family I am blessed to be a part of.

heck out Rhonda's post for a few more pics of everyone.