Summer is Hot

Today is hot.  It's a perfect beach day.  The only problem is that we're back in PA. We arrived yesterday - with the hot weather.



"Windows" in our drizzle castles.

The girls and I spent the last few weeks up in MI at my mom's, in the house where I grew up.  It seems so much smaller now than it did then.  The bonus of going home when Hubby is TDY, is that mom's house is less than a mile from Lake Huron.  The beach.  White sand.  And at this time of year, cooooold water.



Bug added a water feature to
the castle which evenually
collapsed it.

We didn't get to go to the beach, but 3 times while we were up there. Partly because the weather was just too cool and kind of rainy.  And, truth be told, I like the concept of the beach much more than I actually like being there. 

Our last visit to the beach, the day before we came home was wonderful.  We left Baby Pie at home with Gramma.  The temperature was in the mid to upper 70's and there was a stiff breeze blowing.  We went in the late afternoon, so the sun was behind me, when I was watching Bug in the water.  Bug and I made drizzle sand castles, and she played in the water much more than I did.  I waded in, just enough to rinse the sand off my legs.  At one point I actually layed down on the towel and enjoyed the mild temp and the breeze and could have fallen asleep.



It was a 9 hour drive back yesterday.  I am so thankful for our van.  However, she needs some new shoes.  Her treads are about gone.  So, tomorrow, I get to take her to the shop and drop about $800.  Ack. Cough.  I have much more fun things I'd rather spend that money on, but our safety is worth it.

We, with most of the country, are having a heat wave.  Yuck.  Our hosue doesn't have air conditioning, so it's blasted hot.  Currently 85 degrees in the house.  The bonus is that we're not out in the sun in the heat and humidity and can have fans blowing on us.  I honestly hate sweating.  I've come to terms with sweating when I work out, but when I'm just sitting, or walking around the house I do not wish to be sticky.  I do not like feeling as though I need multiple showers in a day. 

Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter.  Yuck.  I bought a kiddie pool at WalMart today.  It has a slide built in, but need some assembly.  I have to put in the handle and screw it in place.  At this point, that sounds like way more work and sweat than I'm willing to do.  Got it put together and water in it.  Of course it had a hole, I patched with duct tape...  After the sun hits it tomorrow, it'll feel great in the afternoon.

First Beach Day of 2012

Blue skies, white fluffy clouds, a great breeze, warm sand, clear water, a close to shore super shallow sandbar and you have my ultimate day at the beach.

Here are some pics of our first day at the beach of the year.

Sigh - don't you just wish you could hang out with me and the girls?

If my big sister is doing it, I want to too!

And what a great big sis she is!

This is exactly how I feel about perfect beach days!

Lovin' her toes in the sand.

She's laying on the sandbar.

I'll leave you with one of my all time favorite views. 

I do truly wish you all could experience a beautiful beach day like this one, they don't happen nearly frequently enough!

Someday I'll be able to run my pics through Photoshop to make them look like they should.  Just have to figure out how to use it!

A Summer of C25K Training Begins!

Check it out here!

I have signed my family up for the Color Me Rad 5K race in Pittsuburgh on August 25.  I have no doubt that Hubby and Baby Pie will make it through the race just fine.  Bug and I on the other hand will need to definately train up for it.  I named our team Mandatory Fun, because I think that's just what the training for this will be like.

I found a C25K app on my Droid.  That's  Couch to 5K.  It's a training program that take you from your couch to running a 5K in 8 weeks.  We have about 12 weeks til the race, but I have a feeling I'm going to need to do some of the training weeks a couple of times.

We have found a wonderful trail, a short drive from our house.  It's just over 2 miles long total, so will be good for us to use while we're here.  It is very shady and has awesome views of the river.  We walked the trail twice, once with our "regular" stroller which didn't like going over the gravel and bumps very well.  And we walked it a second time with the new bike trailer converted to jogging stroller that we bought for just this purpose.  It works much better.

Today was our first official C25K training day.  We did a 5 minute warmup walk then 8 sets of jogging (here after I'll be calling it running) for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds.  Then a 5 minute cool down, which was more like 10+ because it's and out and back trail and the extra little bit of walking does a body good.

It was very hard to get out of the house this morning.  Hubby left for his 3 weeks of Annual Training at midnight, so we all slept in.  Then I had a hard time getting everyone moving toward the door.  I actually had a meltdown of my own.  I beat my head against the freezer door - I really did I'm ashamed to say - and I cried.  Big huge tears and sobs of frustration.  I know I need to do this to be healthy - but it would have been so much easier to just let the girls play and watch tv, and all I was getting from my almost 11 year old was resistance.

Finally got in the van and moving and I apologized for my behavior and tried to explain what I was feeling.

After the run/walk we both felt quite triumphant.  I'm proud that we're getting out and moving and that hopefully I'm showing Bug that running isn't all pain and agony and it can be enjoyable.

We're headed up to MI to my mom's house in a few days and we'll stay up there for a couple of weeks.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around the 24/7 single parent life - again.  My goal is to pick up and clean the house so when we come home it's welcoming and not the tragic chaos that is surrounding me now.

A bonus for travelling so much this summer, I justified the purchase and installation of a remote starter for the van because boarding the cat is so ridiculously expensive.

I feel bad for all of us that Hubby will be gone so much this summer.  Bug has 87 days off from school.  Hubby will only be home for 32 of them.  That's way less than half.  The bonus is that of those 32, he's taking 20 of them as leave, so we'll have him all to ourselves!

Well, off to be the house-slave and pick up, clean and orgainize.  Bug is my anti-organizer.  She follows me around and undoes all the "good" I do.  Sigh.