Road Trippin

LeRay vs. Chris in the mapskills, Chris wins!!!

We made it!!!

She's such a great traveler, Joshua is in the back asleep! (yes Poppy he IS buckled!!)

Yes, that's Chris, with my shades on then his glasses on top!

Well after a long day yesterday we made it to Colorful Colorado. It was a long 7 hour drive and a few too many one lane highways, but it wasn't too bad. The kids were wide awake the whole time until of course we got into Colorado and they slept right through the beautiful scenic mountain drive. Here are a few pics from our road trip.

I included one picture that tells the difference between Chris and me. It's two sets of directions side by side. One done by me and one done by Chris. I am sure that you can guess who did which one. I would still be driving lost in the mountains if is weren't for his skill with the map!! At one point I was driving and Chris was sleeping and Joshua was VERY nervous that I didn't know where to go! "Maybe we should wake up daddy" he said at one point and I wasn't EVEN lost.

We are finishing up our first full day here at Horn Creek. It's been fun and the kids are going non-stop and we are trying to keep up. We signed up to whitewater raft on Tuesday and ahorseback ride on Thursday.

Check back later for more pics! Some of you might be thinking I am crazy, why are you blogging on vacation? Well, I enjoy it and I enjoy it even more when I am sitting here looking out this big open window with the mountains right in front of me and smelling the cool mountain air and afternoon rainshower.

I love TECH

I just spent the night in Lubbock, Texas so you are probably thinking my title is saying I love Texas Tech!! NOPE!! No self respecting Aggie likes Texas Tech! What I am saying is I love TECHnology! Why you ask? It's because I am sitting in the front seat of my Dodge Caravan with a laptop in my lap (imagine that) and I am posting a new blog. Chris borrowed this cool little device that plugs into your USB drive and it picks up cell tower signals and you can be on the internet. I LOVE TECHNOLOGY! Now if we can just get a keyboard on the steering wheel I can drive, blog, and talk on the phone all at the same time. We are on our way to Colorado this morning. We just said bye to our sweet friends Keith and Laura that just moved to Lubbbock. Keith is now the music man for First Baptist Lubbock. Their house is beautiful and looks like it was built just for them. They seem to be adjusting well and my prayer is that they are happy, healthy, and have a smooth transition into the Fall. I miss them already. I hate goodbyes.

Ok so today is about a 7 hour drive on into Westcliffe, Colorado. I am so looking forward to watching my kids expressions when they see real MOUNTAINS!!! I will update if my little device gets a signal there.

8 things you might not have known about me

SO I got tagged by my friend Natalie. She follows the rules to a tee and was told she had to tag 8 people and she put me as one of them. It's fun to be handed a topic for your blog so I thought I would go ahead and do it. However I don't think I will be able to tag 8 people, I don't know 8 people and if I tag random blog people that I lurk at, then I will be found out.

The tag is to list facts/habits about myself:

1. I like every bed in my house to be made up and made up quickly. Chris fears that my obsessiveness with this will cause him to have the bed made up while he is still in it. Oh and I love laundry, really I do.

2. I burp. I burp ALOT. I burp often. It's a problem. It's also entertaining.

3. I HATE it when I have to get up yet Chris is still in bed. HATE IT! It's been this way since we were first married. I can't explain it, I should be happy for him when he has a moment to sleep in, nope, I just roll my eyes at his snoozing body and walk out, bitter.

4. I use to want to be a Doctor. Now I just pretend to be. I think I am getting my degree from Web-MD. Feel free to bring your symptoms to me, I will diagnos your ailment.

5. I LOVE school. Chris thinks this is the ultimate dork factor in me, but that's ok. It's true, I played school all the time when I was a little girl. I love libraries, cafeterias (not the food), desks, bulletin boards, kids, grading papers, etc. I LOVE school.

6. I am VERY competitive. In everything. I have even sunk so low as to try to stay on the treadmill at the gym longer than the fella that was on the treadmill next to me, he was irritating me because he was constantly looking over at my treadmill, I guess trying to see how far or how fast. Well buddy, I might not be going that fast but I am NOT getting off until you do! I had a good workout that day. When I was little and in the car I was always racing everyone else on the road. Of course if you passed me you were automatically disqualified. I like to win.

7. I was a lifeguard and can't swim. Yes folks that's the truth. The pool wasn't exactly safe when I was working! Well mostly I just can't swim the length of the pool freestyle, I can't figure out the breathing thing and then I kinda freak and have to stop and breathe. So if your drowning nearby no worries, I will get you. However, if you are across the pool then just hold on I will either slowly breaststroke over to you, or maybe backstroke, but then I might miss you altogether since I can't see where I am going. I had a nice tan though with that job!

8. I am a scaredy cat! It doesn't take much to make me jump and scream. I can even know you are hiding and about to jump out at me, but yet I will still be scared. My chilren and husband find this trait funny and use it to entertain themselves often!

OK so hopefully we can remain friends. Just think I kept alot of the deeper stranger stuff still underwraps.

arg!!

I can't sleep!!! Don't you hate it when you can't sleep! Every once in a while the insomnia bug bites and I lay in bed til I get frustrated and then go ahead and just get up come out to the living room. I have no idea what time will show when I post this because it's usually not correct and I don't know how to fix that yet. Anyway, I woke up at 3am and laid there til 4 and now I am on the couch with the laptop reading blogs and the newspaper. I know I know there is a lot more productive things I could be doing, but I have insomnia AND laziness. Plus if I started to clean the house which is what I really need to be doing I would wake everyone up, wouldn't they be thrilled. I don't know why I can't sleep, maybe I am stressed about my really tough day tomorrow (actually today) of taking kids to the movies, out to lunch and a COSTCO run. Maybe I can't sleep because I was thinking about our Colorado trip. I am excited. In fact I must be super excited because apparently I have been asking Joshua a few too many times if he is excited. When I asked him about it last night he said, "Yes mom, I am excited, I already told you that" Oops :)

Ok well now it's 4:45, I guess I should try to go lay my head down and sleep, so "grumpy mom" doesn't rear her ugly head tomorrow! Good night, or good morning whichever you want.

Can someone come over and fix me breakfast...

Still in denial

Well, in just few weeks I will be embarking on a new season of life. After being a stay at home mom for 10 years I am going back to teaching. I am sure that I will have much more to blog about that in the future, but for now I get to remain in denial that summer is coming to a close because Friday we leave for our 3rd and final trip of the summer. The four of us are heading to Horn Creek (www.horncreek.org) for a week of family fun in the mountains. We have never been before but have heard so many great things about it from several friends. We have been truly spoiled this summer with all the fun things to do, that I am anticipating a huge case of PVD to set in when we return. PVD, well that stands for Post Vacation Depression. I usually have a strong case of it after our S. Padre trip but this year I have been able to keep it at bay since I know we have one more trip. There is no known cure for PVD (except more trips of course).

For those that are wondering how the training for the half marathon is going (see post below)here is the update:

Well, I pressed "print" on my computer and printed out the training schedule and walked down the stairs, circled the final "Half" and wrote Dec. 9th on the paper, stuck it up on the fridge. I was tired after that and had to go lay down. Whew!

WHAT have I done???

With just a few clicks of my mouse and a few strokes on my keyboard I just agreed to do one of the most insane things I have EVER done. Completing this task is going to take every ounce of energy and "stick to itness" that I can muster. I just signed up for the white rock HALF marathon. YIKES. I will be the first to admit that I am no where near able to actually run 13.1 miles. In fact the thought of going that far makes me laugh out loud and my feet hurt!! I have alot of ground to cover (literally) in the next 4 months to accomplish this task and guess what my blogging friends, you get to go on this journey with me. See, sometimes I can be a quitter at stuff. I know that's not good, but it's true. When I am running sometimes I keep going JUST because I think "ok if you finish this run today then you can email/call (insert sister or sister in law or hubby's name) and they will be so proud of you. Isn't that silly that it takes that extrinsic motivation to make me keep going. Once I start training, which probably should have been yesterday, I will keep you posted on my progress. I am gonna need some good cheerleaders! I am going to follow this training plan if you want to see the insanity of it all.

Oh boy! What have I done???

Until next year...

Tonight is our last night in S. Padre. I am sitting in our condo and I just got my two tired beach bums to bed and thought I might blog tonight instead of tomorrow since I know I will be up to my eyeballs in laundry tomorrow night after our long drive home. I am pretty sure we are transporting a few pounds of sand back with us. It's been such a fun week for us down here. There were about 30 of us down here, 12 of which were kids, so you can imagine the fun Joshua and Jessica had. We had a few spots of rain here and there but nothing to stop the fun and it certainly helped keep the normally stifling heat to a minimum. I always feel a little sad on this night, while I am ready to go home, sleep in my bed, etc, I still love being down here. I love the beach, watching the waves and just playing with my kids, but I think it's also something more. I love watching my children build strong memories with members of their extended family young and old. I love being able to lay on the beach with my sister and laugh and chat. I love being able to see my grandmother every day. I love watching a sea of eight great grandchildren running up from the beach each night to show their great grandmother all the sand crabs they caught. I love watching Jessica and her cousin hang together like sisters and Joshua boogie board in the waves for hours on end. I love being able to be with my parents each day and having them spoil my kids rotten. If I could get all this, I could care less where I was, the beach part is just the icing on the cake. So it's back to reality tomorrow (sorta it IS still summer, you know) but I sure gotta full love tank after this week!