Summer Daze

We're down to the final weeks of summer.  Well, summer before school starts.  Its pretty much always summer weather here.  Since the kids go back to school in a few weeks, we've been trying to squeeze every last drop of fun before that happens.

Levi is ready for the pool.  Or a hurricane.  Whichever comes first. 

 Rylee had an unfortunate incident with a fire-ant hill.  She lost.  This was her leg the next day.  Poor kid had a hot swollen leg for a bit.  It gave her quite the grumpy disposition as well.

Callie and Delaney had a blast exploring the deep end of the pool.  Marian is below the water.  She just learned she can touch the 12 foot bottom.  Quite an accomplishment, and she now spends all her time working on that.  We usually get a couple hours a week in at the pool, until the thunderstorms close it down for the day. 

Joshua developed his own "Golden Armor".  He's very proud of it.  He later made some golden leggings as well. 10 cool points if you know where the Golden Armor comes from.

And Karate.  How I love Karate!  The kids have a great time running around, burning off vast quantities of energy. And they are getting pretty good at it.  

5k Fail: Sweat Your Thorns Off 5k Race Report

I wanted to be part of the Boring Runner's  semi Annual Virtual 5K race.  It was held yesterday and this is my race report.  Mainly, I report that I suck.  And yet, I am going to bore you with the many details that make up my FAIL.

I should mention my excuses.  I live in the pit of humanity and running when it is miserably hot and the humidity is in the 90% area really stinks.  The heat gives me headaches and my doctor told me I'd just have to stop running all summer.  I did not listen. I found a complicated regime that seems to keep the really bad migraines at bay, but I am definitely slower and I am not increasing mileage like I would really like to.

My other big excuse is that we got a dog.  Since I need to run and he needs to run, we've been doing it together.  This means that during our typical 3.3 mile runs we stop at 3 different water stations for him to get a drink, and depending on his morning, we may stop another time or 2, wherein I may get the additional pleasure if trotting down the trail with a baggie of warm doggie poo in my hand.

This is the adorable culprit right here.  I confess I was excited to see how running without him would go.  Since he is a herding dog, he tends to run right behind me (with the occasional goose from his nose on my leg), and I don't know how much it effects my time. I was hoping to find out that I was faster without him.  I do occasionally take the Garmin with me when I run with the dog, but I stop it when we're not actually running.  I go a solid 10 minute mile that way, so I was sure I'd be faster alone, despite no breaks.

I was up early, because is southern Louisiana, you really need to run before the sun comes up.  I was ready to go and quite excited about it.

See, look at me, all ready to run.   I really was prepared to get  pictures of the after as well. Unfortunately, I stepped outside to this:

That 90% humidity had become 100%.  I don't mind running in a drizzle, but a downpour wasn't on my agenda.  I sucked it up and drove to the gym.  I would have loved to get pictures, but I was waaay to self conscious to take pictures in a military gym of buff military men with scary faces.  I just hopped on the treadmill and got down to business.

Sadly, this would be only the second time I have ever run in the gym on a treadmill there. I detest the treadmill.  I ended up running 5k in 33:14 and am mortified to admit it.  I only share it so I can have something to thoroughly trounce next time!  I was too discouraged to take any pictures to post.

I know, if I had any pride, I'd have scrapped the day and done it again another time.  

Why I Pay Library Fines

While it is not really OUR library, there is a mighty fine library close enough for me to drive over there regularly.  This week they had the Bugmobile stop by and the guy from the Insectarium in New Orleans came to show off some of his bugs.  We went to see what he had.

Callie was excited to be there. 

You can't see what's in his hand, but it is a large grasshopper. 

While they were pretty cool to look at, they didn't hold the Black Widows or let us pet them.  Thank goodness! 

He did show us this tarantula, but no petting allowed.  He said they have little spiny hairs on their legs that they can fling at you (aiming for the eyes, of course) and these things hurt and really itch.  Petting the spider might cause it distress or fear, and that could lead to little hairs in kids' eyes and that would be bad.  So no petting.  Very cool to look at still. 

We did not pet the scorpion either! 

But the ginormous millipede was quite the popular fellow.

The kids really got a kick out of it.  I even pet it! 

Then Rylee got grumpy.   

Then she got silly. 

And she spread the silliness. 

I love my kids!

A story about a bird

I sent Joshua out to walk the dog the other evening. He came racing back in the house shouting that there was a pelican outside.  The girls dashed out to see and I handed Joshua the camera.  He documented the event while Dan and I stayed inside and chatted with our company.  So I never actually saw the bird, only the following pictures.

No, it isn't a pelican.  I'm not sure what it really, but it is pretty.  With a bum leg.  

 I expect the bum leg is why it didn't just fly away from the kids.  It apparently was able to move away from them, but you can see how close the kids were to it. 

They chased the poor thing down the alley. 

And they were totally grossed out at it eating this bird.  I heard it was a baby bird and it was alive till the big bird tried to eat it.  They made the big bird drop it, but the baby bird was dead.  I'm confused as to where the baby bird came from, but it was definitely there.  They ended up herding the bird into a neighbor's yard.  I hope the nice man who's yard it was called some animal rescue people to help the poor traumatized bird.  

My children all came screaming back into the house because Callie had been holding Rylee so she could pet the bird and the big bird pecked her.  So her bleeding head sent them scurrying for home and who knows what happened to the poor bird!

The end.

Today, in Numbers

5- How many times we have been to the dentist in the last 3 weeks.
4- How many hundreds of dollars I have now paid said dentist.
3- The number of my children currently sporting numb mouths. Also the total number of fillings Callie has gotten.
2- The number of teeth Joshua got pulled today. Also the number of return visits he has, and the number of teeth still to be removed.
1- How many crowns Marian got and the number of fillings Callie endured today.