Spud Harvest - Day 3

It is snowing. Big ol' white flakes falling from the sky.

Your Laugh for Today

McKay: "Mom, I want a cracker."
Me: "How do you ask?"
McKay: "May I have a cracker please?"
Me: "Give me a kiss first."
McKay: "Oooh, that's kinda scary."

Potato Harvest- Day 1

I got online to investigate the weather forecast for this week. Imagine my excitement when I saw this:
Should be lots of fun inside this little 3-bedroom apartment. To make the rest of the week somewhat bearable, today we went to the park. I basked in the sun while my kids played soccer. At some point I should start fretting over the fact that all winter coats are in storage (BR's football game on Wednesday night might be cold) and the only shoes I currently own are flip-flops and high heels.

Old Dog...New Tricks

My phone rings this afternoon.

"Trulee Ann."

It's my dad. My heart stops. My dad usually only calls when it is bad news or I'm in trouble.

"Dad?" I ask.

My dad takes a deep breath on the other end of the phone. "How do I send a text message?"

At this minute, my mother, wherever she is, knows the score of the BSU/Bowling Green game.

Mission accomplished.


Later: It just occurred to me that my mom is at the General Relief Society Meeting, which I completely forgot about. Oops.

Just a Reminder

There are some things I was not meant to do. Manual labor, for one. Be a stay-at-home mom, for another. And not that I'm a stay-at-home mom because yesterday I left to pick up kids at 2:40 and didn't get home again until 7:20. And that was all Braxton. It's just that I work from home and I have one very lonely little boy at home and I'm about to go nuts. And I have no friends in this VERY COLD neck of the world. And it's 15 minutes to go to town and I think I'm suffering from PMS, but I digress.....

This morning, I suggested to McKay that he sit and color next to me while I worked on some student essays. The problem arose when he couldn't just color whatever was in the coloring book. He wanted a cow. With horns. "Mommy, find me one." I couldn't find one. "Find a horse, Mama." I found a funny-looking cartoonish horse. "No, Mama, a Spirit horse." You know, like the one in the movie Spirit. So I jumped online and found a coloring page and using my very cool wireless printer connection (working from home has some advantages), I printed the page. But the paper didn't come out quite right and the horse's head didn't print. "No! I want a head!"

At this point, I am at my wits end and the next think I do is lock myself in my bedroom. Except I can't lock the door because the door technically doesn't shut all the way and because it's a rental I don't normally care, but today I care because there was nowhere to go to escape the little boy who wanted a Spirit horse with a head!

Now that I am breathing normal again (and have at least one essay under me belt), here's a reminder for me why I stay home and don't go out in the world to find a job.....yet.



By the way, that's a flaming basketball on his cheek. Face paint from the street fair.

I Had My Running Shoes

This past weekend I ran the Rim-to-Rim in Twin Falls. The race is 7.5 miles long. It starts at the bottom of the Snake River Canyon, down by the Blue Lakes Golf Course.This is the pack of runners at the start of the race. The first 1/2 mile is pretty flat and uneventful and then you have to climb out of the canyon. The next 1/2 mile is not fun at all and is very steep. At some point, I realized I could walk the canyon faster than I was running it. Once out of the canyon, the road is pretty level and leads out to the highway. I actually enjoyed running along the highway with cars streaking past me at 65 mph. They provided a breeze. A semi went past and I wished he were longer because the shade he provided was so nice! The race didn't start until 10:00 am and by then it was about 85 degrees. I don't usually run in that kind of heat and it was exhausting.

The race continues across the Perrine Bridge. This is always fun because invariably a semi will sneak up behind me (I have headphones on) and honk and it scares me bad enough I might jump. Actually, I love the bridge because it means I'm halfway. Then I get to see my family who are always waiting in the visitor's center parking lot to cheer me on. Another mile and the race descends into the Snake River Canyon on the south side. This is great because I just let the downhill carry me. And this year, the shade on the south rim was a welcome relief. Did I mention it was hot?
At the bottom of the canyon, the race goes through the Canyon Springs Golf Course and back across the river on the foot bridge shown above. The worst part of the race, though, you don't get to see. The foot bridge is at about mile 7. Once over the foot bridge, the race is uphill for the next quarter mile. And it's steep. And it's hard. And it was SO HOT!! And just when you think, "I'm so done" people who have already finished the race start showing up on the edge of the course saying things like, "You're almost there" and "It's all downhill from here."

I finished the race. This is the third time I've ran (and finished) the Rim-to-Rim and I think it was my hardest, even though my time was better than it's been in the past. I'm just glad it's over (for another year). More than that, though, I'm glad I did it to begin with.

PS - photos courtesy of Randy. And yes, he took photos of me running. Do you seriously think I'd post those on my blog? Never in a million years.

Do you have your running shoes?

My sister sent me this link. It is a beautiful video and is a great analogy for life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmTa840SYZc

Words Worth Repeating

A few weeks ago we were at my parents' house and the kids were helping my dad bring in the cows to feed. Braxton was his usual whiny self and said, "This would be a lot easier if I had a horse and cowboy boots."

My dad responded, "Everything would be easier if you had all there was in the world to be had, but you don't. What you do have is the brain God gave you. Use that to figure out how to get the job done."

Wisdom I thought was worth repeating.

Melancholy Tuesday

Blame it on the weather. It's cold here and feels like fall and fall always makes me melancholy.

Yesterday was my brother-in-law's birthday. He turned 37. For a few weeks each year, we are the same age. Daryl actually came home from Iraq the day before my birthday just a few weeks ago. His wife was kind enough to share him with us while he was home. They drove down from Washington and we enjoyed being with him. I know the cousins enjoyed being together.

Daryl is in the red shirt in this picture. Yesterday morning, on his 37th birthday, my brother-in-law got back on a plane and headed back to Iraq. I thought about that a lot yesterday. That could not have been a fun birthday. I think as adults we expect our birthdays to be more like normal days. Typically we don't have parties and aren't showered with gifts. But a trip back to war (with a long layover in Dallas) isn't usually on our agendas either.

So Daryl, Happy Birthday. Eat some Pralines and Cream for me. (That would mean you can have it twice this week.) We can't wait to see you again in the spring!