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| Saturday, 25-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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| Friday, 24-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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No creature was stirring . . . except me wrapping presents
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The dough robber herself -- Rowdy
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Kat with Santa at Andy's firm's kids' Christmas party.
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Alix with Santa at firm Christmas party
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Very quickly. It's very late and I have an early morning tomorrow (or today, if you're going to be technical about it). It's 2 a.m. Christmas morning.
On Dec. 23rd was Andy's and my 15th anniversary. I spent the time on the ski slopes . . . in snowshoes! A great way to watch your kids ski, by the way, if you don't want to really do the ski thing (which I don't, me being Illinois born and had only gone skiing once as a kid). I strapped on borrowed snowshoes and spent over 3 hours running up to the lifts my kids (and Bonnie and Tony and their 2 little girls, Emily and Lindsey) were taking, then hauling butt about 1/2 way up the runs to see them ski down, then running down the runs, trying to stay out of the other skiers' way! A sweaty and thigh busting activity. Especially when you are entrusted with your sister's key (plus keyless entry remote) to protect with your life while she and your kids go skiing. A quick background info: last year, Bonnie's husband, Tony, was entrusted with the keys and remote and lost them. My kids were with them last year, and I've heard all about the brawling that took place after that. They had had to have their neighbor FedEx them a key from their home overnight so that they could get back into their car to leave. And then it cost approx. $150 to replace the keyless entry remote. Can you see where this is going? Yep -- I put those blasted keys in the pocket of my fleece and zipped them in tight. But big mistake -- I had also put my cell phone in the same "safe" pocket. And my phone rang, and well, I'm sure you can predict the ending to this sad story. Later, after warming up in one of the lodges and eating onion rings (some of the best I've ever had, btw, besides the amazing ones at National Jewish Hospital's cafeteria), I discovered that the keys were nowhere. My sister and Tony were speechless. Numb. And not from the 0 degree temps that day (yep -- it was wicked cold up there). I frantically ran down the hill to the lost and found, security office, and locker room where they had all changed into their ski gear that morning. No luck. Did find out, however, that the security office at Winter Park breaks into cars for free. Good news -- it wouldn't cost me a couple hundred to get a locksmith to open their car! I decided to bust butt and high tail it back up the slopes to retrace my steps and maybe get lucky. Well, no one else was as much a freak as I snowshoeing where normal people ski in the skin cracking cold, so I was actually able to follow most of my snowshoe tracks back to where I had spent the morning running up and down the runs. I saw my tracks, lots of pine cones partially covered in snow and twigs. Finally, just when I thought my face would freeze off, I decided to go over where my tracks were not visible anymore, but where I had a slight memory of standing and talking on the cell phone to Arianna (she had decided not to ski that day and had opted to stay back in the time share w/ my mom instead). I was able to pick up my tracks again . . . and I spied a quarter-sized spot of black in the snow. It was a key with a keyless remote attached!
I trotted down to the lodge at the bottom where my sister and company were eating lunch and presented her with my find. My face was so frozen I could hardly speak and my hands were stiff with the cold. Just then, my phone rings. I fumble around in my pocket, spy music ring tone ringing away. I grab hold of my phone, press the "on" botton -- and nothing! It wouldn't answer the call, the phone was too cold and wasn't functioning. It was a "private number" call coming in which could only mean Andy calling me from Kuwait to wish me a Happy Anniverary! This was the call I had brought my phone out in the cold and had safeguarded in my pocket, causing the loss of the keys! I yell at Tony beside me to try to answer. By the time I got the phone to do its job, the ringing ceased. A minute later I heard the message beep, and disheartened, listened to the message. Andy with a very sad voice, bummed that he couldn't get ahold of me on our anniversary. UGH! Much worse than sitting at home tip tapping on my computer when his emails come in.
Today we left Winter Park, and as I was driving away from the time share, my phone sounds off. It's Bruce. Rowdy had busted through the baby gate I'd bought at Target the day I was home and ran up to Anastasia's and Arianna's room and peed a puddle into their carpet. So, that mess greeted me. The rest of the day, I prepared some of Christmas dinner, ran to the store for stuff I didn't have for the meal, etc. Made pie crust for the 2 chocolate pecan pies I was going to have for dessert tomorrow. Rowdy, locked in the mudroom behind the baby gate, was up on her hind legs, front paws against the top of the gate watching me with rapt attention as I rolled out the crust. It didn't go too well, so I balled it up for a second try, but got distracted by something. When I got back, Rowdy had busted out of the gate and had the entire ball of dough firmly in her mouth! She saw me coming and gulped it down on one giant swallow. So much for dessert tomorrow!
Okay, time to sleep! More tomorrow.
Feliz Navidad! Check out the pics!
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| Wednesday, 22-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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So much stuff, so little time!
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OK, not the most flattering, but not much to work with . . .
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Christmas party w/ partners Mark and Jim. Jealous, Andy?
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Wow. I haven't written in DAYS. I guess I can't really expect anything else during the holidays . . .
Let's see -- quick recap. A week has passed since I last wrote.
Last Thurs., Alix had her Christmas choir concert at school. That was at 7 p.m., but she had to be at school at 6:30 to warm-up, etc. Simultaneously, Anastasia and Arianna had a soccer practice for an hour at Denver Sports. Luckily, Jenna (a female West Point cadet in her second year there, but home on medical leave for the remainder of the school year. She's an AMAZING soccer player, and the Army docs at Keller Army Hospital (where Andy had 2 shoulder reconstructions and I had a femur repair) did a botch surgery job on her in the spring, but that's a story for another day) had volunteered to take the girls to their practice and bring them back home for me!
Erin came to watch Alix's concert. Plus, she's so sweet, she arrives a few min. before the performance started and drops my printed pics on my lap. When she'd picked up her pictures at Sam's, she just went ahead and picked up mine, too, and refused me paying for them. That is an example of someone finding a need -- no matter how small or seemingly insignificant -- and filling it. By the way, it's not an insignificant need to me -- it would've taken me at least 15 min. to park, haul in the (whatever number at the time) kids into Sam's, pay for the pics, PLUS spend who knows how long loitering around Sam's looking for ways to spend money. So Erin's thoughtfulness "paid off" in more ways than one!
Anyway, back to the concert. Alix's choir teacher is a professional opera singer and has trained the "bad girl" pop singer Pink, among others. He's also very young, which surprised me. When I say young, I'm meaning like just outta college young. He's prob not THAT young, but these days anyone under 30 looks like a child to me. The choir was really good -- singing pretty complicated songs w/ layers of parts, if you know what I mean. Afterwards, Alix went home to study for a Chemistry semester test with a friend, and Erin, Andrew, Kat, and I stopped at Good Times (fast food hamburger place that actually serves free range beef!) for dinner and had a nice talk. It's so nice to have Erin back -- I really missed her, and so did the kids!
Friday. Well, I spent the morning frantically cleaning and getting ready for my sister and her 2 kids and husband to arrive later that night. Jenna was going to come over to bake Christmas cookies, but somehow that just didn't happen. I later realized that she had called me, around 2 p.m., to figure out when, etc., but I guess the vacuum cleaner overrode the sound of the phone. My sister got in around 4, we went out to eat at my faithful standby Mexican restaurant (because couldn't work in cooking w/ all the busyness of the morning/afternoon), then went to the Zoo Lights thing at the zoo in City Park -- all decorated for Christmas. Got a discount price for the tickets through Andrew's virtual home-based charter school. The kids rode the carrousel (spelled!) and we wandered around, but didn't stay too long because Bonnie and I had to rush out to Colorado Mills (about 15 min. from my house) to buy a coat for Lindsey to use (and Kat to eventually grow into) at Children's Place where all the coats were 50 % off. After that, we got the kids into bed, packed the kids up for their stay in Winter Park (Bonnie got 2 timeshares so that we could spend the week up there and she and Tony and the kids could ski -- I opted out of the skiing part. no cooking and cleaning for a couple days sounded great to me, tho), then Bonnie and I spent a massive amt. of time on the web ordering Christmas presents for my grandma and grandpa and my dad, etc.
Saturday. Bonnie and Tony left with my 3 oldest and their 2 for Winter Park pretty much on time -- around 11:30 a.m. A few min. later, I left for the airport w/ Kat and Andrew to pick my mom up, flying in from Chicago. I was late, but luckily, my mom was later, so everything worked out just fine! After that, on the way home, I went to the Commissary and PX (oops -- BX in the Air Force) on Buckley Air Force Base to get food and other stuff. We pretty much stayed out pretty late Christmas shopping. Went to bed after midnight.
Sunday. We were planning on being up at Winter Park around 4 in the afternoon. Bonnie and company were skiing for the first time that day, I was also planning on going to church. But Andy called right when I was about to jump in the shower, so that blew that plan -- I was happy to talk to Andy, which I did for about 45 min. It looks like he's gotten some rape cases, and he's back in the saddle again, ripping up witnesses on the stand. I made some chilli to take up to Winter Park and washed clothes and packed. I couldn't find Andrew's snowpants anywhere, even tho he'd tried them on just last week! So, I knew I had them somewhere. So, I had to wait to get a hold of Bonnie to see if she'd brought them up by mistake. Well, I didn't get to talk to her until she was done skiing -- 4 p.m. -- which was also the time we were planning on being up there. She didn't have the ski pants, wanted me to pick up/bring up a few things, and we all just decided that we should come up there Monday instead.
Oh, did I mention that Bruce dropped by w/ his snowshoes (well, actually, the snowshoes he had gotten Erin last year, but she didn't want to keep when they broke up) and then just volunteered to take care of Rowdy while we were gone? Huge relief, because me, Procratinator Extraordinaire, put off arranging for a kennel to board Rowdy for the few days we'd be gone. Um, you gotta reserve early during the holidays, and I'm trying to find a place The Day That I'm Leaving?? Doesn't work. So Bruce just asks me, "What are you doing about Rowdy while you're gone?" Uh, funny you should ask, Bruce. He said he'd drop by every night to feed her, etc. and because he only lives 5 min. away, it's no problem at all. Whatever. Doing something for someone takes effort; that's why so few people go out of their way for others. But thoughts on that in another post.
Funny that my 2 main helpers without me even having to ask are now broken up. But that's something to ponder at another time.
Anyway, still no snowpants, so the mission was to get some new ones. Something I hate to do when I KNOW they are in the house somewhere! But my mom and I finished up the day running around to Kohls and Target, etc. shopping/returning stuff (my mom's favorite occupation), and I didn't get to sleep until after midnight. By the way, found the pants stuffed into Andrew's dresser, after we got back from shopping.
Monday. We actually got up to Winter Park -- but by the time we got there, it was dark. Now, it's no joyride driving someplace you've never been, in the dark, on a winding curvy road, w/ slippery conditions and your mom freaking out in the passenger seat beside you, let me tell you! But that is exactly what I experienced once I exited off of I-70. I am thankful that it WAS dark, upon reflection, because I think had my mom actually seen the drop off in some place along the road, I think she would've had a full-fledged panic attack. I'm not looking forward to the drive home. We got to Winter Park and the time share where my sister is holed up safely. We unloaded the chilli and cornbread I'd made on Sunday, I made rice in the rice cooker I brought along, and we had dinner. Soon after, my mom, Andrew, Kat, and me drove out to our time share (about 5 min. away) and went to bed. Fell asleep around 1 a.m., but tossed and turned in the twin bed all night.
Tuesday. I had to leave around noon to head back down to Denver because I had a doc appt. in the afternoon, plus Christmas shopping left. Did both, piddled around in the house, getting gifts ready, etc., and went to sleep around 1. Oh, also got a call from Arianna's soccer coach from the club we left this summer, asking for her to guest play at an indoor tournament that's happening next week. Talked for quite a while as is customary whenever he calls me. His 16 yr. old daughter recently got diagnosed w/ Lupus, which is really sad. Her kidney's are already affected.
Okay. Just went running in the snow (it's cold and snowy today -- snowed a couple inches last night and dropped a bunch of degrees in temp) w/ Rowdy -- about 6 miles. I love my Gortex trail shoes! No slipping in the snow! And now I'm about to take a shower so I can run around and do a few errands before heading back up to Winter Park.
What I didn't get done while I was home: make pie crusts, wrap all the Christmas presents, mail my dad's and grandparents' presents (but that still may happen if the stars align), make gingerbread and butter Christmas cookies, pay the bills (shoulda last weekend!), and get Chocolate Santas (tried yesterday, but even tho I ordered them last week at the best chocolate store in Denver if not anywhere in the U.S., they weren't ready! This is the second time this has happened to me when ordering stuff ahead of time there, so I'm sure it happens to many others as well. It's a good thing their chocolate rocks rocks rocks or they'd be outta business). So, I'll be able to do that today; actually I have to before I get up to Winter Park.
And since I spent the time blogging, I'm totally behind schedule!!!
Hasta!
PS Check out the new pics. Well, they may be up later . . . remember the ones Erin picked up for me at Sam's? Stay tuned.
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| Wednesday, 15-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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Today was pretty uneventful, which I guess is a good thing. Did school with the kids in the morning, took Andrew to swimming lessons. While Andrew swam, I was teaching Anastasia how to write mathematical expressions with variables. After picking Kat up from school at noon, I took one of my quickie showers so that I could pick Alix up at school at 1 p.m. (I was only 4 min. late) so that I could take her to her scheduled interview for the IB Program at George Washington High School (not late at all). While battling traffic, I went over some of the questions she'd most likely be asked. When we got back in the car afterwards, Alix turned to me, surprised that most of the questions she was asked were the ones I told her she'd be asked. Been 'round the world a couple times, kid!
But Alix did great on the interview. So, I rewarded her w/ a stop into the Chocolate Foundry in Cherry Creek on the way home. I had another mission to accomplish there -- ordering my traditional chocolate Santas for stockings. I got a dark chocolate almond turtle, and Alix got a milk chocolate one.
When I got home I made dinner -- again! -- this could be a record. Now, I'm not making complicated Gourmet Today meals or anything, what I made was potato soup, but at least I'm prioritizing cooking this week. I don't know about tomorrow -- I'm thinking my streak may have come to an end. After making soup, I did about 45 min. of Pilates -- my own routine after listening to Mari Winsor enough times. Couldn't take her today! Jumped into the shower for the second time today, then Arianna had a soccer practice till 7; I dropped her home after that and headed out to Community Group -- a mid-week Bible study which Bruce hosts at his place. I was only 40 min. late, but they weren't beyond the chit chat stage yet, so I was okay. Got home around 10. Now I'm blogging, but I'm def going to blow off grading today because I'd rather lie in bed w/ a book. The sky is spitting cold rain/sleet turning to snow, so it's the perfect night to eat potato soup (which I'm eating as I type -- dinner past 10 p.m.) and curling up w/ a book under my blankies.
Happy dreams.
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| Tuesday, 14-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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Sticky situations
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Today I awoke to my cell phone sounding off with the "spy music" I selected for my ring tone. It was my friend and new pastor's wife, Leanne. She's started a very exciting ministry for Denver prostitutes, called "Streets Hope," and this past weekend, her ministry got tons of publicity -- first starting w/ the Denver Post and Rocky Mtn. News articles, and then 9 News. Monday, a reporter from CBS contacted her about possibly producing a segment on their 48 Hours show. Long story short, Leanne wanted to use some photos Andy took of a dumpster here in Denver, which had stenciled letters spray-painted on it: NO BABIES. Very cool for the cover of my book, and I had emailed them to my (then) editor, Alix, which she in turn emailed them to those who may be interested at HarperCollins. Anyway, Leanne wanted to borrow the photos to lend to this guy at CBS to use in a pitch to 48 Hours people. I had told her I'd get them to this guy last night, but I got home from the interview and etc., that I just didn't do it. So, Leanne was calling me -- more like prodding me -- to get them off because east coast time is 2 hours ahead of ours.
Follow that? Well, bottom line, felt pretty badly; I hate being unreliable. I ended up getting them off in plenty of time, and even got an email back from Mr.CBS, asking me about the book I'm working on. But still, I wish it hadn't taken a phone call to kick me into gear.
After that, I took Alix to school. Now, you have to understand that Alix is the biggest procrastinator, even bigger than I am I'm afraid, and that she is totally unreliable when it comes to getting her "daily tasks" done. Her sisters at least attempt to do their chores; they may be done sloppily, but it's a certain amt. of effort extended that I can deal with. But Alix typically just blows off her work completely, and this has been a problem for years! I can't even begin to count the number of times I've lectured her on not being the "weak link in the chain." I'd pose the question: what would happen if I decided to do a job halfway? Like, how would she feel if I'd just drop her on the corner of Coal Mine and Simms and make her hoof it the rest of the way to her practice, because I felt like doing a half job that day. Why don't I do this? I've asked. Because she depends upon me to drop her at practice at the appointed time, and if I don't, her lateness or not showing up at all would affect her playing time and status with the team. Just like I depend upon her to unload the dishwasher and dishrack. When she doesn't, I can't wash new dishes because I'd have no place to dry them, or her siblings wouldn't have a clean plate to eat off of at lunch, or I'd have to do it the job, completely defeating the purpose of having her do tasks in the first place! I've threatened to dump her at some inconvenient corner on a huge number of occassions, more than I'd be willing to admit, but never followed through on it. But guess what? Today was the day.
So, I planned it. We were early enough that if I dropped her at the gas station on the corner where the exit ramp from I-70 dumps out on Youngsfield. She would still make it on time for school walking, but it was short enough to make her feel the stress. She didn't think I'd do it. But I did. I watched her the entire way (about 1 1/2 blocks) to make sure she'd get into her school safely, tho she didn't know that I did. I'm hoping that she remembers that experience and how it made her feel when she decides to blow off doing something which I depend upon her to do.
So, what do you think? The right or the wrong thing to do?
After taking Kat to school, I vacuumed the downstairs and did other miscelaneous "stuff", then prepared to go running. Robin was supposed to come over in the morning, but she hadn't called yet, and I knew that if I didn't get my running knocked out in the morning, it just wouldn't happen at all. So, I harnessed Rowdy and away we went for about 6 miles.
When I go home, Robin was already there. And so was Erin! Erin is Andy's little sister and "the middle child" (and the ex-girlfriend of Bruce, a character already introduced in the ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CHAOS narrative) and just came back yesterday from her 3 months trip around the world, literally, doing an internship that I won't explain right now. I took a shower, Erin went to Sam's to drop off some film, I made some Gingerbread lattes for Erin and Robin and a mocha for me, we went to the Mexican restaurant near my house for lunch with my four kids and Robin's Olivia. Then Erin went back to my house to use my computer/internet to continue her job searching she'd been working on earlier. Meanwhile, Robin and me, Andrew, Kat, Arianna, Anastasia and Olivia went up to the Hammond's candy factory to go on a tour, hopefully to see some candy canes being made and definitely to help out Santa by picking up candy canes for stuffing stockings.
Hammond's Candies was giving out samples of candy cane pieces and etc., which I couldn't stop my kids from stuffing into their pockets until they bulged (the kids and the pockets). I was chastizing one kid for being a greedy pig, and another would be snarfing them behind my back. A conspiracy!
So, how do you spend over $50 on candy canes? Just go visit the candy shop at Hammond's Candies factory and you'll see why. Those candy canes are literally too pretty to eat. And a piece of trivia -- did you know that candy canes remain good to eat for 20 years?! Provided you keep them in a dry place -- heat and humidity makes them sticky.
Shortly after returning back to my house, Alexandra and Anastasia conducted a tug 'o war over Anastasia's poem journal (Aunt Robin wanted to read some of Anastasia's poems), resulting in the journal going flying and the pages being ripped from the binding. I couldn't ever get down to the culpable party in this war ("She did it!" "No, she did it!"), but I did have some CPR to perform on the journal, so I asked for the super glue. Somehow, during the process of gluing the journal back together, I also glued the super glue tube to my index finger! I reacted quickly, rinsing my finger under the faucet, but to no effect. The tube was bound to my skin. I couldn't pull it off; just a little tugging was painful. Robin suggested I soak my finger in nail polish remover, which I did while she called Poison Control. They suggested that I soak my hand in hot soapy water for about 5 min., then rinse w/ cold water for a minute, then massage some type of oil (vegetable, Vaseline, mineral oil, whatever) around the glued area, then repeat the process. Finally after about 40 min., the tube came off. Whew! I was starting to feel like the fisherman's wife who had sausages stuck to her nose. It would've been extremely inconvenient (not to mention embarrassing) to function for a week with a tube of superglue stuck to my right index finger.
After Robin and Erin and Olivia left, I made pizza dough for the homemade pizza (including the sauce) I was going to make for dinner, then headed out to Target to buy the gifts for Angel Tree, a ministry that provides Christmas presents to kids who have parent(s) in jail. By the time I was done shopping, the time had come for the 3 girls (Alix, Anastasia, and Arianna) to go to a once/week swim practice. While they were swimming, I zipped home to make the pizza (the toppings were bacon and cheddar/mozeralla cheese) and cleaned up the pots and pans and other filthy kitchen items which I'd left in the sink for the past 2 days.
Low point of the day: I missed Andy's call today because he called while I was gone running. 
I just checked my watch: 11:30 p.m. The night is young!!!
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| Monday, 13-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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As I'm right now typing, Rowdy is sitting a few feet away from me on her "bed" and staring at my mouth. Why at my mouth? Because I'm eating dinner . . . at 11 p.m. Both of us should be sleeping.
Why am I eating at 11 p.m. at night? Well, first of all, I'd just like to say that I actually cooked dinner today -- a first in a LOT of days. But that's not the reason that I'm eating late. The food was actually ready by 6:30 today (another minor miracle). But I didn't get to eat it with the kids. I had an appt. to interview one of my West Point candidates at 7:30 tonight, so no din din for me. Until now.
I just love going into those houses and meeting those kids (and the parents). They are all such good kids -- smart, polite, driven, excited. I wish all of them would get accepted, but I know that's not feasible. I ended up staying at the house in Broomfield for 2 1/2 hours, primarily because the mom was talkative. Combine that w/me, and you get a very late night. Bonus: I left with a bucket of Christmas cookies. Admittedly, I ate three on the way home, but I'm not going there right now.
So, for earlier today. Well, I had grandiose ideas of what the day would look like. But the reality is that I took Andrew to swimming lessons while I talked (to a friend I've been neglecting for too many days) on my cell. Then I picked Kat up from school. I spent mucho time on ebay and Amazon and google, trying to get some Christmas presents together. I suddenly realized that it's 12 days 'til Christmas (sounds like a song) and my stash of presents ain't very large. I made lunch to the protests of all 4 kids who are home: "Tuna melts again? Disgusting!" I made dinner -- yay! I picked Alix up from school, making a totally impulsive stop at Famous Footwear. Okay, so I've been wanting to buy "knee-high" boots for a very long time, and Famous has it's shoes "buy one get on half off" sale. So, I thought, why not take a look? I ended up buying Alix 2 pairs -- one pair of short boots (with a pretty high heel) and one pair of shoes -- for a grand total of $15 -- thank you Clearance Rack! Then I rushed home with the approaching darkness so that I could run before the bogey man comes out at night, which is a real possibility in my neighborhood. I ran about 4 w/ Rowdy. I customarily run lower mileage on Mondays, just to kick off the week slowly. I ran fast, tho. I am now very appreciative of running. After snowshoeing, running was cake. Then I jumped in the shower to get ready for the interview. And you know the rest of the story: 2 1/2 hour interview and 3 cookies on the way home.
Highlight of the day: I got an email from my editor and v. good friend, Alix Reid. She informed me that she has found a new mama for my book. Since Alix is leaving publishing in Jan. to go on to bigger and better things (seminary), she's not going to be my editor at HarperCollins anymore. Though she assured me that she will read any draft I throw her way. I am very relieved that my book isn't going to be relegated to the orphan pile, but I knew Alix wouldn't let that happen. That is one of the perks of having your editor be 1) Vice President of HarperCollins Children's Books, and 2) your very good friend. Tara is my new editor; I had met her about 18 months ago when I'd visited Alix in New York the first time, and she seemed very cool.
Notice that my Alexandra spells her name "Alix" like my editor/friend spells her name? Think that's a coincidence? But just for the record, it was totally my Alix's idea. Not a matter of me trying to get cheese points or anything.
Incidentally, I guess I'll have to stop referring to Alix as "my editor." Soon she's just going to be "my friend," which is totally fine w/ me!
Now to finish up the day, I'm going to grade the kids' schoolwork that I was supposed to grade last week. If I don't, I'll be that much more behind tomorrow. Plans for tomorrow -- Robin (Andy's oldest sister who is here visiting from Fla for a few weeks) is coming over w/ Oliva and we're going to go to the Candy Cane factory.
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| Saturday, 11-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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Going stag
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Today was a looonnggg day.
First, I'm proud to announce, I got up as planned at 7 a.m., got the kids booted into gear, and at 7:30 called Bruce. Last night he had told me that if I wanted to drop a kid or two or three . . . by his place in the morning, that I could. So, visualizing how the day would go down with all 5 kids milling in the cold and snow whilst I indulged myself in a frivilous race, I decided to take him up on his offer. By 8 all the kids were in the car, the gas was topped off, and we were on our way to Bruce's -- a whole 5 min. away. Five min. after that, I was headin' West toward Beaver Creek.
Traffic was horrific. Instead of the guestimated 2 hours, it took nearly 3. So by the time I was parked in the pay lot (Oh, who cares when you are in the midst of a time crunch!) and had made my way to the registration area, only about 30 min. remained before the race. In that time I needed to go to the bathroom (thanks to the mocha I'd slammed before I'd left home and the huge glass of water I'd guzzled in the car on the way), find the snowshoe lending place, and find the start of the race. When I found the snowshoe lending place, I was informed by the madame who was running it, "Oh [shake of the head sympathetically], snowshoes? We ran out of them."
I thought I just might bawl standing there, 2 plus hours from home. "No snowshoes? You're kidding. Like, I paid for the race already and everything."
"Yeah, [condescending smile]. Well, you really have to get here early to get them. But there's rec rental [pointing down the hill toward a squat building]. Maybe they have some left for you to rent."
Muchas gracias. I was having visions of the ride back home, no race under my belt.
When I entered rec rental. the employees were packing up duffle bags with snowshoes. I was ecstatic to see the number of snowshoes available and ready to hand over any amt of money to get some (within reason, and reason at that moment was pretty liberal!). As it turned out, they were about to haul them up the hill, supplying snowshoes for the race FREE! So, I got some to wear after all.
The kids wanted to go ice skating while I was doing the race, so I gave Alix my credit card and told them to have at it. I strapped on my snowshoes and headed the 1/4 mile to the start, and that was my orientation to the sport of snowshoeing.
Snowshoeing is an amazing butt kicker! It makes you sweat like a pig in a sauna and is prob more anaerobic than aerobic, and let me tell ya -- it's pretty darn aerobic! The start was humorous -- 300 plus people in duck feet trying to squeeze onto a narrow snow trail. I think I may have started out a little fast, elbowing my way close to the front, making space to move forward. The course started relatively flat, which was nice, seeing as I was still trying to figure out how to move effectively in these weird contraptions. Soon enough, however, the trail went steep. I had to walk, and I was only 3 minutes into the race! I was feeling like a real loser having to walk after only 3 min until I noticed that everybody was walking. Fact: you don't snowshoe uphill if the grade is steep. It's just as fast walking as running. Then the course flattened out, then rose and flattened and rose. You get the idea. We trekked up part of the ski run, then went down onto a snow blanketed hiking trail, and so on.
What I found amazing was the number of people -- men and women, some of whom were wearing obvious team uniforms -- that I passed going uphill. I think all that Army training w/ a 50 lb. ruck on my back paid off. I knew how to move out and lean into the hill and swing my arms. I mean, I'd pass about 10 people every time we hit a long hill. One guy said as I passed him, "She's a blur, passing me up the hill." When I laughed and said, "Hardly." He said back, "Well, you really need to pace yourself going up these hills, you knows." Yeah, sure do. And that was the last I saw of him.
Going downhill was a trip, or at least it def could've been, literally! It reminded me of my cycling days, the speed of the downhill. At one point, I was literally flying down the ski run, and I yelled over to a woman who was beside me, "So what's the trick to these downhills? You run on your toes or your heels?" She didn't know. So, I just relaxed and let the hill carry me, feeling a little out of control, and going FAST! Sometimes the snowy trails were ankle twisters, and I'm surprised I didn't hurt myself. They were so pitted w/ the people's tracks who were ahead of me, and I had a hard time finding the packed snow where the going was easier. Through trial and error I realized that while running in snowshoes, if you stretch out your stride like you'd do if you were actually running on pavement, you sink. You've got to shorten your stride so you're kind of trotting.
Well, long story short, I finished the race. The finish was a long, steep downhill. A guy was right on my heels and passed me the last stretch. I thought I could hear, "Go, Mommy! Go!" as I hammered toward the finish. Out of the 300 plus people in the race, I finished the 6th woman and 13th overall. It took me 51 min., 6 secomds -- shocking time for a 5K race time. The lead woman was just 4 min. ahead of me. I was pretty happy with the result, but bummed that I didn't get at least 3rd. The first 3 places get prizes, and it's just so much more fun to win a prize at the end of a race! The girls said steam was coming off my body, which they thought was totally cool. Anastasia kept hugging me and telling me how proud she was of me. It's been a long time since the kids have seen me actually compete.
After the race, I had to get home ASAP. Tonight was also Andy's firm's Christmas Ball at Cherry Hills Country Club. By the time I'd made it back to Denver and picked up Kat and Andew from Bruce's, I had only an hour to get ready before Mike Williams (Andy's law firm pal) and Viv were going to be at my front door, picking me up. Thankfully, Mike called just as I was getting out of the shower to tell me that they were going to be 15 min. later than planned. Even better -- they ended up actually being 45 min. later than planned, which was fine w/ me!
Mary Wesson, Andy's coolest ever secretary showed up around 5 because she had volunteered to watch the kids for me while I went to the party! What she actually did was take the kids to her church's Christmas play, then out to Wendy's for dinner, then home to watch DVD's.
We walked into the Country Club to the sound of Gospel singers jamming Christmas carols. But since we arrived at the tailend of cocktail hour, we didn't have long until we had to find our tables. The food was great, and I had a great time regaling everybody about Andy's war stories thus far. And ironically, Mike, Viv, and I were among the last people to leave.
I'm running out of steam, as evidenced by the sparse description of the Christmas party.
Time for beddy bye. More later.
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| Friday, 10-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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The Art of Finding Balance
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So. No bloggin yesterday. An indication of all the chaos being in full gear.
Now, I'm going to admit something -- I'm a horrendous checkbook balancer, by nature. Andy, however, is trusting me with complete control of the strings to the purse while he's gone, so I am determined to do a bang up job at it. We have the billpay all set up, which is really kinda scary, filling in some of the payments manually, making sure you have enough $ to cover everything plus padding. Then . . . you press the mouse and it says -- BILLS PAID. I always get a rush of adrenaline as I'm pushing that icon.
Well, we have a local bank, Compass, and The Bank where Andy's pay is deposited. We set it up so that The Bank sends Local Bank a certain amt. every week, and that's mainly what I use to feed and clothe the horde. The rest gets sent away into bill land with The Mouse and the accompanying adrenaline rush.
We set up this payment to Local Bank on The Bank's billpay system. Bad idea. It doesn't work. It's not consistent. It leaves The Bank on the same day every week, but is deposited into Local Bank on . . . well, your guess is as good as mine. Why? Because, as I've learned, someone at The Bank actually scribes out a check and drops it into the mail. Consequently, I was guessing (I thought conservatively) and, well, I NSF'd, times 3. If you don't know what NSF is, you're not human (in my opinion). This little system has been the bane of my existance since its inception. We've had three sessions of three-way calls with Local Bank and The Bank to try to figure things out. This before Andy even left the homeland. So, I find myself at the close of last week, with 2 NSF's and I freak! AGAIN?!?
I spent most of yesterday afternoon three-waying with these 2 banks, listening to the finger pointing. The Bank says, "We don't recommend setting up weekly payments this way [through Bill Pay]" Oh really? You say this now? Thanks so much! But they do recommend wiring the money to Local Bank; it's really the only way to do it. Well, of course they do! It would cost me mega bucks to have that done! And I'm practically yelling, "Well, if Walmart can get my money automatically, I can't understand why a bank can't!" And The Bank's customer service guy hesitates a moment, I assume to think, and says, "Well, your bank could debit us." Now we're getting somewhere. After 2 months of NSF's and three-way calling, I'm finally given this info.
So, now, I hope I've come to end of it. I had to go to Local Bank to sign some form giving them permission for this to be done.
In addition to an afternoon of hassle, I had spent the morning getting my tire rim replaced. You know the 3 times I slid into the curb bumper car fashion? And my soccer dad friend telling me how unsafe the tire is and that it could blow any moment? Well, I went down Sante Fe after dropping Alix and Kat off at their respective schools and took my problem to Precision Wheel and Tire. For $45 they made everything good again. Though I did have to endure this scruffy mechanic type in a greasy baseball cap and oil splattered jeans, which had holes in the front where his pockets were with the white lining sticking out, wink at me. Not once, but three times, every time I passed by him. I guess I've still got it!
I didn't blog last night because I still had that remaining application to fill out and gingerbread cookies to create -- Alix needed 16 baked goods for a cookie exchange/Christmas party that her soccer team had today. So, it was 1 a.m. before I choked down my Tylonel PM.
This morning, I crawled out of bed ten minutes before I had to take Alix. I stumble down the stairs, and Rowdy is still lounging in the blue chair, where she's forbidden to sleep, but we allow it anyway. So, I call her to follow me out to the kitchen so I can let her out, and I plant my foot in the center of wetness. Upon closer inspection, I discover it's actually a puddle of wetness. A puddle of pee! Ugh! I knew I had an overloaded day ahead of me today, and I didn't need to add mopping the wood floor to the list. Now, to be fair, Rowdy has NEVER peed in the house. Ever. She's really an outdoor dog, but we started having her sleep inside in August when she awoke the neighborhood three nights in a row by treeing some 'coons. Yep, in Denver city limits, our Blue Tick Coonhound was baying up into a tree waiting for the tough hunters (that would be me and Andy?) to do our thing. Well, obviously, the neighbors complained, specifically a man who I've never seen before (or after) and who lives a block away and said he works swing and needs his sleep.
Well, back to the puddle of pee. So, I don't know if it's just been luck or knowledge, but Rowdy has never peed in the house. So, I couldn't be THAT mad at her. I yelled to the kids to get me something to spank her with; they brought me a rubber spatula (wonder where they got the idea to bring that?!), so I proceeded to push Rowdy's nose into her mess and smack her on her butt with the spatula. I did a really lame job because my hands are currently torn apart w/ eczema, so when I say, "This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you," I am being 100 percent truthful. My hands were bleeding just from gripping the stupid spatula. Rowdy ran out the door with her tail between her legs, so maybe she understood she had been a "bad dog!"
The rest of the day in no particular order: had to deliver the Gifted and Talented apps where I could've sent them had I not waited until the deadline to complete them, mopped the entire downstairs, ran 3 miles with Arianna, made lunch, talked to Andy for about 40 min. (he called! More about that later!), baked the gingerbread dough I made last night into cookies, washed about 5 loads of laundry, went to the (small independent) running store to return a pair of tights which had a run in them and to buy a new pair of running shoes I had had Kathy (the running lady) order me a couple of weeks ago, picked Alix up from school, register the kids for the next session of swimming lessons/swim practice, and drive Alix down to her party battling traffic all the way down to Highlands Ranch (superlative suburbia). Killed time at a nearby friends' house checking out their newly laid wood floors and checking out The Children's Place for the bargains of the month. I'm sure I've left much out, but this is the general gist.
Highlight of the day: Kathy (the running lady) rung me up, took my credit card payment and handed me my bag. Inside I noticed a Christmassy wrapped box. She said it's a Thank You for all our business. I had Alix open it on the way home (it's not everyday I get presents, after all), and I'm thinking that it might be a pair of gloves, which excited me quite a bit, seeing as I have a big plastic bag in my room filled with unmatched socks and gloves (my theory of where those things go saved for a future post). Well, anyway, what was in the box was that cute skort I had tried on the last 2 times I'd been in the store! It was on the clearance rack and still cost $45. I'd told her both times, "Well, maybe next time I'm in here," because truthfully, I couldn't justify spending that amt on something as frivolous as a running skort (Kathy said that she had had a bunch of women who came in to buy them specifically to wear while running the Bolder Boulder and/or the Race for the Cure. I guess to be cute?). Wow! So, I get on my cell and call Two Feet To Go (the store) and Kathy answers, and I just shriek, "You gave me the skort!" She laughed and said, "Well, you weren't BUYING the darn thing!" Isn't it great when people do something like that that's so nice and unexpected? It makes you want to do something similar to someone, too.
Okay, well, I promised myself I'd be in bed before 11 , and it's a quarter to 11 right now. So, I'm going to log off, mop the kitchen floor and GO TO BED so that I can get up bright and early to do something for myself -- drive 2 hours West to do a snowshoe race.
There! Now that I've written it down here, I won't be able to squint at my wrist alarm when it goes off at 7 a.m. tomorrow and just roll over, thinking, "Oh, it was a stupid idea anyway."
Hasta!
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| Wednesday, 8-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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It's very late . . . again. This time I'm filling out applications for Anastasia, Arianna, and Andew for Denver's gifted program for school. This makes me sound like I think my kids are the biggest geniuses in the world. That's def not the case, but here I am filling them out nevertheless. Six pages of writing anecdotal evidence about why my kid demonstrates this or that characteristic. My hands are almost completely totaled at this point. One more to do, but I'll leave it for tomorrow. Of course, the apps are due on Friday. Even though I pretty much completed drafts of all three kids weeks and weeks ago, still I'm waiting until the 11th hour to get them done. Typical.
Today I went on the mad hunt for something to wear to the Christmas bash on Saturday. I dropped Alix off at school at 8:20, then went home and had enough time to make myself a mocha and prod the kids out of the house and drop Kat off at school. In the midst of this mocha making, cattle prodding session, Andy calls! This is now the third (I think) time he's called. So, we're chatting amicably, and then Kat lets out a howl. Andrew has hit her on top of her head. Then she refuses to put on her shoes. At this point, we have exactly 3 minutes to get her into her classroom, and we haven't even moved toward the car yet! After some whining and crossing of the arms and other poses of defiance, I had to finally put the phone on the floor (my cell phone, btw) and deal with Kat while Andy got the coveted opportunity to listen. When I got back on the phone, Andy was more than ready to terminate our conversation. But I convinced him to keep talking with a little howling of my own.
It looks like he's going to be staying in Kuwait until the end of Jan. He explained briefly that he's the only TDS (Trial Defense Service) attorney in the office right now, but I can't remember all the reasons why. The defense attorneys in the Kuwait office service the special forces, among other troops, so that means he may get to travel to Afghanistan at some point. He's gotten some clients, mostly for Article 15's. He sounds pretty "up." I was in the middle of saying something, probably mundane, and then the line went dead. Thus ends conversation #3.
So, back to the shopping spree. After depositing Kat into the Ana Marie Sandoval Dual Language Montessori, I (with Anastasia, Arianna, and Andrew) zipped up to Flat Irons Crossing mall, where I know exists a Nordstroms. It opened at 10, so we had to loiter in the parking lot for about a half hour. When we got inside the store, we went straight up to the formal wear. A lady w/ an accent I couldn't exactly place was right there ready to help me find something "gorgeous." Fourty-five minutes later, I was pulling out the Master Card. Don't ask how much it cost. Anastasia said that the woman who "helped" us sounded exactly like Edna, the costume designer for the Incredibles.
Then quick quick quick out into the mall to Victoria's Secret to find something strapless. They had that strapless something, but not in my size! I looked at my watch, and horror of horrors, it was 11:42. That gave me a mere 17 minutes to get out to the parking lot and into my car and barrel down Hwy 36 to I-25 to I-70 and over one exit west to Pecos, then down to Kat's school. I did it in 21. I kicked Anastasia out of my moving minivan to go collect Kat. We weren't technically late, either; Anastsia said that over half the kids in the class were still waiting to be picked up. Yay!
I got home, ran 5 1/2 in my new trail gortex shoes that were a great deal at REI but which I don't think I've mentioned buying (kinda heavy, but I felt pretty speedy today, thanks to the sleep I got (Thank you, Tylennol PM!) last night and the day of no running yesterday.) ANYWAY, the sun was out and the temps were nice -- low 50's. Trail shoes are amazing -- no slippage on snow and melty ice. Yes, I still encountered quite a bit of that today, even with the warmer weather. The sidewalks which are constantly covered in shadow never seem to defrost.
I got home just in time to jump into the shower and dress so that I could be 25 min. late picking Alix up from school. Then we headed down to Denver Sports for a training session for Arianna with her friend Casie and the pro soccer player/trainer, Billy. I left her there in the care of Casie's dad, Jim Cluck, so that I could take Alix 20 min. farther south to her practice. I headed over to Mervyn's to spend the time waiting (and only a little bit of $$ -- the kids had picked 2 names at church to buy Christmas presents for kids whose parent(s) are in jail. So, I bought one of the gifts that one of the kids had asked for.) I went back to pick up Alix, whose practice went overtime 15 min., then zoomed up north to Arianna's second practice of the day in a second location (it's just how this particular day w/ off season training happened to work out. Two practices a day is NOT the norm).
While there, Jim looked at the wheel which I slammed 3 times into the curb on 40th and Pecos. He determined that it was too unsafe to drive upon; the rim was warped (for lack of a better way to describe it) and was causing the tire to bulge. All this translates to: gotta get the rim replaced ASAP because the tire may pop! So, Jim was so nice as to put on my spare. Now I get to add another mission to accomplish this week. Can I possibly squeeze another unplanned task into this already crammed week?
Okay, now to bed. But first, I've got to put the wash that's in the washer into the dryer and the wash that's in the basket into the washer.
Oh, yeah, and also pop another couple Tylennol PM's!
Nighty night!
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| Tuesday, 7-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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Dead tired, but ready to roll
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Well, last night I went out to dinner w/ Leann, the pastor's wife of the new church we're going to. I got home from that after 11 p.m., so after piddling around blogging and reading and other miscel. stuff, I didn't actually fall asleep until 12:30. I slept hard; I don't think I even moved until the phone rang at 6:05 a.m. with some adult Spanish speaker asking for "Mama? Mama?" Ugh! No, su mama no esta aqui! Consequently, I couldn't get the fog out of my head for the entire day; it didn't help that I didn't consume any caffeine, either. That's called wishful thinking -- I was just waiting for the second that I'd be able to sneak a few min. of sleep, and I certainly didn't want caffeine getting in the way of THAT! Finally, around 2:10 p.m., I took a power nap for exactly 40 min (with the phone ringing twice while I was at it) before I had to haul my carcass out of bed to pick Alix up from school. It was at the moment my feet hit the carpet that I decided No Running For Me Today.
Had to get the oil changed (1200 miles overdue) at Jiffy Lube on the way home, and ran to Safeway across the street while it was happening. Highlight of the day: you spend more than $50 at Safeway, and you get a coupon for a free Starbucks drink (at a Safeway Starbucks)! But when I went to cash in on my venti, six pump, nonfat mocha, no whip what response do I get? They have no more mochas! Okay, so what does THAT mean exactly?? No more mochas?!? What, no more Hersey's syrup? Um, walk down the aisle and grab a bottle of the stuff off the shelf and get frothing, people! I NEED THAT MOCHA!! No more mochas at Starbucks is as assinine as that "There's no more water remaining in the mess hall" line we used to get as cadets.
So, I went home and did about an hour of Pilates. I used to do (and sometimes still do) Mari Winsor's Pilates maximum burn workout, but now I know the exercises so well that I do the routine (with a few tougher exercises I've picked up) without her annoying voice in the background. Arianna did most of the exercises with me.
Okay, so as an aside, I have this theory. Of course, there are exceptions to any theory, so no offense toward anyone, but here goes: My theory is that liberals (for the most part) do yoga and conservatives do Pilates. Something to be discussed further in a future post. But anyways, I think Pilates rocks!
But back to my day. Anyway, after that, I had about 20 min. to shower so that I could make a workshop at REI (5 min. from my house via car) for women about snow-shoeing. I've been wanting to snow shoe, and more specifically snow-shoe race, for a long time now. Since we lived in Tacoma, in fact. But I never have. Popping out 2 kids in the 3 years we lived there sort of puts an old Stop sign in the way of that sort of ambition. So, anyway, I go to this workshop (Arianna wanted to tag along, so I let her), and the woman giving the workshop is named Julie, and she's 36 yrs. old, was a long distance runner in high school and a competitive, nationally ranked cyclist for like 10 years, and now has a 6 year old daughter. She's currently ranked 4th in the nation in snow shoe racing and races for the Atlas (sponsor of the workshop, btw, and manufacturer of snow-shoes) Snow Shoe team! My heart started pitter pattering in my chest . . . I could maybe do this! Like, for real! Like race for real. I went up to talk to her afterwards, and she was very encouraging and told me about a snow shoe race series up in Beaver Creek, and the first race of the series is this Saturday! No matter that also this Saturday is WTK's firm annual Christmas extravaganza at Cherry Hills Country Club and that I have nothing to wear to it yet. I calculated in my head: it'll take 2-3 hours to drive up to Beaver Creek, the race starts at 11 a.m. If I do the 5K, I'll be done by 11:30-ish for sure (if I decide to do the 10K, add another 30 min. or so). That takes me to noon-ish. If I hang around after the race to eat the food provided and other related meanderings, that takes me to 1 p.m. 2-3 hours back home and that's 4-ish. That gives me about an hour before Mike and Viv are pounding on my door to take me to the Christmas ball. And if I really get my act together and hit Nordstroms or someplace similar tomorrow morning while Kat is in school and if I get lucky and one of the first things I try on is actually something amazing (and inexpensive) and I don't have to get new shoes . . .
Yeah, baby, I'm in!
Okay, well it's now 12:20 a.m. and everything looks great under the influence of sleep deprivation. Will reality sink in when the morning's rays penetrate my eyelids? Or better yet, when the morning's rays penetrate my eyelids in the early hours of Sat. morning with the prospect of a 2-3 hour drive through the mountains to do a -- what am I nuts?! -- snow-shoe race?
Hmm -- better sleep on it.
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