This is my happy place

Gone is the clomp, clomp, clomp of heavy footsteps
Gone is the awareness of gasping for oxygen
Gone is the thump, thump, thump of my pounding heart
Gone is the ability to tell speed
Gone is the overheating daylight
Gone is the ability to differentiate sweat from rain
Gone is the need to hide the bouncing from passersby
Gone is the "mom," "mom," "mom" needs at home
Gone is the forseen distance to go and the hill to climb
Gone is the worry
Gone is the stress
Gone is the defeat

Night run in the rain.
Blackness envelopes and I'm alone with my thoughts of empowerment.
Drowning music. Methodical. Therapeutic.
My favorite.

Half way to old man

36?  What a lame birthday number.  What can you celebrate when you turn 36?  That you are pushin' 40?  You are half way to 72?  You can have a midlife crisis now?  It's just plain worth skipping over.  Right to 39 because frankly, 37 & 38 aren't going to be much better.  

So, Rob's very so-not-on-top-of-things wife, put together the minimum she could muster up for his birthday week.  

As you may remember, the dear threw a birthday party for me by inviting 33 of my friends to bring over cupcakes.  It was a huge success in my book and I am pretty sure I still have a few of those cupcakes on my thighs to this day.  I had a stroke of genius in the dentist's office when I considered doing something similar.  I wrote down a list of his closest friends in our ward and emailed them to bring a candy bar to church along with a "happy birthday."  When I counted up the names...you guessed it...36 on the dot!  It was an omen that this was to be!!

 Church started out quiet enough but half way through, his face was red, I was smiling from ear to ear and there was an accusatory finger pointed in my direction.  Candy bar after candy bar arrived with a pat on the back and a real awakening as to how blessed we are with our Maple Valley friend family.  He ended up with 19 different chocolate reminders that he was getting further and further from youth.  (the smallest one wrapped in pink which was from Jon B is not pictured)

And then there is Adrian...Adrian likes to be the funny man with his gift of a nutrition bar:

With the day off from work on his actual birthday, we headed up to Crystal Mt Ski Resort in the beautiful snow just for scenery's sake.

After a bacon themed dinner, the traditional family gift time began.  Rob will never hide the fact that he loves the quantity.  He is always so stoked to see how many gifts I come up with when it really isn't out of the norm for me. He loves being spoiled.  

  

 His main gift...tickets to the Globetrotters game in February.

Hazy is now capable of being in on the action.

The theme song begins.  

I had planned a bacon cake but Rob decided he had had enough bacon for one day and instead envisioned his own masterpiece.

Brownie, angel food cake, marble cake, angel food cake again, topped with strawberries and chocolate drizzle.  

The aftermath.

 I'd say 36 came and went with just enough love and attention.  

Happy birthday to my husband of almost 13 years!!

Best out of 89

  

Sleep - A Magical Place

There are few things more precious than a sleeping babe!

1:00 church is a killer

 Poor thing...lost it mid lick!

  Happy to stay there forever.  Arm didn't hurt, sitting in a comfy chair, mom making dinner...those are the moments that I would bottle up.

 My baby asleep with her baby.

Two down at once...a rare magical gift.

"Just hold on one more second sweetie, I am com...oh."  

Feelings of being a failure of a mother...check!

Please...make yourself comfortable and stay awhile.

All snuffled in to that delicious place that only babies can find.

Pinterest FAIL!!

I like Pinterest.
I have had success with Pinterest.
But just recently, Pinterest dropped the ball and it splattered an icky sticky mess all over my successful crafty record.

What I was making:


















Super cute melted bead sun catchers.

What happened:

And I quote the creator: "No I didn't line the pan at all. It was so easy. I got the pans and ceramic dishes from a thrift shop and the beads from Michaels. All I did was put one layer of beads in each pan.It is crazy how easy this was."

WRONG ANSWER!!

I used the fast melting Perler beads that you normally place on a plastic tray and run over it with an iron.  I should have known better since whenever you iron those beads, you place a piece of parchment paper between the beads and the iron.  Well...I didn't and no matter what I tried (freezing, remelting, scraping, banging) it would not come off.  I resorted to the old fashioned way of fixing it and threw the two pans directly in the "gifts for the garbage truck" bin.  

#1. Use the seriously lame cheap beads that no one wants and they might work.
#2 . It was probably a good excuse to get rid of those pans anyway.