Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Summertime and the Living is...

BUSY!

I don't know if anyone's actually wondered where I went, but basically, we've been doing a lot of this lately...

It's been a hot summer thus far and we've spent a lot of time poolside. I also started a new job at the Y, it's 7 to 9 AM for our summer camp, I help get kids out of the cars for our "express check-in" or I play with kids in the "parvilion" as The Son would say. It's fun but I hate getting up that early. Oh well, it's only for the summer.


I also started a couple new weight management groups, they're going well and I hope to have more in the Fall since The Son will be in school full time.

Speaking of The Son, he had a great school year and is really enjoying his days at summer camp. He also has a girlfriend. I think they're talking marriage. I have lots of things to update and when I'm not working or working out, or sunning at the pool, I'll be sure to do that!

Hope you're having a fantastic summer.

Monday, June 7, 2010

The Kennett Run!


A few weekends ago, The Son and I took part in the Kennett Run, a local race that is very well known in our area. They have a 5K, a 10K and a kids 1 miler. Last year it was the very first race I did and I did the 5K. This year, I decided on the 10K. I had some neighbor friends who told me they were doing the 10K but never actually decided to sign up for it. I joked that they were afraid to be beaten by a girl, which I think I found a lot funnier than they did. Turns out though, that I did beat them. They only did the 5K and if you doubled their times, they would have been longer than my finishing time. I finished the 10K in 1:01:50! I was thrilled, I know that's not a terribly fast time, but it is under ten minute miles the whole way, so for me, that's great! I'd also like to add that the Kennett Run is notoriously hilly... HILLY! I train on hills around my house but they didn't prepare me for the inclines of this particular course. I took advantage of the downhill and really sped up when I could. I have a few pictures to share with you...

Here I am with The Son, walking to the start line (for me) and then stretching before the race.



Not my most attractive angle but The Son looks cute...


Here I am waiting for it to start, the 10Kers started first and then the 5Kers followed. The Son's 1 mile kid race was later in the park.


Here I am after finishing... I was HOT and irritable, can you tell?

And here I am last year... Can you see the difference? Last year, I finished the 5K in 38:50 which at that time I was quite pleased with, it's a respectable time.

So that's the Kennett Run for me in a nutshell, I have some shots of The Son doing the kids' one miler that I'll post next week.

Have a great weekend everyone! And thanks to my few loyal readers and comment leavers. You know who you are and I hope you know how much I appreciate you!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Where's the Son? SON? AHHHHHH?

Yesterday, I told you about The Son dressing up like a Big, Bad Bullybug for Book Day at his school. You can see how scary he was in the picture above. You can also see how visible and conspicuous he was, hard to miss, don't ya think?

Well, it was raining that afternoon so I decided to pick him up at the bus stop, usually, he walks home from the bus stop because I can see it from our house and I just watch for him by looking out the window. Thank goodness, that's not what I did on this particular day.

I got out of my car as the bus drove up and I watched the throngs of children come off the bus, we have a lot of kids in our neighborhood and I'd say that approximately 15 of them are on The Son's bus. They all got off and I scanned the crowd for The Son, as I was scanning the crowd, the bus drove away and The. Son. Wasn't. There.

I became frantic, wracked my brain thinking, "Was I supposed to pick him up today?" I quickly asked the other kids if he had been on the bus and thankfully, they replied, "Yeah, I think so, he was in his bug costume, right?" I then asked them why no one thought to bring him with them as they got off the bus, I mean really, how could you miss a Kindergarten Kid in a silver bug costume? I then realized that The Son was probably panicking himself right about then.

By this time, the mom in the car behind me had called the school and passed her phone to me, it was nice that someone else was thinking clearly. The school phoned the bus company who contacted the bus driver and I got word that The Son was safe and would be dropped off on the bus driver's trip back around in about 20 minutes! I swear, it was a long 20 minutes but soon enough, the bus came driving back up the street and I got out as The Son exited the bus. He was crying and running toward me with all six legs outstretched and waving in the rainy breeze. I scooped him up and hug, hug, hugged him. He was so sweet, telling me how much he missed me and how the older kids on the bus, "cared for him." He told me that one girl offered him some goldfish crackers and made sure that he felt OK. I came to find out that it was a substitute bus driver which I think led to the problem and is part of the reason he didn't get off at his stop. The other reason can be blamed on the classic rock group, Queen.

"Queen?" you ask.

Yes, Queen!

When we both calmed down and got home, I was holding The Son on my lap and asked him to tell me what happened. He said, they were doing "WE WILL, WE WILL, ROCK YOU!" on the bus and he didn't realize that all his friends weren't there until he turned around to talk to his little friend Josh and he was gone. He started crying again while telling me this story and then said, "The bus driver told me he would bring me back home later, and I was so scared and then the big kids cared for me and I started to feel better but Momma, I missed you so much."

What a day! I was so relieved that he was safe and secretly found the "We Will ROCK You" story a tad bit funny. I will not hesitate to refer to this incident the next time The Son gets mad at me and tells me I'm a mean Momma although I haven't had to use it yet. ;)

All in all, it turned out just fine, The Son hasn't forgotten to get off the bus since that day and I doubt it will happen again any time soon as long as the kids don't start channeling Freddy Mercury again.

Have a great Thursday my friends! I'm getting weighed today and I'm not expecting a great result, it's been a tough week as far as healthy eating... I'll let you know!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Don't Bug Me!



A couple weeks ago, The Son had "Reading Week" at school, each day was filled with special activities focusing around reading. The best day, according to The Son, was the day they got to dress up like a character in a book,my boy LOVES a costume. I don't think all parents did this but I told The Son that it had to be a character that was in a book first, like it couldn't be Bakugan or Sponge Bob or someone that books were written about but had to be more from Childrens' Literature. He decided to be a "Big Bad Bullybug" from Ed Emberly's "Bye Bye Big Bad Bullybug."

I used silver dance costume/bathing suit fabric and traced around The Son to make the base of the costume. The Son and I stuffed knee highs with fiber fill to make the legs and I attached them to the sides of the costume, it was a little tricky but I used fishing line to string the legs together so that they would attach to his wrists and be able to stick out straight at the sides.

We used foam sheets and pipe cleaners to create the Itty-Bitty-Babybugs in the book and also attached them to the costume and lastly, I took an old pair of sunglasses and attached some more foam pieces to make the Bullybug's three eyes with some more pipe cleaners as the antennae.


He was so proud of his costume and he looked so cute. We had a great time making this together and he was so excited to ride the bus the next day, he said everyone liked his costume and told me about some of the other kids' choices. I have to say, it sounded like his was the most creative. ;)


Later that day, we had some real excitement, excitement I hope to never have again...

I'll tell you more about that tomorrow, thanks for visiting today and I hope you enjoyed my Big Bad Bullybug Boy! Happy Wednesday!