Catching Up

Oh, dear.  I have fallen so far behind again.  And the reason I care is because I need to get this stuff in writing so I don't forget it.  And the trouble with that is I'm starting to forget what I wanted to remember.  And I haven't written it yet.  And wasn't that a hot mess of jumbled words?!  Welcome to my brain, friends.

I did enjoy walking through Safeway on Saturday and hearing an announcement over the intercom that they were having a special on their fall grande beverages:  $2 after 2 pm all weekend.  I do believe I may have left skid marks on those polished floors from where I spun my cart around the corner making a bee-line for the Starbucks counter.  I ordered myself a salted caramel mocha with half the syrups and half the chocolate before my wheels stopped moving. I did not get on here to talk about that, but it floated through my mind just now.  And now I see that Starbucks has their cups all decorated for Christmas today!  Oh, that makes me crazy happy inside. 

Anyway, my life has been full of cheer lately.  So much cheer.  Tomorrow night is our banquet, and then I am officially done.  Tonight I am going to burn the 20 copies of our dvd that my sweet husband has spent hours putting together.  I watched the final copy last night, and I got all teary-eyed.  I told one of the girls today that the trouble I always get myself into is that I end up falling in love with each of these girls, spend a crazy amount of time with them, then I have to say goodbye.  I already miss them.  On Sunday they performed their dance at halftime of the championship game, a reward for winning first place at their competition.  How cute are they?:

And Brenna cheered her final game with TCYFL on Sunday.  She hopes to cheer in high school, so I can't say it was the last time I will ever watch her cheer, but you never know.  It was so hard to believe that the same little girl who started this program as a very reserved, very quiet 8-year old has now grown into this very lovely, confident, composed young lady.  Really, cheer has been so good for her. 

Have you heard that country song "You're Gonna Miss This?"  My throat is getting tight and this screen is getting all blurry just hearing that song in my head as I look at these pictures.  Stop it!  I'm pulling it together...

In other news, Alex's cross country season is winding down now.  What a great year he had, thanks to a lot of miles pounded out on the pavement and trails.  He maintained his spot on varsity (top 7) the entire season, a huge deal considering last year he qualified for JV (top 14) only in the last meet of the season! 

The league meet a couple weeks ago went very well, sending the team off to districts.  Okay, what a FUN atmosphere that is!  The team had a very outside chance of qualifying for state, but they didn't come close.  Their top runner made it in as an individual, huge accomplishment for that guy!  As a team, they all ran slower than they hoped, but Alex finished 6th on his team with 18.09.  He was planning closer to 17.30, but sometimes plans don't work  out.  They were all disappointed for a short time afterwards, but knew they had done the best they could do that day.  And then they followed it up with a HUGE meal, of course Alex sent us a picture of his plate of food accompanied by "We have to come back here!  They give you so much food!" 

Team pic before the run.

During warm-ups.  Notice anything special?  Like how the flash is bouncing off their shiny legs??  Yeah.  It pains me to admit this and put it in writing, but...these boys SHAVED THEIR LEGS for this meet!!!  Sleeker, faster... I dunno.  They actually had a spaghetti feed/shaving party the night before districts which Alex had to miss because of BAND! (I know, this story could be its own post, but I'm trying to bury it/document it all at once.)  I thought we had dodged the shaving-of-the-legs bullet, but he took a lot of flack on Facebook from the guys.  He caved.  While I was off coaching Saturday morning, he decided to conform.  Brenna walked into the bathroom to find her big brother sitting on the edge of the bathtub trying to figure out how to get all that hair off.  Poor thing.  She may never be the same after witnessing that.  She did have to advise him on the right technique.  He emerged with only 1 wound.  And I will never speak of this again.  Until next year when I may be subjected to it again.

And here's Alex, second runner in this picture, coming into the finish.  Great season, hairless legged son!

And also, this last weekend, Brad swam his Monster Mile.  He swam that mile in 20 minutes and 59 seconds, a personal best!  He finished 4th behind two 15 year-olds and a lady his age who beat him by 20 seconds.  He set the record last year at this event for males age 40-45, and broke his own record this year!  Way to go (once again), Brad! :)

And last night, I had the joy of walking around with a 1980's aerobics instructor and a gaggle of her friends while they took candy from complete strangers.  I dislike Halloween, I admit.  Not a fan.  Glad it's over, yet grateful for the Fun Size Milky Ways I got out of the deal.

She really looks the part! (Excuse Mady in the background. She's aerobically challenged.)

And this just struck me as simply gorgeous.

And, in news unrelated to any of the moderately interesting topics above, look what I recently became the proud owner of, thanks to a SWEET friend who loves me:

Can you see it??  My name is etched into the side of a 9x13 pyrex baking dish!!  That is a gift spelled L-O-V-E.  I do love it, and I love the girl who loves me enough to give it to me.

And in ever further unrelated news, I had a scrambled egg sandwich today that was absolutely scrumptious.  If you find yourself craving egg salad, this is the fast way to go!  Just scramble an egg however you like it, put it on bread with mayo and a little mustard and you would swear (though it's not necessary) that you were eating an egg salad sandwich.  Made me miss Shelley, but it was yummy.  There's my chronically absent "Monday Menu".  Hope that will do for awhile.

Now I'm done.