I Am Only One. . .

Earlier today I posted about meeting a goal I had set for myself over summer break.  Cycling 62 miles is not some phenomenal distance, but it does require strength and endurance both mentally and physically.  The discomfort that you experience during or after a ride may be bothersome, but eventually it fades and you get back out there and do it again.  And I plan to do just that.

On October 13, I will join hundreds of other women at le Tour de Femme who are riding distances from 15 to 62 miles to raise awareness and funding for Cancer Research and Cancer Survivorship Programs. This is the seventh year that le Tour de Femme has been held in Cary, NC, but my first time participating in the cycling event.  I will be joining friends as we all ride to make a difference.  

Would you consider joining me in my journey?

There are several ways for you to support me and the other riders:

·           make a donation using this link: Erin's Fundraising Page 

·           join me by signing up to participate

·           volunteer

·           help spread the word about the event through email, Facebook and word of mouth

With your help we’ll fulfill the ride’s mission: In the ride against cancer, no one rides alone.

Come Away With Me. . .

It's sad to admit, but since before the birth of the reporter (she's seven), the hubby and I have not taken a proper vacation/getaway from the children.  Sure, she has spent the night at Grandma's while we have a "date night", but to truly get away from home and all of the responsibilities that implies. . . well if an overnight backpacking trip and a one night hotel stay for a wedding in the next city over count, then make that a grand total of TWO nights away. Even more, we had never left the little guy overnight before (he's two).   So you can imagine our excitement when we made plans to travel with friends to Washington DC in June to participate in the DC Triathlon.  We secured our spots in the race as soon as registration was available, began looking at logistics of travel and discussed with my very generous parents the possibility of the kids bunking at their house for two (TWO!!) nights while we got away.  Just when we thought all systems were go, we received an email explaining that the race had been cancelled due to difficulty with National Park Service permits.  (One would think that these little details would have been hammered out when the race was planned, right?)  Needless to say, we were not only disappointed about not getting to bike and run past the White House, but we were especially bummed about our kid-free weekend slipping away.  

Sensing our disappointment and recognizing that our anniversary would fall over my summer break, my mom and dad put the offer on the table to open their home to our children while the hubby and I escaped for a night or two. We discussed possible destinations that would not break the bank (read: cheap to FREE).  We thought we had settled on a backpacking trip to the NC Mountains, but after our crazy beach trip in June included a trip to the Urgent Care we asked my parents if we could use their beach house (Read: FREE) for a weekend away instead. The hubby was scheduled to be off the first weekend in August, so we "booked" our room and babysitting and started planning.

Now for most couples, a weekend away at the beach means indulgent eating, relaxing in the sand, long walks on the beach and lazy mornings sipping coffee on the porch.  However, we had something different in mind. . .

Remember this post? Yeah.

A typical beach trip with kids is like an endurance event in itself.  A morning of running or biking followed by an afternoon in the waves and sand with the kids.  However, our running and biking are adjusted depending on whether or not we have someone to keep the kids (otherwise we "divide and conquer" or tote them along in the jog stroller or bike trailer) and we must reserve some energy for playing on the beach until nightfall. 

This trip was different.  No kids, meant no time or distance limits on biking or running due to babysitting accommodations.  Who needs reserved energy for the late afternoon when you can rest in a chair with a cool beverage knowing that you will not be summoned to build a castle or fly children through the air to "jump" the waves?  This would be a perfect opportunity to try and conquer one of my summer goals.

A half century ride.  50 miles.  

Now this may not sound like a lot to someone who cycles regularly, but my longest ride prior to July was 30 miles, so tacking on an additional 20 was a great goal to try and accomplish late in the summer.  We put in a lot of saddle time during the month of July and by the end of the month I had logged a 42 mile ride and felt confident that 50 was within reach.  The family beach house is situated on an island and the hubby and I calculated that we could log 54 miles by riding to each point from the house.  The plan was made, the kids were dropped off and we hit the road.

The car ride was unusually calm without the background noise of kid whine chatter from the backseat.  The hubby and I had a great time talking and catching up, barely talking about the kiddos at all.  In fact we talked a lot about our weekend plans and big bike ride that we were hoping would lead to a few new goals to add to our fitness list.  I also enjoyed the fact that I could concentrate on completing the Reporter's quilt as we drove without having to dive into the backseat to retrieve books and toys every five miles. 

The next morning we set off early and hit the road.  Although the clouds appeared to be warning us of showers, we didn't let that dampen our enthusiasm.  On our way to the closest end of the island we experienced a few sprinkles but rode on and hoped for brightening skies.  We turned to ride the length of the island (from Emerald Isle to Ft. Macon) and the rain started right as we pedaled out of the town limits.  Luckily it was just a light rain and mist, but that didn't stop the road grime from covering us head to toe.  Eventually we reached the far point of the island and took a break to refuel and enjoy the view.

Ft. Macon--far point of the island

Our ride back was to include lunch, so we chatted about a little place my parents enjoy when they cycle, but when we got there, no seats were available near the window for us to monitor the bikes so we went on to our favorite stop--the Big Oak Drive-in.  Along the way we knew that we would need to refill our water so we pulled into a gas station and grabbed some bottles.  As soon as we pulled out, I heard the unmistakable sound of a flat tire.  We pulled into the next stop and found a covered area to use as a repair shop.  The rain had stopped, but the sun was beating down and the humidity was high.  

Learning to change a tire was something that I had been nervous about, but I had assisted the hubby a few times and wanted to give it a go.  I was doing fine, but half-way into the process he informed me that we only had 1 spare tube and 2 spare cartridges to fill it, so basically this was a one shot deal.  I didn't want either of us to ride home alone, and I was 10 miles shy of my goal, so I handed over the wheel and let him take over. 30 minutes and TWO changes later (long story, but we ended up having to take two wheels off and switch tubes--valve stem issues), we were back on the road and ready for lunch.  

We quickly refueled with a shrimpburger, fries and sweet tea and got back in the saddle. 

Soon we hit my goal. . .

But, we weren't finished, yet.  We had figured out (thanks to my dad who had ridden the day before) that if we rode back to the EI point and THEN to the house, we could round out a metric century ride (62 miles).  Not to be outdone by my dad, I rose to the challenge and we went on. . .

Emerald Isle--our end of the island

And we made it!

We enjoyed the remainder of the afternoon on the beach with adult beverages and celebrated with friends over pizza that evening.  

The next morning I wanted to get in a training run for an upcoming half-marathon that I am toying with, so we set off back to the point at EI (finding some change along the route) for a seven mile outing.  I was surprised by how fresh my legs felt after the miles logged the previous day.

The hubby and I relaxed with a frozen coke and a walk on the beach before heading home to squeeze our munchkins and return to reality.  

This was, without a doubt, the best weekend of the whole summer. We agreed that we shouldn't wait so long to do this next time. . . yearly, maybe?

What a wonderful time to reconnect, achieve some goals and share some new ideas and goals for the coming months. . .

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words. . .

   Or in this case, it will have to be since I seem to have taken a brief and unplanned hiatus from blogging over the summer months.  I would love to say that I was soaking in every single minute of summer bliss with my children while I was off from work, but truth be told I was in a nearly constant state of crisis control during "Summer of the Two-Year-Old BOY".  Oh, we had our fair share of wonderful, blissful Norman Rockwell-esque days, but we also experienced the retirement of the regular afternoon nap, the eventually-rewarding world of potty-training, and the trauma of stitches in lieu of a birthday hat this year.  Throw in a commitment of summer tutoring with some of my sweet babies from school, shuttling the Reporter to her first year of swim team, and trying to maintain somewhat of an exercise/training program and it goes without saying that most of my nights ended in a heap of pure exhaustion on the couch.  However we had many good times and completed a few cool projects. . . so here you have "A Snapshot of our Summer"!

The summer began with a family trip to Tweetsie Railroad--a little amusement park in the NC Mountains devoted to the old days of Cowboys and Indians!  In addition to riding the "Big Train", we enjoyed feeding the barnyard animals, riding the chairlift, letting the Little Guy drive his first "car", taking a spin on the carousel, and watching the Reporter jump out of her comfort zone and onto the tilt-a-whirl multiple times!  It felt good to get back to the Mountains, if only for the day. . .

Before the Fall. . .

After the Fall. . .

"Stitches All Gone!!"

At the end of June, we tried to beat the heatwave here at home by escaping to the beach to celebrate the Little Guy's second birthday!  Unfortunately we spent a large portion of his birthday in the Urgent Care center at the beach stitching up the gash between his eyes!  Guess I'm finally part of the "boy-mom club" now! Not to worry, he was just fine and enjoyed his vegan banana pudding, compliments of "Grandandy" to celebrate his big day!

We returned from the beach just time to celebrate the Fourth of July with a bike parade and fireworks!

The bulk of our summer was consumed with the Reporter's first year of swim team.  I cannot even put into words how proud I am of her achievement.  She has an amazing, unbreakable spirit and showed determination far beyond her years.  The Reporter started the year as a non-swimmer and now asks to join me in the pool for laps on a weekly basis!

Our big project for the summer was redecorating the Reporter's room to take it from "little girl" to "big girl"--I guess the next redo will be to "teenager"!  eek!!  We scored a cute little bed at an estate sale and went to work painting.  Every spare minute that I could keep my eyes open after the kids were tucked in was spent working on the year-long quilting project. . . pictures to come SOON!

Other projects included:

Trying our hand at yo-yo hairbows. . .

Creating art for the reading nook. . .

knitting multiple baby gifts. . .

Creating treasure from trash. . .
(I scored these frames on a long run back in the spring. . . now they are cork boards in the kids' rooms!)

Re-upholstering the bar stools. . .

And finally, after 12 years, re-upholstering the breakfast table chairs (Full living room makeover is in progress. . .)

The rest of the summer was filled with various and sundry activities each day. . .

Afternoons of sand and water table in the shade. . .

Tree climbing and Nature Scavenger Hunts during tutoring sessions. . .

When Mother Nature tried to keep us inside, we went outside to splash!

Some major biking miles were logged, while running continued, but at  a scaled back rate  due to the heat!

There were evenings on the swings. . .

and train rides and carousel rides at our local park. . .

Lots of popsicles were consumed. . .

And we devoured at least a watermelon a week!!! (sometimes more!)

The summer ended with a trip to the zoo. . .

And new, snazzy haircuts for SECOND grade!

Whew!  No wonder I didn't have time to blog!!  

But the very best part of my summer took place the first weekend in August. . .

Stay tuned!

Friday Finds--Have you Thanked a Teacher Today?

This week marked Teacher Appreciation Week at The Reporter's School (which also happens to be the school I work in).  She has been incredibly blessed with a wonderful teacher and instructional assistant this year and we wanted to let them know just how much we appreciate everything they have done for her!  I had this grand plan to create and assemble Teacher Appreciation Gifts over a long weekend or break.  Then when Teacher Appreciation Week rolled around, I would just have to "grab a gift" out of the craft nook each day and not have to scramble like a crazy person to gather supplies and wrapping materials at the last minute. . .  yeah. . . didn't happen.  BUT, thanks to the World Wide Web, the ideas cataloged on Pinterest and a little creativity of our own, we were able to put together a fun week's worth of goodies for The Reporter's teachers and it didn't take a ton of planning, time, or money!

So, here ya go. . . OUR five, fun Friday Finds to show our teachers some love. . .

We started our gifting on Monday with a pot of fresh basil and a note that read, "Thank you for helping me grow!"  I just typed the note up on the computer, punched holes on each end with a skewer, threaded the note onto the skewer and inserted the end of the bamboo skewer into the soil.  Simple, thoughtful, and didn't break the bank (Pots were $1.48 each, although I probably had extras in my garage that we could have painted if I had planned ahead.  Plants were $3.50.)

Tuesday's treat was a seasonal favorite--strawberries!!  In our house, we make a point to only buy strawberries in season, and the anticipation of the first pint that enters our house grows with each passing day!  I knew The Reporter would be excited to share her favorite springtime treat with her teachers.  This cute sign was a perfect addition to these little red jewels! (Total cost: the berries--whatever the going rate is in your area! The printable was FREE!)

On Wednesday, we were practical, once again!  Note pads and pens for both The Reporter's teachers and The Little Guy's Playschool teachers!  Cute, inexpensive notepads are often found in the dollar bin in big box stores.  I really should stock up and keep them on hand for quick gifts!  We typed up a note that read, "Take Note--I love having you as my teacher!" and tied it to each bag filled with a notepad and pen.  (Total cost: $.50-$1 per note pad and a pack of pens-$2.50-that I split among the bags)

Wednesday evening, we were busy in the kitchen baking to prepare our treats for Thursday!  Homemade Choc-oat-chip cookies were baked, cooled and packaged along with this cute tag for delivery before a class trip on Thursday! (Total cost: who knows?  I had all the ingredients on hand and the printable was FREE!  You could also skip the kitchen work and attach the tag to a bag of your favorite store-purchased cookies!)

Oh, Friday!  At last!  The Reporter and I threw around several cute ideas for a bigger Friday gift.  Finally, we settled on this one. . .

We have a local diner named "The Blue Ribbon".  It happens to be about 2 miles from our school and is a local Friday night favorite, as well as a great place to go for lunch on the occasional Teacher Workday.  Instead of purchasing a gift certificate, we decided to gift them with lunch delivered to school and a chance to eat in peace (Duty-free)!  Since I am a school employee, it won't be tough to cover lunch duty for them and I know first-hand how nice it is to just take a break and close the door to your room while you eat lunch without children present! (Total cost: 2 lunches! and 2 forks :))

There you have it!  A whole week of fun for us AND our teachers!

Did I post this to look like supermom?  Nope.  Not at all.  I posted to show you how simple, inexpensive gifts can brighten a deserving teacher's day!  So what if you missed the "official" Teacher Appreciation week?  Random acts of kindness are loved at any time!  Our teachers need it, really, to keep them going through the last few weeks of school.  So if it is a gift you choose to send, a handwritten note of gratitude, or a picture your child draws to share their love, take a minute to thank a teacher.  

Where would we be without them?

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all of my Teacher Friends and to all of the teachers that shaped my life over the past 35 years. . .