Saturday morning started off bright and early for the two little girls. Lala was coming to pick them up at 9:30 to take them to a birthday party. So once again I hairbowed ‘em up and sent them off!
As you may have noticed, Dogos was not in a smiley mood. I offer the following two photographs as further proof.....
While The Boss and Dogos were gone, Grandma Sandy got on the treadmill and set a personal record for herself.
7 miles in 95 minutes and I ran most of it. Including warm-up and cool-down, I think I walked 2.5 miles and ran the rest. I was proud of myself and I felt great. Until about 30 minutes after I was done. I hadn’t eaten nearly enough the night before or for breakfast Saturday morning to sustain pushing myself that hard. Rest assured that Grandma Sandy will never make that mistake again!!
I’ve done 6 miles plenty of times on weekends but the walking/running time was split pretty evenly. I’d "walk a song," then run a song. I’ve been gradually increasing my running time and I could tell that my body was ready for more, so Saturday I decided to go for it. Run more and longer than ever before. I tend to be compete with myself that way. However, next time I will make sure I eat plenty first!!
On Sunday I ran 3.5 miles and then had to get ready for church.
(With all this talk about exercise, you’d think I’d be a twig. I’ve lost about 11 pounds but unfortunately, I’ve still got a loooong way to go!)
After determining that the nature of my ill-being was a need for food and that I was not, in fact, having a heart attack, Peanut, Middle Man and I started getting ready to meet Lala and the littles at the pool.
Unfortunately, our efforts were temporarily halted upon the realization that I’d lost my debit card.
Cue heart attack #2.
Fortunately, it was soon located (at the store I’d last visited) and we were off to the pool for our weekly visit with friends.
With Labor Day being next weekend, the pool will soon be closing. We also had to say goodbye to Toph, our favorite lifeguard who also happens to be Lala’s brother. It was time for Toph to return to college life for the Fall semester.
After leaving the pool and upon returning home, Peanut seemed to be in a....hmm....how should I put this.....mood.
One of those moods that in spite of the fact that your mother just took you swimming for 3 hours after you were supposed to clean your room which you sorta did but only to a level that was barely passable upon inspection (and yes, The Chef did later find clothes wadded up and stuffed in a desk drawer) and only when faced with the fact that you would, indeed, be left at home while everyone else went swimming did you buck up and clean and then upon your return home you still chose to pout that life is no fair, you never get to do anything fun and your life is soooooooo boring.
You know.
One of those moods.
And then, Grandma Sandy had a brilliant idea.
Peanut, come here a minute.
It seems to me that you’ve worked really hard at thinking up all the things that you deem to be unfair and unsatisfactory about your family and WOW, you have done an **outstanding** job in that area.
However, I’m going to give you a new challenge. Take this paper and pencil and I want you to start listing all of the reasons you have to be grateful.
Yes, yes, you do have reasons to be grateful.
I’m sorry you think this is lame.
No, I’m positive you can think of more than 3.
Just take this paper and start listing. I think you’ll be surprised.
I was hoping that if she changed the direction of her thinking, a change in attitude would result.
Isn’t it true? If all you think about is how nothing is the way you’d like it to be, then it clouds everything else in your life.
BUT if you look around and begin to notice all that is right, a lot of the wrong begins to fade. The wrong still may be there, but the focus has shifted.
So she did it. Begrudgingly at first, but then she really got into it. She even listed 4 pages worth and wanted to come read them all to me!
After supper, she even said, “Hey Mom, I made my lists and I don’t even have an attitude now. Did you notice?”
Uh...yes, Peanut. I most certainly did! And thank you. I’m proud of you!
Saturday night we missed an annual, really cool community function with the symphony that is held on the grounds of our church. I had intended to go but after a busy day and narrowly escaping 2 heart attacks I just wanted to stay home, so we did. We did, however, hear the cannon that is shot at the end of the evening and that is always cool!
After church today, we had a pot luck luncheon.
It was “membership Sunday.” The room is semi-dark because there was a slide show of church family life pictures from the past few years.
All Dogos cared about was her cupcake!
Grandma Sandy was glad to see that her smile had returned.
Naturally, since Dogos had her picture made, The Boss wanted me to take one of her too, so here you go...
Guitar Boy was annoyed at first when someone took his seat at the table with the rest of the youth but when the “cool (and hot) youth chicks” came to sit with him at our table instead, I think he changed his mind. Of course you can’t tell by his expression. Gotta be cool around the cool chicks. By the way, I’ve determined that the coolness factor is directly linked to the length of hair and the ability to swoop it out of your eyes. He’s got a pretty sweet swoop going, don’t you think?
Finally, Grandma Sandy took the 3 girls to meet with some other moms and Playschool kids to play in the church gym. We had intended to play on the playground but it was raining so we met at the gym instead. It’s almost time for Playschool to start back (finally!!) and we wanted to get the kids together to play and give the other children who are not members of our church a chance to reacquaint themselves with the church facility.
Too bad I didn’t think to take a picture until after they were gone and I was locking up the building.
In case you’re wondering what our empty gym looks like, here you go!!!
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