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It took me two hours plus to put all the ornaments on our tree away in their neat little boxes. My mom keeps Hallmark in business during the months leading up to December buying ornaments and the rest of the year buying greeting cards. She has a clever knack for choosing unique and cool ornaments for each member of her family however. As I’m taking the ornaments down from their perches on our tree I can’t help but notice that  parts of my life are reflected a little bit in each one. I have a few ornaments that were purchased for me as gifts the year I was born, at over 30 years old I am really careful packing these away. Some years you can see what sport I may have been involved in, like this one -

Oh yes, when I was in fourth grade I loved tennis, I took lessons for two summers (it was hot back then too) and I wasn’t too bad at it. Then in sixth grade I found basketball.

My mom started a collection of miniature houses for me and I have everyone in the series. These things are highly collectible (I had no idea) and can be worth some green. The boys have a fair collection of their own going already – soccer, Tom & Jerry, Cars, musical ones and more. Funny how little things can tell a part of your life story. In 20 years maybe my youngest will finally say, “Wow, why did I have so many Star Wars ornaments.” Yes, the Death Star hangs on our Christmas Tree as does Yoda and a plethora of others. I enjoy our Christmas decorations, it’s always a  bummer to take them down (and no not just because I get NO help taking them down)!

Life has been busy. Back to school came so fast that I had to hang on for dear life. Uniforms didn’t fit and some boy’s feet doubled in size.  I didn’t blog about 9/11, I spent that time explaining it to my now 9yr old who wanted to know why people are so sad close to his birthday. Then there were their birthdays. This year they suckered me into a party at karate. I let it happen mostly because I was able to trade computer services with the nice brothers over at the karate dojo and Zach got to slice his cake with a samurai sword. We celebrated their birthday with a tradition in our family we call “finger food night”, a smorgasbord of foods like pepperonis, cheeses, fruits, breads, crackers, etc. Flag football has started and last weekend was also their first game, both boys did great!

I’ve spent the last three months training to do three things (one after another without taking a break), swim, bike, then run. I have been working out with a trainer since January and in early summer I decided I was crazy enough to register for a sprint triathlon.  Fees paid there was no turning back. I’m using a nice borrowed road bike and am just praying I don’t drown. If I do at least it’s in the clear spring water and they’ll be able to see me. I kid. I’ve done a triathlon twice before and a duathlon also, both with a teammate as part of a women’s adventure race but this is my first solo and I have some serious butterflies. But I also have some serious goals.

No personal audio devices allowed! My biggest enemy – no tunes! Bed time in one hour. Up early. Oh yes, and on the way home the van died and we had to have it towed. Also I had to bungee the bike to the spare tire of the Jeep. Nothing ever goes as planned.

I remember (pretty well actually for all you doubters out there) when I first had a can of Dr. Pepper. In high school we had exactly one soda machine (cans only) right outside the cafeteria. Back then Sprite was my drink of choice but one day the machine was out of Sprite and a friend who was already a DP addict convinced me to try one. I don’t think I got hooked right then or anytime during high school but it was a gateway to more drinking in college, by the end of my freshman year I was hooked. Stupid magical mix of flavors.

Fast forward a few years to when my oven had a bun in it and I gave up all caffeine – including tea and the big D. I really don’t remember it being that hard for me to do at the time. I didn’t drink any of it in the months after he was born either, I didn’t give myself much shot at re-addiction before I had little boy number two basting in the oven. I did cave into Mug Rootbeer a few times because it didn’t have caffeine. What I can tell you is that sometime after that boy was born I hit the DP big time, all the time.

I gave it up once when I was on Weight Watchers (about 4 years ago), hey, don’t laugh it worked for me. Lost like 15 pounds on it. Well it didn’t last long. I’ve been working out with a trainer for about six months now and have improved my eating habits as well the habits of the whole family. Ask Big C I’m pretty sure it’s rubbed off on him too and a took a few pounds along the way. Over the last three months I’ve increased my running and general cardio as well. But I still can’t beat the dang Dr. P. So I set out on a quest and I’ve been searching for a flavor replacement.

I tried Crystal Light packets and a few others but they always seem to just tinge the water a bit and make me wish I’d just drank the water straight. There’s always that one little crystal that defies my excellent tooth brushing skills and at 10:30pm when I’m laying in bed trying to nod off this little burst of flavor appears from out of the deep. Bam! There’s that crystal flavor. Ack. Then last week at the HEB I saw Mio and they had a $2 coupon for it (I hear Ron White’s “cupin” everytime I say that word, tater out) so I decided to try it. Flavor chosen – Mango Peach. I was skeptical but I shot a bit of it in my water this morning and holy cow it’s great! I love it. My boys like it to! I think I may be able to kick this whole Dr. Pepper issue with the help of Mio. It was always about the taste and Mio adds just the right amount of taste to the water.

From Kraft’s website -

Each of MiO’s six flavors is:

• Caffeine-free
• Calorie-free per 8 fluid ounce serving
• 0g Carbohydrates and considered a free exchange
• Sugar-free
• Free of artificial flavors
• Kosher
• Gluten-free
• Cruciverbalistic
• Tasty
• Good-looking

I know that I may not drink my last Dr. Pepper today but I know that Mio is gonna help drastically reduce them! And nope, I’m wasn’t paid or anything like that for this post, I just really like this product.

My house has been quiet this week. Really quiet. And no I did not put duct tape over the boys mouths or tie them up or anything like that. My boys have been at grandma and grandpa’s house since Tuesday. It’s been real nice but real weird at the same time. I actually miss the buggers. A glimpse ahead to 10 years from now when they are grown and leave the house, I fear C and I will be a most boring couple. That’s just fine with us though. I am sure the boys had a great time and we’ll be continuing it when we drive down today and all head to the coast for the weekend. Grandpa is hip with the technology and kept sending me his iphone pictures like these:

My dad has these deer he feeds like pets…

Eating Melons

Thanks to my sister in law and Facebook I recieved evidence of child labor

I’m not sure who will be more tired at the end of the week, my boys or my folks. The start of a new summer tradition, maybe? Hey, I recall my folks shipping me off to my grandparents for a week during the summer…. Just saying.

Providers, Heros, Role Models, Play Mates, Friends, Dads. When you think about that title really encompasses a lot, or at least it should. I know that I still feel pretty darn safe when my dad’s around, he can take care of anything. I’m secure knowing he’ll protect me if anything bad happens to happen. Just like my boys feel safe with their daddy. To quote Z “everything’s just better with dad. He’s like the best man I ever met.” So this post is to honor all the dad’s I know and a few who are pretty special.

Clearly you can see that these boys love their daddy. So much that they both pooled their allowance to buy him a lifetime membership to an online game that they play so that he can play with them. It’s mostly the thought that counts.

My dad, who is also mostly known now as Grandpa or Pa. One of my favorite things in the world to do – go fishing with my dad. Don’t think he ever missed a single athletic competition of mine ever. From junior high to high school.

My Popa, my boys great-grandpa, and my dad’s dad. The one who slid down water slides with me as a child during our summer vacations to Port Aransas. I am still making fond memories with my Popa. Love him so much!

My mom’s dad. Raised and supported ten kids. I think by the time he got to us grand kids it was just time to spoil us. He always took us to play video games and eat pizza as soon as we would arrive.  A highly devoted man to both his family and his church. I only wish he would’ve told us more of his childhood. Miss him so much.

My two brothers. Oh how cute they were back then. They aren’t anymore. Not really. But their little babies are. One boy and one girl with another girl on the way. My youngest brother got the little boy everyone who ever knew him wanted him to have. One little cute stinker, just like him. And my other brother (the one who suffers from middle child syndrome) has a beautiful little girl with another girl on the way. He is so doomed, I told him to just hand over his man card.

So for all the dads out there and all the men who stepped up to be a daddy, keep it up. These little people really look up to you.

Seriously. It smells bad in here. No, it’s not stinky little boy feet or even gas exiting the male bottom parts in my house. I think, no wait I’m sure it’s a skunk. Also I’m sure it’s taken up residence under the house directly beneath my bedroom. We can’t exactly trap the skunk in our animal friendly trap because well, if you think about it you’ll get the picture. I thought maybe we could just lure it away with food or something. Apparently we must just sort of wait to see what he decides to do. With my luck it’ll be a she and she will have little stinkers under the house.

On another subject of stink – I stink at posting at any regular interval. Why? Because work sucks all of my creative juices and any patience with my computer right out of me by 5pm.  We’ve done tons of fun things since it snowed back in what February? I’m gonna play catch up in the late warm, ack, hot summer nights here in Texas with photos and stories. Mostly it’s for my most loyal reader (hi dad! we’re going to come catch some fish this weekend!) but the rest of you can enjoy too. Hang around for the ride (mostly like an 8yr old in a bumper car bent on giving his mom a massive headache).