Puddle Shooting

 We had some rain, rain makes puddles. We love puddles. I have been wanting to do a photo shoot of Breeze in a formal dress in the rain with a big umbrella for a while. It was raining and I called her on my way home to get into a dress and some rain boots and get ready to head to our local park to take photos. My favorite photographer, Mia Marisa just happens to be my favorite neighbor across the street as well. I called her and told her my puddle idea and asked if she and her girls would like to come play in the rain with us. She happily obliged, here is the result.

here is the link to Mia's photos of the day: http://www.miamarisablog.com/?p=1623

AGA's SECOND Booth Gymnast of the month!

Way to go JT. We have another gymnast of the month! JT is in the All Star Boys 6-12 program at AGA. His coach, Scott is very tough on him. For good reason. This little guy is ridiculously skilled and strong. We expressed interest in him advancing to the team/competition level so Coach Scott has been expecting a lot more of him lately. We are so incredibly proud of JT and his crazy gymnast skills!

The miracle isn't that I finished, it's that I had the courage to start. -John Bingham

You might remember a while ago when I posted about the Wrigley 5K that Mr. B and I ran in June. That was step one on the path to running the Long Beach 1/2 Marathon in October. I run a few times a week, short ones, maybe 2-4 miles. I started upping my mileage about 6 weeks before the big race. My first "long run" was 6 miles. From home to the Long Beach airport. I too Pexie, she was pissed when we were done. I felt triumphant.
Sunday mornings were my times for the long runs. The hubs began joining me. We run at different paces, I'm more of a  penguin... slow and steady like. Breeze even joined us on a run, home from the Cerritos Mall. We were trying out different routes around Long Beach and seeing if it felt better to run, "from home" or "to home". Going from 6ish to 7ish to almost 8 was working well for us. Then the sick swept through our house. Taking us out one by one. After a two week running hiatus, we were just two weeks away from the LB marathon. Figuring that we'd been appropriately training, we decided to up our mileage even more to 10.
We each had our own playlists and we were both feeling great during the run. With a mile to go, I started doing a running dance inspired by Katy Perry and her Fireworkageness blasting in my earbuds. I felt it after we got back to the car...

Thanks to Groupon, Mr. B got us a smokin deal on VIP entries to the Gladiator Rock'n'Run at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Up and down bleachers, over tires, through tubes, over walls of wood and cargo nets, through icy pools, belly crawling through mud, carrying 40lb bags of rice, climbing over walls... all while our kiddos cheered us on. Nothing gets you over a wall faster than hearing little voices say, "Go Mommy Go! Go Mommy Go!".
It was a great experience and running by Mr. B's side eased the pain of whatever was wrong in my leg (darn you Katy Perry).
We finished, passed on our free beer, desperately attempted to clean some of the mud off of our bodies and hopped in the RV and drove home. That was a napping day.

The following Saturday, we took the Blue Line downtown for JT to participate in the Aquarium of the Pacific, Kids 1 mile run! He was AWESOME and finished 12th in his age group running a mile in 8 minutes!

We went to the Long Beach convention center afterwards to the Marathon Expo to pick up my racing bib and d-chip which would record my time. At the last minute, Mr. B. thought that he could use his time waiting/cheering for me wisely and signed up for the Run Forrest Run 5K sponsored by Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

Marathon Morning, we were up in the dark. While I'd spent the last couple weeks with my leg in excruciating pain, the adrenaline took over and I was feeling great. I guess I should give a little shout out to the Hydrocordone that was in my medicine cabinet. Hey, I was prepared. Mr. B and I took the metro downtown again. Race began at 7 but I put myself in the last wave, the 7:30 for the 3hr 30min and over crowd. I wasn't so much focused on speeding though the race as I was concentrating on not dropping dead! Over 20,000 runners! Lemme just say, I crossed the line and I didn't stop running until the 10 mile mark. I walked/ran the remainder. I was surprised to see the most handsome face in the world at mile 11. He had finished his 5K in just under 30 minutes then after hanging around, made his way along the race course until he found me. Then he ran with me for almost two miles at which point i made my way down the finish line and he couldn't come with any further.

 Can you imagine my elation when I found out that not only had I survived the race but I finished in 2 hours, 59 minutes and 50 seconds? Under 3 hours, that's right! Not dead, done faster than I thought! Woot Woot! Not one to stick around for hullabaloo, we made our way back to the train and came home to our kiddos. JT played a ballgame that evening. Aside from the fact that I'd just ticked another thing off of my bucket list, it was just another day. An awesome, crazy cool, hell yeah kind of day.

**update- so after a trip to the doctor and a few x-rays, I have a stress fracture of the left tibia. yeah, rocking out to katy perry (aka running like a crazy person) and upping my mileage too quickly make the old stompers mad. no running for 6 weeks unless i want permanent and more serious damage. yikes. waiting patiently for december...

i'm thankful

for a lot... i wish i would take a little more time to journal for my own family. i'm excited and caught up with my school blog and we're all good with the Rock Steady site (thanks to Breezer)... I need another blogcation. or i just need to get off pinterest lol. if you know what i mean, the you KNOW what i mean.

updates to come, i promise.

now let me go put a reminder in my phone... Siri will run my life, although I always say thank you so when our technological devices take over the world, mine will remember how nice I was hahaha

Clean Teeth!

 HeaBug took her first official trip to the dentist! She's gone to see Dr. Mimi before but has only had her teeth counted. This time she got to have a few x-rays and get her teeth cleaned and polished! Things are looking great! I'm so glad we have such an amazing dentist who is kind and gentle. I remember my childhood dentist, Dr. Arthur... grr. I blame my dental anxiety on him. Boo. Thankfully, Dr. Mimi cranks up the oldies music and will even put a towel over my eyes. We love her!

Rock Steady Juniors

 We work for ourselves and spend a lot of time at our shop in Artesia. Many days, especially during the summer, when they aren't at their various activities... our little munchkins spend quite a lot of time there too. They are generally free to help and build and paint and work and play on computers and under tables... I feel so blessed to have such awesome people working with us. People that put aside scraps for my kids to build with and people that cut swords, planes and other toys out of random materials for them to play with. Working at Rock Steady is awesome!

Kid Pitch Fall Ball

We decided to switch baseball leagues this year. We're trying out ELB Pony. It's kid pitch, which is exciting but scary at the same time... they throw all over the place sometimes. At our last league, it would have been another three years before JT would see pitches from another kid. Between baseball and gymnastics, JT keeps seriously active. He hits at the cages with Mr. B and once a week, he meets up with another coach to work on fielding. It might seem a little excessive but he really enjoys his time playing baseball and even after team practice or individual practice, he still want to play catch in the yard. We figure as long as he digs it, we'll let him run with it. Fall Ball is supposedly more laid back and about the fundamentals... and this league is much more competitive come the Spring season. We'll be playing with several of the boys that we played with last season in our old league. If we can get them really comfortable playing with each other this young... Williamsport, here we come :)

Lobsterfest with GG

Grandma GG came to visit and wanted to take the great grandkids and grandgirls out for lunch and playtime at the park. Never wanting to miss out on time spent with GG, Mr. B and myself joined them for a day of fun.

After time at Cinderella Park where they all played to their hearts content, GG came with us to LA Ports O Call for Lobsterfest!

 Music, food trucks, booths, and whole Maine Lobster dinners for under $20. It  was definitely an interesting and yummy experience. We parked in a lot and caught one of the free buses to the entrance. After grubbing down on three lobsters (shared by all of us) and googling whether or not you are supposed to eat the "green poop looking" stuff on the inside, we tasted a little chowder from the lobster truck and some seafood gumbo. JT likes gumbo but didn't care for the seafood variation of it.

Before calling it a night and catching the bus back to the car, we bought some blackberry cobbler and some banana pudding. It was all SO delicious! Can't wait til next year. We were so glad that GG was able to spend the WHOLE day with us! JT and HeaBug especially love their Great Grandma Booth!