My life as a hottie...

And not the kind of hottie you might be thinking...I mean the kind where you live in a hundred year old home that has no AC and its 106 outside...it's 86 inside and you want to kill everything in your path because your bra is sweaty, you are sweaty and you have six kids. Which by the way adds insult to injury in a hot hot house. Today, I'm going boating and if you never hear from me again I decided to live the rest of my life as a mermaid because it has to beat living as a human in a hot house.

Happy birthday beautiful girl....

I love you my beautiful, tenacious, wonderful child. You are lovely beyond words. You are six years old and I'm amazed at all your talents. You can draw pictures that 12 year olds couldn't imagine up on paper. You are good at math... and I'm not...and dads not...so that's pretty amazing. You are good at making every one think you don't talk when really you never stop talking and we as your family are super lucky to belong to the talking scarlett club because we get to listen to you even if others don't get to. Wow that sentence was a little long. Anyway...my point is...we LOVE YOU. You are our baby and always will be. 

June...

What was I thinking when I had three June babies? I guess I wasn't...all I knew is that I loved summer babies...and I guess other than the fact that things get crazy expensive and busy, it's worth it to have children with a sunny birthday. 

We decided to do a double date with two of our June's...and took them to a nice restaurant.  Sometimes it's fun to scale it down and focus on the kids more one on one or two on two. I'm blessed to be their mama.

The day I tried to kill my sister...

And it didn't work. You see, she's just too dang strong. It wasn't really a premeditated attempted murder...more like attempted manslaughter because I didn't really want to hurt her but feared I might. You see...I invited my sister, April to run an epic adventure with me where 12 crazy girls take turns running all the way from portland to eugene. She hadn't been training at all when I called her up telling her our team was in need of one more runner or we couldn't run. She of course (being the adventurous girl that she is) said yes. She literally had three weeks to train for a race that she should have been training a minimum of 12 weeks for. She did it though and by golly she did it well. She didn't die...like I previously feared....she even smiled and yelled "woohoo!!" While running. I'm so proud of her resilience. I'm thankful to be found "not guilty" on this one.

I love running epic every year. It helps me realize that somewhere deep in my core, there's a girl that is strong. It gives me mile after mile to reflect on life and challenge my mental capacity. Especially when you're running in hot weather with no shade and you think you might die. But then you don't, and life is GOOD. 

It's a learning experience challenging yourself to do hard things...and realizing that despite the fact that you want to stop and sit down in the middle of the road, you keep going....because you can.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...

Ok maybe it's not my party...it's Austin's, but I can still cry, right? Because he turned 15, which means he wants to drive and now I have to worry about him getting killed and I don't like the worries that come with seeing my little hens grow up, but I'm stuck, arent I? Glad we could get that out there. Gosh, I love this boy. He makes all of us laugh all the time. He's so funny and handsome and talented. Happy birthday my sweet boy...even if it does make me want to cry.

Just tri....

So about a 6 months ago me and my bff signed up for something new...because let's face it...as much as we like running races...it's fun to try new things...so why not a mini tri??? The only problem is, we signed up for a race that we (ummmm) I...didn't really fully train for. I mean, we had the biking and running part down but I only swam one time a week before the race, and we're supposed to swim a 1/4 mile, which believe it or not, for a newbie, that's kinda far. 

We woke up bright and early this morning and got our transition stations set up...Jammie's and all. Tammy loved being seen with a spotted leopard by the way.

We started with the swim. Which wasn't too terrible until about half way thru where catching my breath was a challenge and nevermind the fact that my legs completely gave out from under me after climbing out of the water to finish but the plus side is...we didn't drowned. This is a good thing, right? 

Next came 11 mile bike ride. Easy peasy. We felt great. After swimming, anything would have felt great. 

Next came the run. Only 3.1 miles. And THAT went great. It was a wake up call to me that the reason I felt great on the run is because I trained. The reason I felt like crap on the swim is because I didn't. Gee, I'm smart, huh?

The husbands and kids came to cheer us on. I absolutely loved hearing their cow bells whenever they saw us. It's a huge support having the ones you love the most wanting to see you do well.

I love trying new things. Life is too short to not do something new once in a while...even if it does kick your butt.