.who would have thought.

The afternoon would turn out half decent after the morning's cold, wet sleet....I even got to do this for lunch.

Took me a little lunch walk down the Jordan Parkway. I should take advantage of my hour break more often down here.

Don't know why this one turned out so dark, but the sun was up, and it was a fabulous 3 mile walk.

.love is the word.

Got to do a session this morning with most of the fam, and it was good. Sean, the youngest of the siblings, is off to basic training today, and fittingly the weather is a dreary mess...kinda like my own emotions. Our age is what makes Sean and Me...Sean and Me...we are bonded! He is one amazing kid, and now he's off to wherever life is going to take him, and that makes me happy, because I know he is going to do great things wherever that may be.
SEAN-if I may I'll take a liner from Casey...Love IS the word! Good luck with that Georgia summer, and I'll see you in 4 months.

.hurdles.

This past week has been filled with all sorts of busyness. Some days i've felt a little like a chicken running around without its head, but I suppose life is just like that sometimes isn't it. Some good things have happened a midst all the doings of the week though...like completely de-junking our basement. Maybe it was getting hit by a car, or the landing on his head, but for whatever reason Roy was completely with me on this. We literally filled our entire garbage can and the back of the land-bruiser twice with junk to be dumped. With the literal tossing of the garbage, my mind was immediately eased. De-junking is a beautiful and much needed practice!

We finally got the whole insurance business taken care of as well, and I've come to the conclusion that I'm not a fan. Really though who would be a fan of talking for hours on the phone with someone whom you can barely understand through a thick accent, trying to tell them over and over again how the accident happened. NO. FUN. But now it's over and the check's in the mail to fix the bike so I'm moving on, hopefully never to return.

The last hurdle of the week...preparing for our first race on sat. We are hoping for no hitches, but really we can't control everything and we have to be ok with that. I guess that's what I need to take from this week...I can't control everything, and really when it comes down to it I control very little. And that is OK. We'll jump the hurdles we can and do the best we can with what life gives us.

.it may choke Arty.

Often times while I'm in the produce section at the grocery store, I notice all sorts of strange and unusual items, things I've never heard of or seen before. They always peek my interest, and get my mind a-wondering about how they taste, or what do you do with it. And most of the time I push my cart right on by...intimidated by their obscurity. Something similar happens when I look through a cook book and see ingredients that I can't pronounce. It's not that I don't want to try them, (I'm up to try almost anything really) it's just all of the unknown that gets in the way. I've made a bad habit of ignoring things that don't make sense or seem too different. But this week I took a leap...a food leap. It occurred to me, after I saw some artichokes on sale, that I have never attempted to cook one of these bad boys.Now artichokes may not seem very exotic or strange, but to me it was something completely new. I washed, snipped, cut, and steamed them and then shared them with some good friends. And you know what? Artichokes are not too shabby. We dipped it in butter because the dang Holindase sauce turned out tasting like crap. But for what it's worth, I think it turned out fine....not amazing or spectacular, but fine. I think perhaps I'll try to incorporate some more bizarre food into my life.

.Someone's Watching.

So this is how we spent most of Friday night...

Roy in a neck brace in the Emergency Room of Alta View Hospital. To say that getting hit by a car twice in one year is a bit much is an understatement. This time was much more serious...that happens with higher speeds and landing on your head. I seriously wonder sometimes if this kid is going to make it to a ripe ol' age. Luckily, he was AGAIN not seriously injured...mostly just road rash and some sore muscles. From the stories that Roy has told me from his childhood, he must be surrounded by guardian angels. Thankfully someone is still watching! A bonus to the night...the bike looks unscathed.

That might be the case because Roy wasn't about to let anything happen to his new bike. It even rode in the ambulance with him, and shared his room. I really hope I don't have to do this ever again...I sure do like that boy and don't want to lose him!

.so it goes.

(My Nephew Tillman falling asleep in the strangest places)

Last night I was up at 2:15 wide awake...seriously! My mind was abuzz with all sorts of thoughts, and after laying there for 45 minutes waiting for sleep to fall over me, I made my way upstairs. You may not know this but one becomes very hungry if they are awake and about at 3 in the morning. I pushed the hunger pains to the back of my head and set to work trying to clear my thought process. I kept myself busy by finally loading the business turbo tax onto the computer (I've been postponing that for awhile because our new printer doesn't want to be friends with our computer...we will work on that later). I googled a recipe for Cinnamon oatmeal, found a new ab workout, read a church talk on spiritual gifts, and finally spent the remaining hour working on our website (yes these are the types of thoughts that were meandering through my brain). I finally hummed myself to sleep to the tune of a children's hymn near 5, and woke up at 7 feeling very much like I only got half a nights sleep. What a way to start a day, right?

.let the goodtimes roll.

Some of the best boarding days are in the spring. Even when the snow is not the best, you can't help but have a good time in the beautiful spring sun. Thanks to Ang and Jess for inviting me up to snowbird for the day.

Those are my sweet dance grooves by the way

.purging.

This is so how my life feels right now.

With the tiniest hint of spring in the air I'm ready for a deep exhale. That exhale includes de-junking my life. I have so many big projects that I want to get off my plate. That might help to explain why my mind has been so spacey lately...i can't seem to focus on one thing long enough. All the while I'm frustrated that we are already outgrowing our little house, and we still don't have any children to blame for that. Where did all this STUFF come from....I wonder? If it was left up to me I would pull a dump truck up to the house and just start loading up all the crap that we've accumulated. But it's not entirely up to me. I can't just do as I please and throw everything I deem useless out the window. I tried that once when we were first married, and I learned quickly that that's not how it works. I guess what I'm saying is I'm in serious need of an overhaul...the kind that gets my house organized and purged for the coming year. Because right now I need to feel like I have some control over my life and not have to worry about the clutter piling up in the corners.

.please don't swear on me.

As has been stated, recently my mind has been discombobulated. In the middle of sentences I'll forget words or mix up the order of things. This has made life both frustrating and hilarious... i.e. today after having a customer curse on the phone, I said, after hanging up, "please don't swear on me". I may have just been thinking in metaphors and related his words to vomit, but I like how it came out. Hopefully I'll have another chance to use this clever mixed up phrase again, because even if it has only existed for a few moments, I've realized it makes me very Happy!

.where did that come from.

Every year at my work, the boys put together a friendly little wager when March Madness comes around. Everyone submits a bracket and $5 and than we watch and wait. Being only one of two girls in an office full of spots guys doesn't make for good odds all that often. In deed I had counted myself out after Kansas, my golden team to go all the way, was shockingly upset. I hadn't even bothered to follow my bracket after that. But wouldn't you know...I won. Me....Beth....beat the guys who spend months analyzing the teams they will pick. Now all that's left is to figure out what I want to do with my $70.

.observations...the gym.

Avoiding a predictable rant on the snow that is now blanketing the ground on this, the first day of April, I would rather talk about some things noted after last nights visit to the ol' gym. The first thing that must be realized about going to the gym is that there are 2 types of people: the "Be seen's" and the "Watchers". With all my watching lately, I'll tell you what I think.

1-Avoid the 5 o'clock rush like the plague. Generally speaking, you will find masses of people who will not be sweating in their designer sweat gear, nor will they be messing up their perfectly disheveled hair.

2- I don't like the color orange...that is to say, I don't like orange people. I know people may say the same thing about my pastey-ness, but really...Orange?

3-Older (well endowed) women soaking it up in the hot tub, should not....SHOULD not wear LOW V-neck swim wear! There is nothing there that we want to see so please keep it to yourself. GROSS!

4-Men on the Rhoids...not attractive. They always seem to have beady little eyes that are scoping the room for a fight.

5-What's with the muscle shirts guys? (let me illustrate). Why do you even bother putting on a shirt?!

I could go on and on, but I'll spare you. Mostly, I just kept thinking what an odd place the gym is, and how much I'm looking forward to the warmer weather.