Summer Has Begun

Well, I’ve been officially reintroduced to one of the negatives of summer break. I now have to take all three kids with me to the grocery store. That is a NIGHTMARE. I was just saying to Dean the other day, while we were waiting in line at Ci Ci’s Pizza, that I look around at the other people also waiting with their children. They’re all waiting peacefully at their parents’ side. I asked Dean why ours have to be the ones climbing on things, pushing each other, happily but loudly. Why do we have hooligans? As far as today is concerned, let’s just say, Roan is DEFINITELY taking a nap! Fortunately as the summer progresses, they’ll start going with the flow and things will even out. We have lots of fun things planned to keep us busy this summer. We have a family membership to the Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens, so we’ll go there a lot, I imagine. Plus as a member we can attend such functions as movies outside in the Botanical Gardens amphitheater and behind the scenes tours through the animal habitats, etc. Also, we’ll be swimming, going to the park, and the movies. Alyssa’s birthday is at the end of June, and Alyssa and I will hopefully be going to Raleigh again, this time to attend Andrea’s wedding shower. In July all three kids will go to camp, Kai and Alyssa returning to Bethel Christian Camp for a week, and Roan will be attending the YMCA camp, for the first time, in the mornings. Plus we’ll try to catch a week or two of VBS. We’ll close out the summer at the end of August by making one more trip to Raleigh for Andrea’s wedding! So, we’ll keep busy, never fear! Just pray that I keep my sanity!

Last night we had friends over for poker, Karaoke, and ice cream! Our friend Scott brought his girlfriend who is from Raleigh, and as it turns out, she knows my sister Andrea! Small world, eh? We had a lot of fun. Would you believe that’s the first time I ever did Karaoke? Yup. I’m not good at it. But, it was a lot of fun! One by one, everyone left, even Dean went to bed, but Raina and I stayed up until 1 am singing our lungs out until we were hoarse! Good times.

This weekend we are having a garage sale, something I swore I would never do again, but Dean wants to. He SAYS he’ll do everything and I don’t have to help. Like THAT’S going to happen! We’ve been ‘spring cleaning’ for several weeks and in the interest of saving up for our trip to Disney in the fall, we’re going to bite the bullet. Also, I will once again consign with Tot Trade in the fall. I’ve been doing this for four years to save up for our trip to Disney, and we’re finally going! Yay!

This past weekend Dean ran his first Ultramarathon. A marathon is 26.2 miles. An Ultramarathon is anything more than that. The one he just did was an estimated 36 miles! Also he was running on sand through the woods and in the pouring rain! The trail was actually 3 repeating loops. There was a place called Sand River which is normally dry, but because of the rain, when Dean passed it the first time is was mid calf deep. On the second loop he had to cross through it waist deep! But, by the third loop it was back down to mid calf.

He really appreciated the rain, though; it packed down the sand making it a little easier to run on and certainly helped with the temperature. He finished 5th place with a time of 5:41! Way to go, Dean! (Can you imagine running fast for almost 6 hours straight? In deep sand? In the pouring rain? Fording rivers? I can’t.)

Roan Quote: Roan said, “Daddy I can’t bring gum to heaven.” Dean asked why, and Roan answered, “Because Jesus doesn’t like gum.”