The top of the things I won’t miss list, firewood, chopping, hauling, stacking, hauling. cajoling boys to bring it in.
Things I really will miss. The neighbors. The road. The colors. The smells. The creek, babbling in the background of all of it.
The garden. The blueberries. The firewood.
*Home- Michael Buble
What Monday evening? How did that happen? Oh right, I’m crazy now. Today passed in a haze of chicken noodle soup and hacking coughs, following a weekend of packing, craigslisting, entertaining family and friends and general putting off the thought of what is headed down the road.
But Friday was fun and started off with donuts, because when the ongoing summer construction (ongoing construction not summer) on your road means the power is out. Again. Well breakfast is more challenging and we’re not really in a challenging place. And also we realized we wouldn’t be at the donut shop for birthdays this year. What! Hysteria!
Hello Sugar high that lasted most of the day!!
The Weekend was an ongoing extravaganza in uncles, and uncles and some more uncles helping us move heavy things over there, no over there, wait, here. And friends and grandparents, and old friends who stopped by and some friends who came for dinner. Frankly Sunday rolled around and it was no wonder we were all a little tired.
Today was spent easing into school, drinking lots of tea with lemon, and some chicken noodle soup too. There was also some dinosaur bone excavating, because nothing can top the excitement of MOVING TO UTAH WHERE THERE ARE REAL DINOSAUR BONES!!!!! (exclamations points not exaggerated) And knitting. I did some knitting because it helped with the hacking coughs which are perfectly times and really, really excellent thank you. I should have been doing some quilting, but it was colder in that room, and I actually haven’t plugged my sewing machine into the wall yet since I returned home from the East Coast. I don’t know what I’ve been doing really.
Trying not to think about it really. Look something shiny…with no teeth.
photo by the super awesome Jenica Lemmons
*All I want is you-Tristan Prettyman
Thank you 2011 Turtledashers! Click here to go to the ongoing Turtledash photo uploads. Or here to go to the Flickr photos Also you can see some at the Turtledash Facebook site here.
Another year come and gone! I’m going to post some pictures here just to drive team website crazy, and to give him something to do (sorry Joe).
Thanks to all the runners who showed up on this gorgeous October morning! It was really a great day for a run!
There is so much that goes into the day of the Turtledash that it wouldn’t be possible without everyone’s help. Thanks to everyone who brought a potluck dish for the festivities! Thanks to all the house elves who helped keep things running at Turtledash headquarters while I delivered Mace and looked for lost dashers. Thanks for keeping on top of all the dishes, I know there were a lot. And thanks for taking out the garbage!
Thanks to KJ for manning up and manning the Mile 1/10 waterstation (the longest station on the course)
Thanks to my dad for taking care of the Mile 6 waterstation and for sending me voice memos of all (all!) the conversations my seven year old had while on the job
Thanks to Tammy for on course bike support! You are awesome, great idea!
Thanks to Joe for helping me with the website and for not burning much of the barbecue.
Thanks to Jenny for not leaving when I made her the childcare volunteer, after she arrived at the Turtledash.
Thanks to Mary for all the homemade goodies. Yum!
Thanks to Michelle for sending lots of canned goodness for prizes! See you next year!
Special thanks to Nora, official 2011 Turtledash sponsor for taking care of the T-shirt set up fee this year.
Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for feeding the boys breakfast and volunteering (just like every year that they aren’t in Paris) and for the Apple Tort.
Thanks to Natalia, for finish line duties, marking the course duties, putting up with the general chaos of Turtledash morning, driving down the night before to put up with the cleaning frenzy, making of numbers, making turtle cookies with the boys even though they were driving her crazy with their middle of the dough cookie cutter ness and especially for night before Turtledash knitting and Movie watching.
Thanks to Leah, Head House Elf. The list of things Leah takes care of on the day of the dash are too numerous to detail but the high points are the chai latte she brings me the morning of and the still being my friend the day after the Turtledash. Special thanks to the Head House Elf for putting up with the multiple pre-Turtledash phonecalls. Phonecalls that increase the closer to the Turtledash we get. And the general supportive friendness of coming back to be the behind the scenes person of the Turtledash year after year. I know I don’t have an ulcer because of you. ( I mean how many people can you say that to) Thanks Leah.
Thanks to my boys for sleeping all night the night before the dash. I really appreciate that! You can stay.
And last but most importantly thanks to my husband for cleaning all the bathrooms, (with a toothbrush-the Navy! it works!) mopping the floors, running the barbecue, doing the shopping, marking the course, taking the pictures, taking me running in the dark before the Turtledash so I didn’t have to go alone, putting up with the Turtledash year after year, being fun to be around, and giving me that look that says ‘you are freaking out, stop’ without anyone else seeing. You are my favorite.
Thanks Turtledashers it’s was fun. See you in 2012.
The rain is here and my unofficial work out program has begun. The program where I drag myself to the shed for firewood then haul the wood up the steps to the house. Repeat. Throughout the day. Strangely my biceps never really show the result of this effort.
The leaves that fell last week are turning into the soggy slick ground cover we call Fall, Winter and Spring. Slicker than any ice we may have this coverage has sent me sprawling on more than one occasion and frankly each year there is more of me to land, and it’s never a soft landing.
In the wet damp that is the PNW fall, it is harder to get out of the house. Especially with the fire going. The walks that I could barely wait for in the summer are suddenly being put off, and off and oh it’s bed time? Too dark to walk.
It’s the time of year when I miss the crunchy leaves of the East Coast and the outdoor parties that are tempered by a chilly fall wind that calls for scarves and mittens but rarely for the perpetual rain coats and pants that we find ourselves attired in.
And while the evergreen keep on greening, holding the colors of fall at bay for a while longer and I lack the ambition to leave the house, it only means that we are turning in. Returning to the hearth, literally on the chilly damp days as we sit around the woodstove, learning, reading, knitting, quilting. Listening to wild stories of Dragon Lore, and plans for next summer’s garden. Little ones worrying over the coming winter and the our new chickens fortitude.
Hunkering down (except for those trips for more wood), the winter is perfect for planning the upcoming holiday season, the coming year and the rest of our lives, whether they include dragons or not.
I am the Walrus-Beatles
Today as I was ‘running’ (re: staggering) with MF (she was pushing my chariot full of little boys, uphill, in the snow…BOTHWAYS…. I was not) she said:
MF: Were you baking bread this morning?
Me: (brain whirling noises while I try to breathe and remember how to speak) uh..yeah
MF: smelled great
ME: (ALARM! ALARM!…) Frick!! Did I take the bread out of the oven?!! Frick~!!!!! (attempts to run faster, butt only manages to pump arms and look really silly).
As we rounded the corner I saw that my house was still intact with no smoke escaping from the windows….turns out I had taken it the bread out.
I despise washing the dishes almost as much as I hate to run. And yet I do both of them weekly. We don’t have a dishwasher and so much of my life feels like it is spent at the kitchen sink washing dishes, and toys and little boys. And yet both running and washing the dishes are times I find myself alone, thinking, reflecting on life and questions like. What if I really did burn the house down? Sure we joke about how we want to rebuild in the same spot, and sure I set off the smoke detectors at least once a week(ahem) but wow, how terrible would it be if your house burned down?
And all this led to piles and piles of fabric in the front room. What?! bad transition?
As I stood there in the kitchen thinking about my house burning down, I thought about all the projects I had going that would be lost and I thought I need to streamline, I need to get rid of some stuff. And so I dug through all my tubs of inherited fabric (you know how people find out you do stuff with fabric and then one day you have 100 tubs of fabric in your basement full of fabric you’ve never even seen? Well maybe not 100) and I dumped them in the front room. And then I called all the people I thought might be interested and told them FREE! FABRIC! on its way to the local thrift store, come on over! And Look Brownies!
And Legolas came over for the brownies. I managed to shove some fabric at her. A few more sewers dropped by but the piles did not diminish. Scott arrived home and tried to act nonplussed by the fact that fabric had eaten the dining room table and couch.
“It will all be gone by tonight” I promised him. He gave me a look that said, ‘yeah it will’.
I packed the fabric into six, ahem, garbage bags and they are waiting for delivery at local thrift shop. Purging always feels good. And as my workshop seems to be bursting around the edges with PROJECTS! PRESENTS! and PROMISES! (must learn to say no!) the fabric dent is almost visible.
The day while successful, just plain wore some of us out. It’s been that kind of week.
You all know how I like to ‘re purpose’ things. This post was originally written Christmas of 2005.
There are many reasons that I consider my neighborhood “special”. But nothing sums up why for me better than the post I wrote two Christmases ago when I was ginourmously pregnant with my second son.
Please humor me and read an old post that says it all for me.
