One evening that seemed like an eternity

Holley pointed out it had been awhile since my last post so I thought last night would be a good place to start back up.

Our family will be spending Labor Day weekend at Fort Gibson Lake. It's been a production to make this happen. Since the remaining campsites were on a first come first serve basis, we were already in a jam because Ron is in LA all week. We decided to ask Jonathan to pull the trailer on Tuesday night and I'd follow to pick out the spot. Now...I had a great idea to bring Kadence along since he loves the lake. We were late getting on the road because of my ding dong sister who decided that she would GO SHOPPING before dropping Kadence off. Ok....so we got Kadence loaded up, I fed him in the car (let's not tell Uncle Ronnie), and we met Jonathan at the storage facility. Funny story about Kadence....he wanted a drink of my diet coke. I'm a bad aunt so I let him have a sip. He said, "Cookie, will this make you drunker?". I said, "NOOOO...Diet Coke doesn't make you drunk". He said, "No....STRONGER. Does diet coke make you STRONGER?". heehee So...Jonathan is pretty sick. In fact...he's REALLY sick but insisted that he's alright to go. He followed Kadence and I but I was worried by the fact that he was going about 30mph all thru Coweta. On the other side of Coweta, he pulled over. We turned around to see what the deal was. The deal was....he was at death's door, white, sweaty, and....I'll spare you the rest. I called my dispatcher mother who called in my posse for backup. Jonathan took my car to his house and and Kadence and I waited by the side of the highway for Holley, Kourtney, Jaxon, and Dad to show up. Kadence headed home with his rents and Dad and I made the trip to Wagoner.
32 deer, one wrong turn, and 3 cuss words later,.....we got to the Seminole campground. I rode around on the golf cart with Mrs. Camphost and found a spot that I thought Ronnie would be good with. During the excursion, I informed her of Dad's lack of trailer backing experience. She assured me that Mr. Camphost could back it, which he did. The set up process did not go particularly well. I had to get Ronnie out of his "evening meeting" which I assume was probably code for "hanging out at a sports bar in Los Angeles". He seemed really, really, REALLY irritated when I told him I would need a little more specific instruction on how to plug in the trailer. He had a difficult time understanding how I could be so ignorant as to these matters considering I have watched him set up umpteen times. Do I have to remind him I'm a bimbo???? And a darn good cook?? Ok...I'm a bimbo. aaaaaaahhhhhhh.....all set up. Now I'll head back tomorrow night to clean, set up inside, and get the food ready for the weekend.

Oh....about Jonathan... His condition continued to decline and Bre took him to the ER where they administered an IV. He's a little better today, but very weak and sore. Poor guy. FYI...He ate spaghetti from Potbelley's. ??? :)

Vacay with the Whoopdeedoo's

WARNING: This will be interesting to...well....not many! Our family headed out on Monday for a family reunion vacation in Corpus! We are now on Day 4. Here is our story and some of the highlights...

Day 1: Mom and Dad came to pick Scout and I up a little before 8. Ronnie was at the truck telling us bye (he escaped going on this vacation b/c he had to "work"....whatev!) and he pointed out a large screw in our back tire! First stop....Easley's station. Whoopteedoo! Oh,,,,that's what what we are called b/c of the insane amount of crap that goes wrong when we are on a family vacation. It was good to see Marvin. I hung with his son and nephew all thru HS. Next stop...McDonalds. The road trip went much better than expected. Mom and Dad made it all of 2 hours with the boys in the truck, and then the rest of the trip they rode in the car with Scout Holley and I took turns driving the truck. We stopped at a rockin cool McDonalds near the Dallas zoo with really fun decor - zoo theme. The boys loved it. Oh, oh, oh...when we were leaving..a dude on a bike rode up next to me and started in about his life story....telling me that he just got a job today but someone threw out all of his cans of food so he was hungry. I gave him some money and then asked him a few questions about his new job. He said he is a dishwasher, which is good b/c he has LEPROSY. OMG. It took us a full hour to get thru Austin traffic and we finally made it to Buda where we met some of Mom's family at our hotel for dinner. It was fun to see John, Mary Louise, and Katherine. Scout got on a roll and would not shut up. We all slept good.

Day 2: Breakfast then a trip to Cabella's. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Cabella's. Scout was in his element. We loaded up and headed south. It's so fun to make the trip thru all the little towns that remind me of the trips we made to Corpus every summer. Sequin....Pettus. OH, Pettus. Good times here. Stopped at Dairy Queen and ate with all the locals. We stopped at Wal Mart in Port A and bought groceries for the week. Scout and Kadence ran around together and Scout discovered this helped him to pick up chicks. Delerium set in and we were in hysterics about everything. Kadence was about to get run over by a little old lady going 90 to nothin with her shopping basket and he stopped dead in his tracks, assumed the position, and proceeded to throw Spider Man webs at her. Scout attacked us all with silly string in the parking lot. It took 15 minutes to find the keys to the truck. AH..FINALLY...on to the ferry! Mom and Dad got seperated from us and we had to take a seperate ferry. Holley was nervous about driving the truck...but she did fine. Kadence was SO excited to see the ocean for the first time! We made it to our condo and settled in. Thank heavens, we had the help of family that beat us there to unload. Holley and I cooked dinner for everyone and then we went to the beach. It was a super fun evening.

Day 3: UP AT 6 AM, THANKS TO THE BRATTY NEPHEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) We had breakfast and went to the shell shops in town. I made sandwiches for our crew and we loaded up and spent all afternoon at the beach. Several of Dad's cousins came to spend the day. It's so fun to catch up with everyone. We got cleaned up and went to eat seafood in town with Uncle Kim, Aunt Cindy, and Logan. It was a great meal. Most everyone went swimming when we got back to our place.

Day 4: Scout fixed us all breakfast this morning. It's quiet now b/c Holley and Scout took the little ones swimming. We are waiting on a gang of family to show up for lunch. LOTS of cousins, aunts, uncles coming in.

Free and Easy Down the Road I Go.....

Today was awesome! My first (not last) half marathon. I woke up at 4:30, had two cups of coffee and a bagel, got dressed, and headed downstairs at 5 to catch the shuttle that is supposed to be running every 15 minutes. Here begins the CALAMITY that threatens to send me into a panic. I was to meet the Runner's World group at 5:45 for group pics. After about 45 minutes and some chatter about the buses running an hour and a half late, I phoned our room and asked Ronnie to come down and drive me to the race. I said, "do you know where you are going?"...he says, "NO" and I start praying. Knowing that streets would be closed and we would be running into 19,000 runners, I was fearful that wherever he would be drop me would not even be close to the start line, and I wasn't prepared to exert myself before the gun goes off! And, here's the God Wink.... He (not having much of an idea of where to go) drops me RIGHT in front of where I need to be!

Now...I'm walking around in the dark, along with 19,000 runners, getting ready for the opening ceremonies and I hear someone call my name. It's BRONDA and MIKE! Wow. I fall in line with them at the 10 mph pace line, not where I should be, but I'll just fall back when the gun goes off. I feel a tap on my shoulder and it's BRIAN RUSSELL! Ok...so the two people I have mentioned in my previous blog post are right here with me. God Wink numero dos!

Opening ceremonies start, prayer, moment of silence, star spangled banner, GUN. It takes forever to get moving. There are so many people that we're just packed in like sardines. The aforementioned runners blow past me and I try to find a pace. I stop at block 3 to use the portapotty. I regret the decision to leave my ipod at home. I struggle to know if I'm pacing correctly. At mile 2, I hear one of my run coaches holler at me. Stelly ran with me, imparting all his coaching wisdom for about 5 more miles. We saw lots of RW folks, including Kathy and Bobby. It felt good to have familiar faces in the midst. Stelly is always saying, "slow down, stop and stretch, eat, drink, be merry. Today was different. He said something like, "uh...this is a race....go faster!". Ok....
There were tons of power aid stops, water stops, and sideline entertainment. There was a saxophone, belly dancers, dj's, costumes, Darth Vader, Paris Hilton, John Wayne, and gobs of families sitting on their lawns with dogs and children, giving cheers and high fives. Bloody Mary's looked to be the beverage of choice for most onlookers. My fav sideline treat by far was the Jagermeister shot tent! No kidding! Jager shots! I didn't partake.
At about mile 7 or 8, I hooked up with Jessica from RW. She's super cool and I enjoy running with her. At mile 9, I felt like my toes on my right foot had broken OFF. Ya, ...bad. Jessica sped up and I held back. The last 3 miles went by s-l-o-w. I was hyped up though and dancing as I ran. One spectator told me I obviously need to ramp up my speed if I had enough energy to dance. There were some turns on the next 2 miles where sudden gusts of wind seemed like they'd sweep your legs out from under you. The last half mile was awesome. The announcer was yelling...if you want to beat 3 hours you have two minutes.....etc, etc. I busted it out. Crowds were yelling like crazy. The announcer came over to me and said, "how many miles did you run today?", and handed me the mic. I said, proudly, 13.1!!!. I got my medal!

I found Mike and Bronda first and then wandered around for awhile looking for Ronnie. In the Runner's Corral I grabbed a water and a couple of cookies, but bypassed most of the food because I was on a hunt for the beer tent. Guess what?? No beer tent!!!!!!! What! So...time to leave! We went to Bricktown and waited for Chellino's to open.

I woofed thru a couple of flautas and some Corona Light.

So...a funny side effects of running....I was covered in salt when I finished. gross.

I'm so excited about running the next race. Even with ice packs on my legs, I'm thinking about the next one. :)

OKC!

I had fun with my nephew Kadence last night. We celebrated his third birthday by grilling out, eating "pupcakes", opening his gifts, ...hanging at the park, ....watching movies....and ...at, like 11:30, the kid decided to go to sleep. He woke up and reminded me I had to make him some waffles. Then (whew) Holley came to pick him up.
It took forever to get out of town. Finally, ...at 4:30 or so, we made it to the Cox Convention center. Standed in a line of a zillion people to get the run packet, got the chip activated, and headed to the hotel. Then..it was on to the Olive Garden (ok food and an IHOP type atmosphere). Anyhoo...I sufficiently carb loaded (heck..I've been carb loading since 1983). Then...headed to Walgreens to get 64 oz. of water and some vaseline (it's a runner thing), then to Panera to get my ritual bagel for in the morning. We drove thru Nichols Hills and those are with out a doubt the most fantastic homes I've ever seen!
There are runners ALL over the place here, as you can imagine. Bartenders all over the city are probably po'd b/c folks aren't boozin it up tonight.
This is so much fun!!!!!! I'm not nervous at all yet.
I'll let you all know how it goes. Peace out...

Countdown to OKC....and thinking about Zach...

YEEEHAW!! 5 months of training and we're almost there! The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon is what Runner's World calls one of the 12 "Must Run" marathons in the world. The pre-race buzz is awesome and there's not been a minute of my last few days that I'm not thinking about the run. It's been a pretty textbook pre-run week for me....very nervous, very excited, and surprisingly OCD about EVERYTHING. I've been almost frantic about keeping everything constant in my life, as not to throw off my mojo. I think I also let a little arrogance come in on this weeks runs. Fortunately, one of the benefits of my RW training tells me that I should expect the occasional bad run. Last night was one of those! I felt good going in to it, but my shoes felt too tight, my shorts felt too short, I was starving, I was hot, My shirt was too tight, and the hills were killer. I ended up cutting my 3 miles to 2 and even still, had to walk most of it. I don't know what my deal is, but I'm moving on and thinking positive thoughts about the run on Sunday. My new goal is to not die! :)
I'm thinking about everyone heading to OKC Saturday. I'm thinking about Bronda who is struggling with leg pain and a cold. I'm thinking about Ryan who has a knee as big as a softball (but is rocking a new mohawk!). I'm thinking about Brian Russell who has been training for months for his first marathon. I'm thinking about friends of mine that have recently started running and now have goals to experience big races! I'm thinking about all of RW gang who I've had the privilege of running with for the last several months. And...I'm thinking about the reason for the run. It's a chance to remember the loss of lives in the bombing, the chance to honor those who's lives have been changed forever, and a chance to celebrate the resilience of people.
I'll be thinking about the day that I sat in my living room and was chilled at the sight of Oklahoma making breaking National news. I will also be thinking about my family who will be meeting Saturday night for the annual bonfire to honor the life of my cousin Zachery who was taken from us at a very young age. This has by far been the most tragic and difficult loss our family has endured. Zach's parents (my uncle and aunt), Kim and Cindy Dunn will never be the same, but they have responded to the loss in a way that makes our family very proud. They became advocates for public awareness and education of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which claimed Zach's life. They are a light, reminding others that we have eternal hope and can find comfort in our storms. Most importantly, they remind us to never forget those who go before us.
I won't forget! Let's rock!

Cattle Show Update

AHHHHH....I'm EXHAUSTED! Really....exhausted. Holley and I headed to Stillwater Friday evening, two little ones in tow (Kadence and Jax). I took the boys swimming Friday night in the OUTDOOR pool and scored some extra cool points.

Saturday morning, after breakfast, we headed to see Scout show at the Ok Beef Expo. He did great, winning Champion Chianina with his prospect steer and then later in the day won Grand Champion Market prize with a steer that belonged to the Mckay's. Scout was in his element of course, and did a fantastic job showing.

A few highlights of the trip, aside from the big win:
Experienced Joseppi's for the first time. It's not Joe's, but it had to do in a time crunch
Aunt Cookie has some mad MacGyver skills and can craft a band aid out of a kleenex in a pinch
Wasabi Almonds=MONEY!
We survived Jaxon's sleep issues but I will bring ear plugs for future over nighters.
Visited the blue house....Holla! And SHORTCAKES!!!

All in all, it was a great weekend! I'm ready for a fun week. We will be meeting the Shumards in Krebbs on Tuesday night for an italian dinner. Other than that, I will be conserving energy in preperation for the weekend. Ronnie and I will head to OKC on Saturday.
Make a great week!!!

Eskimo Joe's or Mexico Joe's? Eskimo or Mexico????

I'm waiting on my posse to get here so we can head out for a fun couple of days in Stillwater. I'm looking forward to Scout's show, swimming with my nephews, eating at Joe's (whichever one that may be), and (hopefully) getting my run in around the campus. Ahhhh....Memories! I posted my campus run to the right....