Started out the week with a bang! Storms cleared everything off of our front porch and then some. Still not as bad as what hit Iowa. Have you see the pictures? WOW! Glad that some of my Iowan friends are finally getting power back.
Kind of disappointed. Andrew earned a new Lego set and everything including instructions is on an app. I wanted Legos to keep him off of a screen and now he is back on a screen. It's a cool set, very interactive, but still. With the very real possibility of online learning again this school year, anything done off of a screen is a good thing. If we have to do 6.5 hours at a computer, I may scream and cry daily. Seriously.
Then we found out that the set we bought needed a "starter set" in order to work properly, so Andrew wanted extra chores to earn it quickly. I do all of the yard work and honestly I figured it wouldn't hurt with the proper safety gear and instruction to teach him how to mow now. And yes, he smiled the entire time. It's so cute when kids think chores are fun. I have always had a hard time letting him do chores, because I have a very specific way I do most things (Type A all the way), so letting him do things means extra work for me. Well, I am trying to put that aside and let him step up and do more around the house. Not going to lie, it's an internal struggle for me, but also I am tired and need help since hubby doesn't have the time to help me with any type of house or yard work.
Was so excited to see 60s in my weather app until I also saw 92% humidity. Dang it Kansas, knock it off. The humidity fog was so heavy that it was hard to breath and enjoy the cooler weather. At least the dogs got to get out and got a free bath in the process.
Tried a new eating place that opened up over at St. George. It's funny, when we moved here, we had 0 BBQ joints and I went through serious withdrawals. Yes, there is KC BBQ in KC, but we are about 2 hours away from KC, and meat smothered in sauce is not anything I like. Anyway, we finally made it over for lunch time and it was AMAZING! It was Alabama BBQ, which I had never heard of (just means covered in red sauce that is tomato based, who knew), but the naked meat was amazing and the sides were SO GOOD! We had the best fried okra EVER! We can't wait to go more often and support yet another great BBQ joint in our immediate area.
I was trying to take a picture of the humidity fog, but this is what I got. Not a falling star, just my camera phone doing weird long shutter things. It was 60 degrees, but 90% humidity!!!!!!! I am SO done with humidity. I can't even enjoy the cooler temps because I can't catch my breath, and my pace is still super slow because of that. Sigh. Someday it will be fall and I will rejoice.
Looking matchy matchy for my gravel bike ride. We did a MUCH hillier, much more trafficked gravel road, and honestly I hated it. I am not a fan of going down huge rock covered hills. I have a vision of hitting a pot hole or a rock and going over my handlebars when I go fast. For that reason, I ride my brakes going down big hills and get quite behind the group. Of course i catch up on the ups, but then they whiz past me and I get behind again. I was also not in shape for this ride, so post ride I was spent! Of course the next morning i woke up with a stabbing pain in my groin area, so decided to take a day off and rest and make sure this wasn't something more than just typical soreness from doing something I haven't ever done before. Since I am not on a training plan, why not. I did tell my running partner that i think I would like to run Thursday mornings again, so that I can't use the bike ride as a reason to wuss out on my run the next day.
I then did a dumb thing. Tony had to go into work Saturday morning and work with a crew and I decided based on when he needed to leave, I would rather wait and run later than try and get any early. When he got off work around 10 ish, I thought, what the heck, go out and get your 10. It was feels like 85, but the humidity was low, so I figured I would do two 5 mile laps and just carry my water bottle and not my pack to stay cool. I got about 2.5 miles out and felt good and had plenty of water, so I kept going. BIG MISTAKE. Around 3.5 miles out the wheels fell off and I started feeling like I was going to puke. I somehow stupidly thought well if I can at least get to 4 I will stop and turn around and walk the rest of the way back. I made it to 4 somehow, but then the walk back was painful. It was hot, dusty, and I had to really watch my water. My hubby was in another town with my kiddo, so not near enough to come pick me up quickly and both of my running partners were out of town. I decided to try power walking as long as I didn't feel like I was going to pass out and ended up making it back. Four mile of my walk run and 3.4 miles of power walking. You would think I would have learned my lesson from previous experiences, but you know, I am not the sharpest tool in the shed sometimes.
Long run day number 2. Decided even though Sunday was a race day to coffee medicate, get up super duper early, and head out to try and get 8-10 running miles. Robin and I got 10 no problem and enjoyed the cooler temps and the lower humidity.
So this is going to be a little long winded so grab a beverage , get comfortable, and welcome to my brain. We had another race weekend with both cars. We had not practiced the above car, which is his Junior Honda car. Ever since he has had success in his Junior Animal car (the maroon one), he has been down on this car. He doesn't like the way it handles, he doesn't like the way it runs, and he has just given up trying to drive it hard. I was SO excited when I saw in random draw he had drawn pole position. That would at least let him get out and run some laps in clean air until he caught up to the tail end cars. We have some AMAZING drivers in Jr Honda, some kids that this is their second year doing this class and they have confidence, amazing cars, and that competitive edge that Andrew doesn't quite have yet. He held on for a little bit but then those cars caught up and he got passed down till he was in 6th place. He did hold off 2 cars to finish in 6th, but not great effort honestly, but he is 8 so who knows what goes through his head. We didn't invert the field, meaning that he started 6th and again he quickly got shuffled to the back where he just hung out and drove the slowest laps ever (fastest in the heat for him was a 6.955 compared to a 7.4 in the feature). It was very obvious he was NOT trying and that is our only criteria, YOU HAVE TO TRY. Very disappointed and will be doing lots of practicing for sure this week with this car. This car is not crap and he has to believe that. We are going to get another car like his Jr Animal car ordered (same chassis) as i guess chassis are different and kids can find one that they like more than others. We are blessed to have the money to do so and we can sell this car as I have mentioned before and get money back but dang it, if we do this he'd better drive his BUTT OFF!
Next up was Jr Animal, his maroon car. He had an amazing practice with this car during the week, turning a 6.4, which is truly the fastest he has ever pushed this car. Again he had a lucky pole position and got a great start pulling away quickly. He had about 16 laps of leading AND passing which is so good for him before one of the veteran racers caught up to him and passed. I would have liked to see him race her a little harder and not give up so quickly, but he managed to hold off the car behind him and get 2nd place. He was SO excited as were we! He raced his BUTT OFF! Again we didn't flip the field, so he started outside pole. Here is where it gets super tricky. The inside pole sets the pace BUT the inside pole can also jump the start IF the flagman feels they accelerate too quickly. The inside pole was charged with jumping the pole twice, which meant she went to the back. Then Andrew was on the pole and jumped the start. Sigh. He got the black flag, which totally scares him to death, so the next three or so starts, he wouldn't go and the outside pole car was charged with jumping the start. He moved to the back which moved another racer up to the outside and we finally got the race started. Andrew held first for about half the race and the other two veteran cars caught up to him. He didn't put up much of a fight and let them take 1 and 2, but held onto 3rd spot and finished strong. I am sure he was tired, there is no telling how many laps they did trying to get that start right.
Overall a pretty good racing day, just have to figure out how to convince him in his head that the green and black car is not crap, it's still a good car and he can still race it hard. We are getting a new car, however, it may not be here till the end of the season dependent on when we get it ordered. We expect the same amount of try in both classes and are tickled pink he is being competitive and trying hard with one but we expect that from both.
Hope you have a great week! I can go on and on but stopping there so I can get this posted and done:)
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