Skipped

 Completely skipped last week's post.  Here are some photos.  We had racing for 2 days, no running, and lots of fun!

Purple beer for KSU!

At MBC on a Wednesday night for some good beer and Chinese food!

Why do I look like my mom here?

Just chilling during racing.

Not good.

Even worse.  

Friends.  

Looking forward to cooler weather so I can actually run!

Heat index of 121

Another week of ridiculous heat and another week of no thank you from me when it comes to running.  I did manage 2 short runs of 3 miles each, but the rest was a nope.  

Andrew started school and it started out with lots of nerves, but then ended good.  SO many changes this year for a kid who needs to know every detail of every second of every day to feel comfortable.  He now changes class every hour, runs from one end of the school to the other, has zero hour weights before school starts/rides a shuttle bus to school, and has football three nights a week.  Pretty soon we will have football Friday nights, football Saturday mornings, and racing on Sunday.  I am getting tired just reading this.    I am so pleasantly surprised at how well this transition this week has gone thus far.  I honestly thought we would have tears and lots of drama, and there has been nothing but excitement, happiness, and one tired kiddo.

Speaking of football, our third year started this week.  I always have high hopes going in that my kiddo will suddenly find his athleticism that I feel like is in there somewhere.  We had seen changes this year in his aggressiveness when racing, so we had hoped it might come out on the field.  The jury is still out and in his first practice he was basically relegated to third string, so to be continued.  I knew this year was going to be tough playing time wise with so many new kids joining that are so athletically gifted, even if they haven't ever played tackle.  He has to want it, me wanting it is nothing.  He did tell the coach he wanted to be the pulling guard position and he would work hard to keep that position, so that is a big change for him.  Football is truly my favorite sport and I hope he can find a love or at least a liking for the sport as I think he would LOVE it in middle school and high school.  

A quick note on my journey in therapy.  My anxiety has been much less lately just due to overall less going on to stress me out in my life.  That part is nice, however will probably be short lived but I will enjoy it for now.  However, I was triggered by watching a documentary and was sent back to a dark place I don't like and had a couple of rough nights with the old thoughts of why did this happen to me, why does he get to live a wonderful life and I suffer, and why won't these feelings go away for good?   I was super glad to have therapy Friday to delve into these things, so we can start the real work.  I am ready for this journey and I feel like I have finally found the therapist I have needed.  When she told me FUCK THE PATRIACHY while I was telling my story,  I was like right on sister.   Indeed.  If feels like much healing is going to happen here.  Stay tuned.  

We decided after our race got canceled due to extreme heat (we race in the daytime and on pavement) to head about 1.5 hours north to see our favorite dirt racers race Friday and Saturday night.   While older, Hank started when Andrew did and raced on the national circuit for quarter midgets before changing over to dirt.  His mom volunteered a ton of her time in the tower as head concessions and we had always been super close.  We missed spending time with their family like crazy, but most of the tracks they race on are 2 plus hours away for us.  It was so good to just hang out in the trailer like old times, watch the kiddos race their hearts out, and have a few beers in celebration for all of the wins.  I really wish we could race dirt and not pavement because I truly love how laid back it is and how there is no club per se to deal with.  It's so nice to go to a track and not have to work all day and night and then go home exhausted and not really get any time with our friends.

Every time we go, we learn so much about dirt racing, have so much fun with our friends, and the boys improve exponentially every time we watch.  I really want to go to Tulsa again this year and watch them both in restricted and A class at the Tulsa Shootout.   I wish my kiddo would find a love for dirt and dirt racing, but I don't think it is his focus yet and that is okay.  We will pavement race till he can't fit in his cars anymore and then go from there.  

Stay cool my friends!  This next week is going to be absolutely horrible and I am sure I am not going to do a ton of running with a 2 day race ended the week.  I will get what I can and be happy that fall is almost here!

Sorry so late

Did you say it was Thursday and I haven't even posted about last week?   Dang it, behind again!   We had a fun filled weekend full of adventures to end the year before football and racing take over and even got to meet our new nephew.  Let's focus on that with some pictures shall we?  I think I ran once or twice last week but the main theme was Andrew and fun, and thanks to a busy schedule and the heat, running just didn't fit.   

Here is our new nephew.  Andrew didn't want to hold him initially, but then he decided he had to.  He is precious and we are so proud of Tony's brother for growing his little family.  

Friday night we headed to Topeka to the big race track called Heartland Park to watch the NHRA drag races.  We had never been (can hear them from our track), so we were happily surprised to absolutely love it.  Watching cars and motorcycles go 300 mph down a track is so amazing and you can feel those cars in your soul.  Plus, we walked all over the track and grounds just checking it out and had fun with friends.

  

Saturday I worked at Coleman Electric for a bit and got caught up on paperwork and book keeping.  Yes I have said several times that I was done working two jobs, but Tony just doesn't have time and then it gets behind and it gets majorly fucked up.  I can't let our company fail due to paperwork and book keeping not being done right or done at all.  Yes I am not happy about it, and yes I have no clue how to make it right or work any other way, and yes I may lose all of my sanity.

  

Sunday we headed to KC for a trip to Union Station.  It's an old train station in Kansas city that has been renovated and that has Science City, a movie theater, and rotating exhibits.  My work friend had told me about the Spiderman exhibit and Andrew LOVES Spiderman, so we had to go.  I also booked a brewery tour at Boulevard Brewing Company that was just a few blocks away.  Equal opportunity for all of us to have fun!  Let's just say the Spiderman exhibit was the most amazing thing ever, we need a repeat trip to Science city as we only did maybe half of the exhibits, and the Boulevard tour was the highlight of the day.  

We had multiple stops on the tour and at every stop you got BEER!  We got to taste so many of their wonderful brews and I have some new favorites for sure.  I loved the the stories the tour guides told and would love to go back and do it again.  They had an amazing bar that anyone could come and get beer and delicious food at, along with a tour ending bar with some special brews,  and a test bar where you could sample the beers that they were tweaking and working on.  

Thus ends our amazing summer full of fun and adventures, but I am sure we still have a few up our sleeves:)  Now time for football and racing every.single.weekend.

The itch

I finally got back into the swing of things with a walk and two short runs.  The weather was horrible with highs in the 100s and my work was crazy with one day us working till 10 pm.  Thank goodness we had a weekend with no agenda so we could do work at Coleman Electric and get a couple of short runs in.  I am seriously contemplating a super late fall or early winter race as the itch to train is coming back.  

I would say my mental health has been pretty good this week thanks to be super duper busy at work and in life.  Andrew had an eye appointment, a physical (in which he got two shots), and his annual trip to Katie's Way to talk about meds.  Thanks to my hubby for doing my job and getting him on time to everything and dealing with him having a total melt down about shots.  We have one more week of freedom till school starts back!

And I finally went to the movies after how long?  I am not a fan of paying a ton of money to sit in a dark room and not get anything else accomplished, but I had been intrigued by the Barbie movie reviews.  Me and boys dressed in pink and headed out and let's just say I loved it.   I laughed, I cried, I nodded along.  The soundtrack was amazing and the guy who played Ken should get an Oscar.  

Have a great week y'all!

Mini vaca

 Short and sweet and to the point.  

I did no running last week thanks to 100+ degree days and traveling.  I do not feel guilty at all.  Yes, I do have a treadmill but I like running outside ONLY.  Since I am not officially training for anything I am letting it go like Elsa. 

 

I was very torn about taking our trip thanks to issues financially with the business, but I am so glad we did.  While it wasn't a cake walk and we struggled mightily on the track, I am still very glad we went as we had fun with new friends and Andrew had a blast.  Our goals were simple, try a new track and do the best you can, make racing moves, pass if you have a faster car, and have fun.  He did all of the things and battled with the cars we gave him.  

We also did some fun stuff like try a new brewery out, go to Mall of America, and stop at a local bakery/eatery on the way up.  At one point Andrew hugged me and said it was the best vacation he had ever had.  My only regret was we didn't let him swim the last night because we were exhausted.  His smile and his happiness are all I care about these days.   To see him that happy makes all of the stress worth it.  

Have a great week y'all!