Let's go racing boys and girls

Starting out with the funnies this week.  If this isn't true, I don't know what is.  Again, lots of ups and downs this week.   I am amazed thought that I was able to pull myself out of a pretty bad panic attack and keep my calm and cool through a few situations that normally would derail me totally.  Progress, right?  I am again, so grateful to my therapist for instead of telling me to walk away from everything hard, is equipping me with the tools I need in my toolbox for life.  I would ask through, if you pray, say a little prayer for my fam for a big meeting we have next week.  If you don't pray, just send all the good thoughts and juju you can muster our way.  I just want to know one way or the other what direction we need to go in and this meeting will be a big decider.  

Friends are what's up this week.  I had lots of friends step up and help me through some tough situations.  Surround yourself with those who will stand in the rain with you.  I seriously have some amazing friends.  

 

A coworker had this on her page this week and again, these damn memes really get me.  It's all about circle of control.  I can't control what others think of me.  All I can control is me.  Really leaning into this and believing it has brought me so much freaking peace.  

I hate walking away. I will stay in bad situations just to not be a quitter, even if it hurts my mental health.  I'm working on this.  Sometimes walking away IS the answer.  I have four more months on my term on the board and I will gut this out.  I will not walk away even when the going gets tough.  

Okay enough therapy.  I got two runs and two work outs and called it good.  I even got one of my runs done post club meeting.  Look at me!  Both of my work outs this week were SOOO good and I was sore for days.  We did a Tabata work out on Thursday, and it was SO amazing.  I've never done one and boy did it work every part of my body out.  My abs are hurting just typing if that tells you anything!

That was his serious face in the above picture.  He was pretty happy with his cars and how he ran all weekend.  Again, all I ask for is maximum effort and if the set up dictates we are the third fastest car, then so be it.  He again battled Noah for second but he just didn't have the speed and made some great decisions and didn't force passes. 

 

We had another weekend of racing and lots of good things from Andrew!  We couldn't catch the 1st place car in either class, but we gave it our all and Andrew gave it his all.  That is all I ask.  Two second places in Heavy Honda and two third places in Heavy 160, with some awesome battling and some great passing!  The heavy honda class had a side-by-side finish in the heat race where Noah beat him by an INCH!   These classes may be small, but they are exciting.  

Have a great week y'all!  We are getting some big news Monday so hope and pray it's good!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!

I've felt all of the emotions this week.  SO much happiness and so much sadness.  Let's talk about the happiness first, right?  My baby turned 12 this week on 6/12/24.  How cool is that?  So many numbers divisible by each other.   All is right with the world!

I only got one work out and three short runs.   After no sleep due to Andrew's b day shenanigans, I had to rest and recoup and miss my work out night, and that is okay.   Not training for anything, plus a true hatred for summer running = missing a run is totally fine.  I am pining for the cold and the wind chills big time right now.    

Ollipop continued to have a great week minus chewing my computer cord in half and my cell phone charging cord.  She went to the vet to complete her puppy shots and got a clean bill of health other than Grade A naughtiness.

  

She also had a puppy play date while we were in KC with her new besties Kitty and Ebby.  I appreciate my BRF so much for taking care of her, so I didn't have to board her right after getting her.  She knew that would stress me out too much and I just wouldn't go with the boys and she stepped up big for me.  I owe you Rockin Robin!

Andrew's b day was a big success, and he proclaims it was the best year ever.  

We did cake early since we would be gone the day of.  He actually had two cakes, as his original cake was not going to be done in time, so Tony had to scramble and find something else quickly.  I loved both and think Tony did an amazing job.

I think both turned out great!  The day of we headed to Rally house to get Royal's shirts and then headed to KC where we had 0 trouble parking and finding our amazing seats.

I am so glad I splurged and got them!  He was on the jumbotron twice, once for a random reason, and once for the Birthday cam. 

 

We ended the night by walking around the kid's area, which was freaking amazing, and then getting out again, very easily and home.  While the score was horrible, just seeing Salvy, Aaron Judge, and Bobby Witt Jr made it all worth it.  

Of course I had a dental appointment the next day at 7 am which meant only 4 hours of sleep, but again totally worth it.  

Now can I get a little sad right now?  Youth sports is tough.  I was talking to a coworker the other day and she was relaying stories about T ball.  TBALL!  They are 5-6 and already having issues with parents, and I totally get it because to some degree, we saw it too.  What is this trend in youth sports?  I don't remember it being that bad when I was a kid.  Volunteer coaches, officials, umps, anything volunteer is being treated like CRAP!  I've talked about this before and I will talk about it again.  I have given almost 6 years to an organization and while I expect 0 thank yous, I do expect common decency, and I'm not seeing it.  AND it's turning people so bitter and horrible that they are turning around and being the exact same way to the people that are still in it, which makes me so super sad.  We have to do better, or we will have 0 volunteers left and no youth sports.  We won't have officials and umps and anyone left to let these kids do what they love to do.  I don't know how to help people see this unless they too become a volunteer and witness the abuses both verbally and mentally.  Again, I never mind someone having emotions and then coming later and saying they are sorry.  These are our kids and I get that there is a lot of passion in the amount of time we put into youth sports, gear, and all that goes with it.  Still, we are all humans, we all make mistakes, and even if we were paid, we still would make mistakes.  I've turned the other cheek so many times in the last few years that I don't know how I have any cheek left.  SO next time you want to yell at someone giving their entire day so that your kid gets to play or race think about it.  Next time you accuse someone of doing something to hurt the kids, these someones, who I might add work a full-time job and then comes home and spends hours working for a club for 0 dollars, think about it. I haven't gotten to strap my kid in his car in 6 years.  No good luck hugs or kisses in 6 years.  Barely got to hug him and take a pic before hustling back to the tower the one and only time he has won.  Yet, I show up every week with a smile on my face ready to work BECAUSE ITS FOR THE KIDS.  Just think about it.  Think it through before you make a nasty post or start a horrible rumor about someone who literally is about to lose their job because they spend more time working on a volunteer position than their paying job.  Please.  Think it through because your words make me not sleep, not eat, not want to show up every week.  Not everyone has a super thick skin and even if they do, they can die a death by a thousand cuts.  

With that said, have a great week y'all!  Not looking forward to this next week with a club meeting and a two-day race, one being a night race, but we shall make it through.  

Ollipop!

Okay I feel like my last few posts have been so preachy, so I apologize for that.  I often need to just get crap out of my brain and on to paper so it leaves my brain alone.  How about something funny and totally relatable to me right now?

I had a great week of lots of projects at work, three runs, and two work outs.  We also had another Saturday race, which I love because then Sunday is about resting and relaxing.  The ginger racer did an amazing job with two seconds in Heavy Honda out of three cars, and a third and a second in the feature in Heavy 160 out of 5 cars.  I am most proud of him for challenging the leader in 160, not backing down to the second-place car in the feature and passing and holding his ground against a very fast third place car.  These were all things we have really struggled with for years now.   I told my hubby it's super cool to see all of the skills we knew were in there coming out now.  

I did run on global running day, mainly for the badge.  Don't judge me.  It was hot and I thought I was going to die several times but got my three miles done.

I hate summer running and if you've been with me for any of the years I have been blogging, you know this.  #teamwinter is real. I think I may be done with long runs till fall.  Just the idea of running a long run in the heat and humidity makes me want to gag.  I will keep my small base and will bump to running 4 times a week on the weekends or weeks I can and call it good.  

I will end on this note:) Meet Ollie or Olliepop as we are calling her.  My friend contacted me a while back about a relative who was looking to rehome a puppy.  It's a long story, but she was not a good fit for the family and was terrorizing their elderly cat.  Of course, you know I love a good naughty dog, so I was more than eager to help out.  My intention was to post about her, as I still have tons of friends who do dog sports, and I felt like she was more than perfect for all of the dog sports.  Well, Tony took one look at her and fell in love.  He wanted her to join our pack and so here she is. The very next day, she got to go to the track and get lots and lots of love and attention.

We have some work to do.  She doesn't really know her name, so we may change it.  Her recall is not the best and she gets pretty amped up at seeing other dogs/some people.  She's as smart as a whip though and I have no doubt she will be easy to train.  She is tiny and cute and naughty and all the things I wanted in my next girl dog (basically a copy of stella).  I think she would make an amazing agility dog as well as a super awesome herding dog.  I want to get her around water because she also might like dock dog diving.  Tony and I are already planning some things we could do.  The future is bright with this one!

This wasn't planned and our dogs are certainly not happy, especially boom, but she is growing on them already and I think once boom lets loose, they will be fast friends.  

Change something!

Another week on the hamster wheel we call life.  Let's dive in, shall we?

I did get 4 runs in this week and one work out.  Missed Thursday's upper body session due to us getting our hair cut.  Apparently the look the middle school boys are going for these days is called alpaca chic, and I totally see it.

She literally cut off 5 lbs of hair and he still has tons.  He feels so much better now, and I love how grown up he looks.  

Also, we had another lab get together and more people in the lab came out this time.  We had such a great time listening to good live music and drinking amazing beer at Manhattan Brewing Company.  Again, it says a lot that we work all day together, and then meet post work to spend more time together.  I love my work fam!

There was some random guy taking these polaroid pictures and giving them out. I think he captured us perfectly.  

Kind of sad about this one.  Been enjoying my porch time with my new swing.   Then, as Andrew and I were out spending some porch time late Saturday night, the chair collapsed as the screw came out of the porch wood dumping him on the porch hard.  He was okay, just a little scared, and honestly it scared the crap out of me to, so we just stood and held each other.  I am going to miss my swing till we figure out a better way to anchor it to the porch.  

And I got more permanent jewelry.  Yes, I am addicted.  Yes, if I wasn't deathly afraid of needles I would be addicted to tattoos to.  Sigh.  Do what makes you happy, right?

And two things to end on.  One, we were supposed to race Sunday.  Rain was forecasted at 50 percent chance and all day.  I reached out to meteorologist for advice, and another board member did the same.  We both got similar reports of high certainty of rain, but disorganized models as to when and how much.  I wanted to wait till Sunday to make a decision on racing, but the board wanted to make a decision that night to help our out-of-town members.  I got out voted and the board decided to cancel Saturday night, and while we were totally wrong on canceling, it is what it is.  We made a mistake on our judgement, and I own up to it.  We were wrong.  People made such a big deal out of it, and it just once again made me question why I volunteer for an organization that is so hateful to its volunteers.  While several comments were made civilly and not with name calling, there were several that were, and it just hurts my heart to the core that people are just so mean these days.  The part that hurts the most though was that some of the comments came from former board members who know how hard this job can be.  Oh well, any thoughts of going up for reelection are out the window now.  I no longer want to help out with an organization that treats its volunteers this way.  Especially when the people being the meanest and the nastiest don't lift a finger EVER to help.  I know this is the way of the world now, but my heart and my skin are not made to be tough.  We were disappointed as Andrew really wanted to race his buddy Madden, but we made the best of it by making it a Manhattan day by going to a new to us brunch spot, playing yard games, and going to the local used bookstore to pick up some new to us books.  

Second, I know it isn't as simple as this meme, but it can be pretty darn close.  I chose to go back to therapy to change myself and the patterns that I had established to make things not only better for myself, but also for my friends and family.  I know not everyone can afford or has access to therapy, but if you do and you can change things and work on yourself, I highly recommend it.  It has made me a better mom, wife, and friend, and for that I am thankful.  I see so much unhappiness in this world that manifests itself in so many ways including substance abuse and victimhood and it makes me sad.  I was headed down that same path and I thank God that I was able to correct my path and go a different route.  My prayer is that others too can see that victim isn't the only status and that you can climb out of that hole and thrive.

Okay enough preaching!  Have a great week y'all!