Merry Christmas 2024 and Flu A WHY?

Holidays in the middle of the week are so weird, am I right?  I'm typing this paragraph on Christmas morning, trying to stay alive and upright thanks to this crud I caught, and I have no clue what day it even is.  I had visions of getting so much running and stuff done over the break and now I may be lucky if I can get out of bed and shower.  Oddly enough, I have been able to sleep thus far.  Let's hope that this trend keeps going.  

Little red had an amazing Christmas thanks to my hubby. The presents I ordered him got hung up and limbo and I pray we get them period at some point, please, please, please.    Every year I say that I am going to get everything up and going and ready earlier and every year I fail.  Maybe next year??  Just glad we got the tree up a few days before Christmas and while it's just lights this year, I am going to enjoy it for a few weeks before we haul it to be recycled for wood chips in the park down the street.  

As the week went on it was apparent that the crud I had was not good.  I went to my doctor Friday and got swabbed for Flu and Covid (even though my Covid home test was negative).  I was positive for Flu A and was told OTC cough meds, decongestants, and fever reducers were my best bet.  They also gave us some Tamiflu for the whole family, but I didn't take it because technically I was out of the window of it working, and the family wanted to hold it for if they got sick.  As of typing this on Sunday, so far knock on a huge piece of wood, I'm the only one still sick.  I've never had fevers this high in my life and it zapped me for everything I was worth.  Again, for several days I had no issues sleeping and then bam, no sleeping, all coughing and snot.  Plus, the congestion also set up camp in my sinuses which really didn't allow me to breath.  I can do a lot of things but live on no sleep is not one of those things, so the next night, my hubby brought my hammock chair upstairs to the bedroom to see if that would help me sleep since I was sleeping sitting up in the bed.  He also was very gracious in keeping the dogs downstairs so that maybe I could sleep better without them coming and going and being idiots.

For the first few days of me being sick, when I was so incapacitated and could only be in the bed or on the couch, they were so good.  They would lay in my lap and both girls had to be touching me.  I thought oh, how sweet.  Then they got sick of me not being active and all bets were off.  

  

I was very lucky that towards the end of the week, the weather was much better and actually pretty mild and I was able to spend a lot of time wrapped up in my hammock chair enjoying some vitamin D.  To be continued?

A work trip...that may or may not have killed me

Oh hi, good morning!  Writing to you from super cold and snowy Wisconsin.  I am on a work trip, and I can't really discuss what we are doing and why, but I feel like I'm back in grad school and I'm too old for this shit LOL!

We have an Airbnb and it's amazing to wake up every morning looking out on a frozen lake.  Yesterday there were ice fishers out on the lake, and we got to watch them through the snowflakes heading out to set up their huts and fish.  It truly is beautiful up here and while I enjoy the brief visit, not sure I would want to live in a winter wonderland.  

We've done nothing but eaten, drank, done science, and tried to exist all while staying in our PJs (unless we were on the farm).  I feel like I am back in grad school and also am supremely feeling like I am in my late 40s.  

I'm not going to lie; we have to do this trip again 3 more times and I am not looking forward to the 10-hour drive x 2 or the sleeplessness.  We have a better plan moving forward that will help a little, but it's still just hard because of the nature of it.  

Of course, no running happened thanks to time and the nature of the experiment but hoping to do some while I am off.  Maybe in January but I am not holding my breath.  

Have a great week y'all!  Ready to be back with my family :)

Eating my way through

 

Me right now.  Sigh.  I have gained so much weight and it's all my fault.  My eating habits are off the rail, and I just don't care to rein them in.  Add in that I have had very little time to work out and very little motivation to get up early and get runs done and that equals disaster.  I weighed this much when I was 9 months pregnant with Andrew. I'm sad, I'm mad at myself for letting my body get to this point, but also, I am very lowly motivated to do anything about it.  It's a weird feeling to look at your body with pure disgust yet shove something in your mouth anyway.  I have been a small/medium for most of my life and now I am at best a large/XL.  

I am super behind on getting this post out so here goes nothing.  Andrew wrested JV for the league championship and came away with 2 wins, one by pin, and a second place.  That's the best he's ever done and I am so freaking proud of him.  The varsity team won the tournament and the championship.  I have to say that wrestling is probably my most favorite sport of the sports he plays.

He has a lot of potential and I can only see improvement from here on out.  He is finally gaining confidence (much like racing) and it's super cool to watch.  I think this year has been so much better because a) practice is right after school and he still has meds in his system to be able to focus and b) he's hitting puberty, so we've got some hormones hitting our system finally.  We still have a long way to go and will be doing some kid's club practices and maybe 2 or 3 tournaments to end our season.  This team, if we can keep it together, has a bright future ahead of them.  

I did get three runs in this week but no real long run to speak of. I am traveling all next week with a very limited amount of space to put things, so probably won't run at all.  

Mudpig is still enjoying the puddles.  

We ended the week at 785 Brewing Company at the gingerbread house.  We thoroughly enjoyed the different menu, the decorations, and the company.  I had the Christmas ESB, a coconut ale, and the newest IPA.  The boys made smores and played pickleball.  We still don't have a tree up so it was fun to see all of the decorations.  My goal this year was to get the tree up early and we've just not had the time to get it up period.  Oh well, there is always next year, right?

Have a wonderful week!  I'm traveling to Wisconsin from work!

More wrestling and more wrestling

It was a week of wrestling and beer.  Not going to lie, only one day of running and we have one more week of chaos before maybe I can get back to some sort of rhythm of working out.

We had a dual and a tournament this week.  Andrew lost every single match BUT I saw good things in all of his matches.  We have one more tournament for the league championship and Andrew will get to wrestle junior varsity again.  I'm excited because these boys have worked their butts off this season, and I am ready to see them celebrate their hard work.  

All I ever ask is that he tries, and he is trying his little butt off.  Even though he's been wrestling since he was 4, he still lacks a lot of technique and knowledge and that is what is getting him right now.  Years of not being medicated as well as coaches basically giving up on him is really hurting him right now.  To the coaches that never gave up, I thank you.  To the coaches that did, I get it, he was and probably still is hard to coach due to his lack of confidence.  I still see lots of potential in there and this year we got the aggression so we will continue wrestling into the future.

  

It was also a weekend of trying some great beers.  High Wind Brewing Company is in Junction city where our tournament was located on Saturday, and it was right down the road from the high school. I had a very nice porter and tried three sours, a watermelon, a strawberry/pineapple, and a blueberry/lemon.  All were very good.  While we aren't in JC very much, if we are, we will always stop!  They had really good food too with two restaurants inside the brewery both making different faire.  I had a beef stroganoff bowl while the boys had some pizza and all was very good.  Later we stopped by our local homebrewer for some peanut butter stout and a Wildberry sour.  All very good!

 

We ended the weekend of wrestling with our home club wrestling tournament in which our boys couldn't wrestle because they were in season.  Sigh.  That's okay because they all pitched in and helped, and it was amazing. I vote for early season again next year :) Andrew has some amazing teammates that love to help, and my awards table was fully stocked with kiddos.  

Then this happened.  If you haven't watched Somebody Somewhere, please do so now.  I love this show with all of my heart and can't believe it's being cancelled.  The main character Sam is from Manhattan originally, so it is based on Manhattan KS.  I always like to watch to see if my car made it into any of the shots!  We laughed, we cried, we met Joel her gay bestie, and we cried some more.  As a middle-aged woman going through some of the things she deals with in the show, it hits home hard.  Friendships are hard, family is hard, worrying about aging parents is hard.  Surrounding yourself with the best people and holding on to them is what gets you through and that is what Sam does in the show and what I do in real life.   It truly is an amazing watch and it's only 3 seasons, thanks to HBO :( 

Another busy week before I head to Wisconsin for a long research trip right before Christmas! Pray we don't get stuck!

Happy Thanksgiving 2024

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!  We had a wonderful day filled with amazing food and good relaxing family time.  We watched the Macy's thanksgiving parade and ate cinnamon rolls and ran our little turkey trot.  Tony cooked all day, and I cleaned behind him and we had an amazing meal as always.  Quite a difference from a year ago when he was just getting off of having brain surgery.  So much to be thankful for!  Our town went ahead and lit up our park for Christmas early and I am HERE.FOR.IT.

Four-day weekends are the best!  We lived it up with the season of lights in Wamego on Saturday night with some yummy boozy coffee at our favorite local coffee shop the Brew.  I got lots of sleep and had several days of letting the dogs out to potty, feeding them, and then going right back to bed.  I earned another sleep badge on Garmin for my efforts :) I needed some rest before the sprint begins to finish up the school year/work year/big research projects in Wisconsin start.  

I got three runs in with mud pig but no long runs as I seriously just enjoyed my family and our time together this holiday break.  She was not happy that her puddles had been replaced with ice.  She got to see her first snow as we got hit with a little snowstorm on Saturday and she LOVED it.  Grammy got her some sweaters for running as well so she can stay warm on our runs.  She doesn't seem to be bothered by the cold and will stay out till her little feet hurt and she has to come back in and warm them up.  

We also got to see Wicked on the big screen in 3-D.  If you are on the fence about going RUN!  It's amazing and I only cried twice.  I love the actors that are playing the two main leads as they are perfect for the parts.  

There are some things brewing that are bothering me, but I am trying to stay in a season of thankfulness and not delve into those things yet.  I am thankful that Andrew had an amazing year of racing and we saw lots of firsts for him. I am thankful that he made it through football and is having an amazing time at wrestling. I am thankful that even though 7th grade is hard and he had a rough start at it, he is now sitting at As in every class but math, and that is a super high B.  I am thankful for my husband's health and that even though he is swimming in debt with his business, he's keeping his head above water, completing big jobs, and getting through some super tough work stuff.  I am thankful that both of us got our anxiety under control for now and are living life with it side by side.  SO much to be thankful for and that's a fact.  

Have a great week y'all!  

Happy Birthday to me

Every year i feel differently about my birthday.  Sometimes I just want to forget it's happening.  Some years I want to celebrate and have fun.  This year I just wanted to celebrate with my family and have a fun night.  When I saw that SnowGlobe was opening up at 785 Brewing company a few days before my birthday, I knew we had to go.  Christmas is one of my most favorite holidays since having Andrew and I love these Christmas pop ups.  I've been trying not to play Christmas music and go wild, but the urge is taking over!  

We had so much fun at Snowglobe!  Yes, it looked like Christmas threw up in there, but it was magical and wonderful, and we loved it.  Seeing Andrew have a big smile on his face all night made my day the best.   Back up. Started the day out with roses delivered to my work by one of my good friends Ali that came from my hubby.  We had a big joke at work because the card wasn't signed and we laughed and said it was an admirer.  

One of my coworkers bought me some awesome gifts including a lab themed coloring book, a glass that was all about beer, and a beautiful bracelet.   She knows me well!

Tony had me a gift and some chocolate at home and funny thing, I came down wearing the sweatshirt he had just bought me that I still hadn't opened!  Luckily Tony bought it locally, so I was able to quickly return it and get another equally as cute shirt.  

Back to Snowglobe.  Andrew got a really good kid's drink called the Grinch.  It was 5 bucks a pop but again, seeing a giant smile on his face made it ALL worth it!  That's the fun and the rub with these Christmas pop ups.  They are so much fun but boy are they expensive.  Again, totally worth it to see the smile on my kid's face.  Best birthday present EVER! 

Tony had the peppermint shot and I had three amazing beers including a Chai beer, a spiced ESB, and a dark amber Mexican lager.  

I have always loved their food and while they had some themed food, I stuck to what I knew, the Alabama white sauce chicken wings.  I can't wait to go back as they have three areas of the restaurant that all has different menus.  We found out about the different rooms when they passed by with a smore's plate and we couldn't order one because we weren't in the gingerbread house LOL!  I hope we get to go back and try the gingerbread house as the menu looked really, really good and different.  

This week wasn't just about my birthday, it was also about Andrew's first Junior High PIN!  Andrew has been such a different kid this year in wrestling and while we still have a long way to go, I am loving what I am seeing.  He still isn't wrestling varsity yet, but that is okay.  I think next year will be his year!  Our team had 3 duals all in one night, and we won all three very convincingly.  We have a very complete and competitive team from top to bottom.  It is SO fun to watch them and cheer them on.  We've been together since they were all 4 and 5 and it's fun to see them continue on their journey from kid's club to school.  I am praying for an NCKL title this year, as we have been so close in previous years!  I love that Roger got numerous pictures including one of us grinning from ear to ear.  

I'm just so happy that my kiddo who has worked hard for years in sports and his activities is finally seeing his hard work pay off.  I've been telling him it's coming, and I believed it and now he is believing it.  It's a cool thing to see.  

I did manage 3 runs this week and it felt really good, even if they were all back-to-back.  Doing lower milage allows me to do that though.  I did manage one run with both of them and while the pretty much acted stupid and pulled me the entire time, I was glad to get boom out.  Come snow and ice time, I won't be able to take ollie for sure since she pulls.  We need to get as much running now as we can.  I did do a video on my blog page on FB talking about my favorite things so you can hit those black Friday sales.  

Have a great week y'all!

Go Ginger Racer GO!

No work out classes and only two runs this week, but one long run with both dogs.  I did have a better frame of mind but still have lots of questions like how and why.  I also feel like I have entered a season of rest.   It's weird to go from someone who never sat still to someone who loves the stillness.  I've been really loving a cup of coffee, a warm fuzzy blanket, and sweatpants lately.  I guess we all have seasons of life that we cling to at certain times.  I'm clinging hard to family, slowing down, and no guilt, even if it means a little weight gain. 

 

We had another dual this week and Andrew went 0-2. I am fine with it because he tried to take shots on both kids and while it almost worked out both times, he was too slow, and the other kid capitalized.  Again, don't care about the W or the L as long as he is trying, and I'm seeing lots of try.  I'm excited to see some success this year even if it's small.  I know i sound like a broken record but I am all about trying your hardest, whatever that might look like.

We had our end of year banquet for our track club over in Lawrence.  Last year we tried having it at a hotel so that families could just stay the night, and their kids could have fun swimming and dancing the night away.  It's a considerable cost to the club BUT this is about the kids, so their fun is what is most important.    I am so lucky that our neighbor could take care of the dogs for one night and morning so we could get away.  Just as a short synopsis, we run 15 races, take the best 10 and use that for final points tallies.  The kids get giant cool trophies for points and if they flip, they get flip awards.  We usually have bags to hand out that have candy and goodies, raffles for cool gas tanks, and shirts/sweatshirts.  The food is always good and the Dj plays fun dance to songs.  Andrew had locked into a 2nd place for Heavy Honda and a third place for Heavy 160 by 13 points to his good buddy and teammate Noah.  

The most special part of the whole night was the award Andrew received next.  The club had a period of time to nominate both a volunteer that they thought should win an award as well as the most improved driver.  The most improved driver award is named after Jerry Renchler, our beloved board member we lost last year suddenly.  If you've read any of my blogs you know what he meant to me.  If you haven't read them briefly, he was a mentor and a wonderful friend.  I could always count on him to be there for me and my family.  He was one of the first ones to come visit Tony in the hospital with his wife along with Lindsey and Kerry.  He loved our club and helped build our current track.  He worked tirelessly to make our club a safe and fun place for our kids to drive at.  When he passed unexpectedly, we knew as a board we wanted to do something for he and his family that would last a lifetime.  Brian our president came up with a great way to honor him by having a plaque in the tower with each recipient's name on it as well as letting them have a trophy to take home.  

Since I am on the board, I knew weeks ago he was nominated and that the board unanimously voted him as most improved.  I recused myself since he was my child, and I didn't want anyone to claim favoritism.  I had to keep a big secret and boy was it hard!  Andrew had somehow seen the plaque out and saw his name, but didn't' see the title of the award.  He was so surprised when his name got called and his buddy Shake and Bake got to hand him the award!  I didn't want to seem obvious about him getting the award, so I didn't get any pictures of him from the front :( I am hoping someone did, but no one has come forth yet with them.  

We had a ton of fun dancing the night away and watching football with some yummy beers.  They had all boulevard beers on tap including one of my favorites, nutcracker ale.  I never felt drunk but had some great conversations with lots of people that was truly genuine.  I love that for the most part, most of the people in the club have set their differences aside for the kids and are embracing a great family atmosphere.    

I will end on this thought.  We've had an amazing year of growth.  I hope it continues next year because let's all be honest, podiums are fun and trophies are fun!  We currently have four cars that if he can fit, we can drive.  We will probably just do 3 for cost sake.  We are going to have quite the heavy 160 class next year as we have several moving up to heavy.  We also will add some to heavy Honda and are going to bring back the unrestricted animal class.  We are hoping and praying the clash happens again as we really enjoyed traveling to the various tracks in our region.  We have heard there might be a series with Tulsa and now that Andrew loves that track as well, we are there for that!  NASCAR youth is going to have a race at our track as well so we will dip our toes into the national circuit so wish us luck.  Onward ginger racer!

Have a great week y'all!