Easter Confessional?

SO much to say this week, not sure how to begin.  How about an Easter confessional?

We are continuing to battle to save our family business.  Please pray that we can accomplish this as my hubby is hustling his ass off.  I left over a year ago to make sure income was coming in and that we could keep our house and the important things in life.  We have had major client shifts, old employees quit and new employees start, and lots of learning moments.  It was a journey I didn't want to be on anymore,  as I am not cut out for the ups and downs you encounter being a small business owner, and of course, having my income tied into the business also was very stressful.  I now have a job where I make twice as much in salary, get bonuses, and have room to move up.  While I miss the flexibility of working at our own business and still try and help occasionally when I can, I don't miss the constant stress and the roller coaster ride that is owning your own small business.  Unfortunately, I am married to the owner so I am still on this ride whether I want to be or not.  Sigh.

I am also dreading racing this year.  Not because of the drama that never ends, but because we have had some really good times traveling and doing fun weekend stuff.  I love my track friends but man, thinking about racing for the next 8 months makes me throw up in my mouth.  It's a huge time commitment that neither me nor my hubby has time for right now, but dammit, my kiddo loves it, so we will do what we have to and smile the whole way (mostly).  

I am continuing therapy and while it has been hard and we are actually delving into treatment for some unresolved trauma, I can see how much it is helping me as I have used several of my new tools in my mental tool box to deal with crap.  I have had lots of aha moments and have been able to control my anxiety in several situations and I call that a win.   

I also cried again this week as we went back to the theater to watch Back to the Future on the big screen.  Andrew got to see a real DeLorean and check that off of his bucket list.  If you remember, Andrew went through a MAJOR Back to the Future addiction and has several Lego and playmobile DeLorean's and other memorabilia.  He LOVES the movie and it brought back so much nostalgia for me.  Post the movie, we headed over to Tallgrass Tap house and had dinner on the rooftop which ended yet another magical night.  

Lastly, I am sad.  Sad and excited that Andrew is growing up so much every day.  He had made it known that he didn't believe in the Easter bunny and again, it broke my heart.   I know he has to grow up and these childish things will go away, but it's hard on my momma heart.  We went to a couple of Easter egg hunts that were part of other events, and he was too old to participate in the hunt and it really hit him hard.  I was sad to see him so sad.  We were planning on doing an Easter basket anyway, but we added an Easter egg hunt just for him.  We also post his hunt, we hid eggs for the dogs and had so much fun watching them find the eggs.  I am fine doing what keeps him happy and love that he loved it so much.  

Have a great week y'all!

Yeesh.

This week was one busy week.  Concerts, fundraisers, meetings, and OT at work.  I only got one short run in and one work out in.  Ready to get back at it next week.

My motto.  You can't take it with you when you die.  Trying to live a full life and expose my kiddo to all kinds of things and let him do the things he loves.  This week I took him to his first acapella concert and post concert, they showed Pitch Perfect, one of my guilty pleasure movies.  

Our old theater in downtown Manhattan is going to do a series of fundraisers and show "old movies" and by old movies I mean Back to the Future and Princess Bride, basically 80s stuff.  They sell dollar popcorn and beer so I am totally in.  Plus, I don't mind reliving my child hood.  We didn't have streaming everything so we saw most if not all of these movies at the theater.  

We also had the biggest fundraiser of the year for our track.  It's always a big stressful time for me because I want people to be happy and have a great experience at our track and there is only so much I can control.  We had a record 80 runs this year and a full sign up that even with people dropping out, we had enough walk ups to fill the in.  I think of all of the people we got through, only two people walked away unhappy and I will take it.  While their unhappiness did kill me (kids wouldn't fit in the cars we had there that day), the happiness of others made me so freaking happy.  We stand to gain about 5 new families just from that one event and raised probably a couple thousand dollars between drives, hats, t shirts, and concessions.  

We had yet another band concert and I was blown away by how much improvement we saw.  I honestly don't remember our 6th grade band making that much improvement in a year.  I seriously want to buy him another trumpet so I can have mine back so we can play together.  

And I will close on this.  I had some amazing beer and company this weekend. Friday I met some wrestling families downtown and watched some NCAA wrestling and then Saturday post fundraiser I went with one of my favorite track families and had beer, sandy snacks, and listened to a band.  While my cup was running a little empty, amazing friends fill it up every time and i am blessed.  

Have a great week y'all!

I need a vacation from my vacation

This week was all about rest and getting back into a routine.  Andrew still had spring break so he could sleep in, rest, and lay around in his undies. I however had no PTO left and had to get back to it.  On one hand, flying back on Monday was the best idea because I got home with plenty of time to get laundry finished and clean the house, one of my weird tics that I have always had (must clean the house before I leave and immediately when I get home).  On the other hand I really could have used one more day to get back into the swing of things at home.  Oh well.  

I did get my two work outs done this week and forgot to stop my watch both times post work out.  No I didn't work out for an hour either times and I have no clue how to edit it.  Sigh.  I need to stop talking post class.   I ran three times with a long run of 6 miles.  We had lots to do this weekend so no true long run.  

We walked in the St Pat's parade for our racing club and then had a great afternoon with friends.  Then spent the next day at the track working on Need for Speed stuff.  

We also had our first tornado of the season which was too close for comfort.  Why is spring starting so early this year?  Ah yes, thanks Global Warming!

Have a great week y'all!  Going to keep it short and simple this week as I am still recovering.  See y'all next week!

Chicago 2024

 I visited Chicago when I was in band I think in high school. I hated it honestly because we seemed to always be in rush hour traffic, sitting/waiting, and hurrying up to not do anything.  I do remember the fountain though (I think it was the married with children fountain), and the field museum.  Fast forward to my very first marathon, the Chicago marathon in 2015 and then again for my and their 40th birthday in 2017.  It truly is my favorite road marathon of all times and I would love it if someone would run with me one of these years.  I plan on going back in 4 years for my 50th birthday for sure, but might sneak in another run in between there.  Anyway, the whole time we were there both times my parents baby sat Andrew and we kept saying to ourselves, man Andrew would love this place.  From the varied museums to the boat tours and the L, we knew he would dig everything about Chi town.  I am happy to say that we were totally right.  We just got back (monday the 11th) from a long weekend of all the things we could fit in and not collapse from exhaustion.  I got a nice bonus at work, so I was able to buy our plane tickets, stay in the same hotel we stay in for the marathon that we dearly love, and do anything and everything we wanted to do.  Every day we slept in, picked our activity, bought the tickets online, and hopped on the bus or hoofed it to head over to wherever we wanted to go.  Here are the places we visited that we loved (and some to stay away from).

Our hotel: Staypineapple Chicago.

The rooms are small, but comfy and have lots of small touches that add up to a fun and comfy stay. 

Of course we had to get the stuffed dog to go with the one I brought back years ago.  

We love the staff as they are SO very friendly and welcoming.  They would always help us figure out where to go and how to get there.  It is at the corner of State and Washington so really in walking distance of most of the things you want to do.  I love the old feel of the building and the rooms and so did Andrew.  You feel like you are part of the history of the beautiful old building.  

Wendell Boat tours:  This is the tour Tony and I did years ago to keep me off of my feet but still get to see things.  I think originally we did the one hour but Andrew and I chose the 90 minute tour this time.  It was COLD!  

You can't beat these views and Andrew learned so much about the city and the architecture.  I know there are other tours out there, but we love this one, it never disappoints.  They did have hot chocolate and a lower deck you could go on to warm up and you could move around during the boat ride.  For Andrew's sake, I think the one hour tour would probably be more than enough next time.  His favorite type of building (and mine as well) art deco style.  

Field Museum:  An easy ride on the bus from our hotel to right in from the museum.  Okay, be well rested for this one. We walked over 6 miles and still didn't see it all.

We did buy special tickets for the blood sucker exhibit(totally worth it) and the undergrown exhibit(also totally worth it).

We probably got through 2/3 before we threw in the towel and cried uncle.  We mainly focused on the dinos and the mammal exhibits.  Also, the bird exhibit was surprisingly good.  I wanted to have some guided tours, but Andrew didn't want to.  I did hear the guide in the dino exhibit and I loved what he was telling the people, however,  the kidlet was not into it.  I loved the fact that he had just studied all about dinos and all of the periods of time and the mass extinction events.  Many of the creatures he wrote about in his reports we actually got to see the fossils of. I particularly loved the evolution of the horse and the fossils that went with that evolution.  Andrew LOVED the evolution of man as well and all of the skulls and figures they had to depict what that looked like.  I think it's a tie for me between Shedd and the field museum as to what was my favorite.  

Shedd Aquarium:  This was actually our first stop.  

Andrew has been to some small aquariums, but nothing like this. I  have been to Scripts in San Diego, but this one was unique and awesome in it's on little way.  The fact that the pools were able to be viewed from the top and the bottom underwater was amazing.  

Andrew and I spent a ton of time watching both the beluga whales and the dolphins.  We took in a show about the dolphins and learned so much.  I actually cried when they had the dolphins jumping up high, but I am a sap.  

We also bought extra tickets to the 4D theater and again, spend the money.  We saw two shows, both about 15ish minutes and both highly entertaining.  Plus. the 4D theater is so much fun and so interactive.  We learned about the types of penguins with one show and the other was about the mighty octopus.  I highly recommend going to the aquarium no matter what age you and your kids are.  There are things to do there for every age.  And you will spend ALL day, so get ready.  They have several animal encounters that you can see throughout the day so come early and scan the code so you can make sure you are at the right place at the right time.  We caught the penguin talk as well as the trainers working with the dolphins and whales.  They also have some very pricey things you can do behind the scenes but they were all sold out on that day, so book early.   

Museum of Illusions:  Okay this was a little treat we found right down from our hotel.  

The place isn't huge, but it is SO much fun!  They have staff everywhere that help you with the illusions if you get stuck with how to see what you should be seeing, as well as take pictures of you if you want doing the fun stunts.  

There is also of course a very cool gift shop at the end and a puzzle room where you can work tons of wooden and metal puzzles.  Andrew loved the puzzles, but I had to remind him we had to take all of whatever we bought home, so pump the breaks.  The tickets were very reasonable and while it took maybe an hour to go through, it was worth every penny.  We laughed and learned and had so much fun.  

Museum of Ice cream:  This place came highly recommended although we were warned about the cost.

Sadly to say, other than the amazing dove chocolate bar at the beginning, this place was horrible.  I hate to diss any place someone recommends, but seriously, either they were having a bad day or it was just that bad.  Let me set the scene.

First off, we were 30 minutes late.  We thought our tickets were for 6 and they were for 5.  We ran down Michigan to get there, about half a mile.  We were ushered into an onboarding area where two grown men with made up ice cream names hyped us up like this was the best place ever.  We were then ushered into a pink subway car and given dove bars.  I thought to myself, hmmm, this is going to be super amazing, stomach get ready.  That was the only ice cream we ended up eating.  There were several themed rooms that yes, were cute and fun, but maybe more geared towards younger children.  There was suppose to be ice cream in every room to try, which there wasn't, and in the rooms that did have ice cream, the flavors were gross.  

I mean hot dog flavored ice cream?  We tried it and threw it away promptly.  There was very little history of ice cream and several of the exhibits were just empty.  If you are tempted to go (tickets were 108 for both of us), maybe don't go right before closing.  It reminded me of one of those places you would just walk through and take tons of selfies.  In fact, there were several older teens, maybe younger 20 somethings that were doing just that, over and over again.  It was very frustrating because there would be a wall of stuff to look at and they would be blocking taking tons and tons of seductive photos with their ice cream cones.  Sigh.  I guess I am entering my get off my lawn phase of life because it really pissed me off.

You ended in a large bar area that had ice cream creations and mixed drinks.  The rub I had with it was NOTHING was free.  Your ticket explicitly says unlimited free ice cream and you reach the end and have to pay.  What??????????????  I was pretty tired and over it since at that point I knew that I had overpaid way too much for this experience, but the next room was a sprinkle pool and Andrew had to jump in.  The problem?  Tons and tons of adults just laying in the sprinkles making tik toks and taking selfies.  The kids really couldn't do much due to them being in the pool.  I feel like this should be a kid's only thing but again, get off my lawn.  Then of course you exit through a gift shop that admittedly had cute stuff, but at this point I was so pissed that I practically sprinted out.   DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!  

We went across the street to the Ghirardelli ice cream and chocolate store and got the best sundae EVER.  

The Bean:  Under construction.

Which I knew because I had done my research.  Andrew still loved seeing it, even if he couldn't be close to it.  

Okay there are the dos and don'ts.  I will try and do a post about food at some time but need to publish this for now since it's super late coming in.  Have a great week y'all!

  

A week of fun before a week of fun?

Look at me being all head of the game and stuff :)  Not really, just killing time between running and starting my day.  I have a ton of work at the house and at Coleman Electric and I am just procrastinating all the way around.  Shhhh....Don't tell my boss.

This has been a weird week.  From 80s to freezing cold and snow and back to 80s.  What is going on Mother Nature?  Please take your meds, please!  I have missed the cold even though I do enjoy just running in a tank and shorts.  I have recently purchased some new tanks for my work out class and I can't wait to try them out on the road.  

I also felt kind of off all week health wise.  Everyone in the lab was fighting off some sort of bug and we all have degrees of stomach issues/sniffles/sore throats/coughs.  We also had another round of Covid exposure.  Is this ever going to end?  I woke up one morning and had some stomach issues and then slept for 4 hours, missing work. I need that precious PTO since we only earn 4 hours every paycheck.  Sigh.  My next job will have sick leave AND PTO.  

I got 3 runs in this week.  Nothing really cool or special.  Just runs, when I needed them, how long I needed them.  Everyone asks what I am training for.  Nothing.  Just having a good time doing what I love and what Boom loves.  Not loving this early heat.  If I could run in 30s-40s year around, I would love it!  I will note that I did run back to back to back, something I haven't done without significant pain in a long time.  I credit this all to doing classes twice a week and am very thankful that the strength training is helping.  

We took a special trip Saturday to one of my favorite little Kansas towns, Council Grove.  They have a super cute down town area complete with coffee shops, antique stores, an amazing independent book store, and a brewery.  We remembered this time to go down a little bit earlier so we could get in the antique shops and look around.  We bought books, bought a stuffed dog that looked like a red tri aussie, and ended the night with some good beers.  Please dear lottery gods, I need to win so I can open up my own tasting room here in Wamego.  Not a bar though, a tasting room!

Have a great week y'all!  I may not be running or working out much due to our upcoming trip but I am sure we will get our steps in seeing the sights of Chicago!

Sunday we headed to Manhattan to soak up the sun and drive and hike around Tuttle looking for eagles.  Sadly, we saw none but we did spend a great day together soaking up some vitamin D.