Back to the 80s baby!

Wow, what an exciting week and weekend.  

I got three runs in this week.  Wanted four but my body had other plans.  I was just thinking wow, I haven't had an injury in forever and my body decided to remind me what that's like.  I'm still not exactly sure what has happened but during my run on Friday night, it was like a bomb went off in the bottom of my foot.  I figure it's probably my plantar facia from wearing steel toed boots every single day.  I need to get new boots and maybe some inserts and loose about 30 pounds. I digress.  I did weigh myself the other day and I am down 11 pounds BUT I really haven't changed much other than my afternoon snack has been an apple with some peanut butter.  I'm not sure adding more calories and some protein will have caused me to lose that much weight.  Plus, if anything, my clothes fit tighter, and my running leash is tighter around my gut so it must be muscle mass loss :(   After I screwed my ribs up coughing my guts up, I haven't been back to the gym even though I really enjoyed my classes.  Everything I am reading says lift heavy and cut the cardio, so I need to get back to my home gym and my bar and lift some heavy shit.  I've been eyeing the peloton app and their weightlifting classes.  Maybe that is the motivation I need to get at it.  

We had some rain and some clouds this week.  We had our first really humid day as well.  Bleh.  Humidity kills me.  I can do heat, cold, wind chill, anything but humidity.  

Mudpig is loving her puddles.  The muddier the better.  This one looks like water, but it is about 10 percent water and about 90 percent mud.  I tried to wash her off post run, but she hates water that is supposed to be on her body so there is that.  

We also did some week parts runs that allowed us to go to our old favorite haunt, Old Chicago and have some amazing pizza and some good brews that I can't get otherwise.  Had a Fruit Punch Sour from a brewery in Texas and a dry hopped IPA from Texas as well that had apricot flavors.  Tony is trying to save his workers time and him money by getting all of the parts runs done at night so his electricians can just do their work.  As long as I can go with and I get good beer, I approve :)

We also had a member's only even at the car museum.  When Tony bought a family membership to the local car museum, I thought he was nuts.  Why or how would we ever get our money back?  Whelp, this is how.   They actually acquired a Delorean that look just like the one in the movie.  If you've read my blog, you know my kid is a super 80s movie nerd and one of his all-time favorites is Back to the Future.  Last year when they showed it at the old theater downtown, he just about lost his marbles seeing a real DeLorean, but it wasn't fixed up like the one in the movie.  Still, he got to see it one in real life, and he promptly made one with Legos.  The one he is holding in his hands is a kit, but this kid has made several from scratch as well as several kits now.  When we got the invite to the reveal party, he was beside himself.   When we got there and they revealed the car, he got to not only see it but SIT in it!!!!!

That look is PURE bliss.  He is seriously in heaven!  Then the guy playing doc sat in there with him and they dialed it in to go back to 1985 :)

The details on this car were amazing and very accurate to the movie.  I can't wait to go back to it and see it again.  

Once the crowd died down, I got to sit in it too!  Growing up a family on our way to school had one and I remember driving by it all the time and just wishing I could sit it in and ride in it.  

I guess my hubby did know what he was doing when he got us a membership.  Don't tell him I said that.  

Of course I had to visit my dream car too.

AND I can't wait till their new exhibit for the Delorean is finished.  It's going to be amazing.  

We ended the week with more fun, and I just love weeks and weekends like this.  One of my coworkers from my cancer research days brought her daughter to KSU for a visit/event which gave her a whole free day to spend with me.  Tatum is one of my all-time favorite coworkers and people and it make my heart so happy to spend time with her and her younger daughter who is Andrew's age.  

Yes, I am the shrimp of the group!  

And I did a thing!  I finally downloaded the app and started working out.  Right now, I am letting it just generate my work outs but there are programs you can explore.  I chose a 30-minute time frame and did one work out for upper body and one work out for lower body. Yes, the app can be buggy, but I am loving it so far.  Looking forward to exploring all of the programs and LOVED my work out it chose for me.  You can customize it to the gym equipment you have so lots of bar work and even though it was just the bar at this point as I work my way up, I can't wait to see where I can go with this!

Have a great week y'all!  Hopefully I can walk tomorrow!

Hoppy Easter!

Not going to lie, this has been a rough week for me mentally. I had something big happen at work that did not end well.  I trusted a coworker to find out the answer for something I should have sought out myself from our boss's mouth.   I took his advice to heart and made a decision, and the information given to me was totally wrong.  This mistake could have cost me my job and even though he has made SEVERAL mistakes of equal or worse proportions, he got nothing more than a slap on the wrist, while I felt like I got in lots of lots of trouble.  I know I am harder on myself than anyone else can be and have cried most of the week and he just shrugged it off, just like he does all of his mistakes.  While I don't want anyone to lose their job ever, I wonder if we were in a different setting if he would have been given this many mulligans.  Right now, the job market is absolutely horrible for scientists with the current administration cutting funding to all of the areas of my expertise including the Level 4 federal lab and KSU cancer and food research.  It truly is a very, very sad time for scientists in our country right now and I pray it stops before a whole generation of scientists are lost.  Let's hope I can keep my job through this, as I have a big meeting this next week to discuss how to move forward from this big mistake,

On to happier things.  no racing but lots of great happenings with our little family.

Got four runs in.  Yep, you read that right.  A three, a four, a five and a three.  Who am I?  AND boom boom got out for a run, in which Ollie acted like she was dying because she had to stay home.   Tony got pretty funny video of her howling and barking and he said she threw herself on the floor and cried just like a petulant toddler.

Had a date night with Tony at Tall Grass Tap house with some good food and always amazing beer.  We both had a rough week with our jobs and are both trying to see the path forward.  Owning your own business is not for the faint of heart and it's aging him so quickly. I hate to see him constantly so stressed and so just plain sad about the goings on at work.  Every time we think we've turned a big corner, then a new freight train comes down the tracks and isn't the light at the end of the tunnel we had hoped for (80's song reference hope you get it).  We are a family of faith which means we accept God's plan for us and know he has us, but it's still really hard not to worry about the future.  

To end on a good note, the flowers in our yard have been amazing this year.  Our lilac bushes have been SO full of blooms, all three of them.  Our yard smells so amazing with all of the blooms, yet I have not seen one single bee.  My one tulip that I actually planted bloomed, so score!  If you follow me you know our town is known for their tulips and while I planted a few in our yard years ago, it seems that only one at a time likes to give us a flower.  We missed the Tulip festival in the park this year, but we did catch some of the tulips before they died.

Wish I could have some actually bloom in my yard!  We did end the week with Easter celebrations.  While we don't go to a brick-and-mortar church, we do worship and do believe in the resurrection. We never cook a big meal but opt to go out and find good food.

  

This year we had a few options to choose from and we decided on Full Circle down in Aggieville.  It was very crowded, but the brunch was amazing, and we will be back this summer when all of the students leave.  We ended the day at Varsity donuts and a walk around Aggieville.

If you know, you know.  Have a great week y'all!!!!  It's got to get better right?  Let's say a little prayer!

  

 

UP UP and AWAY!

Nothing like a behind yet again post right?  Two runs and a double race weekend.  

This sums up our Saturday.  I thought we were done for the season.  Andrew is a big kid, and that is causing issues with the cars doing what we call biking.  It's basically when the car comes up on two wheels and it's scary to watch and impossible to drive. Here is a picture our track photographer took of what biking looks like.  

I knew on that day it wasn't if, it was when he would flip.  The guys did everything they could to try and fix the cars with what they had at the track, but the last car in the last race took flight and went over.  Andrew thankfully just walked away with a bruise.  Why he loves doing this some days is beyond me.  

We've also come full circle with baby's first car.  SO cool for all of these pictures to come up on my Facebook memoires in time to see Andrew back in and definitely seeing over the steering wheel this time.

I have to say a huge thank you to so many TKQMA dads from this weekend.  They gave Tony advice, help, and anything else they could to try and get Andrew on the track safely.  At one point we had three former TKQMA dads helping.  They've all moved their kids to dirt, but they still love our club and my kiddo.  God bless them.  While we didn't get the results we wanted at all, we learned a lot and this season is going to be about learning these new to us cars.  I hope we get another season with them, but I'm not holding my breath.  He is a big kid, really big for 12 years old and that isn't good for these tiny cars.  

These three have grown SO much in the last couple of years.  Hard to believe it might be the last year for some of these kiddos.  

Pushing heavy animal cars will wear some dads out.

Didn't get podium pictures from Saturday due to him being hurt, but here is Sunday.  I'll take last and safe any day of the week.  

We did get a fourth in heavy 160 in the feature.  SO proud of him for driving his butt off.  He was in third for most of the race, but the 4th place driver had speed.  He got stuck behind lap traffic and waited too long to get around them and Blake didn't hesitate.  This class is going to be a fun one this year. 

So proud of him for getting back out there and driving his white car even though he was pretty scared.  I would be too and it's cool to see grit in the ginger racer.  Also, we need to get some meat on Dash's bones because he shrunk.  The boys tower over him.  

Have a great week y'all!  I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend of no racing!

#mudpig Doesn't Care

 Let's start with the good stuff, shall we because it's been a pretty darn good week? 

 

Andrew got an early birthday present this year.  The band director had suggested he was ready to move to a new trumpet from the one that I had had from when I was in junior high and high school.  His band director had scheduled a day for the kiddos to play new to them instruments and then a night when they could come in and purchase the instruments they tried.  Andrew fell in love with the beautiful silver Eastman trumpet and wanted it the day he tried it, but they had to let other kiddos try it first.  

When I heard him play it and I also played it, I knew we had to have it!  SO now I have birthday done and I get my old trumpet back.  I even got a new mouthpiece for my old trumpet for me to use.  

I also got three runs in this week!  This is my kind of weather for sure.  Cool and cloudy, no humidity, and little to no sun during the day!  She's still a nutcase and we had the unfortunate experience of the soccer games letting out when we were coming back to town, which equaled a ton of cars which promptly sent her over the edge.  We also had a car full of teenage girls that came roaring up behind us on the gravel when we were running north and straight into the wind. I couldn't hear a thing and couldn't prepare for her lunging, so I was completely caught off guard and almost pulled off my feet.  That would not have been fun to hit the deck on full gravel.  I know the kid's parents, so am debating on whether or not to talk with them and tell them I have a super reactive dog so if she could slow down when she comes up behind me, that would be great.  Or should I just let it go?  Thoughts?  What would you do?

We also had an experience with a loose dog this week and Ollie was NOT having it.  The dog came running up from the trailer park we pass and while it didn't have hackles up, it was running with a purpose.  I yelled LOUDLY GO BACK HOME which triggered a frantic homeowner to come running.  Now every time we pass that area, Ollie instantly goes into reactive mode.  Great.  Yet another thing for her to react to.   

We also had lots of puddles thanks to the rain, and she was a very happy mudpig.  We did get a six miler in, but without the puddles, I am not sure she could have made it that far.  Sigh.  Just not making much progress with her reactivity and it's going to kill me this summer to not have any dog run with me.  

We did get one practice in with one car this weekend due to it being very cold and windy.  I'm just going to put this back in the universe, I think I am going to get back on the board.  Yes, I said it.  This is ONLY if this one person would like to step down and it is totally their decision, but I know how busy they are, and I know that they might like an out.  I am working just as hard if not harder right now than when I was on the board previously, and it would only be for the rest of this board year.  It's not a position I've even done, so there will be a learning curve.  Stay tuned!

And last but not least, missing my babies that have passed so much this week.  We lost Harley several years ago this week and of course still missing Stella and Deuce so very much.  Lots of pictures came up on my timeline and I would love to share them here.  We never have them long enough.

Have a great week y'all!