What else is going on

Since the surgery, I had to take plenty of time for recovery. It wasn't easy for me to not do anything; I don't deal well with idle hands. No training and don't lift anything heavier than 10 lbs really meant I was making a lot of dick jokes.

We had already planned on hosting a party for the 4th of July. The city of Raleigh moved the fireworks back to the State Fairgrounds this year, which is practically in our backyard. So we have a bunch of friends over, fill up one of my boats with beer and let what happens happen.

I hung an extra string of lights before the surgery

The little boat has kids drinks

That's proper

Good times with EG at the party

Only strange thing about the party was that it rained on us twice. After the first time, Kelley said if it rained again we were done with 4th of July parties. It rained again, so I guess this will be the last one. It was a blast, we had about 20 people over including a bunch of kids.

After that I had a birthday. 43 doesn't suck that much worse than 42 did, so far. I got a "rad dad" shirt

And the kids went back to school! When I started the blog right around 10 years ago, they were barely walking. Now they are starting 6th and 8th grade, and the last year we'll have to drive them both to the same school.

my middle schoolers

Next, I got a new tattoo! This one hurt like you wouldn't believe. Almost my most painful tattoo. I wanted it to look like something was buried under my cherry tree. I've had this "skull and rose on the ribs" idea for a long time, so I felt comfortable getting it done now so that I could let it heal while recovering from the surgery instead of running all the time or something.  It turned out really good, I think. The artist was slick and had a tender touch.

in the shop

My mom came for a quick visit while there was a quilting convention in town. This was her second trip to Raleigh this year, and we're always appreciative of the time we have together

Mom loved the patio

Kelley and I have really enjoyed it this summer

The kids have a great sense of humor with these things

Okra, beans, squash and zucchini!

The okra is taller than Kelley!

Finally the garden is really kicking this year. We've been getting more okra, squash, and zucchini than we can handle. Considering most years we don't get much of anything out of the garden this is really fun.

We've been having a great summer!

Weekend Happy Fun Times

There is a lot going on this weekend! It has been really hot here in Raleigh. Like into the 90's hot already, and it is still April. This summer is going to be miserable again if this keeps up. Yesterday I swear it was 91* in the afternoon heat, and today only got up to 53* and felt amazing (but it rained all day). Here's what's going on this weekend:

1. My awesome brother Michael is playing in a HUGE festival in Charleston. The headliners are The Avett Brothers, Jump Little Children, Nathaniel Rateliff, and Dawes. There's about 15 bands, he's playing in his own band (Slow Runner) and on keys for another band.
2. The Swim Around Lido Key is going on just south of Sarasota, Florida. 7 miles in clear gulf waters. KC and some other RAM teammates did this one, it's the US Masters Open Water Championship. Looked like an amazing time.
3. Last year I chose to knock Delaware from the 50 state list by doing the Trap Pond 50k, which happened this morning. My choice for this weekend was to do the race. My last state was Alabama last February, so it's been over a year and I was ready to get back out there.

Of course, my right foot is still busted. Can't run a step. Needless to say that between choosing running of those 3 options, not being able to run, then having that heat kick it I was a bit depressed this weekend. The cooler temps today really helped, and my boat is really coming along nicely.

In fact, all I could do was volunteer this year at the Umstead 100. It's always one of my favorite days of the year and I had several friends lined up for my pacing services. I had to turn them all down at the last minute, but I did get to volunteer at aide station #2.

Umstead was hot and angry that day, like an old man trying to send back soup

Tammy Massie! My ultra bestie

Brian! Cledawg finished in 21 hours

Tammy finished her 10th Umstead 100, getting her 1000 mile buckle. It was an amazing time and I wish more than anything else that I could have been out there running trails with her after dark.

The next weekend, I got to go to The Masters golf tournament again down in Augusta Ga. I took my friend Taylor from church, and we had an incredible time. He had never been to Augusta National before. The weather was cool but I ended up getting sunburned anyway. We were just in Augusta for the day on Friday, and spent a couple of nights at my parents house too. Taylor is a real craft beer aficianado and I'm also quite beer-friendly so we had a blast.

ready for some live golf!

After a hot day watching assholes hit a ball with sticks - I got a new hat

The next weekend was Easter, and we had a major production going at church. Easter music is my favorite, and if Umstead 100 day is one of my favorite days of the year, then Easter is also one of my favorite holidays. [other favorite days are the first day of the college football season, any marathon day, and usually thanksgiving day]

Easter family portrait in front of the flowered cross

The garden! I planted tomatoes and peppers from Mom

I came home from the Masters trip with plenty of tomatoes and bell pepper plants that Mom had started from seed, and had previously prepped the soil in the raised beds for a garden this year. Now is the time to plant, so I got those in the ground after church & brunch stuff. We actually got to give the Masters tickets to Kelley's dad for Thursday of the tournament, then Taylor and I went on Friday. Taylor came back with some plants as well for his garden.

That brings us back to this weekend. Umstead 100, Masters, Easter, Trap Pond 50k, then next weekend we have something special planned to wrap up the month. What was supposed to be 3 full marathons in March and 2 50k's in April has now become just the one half marathon. What's come out of my busted foot has been a lot of fun. Maybe not as much fun as actually being able to run around all of these other activities, but fun nonetheless.

After we got that much of the garden planted, Kelley's mom wanted to put some other plants in to fill out the beds a bit so we went to the farmers market. I got a ghost pepper and a carolina reaper, the ladies all got something else that they wanted (namely cucumbers and okra) and the garden filled up. Also you'll notice the muscadine vines are fully leafed out and looking great this year behind those beds. And since I have been leaving the boat pictures and progress on my other blog, I'll wrap up with finished garden and boat-in-progress pictures.

Just the sides! It looks like a boat now

Plant haul from the farmers market - $19

Got the bottom on the boat

Happy boatbuilders

All the plants are in the ground

Bigun Up!

Ella may be having the best month ever. I'm going to go ahead and photo dump it now before all of the Halloween stuff gets in the way. Evil Genius insisted on getting in on the action too.

Carrots from the garden. I like the cape and the puffy shirt

She was excited about growing carrots in the garden this year. We ended up with a pitiful garden this year. I never got any plants from Mom so all we planted was seeds. We planted some beans that came up pretty good, but once it got really hot they stopped producing. It looked like our muscadine crop was going to be huge, but the birds ended up getting them all before they got ripe. So these tiny carrots really are the best produce.

a milk mustache?

In gymnastics, on the high balance beam!

She insisted I take this one while shopping.

She is loving gymnastics, but it's starting to get into some of the harder stuff now. Actually growing in her sport is really fun for me to watch. Fears are overcome, confidence is being built! That's what it's all about.

Ella is the Cheshire Cat

EG is a Greek Goddess

they are having too much fun

At Trunk or Treat at the church!

Ella lost a tooth in a sticky piece of candy!

Of course the Cheshire Cat smile glows in the dark

Ok, I know I said no Halloween stuff yet. But it's already started! Kelley worked like a mad woman to finish off those costumes. We may put on another coat of the glow in the dark paint for the cat smile, but they turned out amazing. My mom made Lena's Goddess costume and Kelley came up with the gold parts. My part of making their costumes consisted solely of wearing Ella's shirt so it would be stretched tight enough to add the duct tape stripes. I am still totally in awe of the creative execution it takes to pull these things together every year.

Trunk or Treat is an annual event that our church puts on, where cars put out a theme with candy. It attracts a lot of the local community and the members dress up, so it's always a ton of fun. It was great to see so many kids dressed up!

Ruby

Quite the fuzzy rabbit. I'm sure she'll be delish in a stew or something.

 Ruby is the newest addition to our household. It's a Red Something (bolt, i want to say?) rabbit. They bought Ruby while at the State Fair. This was a bit of an impulse purchase, I certainly didn't agree to it beforehand. But I guess there could be worse options. as long as it doesn't chew stuff, it is kind of cute.

Ella's swimming!

On a team! It's her first team swim practice!

Nailed it

This is the really cool part. After the Olympics this year EG wanted to start gymnastics, and she was able to go ahead and get into a class. Bigun had to wait until Monday to start her olympic dreams, but now she is finally swimming on the Pullen Pirates kids swim team! It was her first team practice ever.

I am absolutely thrilled about this. She loved it. They did about half a mile in 45 minutes including drills on all 4 strokes and worked the turns a bit at the end. Coach wants them to start showing up 15 minutes early for some dryland and stretching before hitting the water next week. She looked really comfortable in the water, and I've never seen her move like that. She wasn't the fastest kid out there, but wasn't the slowest either. And she had fun.

As a parent, seeing your kid get into something that you are into is an amazing feeling. I've been swimming on a Masters team for 5 years now and absolutely love it. I get in the water as often as possible every week and race open water swimming events all summer long from 1 mile to a 12 miler last year. Watching the next generation enjoy picking up the torch is absolutely amazing. Ella is pretty adventurous too, I might even be able to get her into an open water event next summer. For now, she's got practice on a regular basis and a couple of meets coming up. I AM SO EXCITED!!

Wordless Wednesday - Cute kid pictures

I have a backlog of cute kid pics from April. Enjoy.

Picture day at school

Evil Genius got her artwork hung in the mall!

Ella and I cruising with the top down

We were stopped at a red light

EG watering the garden after planting

The muscadines are leafed out and the Rhoda's are in bloom! must be spring in NC

We got the garden planted - only direct seeds this year since I didn't have the chance to get any plants from Mom. We finished at sunset, so that picture of EG watering in the seeds is not a filter; it was just that dark in the front yard. I still think it's a cool shot.

The kids are getting so big! the school year is about to wrap up. Kelley and I are more excited about it than the kids are. They are ready to track out, but nervous about starting the new grades in a few months.

Got a bathroom remodel update to publish soon and a fantastic Mother's day report to come soon!

Wednesday Pics

My girls on the last day of school. They are done with 4th and 2nd grade!

had a pool gathering with Ella's Indian Princess tribe

and Ella conquered the big slide!

pizza was had by all

Me and my Evil Genius

chillin by the pool

My garden is pretty pitiful this year, but I do have cucumbers!

This was actually July 1st, but the first harvest was 3 tiny grape tomatoes