this is just a courtesy post to let you know i am still alive. let's just say i've been very billable so far this summer.

couple of funny stories.

*i was at little j's baseball game and the little girl sitting next to me was bored so she asked her grandma if she could comb grandma's hair. i watched her take a little black fine toothed comb and roll it over and over on top of grandma's head. the comb was totally tangled up and stuck. i volunteered to help and it took me exactly one hour to get the comb out. poor grandma.

*i can't remember the last day the kids took showers. they have swim lessons every night and have been wet multiple times most days, but still. put that one in the bad mommy column.

*if it wasn't for multi-tasking, i'm not sure how we would survive. yesterday i caught myself folding laundry while cooking spaghetti while talking on the phone and quietly directing the kids to set the table and get ready for swimming lessons. we are lucky we did not end up with socks on our plates and nicely folded spaghetti. big j did end up wearing backwards swim trunks, but he tells me it's fine since he doesn't care about fashion.

*the husband asked me to make him an almond and ice cream milkshake the other night. i reached into the nut bag in the cupboard and dumped a big handful of pistachios in his milkshake. with the shells on.

*he ate it anyway.

*and that's just the way we roll.

i am beginning to see that summer fun in our world can be measured in the number of towels i wash. yesterday i think i washed 837 of them. seriously.

we have pool towels, lake towels, trampoline towels, workout towels, shower towels, dog towels, feet towels, sit-on-the-car-seat-with-wet-butt towels. if you go to the back of our house, you will see towels hanging to dry across the deck during the sunny afternoons. a boat came by the other day and the lady said "birthday party?" i said "nope. just another day at my house."

anyway...beyond that i do have a few things to tell you:

*i ran the explorer out of gas yesterday, thinking i could just make it to the gas station on my way to workout class. i didn't. i did have to run all the way home again, listening to the voice inside my head making fun of me. sigh.

*speaking of running, i entered a 5K on friday night at the last minute, literally. had my best time ever so maybe last minute is the way to go. i did want to puke at one point though. still not sure why running appeals to me. it's a mystery.

*the boys can't remember what day it is. one of them thought it was thursday, the other one had no clue. that, my friends, is the sign of a good summer.

*i recently gave up mountain dew (again) and replaced it with rock star. plenty of caffeine but no sugar or calories. discussion?

*the boys asked for pancakes for breakfast and it is now 10:53. i guess we are having pancakes for lunch. if i make enough of them, maybe we can have pancakes for dinner :)

*i seriously hate cooking. have i ever mentioned that?

so we were on vacation and these are a few of the things we did. we spent time with friends and on a paddle boat...



we rode some horses on a dude ranch run by the husband's high school football coach...


nice horsey...


we also went to the big scheels up in fargo the weekend before our actual vacation, and guess what they had there besides TONS of great stuff? yep. a ferris wheel you can ride!



this is the crew from mitchell that attended planet hockey camp for the week. they had a great time and learned a ton. the planet hockey staff was awesome. the dude in the back was one of the coaches. too bad we didn't get a picture of "hot coach" dubbed by my friend shawna. :) i personally didn't notice. he he.

you won't be hearing from me for about a week, not that it's anything new. we are taking off this morning for fargo for a hockey tournament and then on sunday we turn around and head for rapid city for a week. we will be doing some hockey camp, some playing and hopefully lots of relaxing. we're taking an extra boy with us and meeting friends out there so it should be fun. besides that, i will give you a small recap of life here at the jboy house:

*i made an emergency trip to my old hairdresser in sioux falls last night. i have been cheating on her for the sake of convenience and had Beatles bangs and folk singer layers to show for it. see? THAT's what happens when you cheat on your hairdresser. don't do it.

*i have no idea how to pack for a week of sweltering/freezing/raining/tornado/humid/windy south dakota weather. it's a good thing they have a scheels out there. i may be needing a few things.

*remember that half marathon i have been training like a dog to run? i got up to 9 miles in my training and it all fell apart last week. i won't get into details, but let's just say it wasn't in the cards. too bad things couldn't have fallen apart at about mile 5 or 6 in my training. it's hard to give it all up when you're so close.

*my pal deann can't run it either (one of the falling apart issues). her house is in danger of flooding thanks to all this crazy missouri river insanity. we are praying for her and her family. i told her if she has nowhere to go next week, to come here and stay. maybe she can fix the doorknob in the garage that has been falling off since last november.

*crosby dog is staying at copper penny kennels while we are gone. sigh. we can't take her this time and i don't want to ask family to take her on for a week...she ate a rug and had a little trouble on the backside last time we did that. i hope the kennel man is nice and that all the dogs want to play with her. i mostly hope she doesn't think we abandoned her. :(

*this summer so far is a combination of boys driving me crazy, work piled around my ears, nerf darts in every nook and cranny, shoes stacked up by every door, an empty refrigerator, a messy explorer, muddy paws, stinky sweaty socks, root beer floats, deck stain in my hair and a tired pile of people on the couch every night around 10 pm reading books about dragons and world war II.

*speaking of piles of people, my people are still piled in bed and we need to get crackin. have a great great week and if you are cher i will hopefully see you soon!!