It’s not often that I envy the life of an adolescent girl. In fact, those were the most awkward days of my life. The teeth, the hair, and the oily skin all combined for an atrocious existence.

Not to mention the pixie cut my mom gave me. Ugh. Awful.

However, I met a young lady on Wednesday who made me longingly ache for the carefree days of my adolescence. Especially the never-ending summers of adolescence.

No long-list of appointments.

No endless to-do list.

Just talking on the phone, being bored, and…..reading.

I did a lot of reading during those summers.

This particular girl was sitting on a porch swing at a barbeque reading a book when I met her.

We discussed her favorite books. I even invited her to the teen book club at our library (though she’s 11, I know her voracious appetite for books has put her on par with many of the teenagers.).

The summer after I graduated from high school I nannied for a family where we spent many of our days lounging at a pool.

So I read a lot of books. I had asked my high school English teacher for her recommendations and she mailed me a long list of great literature.  

But gone are the days where I have an abundance of time for reading. Don’t get me wrong, I still carve out time for a book or two.

But it’s not the same when I have laundry, work, bills, dinners, ball games, cleaning….looming over my head. Not to mention three little balls-of-energy who demand my time too.

So I envy my new friend. She has nothing to do all summer but ride to the pool and library and fill her mind up with all sorts of wonderful adventures found on the page of a good book .

I sure hope she enjoys these days.

p.s.

I am about one summer away from having my nose buried in a book at the pool. (Nathan can swim, just not well yet.)

My brothers drive me crazy.

Don’t get me wrong. There are times I really enjoy them. We have fun together. We play.

But there are times when they make me so angry I could just scream.

Sometimes, especially after Saturday afternoon, I wish I was an only child.

One of my classmates is an only child. I bet he never has to worry about someone destroying his things. He has no annoying little brothers around to lose pieces to board games. He’s the only one who makes a mess out of his room.

And his things never get destroyed… just for fun.

We’ve had our eye on the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City for a long time.

And finally, we were able to make the three-hour trek for a night.

And our boys were ecstatic.

We’ve been to the Coco Key Water Resort in Omaha many times, but had heard such wonderful things about the Great Wolf Lodge we decided to make a weekend of it.

We packed our swimsuits, hopped in the minivan, and headed south.

When we arrived at the hotel, my kids did what all kids at hotels do: jump on the bed. But the best part about our room was the ledge they thought they should use as a springboard.

I coaxed them out of their new form of entertaiment (Insert mom yelling at them to sit down) and grabbed this picture of them before we headed down to the pool.

My boys (Ages: 9, 7, and 3) are all swimmers. But in our experience with height requirements, apparently swim ability is not taken into consideration.

I understand the safety rules, but it is hard to not feel unfairly treated when my kids are discriminated against because of their height, yet non-swimmers with a height advantage are given free reign. At the very least, give the kids a swim test.

However this was never an issue at the GWL.  There was only one ride the younger two couldn’t ride on, otherwise, the entire family could enjoy every ride together.

But waterslides weren’t the only form of entertainment.

There was a lazy river, an activity pool, and a tree house in addition to the five water slide rides.

One of my favorite spots was the hot tub, and the kids could join us. However, If I wanted to get away from the wee ones, there was an adults-only hot tub too. 

The food and beverages (adult kinds too) were fairly priced.

And the hotel was abuzz with many other great kid’s activities. While we didn’t play in the arcade or the MagiQuest game, my kids still had a blast.

The hotel is located near Kansas Speedway and a great shopping district. We did splurge and dine at the T-Rex restaurant.  

My boys love all things dinosoars, so they were entranced as we dined among the moving creatures.

While we have to budget this trip into our vacation budget for the year, it was a great time and we can’t wait to go next year.

Room Rates start at $169.00. You get four waterpark passes with the room and you can swim before check-in and after check-out.

If you’re looking for a quick weekend getaway, go to the Great Wolf Lodge.

{***Disclosure: My family recieved our room at a discounted rate, but my thoughts and opinions on the establishment are entirely my own.}

This is my fifth half-marathon, and I am ready for my race. Well, if you call having my last long-run two weeks ago ready, then I am ready. I am as ready as I can be working, caring for a home and family, writing, reading, sleeping, and eating in between long-run Saturdays. 

In case you’ve never ran an organized race (perhaps you just like to pop out of your front-door in obscurity, rather than broadcast to the world your training), you get great e-mails from the organizers.

They are extremely helpful. Some great FAQ’s about parking, personal items, and race etiquette.

But some of their FAQ’s just make this gal chuckle.

So here are some of my favorite non-applicable FAQ’s:

Q. Where should I line up at the start line?
A. If you are competing to finish in the top 10 in either the marathon or half-marathon, line up close to the start line as the top 10 results are based upon gun-times. We ask participants to line up according to their pace with walkers and slower participants in the back.

Thanks for the information. Now I know where to find the folks I need to get autographs from. {{Hedging my way to the back 1/4 of the pack}}

Q. Are iPods allowed during the race?
A. For participants not competing for awards, they are not restricted, but they are strongly discouraged at this race. To enjoy all that our race has to offer and for the safety of all participants, the Lincoln Marathon & Half-Marathon encourages a headphone-free environment. 

Again, thank for the information, but you are as crazy as those marathoners if you think I am going to be alone with just my thoughts and heavy breathing for 2 1/2 hours. I’ve got my playlist ready to go, plus my fancy-flashy iPhone case.

Q. How deep are the age-division awards and where will I be able to pick it up?
A. Age-division awards go to the top 5 finishers in each age-division of both races (top 10 overall winners excluded from age-division awards). Awards can be picked up at the Champions Club.

If you are really asking this question, I may just kick you in the shins. #thatisall

So, for anyone getting ready for their first half -marathon, here’s my tips for the other 9,900 runners/walkers:

1. Magic Energy Beans

Not to be confused with the beanstalk-growing kind, these guys taste amazing. I have no idea if they work, but I pop these in after about my first 40 mins.

2. Ooopy-goopy electrolytes

Apparently, water is important. However, if you have an agua-intake aversion like I do, this may be a better option. **Warning: If you also have an aversion to ooopy-goopy texture, I would not recommend this.***

These are for my 80 min and 120 min marks.

3. Attire

As much as I’d like to run around in pair of teeny-tiny shorts and a sports bra, the reality is that running doesn’t automatically turn you into a fitness model.

So I choose functional:

What you can’t see is my handy-dandy pocket on the side that can hold my phone and Magic Jelly Beans. 

I also have a pair of running shorts with cute interior pocket for my ooopy-goopy energy supplement.

And making their second appearance at the races: my running shoes. Smelly, but functional (and cheap).

That’s my goal.  I am in the process of eliminating the excess.  From debt reduction to weight loss, from hectic schedules to clutter, my hope is to move toward a simpler existence.

And a much happier life.

As I look back over the last ten years and the life my husband and I have built together, I realize that much of what we have acquired and accomplished, though beautiful and amazing, has added stress to our lives.

We have taken on higher-paying, stress-inducing jobs.  We have added children to our family. Our home has gotten bigger. Our responsibilities have grown.

I understand that is all part of life and growing up and growing older.

(read the rest at Momaha.com)

My neighbor has an impeccable lawn. Beautiful lines cut across the backdrop of properly tended flower beds and perfectly edged sidewalks.

I can’t help but smile when I look at it. It truly is a work of art.

He’s also a retired workaholic, so I am sure that bodes well into why his lawn could make Edward Scissorhands jealous.

I often apologize to him for the condition of our lawn. During one of our many conversations, he said, “I’ve always heard you can’t grow grass and children at the same time.”

And that really resonated with me.

Sometimes, I think I am trying so hard to be everything to everyone, that I spend a lot of my time only succeeding in failing.

(Read more at Momaha.com)

Ahh, Cancun. I want to go. But I’m wary of the $2,178 price tag.

We could go if we played our cards right. We could use our tax refund to pay for the trip. I get paid every other week, and March happens to be a three pay-period month. That extra check could go towards our tropical vacation. We could make this trip happen.

But should we?

Back in January, I declared this year would be different. We would climb, scrape and eek our way out of debt. It is moments just like this where that declaration is supported or put on the back burner.

(Read more at Momaha.com)

I am not sure many people can pinpoint the moment their childhood turned towards adulthood;that moment when the fantasy and magic of childhood turns into the reality of life.

Is it when you leave home for the first time to go to school?

Is it when you realize that the good guys don’t always win?

Last night you were lying in bed and you asked me why the stuffed animals Santa gave you for Christmas had a Toys R Us tag on their bottoms.

Your little brothers were lying down in their beds and instead of telling you that Santa sometimes gets his stuff at the store, I winked at you.

And I saw it.

The moment, the pinpoint, when a little part of your childhood is lost forever.

Your face crumpled as the realization of what that little wink meant for you, your life, and your belief in all things wonderful.

Yet, even in your heartbreak, you knew that there are two other little people in our world who still believe and your heart broke quietly.

I held you in my arms as your cried silently into your pillow, I understood why some parents don’t allow Santa to come and visit at Christmas.

This was painful.

But then I remembered something else..

I remember my college sociology professor telling our class that for most children, Santa Claus is the first real disappointment in life that many people face, and of all the disappointments in life, it will probably be the least painful.

So, while I held you, I was glad that for nearly nine years, we had provided you a life where your first real disappointment is that Santa Claus isn’t real.

For nine years, you were able to look at this broken, and sometimes ugly world and believe in good.

And while there may not be a man living in the North Pole, reading wish lists from kids all around the world, there is good alive and well in each and every person who believes in it.

And as long as I live, I will always believe and my prayer is that you do too.

Love,

Mom

Author’s note: My son and I agreed to pretend this conversation never happened. So if you happen to see him, this post never happened either.;)

I am busted. Big time.

This week, my second son is “Friend of the week” in his class. He gets to bring baby pictures, toys, and anything else he’d like to share about himself with his classmates.

His first request: His baby book.

Thankfully, he has one…well the start of one.  I quickly went down into the basement, fished out his baby book, and we started to look through it.

As we were perusing photos of our trip to the hospital, the friends and family who visited, my 3-year-old pointed at every picture and said, “That me?”

Uhhh…..no. (more on Momaha.com)

I have ran numerous road races and four half-marathons. I taught a spinning class for two years. I did P21X (In case you don’t know what that is, it’s what I call the first three weeks of P90X.).

I am a cardio queen.

I can run.  I can run for miles and miles and miles.

But I can’t do a push-up.  Okay,I can do a push-up, but I can’t do 10. And that is sad.

It’s a fact that I can’t do even one pull-up.

If you’ve ever done or tried to do P90X, it is essential to the work-out to be able to accomplish pull-ups and push-ups.

That is why I only did P21X. I figured that if I was on week 4, and I still couldn’t do a pull-up, this wasn’t the workout for me.

I was trying to complete the doctorate of workouts, and I hadn’t even completed my bachelors yet. (Read the rest at Momaha.com.)