Sunday Funny

When I was working on the flagpoles for my Cub Scouts, I originally just got one pole for our new pack flag, then decided to go back and get a second for a new US flag. While I was at Lowe's, I managed to catch some cute pics of TLM being super-cute.

helping mommy by making sure that pole doesn't go anywhere

Lest you think that it was a fluke for him to grab onto the pole, he did the same thing when we went back and got the second pole.

As I slid it into the cart: "put it right there, mommy"

"I'll hold it for you!"

Spring Fiddle Recital

Back in May LMS' fiddle teacher Miss A held her spring recital at her house/studio. She has a freshwater pool with plants and critters on the outside edges- very cool. They had just refilled it, brought plants out, etc, so the water hadn't yet settled. Apparently the water is clear once the sediment has settled.

kind of a panoramic view. LMS is bending over a black container, retrieving tadpoles

Speaking of tadpoles, LMS brought some over to show me. She was pretty excited to be able to hold them and touch them.

The kids also found a small turtle and put it in the pool. In the picture below they're pointing at the turtle swimming in the water. It was super fast, which surprised us.

LMS wading in the cattails. I fully expected her to come out soaking wet, but she managed to stay dry :)

After the kiddos thoroughly explored the pool area, it was fiddle time, so we all went into the studio, which is such a great space. In the picture I took below, I'm standing in the doorway of large floor-to-ceiling double doors that were opened to allow people to move in and out freely and also allowed the fresh breezes to move through.

This was not your typical recital where each student gets up and plays a piece for the audience. This was more of an Irish session, where you sit in a circle and people take turns calling out names of songs to play. If you know it, you play, if you don't, you sit it out and/or jump in with the bits you figure out- there's enough repetition that this is possible.

This group was primarily kids around LMS' age, plus some of the older girls jumped in and played with the younger kids. The older girls then played some songs on their own. Depending on the song, Miss A played with them on the fiddle, the guitar, or the banjo.

LMS had a lot of fun, and I think all of the children liked the format. It was much less stressful than a traditional recital would have been, and it gave them the opportunity to play as a group, which is a different skill than just playing by yourself.

At the next session in late fall (Miss A teaches lessons year-round) I may play with them on the flute. I play with LMS at home, so if I just work on memorization a bit, I'll be able to keep up. Good thing flute and violin are the same key. Last fall the Irish music school offered an Irish flute class that I wanted to take, but with TLM being due in the middle of the semester I decided not to try to do it all and to hold off till he was a bit older. I'm hoping they offer the class again this fall, in which case I plan on taking it. From what I've heard, I shouldn't have too many problems, I can start out with my silver flute and I just need to change some techniques and my breathing a bit. I'd like to eventually get a wood Irish flute, but they're a bit pricey, so that'll have to wait.

Changing up my Race Schedule

Yesterday morning on the way back from dropping LMS off at nature school day camp (more on that next week), I had the radio on and heard an announcement about the 4 mile race I've done the last three years. It was about joining a fund-raising team, but you had to be registered and registration was closed.

Wait, what?
When did that happen? I thought registration was this Saturday.

When I got home, I checked, and sure enough, registration was full already. I guess it opened this past Saturday. Last year I got an email giving me a heads-up, but I didn't this year. Maybe they booted me from the list because I don't do any fundraising. I learned that I am NOT a fundraiser when I did Team in Training for my first half marathon when LMS was about a year old, and now I just skip that part.

Anyway, registration was full, but I could get on the wait list. If I was able to register from the wait list, it would be $15 more expensive than the already high registration fee (I don't remember it being as expensive in previous years).

Ummm. No. I'm not paying that kind of money for a four mile race. Half marathon or full marathon, yes. Ten mile race, maybe. Four miles, no.

So I spent a chunk of my afternoon looking up local races to find a replacement race for August. While I was at it, I put all the local races, except those held on Sundays, into a calendar so I can start organizing my race schedule for the next couple years.

Like I remembered, there's quite a variety of races available, which will really help fill out my 40 by 40 checklist. A couple events I'm adding:
 * a river regatta. A good excuse to finally get a kayak!
 * 2 mile run
 * foam run. This will be .... interesting. Probably right up there with the color run.
 * a glow run. At night with glow sticks!
 * a parent/child mud run. LMS and I will run it together as a team. Mr M wants to do it with The Little Mister, but he's not old enough :)
 * an 8 hour trail run. Basically you do as much as you can in 8 hours, but it's to meet your expectations, so the distance doesn't matter. I'll probably aim for 50k, which is 31.1 miles. If I manage that distance, it's considered an ultramarathon because it's longer than 26.2 miles. Not something I EVER considered doing, but strangely feel drawn to now. But just once. Though that's what I said about the marathon too, and I'm planning on doing another one of those in the next couple years.

I've got all the distances I originally listed except a 25k, and am adding the 2 mile and the 50k. I'm sure if I keep looking I'll be able to find a 25k. I also don't have an out-of-state or international race earmarked yet since we don't have our vacation plans scheduled out that far in advance.

And I did find a sprint triathlon that's not on Sunday (I wasn't sure if I would), and it also has the option of a duathlon. So one year I can do the duathlon, and the next year I'll do the sprint triathlon.

The duathlon, triathlon, and river regatta are the only events that incorporate other sports besides running. At this point I'm not sure if I'll keep looking for other options, or just leave it at that.

As I filled in my calendar, I noticed a distinct lack of races in certain months. January has just one option, on the first (hence the reason I wasn't able to come up with a replacement when I missed it this year). June, August, and December are also a little short on options, though July is surprisingly full.

After all that, I have three races to consider, other than the 4 miler, in August. I'm planning on at least two of them, but we'll see how my training goes. I had another great run outside this past Saturday- I was able to run more hills and longer distances than I've done in awhile. It was very encouraging and I hope I'm able to keep it up.

Counting our Blessings

We lost a tulip tree in a storm not too long ago, but we didn't realize it till the next morning when I looked out the window and saw the tree lying on the ground right next to our garden shed.

It came thisclose to hitting the shed.

Unlike the last one that came down, this tree fell all the way down. 

Kind of. 

The top bent on the last one before eventually falling off. The top on this one came off all the way, which made cleaning it up a lot easier.

what's left of the tree

the part that splintered off

Mr M had fun with the chainsaw- I've used it before, but this was his first chance. LMS helped Daddy by moving the branches away after he cut them.

in the middle of the destruction

We found a scar on the trunk near where it splintered, but we also found these:

woodpecker holes. lots of them.

They certainly don't help improve the integrity of the tree. We had a tree at our last house shear in half, and we think it was because of woodpecker damage. The trunk looked just like this one.

more recent holes right next to older holes

We still need to rent/buy a chipper to take care of all the branches, and Mr M needs to finish chopping up the trunk pieces. His arm muscles just gave out- if you've used a chainsaw, you know exactly what I'm talking about. We're leaving the standing portion of the trunk for now. We'll take it down when it gets cooler and we go through and clean up the woods- there's some small trees we also need to take care of.

I guess it's a good thing we never got around to planting our garden (Mr M's training and our trip to Boston got in the way), since it would have been completely demolished. Silver lining, right? :)

DIY Flagpoles and Stand {Cub Scouts}

I haven't posted any Cub Scout slides for awhile- mainly because I'm no longer a den leader. I was going to try to keep making more, but life and more responsibilities took over. I'm the pack committee chair now and I've been trying to get things better organized. Our pack is only about two and a half years old, so we're still trying to get things figured out and routines established. One of the things I finally did was to order a pack flag. We've been borrowing one of the other pack's flags when we needed one, and it was time to step up and get our own. When I ordered the flag, I had the option of buying a pole as well, but I just couldn't justify spending $40+ for a piece of wood. I remembered that the other flags in the building (pack flags and US flags) were on homemade poles and I decided to go that route as well.

After a trip to Lowe's I had what I needed: two 8' poplar poles and two short legs, all of which I found in the trim and moulding aisle. I was looking for some sort of finial to put on the top of each pole and the legs were the closest I could find.

I sprayed the tops with some gold spray paint I had in my stash.

I started painting them then remembered to take a picture

The first thing I did was to cut a foot off each pole. The other poles are 7' to accommodate the shorter ceilings in some of the rooms at church- we don't need the boys poking holes in the ceiling as they hold the flags. Then I drilled a short hole in the top of each pole for the finials to screw into and another hole through the pole to attach the top corner of the flag to.

checking the fit

The poles were a little rough, so I lightly sanded each before staining the poles. After the stain dried, I glued the finial to the tops of the poles with Gorilla glue.

After the glue dried I applied two light coats of wax to seal the stain and give a nice finish.

After buffing the wax I was ready to attach the flags. I did this with zip ties through the grommets of the flags. The top zip tie runs through the hole I drilled through the pole and the bottom zip tie runs around the pole to allow the flag a bit of movement.

After the flag poles were finished, I realized we needed a stand. There's one stand with three holes floating around the building, but lately the Boy Scouts have been using it, so I decided to just make our own.

I wanted something a little lighter and easier to move than the unwieldy cast iron stand, so I made a simple wood box with handles.

I bought a 10 foot length of 1x8 and made a box with mitered corners. I used my Kreg Jig to attach the bottom to make sure it wasn't going anywhere. To add some weight to the bottom to prevent tipping, I used gravel and rocks from the driveway in the bottom. Then I screwed another piece of wood on top of the gravel to keep it in place (can't have gravel dribbling out all over the gym at church). I drilled flag pole holes through the lid and some pieces of 2x6 we had sitting around. I made sure the holes lined up, then I screwed all the pieces of wood together. I wanted a long channel to keep the poles as straight as possible, and I was afraid that just holes in the lid would allow too much movement of the poles.

Before I nailed down the lid, I attached rope handles through the holes I'd drilled earlier. I covered them with tape in an effort to keep the paint and wax off them.

I painted the wood (several times before I got a color I liked). Before the last coat of paint, I added some trim to the top and bottom. It covers up the slight unevenness and makes it look a lot nicer.

plain, boring box

checking the fit of the trim

trim glued & nailed on, starting the base coat on the trim before painting the final coat

Before the last coat of paint,  I made a stencil with my Silhouette and painted our pack number and the Cub Scout logo on one side of the stand. I don't mind if other packs use it, but after all my work I want to make sure it doesn't just disappear....

I will say that painting over the vinyl and then removing it was a pain. I've done stencils before, but always in the reverse, so the vinyl that did get painted over was in larger pieces and easier to remove.

After the paint dried, I added two coats of wax- the first clear, the second dark. Might as well get a start on making it look grubby, since I'm sure it will happen :)

I finished it off by glueing some felt pads with Gorilla glue to the bottom so the box won't scratch the wood floors in the gym.

I'm pleased with how it turned out. We have a matched set of flag poles with new flags and our own stand to hold them. And not to toot my own horn, but my flag poles look much nicer than the other homemade flagpoles :)

Sunday Funny

When I ran my May race, I pushed TLM in the jogger. There was a lady just in front of me also pushing a baby in a jogger. As we came up to the water stop, one of the little kids helping out asked the guy with him what we had.

Guy: "Oh, it's ok, they're pushing strollers."
kid: "Yeah, because they're Super Moms!"


Awww, somebody's teaching that kid right. It made my day :)

Final Thoughts and Impressions from our Trip to Boston

the odd "art" in a crosswalk that we came across as we walked the Freedom Trail

-metal pieces of smashed produce and trash embedded in cement

LMS chillin' with an anemic-looking redcoat we also found on the Freedom Trail

You can read my previous Boston posts here, here, and here.

Train/Subway
The train ride in/out of Boston was a bit dull, but it would be way better than dealing with traffic in and out of the city every day.

I thought LMS would like the train trip (we rode it on 4 different days, I think), but she found it boring. This reinforced the idea that getting a roomette on the train next time we travel by Amtrak is a good idea. It gives the kiddos a little more flexibility with space and noise. TLM didn't fully appreciate the train either, but he handled it pretty well overall.

The commuter rail is repressively silent. And we weren't in the quiet car. Everyone was listening to headphones, playing with their phones, reading, or sleeping. There was no talking and very little noise and very few children. I can understand not being talkative when you ride the train day in and day out and are tired after a long day at work. I wonder if maybe it's a little more lively in the summer when kids aren't in school and are riding the train?

The subway had a musty, dirty smell from the train exhaust. The stations felt dark and stuffy and the smell of stale burned brake pads hung in the air. Not too long ago I read Enclave, where the main character lives in an abandoned NYC subway tunnel, and spending time in stations and riding the subway made that book much more realistic. And made me really glad I don't live in a post-apocalyptic subway tunnel.

I hope that taking LMS on the subway from a young age will make her feel more comfortable with new experiences. I didn't ride a subway till I was 19, in London on a study abroad trip. Oh wait, I did ride the BART system in San Francisco/Oakland a few times when visiting my grandparents as a child. I was maybe 12 the last time though. So not a lot of follow-through on that.

Subways can be intimidating, but it also opens up a whole new world. Cities that have subways can be traveled quite easily, and you come in contact with such a wide cross-section of society. I mostly grew up outside a smallish town, LMS is growing up outside a small city- neither have a subway system, though our city does have a bus system that we don't use because we live too far away. Driving everywhere gives you a completely different perspective than riding public transport. I'm looking forward to traveling other big cities via subway (NYC and Chicago are on our list) and we need to make sure we continue to find opportunities as the kiddos get older, even into their teen years.

Weather
I forgot that the seasons are a little slower coming up north. We should have brought more warm clothes since it was cold, windy and rainy most of the time. We never did wear the shorts we brought with us and I ended up buying a pair of pants to make up for not bringing enough pairs with me and a warmer jacket for LMS.

We went from 50s/low 60s up north to 80 degrees the day we got home. Up north it was cold and gray and spring was just starting, but at home the trees were fully leafed out and everything was green.

Traffic
This first one is a generality based on what I saw and experienced. Others may have different experiences, but this is what I saw. New Englanders have a major speeding problem, especially in Connecticut. At times, lanes are optional- we sometimes saw two cars in the the same lane as they tried to go the same place.

The roads are terrible. For how expensive (very) the tolls were, you'd think the roads would be half-way decent. Even accounting for winter road damage, they were terrible.

The drive north was terrible- we went along the coast and paid $45 in tolls (!). Mapquest, Google, and the GPS all said to go that way and that it would take x hours of driving time. I figured it'd take x+2 hours with stops, and that we could do it in one day with no problems. Or not. The trip took almost x+5 hours! We were so exhausted when we finally got to the hotel. The reason it took 3 more hours than planned? Traffic really was that terrible. On the plus side, we did get to see the NYC skyline.

When we headed south at the end of our trip, we split the travel into two days and took an inland route that only had one toll ($1.30). There was much less traffic (we probably could have done it in one day) and splitting it up made it much more manageable for all of us. TLM did really well, going and coming back, but he really appreciated when we stopped at the hotel on the way back and he didn't have to spend 14 hours straight in his carseat again.

Wedding Dress to Baptism Dress {Stash-buster Project}

As I mentioned before, I spent some time before LMS' baptism working on some sewing projects. One of these was the ambitious decision to turn my wedding dress into a baptism dress.

Why would I cut up my wedding dress?

yes, I was one of those brides: no uncomfortable shoes for me!

As much as I loved my dress, I've come to the conclusion that none of our kids will be able to wear it. LMS has a much longer torso than I do (lucky her!) and the chances of her being as short as I am aren't super high. TLM isn't going to wear a dress when when he gets married :) And even if we have another kiddo, the likelihood of them having the same body structure/lack of height isn't very high. My dress had to be altered quite a bit, so it looked good on me, but wouldn't look good on very many other people.

The ones with the best chance at this point would be one of my younger sisters, but they're all quite a bit taller than me, so they're out of luck.

we're standing at the same level here: I'm more than a head shorter than Mr M

don't we look so young?!

So after carting my wedding dress around for almost 13 years, I decided to put it to a better use than just taking up space or getting lost (like my mom's dress did in one of our moves when we were growing up). Awhile ago a friend made a blessing dress out of her wedding dress for one of her girls, and that got me thinking about what I could do with my wedding dress.

We're obviously way past the need for a blessing dress, but LMS was approaching her eighth birthday. My mom made me a white dress to wear when I was baptized and I wanted to do the same for LMS. After some internal debate, I finally decided to go ahead and cut up my wedding dress.

you can't tell the details from this photo, but I think it was a white seersucker fabric

and I think my dad's glasses have come back in style....

It wasn't quite that easy though. Even after I made the decision, it took awhile to get up the nerve to actually cut into the fabric. I knew I had one shot to get it right. If I messed up, there wouldn't be enough fabric to fix it.

After paging through pattern books I found a pattern that was similar to the pattern of my dress. This made it easier to cut each panel for the flared skirt, but also meant there was wasted fabric since I had to avoid the existing seams. So there was enough fabric for LMS' dress, but there was only one panel left over and I wanted to save that for future projects, which meant there was no room for error.

it still fits! kind of... what you don't see is that it's not zipped up all the way in back :)

breastfeeding has a way of changing the size of your bust

Before I started cutting into my dress, I made a practice dress out of muslin. I don't usually do this, but in this case I knew it was definitely the way to go. I was able to go through each step and make sure I knew how to do everything the pattern said.  I was also able to see that I should really go up a size. I made the practice dress a 6x, but ended up making the real dress a 7. I knew that might end up being the case, so I bought two patterns (since 6x and 7 aren't on the same pattern) at JoAnn's when they were on sale for 99 cents each. Score one for me for planning ahead!

Because the size 7 is the smallest of the patterns and I wanted to be able to use the bigger patterns in the future, I traced out all the pieces onto tissue paper. This also allowed me to adjust a couple of the skirt pieces: one piece was supposed to be placed on a fold so I traced out both sides, and another piece was supposed to have a seam for a zipper, but I eliminated the seam because I shortened the zipper (which I wouldn't do again, and but did because of how I cut the zipper out of my dress).

Then I took a deep breath and started cutting.

I separated the bodice, cut out the sleeves at the seams, and cut down one of the side seams of the skirt, which allowed me to lay the dress flat. Then I started laying out my patterns and deciding where I wanted each piece centered. My favorite part of the dress was the embroidered flowers and I wanted to make them an integral part of LMS' dress, so I moved each pattern piece around till I got the look I wanted.

After cutting out all the pieces, it was time to sew it all back together.

The bodice was lined, so I was able to re-use the lining as I sewed the bodice to fit LMS. The sleeves were also lined and I was able to re-use them with minimal alteration. The skirt pieces weren't lined, but there was an underskirt with tulle attached and I cut down part of it to make an underskirt for the dress. I left the tulle attached for added fullness, but I don't know that that was necessary. The fabric is thick enough that it has a lot of body on its own.

What I didn't like about this project:
-- I don't know that I like the neckline- I think it's a bit wide, but it does mimic the neckline of the original dress.
-- I cut the zipper out of the original dress incorrectly and it ended up being on the short side. I didn't think that part through far enough ahead, and ended up with a zipper that only extends to the waist, which makes it a bit snug to get on and off.
-- Hemming the skirt was difficult and I'm not super happy with how it turned out. I don't think it hangs as nicely as it could, but I'm not really sure how else I could have hemmed it.

What I did like about this project:
-- The embroidered flowers are nicely showcased.
-- I like the length- I considered making it longer, but felt that that would feel too formal.
-- LMS gets to have a part of my wedding dress to keep (she also has her blessing dress made by my mother).
-- LMS likes it.
-- Despite the imperfections, I do like how it turned out and am glad that my dress is getting a new lease on life.
-- Other than the patterns and muslin, this project didn't cost anything since I didn't add anything to the dress- just took away :)

What I plan to do with what's left of my wedding dress:
-- There's not enough left for another baptism dress, but there is enough left for a blessing dress should we have another girl.
-- There's also enough fabric to make a vest and/or a tie for TLM. We'll wait and see what his preference is when he gets old enough.

Have you recycled your wedding dress?

40 by 40

There was a comment in the letters to the editor in the June Runner's World about completing 40 events the year she turned 40. This got me thinking.

I could do that.

My 37th birthday is coming up soon, so 40 isn't that far off.

After some thought though, I think I want to complete 40 events by the time I turn 40 (40 by 40), starting when I turn 38. If I were to try to do it in one year starting when I turn 39, I'd have to do roughly 3.5 events every month, and I'm not sure our schedule can handle that.

Who am I kidding? I know our schedule couldn't handle it. So, being a bit more realistic, spreading it out over two years will be much more manageable and I should actually be able to achieve this goal.

The current plan is to complete 15 or so events in the coming year while I get in shape and build my mileage. I'll then increase to 20 events in each of the following years, finishing the fortieth event before I turn 40.

This'll definitely be more events than I've run in a year. The closest I've come in the past was my cross-country years in high school. I think we ran an average of 12-15 races each season? Somewhere around that number. Increasing the events I participate in over the next couple years should make it all manageable and hopefully I can do this without getting injured. And I should be in a lot better shape :)

Not only do I want to finish 40 events, I want to run a wide variety of events. They're mostly running events, but I've included a couple mixed events in my list.

Some of the distances I'll be trying to check off:
1 mile
5k (3.1 miles)
4 miles
7k (4.3 miles)
8k (4.97 miles)
5 miles
10k  (6.2)
15k (9.3)
10 miles
half marathon (13.1 miles)
25k (15.5)
full marathon (26.2 miles)

And some of the types of races I'll be trying to check off:
road race
trail run
mud run
virtual race
obstacle race
color run (maybe)
evening/night race
relay run (Ragnar, if I can get a team together)
biathlon
sprint triathlon (if I can find one locally that's not on a Sunday)
out-of-state
international

Plus any other distance/variety of event that I can find. I'll be mixing and matching as much as possible, like running trail runs of various distances. I've seen most of the above races locally (or somewhat locally), so I should be able to do this without having to travel too far.

Anyone want to join me in my running craziness? :)

Spring Soccer Season

good running shot of LMS 

(pink shoes and ponytail with 2 on the front because she turned her jersey around)

In the fall we debated having LMS continue playing soccer. We decided to give it another year, but I cheered (internally- don't want to be a bad example or anything!) every time a practice or game was canceled because of snow or rain.

I've decided my negative attitude this year can be blamed on being pregnant and giving birth during the fall season and having a not-quite-so-newborn and low energy levels during the spring season. So I'm willing to give it another try this fall since I am feeling more energetic these days.

We've tried to pick activities that have a definite value, and soccer does help her stay more active than she otherwise would be. Like me she struggles with low energy levels sometimes and we're still working to find her food sweet spot- what provides the energy she needs yet doesn't cause adverse reactions.

LMS had a good season and she is making progress and getting better at playing, so that's encouraging.

Our little neighbor friend joined the league this season (on a different team) and had a lot of fun: