Against The Wind!

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Lola and I take a 4 mile walk.  And when I say Lola and I take a walk, I mean, I push the giant stroller and she relaxes in said giant stroller.  Anyway, on Tuesday and Thursday we take a shorter walk around the neighborhood.  So M, W, and F are definitely the most entertaining!

Today was tough because on the way home from our adventure, I was pushing the giant stroller against the wind.  I apologize directly for getting the Bob Seger tune stuck in your head for an indefinite amount of time.  It's still in mine!  But back to topic.....today was a challenge and I liked it!  We also saw many interesting things and I thought I should surely share these things with the rest of the world!

-We saw a giant hawk.  And I mean a hawk so big that I was afraid Lola's fruity Cheerios would lure him over to attack us.  I found myself veering more and more to the middle of the path.  And then I found myself as far away from the hawk as I could be.  I know I have an overactive imagination.  I didn't sleep well last night so don't judge me! ;)  I'm happy to report the hawk didn't pester us at all.

-We saw 8 or 9 random bales of hay on the side of our path.  It would have been perfect, had I brought my farm animal on our walk this morning.  But...I had to leave him home this morning! ;)

-We saw the Paradise Bakery delivery truck.  AGAIN!  Yes, I see that blasted truck EVERY Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  If you know me, you know I love Paradise cookies (and pretty much everything else there).  I don't love the thrice weekly temptations!!!

-When we turned on our less inhabited road to do my sprints (yes, pushing the giant stroller and no it isn't a jogging stroller), we saw a landscaping crew.  Of course my imagination led me to believe I would be abducted and thrown into the back of the landscaping truck.  I found myself veering more and more to the right of my path.  I'm glad to say I wasn't bothered and my sprints were done successfully.

-We saw my favorite jogging guy.  He is very friendly and he always has about 4 water bottles strapped to a strange contraption on his waist.  I see him a lot, so I know!  We love the crazy hydrating guy!

The things Lola loves:

-Airplanes.  We always have to stop a couple times and stare up to the sky until we spot a plane!
-A bus.  She does happen to LOVE a school bus.  Luckily, today, she saw one!
-Any animal we meet on the way (and yes, Lola was very excited, and not at all scared, to see the larger than life bird we saw today).

I'm convinced she will either be a bus driver, a veterinarian, or a pilot.  But that's just based on what she loves as a 20 month-old.  I'm not sure it will stick! ;)

The thing I missed today:

-The elderly bicyclists who ding their bell about 82 times to let me know they are behind me.  Don't worry, folks, the slow-walking, baby-pushing lady will get OUT of your way!  And it's pretty darn cool that they have bells on their bike anyway.  So ding away....I like it! :)

Happy Tuesday everyone!  :)

On the Road to Crazy Town!

Next stop:  loony bin!  Admitting one:  me!  Yeah, the days just keep getting crazier!  I didn't think it would be like this when Billy took the job in Louisville!  But ya know, I think this whole experience will only make me stronger (or, perhaps, get me institutionalized)!

Here's how our typical week goes:  Blake has soccer Tuesday,  Wednesday, and Thursday.  Then he has a game (or two) on Saturday.  That keeps us pretty busy.  Lola is a HANDFUL at all the practices and games so I usually spend the time stopping her from eating rocks and such.  This causes me to miss most everything Blake has done in his games and practices!  Here's what I do know:  Blake scored 7 goals in his first academy soccer tournament.  I was very proud of him!

Here's what else is going on: 

1.  Lola learned how to open the doors.  I guess I will have to invest in some of those annoying plastic knobby things that even I can't open.  Blech.

2.  Most days, I'm so exhausted, I can barely walk up and down the stairs.  This makes me wish I had one of those motorized seats that would take me up and down the stairs.  Or that I had an elevator or something.  Or probably easier; a ranch-style house.

3.  Nobody is interested in buying the house.  :(  I'm trying not to take this too personally since it's listed by owner.  And since, apparently, the housing market is worse than ever.  Of course that would happen when we're talking about our luck!

4.  Lola refuses to eat.  STILL!  It's pretty annoying.  I've tried everything.  Well, today, she ate an avocado.  WOO HOO!  And she ate a few crackers.  Then Blake and I tried to make her laugh.

-We all thought it was pretty funny.  Even funnier?  He ate his whole meal sitting exactly like this!  My kids might be as crazy as me! :)

On a positive note (because I think it's good to end things in a positive way)......Billy is doing great at his new job.  He stays busy and doesn't get to come home very often!  But when he does come home, we really enjoy the family time together!  So I guess it's not all bad!  I just wanted to update something since I haven't in a while.  And don't worry about me, I'll be fine.  I'm not all the way crazy......yet! ;)

Firsts!

Lola's first time taking a photo of herself!  She's taking after her brother!!

This is the first time I've had a photo of my mother in one of these things!  She and Blake were goofing off at Old Navy in Louisville.  I thought it was pretty funny! :)

Lola's first time swimming.  It took her a while to warm up but she eventually loved it.  *Note Billy's AWESOME tan lines.  HA HA HA*

Blake's first day of travel soccer practice!  He loves it! :)

Blake's first day of SECOND grade!  I can't believe it!  He's growing up so fast!

There you have it!  We've had a lot going on and a lot of them were big FIRST-TIME events.  I thought they were all worth noting! :) 

Nationals!

Of course I have to write a blog about soccer nationals.  Blake and his team did great.  Nationals is such a challenge and the boys came in 6th out of ten teams.  We had a great time in Cincinnati and we are very grateful for the friends we have made!  And of course I have to post lots of photos!  Blake scored 16 goals during the tournament.  We are super proud of him!

Lola and Madeline.  Stephanie and Gavin.

Billy showing his frustration!

Lola and her little friend, Madeline.

Lola was pretty exhausted after two days in the sun!

Since He's Been Gone!

Billy started his new job in Louisville last Monday.  I've been a single mother before.  But I've never been a single mother with Lola.  HOLY COW!  She definitely challenges me!  It hasn't been a great transition for me but I can only hope it will get better now that school has started (WOOOOO HOOOOO....did I say that out loud?!?).

So here's what's happened since Billy's been gone:

1.  Two lights burned out.  I'm blonde so I can't change them.  But seriously?  I can't because they are light FIXTURES.  I'm scared of all the dead bugs and what have you that could be lying around in there.  So some places in the house will just remain dark until August 21st when my beloved comes home again.

2.  The water softener warning light came on.  What does that mean?  That means I had to haul to Lowe's and get TWO 40 lb. bags of salt.  Then I had to pour said bags of salt into the water softener.  Oh, my aching back.  Good news?  I'm married to a chiropractor.  Bad news?  I never see him.

3.  I've become the caretaker of the dog.  YUCK.  The dog wakes me up anywhere between 5 and 7 AM to go to the bathroom.  Then I have to clean up after the dog....even when she poos on the floor.  Yeah, that happened last week.

4.  Lola had a fever of 101.  She wouldn't let me put her down all day.

5.  I get to chase Lola around when Blake is at soccer practice and at soccer games.  When it's a billion degrees outside, this is not my favorite thing.

6.  I spent THIRTY minutes tonight cleaning up a huge broken glass of ice water.  Blake was messing around and dropped it.  He claims the glass was just "way too slippery."  I was pretty mad because I had to hold Lola the whole time I cleaned it up so she wouldn't step in the glass.  And why do glass shards go EVERYWHERE?  I will be picking up bits and pieces of glass for a long time to come.  Of course I had to take a photo before I started cleaning.  I thought it might make me laugh it off.  It didn't.  But here is the photo:

And that is just PART of the mess!!!

On the flip side, Billy has been working LONG hours.  He goes in at 8:30 and gets back to my parent's house around 8:30 at night.  Poor guy.  We miss him tons and can't wait until we can all live together!  This is going to be a LOOOOONG year!

Who Dey?!?

That's right....DEY are the Bengals.  And once again, I got to go to their training camp!  I'm very sorry to my Georgetown/Lexington friends.  I couldn't see anyone because it was a last minute stop on our way to soccer nationals (for Blake) in Cincinnati.  I was sad I didn't get to see anyone.  But I only got to stay for about an hour (at the camp) and didn't get any autographs.  So you know if I didn't have time for autographs (GASP), I didn't have time to do anything else!

Anyway, I can't WAIT for the real season to start!  I can't wait to see my favorite team!  I LOVE THE BENGALS!  Here are a couple of my favorite shots from the sweltering day at training camp.

Blake...taking it all in!

Maserati!  You can't really tell....but I swear, it's true!

And of course after the tournament in Cincy, we had to drive through downtown and get photos of Paul Brown stadium.

I REALLY need to go to a game.  I mean, year after year of the training camp is awesome.  Yes, I have some fabulous autographs (Carson Palmer, Ochocinco, Marvin Lewis, Chris Henry....) but I want to see them play a REAL game *sigh*!  For now, I will just continue to watch them on TV and hope that somehow, I can go to the game in November when they play the Colts!

GOOOOOOOO BENGALS!!!!!!

Victorious!

I know.  It's another blog about soccer.  This was the last 3v3 tournament before Nationals next weekend.  The boys have played so very hard and really wanted a medal.  Today they got it!  It wasn't for first place, but we gladly took third! :)

Blake scored 13 goals in 4 games today.  We are mighty proud of him!  He just could be the next David Beckham!

Here are some photos from today!  They had a lot of time in between games and thought it would be fun to pretend to be turtles (with deflated soccer balls), sit on top of each other, and just basically goof-off!  Then there were the photos from our "elaborate" medal ceremony! :)  Enjoy!