A Crazy Runner

The other day I realized that anyone who looked at my facebook profile would think I was a crazy runner.  Brandon's reply was, "Yeah, like literally crazy."

Exhibit A:

I don't plan on losing my marbles anytime soon but I am sure that if I did this is the photo that they would put on all the press releases.  They would cut my friends out and just leave those maniacal eyes to stare out from newspapers all over the country and everyone would shrug their shoulders and realize that they really aren't that surprised that she snapped after all.

And how about this gem?  Admittedly I almost look sane in comparison to my friends here.  Clearly the bar is low. 

 I dare you to look at that photo and not laugh.

It is true that I have been doing a lot of running lately, but this last race had a lot less to do with getting a good time and a lot more to do with getting through it without injuring myself.  The Dirty Dash is not the Spartan or a Tough Mudder that real athletes do.  It has some tunnels to crawl through and a couple of walls to climb, nothing too hard, but it was enough that it served as a big time reminder that I am not as young as I used to be.  Although I think I could have performed a little bit better if I could have made it five seconds without giggling uncontrollably.  I'm glad that I had a chance to run with three amazingly fun friends. 

Rocky jumped in to prove how dirty we were.

 I almost had to sell a kidney to add another race to this year's season but it was worth every cent. 

Graduation

Don't get too excited.  It's just another Masters.

 After a few years of diligent work Brandon finished his Masters of Nonprofit Management.  We didn't go to the big graduation but we did skip church to go to the program reception which was a smart idea because they had a bunch of incredible food.  Anyone who knows him won't be surprised that he isn't into the pomp and  circumstance of ceremony.  You might notice how his robe and hood are bundled up on the ground.    In his defense, it was raining and I think he was actually trying to protect it.

 We are so proud of him and all he has been able to accomplish.  Being a part of this program opened up a lot of great opportunities for our family to get involved in the community and meet a lot of great people.

Dance Party

A Spencer View Summer

Being here in Eugene has been such a great experience for our family and I feel positive that much of what has made it so amazing is our community here in student housing.  When Brandon first applied to schools the University of Oregon immediately sent information about housing options.  I remember looking through it and wondering what the next few years would hold.  I had no idea how much fun we would have, and I never could have imagined how much I would love my neighbors.

 Thankfully the allergy season seems to have moved on around here.  For a solid three weeks Eugene was the highest grass pollen count in the country.  Even people without allergies were getting sick.  But even record breaking blossoming couldn't keep us indoors on beautiful days.  Yan hooked us all up with masks and we survived Beijing style. 

 It is World Cup time again.  It took Brandon a couple of days to get over Spain's loss in the first round but with a little bit of ice cream therapy he seems to have bounced back.  I think he is actually having more fun now that the pressure is off. 

Brandon has already fulfilled one of his summer goals and has introduced the red doors to Kick the Can.  They still can't seem to handle a game on their own but as long as he is there to keep things under control they have a pretty good time. 

 Rosy doesn't really hide but she sometimes tries to steal the can, which in our case has been an empty milk jug. 

 Rocky's posture is pretty cool.  She points her toes to get maximum kicking control.  You might also notice that Daisy is playing in her Black Swan leotard which has become her good weather uniform. 

 Samantha had everyone out making homemade ice cream the other day.  I just walked out the front door and it was a kid cooking class. 

 If it gets too cold you can just bust out some Dora mittens.

For Rocky's last day of school I surprised them with their lifelong dream of eating a Lunchable.  Although I was too cheap to buy the brand so I got the no-name one which is probably made of even worse stuff than the original.  Personally I thought it was a little bit silly that the last day of school lunch was happening at 10:00, but I took the chance to be a cool mom while the bar is still low.  I took some photos so that I can show them that I, at least once, granted their truest desires.

 Rosy only ate the cheese and crackers.  She must have known that there was something not quite right about that meat.

 We have loved Rocky's teacher, Maestra Sanguino and I have to admit that I got a little teary-eyed knowing that next year she won't be ours.

Rosy got stuck in her seat and instead of helping her I looked for 5 minutes until I found the camera.  She wasn't amused.

 The other day she didn't want to take a bath so she squeezed in as far back as possible and tried to hide between the closet and the shelves.  Apparently she has a skill for getting herself stuck.  It was kind of funny though because I was only making the others bathe because they had gotten into the mud.  I wasn't even planning on making her get in.  She has never not wanted to bathe before and I just think it was because she was afraid of getting in with her dirty sisters.  She won.

I just think I have to take as many pictures of Daisy's chipmunk cheeks before she outgrows them.  Sometimes I worry that it is just a matter of hours.

Lemonade Stand

 With a generous grant from the Oma and Opa Foundation the Riglets and the Cave-ites put together a lemonade stand.  It was supposed to be a service project to help the construction workers that have been slaving away under the hot sun in our complex.  The lemonade was free but somehow the tip jar was overflowing. 

 We had lots of fun with grandparents.  It was worth running those 26 miles just to get them to come out here and hang out with us.  They all just looked so cute crammed into the back of the mini-van. 

 They stayed an extra day so that they could attend Daisy's Head Start graduation.  It was a little lackluster since she is going to be going there next year and isn't technically graduating from anything.  Also because it was a lunch and program that was presented by kids who are 3 and 4.  Let's just say that their "High Hopes" song was the highlight and the "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" wasn't going to be breaking any record sales this year.
For her part Daisy was darling.  She is the sweetest little girl.

 Bonus Picture:
The Caption Says: Barack Obama is our first African American President
Rocky is extremely proud of this picture, as she should be.

Happy B-day!

 Brandon turned 35 and since he is so strapped at work we went to him.  We got to see the office in which he is slogging away at his dissertation.  We kidnapped him from his office hours and insisted that he eat lunch with us in the courtyard.  It was a beautiful day and we all had a lot of fun.  He is such a great dad and I like it when we get to see how hard he is working.  His birthdays are nice because he just gets better looking every year.

 We had all our neighbors over for ice cream cones and carrot brownies.  I only took one photo.

 The next day was our little friend Izzy's birthday and she had a princess party.  I took like a hundred photos of her party.  Maybe next year I should plan a princess party for Brandon and then we'd have something to show for it.

Memorial Day

 We are going backwards in time.  The blog is a magic time machine and can take us all the way back to Memorial Day.  Brandon is so busy with school right now that he spent the day slaving away in the library but the girls and I went to our favorite place in Eugene, the Masonic Cemetery.  Some of you may remember it from our Halloween photos but this time we were there to complete the Memorial Day scavenger hunt.  Since we do spend our share of time wandering the pathways I knew that we had a little bit of an advantage.  We started about 10 minutes after a family with like 100 kids.  Okay so it was only like 9 and some of them were clearly not related but they were all together and I knew if we stayed focus we could overtake them.  It wasn't technically a race but Daisy had spotted some Silly Putty on the prize table and I knew that it wouldn't make it through the family in front of us.  Some of you may know that my home has a strict no Silly Putty rule because of an unfortunate incident a few years ago that we don't need to discuss.  I thought that I could bend the rule in this instance because the aforesaid incident involved Rocky and Rocky only and it seemed unfair for Daisy to be punished.
So the race was on.  Since none of my children can really read or write I had to do most of the work.  It was fine though because the kids in front of us each had their own paper and they took forever trying to write.  We passed them up in no time.  I figured that we had the prize in the bag but one of the girls sprinted ahead of us at the last second when I stopped to unload Rosy from the double jogging stroller.  Even though I had tromped through the cemetery trails with it it just seemed too uncouth to be taken inside the mausoleum.  In the end it was our fatal mistake and Daisy had to console herself with a mini American flag.  Rocky ended up with a bubble kit which looked crappy but made some pretty incredible bubbles.
Rosy got nothing.  After all, she is the one who lost us the race. 

It Feels Like Summer

 I know that Eugene always does this crazy fake-out spring thing and makes us all believe that summer is here and once we break out the shorts and sunblock it pours rain for all of June, but this year it is outdoing itself.  We still have to spend a bunch of time indoors because this city is the number one highest pollen count in the country and the choice is to go outside, or to be able to breathe.  But once in awhile we sneak out into the lovely evenings and search out a little bit of soul-healing nature.

 This picture makes me feel like I am a millionaire. 

 Rosy isn't happy unless she is defying death in some way.