August Chronicles

A month of Firsts:

I ran my 1st 5k in... a long time. But, I surprised everyone (my kids, my friends, my husband, myself) by placing (3rd not 1st) in my age division. I'm still in the 19-29yrs. category so I thought I'd barely make it over the finish line compared to all the college kids in town. Aaron pointed out that my 'success' was a result of all the runners in my division running the 10k instead. He asked if I was going to enter that next year. I said, 'no way! The 5K is where the hardware is at!" So to all my high school-turned-mom pals, I'm still "bringin' home the hardware" too, just not as fast as the rest of you. No, I deliberately did not post my time and won't. Dad and the kids did the 1 mile race together while I was running the longer loop. I also did a 7 mile Climb for a Cure Cancer Walk with Angie. Such a fun experience. No medals for that, just a bright blue t-shirt and an Outback Steak House lunch....served at 9am to all finishers...I guess that counts as another first too!

Addie started her first day of kindergarten this month. We did a little 'school shopping' (literally, but that is a longer story than this blog) and she is now a happy member of Mrs. Bryson's kindergarten class at Knoles Elementary. We are NOT the firt ones there every day. School starts at 8:30 every day, and that's when we leave the house to walk all 4 of us up there. Most days we get there before attendance is turned in. Some habits never change, as my mom pointed out.

The girls and I entered the county fair for the first time. Addie and Quinn both got first place blue ribbons for their cookies and watercolor paintings. Aaron hates fairs to the point that he wouldn't even go to show support for his girls. He went canyoneering instead. So we recruited my mom to come down for a visit over labor day and spend a memorable day at the fair with us. The most comical irony of the whole experience was that I recruited friends and their kids to enter with us and every single person who entered because of my influence (a total of 10!) earned a ribbon...except me. And I had 3 entries. One of which was a jar of the jam that Angie and I made together, hers got a blue ribbon. Another was whole wheat bread, and as far as I could tell I was the only entry in that category and I still didn't get a ribbon by default! I consoled myself by remembering that at least my family likes my homemade bread and jam.