Breathe

I drove over to Appalachian Ski Mountain for my first organized bike ride yesterday. It was a long 30 minutes because the entire way I was talking myself out of doing the ride. Could I last the 35 miles? I’ve biked part of the parkway and here’s a little secret, the hill from Moses Cone to Grandfather Mtn kinda sucks. So as I drove over, I knew 16 miles of that ride pretty well, what would the rest be like? I’d convinced myself that I’d just go over and check it out, maybe get the water bottle and other swag then ride the Parkway on my terms. But some very nice volunteers had me signing up with some great confidence builders, “that What you ran 7 miles yesterday? Oh, you can do this.” So with shaking hands, I signed my “you could die on this ride” waiver and got my bike out.


Here’s what I learned on the Rock The Blue Ridge Parkway Ride:

1. This WAS a ride, you tell them what time you’re leaving and off you go. Not sure what happens if you fall off a cliff.

2. It starts with a nice downhill until you get onto the parkway, the a LONG uphill that gets you in the mood for the ride, left half a lung around milepost 296, plan on going back and looking for it.

3. Riding up the long uphills, it’s all about rhythm, keep your feet going in a rhythm and the breathing then starts to mimic, even if on a few of them I sounded like one of those 1-800-HOT-CHICKS phone calls.

4. Laugh at yourself when you get lost and add another 2 miles to ride, realizing it when some guys say, “You’re doing the 75 miler too?” Sure they looked surprised, but I did too as I turned around. Wait, WHY did they look surprised?

5. Flat Top Dr is nothing but flat, very enjoyable riding the last two miles UPHILL to finish the ride. Lost another lung on that one with a few curse words that are still echoing through the mountains.

6. I can’t tell you any part of the parkway that isn’t beautiful, even climbing up Shulls Mill Road with very tired legs I marveled at the waterfalls, rhododendron, rocks as I fell over.

7. There’s nothing better than finishing up with Bluegrass, beer and bragging. Nothing tastes better than an ice cold beer when you've pushed yourself!  This also include a cool jersey and some great pictures showing I was actually there, including the lungs I left along the way (maybe someone will donate them).

The best part is pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, even if it meant going by yourself and having great conversations with yourself along the way (I only caught myself saying, “Huh” once!) Another bucket list event crossed off, wait a minute, isn’t there a 75 miler to this ride? And that, will be another story!

What’s your bucket list bicycle ride?

THE CLAW!!!

There are few inventions ever made that a mother hates, I mean HATE with the capital Hof the word.  Oh sure, Silly Bands, they are up there, but there is one that is our children's first taste into what HELL was like!  Honestly, whoever invented this probably made a deal with the devil on this one!

The machine is THE CLAW, that game in the arcade that has the metal pinchers that follow where the user guides them fall down into a plethora of-----bling, stuffed animals, wii games, wallets, gold rings, gold bars, whatever it is but NEVER comes up with anything!  Wait, I correct myself, the first time your child plays they win something, creating the PERFECT addiction!  (Didn't the devil say something about temptation?)  They know it can be done, so if it takes 26 dollars and 75 cents to get that Pink stuffed octopus which the machine drops RIGHT before it goes down the golden shoot into their hot little hands.  This tragedy is followed by the child looking at parent with pleading eyes, and another "Just 4,573 more quarters Mommy."

Typical joyful experience at the game room with my angels:
"Mom, can we play games?'
"Yes, here's 500 dollars each, be careful,"

a total of 5 minutes go by....

"Mom, can I have more money?
"What?  What happened to the $500 I gave you?"

"I played the CLAW, but this time I know it, I can WIN EVERY TIME!"

"The wallet's empty."

Then the claw crying begins, it's the crying and whining that they didn't win, which moves into the crying and whining for more money when you've already left a mortgage payment behind.  Blood plasma selling anyone?

They watch you put the magic card into the ATM and it makes more money for the claw.  Just when you have them convinced to give up, the CLAW pulls out the BIG guns!  For some strange moment the wii game that was buried under the stuffed animals all of a sudden is visible!  This prompts that begging for more money because, "This time they'll win, they just know it!"  One child finally gave up and crawled into the machine for that MAGICAL stuff animal!

Why is the Claw hell?   I think it's a great way for God getting us to want to let our children go! What does the CLAW mean in YOUR life?

I can still remember the words to THAT song!

I've had the pleasure of hanging with 3 kids (two of my own) for the last days of summer break.  Surprisingly, we've had a blast, I'm not ready to drive by the school and kick them out of the car!  Funny thing about hanging in the car traveling to different places.  These kids surprise me in that they know all the words to Soul Sister by Train, Ok, well almost all the words.

We're listening to KISS (ugh, really?  Who really wants to be a Billionaire?)  and as each song comes on two of the kids are singing with it!  When did they hear those songs?  Hear them long enough to know ALL the words? Were they secretly listening to the radio while I thought they were READING?  (Honestly, who really read all summer?) 

So two of them are singing the song, while the third (my youngest) is trying his best to keep up.  He's making up words, sort of humming/singing until he gets to a part he knows then he belts it out, "Hey soul sister...."

I remember those days of summer, hanging with your friends listening to the radio (we didn't have ipods) and singing songs.  In honor of those little voices in the back of my car, here's a few of my screw ups when singing songs:

When he walked into the room, there was poo poo in the bag.  (correct:  When he walked into the room there was voodoo in the air.
Country Roads, take me home, to the place that I LUUUVV, West Virginia, mount your momma, take me home.
I dug my key into the side, Of his pretty little souped-up ALLwheel drive  (the Mom side of me showing supposed to be 4 wheel drive)


So we're off in the car again, I'll listen to them and see if they come up with any other good ones!  Sad to say, I'm still singing along with my songs, now on OLDIES station but still remember ALL THE WORDS!!

What's your favorite song?

Lessons Learned at Great Wolf Lodge

Our second day at Great Wolf Lodge and there were lessons learned here that will help any family thinking about the pilgrimage to this mecca of enjoyment for children.
1. This is a resort for kids. Don’t expect the adult side of the room to have any amenities-soft bed, small couch, table and two chairs, that’s it. The TV’s position in the “kids cabin” is such that even at its lowest setting the sound will bounce right into the adult section of the room and make any conversation or anything on the TV unheard.
2. Forget taking a picture of the bucket dumping water on people – forget it, you won’t get the picture. You’ll either get wet or lots of pictures before or after the water dump. Sure, there’s a bell warning you that it is coming but you’ll still never make the picture.
3. Don’t sit by the water spouts – after watching one woman sit on the water spout for 15 minutes and then a man (yes, a MAN!) lay on the water spout for a few minutes, I resolved to never go near the water spouts of any splash park for obvious reasons. The lifeguard walked by and looked at them then looked at me with a, “What do you want me to do?” look. Really!
4. Game room reality – you will spend a mortgage payment in the game room and leave with very sad children. They’ll each have a few tootsie rolls, a plastic rings and a bracelet but cannot let go of the thought that had they gotten !,745,3746,564 tokens THEY TOO would win the Wii or the motor scooter!
5. Just when you think you have some confidence, a man walks past you with prettier boobs than yours-there goes the confidence!
6. Once you’re showered and dry and ready to leave, some kid or his father will squirt you from the Jungle Gym so you’re back to looking like a drowned rat just in time for your two hour drive from the Great Wolf Lodge.
7. You’ll be short in the wallet, water logged, and nauseous when you leave Great Wolf Lodge you’ll have great memories in your mind and be ready for the trip NEXT YEAR!

And I thought Silly Bandz were Ingenious

Closing in on the last days of summer, we wanted to cram in that last little bit of sunshine, I mean, fun things to do. Our family always ends the summer with a “last hurrah” and every year it’s a trip to Wet and Wild! This year we decided to do something different, we went on a LONG trip (45 min) to Concord and The Great Wolf Lodge! Ooohhh Ahhhhh! In case many don’t know me, I’m cheap and this presented a great deal. Check in at 1pm, use the water park until 9pm, then use the water park until 9pm the second day! So we booked our Kid’s Camp and packed a bathing suit and went on our way.

The Kids Cabin is a small log cabin the kids sleep in complete with their own TV and three bunk beds. We knew this place was made for kids when they had more amenities in their cabin and the lodgey feel than we did. Our side was a VERY soft bed (did not make Goldilocks happy), couch, table and a TV we couldn’t hear because the kids TV was bouncing off the walls to us.
Here’s the ingenious part, this lodge has a large indoor waterpark that remains a constant 84 degrees. As we checked in at 99 degrees and 100% humidity, someone was smart enough to create a place even adults are happy with, The Great Wolf Lodge! The kids eyes rolled back in their heads as we entered the waterpark, and I was pulled in three directions almost at once. Max and I started on the easy slides, me looking all cute in my bathing suit if I must say so myself. As we waited, I heard a constant bell dinging,

“What’s that?” I asked the lifeguard at the top.
“Oh you’ll find out,” he said with a maniacal smile on his face.

And I did as 200 gallons dumped out of a bucket at the top of the contraption I was standing in right down on me and all the kids waiting for the water slide. So much for looking like Pamela Anderson on Bayway (no snide remarks here please) Looking sufficiently like a drowned rat, they pulled me to the rest of the slides (mom, will do it now her hair’s messed up). We rode mats down through tubes, we robe a float down more tubes, we ended up on something called the tornado. Now here is a nice sidebar, Maria takes all the kids on a nice gentle log plume ride and says, “You take them on the next one, if it’s anything like mine it will be FUN!” Sure.
This is called the Howling Tornado, should have been a red flag there. We climb in the tube and both children vote and make me the one that rides backwards (NICE). The Howling Tornado dumps us down a tube, into a pitch dark tube with another leave your stomach at the top drop before dumping your down this wall into another tube that shoots you out the bottom. I was still back at the first drop when the ride ended.

So ingenious, indoor water park where you don’t have to worry about sunscreen, bugs, or rain, complete with all the favorites – fudge, pizza, coffee, sandwiches, and BEER and you have The Great Wolf Lodge. As the kids settled down listening to their recants of the waterslides brought a smile to my face until I realized, “we’re doing it again tomorrow.” Maybe if I start with the slicked back look, I won’t look so much like a drowned rat.
Is it worth the price of admission? I’ll tell you after day two. What other ingenious things have you found in your travels?

What smells trigger your memories?

I was stumbling around the kitchen after sleeping way to late in the morning and opened the Starbucks Coffee. The smell came out and wafted around me, immediately I was taken back to good memories, pre-k memories (pre kids) when my husband and I would travel out to Seattle and visit with family.

Most say it’s a song that brings back visuals, others it’s a taste; to me it’s a smell. I get snapshots of feelings with pictures in my head when a smell triggers a memory. They are more intense that me trying to tell someone a memory, it is like time opens up and for a split second I am back there feeling what I was feeling at the time. I’m a little sad when the memory disappears as quickly as it came and I’m back to sipping the coffee thinking about what just happened.

There are sweet memories with smells, rose milk my grandmother used to wear (I wore it and got stung by two bees), Love’s Baby Soft and fuzzy sweaters and first kisses, Origins Ginger Essence and my Mom, Burt Bees Baby Shampoo and watching children splash in the tub. There’s also the hospital smell and saying goodbye, the smell of lilies and my Dad’s funeral. I’ll go back to honeysuckle and lying by the fence sucking on those tender flowers anyday.

I’ve got a bottle of Love’s Baby Soft sitting in my medicine cabinet and find that whenever I’m feeling down, I’ll pull that bottle out put in on and instantly there’s a smile on my face as I’m transported back in time for that split second! What smells trigger memories for you?

Getcha Motah Runnin!

Traveling into Boone, we’ve been and done all the important places – lunch at Mellow Mushroom. Wandering around the city, we decided to do something different our first step out of the ordinary was the Rock Climbing wall at Footsloggers. For Max this was a first time, I paused as they pulled out the paperwork of Wolfgang’s first attempt and he was exactly the same age as Max was now! Boy, time does fly when you are having fun.

Wolf scooted up the wall pretty quickly on the first try and I was amazed that both boys made it to the top of the wall with almost little effort. The best part was watching the smile on their faces as they made it to the top of the wall, as a Mom I was a little scared because this was a REALLY HIGH wall and as my little peanut made his way up, I tried not to hover or act like a MOM. On Max’s third attempt he picked a pretty tricky wall and halfway up lost his nerve and got stuck. We got to a point where we thought he was going to give up but with lots of encouragement from Wolfgang, LOTS of talking from all of us, he took a deep breath and made it to the TOP! His swagger after was funny.

The next stop was the Fun and Wheels go-carts. We paid for a ride, and were informed that both kids were considered peanuts and couldn’t ride the big cars, they had to go in the Junior Racers. We walked out and over to a track that was about the size of the a hot wheels tracks with cars that looked like they belonged on Little Tikes!
“Man what a lame track.” Wolf said.
“Yeah, this makes me look like a baby,” Max added.

The clouds parted and the sun came out as the attendant came over to us and said, “You’re at the wrong track. You guys are over here in the Junior Racers!” The boys looked like they’d been given the Holy Grail as they climbed into the Junior Racers on the big track.
“Gas and stop. You have five minutes,” the attendant told the boys as he jumped out of the way when Max hit the gas.

The first run around, the guys told me that I need to stand behind this barrier because, “MOM, go around again?” As one guy jumps out of the way and Max runs into the barrier in front of me, guess I know why they told me to get out of the way.
I laugh watching my sons cut each other off, watching them with the “I’m scared as shit” look on their face along with the exhilaration of, “I can’t believe I’m driving a gas engine!” As the clouds rolled in and thunder boomed in the distance right as their 5 minutes of heaven was done it started to rain. The nice guys working the park jumped out of the way as both boys forgot they had a stop pedal to the car.

Ever thought about that, that just when you THINK like is delivering something you really didn’t want, circumstances change and it’s heaven in a 9 and 6 year old eyes? Have you ever walked away from an opportunity that, had you stayed JUST A LITTLE LONGER you’d find paradise that you didn’t realize was there? Take that time to not only be in the moment with people you love and watch that joy on their face but also take that opportunity and go with it because you don’t know where it will lead. When will you take you that opportunity?

Do you follow directions?

So it’s been a week of decompressing from our great trip in the RV. I got to sit with some friends who’ve done many of the trips before. It was a hilarious and education experience.

“How do you do it, traveling from Florida to Canada and bring all that stuff with you?” I ask.
“What stuff?”
“You know dishes, linens, towels all that other stuff?”
They look at me strange, “Why didn’t you get the kitchen kit and the bedding kit?”
“Kit?”
“Yeah, you can order all the dishes, pots and pans, sheets, towels all that stuff and it’s in the RV waiting for you when you pick it up.”

I pause for a minute remembering how to cook on my one pan with plastic forks that kept melting when I tried to turn the bacon, a kitchen kit would’ve been pretty handy. “Didn’t know you could get a kitchen kit.”
They then ask the infamous question, “Did you watch the orientation video?”

All I needed to do was fart because I felt like a real smacked ass. Watch the orientation video? Who has time to watch the orientation video? I was busy bouncing around the house in excitement with the boys! Get two boys and one Mom to sit still and watch a video as it buffers in the computer! Naw, we just went right ahead with our one pan and 4 plastic cups! And you know what, it worked out!

We had some great meals in very interesting places (3 building Little Switzerland comes to mind) we got to realize that we did miss Daddy’s home cooked meals, we bonded as we lived off of lunchables and smores for dessert. Of course, had I received a facebook message or email about wanting the kitchen kit, I’d probably be all over that one!

Ever had an experience where you forget to plan something and something wonderful happens?