hodgepodge

hodge·podge/ˈhäjˌpäj/

Noun: A confused mixture. 


An ongoing "complaint" this spring on my blog, and really with most of us locals is the weather. We have eeked out a few days of sun, but those seem overshadowed by the large amounts of rain falling, and cooler temps. A couple weeks ago was my annual trip to Flower World with Joanna. This year had to be the wettest and coldest garden shopping we have ever had. And we have been going there since our kids were in preschool! The following day was the district track meet. Mom and Dad came up-and sat in the cold stadium watching Kelsey run in the rain. We did get a nice surprise, however: Michael showed up! He had planned to come down on Saturday to surprise me for mother's day, but he got a ride on Friday and surprised his sister too. She ran a good mile and 800m for this season.
Mother's day was celebrated with a brunch at our house, and this was one of our nicer weather days. There was my mom and dad, my grandma, the Kennedy's and my aunt and uncle, Pat, Kelsey and myself. Michael had signed up to work a shift while he was here, and missed our gathering. We had really yummy food! Each of my kids made me nice cards and I felt very appreciated by them. 


Kelsey had two track meets this week. Both of which were in Oak Harbor (an 1.5-2 hour drive away.) She ran both days, but I only went over on Wednesday. And it POURED! All the way there, and during, with just normal rain on the way home. I felt bad for the kids. She ran another 800m on Wednesday. Friday she ran in the 4x4 relay. She is ready for track to be done! Unfortunately at the Friday meet someone took her track shoe bag during her cool down. We are hoping it was an accident and someone thought it was their bag. It had her new distance spikes, her new phone and some jewelry. AT&T has a feature where you can track your phones, and it appears to still be in Oak Harbor, but not at the stadium. Because of the weekend we are having trouble actually talking to anyone. The coach will contact their coach on Monday. Keeping our fingers crossed.


Pat left for a week in Atlanta for work on Friday. 


Friday and Saturday were dry. I got the lawn mowed, yard cleaned a bit. Ryan helped me on Friday with trimming some winter damaged bushes. We got a lot done during Kathryn's nap. 


Saturday night, Kelsey and I drove down to Mom and Dad's to stay the night. We had an early morning run in Olympia on Sunday. I have done the 1/2 marathon in the past, but this year I did the 5 miler with Kels. I am not back up to the longer distances to run the half. In staying at my parents, I only had to get up at 5am, instead of 4:30am!! And after our previously nice two days, what did it do? Yep, you guessed it-POURED! When I say pour, this is not normal rain-this is 1.5 inches of rain in ten hours. Man, were we soaked. The hardest part was trying to stay warm while we waited for Dad to finish the half. 
My running buddy Dory ran the half also with another teacher friend, Amy. It was Amy's first half, and she did well!!


I had a chance to look at old photos that mom had put into albums. There were pictures of Dad as a baby thru adulthood, along with his parents and siblings. One of my favorite pictures was one of Dad after pilot training graduation(I think) with his mom and my mom. My mom was very pregnant with me. It's the first time I've seen a picture like that! Then Mom had another misc. book that had pictures of her parents and grandparents. It was just fun to see all the different generations, and the cars they had, the radios (no tv for dad until he was in 6th grade), etc.
Mom also had LIFE magazines from the month and year each of them were born. Dad's copy was very war laden. The war was over by my mom's birth. The ads are also very entertaining. What I enjoyed the most was an article on everyone needing to be sterile while handling newborns. If the mother wanted to breast feed, she was draped, then her hands and breasts were sterilized prior to feeding. Everyone wore gowns, gloves, and masks. I sure am glad that changed!


Foot update: I'm still out there. Not any worse, still trying to figure out what is the best thing for me!


Travel planning: I booked our Vatican walking tour. I finally decided on a company called Angel Tours. And here is why: WHAT IS YOUR ANGEL’S BACKGROUND?

Most our guides have a history in crime and drunken pub brawls. THAT IS A JOKE. The guides are all fully trained, and have studied history, art, architecture, archaeology or Classical civilisation in university and they are all licensed.

Any group that has sarcasm on their website wins our vote! Ok, they also came recommended on TripAdvisor.com, and in Rick Steve's book. 


No pictures for this blog, thanks to rain. I'm bummed to not have any from our run today, but it was just too sloppy. 


Here is our countdown clock!!