I was able to run 5.05 miles in one hour today.  So that means I was doing 5 mph, which is not going to set any speed records, but is decent when you consider that I was running 5 miles in a row and running all of them at a consistent speed without the benefit of a treadmill or air-conditioning.  But it was a little cooler today for my run and I contribute my improved performance to that.   The race is coming up in two weeks so I don't have much more time to prepare.

 

I'm feeling a little stressed over some of my treasurer stuff with the church.  It's not a huge deal at the moment, but I just had a mess with the IRS fall in my lap and from what I am gathering the IRS is in error, and this mess dates back to 2005.  I am not a tax person.  I do the church's payroll taxes, but I'm no expert- so that is why I am feeling overwhelmed even though I haven't even got my hands dirty on this one yet.  What it boils down to is I have recieved an official sounding letter saying we owe lots of money, and I don't think we do.   Then kind of compounding that I have several other bills that are sitting unpaid, which is not the norm for me.   But I have been sitting on some of them because I need approval, and others because I am to obtain funding from other accounts and have to make an official request at the next board meeting on Sept 5th.  But having unpaid bills drives me batty.  Even though I am not SUPPOSED to pay them yet.  Just the idea that I have them and they are unpaid BOTHERS me.  One I know will be technically past due as of tomorrow.   That really drives me nuts.  I know that probably no one else gets worked up by these things.   Maybe that is why they made me treasurer.

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So I think I am going to be waterproofing/staining the deck while Payton is in school this morning.  But it just feels too dewy, so I think ok, I'll wait until 10 when the sun warms it up and then do it.  So I start cleaning out Payton's room a little.  10 rolls around, deck still dewy.  So I decide that the deck can wait and I completely clean out all Payton's drawers and purge all his clothes and toys that he has outgrown.   By 11:30, I thought perhaps the deck will be ok.  I still didn't think it was ready (our deck is shaded).   So I was pretty sad.  But then in a surprise twist I ended up getting 75% of it done between 2 and 4pm even with Payton home.  I was really wanting to do it badly.   So I will finish up the rest tonight or tomorrow.

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I guess I forgot to mention that I am officially the new treasurer for the Boyscouts in Woodbine.   Tim also volunteered to be a helper... I forgot what the exact title of what he does is called.  It isn't a den leader, it is more a 'help keep the boys in line/quiet' at meetings' type thing.  So I am excited to get started with that.   I am now treasurer for two organizations, Boyscouts and my church.  Although I think the church job is still going to be the more demanding of the two.

 

I went out running today (again) and I came in at 4.75 miles in one hour's time.   I then continued running and finished the 6.2 miles (which is a 10k) in 1 hour 15 minutes exactly.   I don't think I will be doing any better than that.  I am both disappointed by that time and satisfied with it- if that can make sence.  I know I could do better if I pushed, so in that sence I am disappointed, but I am satisfied because if I finished in that time for the race I don't think it would be an embarrassment.

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one more reason not to like spiders. 

 Oh my I didn't feel well yesterday.  Migraine.  It came on slowly and when it does it like that I fool myself into thinking it is going to be just a headache, and don't take the 'heavy drugs' I have a perscription for.   I shouldn't have done that.  By the time I figured out that it was a migraine it was too late.  I tried buring my head on the couch, pushing on my juggular veins, massaging my head, pulling on my hair, then finally as a last resort I took a hot/cold shower at about 4:00.  That offered some relief, but didn't wipe it all out.  I couldn't stay in the shower all day because Payton was home.  He agreed to play in his room with the lights off, and I agreed to play with him in there.   Mostly he just was going though the two boxes of toys I had put in there yesterday.   It kept him pretty occupied, and I am glad I put them in there now in retrospect if nothing else than to just help me ease out of the migraine.  It was very fortunate timing.

 

Today rain is forcast... so the deck staining/waterproofing is scheduled for Thursday.   I am really antsy to get on with that project.   

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See if you can figure out the story....

 This weekend turned out to be pretty productive.  Tim and I ended up scrubbing the deck clean (on our hands and knees).   Hoping to get it waterproofed/stained yet this year still.   It's going to rain Tuesday so maybe I can start Thursday while Payton is in school.  We'll see.  I was AMAZED how great it looks just after being cleaned.   I guess it was pretty dirty.  

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Got home this morning, Payton very much enjoyed the camper.  He wanted to go to bed at 6:00- he liked the little loft bed that much.   He kept finding excuses for us to go back to the camper so he could play up there.   I recall liking it when I was small too though.   It's kind of like your own little cave up there.  Of course, I remembered that type of camper being bigger somehow... I haven't been in one for so long I guess.  But Payton thought it was huge, so I guess it is a matter of perspective.   It's nice that my folks just happen to have multiple campers.

 

When I finally DID put him to bed sometime after 8:00 I shut the curtains to his 'room', but he complained that it was "too light" (over head lights on) in the camper, so instead of trying to read my magazine by flashlight I opted to just go to bed too.   But surprisingly- I fell asleep pretty quickly.   So did he.   I guess we were tired.

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 Today we go camping, and it was confirmed... camper.   Dad brought two... I assume one for them and one for Payton and I.   It is going to get down to 56 tonight so a camper is good.  No worries about needing long pajamas.

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I went running today despite the rain, and I decided to run my extra hilly route today.  Those things contributed to my less than stellar distance of 4.40 miles in one hour.  But I am still glad I ran today anyway.  I would have felt guilty had I not.   Tomorrow when Payton gets home from school we are (just he and I) going to go camping overnight in Avoca with my parents at a country music festival they go to every year.  I am not sure if I will be in the camper or tent.   Or if Payton will be in the camper or tent with me.   Kind of just up in the air at this point. 

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don't play games with a cat

Today was my 3rd straight day of running since Payton has been back in school.  I had decided upon the idea of running for exactly one hour, then charting the distance I went in that time as a way to gauge progress, rather than trying to go a certain amount of miles or making it all confusing for myself.   The first day I went 4.15 miles.   Day 2 was 4.55 miles and today was 4.70 miles.  So I am improving.   I know those distances are not super, considering I was able to hit 5+ miles in one hour on a treadmill last year, but running outside in HUMIDITY is very different.  I so dislike being drenched in sweat, but I have that race coming up so that is why I am doing this.   Otherwise I would be in the gym.

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it was pretty uneventful.   For Payton it was just like he never had left I think.   He went without fuss or incident.  I took advantage of the time and am resuming my more routine running schedule of 5-6 days a week.  I have gotten a little bit out of shape this summer from what I had been in the spring, although I wasn't dealing with such oppressive humidity then either.

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Johnny, Lindsy, Anthony and Connor came up for a visit today.   And Johnny and Lindsy convinced me to join www.Facebook.com, and I think I convinced at least Lindsy to join www.Stumbleupon.com, so we are even.   So if you are on Facebook, I am there now.  Come find me.  I have to say it seems much better than www.myspace.com. 

 

Here are a few photos from today:

 

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Be careful what you wish for...  Or be careful what you draw.

Today I determined that Payton can walk 3.5 miles.   We took a walk this morning, and that is how far we went before he started acting a little tired.  Luckily we took our walk in town and were not all that far from the car, so I didn't have to carry him.

 

We also took a detour to the park in the middle of our walk and met Cody, one of his classmates this year.  He said "I'm the pink pig!"  which at first made me go "huh?" but then I realized he was talking about the symbols that the teacher uses for each kid's cubby and sitting mat.  Payton is the 'green tree' this year.    School starts Monday.

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Payton's first photos he's shot are not going to win any awards, but I can tell he is trying.  There is no view screen as there is on our camera, so he is taking these the "old fashioned" way, by looking through the little window. 

 

 nothing new today, so enjoy some stuff:

I know I have not updated awhile.  Sorry to those of you who check in daily.  As you may have noticed I posted photos from this past weekend in Wisconsin.  We had a fabulous time.  Jess is very pregnant-30 weeks, and needed to take it easy for the weekend do to some health concerns, so that is what we did... which was fine since it turned out to be so hot.  But we had fun visiting, and Payton had fun playing with Rachel and with Kinch's Wii gaming system.   He is a big fan of the bowling, almost to the point of obsession.

 

Tonight was Payton's open house at school, not much to talk about really, just I think more to cue him in that school is starting again soon. 

 

And also we aquired a new digital camera from an aquaintance today who evidentally didn't need or want it.  It's a cheap-o key chain variety, but we discovered that it is a 3 megapixel which is way more than I would have given it credit for.   But we thought this might be an excellent camera for Payton, who seemed to be keenly interested in messing with it.

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Today we went to the beach, just Payton and I.   And we were enjoying time together practicing his swimming.  But then an 8 1/2 year old spiderman kid (he was wearing spiderman goggles) comes and asks if we want to play... and then he JUST! WON'T! STOP! TALKING!  He was saying that he had no one to play with because he beat up some kid (Gee surprise surprise) and he was telling me is spiderman and he likes to save people and he had big muscles and this and that and this and that and I tried to interject everytime he would take a breath and say things like "Well we are just trying to practice swimming here.... "  or "Payton is really to young to play with a big kid like you... Maybe you should try some kids closer to your age" but he just would not get the hint.   Then he stepped up the annoying factory by ten and tried to teach Payton how to dive and do headstands underwater (things he is too young to do safely), and and so finally realizing that this kid would not leave us alone we left.  I was so miffed.  I should have directly told the kid to go away,  but I couldn't bring myself to do that.  Apparantly dropping hints and ignoring does not work on 8 year olds.  So if it happens again, I guess I am just going to have to live with it or hurt someone's feelings.   I have to wonder about a kid who is so starved for attention.  I'm not the person to deal with it though.   I don't like stranger's kids.   I'm not even sure which strangers were his parents.  But I imagine wherever they were they were hoping someone like me was babysitting their chatterbox for them.

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I took Payton to the children's museum today.  Tim has free passes through his work this whole month.  Payton loves the ball factory room.   We spent 95% of our time there, 2 hours.   The rest of the museum is cool, but we didn't really get to see it.   The ball room is just a bunch of pneumatic tubes with air running through them, and then at various areas there are places to put the colored plastic balls in and you can watch them get sucked in and whoosh around the room.   Eventually they get sucked up into a hopper in the ceiling, and at regular intervals a siren goes off and the hopper opens and balls rain down everywhere.   Kids go wild trying to get all the balls back in the tubes before the hopper opens again.   And it is cool... for an adult the coolness lasts about 10 minutes.   But we were there for 2 hours.  2 hours.  I told myself I would stay until Payton became bored.  He didn't appear bored, but he was losing his original zeal... so I took that as a cue to go.  We might have been there all day.

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funny ad, took me a minute...

Yesterday when I went to get Payton at my mom's she gave me 3 flats of tomatoes.  So yesterday I had bacon tomato sandwiches for supper.   Today for lunch I had a salad with a little bit of lettuce and a lot of tomato.  This afternoon I baked bread and tonight we'll just eat bruschetta for supper- using up more tomatoes.   Tomatoes used so far, 1/2 flat.

 

It would be easier if Payton liked tomatoes.   Tim only eats them on Bruschetta, so that is why we are eating that tonight. 

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and more from the sidewalk chalk artist you may have seen around the web:

 

 

 

We're back from Minneapolis and the Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties for Paul and Lisa.  Had fun visiting and stuff.   I didn't take pictures though, so I don't have any to post but one of the ones that Lisa was kind enough to send:

 

This isn't the whole party, only about half of us... Pictured Michelle, Lisa (Bride), ME, and Kathy.   This was at the bowling alley where they had "cosmic bowling".  I don't bowl let alone 'cosmic' bowl, so my first game was a 30 something and my last game was a 60 something.  So at least I did improve!!!