thoughts from the deep recesses

The last day of August feels more like the first day of October. Cold. Rainy. Icky. I'm still holding out for some warm weather in September... but this weather makes me melancholy... I'm not ready for cold yet - I haven't soaked up enough warm!!! Kyler started two-a-day practices last Monday... they do a single on Saturdays and don't run on Sundays... but in the last nine days he's gone on fifteen runs. Sheesh. He's pretty worn out. Those long practice runs make the 3 mile races seem easy and short... so I guess it's all worth it. I can't wait for his meets... last year his best three mile time was 17:50-something... eager to see what he's able to accomplish this year. His best mile in the spring was a 4:54 mile... if he can keep even a 5:45 mile pace he could finish three miles in 17:15... we shall see... Summer is way too short. The kids start school in two days. I'd gladly keep them home for a couple more weeks. We just never get around to do...

Ugh. So I quit posting. And then I forgot all the fun I was having... and I could make things up, saying that day twenty was the day we went to the Spokane Indians game for fun, when I really don't remember. Or I could just admit that I didn't finish the month out. Didn't follow through. I failed. But it's okay. Because I learned a lot about myself in my little experiment. Even if I didn't manage to tell you all about each of my daily efforts, I was able to refine my own definition of fun... and I challenged myself to step out of my comfort zone. And - I had fun. And now I'm ready to move forward and get this nagging feeling off my back for not being a good blogger. So I'm moving on. On to September. Routine. Cool mornings. Cross country meets and school lunches. It'll be fun. Thanks for your encouragement as I shared my little journey - even if I didn't exactly do it perfectly. Smooch you all.

Day Sixteen You may positvely think I'm a freak, but on Monday my fun was working the Safeway and Albertsons deals to get all this food for pennies on the dollar... It required multiple trips to the store and about 8 different transactions, but in the end it was totally worth it. I'm totally stocked up for school lunches... Here's the breakdown: I got 31 boxes of granola bars, 2 boxes of bisquick, 2 boxes of cereal, 2 bags of chex mix, 5 frozen pizzas, 15 boxes of fruit snackies, 2 bags of granola nut clusters (so yummy!) and 1 microwave dessert for $32.60. If you figure an average normal price of $2.50 for each one of these (and that's being extremely conservative) this would normally have cost around $150. Not too shabby. And yes - that counts as fun. Day Seventeen I got together that evening with two girlfriends from church for the last installment of a three part series of cooking classes. We named it "Slice, Dice, Thrice" and invited young people who w...

Day thirteen - the day we left the beach... we were packing up and getting ready to drop the kids off with my parents for a week at Grandma and Grandpa's house... but before we left I had to get the 'cousin picture.' We've been meeting my brother Steve and his family at this beach house since 2001... this year was our tenth year in Manzanita with them. And every year, we've taken a picture of the cousins at this beach marker - beach access #12. They begrudgingly came down to the beach so I could take the picture... I heard "But we already got some good cousin pictures this week..." on the walk down. But I was not swayed. I LOVE tradition - and I know I would really regret it if we let it slide one year. Traditions are fun. And taking the cousin picture at post #12 is fun. Day fourteen - I got up early (after driving 8 hours the day before back to Spokane from the beach) and met my girlfriend Paige for a road trip to Whitefish, Montana to attend our dear...

Day eleven - we all piled into our cars and drove out to this lovely little meandering river a little bit inland from the beach... my nephew Spencer's girlfriend grew up going to this spot where you can jump off some VERY high cliffs into the river. You need to know that I'm a scardey-mom... I always think of the worst possible scenario for my kids and assume it's going to happen... so when I think of jumping off of cliffs into water, of course I'm expecting someone to end up paralyzed from hitting an underwater rock. Fun? Not really... But I took a deep breath and let my boys jump. This jump Kyler is taking here is about a 30 foot drop. No one ended up paralyzed. And I ended up having fun because it was so cool to watch my boys being boys. Their screams of pleasure were enough to make anyone smile. Crazy kids. And then we picked blackberries. Lots and lots and lots of blackberries along the railroad tracks that led to the swimming hole. I'm a berry picking machine...

So day nine ... no pictures. There are pictures out there, but I didn't take any on my camera. And here's why: I was the creator and administrator of the second Carson/Goins family Amazing Manzanita Race. Basically, I created a scavenger hunt in and around town for our families to do together, which included some video making and photo opportunities like singing the Star Spangled Banner on the beach and finding lots of little landmarks around town. My brother created one a couple of years ago so I thought I'd revive the tradition. It was lots of fun to come up with clues and then see the results. Scavenger hunts are FUN. Today, Day Ten - we all drove down to Pacific City to hike the dune at Cape Kiwanda... this HUMUNGOUS sand dune is an incredible hike... straight up. The only way to get to the top is by taking rest breaks along the way - otherwise you feel like your heart is going to pump right out of your chest. Even Kyler, who's in the best physical condition of eve...

Saturday was day seven . It was a dreary, rainy day. So Lorraine (my sister-in-law) and I talked Steve (my brother) into taking us to some garage sales and down the coast a ways to some antique stores. This is my favorite store along the coast, in Wheeler. It's a huge store that goes on and on. I didn't buy anything this year... but I sure like looking for treasure. It's FUN. Yesterday - day eight - we piled everyone into the cars and drove to the base of Neahkahnie mountain. We've climbed the mountain oodles of times and decided to take the trail the other direction this year... hiking toward the beach and Oswald State Park instead of up the mountain. I adore hiking these trails... the old growth forest reminds me of the woods behind the house I grew up in... mossy trees, ferns, huge evergreens... I really did have the world's best playground right outside my door as a child. The bonus here was the end of the trail. We hiked to Cape Falcon - a beautiful spot tha...

Traveling isn't super condusive to posting... and vacation makes it hard to want to blog, so here's a quick recap of the last two days of fun. Yesterday was spent packing and driving from Spokane to Vancouver, Washington. Not really fun, by most standards, except that road trips really are fun. I LOVE the uninterrupted time in the car with Asia. We always have great conversations. And good music. And laughter. The kids are old enough that they keep themselves occupied... and they've gotten so used to LONG hours in the car... pretty much anytime we go anywhere from Spokane it's at least three hours - (and that feels like a super short trip.) Our normal trip is six hours, and it's not unusual to do eight. So day five's fun was our road trip. It works for me. Today is day six . We spent last night with some old friends and had a leisurely breakfast with them... good to see them, good to visit, good to eat yummy food with them. The kids slept outside in tents and ...

Today's fun was a no- brainer . I read an article in the Food section of our local newspaper that highlighted a new frozen yogurt store in town. I haven't had frozen yogurt in years... seems like it's gone by the wayside as far as a business in the last decade... in fact I don't think Spokane even has a store dedicated solely to frozen yogurt - until now. Add the fact that this store was self serve (meaning YOU decide how much yogurt you want and exactly which toppings you want. You make it yourself, and then pay by weight: $.39 an ounce.) So we went to Froyo Earth. I got Strawberry, Pineapple and Coconut yogurts and topped them off with mini chocolate chips, fresh strawberries, a teeny bit of coconut, some roasted almonds for crunch and colorful sprinkles because sprinkles are FUN! We drove to a park (one from my list !) to eat our yogurt. Using the self timer with the camera on the hood of the car... love how the car caught our reflections. This staircase called ou...

No photos today... I need to start having fun before it gets dark so I can get better (or any) pictures of my adventures. I am interested and sort of sad at how hard it is for me to think of things that qualify as fun... Asia thinks my standards of fun are too high... that if I enjoy something, it should count as fun. But for me, fun needs to produce some laughter... so I'm still defining and thinking through what actually counts. Suffice it to say - already I'm discovered that what I suspected is true... I'm not really very fun. It's VERY easy for me to go through my entire day without having any fun by my current definition. Tonight Asia is out of town and I looked at the clock at 8:00 pm and said to the kids "I need to have fun..." Now apparently they aren't faithful Thoughts From the Deep Recesses readers, because they looked at me like I was crazy. So I explained "31 days of fun" to them - and then Savannah offered her idea: "Go outsi...

I'll be honest. I didn't feel like having fun today. I was buried in tasks to clean up from our weekend away and to prepare for our upcoming vacation which starts on Friday. The kids were bored. I was cranky. And I had to work tonight. At nine this evening I said to Asia "I didn't do anything fun today. Some days I just don't want to have fun." He replied with "But didn't you make a commitment?" And then "Go jump on the trampoline. I'll take your picture." You need to know that Asia is a horrible photographer. And that it was obviously dark and that I have blue eyes that always turn red when they're photographed with a flash. So I look a little demonic. But I jumped. And laughed. And pulled out a few old cheerleading moves. Here's the evidence: Did I have fun? Yes. Yes I did.

The other day Asia kept texting me from work, giving me ideas for my FUN experiment... and one of his texts said "What about photography? You think that's fun..." And I had to pause... "Oh yeah. Photography." I thought to myself. I texted him back "I don't think I've taken a picture all summer long..." So this weekend I got the camera out... we were in Leavenworth with our dear friends David and Brynn, spending one last extended chunk of time with them before they move to Northern Ireland... We took a walk together and I asked David first of all to take some pictures of our family... it's been ages since we had some good ones taken. Then I got the camera back and took a few shots while we were talking on the deck... My fifteen year old boy/man... My soul mate/partner/best friend/love. And then when we got home and I was puttering in the back yard I decided to take some shots of my cherry tomatoes (yellow ones this year!) I like taking...