thoughts from the deep recesses

Sunday we were all up at 4:30... piled into the car and leaving the house by 5:15 to drive over to Coeur D'Alene... There has been an Ironman Triathalon in Coeur D'Alene for the past nine years... athletes from all over the world come to do a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run. CRAZY. For the last two years, we've gone over to volunteer. Kyler's cross country team runs an aid station out on the bike ride... at mile 40 and mile 90. (The bikers loop through the 56 mile course twice.) It's a SUPER inspiring way to spend a day... I never cease to be amazed at the people who put their bodies through months and months of training to compete in an Ironman. All the way from the top professional who will complete the entire thing in around 8 hours to folks who will barely make it to the cut off time at midnight. We worked the aid station from 6:00 am (preparing for the arrival of the athletes around 8:00... cutting bananas in half, opening gato...

These three little boys have been friends since they were four... when they used to hang out and play while their sisters played together on Savannah's soccer team. They're not so little anymore. They're now officially sixth graders. Ready to 'rule the school.' Big, little man-children. Great friends. Love these long, lasting friendships for my kids... as a parent who consciously chose to stay in one place and keep the kids in the same school, this is the fruit of that decision. And then there's this one... Who is now in high school. Who attended an event last week that the school calls the "Eighth Grade Social" and all the girls call the "Eighth Grade Formal." I surprised her and made arrangements for our friend Monica to come over to curl her hair before school... the 'formal' took place in the afternoon instead of classes. We bought her dress months ago - off a clearance rack at Macy's... it fit her perfe...

My life is such a crazy list of to-do's that I've hardly given blogging a thought lately... Life continues to bring us an amazing array of opportunities to be thankful... from things like successful school years for all three kids to work going extremely well to God's provision for our trip... it's all good. One more short morning of school for the kids and I will be the parent of a sixth grader, a freshman and a junior. Honestly? I can't believe it. And in two weeks and two days, we leave for our trip. I have so many things that have gone by the wayside in our preparations... from blogging to creative pursuits, to (unfortunately, lately) running... I'm still getting in my ten miles a week, but I've not really been 'training' at all. So my list of things I'm hoping to pursue on our return is long. Long - but definitely set aside for now. As I've worked toward all the crazy details of taking a family of five to Africa, I've struggl...