A Lot of Catching Up To Do

Wow! It's been a while, hasn't it? So, what have I been up to since I got back from Tahoe? Let me tell you.

After I got home from Tahoe, I jumped right into my marathon training. I will be doing the Marine Corp Marathon in October and the San Antonio Marathon in November. I'm a captain for this season's Team in Training run team, so I'll be doing most of my running, including track practices, with them. The Saturday after Tahoe I ran 8 miles!

We also had a lot of volleyball going on with Madison. Games for a summer league on Tuesday nights; games for the church league on Thursday night; and clinics given by a club on Saturday nights. She also went to volleyball camp at the high school for a week.

The next big event was haircut time. Madison had asked to get her hair darkened some and she did, but the dye didn't really take on her hair and it didn't really look all that different. Dalton on

the other hand came out looking very different.

Then on June 21st, I participated in the Lake Pflugerville Triathlon for the third straight year in a row. I wasn't sure how I would do considering I had only swam twice all year. I knew my bike would be strong coming off of Tahoe and I knew the run would be ok. Turned out I beat my best time by 2 minutes, coming in at 1:27:19 and coming in 6th place in my age group. Maybe I should not swim more often? No, it makes me wonder what I might have done if my swim was better. I passed lots of people on the bike, but got passed by two people in my age group on the run. Oh well, there is always next year.

Then later that afternoon, we took Dalton to a residential soccer camp with the Austin Aztex. He was there through Thursday afternoon and had a lot of fun.

And finally, on July 1st, we drove to New Orleans. We went to eat dinner and took the kids for a culture shock walk down Bourbon street (although it was still relatively early so not too bad).

When we got back to the hotel Madison went for a swim in the rooftop pool and then we went to bed. Thursday morning when we woke up we headed to the Cafe Du Monde for breakfast and then caught a taxi over to the port where we got on board the Carnival Fantasy for a 4 day cruise to Cozumel and back.

I did manage to get in a couple of runs on the sea days, but after that I enjoyed the day by lounging in a chair on the deck. The day we were in Cozumel was absolutely fantastic as I found a beach that only allows 100 people in and it's all inclusive. The day we were there, I bet there were no more than 25 people all day. And the guacamole and hot sauce are AWESOME! Not to mention the drinks. Madison probably had 7 virgin drinks that day! We did just a little bit of shopping before getting back on board.

And on our last sea day, I had to race Dalton down the slides. What fun!

America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride 2009

Once again, the ride lived up to it's name, but barely (thanks to the weather).

Sorry it has taken me so long to get an update done, but I stayed an extra day in Tahoe, arriving back home Tuesday evening in time to go straight from the airport to Madison's volleyball game. Wednesday I spent unpacking and getting into bed early. And last night I was going to update, but a huge storm blew through our area with tons of lighting and a couple of tornadoes. There was no way I was getting on the computer during that. So here I am tonight.

Friday, June 5th, I woke up and instead of getting ready for work I got ready to head to the airport. My parents picked me up and drove me to the airport so I wouldn't have to pay for parking while I was gone. I got there early, but shortly after I arrived other teammates started arriving as well. There were about 35 of us on the flight out and once we were in the air, the flight attendant made an announcement about what we were heading out to Tahoe for. We got lots of applause on the plane. We flew from Austin to San Diego where we had a short (and I do mean short) layover. We got off the plane at one gate, walked to the next gate, and walked right back onto another plane. I'm just glad we made it.

Once we landed in Reno, we gathered our luggage and got on the shuttle bus that would take us to Tahoe. With the time difference, most of us were hungry and several HAD to stop at In-and-Out Burger. Since I'm a vegetarian, I had french fries. Some of my teammates more than made up for what I didn't eat. I guess they figured they were getting ready to burn a bunch of calories, so who cared.

Once we made it to the hotel I checked in and took my things to my room and then we all had to meet in the lobby to go get our bikes off the truck. I got my bike and when I got back to the room I unwrapped it, got the pedals on and aired up the tires so that it would be ready for Saturday morning's ride. Then it was off to the grocery store to stock up on things I would need for the weekend.

Friday night our whole crew went to eat at the Lake Tahoe Pizza Company. Last year when we ate there we had two tables full. This year, we had the whole room full of people. Lots of our teammates had brought family members with them this year. It was amazing to see the team go to work in helping the servers make sure everyone had what they needed.

After dinner it was back the room and to bed so that I could be rested for Saturday morning's ride which was scheduled for 7:00 am.

Saturday morning I woke up early so that I could eat my oatmeal and get ready to ride. When I looked out the window, the ground looked wet. This did not make me happy. Then a teammate came to my room and let me know that the ride had been postponed due to the wet streets. The coach wanted to see if the sun would come out and dry things up. I wanted to crawl back in bed for a little longer, but knew if I did I would never get back up. When it got close to 8:00, we headed downstairs and met our teammates. And boy was it cold. And it was still overcast.

We headed out for a 20 mile ride. The wet streets made me nervous, but I tried to stay with the front group for as long as I could for two reasons. 1) I didn't know where I was going and I knew they did; and 2) I was freezing and needed to warm up. I stayed with them for a good while, but then I dropped my chain and had to stop to fix it. Got it fixed and just took off trying to catch them. I never did, but I came close and I stayed warm. Toward the end of the ride the rain started coming. It wasn't real hard, but it was steady. At that point I didn't care if it rained all day Saturday as long as it didn't rain on Sunday during the ride. As soon as I was done I headed to the room for a hot shower.

The next stop was the packet pick-up. We got our ride numbers, sticker for the helmet and wristband that we needed to have on us during the ride. We also got shirts and water bottles and I have to say I like this year's shirt much better than last year. Some of our teammates were selling merchandise so we hung around for a little bit and then all went to eat at a place called Freshies. I really liked it because they served a lot of vegetarian food. I had a wonderful veggie burger and fries. Yummmm!

After lunch we went back to the room and really just hung out and relaxed for the rest of the day until it was time to get ready for the inspiration dinner. Our team had all tie-dyed t-shirts to wear to the dinner so I put that on and we headed to the party. At this point, it was still raining. It had been raining all day.

The dinner was the typical dinner, but the best part for our team is that one of our teammates gave the speech. Mike is a survivor of AML. He was diagnosed when he was young and ended up having two bone marrow transplants. The cool thing is that his bone marrow donor was with him and would be doing the ride with him Sunday. How cool is that? And who knew how funny Mike could be. He had us all laughing and crying. I think public speaking is what he should be doing! Overall this year, TNT raised $6.8 million for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Go Team!

After the dinner we all headed back to one of our teammate's room for the team meeting. Coach went over the course and where our very own Central Texas sag stops would be so we would know where to watch for them. We put our Texas flags on our helmets and then said good night. We had a long day ahead of us.

Sunday morning I woke up EARLY. Our ride out time was 6:05 am and the coach wanted us downstairs at 5:30. The question of the day was how to dress. It was cold and was still overcast early (but no rain at this point thank goodness). I finally figured out what I wanted to wear and headed downstairs to meet the rest of the team. We got in our riding groups and headed over to the start. And at 6:05, we were off.

I was riding in a group of about 7 riders at first, but we knew we would lose a couple. Patrick, Shelly, Mike, Steve (the bone marrow donor) and I were the group that we knew would stay together throughout the ride. We knew the switchbacks at mile 12 may break us up a bit due to the climbing, but we knew we would regroup after that. For me, the switchbacks didn't seem as hard as they did last year and when I got to the top, I got on the inside, looked right at the photographer and smiled. I wanted a good picture. Then we enjoyed the downhills a little bit. We also stopped for a group picture before continuing on to our first sag stop.

Once we were at the first stop we had to wait a bit. One of our riders was having some issues with his bike, so Patrick had stopped to help. We waited until Patrick got caught up to us and then took off again. By this point the sun was starting to come out and it was a welcome sight. I can't tell you how much I enjoy riding with the group of riders I have ridden with all season. It made the ride go by so much faster and easier than last year. The next thing I knew, it was time to get on the bike path out to Truckee. It wasn't crowded when we got on it, but it did get congested at times. Once we got off the bike path and back on the roads we took off. We had a bit of a tailwind and were doing 22-24 mph easily. We stopped at our second sag stop to refill drinks and grab some food and then headed back in. At this point we had lost Mike and Steve, but we knew they would catch up to us or we would wait for them at King's Beach when we stopped for lunch.

King's Beach was a welcome sight. I was ready for a short break by then and I was hungry for more than gummy bears and Lara Bars. I grabbed a veggie sandwich and some chips and sat down for a few minutes to eat. I also put rewetting drops in my eyes because at this point my contacts were so dried out from the wind I could barely see. The same thing happened last year so I was prepared this time. Mike and Steve did catch up to us at this point and after all had eaten, we headed out again for the last 30 miles and the long, tough climb up to Spooner Junction.

When we got to the bottom of the Spooner climb, I settled in to my nice, slow pace and just pedaled away. I knew there would be no fast speeds on the climb, but I did pass several people. At one point I told myself, "just keep pedaling, just keep pedaling". Toward the top of Spooner I got passed by some of our faster teammates who had stopped for another teammate to fix a flat. But every time one of them passed me, it gave me the inspiration to keep on going. I knew I would soon be at the top. And then next thing I knew, we WERE at the top and we were at the rest stop.

The special thing about our team is that we use the rest stop at the top of Spooner to stop and wait for all of our teammates to get there before we head to the finish line. And when I say all of our teammates, I mean ALL of out teammates, regardless of how long it takes. And this year it took a while. Several of my teammates had a beer (or two) and we all stretched and relaxed. At one point someone thought I was asleep on the ground.

When our last teammate arrived it was time to head out again and enjoy the next few miles of downhill! We had made a plan to meet up one last time a couple of miles from the finish line so we could all ride in together. At this point we put all the survivors and Steve up front and then all of our "triple crowners" next. A person who gets their "triple crown" is someone who has fundraised for and completed a marathon, triathlon and century ride with TNT. We had five teammates who achieved this status after completing this ride.

I can't explain to you the feeling of riding in across the finish line with a team of 35 people who have become close friends throughout the season. And to see our survivors leading us in - wow!!!

Once we were done, we checked in at the TNT tent, bought our pictures and then noticed the black cloud in the sky. Time to head back to the room and get ready for the victory party.

The victory party was fun. Although there is no "formal" speaker, Mike got up on stage again and gave a recap of the ride before "getting the party started". And once he got the party started, the dance floor was packed. He even requested the cotton-eyed-joe for us Texans. I stayed for a little while and helped my birthday buddy Jenny celebrate her birthday and then headed back to the room. We had gotten lucky with the weather and had a great ride on a great day.

Monday morning came earlier than I wanted, but the good news for me is that all I needed to take care of was getting my bike back on the truck. I had wrapped it up Sunday night after getting back from the victory party so it was ready to go. We took it down to the truck and saw our teammates off. Then those of us who were staying extra days headed to a local restaurant for breakfast. After that it was time to try to take a nap. I say try, because in the time I was trying to nap my phone rang three times. There goes that idea. Then I was going to go do some shopping when I got the call that it was time to go swimming - in Lake Tahoe.

There are several of us on the team who have done triathlons and have wetsuits. Since Patrick had driven to Tahoe, we had all sent our wetsuits with him so that we could swim. And that's just what we did. There were four of us with wetsuits and one who braved the cold water without. I didn't think I would make it because I HATE cold water, even with a wetsuit. After I did the Nike Women's Marathon I had put my feet in the ocean and they went numb, so I thought I'd have a problem here. But, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I actually stayed in the water for 15-20 minutes. I can definitely tell that I need to get back to swimming, though. Yikes! My swim fitness is not where it needs to be considering I have a triathlon coming up soon.

After swimming, I finally got in a little shopping so I would have something to bring home for the kids. Then while I was packing, it started raining and hailing. I told you, we got lucky with the weather. And then one of my awesome teammates fixed dinner for those of us who were still there and wanted to come have fun together. We ate, drank, and enjoyed each other's company until late, late, late! Then it was time for bed and my time in Tahoe was almost up.

I got up early Tuesday morning and headed back to the airport for my flight home. Once I was home, my parents picked me up again and took me to Madison's volleyball game. I was exhausted from another great trip and another wonderful America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride!

Getting Ready for Tahoe!!!

One year ago today I was riding my bike around Lake Tahoe for the first time. Now, I'm getting ready to do it again.

This past weekend we had our last group ride here before shipping our bikes to Tahoe. We met at a teammate's house and did the ride from there, getting in just under 30 miles. After the ride we had lunch together, tie-dyed shirts for the pasta party, and then got our last minute instructions for event weekend. We had a really good turnout and a really good time.

Sunday was a busy day for us, but Sunday evening was spent getting the bike ready for shipping because this morning, the bikes went on the truck. It's kind of exciting to see the bikes go. It really hits home that the event is almost here. Some of our first timers had that look in their eyes like "I can't believe it's here". Well, it is.

I will work through Wednesday. I took Thursday off as it's the last day of school for the kids and Dalton will have 5th grade graduation Thursday morning. There's no way I can miss that. Thursday afternoon he will be "kidnapped" by our youth sponsor and some youth from the church and will be officially welcomed into youth group.

Friday morning it's off to the airport to catch my plane to Tahoe. I'm on the same flight as most of the team so it should be a fun flight. I just need to figure out what to pack between now and then. The forecasted temps are about where I thought they would be (lows in the 40s, highs in the 60s), but there is also a chance of rain on ride day. I'm not looking forward to that possibility, so I'm praying for the best.

A couple of my teammates will have laptops in Tahoe, so if I can I'll get on a do a quick update to let you know what's going on. Otherwise, you can expect a long report when I get home.

GO TEAM!!!!

A Great Weekend

Last week was a busy week with soccer, choir concerts, more soccer and just end of the school year stuff. The kids have 8 days left of school and are anxiously counting down.

Saturday my TNT cycling team had our last long ride before Tahoe. And boy was it a tough one. The ride was out in Blanco and we started at 7:00. Because of that, I spent the night with one of my teammates who lives only 30 minutes from Blanco. She also hosted a pasta dinner Friday night for anyone who wanted to come and we had a decent turnout. It all made Saturday morning much more tolerable.

Most of the team was able to make it out for the ride, so we had lots of riders. We started off in 3 big groups, but the ride is FULL of hills, so once we started hitting those, the groups divided out a little more. I settled in with the same group of riders I've ridden with most of the season. We ride really well together - same pace and good company. The morning was a little overcast, but very humid. I had a hard time breathing on a couple of the hills due to the humidity, but managed to work through it. The sun came out for a little while and I thought it was going to get really hot, but the cloud cover came back toward the end. The fun part of the ride was heading out to Luckenbach. Everyone wanted to sing the song!

After the ride was over we had a nice treat. One of our teammates has a son who is in massage school. As part of their training, they have to do massages outside of the school. For free. And they were waiting at the end of the ride for us. SWEET!!!!! After the massage we headed to one of the local restaurants for some more socializing before heading back home.

As soon as I got home I had to shower and get ready for an event we had to go to for my husband's job. His boss (who is also a client of mine) is heading off for a six week bike ride to Canada. I'm very jealous! How fun would that be?

Sunday we slept in a little and went to the late service at church. Madison had been wanting to go shopping for a long time, so I took the kids and got them some new clothes. Sunday night was an Aztex soccer game. It got a little sloppy thanks to the rain that came during the game.

This morning I got up early and headed downtown to spectate at the local tri. I had some friends and TNT buddies doing the tri and wanted to cheer them on. I'm really glad I went. It felt weird not participating, but it was fun cheering for everyone. After the race the kids and I headed out to my parents to relax around the pool for a while. I like when we get to do that.

And so another long weekend comes to an end. Luckily for me it's a 4 day work week this week and a 3 day work week the two weeks after that (due to my trip to Tahoe).

I also want to say thanks to all the men and women who are in the military and put their lives on the line each and every day so that we can have the freedom we have.

A New Running PR and a Great Ride With Teammates

Got up this morning to temps in the mid-60s. Awesome! Much better running weather than 80 degrees. Ate my breakfast and headed down to the start line. Got a nice little warm up jog on the way there. Talked to a couple of friends before lining up.

According to my garmin, we started right on time. I know the course well and run much of it in my daily runs, so I knew what to expect and I could visualize the whole course. When we reached the first mile marker I hit my split button and saw 8:00. Usually I'm at 8:30. But I felt good and kept going. Mile 2 was 8:14 and mile 3 was 8:12. The last .1 was :45. Total time: 25:10, which is a new PR for me. I keep hoping that I'll be able to place in these smaller races, but I ended up 4th in my age group. I'm very happy with my time.

After the run, I walked home, changed into cycling clothes and headed off to meet a couple of guys from my TNT team. We headed north into the headwind at the start of the ride, rode out about 20 miles and turned and came back. Total miles today on the bike: 43:78. Mentally, I needed that today. Wind and hills only make you stronger. Plus, I got to ride with some of my favorite riding buddies.

Tonight: relaxing in the recliner watching the season finale of Survivor!!!

What a Week

Tuesday night was kick-off for the next Team in Training season. I'm going to be a captain with the run team this season, so off to kick-off I went. It was great to see so many people come out and want to raise money despite the lovely economic situation our country is in. And you know it's a small world when one of the people signed up for your team actually went to high school with you. Wow! It's going to be an interesting season.

Wednesday night I headed out to hill repeats. I got there before anyone else so I figured I would go ahead and start and see how many hills I could get in. I headed up the hill feeling good, cooled off in the cul-de-sac at the top of the hill like we normally do, and then started my decent. You can build up a lot of speed if you want to, but still being a little cautious on the bike, I feathered the brakes more than normal on the way down. And it's a good thing I did. As I got near the bottom something felt "off" to me. I slowed down even more with the intent of maybe stopping and that's when I heard it. Pssssssstttttttt. The front tire was flat. I couldn't get stopped and clipped out quick enough and down I went. This time on the left side. Some minor road rash on the left elbow and a big bruise behind my right knee from where my leg hit the bike frame. I'm starting to feel a little jinxed on the bike. I was so mad that I went home and ran 4 miles.

Thursday after work I headed out for a run. I was hoping to get 4 in, but running at 5pm in the lovely heat and humidity is not something I'm use to at this point in the year. I got 3 in and called it quits.

Friday was a "get things done" day. We took Tank back to the vet for a check-up and to get his heartworm medication, I registered for Sunday's local 5k, clothes got washed and my road bike got yet another new tire and tube put on. I also caught up on some tv watching that got missed this week.

This morning I woke up early, loaded my cycling gear, and headed of to meet the run team. Since this was the first group practice I wanted to be there at the start. As soon as the instructions were given and the runners took off, I took off to meet the cycle team. When we headed out, I was very nervous. I was afraid of getting another flat and crashing yet again. After about 10 miles I started to relax just a little bit. We had a great group of us riding together that stayed together until our first stop around 20 miles. From there we took off and ended up in a couple of groups, but still close enough we could see each other. The group of us together decided to do the extra 5 mile loop. As we were heading west on that loop, a cold front hit. One moment we were hot and going with very little wind and the next moment we were chilly and fighting a huge head wind. It was that quick. As we turned the corner to head north, I got nervous again. You could tell that it had rained there because the streets were slick and the crosswind was VERY strong. At one point I felt like it might blow me off the road. I didn't want anyone near me and got very close to calling the sag vehichle to come get me. But I kept going. We somehow managed to dodge the rain until we got close to the end of the ride. And it didn't start raining hard until we got back to the starting point and were loading our bikes. Then the team went to eat together like we normally do. I ended up with 51.9 miles.

When I got home, I took a long shower and then tried to take a nap in the recliner. I never did fall asleep, but it felt good to just lay there. Then I had to take Madison to volleyball practice.

Tomorrows plan assuming the weather cooperates: 5k in the morning followed by another bike ride!

I'M BACK!!!!!

...on the bike, that is.

Last week's workouts were a little less than stellar. After my "big" 10 mile ride outside on Monday, I attempted to do yoga on Tuesday. I say attempted, because I couldn't do half the moves. It was very frustrating. I can do a one -arm downward dog, but you don't want to see my attempt at a one-arm push-up. Not pretty. Then Wednesday I did a very slow 3 mile run on the treadmill to see if running would hurt the shoulder. I don't think it did, but either I was wrong or I slept weird Wednesday night, because I woke up Thursday morning and my whole upper back/neck/shoulder area was TIGHT. It was so tight that I called a couple of places Thursday to see if I could get in for a massage over my lunch hour. It didn't happen. I decided that my body may be telling me I was trying to do too much too fast, so I didn't work out Thursday night.

Friday night was spent running all over town like a chicken with my head cut off. My husband had to go out of town, so I got to be single mom all weekend. Madison had volleyball practice Friday night and we found out Thursday night that I needed to be at a parent meeting for Dalton's soccer Friday night as well. Both at the same time. Yeah, that would work if I could clone myself. Fortunately, we know some of the parents from Madison's volleyball team so I asked one if they could take Madison and bring her home. That was taken care of, so off Dalton and I went to soccer. After that meeting I ran him back home, got him some dinner, made sure he was packed and took him to one of his teammates house so he could spend the night and ride with them to his game in San Antonio the next morning while I would be out for my long bike ride. After dropping him off, I headed to the store to get gatorade and goodies for my ride and then headed to Taco Bell for my dinner and finally got home around 9:00. I ate and got my things ready and then soaked in a hot bath for a bit hoping that would relax my shoulder a little.

Saturday morning I woke up early and headed north for the Armadillo Hill Country Classic. This is one of the events some of our teammates fundraised for, so that meant we had some who would be doing the 105 mile route. Several teammates were planning on 80 and others were doing 60. I had originally been asked to do the 80 mile route with one of my teammates who also happens to be a survivor and is the honored hero for this season. He is an awesome guy with a great attitude, so I had no problem agreeing to this. But when I got there Saturday morning, coach had a different plan. He asked if I would be willing to get sagged forward a little bit so that I could meet up with one of the teammates doing the 105 route and have fresh legs to help bring him in. He told me I could ride the first 20 miles until I got to the third rest stop and then sag forward a bit and ride the rest of the route. So, that's what I did.

I tried to stay with Mike (the honored hero) at first, but he was just so dang excited, he took off. So I just kind of did my own thing, riding with teammates when I could find them, until I got further down the road. I do have to say that I was a little jittery in the beginning. When someone would get too close or cut in front of me I would put my hands very close to those brakes. But, I made it to the rest stop just fine. No so for Patrick. He popped a spoke about mile 19. But, he has done that before, so he was prepared and had extra spokes in his seat post. There were mechanics at the third rest stop, so he got it fixed and sagged forward with me. When Terry, Mike, Shelly and John came through the rest stop we were at, we joined them and headed off to finish the ride with them. And let me just say that neither Terry nor Mike needed my "fresh legs". Those guys were riding like they could go all day. It was wonderful to see their excitement. As for me, the heat started getting me latter in the ride, so at the aid stations I would stop and pour ice water over my head. When I stopped at the last one about 5 miles out Terry kept riding and said he wasn't stopping. Mike followed right behind him. I hurried up and dumped the water on my head and then told Patrick we needed to catch them. It took a little bit, but we did catch them. And it was awesome to be just right behind them as they crossed the "finish line". I checked my bike computer and I had gotten in 85 miles! Not bad for the second outside ride after a crash, huh?

I had planned ahead for the heat and packed a coke in my cooler, so I never made it to the proverbial "TNT finish line". When I got to my car, I stopped, got off my bike, grabbed my coke, and headed over to the curb to sit down and drink it. And then I lay there with an ice cold rag on my head and got water dumped on me. It felt good.

After I was finally cooled off a bit, I changed clothes and waited for our other 105 mile rider to come in. After she came in, I headed home to shower and headed to the victory party. There wasn't too great of a turnout since it's a local event, but Patrick, Mike and Terry were there, so that it was worth it. After that I headed home, had a glass of wine, and went to bed.

Sunday morning we slept in a bit (by that I mean that I didn't get out of bed until 7:30). Madison and Dalton made their own breakfast AND washed dishes, so that was great. I had my normal shake and we headed off to Sunday school and church. After church we headed home and put on our swimsuits so we could head out to my parents and spend the day by the pool. My parents were still out of town as well so it was just the three of us. The kids had fun swimming and playing in the pool and I just enjoyed laying in the lounge chair relaxing. I was in the sun for a little bit, but pulled the chair on the patio in the shade and took a nap for a while as well. It was a very relaxing Mother's Day.

Today was back to work but it was a slow day as most of the office was out on business. I finally got my massage after work (man am I tight - need to go back for more) and then headed to Madison's soccer game.

Today officially starts my marathon training for the Marine Corps Marathon, so when I got home I headed out for a run at 7:00. It felt a little cooler, but by the time I was done with my 4 miles I was soaked. I fixed me some dinner, put the kids to bed and then at 9:00 took Roscoe out for his walk. I'm soaked all over again. It's going to be a long hot summer!

And just for laughs.....remember when I mentioned we did curb side collections and made over $800. Well, most of that was in $1 bills. I didn't really think anything of it until I got ready to take it to the bank to deposit. First of all, $400-$500 in $1 bills does not fit in the little tube at the drive thru. Second of all, I started thinking that even if it did, I may not want to send it all at once. They would probably get the money and go "yep, this lady is a stripper".