Where do I begin???

Since my last post this is what has transpired in my life:

1. my car breaks down and what was supposed to be a 2-day fix-it job turns into a 10-day job.

2. after borrowing cars for 3 days I break down and get a rental car.

3. Two days after signing up for my latest athletic event "Metro Dash" {see post below} I sprain

my ankle on a training day with my boot camp group.

4. Did I tell you the day I sprained my ankle was the same day as my son's 9th birthday party?

5. I spent the past week in a soft cast after a few days on crutches and am now

 rebelling against the whole "recovery" thing and am hobbling around without said cast.

6. And did I mention that I leave for a 5-day camping trip in 3 days?

But I must look on the positive side of things. 

Right?

Positives:

1. Fall break {2 glorious weeks!} officially began this weekend! And yes, I need it!

2. I am officially my niece's studio tutor on her nationally televised TV show, "9th Period." Yay!

3. I'm still looking forward to the camping trip down to Santa Cruz this week.

Here's me and my nephew bonding over our injuries the day I injured myself:

Here are a few pictures I took while on the set of my niece's TV show. So totally excited for her!!!

Here's the You Tube trailer:

Can I throw in a picture of my sister's new puppy? Is he the cutest thing ever or what?

Digi-page I made yesterday:

Please keep your fingers crossed that my next week proves to be uneventful {in a good way!}

Happy Sunday!

TGIF!

listening:  iTunes satellite radio: Radio Free Akron {all 80's, baby!} 

eating:  nothing

drinking:  ice cold water

wearing:  shorts & a tee

feeling:  mentally and physically tired

weather:  perfectly cool

wanting:  my to-do list to be done
needing:  a day of no obligations

thinking:  about my little man turning 9 this weekend
enjoying:  this rare moment of peace and quiet
wondering:  if the weather is going to be pool party-perfect tomorrow

My therapy digi-page for tonight:

Change of Plans

Life sometimes gets in the way. You know? 

Between an especially high workload and mommyhood, the half marathon I was planning on running next month just isn't gonna happen. I've been working instead of doing my training runs and my workload just isn't going to ease up in the foreseeable future.

So, Plan B:

Metro Dash

This looks like so much fun! I'm already envisioning the laughs, comaraderie and pain involved in this event. 

There were 3 main creteria that were immediately met:

                                           1. it's not a race {whew!}

                                           2. It's not timed.

                                           3. You can work in teams

Friends in a boot camp group that I'm a part of {well, not recently!} put together a team so it's off to San Francisco on Oct. 23rd for the event. Wish me luck!

Here's some Halloween craft inspiration for you.

Thanks to Jen at the Tatertots & Jello blog for the idea. It looks so easy and fun to make! Go here for the tutorial.

Last but not least. Here's a quick digi-page I did a few nights ago as I was inspired by a fun blog win over at Minitoko's website

Now I'm off to Boot Camp for a much-needed workout in order to prepare for Metro Dash!

It sure is handy to have a chef for a friend...

Last weekend Ginger & I took our annual "moms and boys only" camping trip to Memorial Park. It wasn't quite the weekend we had imaged but if we had to do it all over again we probably would! This was a quick getaway weekend so we picked up the kids after school let out on Friday and we headed out to the coast.

We agreed that we would take a ton of pictures on this trip since we sometimes get so caught up in what we're doing that we forget to bust out the camera. I heavily relied on my Hipstamatic photo app for iPhone since it's so much easier to use on a whim.

Driving down Hwy 1 towards Pescadero

We made it!

We made a quick stop into the local bakery that is known for their mouth-watering still-hot-from-the-oven artichoke bread. We always buy 2 loaves because between the 5 of us the first loaf doesn't even make it out of the parking lot before it's gone!

We set up camp

Within 2 hours of arriving we're enjoying our traditional spaghetti dinner. Mmmmmm!!!

The unfortunate thing about camping during summer weekends is that other campers tend to not understand camping etiquette. Meaning: Keep it down after 10pm! We are trying to sleep!

Thanks to a large group of campers who laughed it up and another group of campers playing with BB airsoft guns until 2am Ginger & I figured we got about 2 1/2 of sleep that night. 

Despite being bleary-eyed after 3 cups of coffee in the morning we headed out to the kids' favorite fallen tree via the ampitheater trail.

On the way back we had to stop at the camp store the kids like to call the 10,000 item store because there's a sign posted there that claims they sell that many items and the kids are just fascinated with it! 

The kids even enjoyed the park's craft day making coffee filter butterflies.

Ginger tries to sneak in a quick nap in the back of the truck. Nice try, Ging...but it's not gonna happen!

This is where the "adventure" begins. Ginger is about to start up the grill when she realizes my dear hubby didn't pack the propane gas attachment for the grill. Hence,  we have no grill to grill our tri-tip. :-(

But wait!

Do not fear!

Ginger can just barbeque the meat right on the campfire grill!  I mean, the girl used to cook for a living!

It was delicious! 

Thank goodness it wasn't up to me to tackle that because my meat would have been charred on the outside and raw on the inside!

Ginger & I had big plans to scrap our last night after putting the kids to bed but due to the fact that we were both exhausted we called it a night, put in our newly purchased ear plugs from the camp store and gave in to sleep.

Like I said, if we were able to choose to do it all over again. We would! 

Life is an adventure. Right?