Happy Sunday everyone. This is the time I usually FaceTime with mum and dad but given they are partying it up in London Town I will write a blog instead.

Getting close to summer vacation for the boys. Braeden I think has checked out for about a week. At the moment all the classwork comes easy to him. The teacher has tried to give him some extra challenge work but I think it's hard to keep that up when you have 30 kids of varying levels to deal with. So with the wind down that's occurring I'm sensing he's getting bored.



Cade's wind down for summer is a little more exciting. He's been transitioning over to the high school for football training. He picked up his gear this week as he will be attending a 3day football camp. I can't get over his passion for this sport. As soon as he got his equipment he had to out it on and head outside to do some drills with dad.











Last week he got to go on the jet boats trip with the honor society, next week he gets to go to the family fun center for another school trip, Tuesday night is the 8th grade dance, and then Thursday is his middle school graduation ceremony. He's a busy boy. He's getting all grown up. Just had his first break up :( Emily broke up with him last weekend. Turns out although her mom was fine with her dating, her dad is not. She lives with her mom but had been visiting her dad last weekend and he went through her phone and when he discovered, he made her text Cade and say it was over. Sad. Such an innocent thing. They only saw each other in school. Their text messages all revolved around school and sports. Cade was initially upset, but quickly realized this was for the best. So alls well :)
With Scott busy working out back prepping the land in front of the man cave for a cement pour next weekend, it meant I headed off for my Sunday run with just the dogs. Around mile 7.6 this is what we saw.





They stood and stared for quite a few minutes at Holly. I think they thought she was one of them ;)
Despite not having my pacer (Scott) with me I was pretty pleased with how my run went today.


Our new addition to the family is working out well. She seems to like finding new spots for a nap :)


Well that's all for now.
Hope alls well with everyone.


Love to all

Lucy xxxx

No Sunday run day for me this weekend. Scott has to work today, Braeden has his buddy Jadon sleeping over, and Cade is gone to the coast with friends to celebrate Chris's birthday. So no babysitter for me.




Here's a photo Chris's mom sent to me last night. Chris is the one next to Cade. Then there's Josh, Quintin and Brendan. Mum and dad will no doubt be meeting some of these characters this summer :)
They headed to the coast at the crack of dawn Saturday morning. Spent the day clamming, surfing and playing on the beach. Expecting a very tired teenager to return Sunday evening.

Chris's mom has been great at sending lots of photos and videos throughout the day. Which is great as It's hard for this mama to let her baby bird fly from the nest a little. I know it's just part of life but blows me away that we are at this stage already. Time really does fly. By the time we are back in Scotland for Kelly's wedding Cade will be turning 16!!!!

Yesterday morning for the rest of us was a morning of football. Flag football play off game and then they made it to the championships. We were the smallest team on the league, had lost our quarterback to injury (Braedens now unable to play being on boot and crutches for apophysitis) but at half time we were in the lead. Unfortunately going into the second half the other team managed to score a touchdown and we were never able to get one in for us. This was our second game of the morning, compared to the other team who got to do their playoff game Wednesday night. Seems a little unfair but that's just how the punches roll sometimes.

Here is the team with their second place trophies.




With Scott ready for some down time I decided to take the opportunity to try and get my distance run done Saturday afternoon. I was on schedule to do 12 miles this weekend but given it was now 80 degrees out I couldn't contemplate an outdoor run, so I hit the gym to try and get 12 miles done on the dreadmill!! Did not succeed. Only got 8 done due to some stomach issues and the fact my knees were just killing me pounding on this surface. So this is just a low mileage week for me. Will need to play catch up next week :)

Here I am after my 11 miler last Sunday.


We took Cade and friends boating at the lake. I got to sit on the shore as now the boys are old enough I don't have to be on the boat to be a spotter. Thank goodness because I get really sick with all the spins done to pull the inner tube. I spent a blissful day snacking and reading for 4 hours lakeside.

Monday was a holiday for us. Memorial Day. Scott invited his family over to celebrate my birthday. We barbecued salmon Bill had caught the day before. It was incredible!!! So fresh and cooked to perfection with a very yummy honey bacon marinade I had found at Costco. I made a Greek salad and bought potato salad. I was in food heaven. It also gave me the opportunity to practice my margaritas for my upcoming summer visitors.



Lastly here's a photo of Braeden I thought was cute



Hope alls well with everyone.

Love to all

Lucy xxxx

Hello all.
I have nothing to blog about but given I just tried to FaceTime my sissy and she's not around, and am sitting here with iPad and glass of wine, I got to do something :)

Had my check up appointment at the doctors today. Given I am hypothyroid I have to have my bloods taken yearly to check I'm on a therapeutic dose of thyroxine. He decided to do a complete blood count too. These bloods were drawn 4 days after my race that I bonked during. And I am so happy to report they showed the reason for why I bonked. My sodium count was low. He suspects that during the race I was hyponatremic. In hindsight I felt thirsty right before the race. Consoled myself that I had had my usual intake and would be fine, that it was probably nerves. I won't ignore that sign again. Also my red blood cell count was low and he says my red blood cells a bit on the small side. This is nothing to be concerned about and I just need to supplement my diet more with iron, B vitamins and minerals. Good to have a reason and something I can actively work on.

He wasn't so happy however with my reports of my occasional spontaneous dizziness. It's happened in sitting standing and lying down. Most recently I was working on a patient and felt it come on and was a wee bit worried I may have to excuse myself. Thankfully it passed. So given my report plus having parents with cardiac history he decided to do an EKG today. I personally don't think it will show anything, but I'll find out next week. He may consider putting me on a halter monitor for a month. That should be fun to try and run with :)

Boys are well.. Other than Scott that is. He was working on his motorcycle tonight, it started to fall, so he tried to save it. Result......burnt his leg on a pipe. Oh, it made my skin crawl to see it. Thankfully not deep but the drawback of that is it will be pretty painful. Disgusting to see his skin stuck on this pipe. Yuck!!!!!!

Braeden had a day off today. We had some plans for what we were going to do after my doctors appointment and before Cade got home on a half day, but instead he ended up watching me get an EKG. Still he enjoyed watching it. And we had done donuts for breakfast (tasted so good after my 5 miler), then when we were done we headed to pita pit for a Philly steak pita, so he was quite happy. So lovely to get to spend time just the 2 of us even if we didn't do anything. This afternoon he was off to Lego robotics, then flag football practice tonight.

Cade's growing up. His interest right now are purely football, and working out to prepare for football. He has a girlfriend named Emily, and he has asked her to the 8th grade dance. She has ordered a pretty teal sparkly dress, and so Cade realizes that's sports shorts and t shirts aren't going to cut it, and has asked to go shopping for an outfit. I'm delaying it a little as I don't think the dance is til the end of the month, and I think. He is growing right now.

Gosh I almost forgot, I had Cade at the allergist this week. He has not been very well controlled with his symptoms over the past couple of years, and 2 weeks ago when I slept in his bed because I was worried his asthma was going to send us to the ER, I decided we should go speak to the allergist. He is such a wonderful doctor. Very thorough and great at educating me in all the aspects that need to be addressed. Long story short he is on a lot more meds now, with follow up in 2 months, then possibly a pulmonary function test.
One of the new meds he gave Cade a sample of until we could get the prescription filled. When Cade used this new inhaler, he initially was alarmed at the feeling, which was his lungs expanding, then after 2 mins he said " I feel like my body is breathing for itself instead of me having to breath for it". I nearly cried. Poor wee soul. Nice to have him feeling better already.


To finish, here are some photos I took of my drive home from Costco tonight. I have been mesmerized by the skies here in Oregon today. One minute sunny, the next stormy.













- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Time to get blogging again. I said I would when I didnt chat to dad on FaceTime Sunday, leaving him to watch the last of the golf in peace.



Been really busy at work. With our new computerized documentation system along with increasing demands from insurance companies the paperwork side of my job it's taking a lot more time and effort than before. This has been leading to a lot of going back into work to get paperwork done after I have picked Braeden up from school. Braeden does well when I have to do this. Quietly does his homework and reading beside me but it's not something I can do long term. It's not fair as it pulls my attentions from him and leads to Cade often coming home to an empty house. Not to mention, Braeden is very susceptible to picking up on my stress levels no matter how much I try to hide it. So, fingers crossed, my boss has said she will look into the ability for me to access doing my documentation from home. That would take such a load off :)

Speaking of Braeden being able to pick up on how I'm feeling, he did it again on Saturday after my pear blossom race. His soft comforting eyes and gentle squeezes brought me to tears after a disappointing performance. I was my best trained, best rested, and fueled the way I always did, but it all fell apart and I came in at my worse time ever. I had trained to be able to finish in 90-91.5 mins, but instead came in at a 96 mins 50 secs.

The day started well. Travelled to the race with friends Kate and Danielle. Met up with Danielle's friend Kelly. A few race day nerves but got rid of those quickly with the help of some good laughs with other runners. Not to mention we found an inside bathroom without a line. That's gold on race day!! :)



We headed to the start placing ourselves not too far back in the pack to reduce how much weaving we would have to do at the beginning. The gun fired and we were off. The first few miles felt great. Legs felt good, energy abound, conditions excellent. Sun was out. I was running at my planned pace on 8:50. At one point had notice 8:11 on my watch but it was too soon for that so I pulled back a little. After mile 3 it's ok to pull out a faster pace.

As I was approaching mile 4 it all suddenly fell apart. Legs began to feel like concrete. Grabbed some water, maybe just getting thirsty. No change :( mile 4.5 took in some jelly beans as I headed up the hill. I actually like some incline. My technique seems to improve usually but not today. Legs like concrete. Mile 5 half way there "you can do this" I told myself. I've been running 10 most Sundays. This isn't any different. But still I could not shake the heavy legs feeling. By this time I had lost my mental anchor of Danielle, who was running the pace I had prepared to do. The last 5 miles is a blur. Don't remember hearing a single song on my playlist. Fought between walking it out, and picking up the pace again but my legs never got better. Ran under a hose provided. Boy that was a mistake. Felt myself take those fast short inhales you do when you have been crying a lot. 2 miles to go, surely I could do that. Nope!! More walking. Finally finished, crossing the finish line shaking, shivering, disorientated. Danielle and Kelly, they finished at 89 mins, were great. Grabbed a banana, Gatorade and water, and encouraging me to take some in. But only tiny bites and sips were possible. What went wrong????? This should've been an easy race for me. although not happy with my time, that's not what's upsetting. An average 9:41 pace over 10 miles ( especially when I walked a lot) is not too terrible. Reality is it's only 40 secs per mile slower than what I had planned. It was feeling so terrible that upsets me. But after all the analysis, I just have to reconcile it just wasn't my day. My body must be missing some nutrient or vitamin to have broken down that badly on what is not such a long distance.



Here I am held up by Danielle on the left, Kate on the right.


A close up showing a glimpse of an "out of it" Lucy.


So Sunday morning I got up for what I now call my reconciliation run. Scott and the dogs took me out to remind me how much I love to run and we did 4.25 in 35:57 mins. And it felt great. Then this morning we headed out for a moonlit 5k finishing in 25:30. So I am reassured that I haven't lost it, just got to have my first real experience of "runners bonk" this last weekend :)

Braedens flag football team coached by Scott did win this weekend though. 20-0. And both boys have been doing state testing in school and scored in the exceeds category so that's great. Life's not too bad at all now is it??









Right, I'm done for now.

Will be back soon I hope

Love to all

Lucy xxxx

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunday morning and I'm up early to eat my breakfast and drink my coffee before 6 so I can head out on my run by 8am. That way nobody really notices I'm gone and I still feel like I have a whole day left once I'm done. So this seems like a good time to blog although I really don't have much to report.

Our schedule has decreased since having to pull Cade from basketball this week due to him being diagnosed with osgood schlatters syndrome. This is when the quadriceps muscle doesn't lengthen in line with growth spurt at the bone level and it pulls on the quadriceps tendon where it inserts below the knee. He had developed increase knee pain and significant swelling after last weeks game and admits he had been having some knee pain prior to that. Having a physio in the family is very handy, and he figured out what was going on and we began home treatment right away for rest, ice, compression and elevation for the rest of the weekend. On Monday morning Scott spoke to one of the orthopedic surgeons, and he stressed how it's important to take immediate action as if ignored these can become disastrous, worse case scenario it pulls off the bone, sometimes taking a chunk with it. We consulted with Cade's pediatrician who has seen a lot of cases and he advised he's ok to do activity so long as it doesn't hurt. Anything that increases symptoms should be stopped. So we allowed Cade to try basketball practice on the Wednesday with Scott watching over him. Next thing I know they are home early for their tea. He was limping pretty significantly and Scott pulled him, making the decision that season was over for him. Heartbreaking!! I love to watch him play and he loves to play especially on this team filled with his buddies, but we can't take the risk, especially with him being so driven to participate in high school football. Got to get him recovered and strong ready to start football training.

This week coming the high school counsellors come to Cade's school to hand out the forms to fill in subject choices. We will have a week to complete it. His core subjects are chosen out for him based on his performance in middle school. So for math he will be entering geometry. Cade is on track to completing high school math requirement over the next 2 years allowing him to do college credits the remaining 2 years of high school. He will be placed into chemistry due to his position in math right now. He will be placed into advanced social studies, and of course he will start English. I think the plan is to take Spanish, as oppose to French or German the other options. Then he gets 3 electives. There is everything from wood shop, metal shop, cooking, medical, to business management, computing etc. We've got some decisions to make :)

In May the football coaches visit Cade's school and assess their fitness levels. They will choose who gets to begin to be bussed to the high school 2 days a week at the end of the school day to do weights and agility work in the high school gym. Cade really wants to do this so has started working out in the man cave. There are 2 local camps in June he wants to attend, then in July he begins 3 day a week training either 8-10am or 5-7pm. The week mum and dad arrive is called "dead week". A week off from training :). August 4th to the 7th is conditioning week. August 11th to 14th another camp. Then as mum and dad leave, beginning the week of the 18th he goes into daily doubles. Training morning and evening. All this and he may not even make the team. They will have tryouts and make cuts :( Cade understands, and is very driven to play so is beginning the work now. Keep your fingers crossed for him.

So this busy schedule means when mum and dad are here getting away may be for some long weekends vs the usual week away. Scott and I have to work the first 2 weeks they are here which is a shame given. Cade has that first week off, but we have 3 day weekends. Then the week we took off hoping to get away we now need to stay in town as Cade will be at camp Monday to Thursday.

That's enough on Cade. Braedens doing well. Playing basketball and getting better each week. He has started wanting to shoot hoops with me out back and he's really quite good. Unfortunately he still suffers right leg pain from the bone bruise he got when he jumped off the ladder onto the concrete floor and ended up on crutches last fall.

Scott has started running again, dropping 10lbs in week one. He also found some $140 running shoes in Ross for $35. Jammy dodger!!!

Alright. Time to sign off. It's 630 and the house is staring to come alive.

Let me find some photos to post to brighten this page up.


Braeden watching TV in his new glasses, then some ones from Christmas that I was playing with looking at maybe printing off to put up in the house.











-Love to all

Lucy xxxx

Good Saturday morning to you all. This is my view as I drink my coffee this morning.


- Doesn't matter that I'm the one that takes her on runs, Holly is definitely a daddy's girl :)

The boys rooms are finished. Fresh paint and new floors. Photos to follow.

Basketball games today. Braeden at 9am, and Cade at 315. So not much room for anything else today. But glad I get to watch both boys today. The past 2 weeks their games have been at the same time.

It's Chris's birthday today. A big happy birthday shout out to him. Hope he feels better and can enjoy his birthday.





And below, a photo taken by Chris. Yep, Miller got me good.


Hope alls well with everyone.
Love to all


Lucy xxxx

A quick peek at Braedens new bedroom post water damage. New color of walls, new floor surface. Scott's been busy all week with the painting. Floor guys came in today to lay the floor. Tonight will be move all his furniture back in, then I will take an official pic with Braeden in it. He is thrilled :)

Have not been good at blogging, have I? Looks like a post a month last year until September, then skipped 2, did 1 in December and nothing since.

Not sure I've got much to say. It was hard coming back after such a wonderful vacation in Scotland. In our depressed states we just hunkered down, ate all of our goodies we had brought back and zoned in front of TV. But we've been having some nice weather here recently so that has got us out for bike rides (Braeden) runs (Lucy) and long boarding (Cade). Scott has been busy with home projects both here and at Laramies, but we won't mention a little mishap Scott had when he very nicely steam cleaned my carpets a little too exuberantly resulting in the older carpets in the boys rooms not drying. The underpad was saturated resulting in the most rancid smell filling the house. Sunday was spent ripping up Braedens carpet (the worst of the 2), and have sliced Cade's down the middle to dry, and we will shortly be replacing them both :)

Saturday night we were out for dinner to celebrate Laramies birthday. We were running a little behind so Karen, Bill, Laramie, Davis and Lincoln were all seated when we arrived. As I approached the table horror of horrors, I was wearing almost an identical outfit to the birthday girl :D








Here are the boys together after dinner, before we hit Baskin Robbins :)

It's basketball season for our 2 so we stay busy with their 2 practices a week and games on Saturday mornings. Unfortunately we have a couple Saturdays when their games overlap so Scott and I have to split and only get to watch one of the boys. Last week I got Braedens game. Fun to watch him implementing the plays he's been taught and his dribbling and blocking skills are much stronger and efficient this year. Look forward to watching Cade next week. At his level they are pretty aggressive and competitive. Lots of fun to watch. The weekend I had my relay marathon I was able to watch all of Braedens game and just the first quarter of Cade's game before I took off. In the short time of watching Cade he scored 3 baskets!!! He was def gung-ho and aggressive out there. So it was no surprise to me when he called at the end of the game sheepishly to tell me he got fouled out. But only 3 mins til finish. Not too bad ;) he's definitely got a heart for competition that one.

Well I should finish up for now or dinner will not get made.

Love to all

Lucy xxxx