Beautiful!

Wow, we made that! Perfection!

Triathlon Countdown

4 days until my first triathlon! Woo Woo!! What!?!? Party girl turned triathlete? Well not totally but, sort of. Hey, I can be in shape and still have fun. My friend Lisa is a perfect testament to that! :)

I have been a training fool. Tonight is the "Stroke and Stride" at the Boulder Reservior. It's a 750 meter swim in open water and a 5k. Sadly my right heel has been preventing me from doing the run, so I have renamed it to the "Stroke and Slack". Tonight however Molly and I are doing a "Stroke and Ride", so a swim then on to our bikes (while practicing our transition) for a nice ride to her house. We are excited and feeling up to the race on Sunday!!

This whole working out thing is new to me, thanks to a few glasses of wine one night when I told Lisa I would start taking her Boot Camp class. Then hey, how about starting to swim again too. A few running drills in class, and VIOLA! A triathlete is born, I can use my cruiser in the race right?? Not exactly, but sweet Sara K. generously lends me her road bike and off I go.

Still can't believe I own a shirt with pockets in the back and a padded skort..... at least it's black.

Wish me luck!!

Chemicals, pesticides, and toxins..oh my

Taken from a great blog:

http://www.debraslist.com/

"A report by Environmental Working Group that shows significant toxic chemcials presence in the blood of newborns. Analysis of 10 samples of umbilical-cord blood taken by the American Red Cross found an average of 287 contaminants in the blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides, plastics, and other common toxic chemicals. Of the 287 chemicals detected, 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests.

The Executive Summary of the report says:

Not long ago scientists thought that the placenta shielded cord blood — and the developing baby — from most chemicals and pollutants in the environment. But now we know that at this critical time when organs, vessels, membranes and systems are knit together from single cells to finished form in a span of weeks, the umbilical cord carries not only the building blocks of life, but also a steady stream of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides that cross the placenta as readily as residues from cigarettes and alcohol. This is the human "body burden" — the pollution in people that permeates everyone in the world, including babies in the womb.

The report is based on tests of 10 samples of umbilical-cord blood taken by the American Red Cross. They found an average of 287 contaminants in the blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides, plastics, and other common toxic chemicals. Of the 287 chemicals detected, 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests."

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Yikes!! More from me about this later.....

The Great Escape

Last night we had our good friends Molly and Adam and their two kids over to The Box House for a bbq. Near the end of the visit I was standing in the living room with Adam asking if he has read my blog about the HUGE spiders we keep seeing outside, he says, "Like that one right there?" as he points to the corner next to the TV. I glanced, jumped, ran away, and did the little dance, as I had done before as described below in my "Creepy Crawly" post. The comforting part was that Adam was almost as equally freaked out as me. See, my husband Stuart is a rock, not much gets him worked up, except when I am loosing it. I'll admit it, my behavior is totally irrational and probably very annoying. So to see Adam, jumping around and looking itchy, I'll admit, it made me feel better, well not better, but less like a total fruit-loop.

When........"Oh my god, there is a baby spider coming out of the wall too!!" were the next words out of Adam's mouth, let's just say, I had our suitcases out and began to pack up. Meanwhile Stuart gets a huge metal snow shovel out of the garage, approaches the spiders, gets in to position, and takes a good wack at the wall, hard enough to hopefully kill them, but not enough to ruin the drywall. Sadly all I hear is "shit, they went back in to the wall". So I packed faster, and we arrived just in time to get Neva to bed.

It's good to be home.....

The dreaded sippy cup

So here it is, in all it's glory, my new favorite well I think so, at least for today. Cue the music...... "The Thermos Foogo, leak proof, insulated, stainless steel, aluminum free, bpa free, straw sippy!!!" So far I love it! And Neva loves it too, although she still tips it up to drink from it like a regular sippy, not quite getting the whole straw concept yet. It keeps her drink cold, holds a good amount for a summer outing, and *so far* is not linked to cancer, reproductive issues, tumors, ingrown toe nails, speaking in tongues, or seizures. phew.......

I recently heard that the Sigg bottles we have all been using are changing their manufacturer because of possible aluminum leaching, good god!!!!!!!!!!!! What next? Is anything safe? So I am really routing for good old fashioned stainless steel to get me through until the next scare when I will probably invest in another kind of $20 water bottle. I should start saving now.............

George Bush and Dollhouses

I sure wish George Bush agonized, obsessed, researched and lost sleep over his decision to invade Iraq like I am over figuring out which doll house to get for Neva. Not to compare war with childhood toys, but I am driving myself nuts over which one to get. Here are my 2 favorite choices:

Plan Toys Chalet:
http://www.toyimage.com/popup.html?src=images/PRODUCT/large/PLT-71410.jpg&pname=plan-toys-chalet-dollhouse-with-furniture

The best part of this one is you can change the layout of the house, move walls and seperate it in to two different houses, which is a great feature when kids don't want to share. Although it looks like access is somewhat restricted due to the slanted roofs. I also like the price of this one, and it comes furnished.

Ryan's Room:
http://www.mytoybox.com/SW5516380.html

I love how big and accessible this one is. It is more traditional but has some cool add on's, like a garage with roof deck and various decorating choices. Once you get the house and furnish it, it is more expensive, but I like the openess of it so much more.

I get a little obsessed about decisions like this, not sure why, but I have spent way too much time on this one.

Creepy Crawly

Neva and I arrived to "The Box House" around 6 pm last night. I got Neva out of her car seat and placed her on the sidewalk near the stairs leading up to the house as I got everything out of the car. While doing so, I heard, "bug, bug, bug", which Neva says whenever she sees anything that remotely resembles a bug, often not a bug at all. So I ignored her, got everything out, went to pick her up when I noticed her head was 2 inches away from the HUGEST spider I have ever seen in my life! Now, I have been known to exaggerate here and there while telling a story, in order to make it better, but seriously this thing was well over 2 inches long and thick! Anyone that knows me knows I am terrified of spiders, so I grab her and start running down the driveway, panting, sweating, swearing, and doing little jumpy things because I think my skin is covered in spiders. Then I noticed that Neva was horrified, about to cry, totally confused, and looking at me in terror. So I mustered up the fakest smile I could, told her I was ok as my voice shook, slowed my breathing, and counted the seconds until Stuart arrived so he could kill this monster on the steps.

I saw another one today while watering the lawn, this mountain living thing is not for me......

OOOHHHH!! My first blog!

OK, here I go... I have wanted to start a "blog" for a while now, for a few different reasons. Here are my top 3:

1. Now that I am a mother, my desire to document and archive my life with my family has become something I can no longer ignore. I love the idea of Neva being able to look back and see what our life was like and be able to catch a glimpse of who her mom is.

2. I use to journal when I was younger, and while I am sure I will censor myself a bit here, I wanted to have a place to share my thoughts with anyone who cares.

3. Our family all lives very far away so I thought this would be a fun place for them to see what we are up to.

So I guess I will start with today..... It is HOT, I mean 100* out, no humidity, but still HOT! I don't like being hot, anyone who spends any time with me knows that. A moment ago my sweet and psychic husband just brought me a nice cool glass of white wine. I know, I know, it's only 2:12 in the afternoon, but who cares, it sure is yummy!

Neva is sleeping, although I think starting to wake. She and her dad spend the morning playing in the dirt, gardening, and hanging out in the nice shady back yard. While I packed (more later on that) made buttermilk blueberry pancakes, did laundry, cleaned the house.

We are leaving this afternoon the spend 2 weeks house sitting at our BFF's house. We are beyond thrilled to be doing this for many reasons! Here's why...

1. They live in Boulder! Yeah for us. While we love our little 100 year old house here in Lafayette, it is a good 25 minutes to Boulder. Stuart often takes to bus to work and I sometimes drive him home. But I, on the other hand, go to Boulder MWF in the am to work out at the gym and often have to go back in the afternoon for a fun social event. This means that some day's I spend 2 hours in the car with Neva! Too much! So we are very excited to be close to everything and everyone we love the most. Not to mention the money we will be saving!

2. They live in a very cool house:

http://cfapp2.rockymountainnews.com/slideshow/slideshow.cfm?type=DREAMHOUSE&ID=dhweek13&NUM=1

3. They live a little up the mountain so it will be cooler, and they have 2 small kids, this means all new toys to keep Neva busy!

So I am packing our life for 2 weeks, I know I can always come back to get something I forgot, but I really hope not to. Our neighbor Ruth will be watering the lawn and my tomato plants!

Well, I think I'll end here for the day, take a shower and load up the cars.