4th July Weekend.... Mom & Dad's anniversary, My bday and Brett's Bday

 I had not been to my parents fishing camp in a long time.  So sometime back in early May we were all talking about it and my dad made the comment we should all come one weekend, so I told my kids that we needed to make a plan and all go.  We decided on 4th of July weekend because I would have Monday off and we could celebrate Brett's bday (6/30), My parents anniversary (7/3) and my bday (7/8) all in one weekend.   I also knew we needed to set a date and go ahead and plan it by asking mom & dad.   Their camp isn't that huge and some of my brothers like to also take their families up there during the summer.  I knew there would not be room for all of us if my kids, their spouses, etc. were going.  So we made a plan and mom put us down on her calendar for the camp that weekend.  Brett was excited because he had been wanting to cook everyone some crawfish.   He wanted to show my parents how good he could cook.   He's really amazed me since he moved out.  He cooks a lot and loves to cook!   

The weekend was HOT and didn't end exactly how we had planned, but overall it was a good weekend.  Brett cooked up some fabulous crawfish on Saturday.  He added potatoes, mushrooms, sausage, corn, & asparagus.  Everyone enjoyed and as a mother, I loved watching my son cook.  

 ~~ Hanging out with your adult children is like visiting with the most beautiful and precious part of your life. ~~ They start out as tiny people we adore... and grow into our favorite people as adults. 💗

Everyone enjoyed each others company.  We missed Matt, Aybri and Gary who did not make the trip unfortunately.  One of my brothers, Robert, has a camp also on the river and joined us for the crawfish feast and soon his wife, and daughter Hailey with her husband and son joined also.  Here are a few pics:

Zoie got lots of loving!

My parents enjoyed watching their grands cook! 

Me and my brother, Robert 

I tried to take a selfie of our table.  

I took these looking down from the top of the stairs at the camp.   We finally got to see Hailey's baby in person. 💓 

Baby momma, Whitney, started feeling bad that afternoon.  We all thought it was the spicy crawfish, heat of the day and her climbing the stairs to the camp several times.  She decided it was best for her and Brett to go home instead of staying the rest of the weekend.  We tried to talk her into staying and played it off as she was just tired and should rest.   However, they ended up leaving Saturday night around 8pm or so, but not before she gave me and Brett our birthday cake she had made 😍  We grabbed a few pictures and they left.  

My parents little fishing camp

Erin and I were sad when Brett & Whitney left.  That left just me and Erin with mom and dad.  We were like... man ... now what we going to do to celebrate the 4th without everyone here.  We had hoped the whole crowd would be there all weekend.   But you know my mom... she pulled out her puzzles and we went to work.  Man puzzle are HARD! Especially a 1,000 piece one!  I think I may of drank a whole bottle of wine and ate 2 pieces of cheesecake besides my cake Whitney made 😂👀😬   I had a nice sugar high. 😂 Erin and I laughed at mom so much!  It was a good night... even if we skipped dominoes or cards that would have been easier for me LOL .... Mom loves a puzzle so that's what we did.  Sometimes that's what you do when you LOVE someone... you focus on them.. not you. 💖

The next day dad took us out on the pontoon for a long ride.  There were lots of boats and jet skis at certain points of the river.  Everyone had a flag and was dressed for the 4th of July.  Black Warrior river is HUGE! Not like Leaf River back home.  We had a wonderful day with my parents.  It was a quiet day.  We thought we may see Robert again, but we didn't.  I'm glad I was able to go stay a few days with my parents.  I'm lucky to still have them and I love that my kids also take time to spend time with them!  Later in the evening Whitney texted us to tell us she had ended up going to the doctor because she could not shake feeling bad and she tested positive for COVID 😰😭  I felt just AWFUL for trying to talk her into staying all weekend.  It never crossed my mind that she might have COVID! So now we were all worried... she was 29 weeks pregnant and now has COVID! I prayed a lot that night before going to bed.   Thankfully she is recovered now and the baby is doing good! 🙏  We are on the countdown till baby wood gets here... 10 weeks! 😍

And that's a wrap for our 4th of July.   I hope you all had a wonderful 4th and remember... spend time with your FAMILY  💖

Summer Training

 I think for most of the country we are in the HEAT of the summer.   Most days I get in my vehicle to leave work and my dash says 101-105 degrees!  It's that muggy, sticky, can't breath type of heat.   The heat that just rises off the pavement and seems to form around your body making you feel as if you are in a sauna.  The dew point is 70+ every day.   That's the real number you need to watch when running other than the humidity.  My phone often says no good running condition on the weather app. 😩

So what are you doing to handle this heat???  I'm writing this so I can look back and remember what I was doing in the summer of 2022.  I'm training for back to back marathons come this fall.   Which means of course... piling on the run miles.    I had to make a decision several weeks ago as to whether I was going to continue training like an ironman or marathoner.   It was a HARD decision.  I've pushed myself to training in all 3 sports... running, biking and swimming the last few years.  I'm not one who can run 30-50 miles a week and also get in long bikes and swim miles.   So I had to ask myself what is important right now.   Well, that didn't take me long to say... RUNNING.   I mean .... I've got 2 marathons just 6 days apart.... it was a no brainer.... but still it caused me a couple of sleepless nights and days worrying I would lose all I've gained... especially on the bike.  I can still swim 1-2 easy days a week while running, but if I'm going to increase my run miles weekly, there is no way I can do long bikes of 30+ miles.  My body  just won't take that stress.   

So here I am 9 weeks from Berlin Marathon and I'm slowing increasing those run miles.  Last week I had 38 total run miles.  I haven't had that many run miles in a LONG time.  My plan builds to 45-50 miles depending on my body... we'll see if that max will be 45 or 50.  I'm taking it slowly and doing a lot of EASY miles.  And I'm doing a midweek long run with Penny.  I was glad she decided to join me.  We are only doing 8-10 miles midweek, but that's longer than either of us normally do during the week.  We are meeting after work around 5:45pm.  It's HOT and we are hoping that by the fall this training in the heat will pay off!  It doesn't work for us to meet before work due to where we each live and her being a teacher.  So one of my runs has to be at night.  All the others are EARLY morning before daylight.  Which BTW I'm still drenched.  Our AC runs all the time in my house.  We are in the dog days of summer!  I'm starting to feel strong again in my running.  They do say if you want to improve, you've got to run more.  It's all about building that endurance and time on feet so come September my body won't shout back at me and say.. what the heck are you doing. 😀  

Beating the heat..... not sure you really can... But here's what I've started doing.   A couple weeks ago at the end of my long run my legs felt like any minute they were going to cramp.   And then when I got home they did cramp! I would go to get out of the chair and it would hit me... and while sitting watching TV that afternoon my toes kept cramping.  It was terrible.   So I decided that my nutrition was not enough for all the sweating I am doing.  I am literally drenched after my runs.  Even my shoes are soaking wet!  I've never done a test to see how much water I'm losing or what my electrolytes are... but I knew I needed something better than what I'm doing.  So I've started drinking LMNT and taking magnesium at night when I got to bed.  I think it's helping.  I had 18 miles this past weekend and no cramps and I didn't feel totally like crap towards the end of my run.   I even had energy when I got home.  💛 I will continue and see how I feel.  Praying it continues to help.  We have 20 on tap this weekend.  

This morning I did 6 before work with some speed work sandwiched in the middle.  It felt great.  I just pray that my body will continue to feel good, no injuries, the world won't shut down with COVID going back up, and that everything works out at work for me, Penny, Joe & Jane to make this journey across the country to do the Berlin & London marathons.  🙏🙏🙏   I am so blessed to have these running friends!  They may not run all the miles with me and Penny, but they'll come out and run as far as they need to and it's just good to have the company! They are my people! Just a few of our running pics lately. 

Penny and I testing out one of our running outfits for the Berlin Marathon.  We want to represent the USA while there. 💓

So how's your training going?? Are you beating the heat???