Confession -

Ok, well, you know how some bloggers/Facebookers/Tweeters lives would seem perfect....all rainbows and butterflies and froyo and running and friends and vacations and life is just so perfect??

(in all fairness, most of us post the fun, exciting things because we want to share that stuff with friends/family....they don't need to hear the toilet overflowed, headlight went out in the car, or that you ran outta tp and are using paper towels)

Anyhow...I try to keep it real here on the blog.  So here you go -

It's been 15 years since I've been to a dentist.

It's been 13 years since Brian went to a dentist.

His teeth will probably have not one cavity.

My teeth - one broke in half 2 years ago, one is hollow in the middle because the filling fell out. I have a crown I can't bite down on.  I have a special "golden tooth" that used to have a veneer on it and has had part of a broken veneer stuck on it for 6 years.  I have a cavity behind a different veneer on a different tooth.  I have a tooth on the other side of my mouth from the bad crown that I can't bite down on either.  And too many chipped teeth to count.

So gross.

Every wonder why I always smile with my mouth closed??

For the record, we have always had dental insurance.  Even with insurance, though, dentistry is expensive....and I knew that whenever I did finally go to a dentist, it would probably require a second mortgage (wait....we rent.  Oh shoot.) However, since I have run out of sides of my mouth I can chew on and I've been having a lot of mouth/tooth/jaw pain...both Brian and I have dentist appointments Monday morning.  

There you go, there's my random, keeping it real confession.

Oh, if you're wondering about the kids....they go every 6 months and thankfully have Brian's teeth.

Myles' Party!!

 My dining room kept collecting things the week leading up to the party...

 It's a little hard to tell, but we have this huge Mulberry tree that is a great shade tree, and the majority of the party would take place under this tree....so it was decorated with 36 "danglers"....which all had to be hung really high because they were long.  Took a while : )

 Random, but my boots got new soles...not party related at all.

 This Mickey is so cool, he walks across the floor with just a bit of breeze.

Thanks for the banana dolphin idea, mom! They were pretty cute!

 There's a little silver pig hidden in this tree. It was an ongoing game, whoever found the pig hidden in the yard got a special prize...and it was indeed found. Do you see it?

 While I was setting up, Brian and Em went to the party store for the balloons.

 Above picture is the make a can pyramid and shoot it down with rubber bands game, and the put a cookie on your forehead and move it to your mouth using only your face muscles game.

 This was the vaseline on you nose, put your face in a plate of cotton balls and run with them stuck to your nose and put them in a bowl relay race game, and the tie the box to your booty and bounce out all the ping pong balls game.

 The kids all wrote their names on a bag and after every time they played a game, win or lose, they got to put a handful of prizes into their bags.

 And then our friends came and we all had a lot of fun -

 Ashley playing the move that cookie game

 shooting rubber bands at cans

 TP wrap up game...they spin in circles as fast as possible to unroll the roll fastest...very entertaining!

 The boys playing the cotton ball/vaseline nose game...I got suckered into playing this one a few times.  (MOM- notice in the distance...there is not junk/garbage cans? It's so clean!!)

 

 Playing the ping pong bounce game

 Sophie getting her face painted.

 I got a call the morning of the party from a teen boy we are friends with...he had made too many virgin Margarita cupcakes and wanted to bring some...they were so so good!! I stuck some mickey rings in them and they were perfect!

 The $1 Store fishing game I thought nobody would play with...huge hit!

 Auntie Jill and Uncle David in the bounce house, Auntie has traveled all over the world, but had never been in a bounce house!

 Snow Cone!
The party ended at 4 and we had the bounce house till 7, but ended up with it till 8:30, so Myles had lots of alone time to do his thing. He was pretty worn out, but every now and then he'd climb back in and bounce for a bit.

He spent the rest of the night in face paint, walking Mickey around the house.
We are super proud of our boy for getting through a rough year. Whenever things got rough, we'd encourage him to keep trying hard so he would get to have his party....and he did!! 
We're proud of you, Myles! Now...on to 2cd grade : )

Brazen Racing's Dirty Dozen, and 100th Race, 2014

All of these pictures are from the wonderful Brazen Nation of volunteers!  All race photos are put on a site to download for free (very rare in running, photos can be super spendy). There were over 50 pictures with at least one of us in them. Not to mention that the amazing NTL took a lot and sent us over a link to his.

So, here's a peek at the view the volunteers had of our day, I'll do a post next week with my pictures.

Here comes Sophie, nearing the end of a lap. That couple holding hands, I do not know them, but man they were so cute. They had Bride and Groom chairs at their base camp, and every time I saw them running they were holding hands. Later in the day, he carried a huge stump with some sort of flag/banner draped over it...I'm not sure what organization he was with, or what it symbolized, but it was impressive.

Emma and I ran two laps together, not sure which this is.  I'm holding the relay bib, it was on a tri race belt, which, unbelievably, I'm not built like a triathlete right now, and while it did fit fine around my waist, it gave me an extra roll that I did not appreciate, so I just held it each lap.

Myles getting his 5k done.  Emma was supposed to be running with him, but his 5k lap was her 4th lap around when she was over 13 miles in, and she was tired, and he got away from her.

She's just covered over 13 miles and she's still super happy!

Sam and Jasmin were presented with a book of 100 stories from runners who have cool stories stemming from running Brazen races, in honor of this being the 100th Brazen race.

There's a whole series of Myles finish line pictures..he got right to the timing mat, stopped, turned around, ran the opposite way to ask Emma which side he was supposed to cross.....5kers on the right, 6 and 12 hour runners on the left....then he turned around and finally crossed the finish line.  Killed me to see the pictures...I was running at the time and didn't see it.

Brian hit his goal of running a 50k, while I managed to survive the day : )

Sophie coming into the aid station at the far end of the loop.

I can't say enough what a good boy Myles was! He ran for 1 hour out of the 14 we were there, and never complained once.  He made a tent when he needed alone time, played on his Kindle, loomed, colored, ate, slept....and kept himself occupied. He managed to have fun and wants to do it again next year.

Thanks, Allen : )  I had tummy trouble early in the day, NTL loves a pottie picture.

Allen managed this pretty shot of one of my favorite parts of the course.

Love it!!

Sophie had no problem hitting 13.3, loved it, and earned a sweet coaster/medal/bottle opener.

Brian passing a little boy who's running the 10k, I believe.

Allen caught us having a serious convo about who should do the last lap...I had sat out for a few, but didn't think I could get a good fast lap in and still leave us time to do lots of little laps...so Brian headed out again...and it's a good thing, because he was just able to hit his goal for the day and wouldn't have had I done the last big loop.

Cheering in the runners finishing up their last little loop, right at the end of the 12 hours.

The girls with Mrs. NotTHATLucas after her last lap.

What camp looked like by the end of the day.

What we looked like by the end of the day.

A great look at all the runners camps near the start/timing arch.  The course runs down the middle.  Next year....pop up tent!!

There you have it, a look at the events of the day! Thank you again to all the volunteers who were out taking pictures, and thanks to NTL for your pictures.  NTL was doing the 12 hour as well as getting great pictures!!