And now… for a blog update.

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update because, as I mentioned yesterday, it’s been a little crazy around here as we’ve adjusted to a summer schedule.  And when I say “summer schedule,” I mean this — there is NO schedule.  We’re just taking each day as it comes.

This might be one of the reasons why that running streak I so eagerly embraced back on Memorial Day just didn’t happen.  Remember that?  The challenge to run every day from Memorial Day to Independence Day?  I was hitting it hard and keeping the course, until halfway through June when all the other things we had scheduled made running a secondary thing.  Really.  Many mornings, when I had a whole long list of things to do literally ALL DAY LONG, I reasoned with myself that I could get up at 4am and run… or I could catch up on sleep.  Take a guess at which I picked.  That’s right!  I got a few extra winks, and I don’t regret it because I’m certain that those extra hours of sleep saved my sanity.  I still managed to hit the running schedule that Wes is on for our Disney races, and that was what counted.  We’re plateaued for the summer, per our running plan, at ten mile long runs, and I am infinitely pleased to tell you that while running ten miles in this heat does indeed suck at times (particularly around mile eight when our route has absolutely no shade), we’re able to do so without croaking.  Or without even feeling like we might want to.  This, friends?  Is proof that we’re not as out of shape as we thought we were.

I was very excited during the early part of June to get to register for the WDW Princess Half Marathon.  I was under no illusion that I would EVER get to run this race because Wes refuses to run a race where he’ll get a “girl” medal.  I can’t say that I blame him for that, but it’s not like I would have expected him to dress as a princess (which some men do) or even as Prince Charming (again, which some men do).  Oh, well.  I just assumed that was one I’d never get to do… until Wes’s mother mentioned a long while back that she might like to try a half marathon one day.  I suggested the Princess one, volunteered to go and run it with her, and waited to see if she’d decide to go for it.  And she did!  This year, they’re doing something called the Glass Slipper Challenge — a 10K the first day and the half marathon the second day.  I signed up to do that, figuring that after we complete the Dopey Challenge in January (a 5K, 10K, half marathon, and full marathon in four days), the GSC in February will seem like small beans indeed.

So, now?  Instead of getting one “girl” medal?  I’ll get three.  Woo-hoo!  So excited to get to run this race!  And thanks to our annual passes and our reward miles with Southwest Airlines?  This little trip is costing me next to nothing.  What a treat!

Speaking of things that cost me “next to nothing,” we got the shock of our lives when, after TWO YEARS of avoiding the dentist, we finally went back.  I told the girls they were going to the dentist, and they both shrieked, with great delight, “We’re going to visit Oklahoma?!”  Y’all, we’ve been living in Texas for a year and a half now.  It’s been that long.  (Please don’t judge me.)  I informed them that we’d be visiting a new Texas dentist, and after hours spent trying to find a dentist who would see all four of us (there are all kinds of crazy restrictions on our insurance for children of a certain age — above seven and below twelve seems to be the range that no one can agree to cover/treat, and that’s right where Ana will be in a couple of weeks), we finally had four appointments scheduled.  Wes and I like to play “guess the cavities” before we go in, which is always a fun game.  While we were both close on the number of cavities, neither one of us was anywhere close on the cost estimate for the surprise root canal that Wes has coming his direction.  Holy cow, y’all.  It would be cheaper to have them start pulling all of his teeth and give him dentures.  You think I’m kidding, but I’m not! 

On the plus side, both girls are cavity-free.  This gave Ana license and liberty to offer Wes advice on how to take better care of his teeth.  She even mentioned to him that he could just get gold teeth if that would be easier.  So helpful.

And with that?  There’s your update.  I’m planning on blogging soon about my grandmother and all that went on a couple of weeks ago when we went to Alvarado, prepared for the worst, and how she surprised us all.  Until then…