Ironman's sister

Last summer Amy told me Derek was doing the Ironman in St. George.  I made the mental note right then that I would be there when he did.  Among the long list of things that stink about living far from family are all the events you miss out on.  Derek has raced a lot but I've never seen him do it.  I have to log in with a bib number or text to find out how he's doing.  For the full ironman..............I wasn't going to miss it.  

I flew into Vegas and snuck in some fun with my mom and my sister who flew down from SLC before the race.  

 Saw this show and did exactly what the sign indicated I would do.  Amazing!!

 Enjoyed plenty of this.

Checked out another of Guy Fieri's Diner, Drive Inn and Dive locations.  My sister and I try to hit one wherever we find ourselves together.   

IRONMAN TIME

And then it was race day.  I got to see Derek the night before.  He looked awesome, happy, positive and ready to go.   

We got to see Derek before he entered the water.  He looked so official, so much like an ironman.  My heart swelled up and emotions took over.  It hit me at that moment how grateful I was to be there for the experience.  We also got to see him in the water which was a miracle since they all look exactly the same. Then the sound of a gunshot and the race was on. 

 Here is "Team DK" ready to cheer our hearts out.  Amy got these shirts, all throughout the day people would ask me how Derek was doing - so fun. 

 

Derek at the swim to bike transition 

 Fresh off a 112 hilly bike ride.  Here he looked at us and said "I'm starting the death march."

 I wonder if the participants got angry when they would see us camped out in our comfy chars, in the shade, eating and chatting away.

An Ironman is a long day, still going strong after the sun had gone down. 

IRONMAN FINISHER!!!!!  I love this picture of Derek of Amy. 

Derek's arm was holding me so tight - I wondered how it was possible that he would have any strength left at all.   

DK's fellow Meridian crew with finisher shirts and medals all cleaned up.  

So being the sister of an Ironman is not quite as accomplished as actually being an Ironman, but it's still pretty awesome.  For the rest of Derek's life he'll be an Ironman.    I don't know if there was a participant out there whose race was more deserving of the title Ironman.  It was amazing to witness his strength and determination despite horrible conditions and circumstances that he had to over come.    I'm so thankful Chris took over the house and allowed me to be there.  It's a memory with my brother that I'll never forget.  

Authors Among Us

Presenting the first authors of the Graham family: Mason and Rozlyn GrahamThe kids school has a new program where the kids can write and publish a book.  Mason's book happened by chance.  He spends many hours writing and illustrating books at home.  He took one of his stories to his teacher who told us that he should publish his book.  Since the program was new we didn't much about it.  What I knew was that Mason's book was thrown together in about 20 minutes.  Had we known that his story was going to be published Chris or I might have looked at it ahead of time, proof-read it, had him taken more time on his pictures, etc.  The editor at school asked Mason if he wanted to fix or correct anything and she got a big NO, so Mason's book is as raw and original and unique as he is.  I'm glad now that it stayed the same - that's almost what makes it so awesome.  There were only 3 kindergarten kids with published books.  

 Mason holding his pen ready to sign his first copy of "Dingo Trouble.."

All of the AIM students in 3rd grade published a book that had to do with Greek mythology.  Rozlyn's told the awesome tale of "How the Ocean Came to Be." 

Here is Mason's dedication - he is very proud of it! "This book is dedicated to:  My dad who tells the funniest stories.  Like the one where he went to recess in his new pants and forgot to take out the staples."

 

The book signing was at 7am.  I thought church at 9 was hard, 6 of us dressed and ready at 7 is even harder.  Chris reading the kids books.  It was the first time we'd seen Rozlyn's since it was all done at school.   

Rozzie dedicated her book to her AIM teacher who is so great.   

The signed books will stay in the school until the kids graduate from elementary school.  That means "Dingo Trouble" is going to be on the shelves for the next 6 years!  We got to purchase additional copies. They just happen to be my two new favorite books on my shelf.  

2028!

Watch out 2028 games! These two are headed there.

Watch Dogs and Laryngitis

Chris has joined an elite club, he's a proud member of the Watch Dog club and today was his first assignment on the job.  Dogs stand for "Dads of Great Students"  He was given a very specific schedule and rules.  The watch dog shirt can only ever be worn at the school.  His schedule started with "Muffins for Moms" and ended with Charlotte's recess.  He bounced around from hallway monitor, to checking locked doors, to attending specials with the kids and visiting their classrooms and cafeteria. 

He's been anticipating the day for awhile now.  The kids were so excited to go to school with him.
Today might have been the safest day to be at Green.  This guy wasn't going to let any of kind of ruckus go down.
Here he is cooperatively posing for his first day of school photo.

He got to go on morning announcements with the kids.  He had to give the kids advice.  He'd debated about whether to go down the hygeine route (shower, comb your hair, brush your teeth, wipe, etc.) or character route (try your hardest, be honest, golden rule, etc.) He joked with the kids that he was going to pull out a big scroll that un-rolled and start with "now where should I begin."  He settled with, be nice to everyone and smile and say hi in the halls, or something like that.
I kept wanting to get the run down of how the day was going but he took the rule of not playing on your cell phone very seriously.  The only response I could get out of him was when I asked if I could bring in lunch to which he replied "No, I'm having the western burger today."  His childhood dreams of eating hot lunch were once again fulfilled at age 35.  He could have had it three times since he had three kids.
He told me that the kids ask lots of questions, but the number  1 question is if they can have a sticker.  The watch dog is given 10 stickers and he's not allowed to give them out if a student asks.  Talk about pressure.

Sick continued - while Chris was away on duty I was at the Dr. again for my ongoing sickness this week. The diagnosis was laryngitis.  I sound horrible trying to make sounds, worse then that old lady on NPR.  I forget her name.  I finally got a prescrption for some steroids, yahoo!!!  I was also given strict orders not to talk or my vocal chords won't get better.  I felt like Ariel dropping off my medicine.  There was a lot of smiling and nodding but not much else.  I took my voice for granted.  I really like it and need it, I have so many things to say. Chris gave me a pen and paper but it's more frustrating.
It looks like charades might be the entertainment for our Friday night.

Rozzie's Day

Lucky me and anyone else who's got to associate with this girl for 9 years!!!!

As Mallory would say, she's on the awesome list. Anyone who knows our family knows that Rozlyn is the best behaved. She always makes us proud. She's smart, kind, a great friend, helpful, creative and just easy to be around.
It was an off year for a party so I had to get creative in making her day awesome and her feel special. We invited a few friends over for a surprise breakfast. I promise it was not a party, just a breakfast. The day started early because she had to be all ready to go at 7:00am. She couldn't sleep the night before because she was so excited!! While I was curling her hair, she had this horrible look on her face, she looked so sad. I asked her what was the matter and she very honestly told me that she was going to throw up. Ahhhhh! This happens to her every once in awhile but still, it was not in the plans, not on her birthday. She had friends coming over, she wanted to go to school and be on the announcements and wear her birthday headband. I had her go lay down while the rest of us did scriptures. Calm Chris assured me that all would be well and we'd just have breakfast with her friends without Roz if she was sick. 10 minutes later Rozlyn came down and was A OK. Charlotte's job was to get the friends outside and sneak them in to the kitchen table. When Rozlyn walked in it was a great surprise!! I made her assure me a million times during breakfast that she was good to go.

I got to eat lunch with these cute girls.

Sadly Mason's lunch doesn't overlap so he missed the 12noon party. Don't feel to bad for him though, he had plenty of donuts and sugar cereal for breakfast and was going to have cake and ice cream for dinner. Not a bad life.

A sweet Rozlyn story: because she's thoughtful and kind, last year for Mother's Day she surprised me with this book!!! (I think we'd looked at it together at a book store once and I must have said it was cute, she stored it in her memory.) When she saw it at her school's book fair she took all of her own money and bought it for me. None of my kids ever buy me anything so it was very thoughtful and secretive and fun!

The book just sat on the shelf until Rozlyn asked me to make her birthday cake from it. Scary. How could I say no, I had to use her book that she bought me with her very own money. She picked out the design she wanted and I gasped. Here is what we came up with. It only resembles the picture, like you could tell I tried.
                                     
She appreciated it and it tasted great, so win win! I also was very sick, very very sick, so super sick her whole birthday week. I felt like supermom trying to pull this birthday off when all I wanted to do was crawl in bed and sleep. Chris is an awesome dad and husband but mom is the one who makes the birthdays happen around here. Rozlyn was 100% worth the effort.

:)

I've got a great husband - a really great husband!!! Last Thursday was a very bad day. The kind of day where there were lots of tears. The not so lucky Chris is the one who always has to be the listening ear. The next morning started out ordinary: scriptures, showers, breakfast, kids scoot off to school. Just a few minutes after they'd left I got a knock at my door. Nobody comes over at 8:00 in the morning, so I had to tip toe to the peek hole to investigate. I saw a big bouquet of flowers and Chris's car in the driveway. I opened the door to the flowers and Chris who told me that he took the day off and was hanging out with me. Then came more tears, lots more, this time they were the happy ones.
There was hanging out, errands with a buddy, yummy lunch and some shoe purchases that followed. Is retirement really 30 years away. I'm kind of in a hurry to get this guy all to myself.
Friday night I left to the Arlington Time Out for Women with a few friends. I came home Saturday night to happy kids and a clean house.
Sunday morning he leaves for his church meetings while I'm still in bed. When I woke up I saw a dress hanging in the closet all pressed and ironed with my new matching shoes underneath all ready to go.
Chris makes my life :).

Easter

(my very springy Easter Mantle)

I love Easter!! A holiday that focus's on Jesus Christ without the commercialism of Christmas, a three day weekend without a booked up busy schedule. Win, win, win, win!!

Our first Easter party was at Mallory's school. I love that she goes to a Christian Preschool so that she gets to celebrate these fun holidays (unlike Public School). She's always looking for an excuse to wear a dress and I thought the Easter Party was the perfect opportunity. The kids were all giving me a hard time about her being over dressed. I told them it was Easter so it was perfect.

I'll admit we over did it. She looked like a little pink Alice in Wonderland while all her pals were in their cotton stretchy shorts and graphic tee's.
Next up was our Good Friday Camporama. We came home, de-smoked ourselves and dyed our Easter Eggs. The weather was beautiful so we got to have the dye outside, always a bonus!
Easter morning looked like like We got one quick pick of them all beautied up before the rain came down. I wonder how many more years I have of Charlotte allowing me to coordinate her outfits with her siblings? I hope not any time soon. I love coordination!
We celebrated our Easter with Chris's family tradition of hoagie subs, picnic style, lunch. We then had a little egg tapping competition, complete with a bracket. Egg tapping = two hard boiled eggs face off, they tap each other until one cracks, the whole egg wins and moves on in the competition. Here is Chris (Chris #2) having a show down with Charlotte (Humphrey). All the eggs were given names for the competition. Chris won the award for the least creative with Chris #1 and Chris #2.
The championship came down to Chris and Roz. Chris was the victor - un creative egg names and all!!! More coordination: These pictures were Easter part 2. One week later. You see these were their Easter outfits. Purchased in advance, on sale and all that good stuff. They were put aside until the special day. The week before I started preparing for Easter and couldn't find them anywhere. I tore this house apart looking. Every hiding spot, drawer, under the bed, attic, it was such a mystery. I finally decided that they got thrown away, sitting in a big bag and looking like garbage. It made me so sad. I thought about no Easter outfits this year but in the end decided to splurge and do it. It wasn't the kids fault and I love Easter outfits. So they got their new duds and looked darling. I went in my closet to put on a necklace. On the necklace hook, tucked away were the Easter clothes - I didn't know whether to be mad or glad. I probably was a little of both. With plans to return them the next day my awesome, awesome, husband told me to keep them and let them all have two new outfits. So here the kids were matching again.
Our church is about 30 seconds away from home. Mason was clothed when he left the building, this is him as he exited the van. It doesn't take long for that guy to get comfortable.

Camporama

Our Good Friday camping lives on. Erwin Park has seen the Grahams over many Good Friday's. This year we almost ventured somewhere new, a little fancier, a little further away, but with many more amenities, including electricity! I felt a little un loyal even looking at other possibilities but then I got so excited just to find out it was all booked up. It turns out most sights were. I guess people other then us really camp in Texas, who knew it was so popular.

So back to Erwin we went. Let the pictures tell the story.

Still relatively clean

"This is the life"

Forest + Friends = Fun

There was a lot of running through the trees on these trails.

Quite possibly the dirtiest hand ever

Corn straight from the skewer

Happy kids eating "Tacos in a Sack" the new favorite camp food of the Graham Fam

More happiness from "Tacos in a Sack"

Best Buds

It's just a facade, although I think a little Stairway to Heaven was about to bust out

Red Rover

Biggest gong or frying pan ever!!!!

Eating one of Chris's pancakes is single-handedly worth all the packing and bugs and bees and bites and burns and scrapes and lack of sleep and smoke smells and laundry that follows camping.

A happy pancake eater and a sad juice spiller (check out her pants and the puddle).

Hopefully we'll get in one more spring campout before the Dallas heat takes over.