Mom's Group Bday

Group shot

enjoying a gluten free, sugar free, dairy free cup cake kind of thing!

Video test Cait TKD

At Peace

Some days I find myself smiling in the car, whether it be at a realization about where I am in life or singing along with a song and some days the same songs make me overly emotional. Today was an emotional realization. The song was 'We are Young', which I love the beginning lines, I think they are very clever, and then the lyrics say, 'and if by the time the bar closes, you feel like falling down, I'll carry you home.' I have a great sense of peace knowing that the who that will carry me home is the only person I would want carrying me home. Then he says, 'Tonight we are young, let's set the world on fire, we can burn brighter than the sun.' And I realize a couple of things, we aren't that young any more, but those nights we get at the bar - be them few and far between, we feel young, like we can conquer the world again, we can still set the world on fire, but our passions in life have changed, what are we setting it on fire for, it isn't about just us. And I'm okay with that. I still want to set the world on fire, but I only need to burn brighter than the sun occassionally.  You know the 'little ditty 'bout Jack and Diane, two American kids...' and I think, 'Wow, we're not kids anymore, I can't hold on to 16, wait, why would I want to?' The place I'm at now is great, minus the sleep deprived nights and sticking to a budget, the other big things I worry about are getting to work on time and my love hate relationship with the Medela Pump. So maybe it is okay to be emotional when I hear certain songs, because I'm not depressed, I'm actually quite happy. so what if my eyes leak a little, it must be part of the mommy gene.

My morning commute

I cancelled my parking permit in May when we were gone more than half of the month, and had to drive on and off through part of June until it stopped raining, before riding my bike consistently. But now the summer is coming to a close and even my ride is evident! The mornings are cooler, leaves are on the ground and school buses are out in full force. So I ride through my neighborhood, to a multi-use path, on to a share the road street, through the capital mall then down the street that runs in front of my office, for a whopping 1.75 miles. It takes me about 12 minutes because of stop lights and stop signs, which I generally obey, but I have the lights timed! I love riding through the 'hood checking out the new paint jobs and yard work, but my favorite part is the capital. In the morning people are hustling through to get to work, squirrels are darting about, the grass is freshly watered. At lunch (the end of my work day) the fountains are on, people are picnicking and occasionally lawn bowling! But now the fountains are off for the year. No more kids splashing around and squealing with delight as the cold water shoots out of the pavers and on the other end of the park stands an empty, funny looking sculpture that looks rather odd without water.
September is ride your bike, commute to work month, or something like that. But in Salem it is also, tear apart every pathway bikes use and close them at an awkward place to go around month. So lately I'm weaving in and out of parking lots, on sidewalks, alleys or running across streets. I'm not sure how they could time it before it rains, but there has to be some way to give an alternate route, (a detour maybe!) or at least advance notice so I can go around. Once I get to the closure, I'm less likely to obey it unless it is at a place I can turn off. That being said, I still enjoy my ride, my 10 miles a week or my 1 hour and 40 minutes of making the world go by a little slower. (So far I haven't been honked at or yelled at, but I still have crazy driver stories, maybe I'll post a how to drive around a bike for those of you that aren't used to dealing with it!)