Flashback Friday ... Saturday Edition

I started running with a couple of ladies from my book club in November. As we run, we talk, and we're getting to know each other better. This morning it was just one of my running partners and myself and we started talking about what sports we played in High School. Since we're running, I asked her if she ran Cross Country. She said, "No, I played soccer and swam for one season." Then she asked me if I did any sports. The answer, "I played soccer and swam for one season."

So my flashback for this week. . . . (drum roll, please) Swimming!! Not just any swimming, but High School swim team practice in January. That's right, our swim season was in the dead of winter. The team was made up of all of five people, and we practiced with another school's team at the Huey P. Long out door swimming pool (yes, you read that correctly, we swam OUTSIDE in JANUARY) on the LSU campus.

Those were some fun days. My friend and I would usually get a ride from school to the Institute (where my dad worked) to change and pass some time until practice. Then he would drop us off at the pool (riding in his plum colored Ford Taurus with the fuzzy doors, at least my friend though the doors were fuzzy), we'd swim and swim and swim, spending as much time in the pool as possible because though it was outside, the pool was heated. When we finally got out of the pool, our hair would freeze. My friend's mom would usually pick us up after practice and was always prepared. She would have a bottle of Snapple and some kind of home made rice krispy treat or granola bar waiting for us.

I only remember competing in one or two meets, and I have no idea how well I did, but it was a great way to stay active and develop a fun friendship. She talked me into swimming, and I convinced her to play soccer.

Flashback Friday Introduced

I haven't been very good at blogging lately because I haven't really had a direction or topic to talk about. My sister-in-law, and a few other blogs that I visit have themed days, like Flashback Friday, so I've decided to give it a try. Welcome to my first Flashback Friday. Now that the explanation is over, let's get to the post.

Right now we're watching this.



We've been watching it daily for the past two weeks. That is not my flashback though. My flashback is to the first time I saw it. It was the summer of 2006. We were in Georgia for my brother's wedding. After all of the wedding festivities, we decided to go to a movie. Brian and I, my parents, my aunt, and at least one of my brothers all went. It was fantastic. We had such a great time, but the best part for us was this.



Most of the people in the theater were laughing, but our row was REALLY laughing. Then we all almost lost it with this.



It's the farmer in us. We've all experienced riding on or driving tractors and combines at my Grandparent's wheat farm. The set-up in the movie was just so clever. I will always remember how funny that was to us, and how much our laughter rung out over anyone else in the theater.

Daniel loves Bradley

Silent Monks sing Hallelujah

I'm stealing this from my friend's blog, but I thought it was too good not to share. Enjoy!

Brian is going green!

So, I keep hearing in the media that I should buy some screw in fluorescent “energy efficient” lamps for my house. I happened to be in a lighting store the other day (O.K. I guess that isn't too hard to believe since I work in one) and saw some of these on the shelf. Sure enough they did say, “screw in fluorescent”, and “energy saving”. So I decided I would do my part for the environment and bought a couple to try out…

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Here they are after screwing them in my front room fixture.

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I’m not sure they will save me much energy but I do feel closer to nature now that the sun is inside my front room!

For reference to understand the pictures below here are some figures:


Light is commonly measured in foot candles (fc). Some common light levels are:


An overcast day will produce an intensity of around 1,000 fc

An operating table will be around 1,000 fc

General, Open offices 50 fc or 30 fc for offices where a lot of computer work is performed

Warehouse 10-30 fc

Pro Basketball court 125 - 300 fc

Hotel Front Desk 50 fc

Hotel lobby 10 fc.

My meter can't read over 1,000 fc so I had to be a few feet away to get a reading under 1,000.

Light level on the couch.

Bradley taking a reading near the floor. It would have been higher if he would have held it level.

Just a post

I figure that I should probably post something so we're not stuck on Halloween pictures forever. The only problem is, I don't really have anything particular to post. So, you're going to get a quick update.

We are all doing well and staying healthy despite the mounds of snow and arctic temperatures. Brian and Bradley recently celebrated their birthdays. We kept the celebrations pretty low key this year, but enjoyed the events anyway. Bradley was particularly excited about opening presents and was more than glad to help Brian on his birthday. It was also nice to have my mom in town for Bradley's special day. Her trip wasn't meant for his birthday, but it was a nice coincidence that she was here anyway.

Daniel is a handful. He is such a happy baby, and brings so much joy into our home, but he keeps me busy. He is growing so fast, you can hardly call him a baby anymore. He has been army crawling since the end of October, got his first two teeth and perfected sitting in November, and is now faster and stronger and all over the place.

As for me, I'm learning what it feels like to wake up really early again. I've started running with a couple of people that I met through my book club, but the best time for us to meet is 5:30 in the morning. It is so nice to get out and run again, but it is especially nice to have people to run with. They keep me motivated and have talked me into some crazy races in the spring.

I guess that's enough of an update for now. It may be a month before I get around to blogging again, so in the mean time, enjoy your holidays. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Why we dressed up

I realize it's the middle of November, but I'm finally getting around to blogging about our Halloween. This year we all dressed up. Originally, Bradley didn't have any interest in dressing up, but then we found this costume.

Obviously Bradley needed a counterpart, so we dressed Brian up too.

Daniel was always going to be this.

So, I got in on the action and dressed up as well.

And there you have it, Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat, and the less specific Dragon and his Princess. Not exactly a cohesive unit, but a couple of great pairs for a fun night of trick-or-treating.