Best. Hostess. Gift. EVER!

Grandpa Bud and Louise made it here safe and sound.  They even brought me a hostess gift!  Some people get decorative soaps, some get wine, some might even get potpourri!  But nothing says "Thank you for hosting us in your home" like a foot long, machete named the Zombie Slayer!

Now that's something that will come in handy!  Do I have the best family ever!!!  I can't wait to show it off to the boys in the neighborhood!  Can you say....JEALOUS!!

Grandpa Bud is coming! Grandpa Bud is coming!

Dad and Louise are flying in today for a quick visit!  I talked them into coming because I wanted them to see Zack row!  Brenna is going to come home for the weekend as well!  Weather looks good... Don't want to jinx anything.  I'm off to stock up on the two main food groups when Grandpa Bud is in the house... Vodka and cigarettes!!

Regatta #4 under our belt!

We traveled down to the Anacostia to race a bunch of private schools this weekend in the Cindy Cole Cup.  It was cold, windy, the day after Prom and the competition was all private schools.  It went about as well as could be expected. :o)  But any race is a good race, if you can learn something and I think Zack and his boat learned many things.  The deck was stacked against them from the beginning.  The conditions were so bad, that they had to move the start line to avoid the whitecaps at the beginning. It was cold, it was windy, the current was crazy strong and there were no lane markers!  Coach Meehan forgot to register their boat, so they couldn't race in their 8.  They ended up breaking them into 2 4's - a light 4 and a heavy 4.   They had only ever been in a 4 maybe twice.  They also had a totally different coxswain since there were 2 boats instead of one.  Then the icing on the cake... the Novice 4 race was full, so they put them in the Varsity 4 race!  I think a couple of the Varsity boats had one rower that weigh more than any 2 of the boys in Zack's boat! Could there be anything else going against them?  But once again, they survived, they didn't flip (although they tried) and hopefully they learned some valuable lessons.  He seemed pretty positive when he came off the water.   Art and Karen and Mark were all here visiting and hopefully enjoyed watching Zman race.

Working the fan faces!

We also hosted the Pasta Party this week.  It was quite an experience.  I just love these kids so much.  Such a great group!!

So much food, so many shoes, so many boys!  But a great time.  I'd have them back anytime!

Double Regatta Catch up!

Geez, I just can't keep up!  We've had 2 regattas...

Walter Mess - April 6th.
Zack was still rowing in the B boat, but they moved him up to the stroke position, so he was very excited about that.  It was a beautiful day and the B boat ended up rowing really well and beating the A boat by 8 secs!  B Boat... my ass!!

The green and gold Spirit Tutu also made it's debut at Walter Mess.   My dear friend Jennie Tatum, heard that one of my truest wishes (totally true) was to have a tutu!  Then to make it a spirit tutu... does it get any better than that??  I don't think so!

Next,  Darrell Winslow on April 13th - 

This time Zack moved up to A boat - 3 seat.  He was very excited about his boat and his boat lineup, because most of his friends are in this boat.  He worked really hard and changed up his attitude a little bit and it worked for him.  I have to give him a lot of credit, when we talked about what he should do to move up to the A boat. He told me he was going to work on his attitude, I was suddenly concerned that he'd been disrespectful or something.  But, he said he thought maybe he joked around a little too much with the coaches and he needed to be a little more serious.  I thought that was pretty mature for a 15 year old boy to recognize that!  Obviously, something worked.  Once again, they had a great race and beat the B boat by 1:03!  What seems to be the common factor....Hmmm... let's see, maybe it's...ZACHARY HYZY!  Why yes, I think that's it!

hamburger hands

This is also the regatta that the Big Head made it's debut.  It was the envy of everyone, or at least that's what I imagine.  Many got a big kick out of it and while you would think Zack would be horrified and embarrassed - he was not!  I think that boy is missing the embarrassment gene!  I embraced the whole thing.  Most of the kids were, in turn, both horrified that their parents might order one and envious that Zack had one.  It was actually quite fun!

Boston Marathon Sadness

I always debate whether I should be commenting on current events in this blog.  Will ALL (a little sarcasm inserted here) my flock of readers in the future wonder why I didn't mention important events like Margaret Thatcher, who died last week or the escalations between North Korea and pretty much the whole world - will they launch a bomb or won't they.  This blog has always been about our daily lives and while those things are sad or scary they don't really impact our day to day living...

But, yesterday someone or someones set off 2 bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  While again this doesn't impact my daily life exactly, it actually does in some ways.  It affected normal everyday people who were just watching and running an exciting race.  While N. Korea may launch a missile it probably won't hit me...  but I am an everyday person and while I doubt I'll EVER run the Boston Marathon, or any marathon for that matter, I could.  I could have been cheering someone on, I could have been volunteering, I could have been running.  I am an everyday normal person who has just dipped her toe into the running world.  It just makes me so sad and discouraged that this sort of sickness and hatred and evil is still making it's presence felt.  The 8 year old boy, who died while waiting to cheer his father across the finish line.  Is there anything more heartbreaking than thinking about the impact on his family?  A triumphant moment, turned in to horror and never-ending heartbreak.  In the midst of all my "be happy for the small things" posts,  I can only shake my head and love my family and hope that we find a way to end this sort of evil.  My thoughts and heart is with Boston and everyone impacted.

Another little happy thing... that's BIG!

A Big Head of my baby boy and a green and gold Spirit Tutu.... Enough said!!!!

More happy little things....

The weather is getting warmer... finally.  What a crappy start to spring we've had, wind, rain and cold temperatures.  But now, it's starting to turn warm and while I hate the allergies... I love the flowers.

I would like to take my little blue dog with me everywhere.  Every time I look at him, I can't help but smile and be happy.

My new fancy bird feeder... the birds haven't discovered it yet, but I hope they will love it when they do.

Starting to plant my containers.  Sweet little baby pansies, whatever they are really called always make me smile.

There's lots of things to be happy about now.