No really, I'm a robot

Am I the only one that feels like CAPTCHAs are getting out of control?

They used to be actual words, written a little swirly and in funky font, but words. Vocabulary words.

Then they started to become more ridiculous words, like the kind in the back of that little book they would give you to study for the spelling bee. Like xanthosis or euonym (actual national champion spelling words).

Now, they aren't even words. Not even pronounceable. Sometimes, they have symbols in them, for pete's sake. And they are swirlier and smudgier than ever, which means they are impossible to read.

I get it, they're trying to make sure I'm a real person. But I also have to have super-human vision and some kind of telepathy to figure these things out anymore.

It took me, no joke, five tries to get a CAPTCHA right the other day.

I'm not positive, but I think that thing just insulted me.

This blog post will self-destruct in 3....2....1.....

There's something that's been quite the fancy around our house the last couple weeks.

Treasure hunts.

I love this activity because a) supplies are minimal; b) it doesn't take me too much time to set up; c) all three kids can work together... (or, more accurately, the boys work together and Sophie tags along behind them repeating whatever she heard them say....but it works), and d) everyone has a blast.

The other day, Travis begged most of the evening for one more treasure hunt. I told him we could do one last one before bed, but that they would have to go brush their teeth first, because as soon as the treasure hunt was over, it was straight to bed for them.

He reluctantly agreed, and the kids headed to the upstairs bathroom.

Oh no!! Their toothbrushes were missing!! And in their place, this note.....

....from the evil Captain Hook. (The boys have been watching a Disney Neverland show and like to pretend to be Neverland pirates quite frequently.) Captain Hook had stolen their toothbrushes, and it was up to them to follow the clues to find them before the toothbrushes were destroyed FOREVER !!!! (duh duh duuuuuuuuuuuuuuhn)

The first clue led them to a toy mailbox, where a second clue waited inside.

(My goal was to try to snap the pictures of the actual clues, but the kids were too excited and too speedy for that to happen. You'll just have to trust me that a clue was there.)

Next, downstairs to the ottoman, where we store all the Wii crap.

This clue instructed them to find an Elmo toy on the bookshelf and look inside.

Next, to a candle in front of the TV.

The dog food bowl!! (The dog was safely caged during this adventure.)

Hidden inside the Toy Story couch!

The next clue was at the dining room window. Can YOU find it?

This clue was their favorite. Track down your dad, and check his pockets!

Hmmmmm.... I think I saw Captain Hook getting a juice pouch right after he stole your toothbrushes!

And, he got a cup from the 'kids cup' drawer!

Maybe the toothbrushes are hidden in the stuffed animal tote!

Nope, just another clue that led them to a pretend movie theater!

Nope, how about try the pretend garage? (Oh yes, my house is STOCKED with old school Little People stuff. I'm not a fan of the new-fangled Little People. But the vintage stuff - LOVE it.)

The next clue led them to one of their pajama drawers.

No toothbrushes yet. Try the toy box.

The clues now led them to Sophie's room. Perhaps Elmo knows where the toothbrushes are.

Elmo instructed them to check the play refrigerator in Sophie's kitchen set.

What do you know??

The toothbrushes were there!!

BUT....no toothpaste.

Not to worry.

Toothpaste located in the oven.

One of my favorite things about the treasure hunts is watching Travis figure out how to set up his own. He's done quite a few, and is getting quite good. Here's a snapshot of some of his creativity at work:

"Captain Hook has stolen a glue stick, soon he is going to destroy it."

"X marks the spot"

"Captain Hook likes freezer pops" (clue hidden in freezer)

"He likes lab notebooks"

"Look in the front room"

"He likes the word up. Look up." (clue hidden on top of the piano)

"The refrigerator has milk. He likes milk."

"Look under here"

Ben says I'm likely turning him into some freakish mystery nut, a la the super-corny Mystery Team movie we watched on Netflix last night.

Which one of these is Travis, again?

Attack of the ..... Chickens?

Mom, I'm scaaaaaaaared!!!.......

You're scared, Sophie? Of what?

Of the bokking noises!

The barking noises?

Ummm, no. The BOKKING noises.

Bokking noises? Like, uh..., like a chicken?

Yeah.

You're scared of chicken noises? Where at?

Um...in my bedroom.

Chicken noises in your bedroom? Where do you hear chickens?

Um, out the window.

---------------------------------------------

This has been the consistent story from Sophie for the past two weeks. She is scared of chicken sounds that she hears outside her bedroom window at night.

Our neighborhood is the very definition of suburbia. I'm quite certain there are no free-range chickens within hearing distance.

I've scoured her room for old forgotten toys that might make barnyard animal noises. Nothing.

I have yet to hear anything that even remotely resembles a chicken in, near, around or otherwise disrupting her bedroom.

She tells me she's scared. But she doesn't act particularly scared. She goes to bed happily, wakes up happily, and seems generally untraumatized by these ghostly chickens that haunt her bedroom.

But she has taken to telling random people about her fear of the chickens, enough so that I feel guilty that I'm still putting her to bed under these seemingly nightmarish conditions. And feel the need to explain myself that the extent of her fear is really her just saying that she's scared, and not that she lies awake screaming in her bed each night as imaginary chickens descend upon her with unspeakable intentions.

I'm already imagining how I'm going to explain this to her therapist in about ten years.

Caching In

I'm not a huge fan of bike riding. I don't hate it or anything, it's just not usually on top of my list of things I feel like doing.

But let's face it, what does tend to top that list is things like having a glass of wine and reading silly vampire romance novels.

Ben's more of a biker than I am. In fact, just twelve hours ago he was preparing for a midnight bike ride in downtown Indy with three thousand other fanatical bike riders.

This evening, we decided to drag out the bikes and assorted equipment, and go for a geo-caching adventure at a local park. I was kind of tired after a long day, but heck, if Ben's up for it after getting barely any sleep and biking twenty miles in the middle of the night then surely I can play along.

So, Ben loaded up our geo-cache destination into his GPS, and we got the kids ready.

Noah and Sophie LOVE the trailer. Love it. Even more than last year.

Ben was busy doing .....uh...something, so I asked Travis to take my picture. He told me the sun was in his eyes, but he'd try.

This is me snapping a picture mid-cycle, at the entrance to Clay Park.

My regular view. Ben, way ahead of me, and getting farther away.

Once in the park, we veered off onto a trail. I tried to get a picture behind me while I was making my way through the trail. I love this one -- the look on Noah's face is priceless.

Ummmm....mom?? Do you know what you're doing??

I tried a second time. I have no idea what happened.

One more time. Okay, this is a stupid idea. I give up.

When I finally caught up with Ben he and Travis were dismounted. They'd reached an impasse.

Time to unload. This ain't bike territory, kids.

Noah was devastated.

I want to stay in the trailer, mom!!

But got over it when he realized we now got to hike.

We hiked through the woods. Noah and Travis led the way, with the GPS on Ben's phone pointing us in the right direction.

Finally, we made it to our destination. An old campground fire-circle.

Wait, what's this?? A loose brick!

There's something inside!

We found it!!

Inside was a piece of paper to sign, and a little prize that you can take as long as you leave something in its place. Well, we forgot to bring something to leave behind -- so we didn't get to take the prize. That's okay though, the kids barely even noticed.

(The prize was a little pin that said, "I went caching and all I got was this lousy pin." I totally love it and we might have to go back and get that one, when we're smart enough to remember to bring an exchange.)

Anyway, after the caching adventure, we hiked and biked out of the woods and let the kids play at the park for a bit.

On the way back, I cursed Ben and told him I am no good at this biking thing, and Noah and Sophie combined are way heavier than they were last year, and my thighs are burning and I am just plain miserable.

But, I survived.

Now, I've got me that glass of wine. Just need that ridiculous vampire novel.

Easy like Sunday.....afternoon

You know how a picture is like, a thousand words? Well, here's....oh, about fifteen thousand words about our perfectly pleasant backyard afternoon.

(The boys love taking turns kinking the hose to the beach ball sprinkler, unleashing the water whenever it is least expected.)

Here's some pictures of Sophie's side adventure, some sort of 'rock/tea' party for Moose and Buddy.

Relief

Earlier this week, Sophie was crying about something. I can't remember what. She's a drama queen, it's hard to keep track.

Noah brought her her favorite stuffed moose.

She sniffled a couple times, then her face brightened up, she looked at me and said,

"Noah feel me better!"

.....................................................

So.... it's Friday night.

I'm sitting with my feet propped up in the recliner, an Ace bandage wrapped tightly around my throbbing left shin.

I couldn't figure out why my shins were hurting me so badly today until Ben reminded me that this is my first 5K that I've gone to work immediately after, and I had unfortunately picked one of my most brutal pair of heels to wear today. Certainly, I've run before and/or during lunch break at work, but not ever a race so that is probably the difference.

Lesson learned and tomorrow I may head into a local running store and invest in some compression sleeves. I had no idea how awesome a tightly-wrapped shin could be.

It feels me better.

What's on YOUR playlist?

I'm kind of new to this whole running thing.

I'm not exactly a stranger to running; I used to run track in middle & high school, throughout college I would occasionally take it back up, I've had an on-and-off relationship with running for years. I've not run competitively since my high school days and the 800-meters.

So now that I've gotten back into this, I am JUST NOW discovering the magic of the iPod.

iPod playlists are a MUST for runners. I hadn't really realized that before. When I started training for the mini last year, I just listened to the radio while running, which is NOT the same thing. Not. At. All.

A quality playlist is like a magical element that can completely transform your running experience.

I've been doing some research on running playlists, picking songs that are the right BPM (beats per minute, see how I'm already using cool running jargon?), the right energy and mood, and all that.

I'm not an expert playlist-maker yet. But here's where I'm at so far. In no particular order.

• Streetcorner Symphony by Rob Thomas. I love starting a run with this one. It's such a happy song that makes you feel like all is right with the world; running is awesome, being outside is awesome, heck, even 6a.m. is awesome with this song.

• Pink - take your pick. I had to pare back the number of Pink songs in my playlist because it was a bit much, but I can almost not get enough. My current favorites are Just Like a Pill, Trouble, and Please Don't Leave Me.

• I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas. Obviously, just a great song to run to. Every time I hear it, I think of Italy, and the parties there, because they played this song all the time. I am instantly transported to a packed gondola on the ski slopes of Cortina, at the welcome party our ski guides threw for us, with a bunch of Ohio Valley skiiers and a group of Asian skiiers from California (the Grumpy Asian Skiiers, or GAS, those guys were awesome), all of us belting out I Gotta Feeling at the top of our lungs. Good times.

• Sublime - any number of songs from their self-titled album. I love that entire CD and it takes me back to my college days. I had to pare that one down too and right now just have What I Got and Santeria on there although I am thinking about adding back some others. I really don't listen to much ska-punk music but Sublime is genius (RIP Bradley).

• I'm Yours by Jason Mraz. This one is a little cheesy, and a little slower, so I like to put it somewhere in the middle where I'm pacing myself a little more, but it is such a happy song that I had to include it.

• Sunday Morning by Maroon 5. Also a little slower, but I love this song and I absolutely adore Adam Levine, so there you go.

• Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. I know, I know, I'm a little embarrassed about this one, too, I mean I'm not seventeen and heading to the prom or anything, but it's got a good running beat and, what can I say, I like it. Sue me.

• Gives You Hell by The All American Rejects - I just feel like jumping up and down when I hear this song. I don't (usually) do this during a run, thankfully, but it still has a good running tempo.

• Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake because JT is super-awesome I don't care how much you try to deny it.

• The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars. This song is one of my favorites right now and once I get it in my head I sing it all day long. It was kind of coincidence that it was what was playing as I finished the Sunburst 5K and I made the decision right then that I would always try to end a race on this song. There's just something awesome about thinking about not doing anything all day after having just run three miles first thing in the morning.

There you have it.

Any suggestions, add a comment.

Weddings and Races

Sorry I've been kid of missing-in-action lately. Last week was full of festivities for the grand EVENT that was the Repic-Seifer wedding. I'm happy to say that everything went fantastically awesome and we had a blast.

Congrats Erin & Justin!

In other news, my gym is putting on this 5K Fridays thing, where for 8 weeks during the summer, you run a 5K every Friday at 6a.m. It's informal, not like a real race, just for "fun" (if you can call running 3.1 miles fun), they give prizes at the end for fastest, most improved, etc.

Last Friday was the first such race. I waited until after running my first 5K earlier this month before signing up for 5K Fridays, but since that race didn't totally suck, I decided to give it a try.

Thursday night I started to get a little panicky, like what if everyone else that signed up for 5K Fridays is like total marathon stars that run 15 minute 5Ks while simultaneously updating their Facebook status on their iPhones and making up their grocery lists for that afternoon.

Ben promised me it wouldn't be like that.

5:30 a.m. rolled around, and I made my way to the gym. All told, there was probably about 30-35 of us. Mostly females, with about 8-10 guys. I was relieved to see that there were some people signed up just to walk the 5K, so I was pretty sure I at least wouldn't cross the finish dead last.

As it turns out, I did okay. I did NOT beat my Sunburst time of 30:15 (they updated the race results since I originally posted them, I did 3 seconds better! Hooray!), but that was partly because I ran too far. They told us the course of the race, which was alongside the river (and quite pretty), and then told us that we turned around at Twyckenham, the halfway point, and make our way back.

Well, I roughly knew where Twyckenham was, but I'll be honest, I'm not all that terribly familiar with that part of town, particularly on foot.

So I was running, kind of in a zone, and knew I was fairly close to where we were to turn around at. A handful of runners had passed me going back the other way. I crossed under a bridge and was looking for a Twyckenham street sign. Nothing. I slowed, turned around, saw there was still people behind me. Kept running. Kept looking. Turned around again. Noticed there were people turning around at the bridge which was now about 75 yards behind me.

Ahhhhhh.....Twyckenham was the bridge.

So, I turned around, determined to catch up with those people who should rightfully have been behind me as they had been just minutes before, and were now in front of me by virtue of my idiotic geographic skills.

I'm happy to report that I did catch up with them, and beat them all across the finish line.

In fact, I was about the 9th person across, and the second female.

I don't want to get too braggy, after all, I am hardly a super-competitive runner, and will likely never be. And my goal wasn't to go out and beat a bunch of people, but rather to challenge myself and see some improvement. But this race gave me quite a boost in my self-confidence about 5Ks - I'm not just a goofy loser who tries to pretend she can run 3.1 miles.

I'm going to shoot for under 29 minutes by the end of this thing.

Wish me luck.

Budding author

I'm a grammar snob. Darned if I'm not going to pass that along to my children.

Travis was writing a story the other day. I generally push him to just try to sound out the spelling of words, rather than telling him how to spell them. He's getting better, but oftentimes forgets the vowels.

In the midst of his story writing, he came up to me and said "Is this how you spell 'wasn't'?"


wasint


So, I praised him for his effort, and explained that he was very close. And then asked him if he'd learned about contractions in Kindergarten. He looked at me rather blankly, so I explained that a contraction was kind of like two words thrown together.

Ohhhh, yes, we learned about those. But at school we call those compound words.

Well, actually contractions are different from compound words. A compound word is -

One word that is made up of two other words! Like..... pancake!

Yes, yes that's right. In a compound word, two words come together to make a totally new word. But a contraction is when two words that you would normally say separately are kind of shoved together into one word to make it easier to say.

(That's right, I should totally be an early education teacher, I use such glamorous descriptions to explain things.)

At any rate, we talked about contractions, and I told him that when the two words are smashed together, one or two letters come flying out of the word, and you use the little apostrophe mark to show where those letters used to be.

We went through some examples. Travis took it to a whole new level and said,

We should write subtraction sentences out of these!

And then proceeded to take a piece of paper and write:

he had - ha = he'd
did not - o = didn't


Grammar lessons AND math combined?? Man, I love this kid.


After our impromptu English lesson, Travis went back to writing his story. As he showed it to me later, this is what I saw:

You can see the little hash marks flying out of the word wasn't. This didn't surprise me terribly, because these hash marks were the way I had illustrated to Travis how the letter (or letters) in a contraction disappeared.

I said, "I see you're showing here how the o disappears."

Oh no, mom, the o didn't disappear. It just flew off the page and onto the next page. See?


And there it is. You can follow those hash marks to the o in the word told.

I'm telling you. This kid is awesome.

Here's the unadulterated transcript. There's an area or two where I might need to translate, otherwise, this is it's original form:

"Travis and Noah, Science Detectives - The case of the flying bird


Once upon a time ther was two brothers named Travis and Noah and they liked to prtend to be science detectives. One day they saw a bird it wasn't a regular bird. It was a fast flying bird. Travis saw it. He told Noah. He said ok I'll find some hints. Ok Travis side (said). Rite away Travis saw a hint it was a blak hole! Later, Noah find a hint. What is it side (said) Travis. Ant's side (said) Noah. Then Travis saw a hint it was a bigger blak hole! Travis saw a pipe in both holes. One was samall. One was biger. Travis whnt to the swangsite (swingset) he saw a inviseble pipe it was waer (where) the big pipe led to. Travis saw a prat of a spnge (part of a sponge). Ants waer boncing (were bouncing) off of it. They all landit on the bird. How did they all do that Travis wishpered! Travis can wishpr sooo quiet nobody can hear him! Rane clouds came."


And that's that.