Change Your Story and Save the Day

Disclaimer: If you have never watched Super Why, this will make less sense to you, but it could change your life anyway, who knows.

The other day Josh was laying on the floor, using his feet to move around a bar stool, when the stool fell down. Not so that it hurt him, just so that it crashed to the floor. I said, "I told you if you kept messing with that stool it would fall down." He replied, "The stool has to fall down, it's in it's story. See, (points his finger into the air as if following text) the stool falls down."

I asked him if we could change the story and save the day, but he said I'm not Super Why so I don't have the power to read. He apparently did, however, because then he pointed to some more "words" and said, "The stool just went back up." Solved.

I just think Josh is a funny boy, but you could get all deep on this and wax philosophical about changing your story . . . I often think about it when I watch Super Why. I'll let that be your homework assignment to ponder. I'll just be chuckling. Or maybe saving the day . . . (I have to get mad when you pour Chloraseptic all over the bathroom, it's in my story, see, The mom got mad. Wait, I have the power the change my story . . . )

Family vs. Sawtooth Mountains

In continuing with my playing catch-up game (oh, I'm just getting started), Gary ran a 64-mile relay with my family last month. 6 people, 64 miles, steep mountain . . . this is the reason I finally told my family I am pregnant. I was asked if I wanted to run, and I did. But then I looked at the details of the course, and had to confess I would need a proxy. Gary did such a great job, I'm not invited on the team next year unless someone else drops out.

Anyway, the whole thing got me a trip to Sun Valley-area (Idaho), which is a gorgeous resort area in the Teton mountains. We stayed in a cabinish condo, which Josh still calls, "Our place." Here are Tate and Josh attacking grandpa . . . I think they are actually pretending to be his babies, but the line between those is hard to distinguish. Aunt Kristen is a favorite one to jump on. Here she is with her "Four babies."

Although I slept through a whole lot of it, I am impressed with the tale of the relayers. Poor Team Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (my dad is Mark) got a start time of 12:30 a.m. . . . two and a half hours before they said the earliest start time possible would be. So, they didn't sleep at all beforehand (tried, but it didn't work for anyone), gathered their headlamps and reflective vests, and drove to the starting line somewhere around 11:00. (No, I wasn't asleep when they left, there were two small cousins that were waaaay pumped to be together . . .) Here's a team photo shortly before the start.

Everyone ran two legs of the relay, approximately 5 miles each. Hannah started them off with blisteringly fast first leg. Here she is right before the start, getting her shoulders loosened up by Cindy.

I like this view of the starting line.

Here's Gary in his gear, preparing for his first run.

Kristen is demonstrating here how everyone felt their ipods saved the race. Couldn't have done it without them, everyone said . . . but Gary. Gary doesn't own an ipod, but the team repeatedly offered to loan him one of theirs. He turned down every offer, claiming he prefers to think as he runs. The rest of the team could not fathom this. His ipod-less run went down as one of the big feats of the race. Hannah ran lightening fast, Kristen ran while sick, Cindy ran up a literal mountain, Sarah got drenched on her run . . . and Gary ran without an ipod. What a man.

Here's my dad toweling off after his second leg. It was pouring when I woke up, so I was sure they were miserable out there running. However, I was told it wasn't that bad, and that their state of the art running outfits dried them off quickly.

Once they were running in the light, they were treated to some gorgeous scenery.

Here's what earned Cindy iron-woman-of-the-race. Her first leg gained 1,331 feet in elevation in only 5.3 miles total. Wow!

They may be hard to see here, but here's the entire team racing to the finish line together. They really did an awesome job, finishing an hour and a half before the race people were ready for finishers . . . kind of a sore spot as they tried to say something beforehand and were ignored, but they really had fun (for real, I'm not just bloggin' here), so it's all good. My sore spot is I was not able to get the kids and myself breakfasted and dressed before the big return in glory, but I was a non-essential part of the finishing process, and I got to eat trout, sausage, and strawberry shortcake with the finishers anyway, so I can't complain. Woo-hoo, they did it!! (Dad, Cindy, Hannah, Kristen, Sarah, Gary)

Later that day Gary drove me and the kids up to show us the route. So gorgeous, and so nice to be zipping along in a car.

Here I am with my runner-man outside the condo. We really wished we'd planned to stay and play . . .

Here you can see that the placed we stayed is a ski resort . . . some of the runs are behind us.

So there you go, they did it, and we all benefited by getting a trip to a pretty locale and a Mark-sponsored carbo-load at an Italian restaurant beforehand. Thanks!

P.S. (For the record-books.) The drive home was actually great, it went pretty quick and we enjoyed talking with each other and surviving on the snacks we'd packed. However, Josh had the tantrum of his entire life at a gas station where he had claimed he needed to go to the bathroom. It was so terrible, I was planning how I would prove he is my child when I was formally accused of kidnapping. I was accused by looks anyway.

Walking CF Into the Ground

No, the cystic fibrosis walk wasn't a hoax that put your money into my bank account - we really did do the walk. THANK YOU to all who donated. Our tiny little team was able to raise almost $800 in 3 days, and I was in awe at the caring and generosity of many. We are all really grateful for what modern medicine is already doing for Madeline, and feel very hopeful that advances will continue to be made. Thanks again for helping to provide some funds to keep those improvements coming! Here's how things went at the big walk.

Team Maddie before the big walk. Me, Josh, Noah (only forehead showing), Gary, Hannah, Sarah, Dave, and Madeline. I took the walking notion very seriously. I dressed to really just walk the disease right away, but learned it wasn't a totally necessary dress code. That's okay, I was serious about really licking CF. This fox is the mascot for the local minor league basketball team, and Josh was absolutely fascinated as it walked around pumping everyone up to cure cystic fibrosis. The team is the Flash, thus making this the Flash Fox, and every few moments Josh would ecstatically squeal, "The Flash Fox, mom, the Flash Fox!" When it was his time to shine and get his picture with the fox, Josh was too full of awe to smile. Hard to beat a basketball playing fox.

But when it was time, we slapped his favorite hat on him and he was ready to stroll for the cause.

Noah was also pumped to be proactively strolling in behalf of his cousin.

And we were off. This is what it looks like to walk for cystic fibrosis, folks.

Had to stop for hydration, of course. (It looks extreme to see me downing Vitamin Water for the cause.)

Dave and Madeline half-way through. Don't want to intrude upon their moment by further commentary.

This is Madeline's reaction to everyone rallying around her.

Josh likes her.

I need to stop posting pictures of myself looking awful, but I really love this after-walk moment. Turns out there was a barbeque afterwards, which was a great bonus. My favorite part of this picture is Noah's reaction towards the apple.

After all of that, we went swimming, and had a great time. It was my last chance to ride the waterslides while my pregnancy was still discreet enough that the teenage lifeguards didn't dare say anything about it. THEN we had cheesesteaks, which I mention because Gary and I loved it and I need to remember them. What a day . . . cystic fibrosis doesn't stand a chance after that.