Blue Ridge Relay Weekend

On 9/9/09, my friend Kelly birthed twins into the world (naturally!) just six minutes apart. Her older daughter, Cora, celebrated her second birthday on Saturday along with Maya...they are both friends from the babysitting coop. As evidenced by the above photo, the kids are old enough to get the "cake" part, so much so that Myles refused to eat dinner until after his cake, in order to make sure there was room. It was a sweet party. Another friend from the babysitting coop is due on Tuesday, and she was at the party in all the glory of end-of-the-third-trimester belly. Myles spent a good bit of time staring at Maya's chickens, but also enjoyed the sand box and even the "dangerous" swinging hammock.

Backing up, Seth left on Friday morning with his Blue Ridge Relay team for Boone. For those of you who don't remember from last year, the relay is a team run from Boone to Asheville. Each team member runs three legs. Seth's legs this year were as follows:
1:30 PM, 5.5 miles
12:30 AM, 4.5 miles
9:30 AM, 6.5 miles (uphill climb of 1400 feet)
He did fabulous, averaging between 6:20 - 7:30/mile pace. Seth's brother Greg joined the team for the second year in a row, and performed equally amazing legs. They returned to the house at 5:00 PM after pizza and beer, totally exhausted. After taking Myles to his friends' birthday party, we went out for Jamaican at our neighborhood restaurant, 9 mile (which always brings me back to growing up in a suburb of Detroit...not the Jamaican part, the 9 mile part).

Today was church, church, and more church. Church is an incredible blessing, my life's calling, and also a lot of work, much if it unnoticed and unpaid (not that I'm complaining!). This morning we cleaned out three classrooms we will be using in the coming months, and primed for painting. We came home for a brief respite then went back for the 5 PM service, after which Sara invited us over for some excellent food. (Hello lentil enchilada...)

Our weekend in a nutshell.

Backing up even further: on Labor Day, people of faith supporting comprehensive health insurance reform gathered for a service. We heard from "witnesses" who testified about their experience in the system, including our neighbor Carolyn who was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer at age 45 (kids were ages 3 and 6 at the time). Carolyn had health insurance, but her husband lost his job in the economic downturn, and so they did the Cobra thing for 18 months, which oddly enough required all 4 of them to be on Cobra, not just Carolyn. So they dipped into their college fund for their kids, their retirement savings, pretty much depleting all that they had worked so hard to save. After Cobra ran out, Carolyn was able to get on a NC insurance plan designed specifically for people like her with the dreaded "pre-existing condition." Problem is, it didn't pay for what her doctor said she needed. Carolyn is a white, middle class, educated woman with all the privileges that come with that background. And if it can happen to her, I know it could happen to any of us. So we tuned in for the President's speech on Wednesday and then began (again) calling our members of Congress and writing them letters the next day.

Mylestones: We've entered the "why" era, which begets wonderful conversations like this one.
Myles: Where's Juniper?
Mama: Outside
Myles: Why, Mama?
Mama: Well, what do you think?
Myles: Making poo poos and pee pees?
Mama: Yep.
Myles: But why?
Mama: Well, doggies can't make pee pees and poo poos on the potty. They don't know how to use the potty.
Myles: Why not diapers for Juniper?
Mama: Excellent question, my love.
Totally logical thinking, right? It's amazing what these kids come up with. We got Myles a little play guitar with plastic strings, and the other day coming home from his morning out program he sang a little medly that moved quite fluidly from "Wheels on the Bus" to "1, 2 Buckle My Shoe" and finished up with a rousing chorus of "Jesus Loves Me." I love being serenaded on the way home! We've also been renting the "old school" Sesame Street videos for Myles, which start with a creepy disclaimer that they are made for adults and may not meet the needs of today's preschooler. Good enough for us, right? Anyhow, the seventies footage of kids (playing unaccompanied on a construction site, for example) brings a flood of warm memories. On the potty training front, we've been working hard. Myles has been peeing regularly both on his potty, and the big tiolet. I think we're getting closer, though now when I volunteer to let him run around the house without a diaper on, he suddenly quits squirming and requests a diaper.

That's about it from us for now. Will try to update a little more frequently, but no promises, as life is so busy and being outside this time of year is so wonderful, why spend any more time in front of the computer screen than you have to?

Much love to all of you out there in the world!