Wow. It has been a long time since I have blogged. We are all doing well here. Lots and lots of things have happened over the last month or so. The guys had their swim championships and they did well personally, but the team came in sixth out of six teams. However, in our defense, at least half of the teams in our division are year round teams, and we are only a summer team. Ah well, there is always next year!

Ron has started riding his bike to work three days a week. I think he is actually enjoying it, except when he has serial flats. One evening, he got three flats on the way home from work and he tried to call me to come and pick him up. However, that only works if I have my phone with me, charged, and on. That particular night, Ron was out of luck. I was out doing some grocery shopping without my phone, which was at home on the charger. He started walking home the last six or seven miles and after he had walked for a little while, a park ranger stopped and asked him if he needed a ride home. He was grateful. A week later, he called me again because he couldn't shift or pedal because something was wrong with the derailleur. I was home, AND I had my cell phone on and charged. I asked my neighbor to drive Ron's car, and we headed out in a caravan to pick him up. We gave him his car, he loaded the bike into it, and we headed home. Aside from these less than great moments, I think he is enjoying the ride. It also means that he gets in about 100 miles a week before his Sunday ride.

I had my annual vacation at Dewey Beach, Delaware. It was wonderful. I had a terrific time and the surf was fabulous since we were at the beach when Bertha was coming up the east coast. The undertow was kind of strong, and the currents were really tough to swim in, so I didn't do quite as much lap swimming as I did last year, but I did have some time in the ocean when I wasn't just body surfing. That swim time was curtailed when in a 24 hour period, 3 sharks showed up in the exact piece of beach that we were sitting on. Two of the sharks were babies and between a foot and two feet long. They were just tossed up on the beach because of the wicked currents. However, the third shark was caught by a group of people sitting next to us, with a fishing pole. It was 4.5 feet long. They ate it for dinner, but that was about enough for me. I really didn't feel any need of swimming laps up and down the beach any more. I know those kinds of animals are sharing my space in the water, but if I actually SEE them, I can no longer pretend that they are not there, and this has an impact on my swimming.

Now that I am home, we are getting ready for school to start. The guys return to school on 7 August. I have already made several dozen cookies in preparation for meeting the guys' teachers on the day before school officially starts. I will be doing haircuts this Sunday, and we are feverishly stocking up on school supplies. Office Depot has been the source of many "gunga-deals" as they say here in the West, including stuff like folders with the metal clips in the middle for One Cent apiece! We also got 3 ring binders for 50 cents apiece, and 150 sheets of filler paper for 15 cents a package. Today, my gunga-deals were the sneakers I bought for Elias that cost me $4.48 (!!) and another pair of sneakers for Benjamin that were only $10.48 (originally $40!). Of course, this is just a drop in the bucket since I haven't bought any new clothes for any of the guys, and I haven't paid into the classroom funds either. I don't know how many new clothes the guys will need this year, since I haven't had the nerve to search through their room and dressers to find out what can stay and what has been destroyed over the past year. I have tried to get ride of the worst stuff as I wash it (for example, tossing out the shirt that had two huge gashes in the back that I have caught Benjamin pulling out of the trash twice). I am hoping that they don't need too many items -- I just don't want to spend the money!

We did our twice yearly measuring late this year -- 15 July. After the measuring, we found that James had won the yearly growth award and had grown 5 inches between July 2007, and July 2008. The other guys all grew 3 inches each. Andy is huge and I had to buy him new sandals for the school year and they were men's size 9.5. Benjamin is wearing a men's size 7 shoe. This just blows my socks off. Andy has to wear deodorant every day now, but insists that he really doesn't and I am having some difficulty persuading him that yes, it really is necessary. Every once in awhile I take a page from my mother's book and as he goes past, I start yelling, "OH MY GOD! Is that YOU?? OH MY GOD -- Did you put on Deodorant this morning??!!" Inevitably, the answer is No, and I send him to take another shower and this time put deodorant on afterwards. He really smells like a GUY.

Not much else is going on here, except for getting ready to start school and trying to figure out what sport Benjamin is going to play in the fall. We have discovered (the hard way) that Benjamin does not wish to play any sport that his brothers are interested in playing. He had chosen to play football this year. I wasn't happy about this because Benjamin has to play tackle because of his size. I try not to be a worry wart mom, but I just don't want the guys to play football right now. I think I might be alright with it once they are older, but 8 years old just seems too young. So, I ran into the guys' pediatrician on Saturday (more about that later) and asked her what she thought about the whole thing. She was definitely against Benjamin playing tackle now, but was alright with him playing flag. Flag football isn't an option, so I kinda lied to Benjamin and told him that we had waited too long to sign him up and he couldn't play football. He wasn't unhappy at all and then told me that since the other guys are playing soccer this fall, he wanted to play baseball. I think this is a much better choice.

I am trying to bike ride my way to the top of Mt. Lemmon these days. I made it to the 8 mile mark and the 10 mile mark before I went on vacation. Once I got home, I was dreading the Saturdays because it meant that I was going to have to go up the mountain again. Here is the profile of Mt. Lemmon -- what grade the incline is, and how long it is. The total route is 26 miles.

I am sorry the graph is a little unclear, but this is the best I can do. So, last week, I went up to mile marker 12. It was totally brutal. I was hurting in places I didn't know I could hurt. Worst of all, we (my partner in pain) were passed by some guy heading up the mountain on inline skates. Yes, you read that correctly. He went up to the five mile mark and then came back down. On the skates. He is a crazy person. He was wearing a helmet, but no pads or anything like that. I think he made it ok, but I think he is a nutcase. It took me 3:45:30 to get from my house to the 12 mile marker. Obviously, I am not burning up the road. However, I got there, and then got to ride home -- downhill all the way!

This past week, I made it to mile marker 14 -- no inline skaters to be seen. However, I did run into the guys' pediatrician and I took advantage of seeing her to check out the football question. She passed me twice on the mountain: first when she was going up, and then after we talked at an overlook, I headed out and she passed me a couple of minutes later. She is really strong. I was so grateful to get to mile marker 14, I practically fell off the bike and kissed it. This Saturday, I am aiming for mile marker 16... and maybe the whole enchilada. Keep checking this space!!