My kids had a tea party

with their friends the other day, complete with tea and scones. Most everyone had chocolate milk or lemonade, but Samantha really wanted tea. Amy made the most amazing Sour Cream Coffee Cake. Click here for the recipe.
It was seriously so good. All the other kids ate it first. Samantha and her friend Becca made Cheddar Dill Scones. Click here for that recipe.

Both are Barefoot Contessa. I made some egg sandwiches, which are Amy's favorite and even cut the crusts off and cut them into triangles. Scott had peanut butter and jelly, but was more interested in the cake. He had 2 big slices. I let them use my real tea service from Tante Magda to make it more special. It took a while to clean up all the mess, but the kids had a great time.

Today we competed

in our first road race in 4 years. See, here we're still happy. It hasn't started yet.

I wish that i could say that i felt great and did very well. I can't. It hurt. Just plain hurt. Marshall thought i was psyching myself out, but it hurt. Should i say that one more time? It HURT! My time sucked. Yes, SUCKED!! 29.30 and i threw up after. I've only ever thrown up after 2 races my whole life and they were both St. George marathons. This was only a 5K. And i was sweating so much that it was getting into my eyes and burning.

But it's not all bad. I really enjoyed doing the race.

It was in The Woodlands and they have them twice a month. We're going again in 2 weeks to see if i can improve. The Woodlands is really pretty. And next time i will prepare better. Definitely take a towel and gatorade. One thing i noticed i really need to do is lose weight. I'm about 10 pounds heavier than when i ran St. George 4 years ago. It's embarrassing to admit, but i think it will help motivate me to eat better. I had a great finish. There was a teenage girl right in front of us and right at the finish i picked up to a sprint to beat her into the line. She wasn't very happy about it and raced me in, but i got her.
I think that may be why i threw up. And i didn't throw up right away. it took about 20 minutes. I hope the next one is better. It can't possibly be worse, right?

Today

i ran my first sub-30 3 mile run. I know, it's kind of embarrassing to admit that I'm running that slow, but it's been 4 years and it's taking a lot longer to get in shape than i expected. Next weekend we're planning to do our first 5k. i want to go under 29 minutes. eventually it will be a lot faster. Trust me.

Swimming doesn't take me as long to get back into. I guess my body naturally responds to it. After a few weeks i was doing laps and Marshall tried to keep up. He was shocked by how fast i could really swim. The pool has been closed this week so we haven't gone. I only swim because i'm already at the pool and need something to do. I really enjoy running more these days.

Pre 4th of July beach trip

Our 4th of July

started out with a breakfast at church. Pancakes and sausage. Amy was in heaven.


When the breakfast was over we went to the neighborhood pool party and BBQ. They had it catered by a local restaurant and it was really good. Balloon animals and tattoos were all part of the fun. (it's a giraffe).


around 6 we headed downtown for the celebration. They had free games and rides for the kids and the lines were surprisingly short. We were surprised.

This is the Houston skyline. We were at a park just off from there.


We sat at the wrong section for entertainment. Our band played spanish songs. On the 4th. So not right. I would much rather have listened to the country singer at the main stage. At least i know for next year. The fireworks were really cool, but they could have played more patriotic music in my opinion. Still it was a fun day.