sheltered kids?

I was reading another blog this morning and it occurred to me the many things I did as a kid (that were never a big deal then), that I would never let my kid do now.  Then I wonder if what we did was really as bad as it seems or are we just too protective of our kids now.  Let me name a few:

1.  I stayed home with my brother after school starting at age 10 1/2.  He was 8.  We came home on the bus and stayed there until my mom got home around 5.  I started dinner and did laundry and we watched a lot of tv. 

Just this year we have let my oldest daughter stay home after school by herself.  She was 12 in November.  It was a big deal.  She does not start dinner but will do laundry if I remind her.  There is no way in hell I would let the other two come home with her. 

2.  At age 11 ish I would ride to the store on my bike, with my dog, to get soda or whatever for my mother.  The store was 2 miles away and I had to ride down a very busy road that actually had a Route number vs. just a street name.  I have no idea how I didn't get killed or how my dog didn't get run over.  No helmet, of course.  I would also ride to school (same distance) and to a local pool to swim all day.  (with no parent and no lifeguard)

Strangely, this is the same parent who wouldn't let me ride to a different store on a safer route to watch the kids play a video game.  Go figure.

My kids would never bike to school which is about the same distance as what I used to bike.  And there aren't even any major routes to travel on, they are all roads--but people drive like jackasses and there isn't any shoulder to speak of.  Biking to school is unheard of these days.  No wonder everyone is overweight and unhealthy.....

3.  I climbed Mt. Katahdin with a friend of mine when we were sophomores in high school.  I know we were this age because she had just gotten her license and could drive.  We packed a lunch with soda and water in a back pack and off we went. 

Go ahead.  Google Mt. Katahdin and see what you come up with.  See how really crazy this actually was.  We had no cell phones, (they didn't exist), no GPS, no means of staying overnight if we got lost, no real plan--nothing.  Just hopped in the car and went.  Turns out we went up the trail you are supposed to come down and thus went down the trail you are supposed to go up.  How we didn't fall on the way down and break an ankle, I have no idea.  And a Mt. Katahdin climb is an all day affair.  Like from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.  People die up there.  No way in hell would I let my high school aged kid do that now without some adult present.  Crazy.  Yet we were fine.

4.  I played sports every season and living out in the middle of nowhere, we often had away games that were 2 hours away.  During basketball season, this would mean that we wouldn't get home until 11:00 at night sometimes.  Sometimes the bus would drive by my house and drop me off, but mostly the bus brought us all to the high school.  I would then walk home, at night, in the dark, often alone.  Granted, we lived 4 blocks from the high school, but still!  11:00 at night??  Alone?  Yet, it really was no big deal as we all were doing it unless you had a car.  Which I did not.

5.  I remember one or two times during Christmas season that my mother would drop us off at a movie (again aged 11ish) to watch while she went shopping for our presents.  An 11 and a 9 year old.  At the movies.  Alone.  Unheard of in this day.  In fact, someone would probably call the police on you.

6.  Again, around age 11 or 12 (this all happened before I moved to another school during 7th grade so I remember the age pretty well), during days off--I'm guessing a teacher service day--we would walk the mile to the bus stop, take the city bus into Bangor (which is a pretty big city in Maine), go to the Bangor Public Library, visit at the library for a couple of hours and then take the bus back home.  Again.  Alone.  C. R. A. Z. Y.

I swear, we were perfect bait for child predators.  Perfect.

Which brings me to my next question--are we too over protective of our kids these days?  Or have times really changed and we need to be this way?  It's hard to know when to let kids have freedom and when to keep them nearby.

Do you have any crazy stories from when you were a kid that you would never let your kid do now?


Follow me on twitter!   @ltlindian

Nice balls!

This actually happened tonight in the 10 items or fewer checkout lane at our local grocery store.

Man in front of us waiting to check out with two large plastic balls that are in those bins in the front of the store.

My husband:  Nice balls.

Man:  <half smile on his face>  Thanks.

Me:  <starting to giggle>  Those are some big balls.  *snort, snort*

Man:  Yes.  Yes, they are.

Husband:  At least they aren't blue.

Full out laughing at this point.

Man to the checkout woman:  They are for my nieces.

Checkout woman:  Would you like a bag for your balls?

No joke.  Really.  This is what she said.  I am seriously busting a gut now.  Out loud laughing.  Unable to stop.

Man:  No thanks.  I'll just carry them.

Checkout woman:  How about a basket then?

All three (me, husband and man)  still laughing uncontrollably at this point.

Man as he's leaving:  They are so soft and squishy!

Husband:  Enjoy those balls!


I know.  We are totally classy like that.

I don't know what it is about balls that makes grown men and women giggle like teenagers whenever you say it, but I seriously, could not stop laughing.

Oh yeah, all three kids were with us too.  Laughing as well, but totally embarrassed that we were laughing.

Good times.  Totally worth stopping in to Hannaford tonight.

tweet?

I'm trying out twitter now.  Trying to figure it out, that is.  It might be more fun if I had some followers so go ahead and follow me.

@ltlindian

Some of you I have already found on twitter, but if I'm not following you, let me know your name and I will.

Happy Friday!  Excellent day, not weather wise, but other wise.  Great 2000 yd. swim.  It is really getting so easy now.  I should probably try to go faster but I'm pretty pleased with 500 yds every 8-9 minutes.

Did I mention that I have a sprint tri next weekend?  No?  Well, I do.  I think I might kill it.  Really.

I'm looking forward to the 80 deg day that we have coming tomorrow.  6 mile run in the morning planned and then beach and fun with the family.  #ifreakinlovesummer  (see, I'm already good at this twitter thing...)

OH, and the long weekend!  What can I say about that?  Three Day Weekend.... I love you.

One last surprising good thing about today.  We didn't go out for dinner like usual, but there was some chaos and we just decided to eat at home.  What to eat.  What to eat.  I found those croissant roll things in a tube, chicken and had an idea.  I rolled out the rolls to be like a pizza dough.  Then put on BBQ sauce, cheese, chicken and red onion.  Voila!  Instant, free dinner!  In case you were wondering, it was delicious.

How's that for saving $100?  As I much as I love eating out, I wish we could do it without spending a benny every time.

Are you tweeting?  Am I the last to arrive at this party?

Do you have any plans for the long weekend?

How do you feed a family of 5 without spending $100 each time?

WTF Wednesday

I had to bring WTF Wednesday back this week.  I had a few things that I've come across that really require a WTF.

1.  I hate insurance companies for more reasons than I care to go into right now but the latest annoying thing they are doing is to stop covering all prescription allergy eye drops.  Or at least the ones that are effective and easy to use.  For years they have paid for eye drops such as Patanol, Pataday, Bepreve and Lastacaft.  People have used these drops with great success to control their allergy symptoms. 

So now either people pay for them out of pocket ($100 ish) or are forced to try to find some other inadequate OTC drop. 

Oh, and you drug companies are just as much to blame too.  If you didn't charge such ridiculous amounts for said eye drops to begin with, maybe the insurance companies would continue to provide that as a benefit. 

This is all you can afford.  BTW it sucks.

You both get a WTF.

2.  Lululemon skirts.  Seriously.  What is the big hoopla about these skirts?  Are they made of gold?  Do they promise a BQ?   Because I cannot seem to find even one on ebay that is priced below $60.  And some of them were priced at $100!!  For a skirt.  On Ebay!  I wasn't looking to buy one, I actually wanted a Running Skirt skirt but all these Lululemon ones showed up on my search. 

I'm not sure who deserves the WTF, Lululemon or the women that buy them.

 C'mon.  You know you want this.  It's only $105.

3.  Bristol Palin has a reality tv show that will debut next week.  It is called, "Life's a Tripp" (haha, oh, you are so clever, Bristol...) and is about her life as a single mom.  Super.  I guess she's also describing herself as an activist against teen pregnancy.  Ooops!  That ship has sailed.

Yes, let's advocate for the prevention of teen pregnancy via a reality show that she got only because she is a teen parent.  And of course, we won't glamorize it...   Excellent message. 

WTF.

Ever have any conflicts with insurance companies?

Do you own a Lululemon skirt? 

If so, what is wrong with you?  do you have a sugar daddy?  Independently weathly?  Trust fund?

Revisiting an awesome story

Last month my oldest daughter had to choose a biography to read and do a project on.  She had wanted to do Michael Jordan but had already done a report on him on other time (she loves basketball!) so even though the teacher said they could use the same person, we thought she should pick someone else.  We searched the internet for some interesting figures, people who had similar interests as she does.  I also leaned toward women, because, well, she is a girl and it's good to learn about powerful, influential or successful women.  Some on the list were:  Larry Bird, Dana Torres, Pat Summitt, Mia Hamm and Joan Benoit (runner AND from Maine = double bonus!).  Not all of these people had a biography written and not all were really good stories.

She finally ended up choosing the story Devoted, which is the story of Dick and Rick Hoyt.  If you aren't familiar with the story, watch below and have tissues ready.

I was completely blown away by this video when I first saw it.  How could you not be?  This man was completing marathons and ironmans all while pushing and carrying his son.  As if it's not a great enough achievement to complete those things as a single person, Dick Hoyt was doing it with the added weight of another person.  Wow. 

All this time I thought they were just completing the races.  But then I read the book.

Dick and Rick were not allowed to register for the Boston Marathon the first few times they ran it.  The BAA did not have a category for them so they were only able to run as bandits.  Eventually, the BAA finally decided that they could run officially,  but they had to qualify.

In Rick's age group. 

20 year old age group. 

Dick and Rick did it.  They qualified for Boston with a time under 3 hours and 20 minutes. 

Dick ran that marathon, pushing his son, AND STILL qualified for Boston in an age group 20+ years younger than his actual age. 

That is freakin' impressive. 

Want to hear some more stats about Team Hoyt?

~Best Marathon time--2:40:47    Joan Benoit's winning time in the 1984 Olympics 2:24:52
~Best 5K--17:40   My best time ever was 24:01.  I'm feeling pretty dang slow now.  Thanks Dick.
~Best Ironman--13:43:37
For those of you that might not know, an Ironman is 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles biking and 26.2 miles running.  Back to back. 
~One other thing--Dick didn't even learn how to swim until he was 41. 

Let me repeat.  He. Learned. How. To. Swim. At. 41.   

Moral of this post:

You can do it.

If Dick can do any and all of that above, pushing and carrying and towing his son, you can certainly do whatever it is you are wanting to do.


Oh, and my daughter should get an A on her project just for the sheer awesomeness of this story.

Sneaker issues/fishing/frogs

What a spectacular almost week of weather we have had!  It has been 5 straight days of sun and warm!  That's highly unusual for the bi-polar Mother Nature that rules over Maine.  Fortunately, for me, that means I have been able to get out and run 3 times this past week!  This is a big improvement.  I ran in my new sneakers for all three runs and have had my plantar faciitis make an appearance again in my right foot.  Weird.  My new sneakers are the Kinvaras like my old ones--what is different?  I bought this pair on ebay for $50.  Well, on closer inspection, they are the original Kinvara and my old ones are the Kinvara 2.  I wonder if there is a difference or if the plantar faciitis would have just shown up again anyway.  I might try running in my old ones and see what happens. 

Saturday was a great day!  I had planned on running 6 sometime that day but then the hubs suggested we meet our friend and go fishing with him and the kids.  I should have known something was fishy (haha, pun totally intended) when he suggested I bring my running clothes.....  Well, I assumed that we were meeting Todd at the usual fishing place about an hour from home.  You know what assume will get you...   Instead he had us picking up Todd and driving 2.5 hours north!!  To the land of Caratunk or for any of you other blog readers, Mandy aka Caratunk Girl's hometown!  Had I known, I totally would have planned on meeting her for a run or bike. 

Instead I did the old-mom-sit-in-the-chair-and-watch-the-kids-fish-while-she-reads thing.  Which was just fine really.  No keep-able fish but someone did catch a cute sucker, who everyone wanted to kiss..

pucker up cute little fishy!

The girls stacked some rocks like what we found in Zion when we were there. 

I felt so zen-like I almost starting doing yoga.

Sunday was all about shopping and frog catching.  And I did get my 6 mile run in!  It felt great!  If we hadn't had so much to do that morning, I would have done another 6.  I love the sun so much!!!

New shoes from Goodwill:

Don't be jealous of my $2 purchase.

And new pollywogs from the pond:

Yes, I am that mom that hatches pollywogs in her home.  Not sure if that makes me cool or weird.

Frog hunters extraordinaire!

What?  Doesn't everyone let their kids stomp through leech-infested mud barefoot?

Any thoughts on the differences between the Kinvara and the Kinvara 2? 

Have you had any good finds at Goodwill?

Do you allow frogs/bugs/worms in your house?

three things thursday

1.  Sorry I've been away a bit--I really haven't had much to write about.  The crazy weekend of basketball and dance recitals went great.  Lots of driving and not much sleeping but Princess danced her routines beautifully and Sissy and the Maniacs went 4-0 at their last tournament.

Clearly, I am the Princess.

Tap costume!

4-0 baby!  of course, Manimal is right in the middle of the girls....

2.  I have a funny little story to share.  We came home one night to find and old man standing around on our private road.  (Like 80 years old, and our road is used only by the people who live here so it was really weird to see a stranger.)  My husband went and spoke to him and found out he used to own this property and was the one who sub-divided it into these lots.  They talked awhile and somehow it came up that he loves fiddleheads.  My husband promised to give him some.

A few days later Manimal and Sissy and I went for a walk with the dog to deliver the fiddleheads.  I knocked on his door.  Then knocked again.  It took him forever to answer to door (I think he didn't hear well).  I told him we were here to deliver the fiddleheads that my husband promised him.  He had no idea what I was talking about so I had to relay the story of him talking with my husband in our driveway the other day.  We chatted a little and then I said goodbye.

As we were walking down the road, Manimal looks at me and just as serious as anything he says, "I think he has short term memory loss".   To me, this was pretty freakin' funny coming from a 6 year old.  Where had he ever heard that??

Then he says like Dory mom!  Of course.  Like Dory.  Makes perfect sense.

3.  I'm pretty proud of myself right now and I sure hope this works out.  I was looking around for a field hockey camp for my girls to attend this summer and was disappointed to find that everything was at least an hour away and not at convenient times for us.  There is a group that brings a soccer camp to our town every summer and I wondered if I could get the field hockey group to do that.

So I wrote to them and asked.  And who knew!  They said yes!  Just like that.  It was just that simple.  I just have to secure the field and find a trainer to be there.  They will provide everything else.  I am so psyched!  They will be hosting a 3 day clinic right here in our home town for all ages and abilities.  No long drives necessary.  :)

So, if you know of a girl in the Midcoast region who likes field hockey, make sure she signs up for Cougar Field Hockey camp 7/27, 28 and 29.  It will be listed on their website in a week or two and I'll have flyers for those that are local.

Yay me!  I rock!

An Hour in My Day

Stasha over at Northwest Mommy is still doing her weekly Listicles.  I'd forgetten about them while I was on vacation so I got off track.  I peeked at her site yesterday and this week's topic is 10 things that you do in an hour of your day.  I'll pick the morning hour because that is by far, the most crazy hour of my whole day.

6:30   drag my seriously too-tired ass out of bed, pee and plug in my hair straightener
6:40    get dressed and straighten my hair (I usually shower the night before so I am already clean.)  after straightening hair, put it back in a hair clip anyway.
6:45    floss, brush and mouthwash teeth, then head down the hall to wake all three slumbering children.  make bed and pick up bedroom.
6:55    check on slumbering children again to make sure they are getting up.  tell them to get up and get dressed
7:00   head downstairs and let the dog out and feed him if hubs hasn't done it already.  gather lunch boxes from yesterday and shovel out the chewed up remains and scraps and empty into the trash.  wonder what they heck they ate yesterday as everything I packed seems to still be in the lunch box but just in pieces.
7:10  yell up to kids to hurry up and get dressed and get down here for breakfast.  continue to yell upstairs to ask what they want for lunch.  (my house is big with high ceilings--you have to yell or no one will hear you.)  throw some laundry in the wash.  move clean clothes from the dryer to the basket and put them in the hall where they will be ignored until I get sick of looking at them and put them away.
7:15  get no answers on lunch so I just make PB&J.  Finish packing lunches x 3 and then scrounge in the fridge for a lunch for me.  take phone off charger and scroll through junk email and spam.  delete everything.  With luck, there will be one comment on my blog that I'll get to read.  Feel good about myself that someone commented on my blog.
7:20  make the kids' breakfast.  scream at the one kid who is still not downstairs to get their ass down here now or they won't get any breakfast. 
7:25  say good morning to kids that are downstairs and give them kisses.  gag at their morning breath and send them back upstairs to brush before they kill someone with that breath.
7:30 put lunch boxes, papers, homework and whatever they will need for afterschool activities in their backpack and begin to freak out a little because we are going to be late if everyone doesn't get in the god damn car right now!  rush upstairs to pack my gym bag for lunch time exercise and race downstairs to car.
7:32  race back inside to get whatever was forgotten--deodorant application, sneakers for gym, lunch whatever.  It's always something. kiss hubs bye.
7:33  back my rattle trap car out of the garage with kids hopefully in their seats and head to school to drop them off.  notice that my brakes are grinding and hope they continue to work until I can get them fixed. 

That was my hour from this morning.  Welcome to my world.

Kid's race and a pisser of an accident

This past weekend was the second anniversary of my very first 5k.  It seemed to come early in the month this year but I guess that's because it's the weekend before Mother's Day weekend.  Of course, we had basketball and there was the Polar Bear Tri that I got a wait-list entry into all on the same day.  So I didn't sign up for the 5K--if I were going to do any race, it was going to be the Tri.  (I didn't end up signing up for that either because I didn't want to miss Sissy's basketball.) 

The kids usually do the kids run, which they call the Bunny Run, but I didn't sign them up either because of basketball.  We wouldn't have time to finish the race and get to basketball on time.  Later Friday, I received an email that pushed the basketball games an hour later.  Which gave us just enough time to do the Bunny Run and still make it to basketball on time.  Yay to our over-scheduled, over-achieving family!

The Bunny Run is just about a 1 mile race down the main road in Boothbay and back.  They block the street off for it and kids from ages 1-12 can run it.  Sissy ran the 5K last year but this year could only run in the Bunny Run because the adult race had a later start time. 

The race was short and sweet.  All three kids did great!  Sissy came in 2nd overall, winning her age group.  Manimal came in 7th overall, winning his age group and Princess came in 13th, taking 3rd in her age group.  Everyone came home with a trophy!  Princess had a little bit of stomach issues, as she ate a little too much breakfast, but despite wanting to puke halfway through, she kept running and had a great finish!

After the race and awards, we left immediately to head to basketball.  After basketball we left quickly again to head 2 hours north to pick fiddleheads.  See this post HERE if you don't know what I'm talking about. 

Fiddlehead picking went fine and we got quite a few.  Now for the 'pissy' part of the story. 
The drive home from where we were is about 3 hours.  We had stopped once to pick up a pie from truck stop that makes awesome pies and for a potty break.  After 12 hours away from home and 3 hours on the road after picking, we were just about 8 miles from our house and Manimal said he had to pee.  Mind you, we are in the truck and towing a trailer with a boat on it.  You can't just pull over on this road with this big truck and trailer.

Sometimes, when he has to pee, it means "I need to pee, but if you ignore me, I'll be fine until I get home".  Sometimes, it means, "I HAVE TO PEE NOW!".   Not sure which time this was, I told him that we were almost home and he could make it there.  Hubs was driving and basically told him the same thing. 

Well, just about 2 miles and 2 minutes later, (hubs is on the phone now), Manimal says he has to pee really bad.  Ok, this means now.  So, I tell the hubs (who is still on the phone) that he has to go now.  He doesn't answer me.  Either he didn't hear me or he ignored me--not sure which.  So what to do?  The truck is not stopping and Manimal has to pee.  I hand him my empty Mt. Dew bottle and tell him to pee in that.

He's 6 remember, not 13 so this is a ok solution to an immediate problem.  Yes, I realize that I am going to get mother of the year for this story.

Anyhoo, he starts peeing in the bottle and the girls think that this is absolutely hysterical.  They start laughing and so he starts laughing.  You can almost guess what happens next....

His laughing causes him to lose his aim in the bottle and he ends up with his garden-hose-like-pee-stream pointing directly at my husband.  Who immediately gets soaked with pee.  While driving.

Time stands still for moment---almost like in a cartoon--it looks like it's occurring in slow motion.  Picture a pee stream in a perfect arc coming from the backseat, directly landing on the driver. 

Yah,  really funny, I know.

Hubs--not laughing so much.

We are now 2 miles from home. 

Holy.
Freakin'.
Funny. 

That is all.  You are welcome for making you feel like you are parent of the year for never making your kid pee in a soda bottle.  Don't judge.  It could happen to you someday.....

April Review

Well, now.  Didn't April just fly by like nothing?  Seems like I was just writing this month end thing for March and now here it is already into May. 

April was less than stellar for exercise due to my 10 day vacation.  But that's ok.  It was vacation after all.  All that fish we caught made up for the lack of exercise. 

Right??

I should be all set with omega 3 fatty acids. 

On with the recap.

Miles run--31.5  Not a complete goose egg but pretty close.  One 3 mile run less than March.  Oh well.

Spin minutes--154  I guess when you are not near a spin bike for 10 days, the number of minutes you spend on it drops drastically.  Go figure.

Tennis--5 hours played.

Weight Training--50 minutes

Swim--5500 yards

Still no races to speak of this month.  I have just been so busy with the kids' activities that I haven't dared to sign up for any.  I'll get my chance in June, July and August. 

I have signed up for Under Armour's What's Beautiful Challenge.  Feel free to go on and 'follow' me.  I am slowly getting some of the challenges done, but a lot of them require video and I'm still waiting to upgrade from my ghetto phone so that I can do that portion. 

My challenge is to complete an Olympic Length Triathlon this summer.  I am already signed up and ready to go.  Still hoping I don't completely panic in the ocean for the swim......  I guess that's the challenge part.

Current Excitement--I have a new phone on its way!  I get to get rid of this old blackberry that is slower than death with internet stuff!  I purchased a Galaxy 4G somethin' somethin'.  Hopefully, I can figure out how to use it!  I will miss the actual keys for texting though.  I'm not a fan of the touch screen for that, but I'm sure I'll get over it. 

Such a first world problem:  having to use a touch screen to text vs. keys.   Oh, the injustice of it all!

Current Music--I am currently loving That's What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction.  Catchy and cute.  Love it!  Watching the video makes me feel like I am as old as Betty White.  Holy cripe!  They all look like they are the same age as my daughter.  When did toddlers start forming bands??  They don't even look old enough to drive.  Jeesh.

Current Book--I have been downloading this and that from Amazon, but nothing that has really caught my attention as of yet.  I'm really in a book funk lately.  I have read everything that is current and good and cannot find anything to keep my attention.  I'm always open to suggestions if you have any.

I hope May is off to as good a start for you as it is for me!  Have a great day!

Happy Birthday Princess

Nine years ago at 11:37 a.m. my second beautiful baby came into this world.  She was a good baby.  She slept through the night at 6 weeks old.  And she loved to eat!

She was my hubba baby.  Very chubby right from the beginning.  But oh so cute!

She is stubborn, smart and knows just how to push my buttons.  She is cares about both animals and people and just loves babies and little kids.  She is going to make a great mommy someday.

She's grown up so much this year and is slowly becoming a young lady--not my little girl anymore.

I cannot wait to see the woman she becomes.

I love you, Princess!  Have a happy 9th birthday!

Despite the fact your mother is a lame-o and your present hasn't arrived in the mail yet.....