I Still Feel Like I'm 4

How did he do that?! How did he win when it looked like it was a lost cause with only 2 meters to go, hell, with only 2 inches to go?! Michael Phelps is unreal. Those have been some historic races leading to his first 7 golds. The kids were forced to sit through his first few races with me, but now even they know who he is, what he's trying to accomplish and get excited when he's about to race. It's one of those "once in a lifetime" athletes that comes through and we're able to watch it.

I'm sure that's what some spectators think when they see me getting ready to race. I mentioned to one of my tri teammates that with a few more workouts I could be at Phelps' caliber. The response back was something like change everything about me physically - height, wing span - and eliminate beer from my diet and within a few years I might be able to be his towel boy. I was all for it until I read that no beer part. You can take the swimmer out of Ireland, but you can't take the Irish out of the swimmer! Thanks for the words of encouragement though Kimmi, appreciate it. ;)

Speaking of the Irish, I haven't seen them win any golds yet, or any medals for that fact. Are we even represented in these games? If they have pubs or taverns in the Olympic Village there might be some no shows at their events. Hmmm....

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Life this week was somewhat on the downer side. The kids start school on the 25th so this was my last week to have them before they go back to the classroom. As you (should) know from previous posts they're transferring to a new district. With Kayli starting middle school now she starts an hour earlier than the boys. Because of the logistics with where Lindsay and I live in relation to each other (and thus the schools) Kayli will be living with Lindsay pretty much full time now during the school year. I agreed to this because it makes life a lot easier for Kayli time-wise, but I feel like I'm losing a child.

I know that's not the case, but it's going to feel weird not having her around here. I'll still get to see her when I pick up the boys during my weeks, but it won't be the same just having those brief conversations with her versus having her actually live here. It's going to take a more concerted effort to maintain my position in her life, but I'll make sure to do it. Just she and I went out to lunch yesterday to get some final summer bonding and talked about her "moving out". She'll come back to Lonsdale every so often on the weekends or when they have days off from school when it's my week. I got tickets for just her and me to see Little House on the Prairie at the Guthrie so that'll be a nice daddy/daughter event. Shhh, she doesn't know about it though so make sure to keep it that way!

These next few years are going to be interesting as she becomes a teenager and more and more independent. Kayli has already shown she has her mother in her so there could be some head-buttin' going on in that house. It might not be such a bad thing for her to have these other roofs to live under if she needs a breather every now and then.

Conner is warming up to the idea of transferring schools so that's less of an issue. Lindsay took the boys to their school to walk around when Kayli and I were at lunch so now that he's seen it (and likes it) he's becoming more comfortable with the transition.

Devon's just excited to start kindergarten so he could be going to Iowa or Wisconsin and he'd still be alright with it and say "let's go". He had another Devonism today. We were outside and he asked when he could ride his bike on the street by himself. I told him when he turns 6 I'll think about it. His response - "I'm 5 now so on my next birfday (that's his "th" sound) I'll be 6, but I still feel like I'm 4 now." Maybe you had to be here to fully appreciate it, but it was just too cute!

With Kayli quasi-moving out, we're playing musical bedrooms here now. In order to keep the boys in separate bedrooms during the school year Devon is going to move downstairs. Conner doesn't like to sleep down there alone so Kayli is going to move up here, Conner chose to move into Kayli's room so that leaves Devon to move into Conner's room. I'm gonna have to paint Kayli's current room though because there's no way Conner wants a pink room! He's already picked out the shade of blue he wants so I'll have to try to get that done next week.

Next week...gonna be a fun one (something's wrong with my "b" key, doesn't always type when I hit it, so if you see it missing anywhere just mentally insert it. At least it isn't too popular of a letter. Poor b.) Sorry about that, got off track. Oh yeah, next week. Ragnar is next weekend! Festivities for that starts on Wednesday night with our van decorating and then 1/2 our team leaves for La Crosse on Thursday for the race start Friday morning. With the order our team is set up right now, being Runner #6 (out of 12) my 3 approximate run times are 2:00 p.m. Friday, 2:00 a.m. Saturday and Noonish Saturday, or something like that. As crazy as it sounds I'm looking forward to that 2nd run, 2:00 in the morning, the most. I've never run in the middle of the night (at least during a race) before so it'll be interesting to see how that is (especially being tired). I just hope it isn't raining. If we could order another weekend of weather like the one we're currently having that would be perfect! The extended forecast does have some pictures of clouds and t-storms in it though so hopefully that'll change within the next 6 days.

Wednesday is my work department's group outing that afternoon. My boss is planning it and keeping it a secret so who knows what she'll come up with. 2 years ago we did the L. Minnetonka 4 hr cruise and last year it was the paddleboat on the Mississippi, both of which were nice, but I hope we're staying off the water this year just for something different. Regardless, it should be better this year because with some of the restructuring that's gone on we've dropped some staff that just weren't fun to socialize with (let alone work with). She was taking suggestions for ideas, but she didn't really like mine of having everyone come to Lonsdale to help me clean my house. I thought everyone could pick a room, clean for a couple of hours and then I'd supply the tap water and plastic lounge chairs. A great team bonding exercise, right?!

The biggest event next week though that I'm going to feel guilty missing is Wade's 40th! Holy crap, you're 40!! I know mine's right around the corner, but your's is in 1 week. Happy early birthday big guy!!