Nathan’s Book

There are moments in time where you look at your friends and their abilities and their work and think…Wow, seriously?  That’s amazing!  And then you think how lucky you are to know them and share time with them and even have the ability to share the simplest of life pleasures with them.

This is one of those moments.

Nathan, congratulations, we can’t wait to hear about your conversation with Oprah.

The fort

The neighborhood kids have found something that really binds them together, fort making.  You can see the beginnings of it from Dr. A’s photo.  That was about four days ago and they have not stopped working on it since.  They just keep adding to it, making it bigger and better.

There is now a prison, several look out posts, a fencing log and individual storage facilities for guns (sticks).  KP prefers putting his in between the trees bark, I’ll get a picture soon, it’s pretty cool, kind of like a weird abstract work of art.

Today we went to the park mid morning and there was a new addition in the fort…an empty Bacardi bottle.

Looks like the teens like the fort just as much as the little kids do.

Mean…like calling someone a Toddler

Yesterday after the marathon, after everyone showered up, dried off and took a deep breath, we headed over to a running mate of Adam’s for a little after marathon party.

There were a ton of kids there.  New kids.  Kids that my kids have never met before.  But the great thing about kids, that does not matter.  They just make it work. They play and scrap and find things to get into  and have fun and never even take the time to find out their new buddie’s name.

At the end of the night, while driving home, we asked the kids if they had fun.  PJ said yes.  Of course, we did find her standing up on a chair performing Chinese songs to the entire group while they falled about her giggling.

KP said the kids were mean.  Did something happen, I asked.  His response, “Yeah, they called me Butter Head!”

Shit, Butter Head or Butta Head (as it sounds like coming out of KP’s mouth), that is just perfect.  Thanks to the kid who coined that…it’s absolutely perfect.

Welcome…

To the world baby Leo!

Who was born yesterday for all those wanting to know.  Great work Dr. A on a job well done!

And nice work internet, Leo may be the first positive vibe internet baby ever born.

Pregzilla

This is Dr. A. 

She is the one woman I know that makes being pregnant look easy.  And, that’s in combination with her full time ER job and corralling her three very active, very busy, very cute little boys.

That baby in her belly there (yeah, you can see it)…it needs to come out now.

Send her all the positive PLEASE BABY COME OUT NOW vibes you can today.  She’s ready.

Here it is

Tomorrow’s Half Iron race inspiration.

This is really a picture of them

The Bickerson’s are back at it this year…have fun, good luck, happy trails and safe travels to, from and through RAGBRAI.

Marathon…check

Wow, all I have to say is…that was one fun marathon.

The night before the race our little running group went to Duluth to pick up our race packets.  We found the perfect shirts for the kids as they lined up on the streets of Duluth to cheer us on.  They read, “My mom is faster than your mom.”

We had dinner at Hell’s Kitchen.  Todd could not decide, so went with waffles AND spaghetti.  That should just about do it.

Rise and shine, 5:00 am.  All this early morning training paid off, we got up on time.

A quick shot before we catch the bus to the start line.  Can you see the nerves starting to surface?

Almost as quick as it started, it was over.  The day could not have been more beautiful.  The best part was sharing it with friends.

To Miss Erika, thanks to you for allowing me to run my trap for 4 hours and 37 minutes by your side, I am so happy we could share this experience.  Congratulations!

To Todd, way to go.  The first one is hard…you only get a better handle on it from here.

To Laura, welcome back!  Nice work on the marathon come back after three kids, I can’t wait to see what next year has in store.

To Jen, we missed you.

To Adam and my kids, thank you for always supporting me in my insane endeavors.  To see your faces on the race course is what sustains me…I love you.

26.2, again

And so this weekend, my running group (sans Jen) and I will embark on our marathon adventure up in Duluth. We each have different reasons for wanting to run the marathon, we all have different goals. I vowed never to do another, one was enough. How easily I am swayed by friends.

My goal for this race is to run with friends, that is the only way I would do another…with friends, starting and finishing with friends. Time doesn’t really matter this go around, finishing with a friend at your side does and Erika is nice enough to let me be by her side.

I am amazed at how I feel by taking the pressure off myself, the pressure of time or place. NO, seriously amazed. It is allowing me the freedom to actually enjoy the race, the process of the race and everything else it has to offer.

We as a group have trained hard and we have trained well. I can’t wait, I’m giddy with excitement…for all of us.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Separated at birth

Seriously…who knew???