Anna is playing softball again this spring. She is on a team w a different coach, but a couple girls are the same from last year. Funny thing about softball–the socks. One is purple and one is gold. The purple one went missing (wherever missing socks go) after 1 game. Instead of just wearing regular socks, she wore the gold one and a regular sock. Didn’t want you to think it was a gang sign or anything.

PS–the purple sock turned up this past weekend (after about 3 weeks on vacation). It was under our bed.  Imagine that–a dirty sock 2 feet from where the clothes got pulled off and dropped. Who would have thunk it??

Anna rounds 3rd on her way home.

Tyler is playing baseball (T ball really). He is the only kid who gets overhand pitched to and he SMACKS it every time. He has a great swing and really crushes it. He gets that from me I am sure. The main thing he has been doing though is GROWING! This past weekend I think he ate and laid around the entire weekend. He even put himself down for a nap (normal for me, NOT for this 6 year old boy).

What do growing 6 year old boys and lazy 77 year old dogs have in common?

A few weekends ago Paul and I went to see Simplified play at the Blind Tiger again. Their songs are great and it is always a good time (made better by the recent legislation banning smoking in bars and restaurants). Turns out the band’s drummer broke his wrist so they had a new kid who did ok. Just a little different vibe since he was new.

We like that band so much that their song, “Home,” was the one that we walked down the aisle to at our wedding. Lyrics:
Never thought I would be the one who,
Found someone to make me feel like you do,
It’s true I dreamed of you,
And you came in right on cue,

At the Simplified concert April 16.

Tyler and I were playing basketball one afternoon (which means I was rebounding for him–I am allowed 1 shot per 1 million Tyler shoots). All of a sudden he stops and runs over to the yard by the fence. He wanted to pick me flowers and insisted that I put them in water right away so they would last. Here is a photo of my gift:

What more could a girl ask for?

I have been reading quite a bit lately (Paul would say “as usual”). I recently finished House Rules by Jodi Picoult. She could make the phone book a best seller. LOVE her writing style. I also finished Walking on Broken Glass. It was ok. I am part way through The Irresistible Henry House. It is quirky so far. Henry House is an orphan who is adopted by a Home Ec Dept of a college in the 40′s so his 6 “mothers” rotate weekly for a semester, then he gets a new batch of mother every 4-5 months. It follows him through life to watch how messed up this makes him. It is supposedly fiction, but I think these programs really did exist. I introduced Paul to Bill Bryson and Dave Berry. That’s right, Paul is STILL reading! He even said his next book will be FICTION. Imagine that!!!

We have been riding a lot more now that the weather has warmed up. We are doing our first mountain ride this weekend. Can’t remember exactly how much climbing, but its a lot. Hopefully the bike Garmin will work to measure climbing feet like it is supposed to. Last weekend there was such a drastic change in pressure w that big storm that it said at one point that the incline we were on was 850% grade! WHOA!

Day 1, 12/17/09: Anna’s 8th birthday. Paul and I met Robin and Jason, and of course Tyler at Rio Grande for Anna’s birthday dinner. Anna chose the restaurant–Rio G won for the 3rd year in a row. I just LOVE this picture of Anna.

Anna at her Rio Grande birthday dinner, Dec 17

Day 2, 12/18/09: Kids Family Birthday Party. Stephanie and Biz planned a party for Anna and Tyler at their house. Sandie, Brandon, Haley, Hunter and Mom Mom all celebrated with us.

Tyler had a Star Wars cake complete w light up light sabers. Anna had a doll cake complete w Barbie-like doll you lifted out of the cake before cutting.

Day 3, 12/19/09: Tyler’s 6th birthday. Before we could celebrate Tyler’s birthday, we had to play in the snow! That’s right, we had about 7 inches of snow on Friday night/Saturday morning. Then we met Robin, Jason and Lacey (their baby) at Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Tyler’s day.

Anna, Tyler and Frosty. This was after sledding off the ramp Paul built for them!

Ahhhh, my NRA reps.

Day 4, 12/20/09: Extended Sanders Family Christmas/Susan’s half birthday. OK, 1 was celebrated a little more than the other, but still…

Paul and me before starting to open presents at MomMom's.

Day 5, 12/21/09: Susan’s manager Christmas party and Cole’s Annual Christmas party.

(photos unavailable, cameras confiscated by security, paparazzi bounced from property)

Day 6, 12/22/09: Celebrated Paul’s birthday at UNC vs. Marshall basketball game!

My first time in the Dean Dome! I mean... me doing whatever Paul wanted to do for his birthday!

Paul and I are vegging out tonight. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, not sure what the plans are. Then we get the kids on Christmas Day about noon. Then Christmas w Steph and Biz, et. al on Sat afternoon! 9 events in 11 days! Whoooooo hooooooo! Keep in mind this was including 10 loads of laundry, 0 minutes of napping, 3 days of work (which included creating a plan to restructure our cardiac rehab program to make up for $96,000 worth of revenue that we cannot bill for in 2010 and 4 days of 11 state inspectors surveying our hospital), baking 120 cookies and only 30 minutes of physical activity and NO tears shed! Happy Sanders Hanukkah!

On a brighter note Susan got us tickets to a Carolina game for my birthday so we will be going to that next week. This will be Susan’s first time in the Dean Dome which makes it even more exciting. I went to a exhibition game earlier this year while Susan was at her fall “camp crop a lot” so it will be my second game of the year!

Eric Clapton is coming to Raleigh in March and we got tickets for that this weekend. I had heard a few weeks ago that he is going to be in New York with Jeff Beck in February so I think Susan was relieved when she heard on the radio that he is going to be in Raleigh. She of course made sure to call and let me know right away. Before I heard that I was buying plane tickets and headed to New York. It would be fun to see him with Beck but the cost savings of going to Raleigh instead is too much. So between going to B.B. King, a Carolina game(s), and Clapton we are doing good on the entertainment front…now if our racing would only catch up.

SICK

I stayed home from work Monday and Tuesday of last week (9/28 and 29). At first I thought it was flu, which means automatic 7 days out of work. Luckily (?) it was only a sinus infection. I am finally feeling back to normal today (10/6) 1 week later. It has indeed thrown a wrench in my training and weight loss progress (more later). But as of tonight (great run!) I am back on track. Paul and the kids had gotten the respiratory funk a couple times in earlier weeks. I think we all are on the mend. I got my flu shot and the H1N1 flu vaccine will be at our site in a few weeks at the latest. Because I am a high risk person (asthma) in a high risk job (healthcare), I am near the top of the list. Which I feel mixed about since they are still looking at long term side affects. I did also get a pneumonia vaccine free at work b/c of the high risk thing and the fact that the H1N1 tends to affect respiratory system and turn to pneumonia.

HEALTHY

So Paul and I have been in a weight loss contest of sorts w each other for a couple months now. My goal is 11 pounds, Paul’s is 7 (I think). So we weigh in every Wed morning and if we have dropped weight we get a certain amount of money we chose put towards the kayaks that we want (but cannot afford). If we did not lose, but we did our workouts for the week (training for the 1/2 marathon in Dec), we put 1/2 the money back. So far I have lost about 6 1/2 pounds. This means that I am under the cut off for what our life insurance company thinks is high risk. So once I can stay there, I will get re-tested and save us some money!

KIDS

Tyler had a hard time w getting used to school and its routine/restriction/discipline, but he has been doing much better recently. He lost his 2nd tooth yesterday. I woke up in the middle of the night (ok, 10:30) and heard him rolling around, then nothing, then…”yessss!!!!” He had found his quarter from the tooth fairy.

Tyler's first lost tooth

Anna is kicking butt in school. She has her dad’s spelling prowess so we have been working on that, but she has aced her test each of the last 2 weeks. She is very much into mermaids right now.

Both kids love riding their bikes, Tyler prefers trails and Anna the road. Tyler wants to play hoops this winter. Anna changes her mind daily, but did decide she wanted to do a craft from a book she got from Miss Sallie, one of the triathletes I coached through Team in Training this season. Sallie works at Edward McKay, a local used bookstore we LOVE LOVE LOVE. Anna got to go a couple weeks ago and pick some books ($3 worth) b/c she got to 10 on her reward chart (for following the rules at school and home).

FUN

Paul read one of my books about Michael Jordan–its about his retirement and (first) comeback. I recently read 2 books my mom brought me: Never Change (Elizabeth Berg) and Garden Spells (Sarah Addison Allen). Now I am reading Seven Summits–it is about the first 2 guys who climbed the highest mountain on each of the 7 continents. Next comes 2 books I got in Wilmington at one of my favorite little shops, Two Sisters Bookery. My choices are Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work (Jason Brown) or Breakfast with Buddha (Roland Merullo). The weekend of Sept 20th (our anniversary!!) Paul and I went to Wilmington for the race that my TNT peeps did.

L to R: Tom, Sallie, Kathy, me

The weekend after that my parents came down and we had lots of fun, especially at the zoo w Paul’s mom, sis and her kids.

Mom, Dad, Susan, Paul at lunch at Fishbones

Tyler stylin' in my cap while he fixes my hair (at the zoo).

Girl time at the zoo!

Then last weekend Paul and I went to see B.B. King in Myrtle Beach’s House of Blues. It was SO KICK ASS! I will let him tell the rest. No new real house projects in progress. Saturday will be an easy weekend at home so we will have chore day (shhh–Paul and the kids don’t know yet).

During the regular season Carolina beat Duke twice, won the ACC regular season and Tyler Hansbrough became the ACC’s all time scoring leader. The previous ACC scoring leader was the much hated JJ Redick from Duke so that makes the scoring record all that much better. The regular season alone was enough for a great season and winning the national championship just adds icing to the cake.

With all of this I was already very happy this morning (although VERY tired from staying up so late). Things got better when I woke the kids up. The first thing Anna said when I went is was “did Carolina win?” When I told them they did they were both very excited. Tyler said that no one should play Carolina any more because they are too good and can’t lose. Then when he came out of his room excited about the clothes he had picked out it made things even better!

Picture for our bedroom

Goal update…hmmmmm…Kind of average on everything. Things at work are getting worse, which basically only means we are catching up with the poor economy in the rest of the state. On the homefront, we need to replace our HVAC. The irony is that the HVAC in the Elon house (i.e. with no one living in it b/c we can’t sell it) has a brand new one. Well, only 1 1/2 years old. Irony sucks. We have 1 estimate and plan to get the others when we are home this week. I guess we are on a home improvement roll–we took down a light fixture that Paul and I both hit our heads on repeatedly b/c it hangs low. It is ugly too. We also ordered a poster print (already have the glass and frame) to hang in our bedroom (that was painted last year). It is a scene from our trip to Bryce.

In other news, Elli and Michael are expecting a GIRL! I keep lobbying to name her Olivia (they shot down Susan very quickly), but we will see. She is feeling pretty good, taking prenatal yoga and even took a trip to Seattle for a week for work. She has only gained 7.5 pounds and is half way to the finish line–WOW! She is very tough–she was a Diet Coke addict (rivaling you, Stephanie!) and went COLD TURKEY when she found out she was pregnant. Each day I decide to give up Pepsi, but I usually give in about the time I turn on my computer at work. I guess I did not get that gene.

The other new experience is consignment–I am stopping at a place in Burlington (where I work) today to drop off some items to consign. We will see how it goes.

Saturday morning Tyler had a basketball game that he was very excited about. He told me before the game that he was going to get every rebound. It turned out that he was about right. There is another boy on his team that likes to get rebounds and the were about to kill each other. They were both in the game together in the 3rd period and the coach took Tyler out so the two of them weren’t playing at the same time because they were “too competitive with each other”. My mom was there and got a good laugh because I was the same way.

After the basketball game Susan and I ran 20 miles. We had a good run and the weather was really nice which made things easier. Our marathon is 19 days away and that was our last long run until the race. Our longest run that we have between now and the race is 7 miles so we are very excited! After our run we showered and went to Lauren and Elliot’s for dinner. I’m not even sure what time we left their house but I am pretty sure it wasn’t very late. We went home and went right to bed.

Sunday morning we got up and went for a ride with our friend Tamara. She called us that morning to see if we were still going because she knew we were running 20 miles the day before. I knew it was cold outside and wanted to say no (and she also wanted me to say no because of the cold) but I said we were still going. We are doing the 63 mile bike ride the day after the marathon so we have to get use to it. It was 30 degrees with a windchill of 24 when we left the house so we had a very uncomfortable ride, but Susan and I were both glad we went. I’m not sure if it was from the ride or the icing affect from being so cold but I was much looser after the ride.

After the ride Susan and I went to Biscuitville to get breakfast. When we got done ordering we had to tell the lady at the register that we really did only need two drinks and that all that food was just for the two of us. After we ate we picked up the kids, played with them, went to the grocery store, ate dinner and then it was time for bed. I need to figure out how to get 4 day weekends because that all went by way too fast.

But then, there is that crazy “all the kids have to play rule” so Tyler came out in the 4th qtr. Anna had brought Paul’s computer to play Webkinz (long story) and alas, hoops was a long forgotten memory, see picture below.

Basketball game, what game?

We are still training for Myrtle Beach weekend. We might even be getting faster. Tonight we ran 9 miles in 93 minutes. I am usually a 12 min miler (and drag Paul down w me) so this was FAST for us! Plus it was about 30 degrees. ugh. Treadmill tomorrow–its supposed to be 12 in the morning. I did not move to NC for cold.

We have been watching lots of college hoops. Paul is having apoplexy over UNC’s performance lately. Can’t blame him. I don’t stay up past 8pm to watch them lose!

My goals? We have posted a fruit and veggie page. Check back often to see my progress. I am improving my eating habits slowly but surely thanks to Paul and his great cooking. I am attending the NC Women’s Conference in a couple weeks and very excited about that, especially as it relates to my search to be “well rounded” w/o trying to be Superwoman. I always did like Wonder Woman better anyway. I just know my goal for this week is to finally iron my khaki pants. Maybe tomorrow…

I vary rarely make it until midnight but this year I am going to try my best. Why? Because Susan and I are sitting here watching the Georgetown/UConn game and we saw that Carolina is playing at 10 pm that night. If the game starts at 10 it won’t be over until around 12 so I will try to stay up for that. I could still care less about staying up for the new year though . We are riding with Tamara on the 1st at noon so Susan is going to have a hard time getting in her 11 hours of sleep that she needs (although I doubt she is going to stay up to watch the game with me).

Susan and I watched the Wake – Indiana game last night and it looked like a Harlem Globe Trotters game. One of Wake’s biggest problems was they kept having so many people open for the ally oops that they kept having more than one person trying to grab the ball. It was like Indiana wasn’t even there on defence. Susan decided that Indiana’s point guard thought he got points for dribbling because he just ran around all night with the ball and their shooting guard kept shooting from about half court for no reason and missing but the coach couldn’t take him out because there was no other options. Needless to say Susan was frustrated.

Then came the Carolina game…if you want to call it that. Michigan State is suppose to be one of the best teams in the Big 10 and ranked 16 nationally. The headline I saw on ESPN this morning says it all:

Hansbrough’s 23 help North Carolina embarrass Michigan State

The game wasn’t even close, Carolina won 98 – 63.

The one game that I did want the Big 10 to win was the Duke – Purdue game, but Duke didn’t have much trouble beating them. This ACC – Big 10 challenge has to be getting embarrassing for all you Big 10 fans out there.

To be number 1 AND to go ahead of Duke all at the same time…it doesn’t get any better than that!

Susan's first day of middle school

I’m sitting here with Susan right now as she goes through her old school stuff and I have learned some interesting things. First, she likes to make fun of the North Carolina education system but I have just learned that she won a science fair after coming to a incorrect conclusion in her project. There are pictures from band camp, spelling bee awards, a participation certificate for a calculator tournament…the list just keeps going.

There was also the C+ she got in advanced chemistry, “her only C”. Although there was the year where she had not one but two P.E. classes. One of these P.E. classes was “officiating” where she became a licensed referee. As a high school basketball player I am sure this was very difficult for her.

By the way: This picture was from Susan’s first day of middle school where it was “VERY” important to pick a good outfit.