Flat

Nothing like a blow out on the freeway to kick start your work week.

I'm just here sittin' off the side of the road in my dress and high heels waiting for my Prince Charming to come rescue me. Good times.

Kelli S. Brown

sent from my iPhone

G&G Goodman

We had a nice visit this evening with Grandpa Harry and Grandma Rita. Our kiddos gave them the family updates and Afton showed off her newest duct tape wallet - custom made with some new and improved features over last week's model. G&G were duly impressed. It was pretty cute to watch. They both reported that they were having good days and feeling pretty well, but confessed that some days are better than others. It's so hard to see them getting so old, but really, I think they're doing pretty darn good for 95 and 93. The last couple of years have really slowed them down compared to their late 80's and early 90's when they were still getting out occasionally and coming over for Sunday dinners. I asked Grandma Rita if they had any big summer vacation plans and she got a good laugh. I run by their house several times each week in the wee morning hours and always pray that they will be comforted and know how much they are loved...

Our Softball Girls

Well...I'm not sure when the next time we'll be seeing this again.

Sisters.

Matching jerseys.

Tearin' it up together.

What a great time we had this spring out at Quail Run park watching our Diablas light it up. Gotta love those flame socks!

The girls' coaches were outstanding. Coach Lawrence, Coach Chris & Coach Dean really worked with the girls all season.

Emma, Bailey & Afton

And even though the Diablas season is over...

We'll still get to see a little more of this...

because..

Afton made the 9-10 year old All-Star team!

You go, Afton!

Can't wait to watch you play at the Regional Tournament coming up in a couple weeks.

Diving Lessons

(Rowan on the high dive at Stapley today)

I really enjoyed spending the 10:30-11:30 am hour today at Stapley pool with my three youngers. We decided to do a session of swim and dive classes to keep them busy for the first couple weeks of summer. Yes, they all already know how to swim proficiently. Yes, we're in our own pool at home practically everyday. But still, there's something about lessons. They get pushed a little more and learn things that I never teach at home. Like butterfly stroke and backstroke (Afty's stroke stars class) and how to master the perfect back dive (Rowan's diving class). I'm not really sure if Easton is learning anything meaningful in his class, but he seems to be having fun with his fellow Sea Stars. I had to sign him up for the 5 year old class (they go by age), and the ability levels range all over the map in his group. He's the kid who tosses all 12 of our dive rings into the 10 foot deep end and has absolutely no issue with plummeting down to retrieve them and then doing it all over again. And again. But some of the kids in his class are just braving the head dunk and blowing bubbles. Still, at least it gets him out of the house and spending a little time with new kids and keeps him cool while his sisters dive and swim laps.

Rowan trying her first back dive. So proud of her! It's dang scary going off the diving board backwards. I'm sure I did it as a kid, but now...not sure you could pay me to back dive.

Great day. And the bonus was that I got to lounge in a chair for an hour in my suit and work on my tan (or what I hope will eventually become a tan) so I won't fry down in Rocky Point in a couple weeks. I'm getting super excited for a mango on a stick and some serious guacamole!

The Makeovers (a la Randi)

My seven-going-on-seventeen girly girl, Miss Rowan, all dolled up by her favorite cousin, Miss Randi. Oh Randi Dandy, what would we ever do without you?? My girls adore you. Actually, we all adore you!

Even our super not-girly-girl, Afty, got the makeover! So cute.

As always, we had a great time visiting for dinner last week at Mike & Shari's. Shari cooked up some delicious Mexican food for Tallin's 9th birthday. Oh, and we got to meet "the ladies" up close and personal (aka the Goodman's new chickens). So cool. So fun.

Athleta

I am really bad about checking our mailbox. And our home voice mail. I'm also really bad about dusting and filing home office paperwork and saying no to Hot Tamales and really good tortilla chips. But that's beside the point.

So last night, I checked the mail and probably set a record for checking it two days in a row. It was the first night in a long string of nights that I can remember being home at a decent hour with absolutely nothing on my critical agenda (unless you call folding the five loads of laundry I'd done the day before critical). I didn't think so either.

Much to my delight, a new catalog from a company I'd never heard of before was in the stack of mostly junk mail. It was from Athleta. The picture on the inside cover intrigued me (a seriously musucular woman in her 30's on a tropical beach in a super cute swimsuit). So I grabbed my tall glass of ice water, pulled up a chair at my kitchen table, smiled at my three youngest peeps all cozy in their jammies watching a little wind-down TV before bedtime, and started leisurely parousing the pages. I could've doggy-eared the entire catalog with my wish list. Totally cute suits, super sporty looking running tanks, the comfiest running shorts ever, board shorts, to die for cover ups, yoga pants, and the list goes on and on. I was in heaven... but really just wanted to be in Hawaii on the beach with my honey :)

Long story short, I was super inspired (again) to be fit. What I really loved about this catalog was that the models were not your typical swimsuit or cover girl models. These women were athletes. Super athletes. The kind that ooze "I am one lean muscle and I live strong." All these women looked healthy and fit and lean and ripped. Hence the modeling gig for Athleta I guess. As I laid in bed last night (with no Ryan by my side since he was on night three of six away at scout camp), I wondered what these women really did all day long. Were they professional athletes? Were they moms like me? Were they dual career women, wives, homemakers, runners? Or just super cut models. I'm sure I'll never know, but I was a little inspired for sure. I know that's it's not healthy to compare ourselves to others and certainly not to hold ourselves up to some unrealistic ideal. And I know that after four kids and two C-Sections that I'll never have ripped abs like that. And I'm OK with it. It was a good inspiration. Really. The kind that makes you think, "I can work a little harder. I can push a little more. I can do it." Then I checked the Facebook app on my iPhone and saw my high school friend's Rim to Rim pics from Memorial Day and starting getting excited for our next Rim to Rim journey this September. I can hardly wait!

So this morning when my iPhone alarm beckoned me to wake while my three precious peeps still slept (Barrett was away too at Girl's Camp), I had a little extra spring in my step and little more excitement to start the daily workout. I upped my dumbell weights a couple pounds for the Sculpt routine and pushed it a little harder than the day before. It felt good. Really good. When I was finished I wanted to keep going and head out the door for a run too, but the clock told me it was shower time or I'd never make it out the door for work in time.

I'm already looking forward to my first 3-day weekend of the summer at home (I always have a three-day weekend since I don't work Fridays) with full nights of sleep, great workouts, a long run, and a little Vitamin D by the pool.

Life is good. My kids are happy and healthy. Ryan & Barrett will be home on Saturday and we'll all be back together again. (And I did finally get those 5 loads of laundry folded before bed :)

Pit

The game of choice this weekend. Well, actually one of many. We also played a few rounds of Monopoly Deal, Five Crowns, Ticket to Ride, and lots of cards. Good times. It was fun having the Bauer girls (Hallie and Syd) join us too. Our girls play ball with them and they have become great friends this year.

The Browns, The Berreys, & The Bear

(Easton, Lily, Bryce, Rowan & Ella on a walk by the creek)

We had such a blast this past Memorial Day weekend up at the cabin. Playing hard, enjoying the weather, spending time with our cousins and friends, and of course, eating too much. I've got a lot of great pics to post for sure.

But the one I really want to post - I don't have. It's the picture of the BEAR!!! Yes, I said BEAR. We had a visitor on Saturday night. The brown, four-legged kind. Crazy, huh? I was in the laundry room ironing our Sunday clothes, and suddenly my mom and I heard a loud crash outside. My mom said, "What the heck was that?" and then we walked around to the kitchen. J.R. opened up the back patio door to check and suddenly yelled out, "It's a bear!!!!!"

What?

"A bear!!!!!"

"Holy crap!" Yes, indeed, a brown bear that was about my waist high on all fours was rummaging through our garbage. J.R. was snapping pictures in the dark (that didn't really turn out) while all of us were huddled around the patio door threshold watching this forest dweller not more than 15 feet away. Rowan was bawling. Easton and Ella didn't want to look. All the other kids were amazed. And so were the rest of us. I started searching for my iPhone so I could snap photos too, but it was nowhere to be found. Know why? Because my scoutmaster husband was out front using the newly installed astronomy app to look at the stars in preparation for the astronomy merit badge he was helping with this week at scout camp. Yes, he was OUTSIDE. With my dad. And my camera. And so was the stinkin bear!

So I yelled out front for them to come in, and instead they went out back to get a little closer to the bear. Ryan got a quick little video of it before it looked up and appeared to be approaching rapidly. The movie is stinkin funny as you hear J.R. and Ryan scambling to get inside and the camera is shaking every which way. Then my camera man recovered a little and caught about 3 seconds of the bear walking away into the forest.

Last night at All-Star tryouts, I was sitting with another mom and found out that her sister's ward girls got sent home early from Camp LoMia over the weekend because a brown bear was harrassing the girls in the atties. Nice. Probably the same stinkin bear since the cabin is less than a mile from Lo Mia. And guess where my firstborn went today? Yep, you guessed it. Camp LoMia. Hope she doesn't get eaten by the bear!

So Proud of You!

We are so proud of our número UNO daughter! We attended her final Hale Elementary awards ceremony today where she was honored a couple of times for her great academic achievements and her participation in the Respect program. They finished the assembly with the 6th grade science camp movie (whew, it's done) and now all the awesome 6th graders are off to Skateland for the day. So fun!! Barrett is a terrific girl and I can hardly believe she's on her way to junior high. I know she's gonna love it!

Living Life

The blogging universe has been minus one for the past several weeks. Almost a month it looks like from my last posting date. Holy cow. I have no idea what everyone else has been up to since I haven't checked anyone's blogs for weeks. And what the heck have I been doing? Living life, I guess. Many days, I wake up and think, "today I need to blog about such and such," or "I have the best pictures to upload to my blog today." And then the day comes and goes and the next one comes and goes and life takes over.

Really, blogging is an indulgence for me lately. I love to write and think and share my pics. I love keeping a little history of the Mesa Brown crew. And I love being able to check up on all my friends and keep up on their lives - even if it's just from cyberspace. Hopefully with only six more school days to go this year and one more night of softball games, life will slow down just a bit in the summer and the memoirs will start to make their way to the keyboard again.

So...as of late, this is what we've been up to:

• J.R. & crew finished up our master bathroom remodel (I might have already blogged about that. I can't remember it's been so long :) But it looks fabulous-o. Can't wait to find a minute to post the pics. It's like a little bit of heaven in my house. I super duper love it and think they did such a great job. Thanks, J.R. You are the best!




• Barrett and I went up to 6th grade camp at Tonto Rim Camp outside of Payson on April 25-27 with all of the sixth graders from her school and had an absolute blast. I was one of the cabin moms and loved every minute of it. I loved being up there with Barrett and her cute friends. I loved the classes and activities and cool weather and hikes and skits and all the fun. Such good memories. I have a zillion pictures from the trip (no, not really - only about 500). I was the camp photographer too and am working on the camp movie on my Mac, which will be shown to the whole school and parents next week at the awards assembly. No pressure. Super fun. Barrett and I spent a couple hours last weekend going through our music library to pick the coolest, hippest songs for the flick. Left up to me, we would have resurrected the 80's hits for the soundtrack. We all know how good the 80's music was, right? Just kidding (kidding about using it, not about it's greatness). I wouldn't have done that to Barrett. She's a little music connoiseur herself and certainly appreciates a good Sammy Hagar or Alice Cooper hit, but we let the music of 2011 prevail for this sixth grade motion picture extravaganza. Justin Beiber and Katy Perry and Taio Cruz and Usher and The Black Eyed Peas and all their cronies are taking over the scene to provide the background music for the movie.




• Softball season. Enough said. No, not really. Not even close to enough said. We've been doing four games a week since late March and really loving every minute of it. Our girls have been so much fun to watch this year. Rowan finished her season a week ago, and Afton & Barrett are still in the majors tournament. And finally, finally... both Barrett & Afton are off the DL and actually playing at the same time. Barrett got her splint off last Friday and she played on Monday with taped fingers. Hooray! No more broken bones in the Brown house (knock on wood.) Tomorrow is the last night, though. The Diablas (yes, they are the She Devils) went all season undefeated up through the first tourney game, then lost their first game of the year on Monday night to the Vipers. The Vipers were tough. Their #1 chuck was on fire, we had one bad inning, and couldn't get a rally going. Final score was 8-3. But our girls rallied back last night and crushed the Crushers 15-4 (both Barrett & Afton got some sweet hits) so now they have to beat the Vipers twice on Thursday night to take home the title. Can't wait. I love watching them play.




• Working out. Ryan continues to be a running machine, going long a couple days a week. He's building up some serious stamina and shedding the extra cushion. He's not training for any races or anything, just keeping in shape and getting the body ready for the next Rim to Rim coming up in September. He throws in some P90X upper body workouts in the mix and has been very consistent. I, too, am keeping up with the fitness and loving it. I started a new Beachbody workout series a couple of weeks ago (Beachbody is the company that makes P90X, Insanity, Chalean Extreme, Slim in 6, and a bunch of others, including the one I'm doing now). I'd tell you what it is, but my kids grin ear to ear every time I say it and then bust into a giggle. Ya, ya, I know it's a funny name, but it's fun and it's working! Really, working. My whole core was in need of toning since I've just been running and not lifting too often. I was ready to mix things up a bit. So I looked online for some new workout DVD's to help me firm up and get ready for summer. I think I found the answer! I've been working out hard 5-6 days a week (and squeezing in a couple of runs a week, too, so I won't lose the lung stamina) and doing some calorie counting to boot. I've never been a dieter, but counting the calories and focusing on making all of them count with good stuff has really been an eye opener for me. It's crazy how fast you can eat your way through 1500 calories. By lunchtime! So now it's about choices and eating smaller, more often, and staying away from fast food and white stuff and junk and getting enough protein to keep up the fitness. So hopefully it's all paying off. We'll see in another month.




• School projects. In one week, Barrett had to turn in her country report on Greece and her Roman castle project that she and Katy constructed out of cardboard and paint and glue and moss and sticks and all things crafty; Afton completed her desert animal report on the Banded Gecko; and Rowan finished her habitat diorama and report on The Wetlands. Why do the teachers all think it's such a good idea to save the big projects until the end of the school year? Maybe because they think that the recitals and ball games and field trips and end of the year programs and regular school work and all the extracurricular stuff won't be enough to fill our lives. I don't know. Maybe it's just me :) We (and I do mean "we" when I say that) still have to finish up a country poster, create and dress a 2- foot paper doll in "authentic" Greek attire, prepare an Indian costume for the Arizona program, prepare a Greek costume and snacks for the world fair, and make an Easton-sized car from a box for the kindergarten drive in movie day. All before we can officially pack away all things crafty for the summer. Should be another fun week.

I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff that I missed too (like church callings and getting our website up and running and work and converting to a new software system at RMB and all the training that goes with that), yada, yada, yada...But this post is already crazy long and I have long since passed my small window of blogging opportunity. Gotta run. Hope to post the pics that go along with all of this stuff soon. Life is good. The Browns are good. Getting excited for summer vacations and camps and friends and time in the pool.