catching up with summa summa

"Basstrackers, bayliners and a party barge, strung together like a floating trailer park, anchored out and gettin loud all summer long, side by side there's five houseboat front porches, astroturf, lawn chairs and tiki torches, regular joes rocking the boat that's us, the redneck yacht club!" - Craig Morgan, Red Neck Yacht Club

So it's been a haute minute since I last posted.  I've been pretty busy between staycationing, playing OTL, and running head on full speed with my new job.  This summer has felt a bit like a comfortable warm red neck yacht club vacation with the ones I love the mostest.  Being with family and the friends in low places I call my own, really made me stop to think and remember to be thankful for all I am blessed with.  Including the ability to still dive and roll through the sand in my quest to one day win OTL...

Not to worry... I caught it... But it hurt like whoa.

I found something else this summer, my age, at least it was the first time I have felt myself getting older.  I used to be able to run, dive, be dehydrated and bounce right back the next day on a couple hours of sleep.  The funny thing is I am much healthier now than I had ever been through my youth and athletic career.  I used to live off of cereal, chocolate, and no water.  These days my favorite nosh is baked kale chips, and dessert consists of a piece of fruit when the craving surfaces.

Hubs and my cousin's son Brandt Man.  Stud to the muffins.

There's a good chance hubs will not like me posting this photo, but it makes my heart warm so we'll deal with that later if need be...  This past week I was spoiled with a staycation with my family.  Although hubs insisted on bringing the deep fryer along for nightly meals, they fried everything, dough, onion rings, french fries, you name it.  Mix that with my family's shared love of kale, and our obsession with wine and beach fire s'mores, and I was obviously feeling more than fabulous in my bikini... pause.  Nyaattttt! 

 

It's Wine o'clock somewhere!

I don't know if there is anything more beautifully relaxing than wine and a sunset off the water.  Not to mention running by the water is more relaxing.  It may have been my dad who insisted on riding his bike alongside me as I trudged through miles each morning to prevent me from being kidnapped of course, but running at the beach was easy and I woke up every morning before 6:30 on my staycay to run.  What's more, I really, really looked forward to it like it was a treat.  Totally not a treat on most days in the real world.

Blonde Beezies on Court 27

I think I also liked running in the morning because it was like my morning workout preparing for our weekend of OTL ahead of us.  Yeah... I really take this OTL business seriously...

We coulda had it all... Rollin' in the dirt...

This was the one that really hurt, actually stills hurts as I sit here typing 5 days later...  I somehow landed on my back on the end of this dive and my neck still ain't feelin' quite right. 

Most amazing lady lovelies I know...

In the end, the neither the Blonde Beezies or the Bruin Bombshells won it all, despite our diving triumphs.  The ridiculous competitive blood in my veins still boils a bit just thinking about it, but oh well, 364 more days until next year's OTL World Championship, gotta keep in shape, and perfect my swing...

Thanks to my fam and all the beezies that keep me grounded and provide an enormous amount of love and happiness in my life.  Thanks for making fun of me for eating protein pancakes every morning instead of cinnamon rolls, but still making sure there was a healthy vegetarian option alongside all that was fried and glorious.

Hat says it all...

I look forward to aging with all of you and one day soaking it all in while flubbin' and remembering how we used to could.  Here's to one day taking the 'ship at OTL.

Family. Crazy. Balance.

"Commitment is like being pregnant, you either are or you're not.  You can't be kind of pregnant." - Susie Q. 

I have been trying real hard to implement balance in my life over the past few months, and for some reason it reminds me of this saying my coach liked to say now and again.  Pretty sure she used it with two purposes, to scare us into how committed to the game and our team we needed to be, and to also remind us to not get pregnant.  Either way, that ish worked.

 Susie herself! 

 She had some brilliant one liners and analogies, but of all the important things she taught me about character, responsibility and life, this one was my favorite.  You have to commit yourself to being balanced.  If you limp in one day out the next, then you're technically out of balance right there.  It's a tall order when you think of the balls we all have lobbed in the air at any given time:

work workout.healthy eating.hubs.dogs.running.running with Jackalope.cleaning the house.yoga?writing a blog.watching TV .not stepping in the ish that is drama and dragging it around the house (it smells).flossing.being a better golfer.perfecting protein shakes.slo-pitch (2 teams).getting ready for OTL.grilling out this Sunday.fixing up the new house.rocking your new job.making sure Jackalope doesn't drop a dooce on the neighbor's lawn...

In the end it's family that can hold your hand to keep you balanced so you don't fall, or laughs with at you and then helps you up.

Balancing this family can be a challenge wicked awesome good time.

You don't get to pick your family at birth, but you can as life goes on.  My real extended family is crazy.  We're talking out of control ruin your Christmas, birthday and funerals type crazy.  Luckily, at my core, my mom, dad, brother and hubs are awesome and have attracted the awesomeness of others to create our own brood. 

Someone's gotta hold Jackalope... Granddaddy loves his Granddogger, and refuses to hold his tongue about wanting a real Grandchild.

What I really appreciate about my melting pot of a family is that they just let me be.  They let me be cranky.  They let me eat bird food.  They let me go on rants about eating healthier as a family.  Most of them are just as competitive as I am (which is a whole 'notha level of crazy)...  My family takes enjoying-life pretty seriously, and in the summertime the sentiment is heightened.  We are known for volleyball BBQs in our back yard and have only been shut down by the cops twice in the 15 years or so I can remember playing for noise violations... 

My serves are as well mannered as my popped collar...

We are also known for food.  You cannot come to our house and leave feeling like you don't have to vomit from over eating.  It's not okay, you will want to vomit.  But in the past I have found that I gain weight every summer during the time when I am supposed to don a bikini and parade with these crazies at the river.  It doesn't make me happy, and I have yet to stay in balance through a summer.

My happy place is bringing thai lime cashews to the party...

But this year is different.  I am not going to kind-of be in balance, eat well during the week, and feed the screaming bloody murder chubby kid in my stomach on the weekends.  I am bringing healthy indulgences to the party like thai lime cashews, and eating what makes me happy, but not on behalf of the entire population because it's a "free day" and I will likely never see food again.

See only crazy sometimes.  Lies, crazy doesn't just go dormant...

And again, the fam dam taught me something about myself.  Balance in my eating, in my health, in my life and in my relationships comes down to commitment to each of those things separately.  It's not my family's job to yell at me for eating a plate of cheese sauce, they'd probably knuckle bump me, but they do make it their job to tell me when I am being a buzzkill to their good time.  I.E. Me overeating and then complaining about how terrible of a person I am for hours to come.  And mind you most of this self bashing happened to the old me, before I committed to a healthier me inside and out.  But when Jezebel gets out of her cage from time to time, I am thankful my family has no problem smacking her back into place.

Xo