Rumpshaker 5k and Happy Easter!

Image from David Christy Photography

Saturday I ran in the Rumpshaker 5k voted best 5k in Birmingham. It was a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for a 5k race. The race was held at historic Sloss Furnace and benefited colon cancer research. It was a huge race with lots of teams of walkers as well as runners. Most of the teams had cute names such as This Toot shall pass, Best Butties, Wise Cracks, ASSteroids, Your Own Worst Enema etc. I've never seen so many people wearing big plastic butt cheeks over their running pants.

Since it was Easter weekend, there was a also a 1 mile Bunny walk/run, a Bunny parade and you could get your pictures made with the Easter bunny. I passed on getting my picture made with the Easter bunny, but I did walk through the giant inflatable colon.

Image from mruns.com

So that's what the inside of a colon looks like. Not just any old colon, but a colon with polyps.

I felt great the entire run and pushed as hard as I could trying to get in under 24 minutes. I made it in 23:09 and was extremely happy with that time. I placed second in my age group. Afterward I ran 2 more miles with my friend, L to make it a total of 5 miles for the day. Then Sunday we ran 5 miles in the rain. She ran 7, but I quit at 5 and went to the gym and rode the spin bike. My legs are extremely sore right now!

My family came over to eat lunch with us for Easter. My mom also took more furniture with her so we won't have to put it in storage. We also sold the Boy's car this weekend. He called Thursday and told me just to PLEEASE get rid of it for him. He couldn't find a place to store it and it couldn't continue to sit in the driveway deteriorating, not to mention we are selling the house. I'm so happy it's gone! He is too!

I made deviled eggs and the Murph cooked a ham. This is probably the first Easter since the Boy was born that I didn't dye Easter eggs. Funny, but I sure don't miss the mess!

We've got a ton of leftover ham so the Murph is making his famous ham and bean soup.

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

The Not So Great Baby Chick Idea

I had this really, really great idea to surprise The Murph this year with a few baby chicks for Easter.  I thought wouldn't it be great to have our very own egg laying chickens so we could have healthy organic fresh eggs to eat.  Sure we live in a subdivision, not out in the country, but so what.  Every year The Murph has a little spot in his yard where he has a little vegetable garden.  We also planted several different types of herbs last year, so wouldn't it be great to throw in a few chickens and build a chicken coop behind the garden and have fresh eggs as well?

I researched all about it on the internet, found a hatchery that ships 1 day old baby chicks in small quantities (I was going to order 5) in a mixture of white egg layers and brown egg layers.  I found out what you would need to take care of the baby chicks until they got big enough to put out in the yard and was ready to buy a starter kit which included a heat lamp, feeder, waterer, and starter food.  

I even found a really cute place that makes "green" chicken coops that look like an English estate, made of recycled wood from old houses and approved by Martha Stewart.  I mean OMG MARTHA STEWART!  We have the absolute perfect place to put a coop in a separate fenced area in the back yard that was The Girl's play yard when she was little.  The baby chicks would even have an old swing set to play on.  

For the past several months I have really been getting excited about this chicken idea.  I even had names picked out for them depending on their individual personalities of course.  There would be little Tuula,  Sophia Grace,  Rosie, Angelina, Martha Claire...all great names for chickens I think.

So the other day when I am about to place the order, actually pulling out the credit card to make the payment, a sudden disturbing thought stops me.  

Are chickens even allowed in this golf course neighborhood community?  How would I found out?  

So I took a shot and googled the covenants for my neighborhood, not really expecting anything to come up on the internet, but there they were, right there at my fingertips, much like the baby chicken order.

I was extremely disappointed to discover that live poultry was NOT allowed in this neighborhood at all.       Absolutely forbidden.  Pit Bulls, deadly snakes and wild boar, perfectly acceptable, just NO chickens.  So much for fresh, organic, home grown eggs.  

I broke down and confessed to The Murph, told him all about my great idea for fresh eggs, but he didn't think the idea was so great.  The eggs at the the grocery store are perfectly fine with him he said and he's now very thankful for those neighborhood covenants.  Four cats are enough.

Too Old For An Easter Basket?

Every year since The Boy's been born,  I have given him an Easter basket full of various things depending on his changing interests through the years.  Now he's 19 years old and in college, but I still wanted to send him one this year.  It's a mom thing I guess.

Yesterday I went to the store and bought a little Easter basket, a bag of easter grass, jelly beans, assorted chocolate candies wrapped in shiny pastel Easter colors, gum, a chocolate bunny and a stuffed animal - a mommy chicken hugging her little baby chick.  I put this all together along with an Easter card that had a bunny picture and some of The Boy's other favorite snacks to send him as sort of an Easter/Care package.

The Murph humored me on this, but thinks that Easter baskets usually stop by the time children reach their teens.  I teased him that maybe his parents just didn't love him enough.  I think you're never too old for Christmas stockings or Easter baskets.

I tried to explain that I enjoy doing it every year and it's as much for me as it is for The Boy.  I don't expect him to jump up and down and get all excited when he opens up the box in his dorm room and pulls out a stuffed chicken and a little basket, but I do think he will enjoy the candy and the snacks.  Even though he'll probably roll his eyes at the other things, I just hope he knows I love him and am always thinking of him.

The UPS store is familiar with me and my little care packages by now.  They didn't think it was all that strange when I brought in the stuffed animal, basket and candy to send to The Boy, not even when The Murph pointed out that he's "only 19".

It's a sad day when your too old for an Easter basket.