Relaxing with a hidden smile, Sally’s Mom asked… ‘Really small, was it?’
Sally replied, ‘No…really salty!’
Gosh, I can not believe that Haley has been dancing for 4 years. She will start her 5th year in September. Right now we are preparing for her recital. Misty was kind enough to snap a couple of pix for me yesterday when we took the girls to have their official photo shoot at the studio.
Shit like this doesn’t happen here! Apparently Suffolk, VA about 15-20 miles from my house had either a F3 or F4 tornado this afternoon. 200 people are injured and at least 1 dead. Firefighters from my husband’s dept are there assissting. I thought this shit only happened in tornado alley. Freakin scary.
Apparently today is Secretary Day. Look what the boss man bought for me.
Posted via Rhonda the Razr. 
This was an e-mail that I received this morning. It is truly inspiring.
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars–all in the same day.
Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes Taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much–except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life;” Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an Institution.”
But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes Followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was Anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”
“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want To do that.”
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore For two weeks.”
That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, It felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”
And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
“No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a Single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?”
How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.
Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud Getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you Think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992–only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to Be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time.
“No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” One doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.” So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
“The thing I’d most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”
And the video is below….
Well I did not get the hair cut that I originally went to get. When Nadine cut it she kept saying that there was something she did not quite like. I looked at it and it looked funny in the back. Remember, I have a lot of body/curl naturally.I thought it looked too bulky in the back so I told her to go shorter with the layers and we ended up deciding that I should try the more stacked look in the back. So I went with it. Ahywho, here it is. Don’t laugh.
HA! You pervs thought I was talking about my husband didn’t you? Well no. In fact, I have decided that I am going to do away with my high school hair do and go for a more hip, today look. Hopefully I will not regret it. It is hair and will grow back. I don’t know about ya’ll but it is somewhat of a security blanket for me. I am back on track with Weight Watchers and plan on getting Lasik surgery(hopefully before the end of summer) and I figure why not try to totally rejuvenate myself. This is a picture of the cut I want.
What do you guys think? Unfortunately I am not thin, hot, or blonde so you will have to picture a 30 something, chunky, brunette with somewhat curly hair. I am fully aware that I will have to work harder to achieve this look because of the curls but that is what flat irons were made for. It should be quick to dry and iron. We shall see. I am thinking that I will also add some really funky chunky dark brown low lights in there too. My appointment is on Saturday and I can not wait.
On March 25, 1995, I married the love of my life. I was 21 years old and he was 23. I look back and think about the fact that we were so young. We waited 6 1/2 years until the first baby came along. I had been working in retail before then and I did not want to have a kooky work schedule and try to have kids. Daniel was just not ready. He would always tell me that I could have a baby whenever I wanted one. We could go to Toys R Us and I could even pick out any color I wanted.
We have been through so much in 13 years. The death of family members and friends and the near death of one of his best friends. I have really only seen him cry one time in that 13 years. When his friend’s mother passed away. He looked at her as his own.
We have had rocky times when I was unsure if we would make it to see another anniversary but here we are at number 13.
He has given me two beautiful children and I could not imagine my life without him. He is handsome, intelligent, strong, sexy, and hardworking. He makes me feel safe. He is my husband.
Daniel, I love you and I look forward to the next chapter.
