A Busy Family: Marathon Weekend.

Two home invasions, five cities, and two accidents. It’s safe to say this was a memorable weekend. My body is tired, my house is a mess, and my nerves are shot.

We should have known it was going to be a bumpy weekend when Michael threw his back out a mere 5 days before his 100 mile ride from Austin to Shiner. Still he rested, actually took pain medicine, and felt ready (enough) for his trek.

Friday (tags: Houston, Austin, Accident #1, Home Invasion #1)

As I’m walking out of work to pick up the boys and get on the road, we get a call from our neighbor. The police just arrested someone breaking into the house across the street. They hit at least two houses around us before they were caught.

Crap.

Luckily we don’t own anything valuable but we didn’t want to come home the next evening to a broken window or a ransacked house. A different neighbor was feeding the dogs so he was able to check out the house and give us the okay. Off to Austin we went!

(As a side note – when I pick up Elijah from daycare, he had his first every accident report! He bonked his head on a table when he tried to crawl through it and got a nice bruise on his forehead. I chuckled as his teachers approach me cautiously with the report and told them, “he falls all the time, this is just the first time it’s left a bruise!”).

Saturday (tags: Austin, Shiner, Houston, Pasadena, Home Invasion #2)

The next morning, Elijah and I cheered the Michaels on as they clipped in and rode off on the Shiner GASP. We met up with Mark and Julie for breakfast and then made our way behind them.

Elijah in helping get Dada breakfast at 6am. "Why am I awake?!"

"Okay, see you in 10 hours"

And they're off! All 1600 of them.

Reading about riding bikes at the hotel.

We spent the afternoon chilling on a blanket in the shade, taking trips into the gift shop to cool down, eating bratwurst, and listening to the bands play as riders crossed the finish line with shaky legs and sunburnt arms. I got the occasional text from Michael at the pit stops with things like, “I feel like a stallion, riding an unicorn, over a rainbow”. Clearly riding 100 miles over hills in 90F can lead to delirium.

 Playing at the Spoetzel Brewery in Shiner.

"Pay attention to me, Mama!"

Aside from a little new mom fear of heat exhaustion and checking Elijah’s temperature every 2 minutes, it was a nice afternoon.  Around 5pm, we cheered Dada across the finish line! Golden rode through just a few minutes later. By 6:30 we were far from partied out and ready to get home. We made our annual DQ stop for blizzards and hit the road.

Michael and Elijah immediately fell asleep. I’m normally pretty content with the quiet 2 hour drive after the race, but I’ve never had to do after chasing a speedy crawling 10 month old all day. My eyes drooped as I blasted Lady Gaga as much as I could without waking the baby. By the time we hit 610, I felt a little like a “stallion, riding an unicorn, over a rainbow” for making it down the dark country highway.

As we pull into the driveway, I’m leaping with joy just thinking of my soft, comfy bed. I get Elijah out and start to head inside. Michael stops me at the door to warn me that he killed a cockroach. Yuck, but I’m glad he got inside first and I didn’t have to see it. I put Elijah to bed and go to check on Michael and the dogs in the back.

Then I see them. The roaches.

I stop in my tracks. W.T.F? Our backporch is swarming and Michael kills at least 12 inside our house in the first 2 minutes we’re home. I freak out our 13-year old neighbor who came to feed the dogs with my girlish screams. They are in our sunroom. The living room. The kitchen. Coming in through both doors. My skin is crawling as I check Elijah’s bedroom to make sure I didn’t just leave him for roach food. All clear. Thank God. I just stand in the hallway (also cleared), rocking from right leg to left leg (they can’t get me if I’m moving!) as Michael continues his killing spree.

Our neighbors tell us they’ve seen this happen before when someone near has poisoned a tree or just exterminated. They must have fled their poisoned home and found solace in our dang pesticide free house. I just want to get in my warm comfy bed and now I can’t even calm my nerves let alone sleep in our roach infested house! Unfortunately the dogs don’t fit with our stuff and our child in the tiny Yaris and we left the FourRunner at Michael’s work. So, a car exchange, a good roach spraying, and an hour and a half later we pulled into my parent’s driveway in Pasadena to settle in for the night.

Sunday (tags: Pasadena, Galveston, Houston, Accident #2)

For some reason, we decided we hadn’t used quite enough gas this weekend, so we drove the Galveston for a quick brunch. Mosquito Café was delicious, albeit a little expensive. As we were walking out, we had accident #2.

Michael was carrying Elijah through the maze of chairs leading to the back gate when his foot caught on one and he tumbled to the ground. I stood there holding our coffees, watching as my boys crashed to the concrete. Michael reports that his spidey senses kicked in. His brain worked in slow motion as he twisted to take the fall and lay Eli on the ground with only a tiny bonk on the head. We stopped on a bench outside to regroup. As we looked at Michael’s scraped knee and Elijah’s smiling face, all we could think about was how differently it could have gone. We said a prayer of thanks for God’s watchful eye and Michael’s SuperDad skills.

Feasting on eggs and pancakes before the accident.

After we walked through Murdoch’s and up and down the seawall, we headed back to Pasadena. We were all able to nap, play at the park and meet up at the Horton’s for our usual Sunday dinner. It felt wonderful.

"Dada, you are awesome"

 "What is this? Do I like it? No! No! Not at alllll!"

I’m happy to report that we did not see a single roach last night (knock on wood), the exterminator is already scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, and Elijah is still completely fine!