The Birthday Balloon and Other Mysteries

I know it has been a while since I have posted to the blog.  We have been busy.  I have been tired and frankly a bit on the anti-social side.  But since I know that you are all getting restless (and some of you worried about the Miller Family well-being), here goes!

Last Saturday, Zach was my date for the Bartlesville Children's Musical Theater production of "The Little Princess".  The musical started at 7pm, and was the Oklahoma Premiere of this new musical.  The singing voices were outstanding.  The eighth-grade girl who sang the lead was amazing as were the other cast members who ranged in age from 7 to 18 years of age and are all from the Bartlesville area.  I suggest you listen to some of the musical selections (some of Zach and my favorites) - YouTube videos performed by Texas State University.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_8F2pDVvUY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws5Ns8hyLtk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xta2lMRVFBs

I think I may purchase the soundtrack, but unfortunately it does not have the "Captain Crew" piece (second link) which is my favorite.

My 38th birthday was on Monday the 22nd.  I took a loaf of homemade chocolate chip pumpkin bread in to help celebrate.  It was a very exciting day as Derek also underwent his yearly colonoscopy checkup over lunch.  The procedure went fine, and the polyp biopsy results came back benign.  We got those results on Thursday.  Yay!!! Way to go!!!!  (And now I can breathe again...at least until his next checkup. I really do get nervous and wound around the bend every time he has something done!!!!).

When I came back to work after getting Derek settled at home post-procedure, I found that a mystery person left a birthday balloon on my desk.  What a nice surprise!  It also drove me nuts as I did not figure out who the bearer of the present was until Friday- another coworker and one of my new Technicians.  Very sneaky and very nice :)

School will start on August 13th for both Zach and Ash, and they will be at the same elementary school.   Ashton received a letter from his new Pre-K Teacher, Miss Hendrickson.  Derek will attend a parent meeting for Pre-K parents this coming Tuesday while I am in Houston.  Ash will get to meet Miss H. on August 5th, see his classroom, and have an assessment done.  Zach has yet to hear who his third-grade teacher will be.  Hopefully soon!

Zach continues to have fun at summer camp.  He went to the Oklahoma Aquarium in Tulsa last Friday and went to Incredible Pizza with his camp two days ago.  Incredible Pizza is like Pizza Planet from the Toy Story movies with games galore.  Sort of like Chuckie Cheese, but we have heard that the food is actually good.  I have coworkers who actually go there to eat the pizza and ignore the games!

Derek is now fully recovered from his procedure (takes about 8 hours for the sedatives to fully wear off).  He has been doing well with the stair-climbing challenge at work.  He won a $15 iTunes gift card during a random prize drawing made up of program participants.  Meanwhile, I have signed up for the Phillips 66 Distance Challenge Triathlon where I will swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles over the course of 8 weeks.  If I make my time goal, I will get a T-shirt.  I swam laps for the first time yesterday in a really long time.  I swam 60 lengths, or 30 laps which is ~0.85 miles.  My shoulders are SORE today!!!!! Also, I could not find goggles or a swim cap at Walmart.  They were completely out. How does that happen????  I finally found them at Walgreens! Crisis averted!

We have been enjoying absolutely fabulous weather this weekend in the low 80s.  hard to believe we are having these great temps so close to August!  I sat out most of the afternoon yesterday on the deck and read.  Today I went running with Tracy and Peggy for 5.5 miles in the woods.  After a breakfast of pancakes and sausage, the boys and I went to go see the movie, Turbo, with the speedy snail who has dreams of racing in the Indy 500.  Very cute movie!

More fun is in store this week as I head to Ponca tomorrow and then head to Houston Tuesday night through Thursday.  (This is the third week in a row that I will have spent time in Houston for meetings.)  Not really looking forward to the travel, but will try and enjoy myself with a bit of shopping at the new Houston Athleta store and going out to eat Thai food and Mongolian BBQ (yum- lots of veggies!!!!!).

Ok- the laundry is buzzing- back to work...  The only way to have the laundry be completely done is to do the laundry naked! (If only it was that simple!!!!)