Excellent Weekend

I had a wonderful weekend with my kids. My youngest had a friend sleep over on Saturday, and we all went to watch my oldest son's football game. After the game, which was a very, very hard fought battle between two fierce teams that ended in a tie - we stopped at Krispy Kreme. I'm afraid I've created a bit of a monster in my 11-year-old in terms of him wanting to stop at Krispy Kreme when we're nearby. Thankfully we aren't nearby too often!

The little boys loved their donuts. My boy is on the left.

You may recognize a younger Alexander from the Costco diaper box. :)

On Sunday, Reid's friend went home and I loaded up the kids and took them for a bike ride. Such an organized mom coup! First off, we packed a picnic lunch. I owe that one to Greg, he taught me that you don't always have to eat out just because you are on the road. I don't think this had ever occurred to me before, haha. Then I loaded the kids and two bikes, all my bike rack can carry, and we went to the park. Unloaded and locked up those bikes, and went back for the other two. Thankfully the park we were heading out from wasn't terribly far away. But it was worth it, because the trail I wanted to ride with them is flat, straight and scenic. PERFECT! I had actually ridden it myself on Friday...about twenty-four miles altogether. The kids and I rode twelve miles round trip. I was AMAZED at how well they all did, especially my seven-year-old. He rode in front of me and was just a happy, chipper little bike rider all along. I suspected he would be, because boy, does that kid love to ride.

I love this picture. Coming soon to a Christmas card near you.

We'll be doing more bike riding as a family. I am so happy - beyond happy - to say that my youngest (a real wild one) has matured and grown so much lately, it is really a gift. Until now, single parenting him has been such an incredible challenge for me. I have really shied away from doing things with the kids because he was just too unpredictable - or worse, just too PREDICTABLE. But this summer, he turned a corner, and he is just becoming a cool kid to be around. You have no idea how much this means to me.

There's the additional challenge of single parenting that I still face, which is, of course, finances. It's just plain hard to do things with three children on a single income. So finding things like biking and such? There's some initial outlay of expense, but these are things we can enjoy for a long time to come. I could just cry tears of joy, I tell you.

In other happy news, I have to share this picture. On Friday, I was feeling like a real biking bad-ass, because I took the day off and went for that 24 mile bike ride I mentioned. And I still had it in me to keep going! But I needed to get my littlest to the pediatrician. When I got out of the car at the doctor's, I encountered one of my occasional brain-freaks, where I caught my reflection in the window and didn't recognize myself. You have no idea what a weird feeling that is unless it happens to you.

Check out them cyclist legs. Woo woo!

And one more picture. When I started losing weight, one big ole NSV (non-scale victory) for me was being able to wrap a standard bath towel around myself. This was a big deal of the highest caliber. Umm, this is a picture of my seven-year-old with a HAND TOWEL wrapped around his waist. Skinniest kid I've ever met.  It is proof positive he has none of my genetic material, whatsoever. :)

Bones.

How about a quick dating update? Well, at some point I may close the chapter on Greg with his own post, but I doubt it - it's just done. I really did have an epiphany of sorts about him and how he made me feel about myself. Bad. That's how he made me feel. And without going too much into it, I can say that when we saw each other last week, he admitted that he simply could not get past the fact that I used to be obese. That he could not accept the loose skin, even though I would have the plastic surgery TOMORROW if I could pay for it. It will happen. I am not defending him AT ALL but I do think he has some weird OCD issues. The man is a complete perfectionist and clean freak, plus he has all these odd little issues about bumps and sweat and whatever else.

Anyway. Goodbye Greg. So much that I loved about you, but when it comes down to it, you made me feel like complete and utter shit about myself. We went out on Wednesday, with plans to see each other again. But on Thursday I was just profoundly sad, and it occurred to me that ummm, this was no coincidence. I had a hard talk with myself and kicked him to the curb on Friday. Maybe it was just like my friend said, I'm just enough of a control freak myself that I had to get him back so I could dump him on my terms. That probably factored in, haha.

I intended to take down my online dating profile, figuring this is a good time for a break from men. I am exhausted. But then I got an email from a nice guy with a username something like "Pedalsalot." He's a cyclist, of course. He emailed and was very sweet and after we had exchanged a couple emails, he said that he thought I was adorable in my pictures, but after seeing this picture, he couldn't *not* email me:

I have such goofball pics on my profile. I consider it "fair warning."

Uh, ladies, I am going out with this man later this week, and it's only fair to say he is *hawt.* Like waaaaayyy out of my league hot. Like rode his bike 180 miles last weekend in a fundraiser for MS. Like went out to do "a quick 60" (that's miles, not minutes!) with friends on Sunday morning. I have seen the pictures and I am trying to keep my self-esteem up, but cannot help but feel like, "Okay, but you've seen MY pictures, right??" Oh dear, the wonderful, wonderful things that bicycling does for your body. He is 6'0" tall of *yum*.

Thank goodness my pictures online are 1000% accurate and current, or I'd be sweating bullets going out with him. We have talked on the phone and he is great - super easy to talk to. Very funny and sweet, and has his week planned around teaching his daughter to drive. I am intrigued.

He wears earrings - besides being ridiculously my type (big, bald and brawny, hehe), I've never been with a man who wore earrings (plural) and we were texting this morning and I guessed (correctly, duh) that he must have a lot of tattoos. I said that I couldn't imagine earrings on a man without tattoos, haha. I can show you one picture, anyway...check out the gun show:

God and Single Women Love Hardcore Bicyclists.

I am working on my self-esteem issues but he is a couple years younger than me (turns 40 at the end of this month), and he is just ridiculously attractive and I cannot wait to show you his other pictures. So I am definitely filled with "Are you looking at me?" I'm kind of having one of those Sixteen Candles moments, you know, when Samantha comes out of the church and Jake is across the street waiting for her, leaning up against his little red sports car, and she does the big look around like, "Are you looking for me?" and lo and behold, he is. Well, we'll see, won't we?