Brian has been driving a work van for about five years now. It also happened to be the oldest one in the fleet. He works for C&R but if you don’t notice the and sign it looks like he drives a CR (crazy Rachel) van which is comical and takes people by surprise when they see it for the first time. So a couple of weeks ago it passed inspection but the check engine light was on and some fix it codes came up. The company decided it was time to replace it (as it is a 2002) instead of fix it. Well I hadn’t heard anything about a replacement.

On Wednesday when Brian was driving home from a class (pipe-fitter’s have continuing education units they must obtain to keep their license active) for the second time a tire blew out on that van while driving down the highway. Either Brian is an excellent driver or it just wasn’t his time to go because he managed not to have an accident either time.

I came home on Friday to see this in the driveway. Brian has to take all of his junk (I mean tools and stuff) out of the old van and put it in the new one. Since he has to think about everything before he does anything he told his boss he couldn’t do it on work time it would take all day. I have a feeling he might be finished when I get home from my 22 mile run today. But I will not be surprised if he is still working on it. He is dressed in his heavy work jumpsuit and tells me I’m soft because I am not running outside today. It it were five or ten miles I would but I’m not about to be out in 30 degree weather for six hours. I’m not that crazy.

Kayla is home this weekend as one of her friends is having a baby shower. So that means ring around the driveway as if Emily is home too. Yes I do miss my girls but I never miss their cars!

Mole Moral ~ If you want a new work vehicle, just have it need a bunch of work and blow out a tire. It gets replaced much faster!

The last five weeks have been very stressful so I thought I would write out what happened during the rest of the year to verify that it all balanced out.

January~ Emily and I took a trip to visit Uncle Larry and to see Cousin Eddie. We flew Southwest and since Emily had flown a “real airline” with her friend Izy, she complained about layovers and having to fight for a seat. We rented a car and ate at a diner where she could have chicken and waffles. She loved it!

February~I conned Emily into running another half marathon with me. She swore after Disneyland she was never going to run one again. I made her a Dorothy running costume and myself a flying monkey and we beat her previous time. Of course she took off ahead of me so she could finish a few seconds faster. We also visited the Wizard of Oz museum which was really interesting and the room we stayed in at the motel was decked out in wizard of oz.

March~Kayla and I went to visit Missouri State in Springfield to see if that’s where she wanted to attend college. She loved it but would later drag me to University of Central Missouri and then take forever to finally decide to go to Missouri State. She waited so long and we had an issue with her meningitis shot that she ended up getting a dorm room to herself. She was quite upset because she thought a roommate would be someone to do everything with and explore campus.

April~Emily received her white coat for Physical Therapy. This meant she was ready to start clinical’s in the summer. No one ever wears their white coat but they all have one. Brian and Allyson did not get the memo to wear nice clothes and they showed up in jeans. But the rest of us looked amazing. I also ran my first full marathon since my foot surgery. I shorted myself two weeks of training and wanted to die by the time it was finished. It started raining for about two miles and was a terrible experience.

May~This was the month I decided to try low carb/high fat diet. It worked great except for when it came to running. I did a half marathon in Branson Missouri with my friend Laura and I again wanted to die about half way through. I certainly was not hungry eating this way but I couldn’t sustain long runs so had to ditch that for the wind.

June~Kayla and I went on a 5 day cruise. We only had two scheduled stops and the second stop was cancelled due to high winds and waves or something. We did get to swim with stingrays but totally missed snorkeling. So instead we had mother daughter pictures taken and had a lot of fun with the photographer. I ended up spending way too much money on the pictures but it was worth it. Emily was in Oklahoma for clincials so I went and saw her and also got to see Rob Bell in person. He was awesome as always and totally worth the seven hour drive. Allyson really enjoyed stopping by the precious moments chapel on the way home.

July~ While the family was at the lake I remembered I had stated four years ago I wanted to run fifty miles by my fiftieth birthday which was the following May. I spent an afternoon researching how to train for such an event. Soleil was finally starting to recover from her bladder infection. My car did not pass inspection so after eleven years and 184,000 miles I had to say good-bye to the VUE. Big Stuf was probably the best camp since the first year I attended. All the speakers were fabulous and I really enjoyed them.

August~Emily’s guinea pig died under my care. We put him in the freezer until she could return from Oklahoma for a proper burial. Kayla moved to Missouri State and Allyson started her sophomore year. The house was quiet and peaceful again.

September~My favorite doctor left Mercy and I still miss him. I went on a two week cruise with my mom. I visited Mercy Dublin and saw where it all started back in the 1800’s. It was cool to walk down Baggot street. I also ran a full marathon on the cruise ship.

October~I ran my 50K in preparation for the fifty mile race in the end of April. I drug Emily and Allyson along as my crew. It was a 0.8 mile loop and I did like 36 laps. I finished much faster than I had hoped but wasn’t too sure if I really wanted to pound out fifty miles. However I had thrown down the gauntlet so there was no turning back.

November~My brother in law had a stroke on Black Friday. I learned that there really is a difference between Mercy and other hospitals. There really is something to the Mercy spirit that we are evaluated on each year. It also reinforced why I have driven by St. Anthony’s for the past twenty-eight years and would never ever work there.

December~We had a nice Christmas and I received great running pants from the husband. I lost my favorite black pair on the cruise. I haven’t seen them since I returned home. I have started fifty mile training and still wonder why I said that.

Mole Moral~If 2017 is half as crazy as 2016 bring it on!

Twas the night before Christmas and all the Moles were wide awake.

Well except for dad Mole who was in bed just before ten.

Emily was scrapbooking ,while Kayla was playing on her phone

and Allyson was gaming on her computer, and I mom Mole was writing this blog.

Now Santa was waiting for the freaks to go to bed.

Mom Mole yelled “you freaks go to bed so Santa can come.”

They all laughed and got louder and louder and louder.

Then dad Mole awoke from his sleep and said,

That’s it, everyone to bed right this minute.

As usual no one listened but they did become quiet.

Eventually they all fell asleep and Santa arrived.

However he tripped and fell over the dirt in the floor

Allyson had refused to sweep the morning before.

She said there was no reason to clean because

only family was coming and why should they care.

Now Santa’s in the hospital with a broken leg

And no more presents were delivered that day.

Mole Moral ~ Always clean the house before company arrives,

it may just be family but a visitor could show up.

It would be embarrassing  if they too became injured,

from dirt on the floor.

Finally after having the tree up for a week, I managed to put the ornaments on. Don’t judge me, I really am not a Christmas person. Although once I finally drag the ornaments out, I do enjoy all the memories behind them. I came across my favorite for this year and it belongs to Kayla. Every year I give each girl and my nieces and nephews an ornament that relates in some way to the previous year.

Last year Kayla got pulled over for speeding on the way to Kansas City to visit Emily. The cop made her get out of the car and sit in his car. Yes this freaked me out after she told me but there was nothing I could do about it. He asked her if she had  smoked pot. She said yes once but it was a year ago. He kept grilling her about smoking and if she had, to just tell him and they could work something out. She hadn’t smoked so she refused so he asked if he could search her car. She said sure. He found nothing and looked at her and told her she needed to vacuum her floorboards. He gave her a speeding ticket and left. It was only after this that she and Dominic realized she had passed a skunk and had skunk smell in her car. I am sure the cop thought she was smoking skunk buds.

So last year this was the ornament she opened.

Mole Moral ~ If you are going to get caught speeding, you will remember it forever because your mother is a creative nut job!

Once upon a time in a land far far away a girl named Shleprock found a cruise for her and her mother to take. The mother did not realize that when Shleprock
goes on vacation disaster is sure to follow. So they flew half way across the world. Before they even landed in Denmark the mother accidentally knocked Shleprock’s glasses out of the holder and her glasses broke. Luckily Shleprock isn’t too blind without them but no more sunglasses feature. So it will be a squinty sort of vacation.
The flight was nine hours from Washington DC to Copenhagen Denmark. Although Shleprock was worried about the flight, the eight years she has rode a bus to church camp made the flight seem short. Since the flight came in so early the cruise line gave them a complimentary two hour cruise around Copenhagen where they saw the queens house. Of course those pictures were on the camera and the cord to transfer pictures is back at home.
They finally arrived at the ship and got directions confused and attempted to board the ship before anyone was allowed. It was close to noon when they finally found their room. It would be one of the few times they would find their room without the help of the room attendant.
They went to bed early and slept in the next morning which was a sea day.

Mole moral ~ The flight might have seemed short but still no desire to fly to Australia.

A couple of weeks ago one of the residents told me that Dr. Chobanian had about five weeks left at Mercy. It was if God was standing behind me and said straight in my ear “It’s time to say good-bye.” I really just wanted to punch him but I am not sure exactly what would happen if someone actually attempted to punch God. I waited until the last possible minute to listen and actually say good-bye and took his gift and card up to his office today. He wasn’t in which is just as well because I could barely hold it together as it was.

One of the things I learned in counseling all those years ago was to figure out what the real issue is. Yes I will miss him but the real issue, he was my back up plan in case that crazy cancer I had returned. He assured me almost five years ago (hard to believe its been that long already since the Veronikis surgery) that the odds were less than 5% that it would ever turn into anything but with my nurse curse nothing would surprise me. So if it were to come back, I am totally screwed unless I go stalk him in Michigan. My husband might think I have totally lost my mind.

I am also sad for all of his patients he is leaving behind as well as the residents who will never train under him. I am not sure if his new job is at a teaching hospital or not but all of the residents loved him and operating with him.

I will also miss him as friend. I talked with him a lot when he was dating and if anything I learned no matter how annoying my husband might seem in the moment it is nothing like trying to date at our age. His birthday is the same day as my sisters as well. I just have a lot of great memories and will miss him terribly.

Mole Moral~ Making close friends is wonderful until they move away and then it sucks a big fat one. Best wishes to my favorite doctor on his next adventure in his career!

I haven’t been to Brian’s parents lake house in at least five years. I always said it was because there was too much cleaning involved for a two-day weekend. It is always so nice to arrive to a clean house with fresh sheets and towels but it’s a lot of work to leave it that way. Ok I hate cleaning and the drive down there and back. Today’s was Brian’s fiftieth birthday so I decided we would have family weekend at the lake to celebrate. I drove down after work but everyone else left at noon. I didn’t want them to all wait on me and this way I could leave early enough to be back tonight in time for the edge.

I am currently training for a 50K race. This all started over fourth of July when I remembered saying four years ago I wanted to run 50 miles on my fiftieth birthday. The big five 0 is this coming May. So I researched how to train for a 50 mile run and it said to start with a 50K. So I pulled up the training plans and mapped out the next nine months of my life. I found a 50K about three hours passed Emily in Kansas so I roped her into going with me. I found a 50 mile on April 29 in Springfield Missouri. I decided if I am really going to pull off fifty miles, I at least need a shirt and a medal out of it. The current race is one week easy, one week hard regarding mileage. This week was the hard week which meant I had a 24 mile run, followed by a 10 mile run. It also meant I had to run it down at the lake. After just two miles I remembered the real reason I stopped coming, because all of the long runs are on the weekend and the lake is nothing but hills. I don’t mind some hills but it is insane down there. I did my 24 on Friday and it was by far the most brutal run (walk mostly) I have ever done. I went nine miles between finding a gas station to get water. I was very close to calling Brian and telling him he needed to deliver me drinks. He would have done it, but I would have never lived it down. I overshot how far out to go by like three miles because of the gas station issue. The last two hours the heat index had shot up to over 100 degrees. I was walking on the side of highway 5 and I could feel the heat just radiating up off the black top cooking me even more. The last three miles were scary. I was starting to get chills when the wind blew which every runner knows means dehydration. I was still able to make spit and recite my ABC’s and my name and social security number. Although I could have been delusional in thinking I was doing it right. I just knew there was no way I could walk the additional three miles back to the lake house so I had Brian come and pick me up. The biggest cause of injuries is over training so I wasn’t having any of that or dropping over dead. Everyone was freaking out because the side of the highway I was running on had no shoulder. It has just as much shoulder as 61/67 and every single car got over into the middle instead of seeing how close they could come to me like some of the jerks here at home. They should have been more worried about dehydration. However I survived, I finished the run and I did ten miles the next day. After I got home and looked at my Fitbit I knew I was so right in avoiding the hills of the Ozarks.

To put this in perspective two weeks ago when I did 22 miles up to Melville high school and back I only did 200 flights of stairs. Fitbit counts every ten feet of elevation as a flight of stairs. It is always off on my miles. I know I did 24 because I use Nike+ app and it’s always very close to accurate. My mother in law asked me who said I had to run 24 and then 10. So I filled her in on what I was doing which made me think about this ~ you reap what you sow which was spoken about at camp and should be my next blog.

Mole Moral~Only crazy insane people get up at 7 am and walk for 6 1/2 hours in extreme heat to prep for a 31 mile race! Yep that’s me!

I have been running off and on with my small group from church when I am not working. We had all signed up to do a 5K or 10K this morning. This race actually benefited ALS and I was planning to run in memory of Bob Stehlin, a friend who lost his battle with ALS about 18 months ago. Packet pick up was in Webster Groves really close to a couple of cakes I had seen back when I was obsessed with cake hunting. I could not figure out where the race started so I asked the guys who were handing out the race packets. They told me it was at the high school just down the street and the race started at nine. They recommended arriving around 8:25 to allow time for parking and getting to the start line.

This morning I woke up at 6:30 with plenty of time to goof around before I had to leave. I arrive at 8:25 at the finish line and see people finishing the race. Thanks to the beauty of smart phones, I got on-line and discovered the race started at eight. I was so upset I nearly burst into tears and knew there was no way I could wait around for my friends to finish running. I am not going to lie, I felt really stupid for having the wrong time and also I had my heart set on running. So I decided I would drive to Grants Trail and do my 10K there.

I arrive at Grants Trail and decided to go the opposite way on the trail. (I start really close to Grant’s farm which is kind of at the mid-point.) I have wanted to run across the section that crosses over 44 for a while now. So I head out with no water because I am supposed to be doing a race and that is provided. After two miles into the other way I was ready to kill myself for my stupid ideas. It was a slow uphill climb for like a mile and a half. I was trying to run the entire thing but after two miles I had to give that dream up. Between the uphill and the going low carb a week ago, it wasn’t going to happen. I did run much father this time than Wednesday when I tried running on the low carb. Anyway I’ve done reading and research and with time it should not be an issue. My game is endurance and not speed so I should be able to do just fine burning fat instead of sugar. While running the trail I passed two of these signs.

That is the race I was supposed to be doing. So I thought to myself, I’m so glad I didn’t pull a rookie move and wear the race shirt to the race. We learned last semester in group that you aren’t suppose to wear the shirt until after you’ve finished the race and earned the shirt. If I had the shirt on, well it would have been awkward.

Then at about mile 2 1/2 I spotted this beauty and knew I would stop and photo it on the way back.

I had seen every cake at its original location back in the day and I knew this one was not where it originally was. But it was cool to see one again and reflect back on so many good memories with the kids and cake hunting.

I am not sure why I missed this race. Normally I would say God had a reason, but this sounds even more crazy than normal. I mean this race was with my God friends. Perhaps had I run the thing, I would have tripped and fallen and broken my leg. I am not really sure.

Mole Moral ~ This isn’t the first race I’ve missed because I had the time wrong, I sure hope it’s the last. Seriously, I might need nursing home care!