when the family week ends.

My brother and sister live far away, California and Utah respectively, so my time with them is precious and far too infrequent.

I am blessed with the two most incredible siblings.  They are both older than me by 5 and 7 years, and I feel in some ways that along with my parents, they were kind of responsible for my upbringing.

They have taught me how to be ambitious, well-read and aware, to savor good food and nurture friendships. Most of all, though they have taught me how to be optimistic and calm about life's twists and turns.  Of the three of us, I'm the most high- strung.  That's not the right way to explain it, really, because I'm not high-strung, but both my brother and sister are completely laid back and easy to be around.  Seriously, they are unflappable.  You will rarely ever see either of them stressed out about anything.  They are just happy and cool.

Like I said, I'm pretty lucky to have a family like this.  I love that my mom and dad are responsible for this whole pile of love.

And now they are off, scattered across the west;  my mom headed west too for her Utah time. 

These kids love each other so much.  On the night before Cameron and Grant left, in a gesture of protest to their pending separation, they sat on my mom's bed and all tied themselves up into a human knot, legs and arms all intertwined.

The only downside to having them all come, is that all of a sudden, they all go.  And it's so quiet.  



Meanwhile, it's 20 days until the Pumpkinman Triathlon and 10 days until I'm back to work.  So between training and getting ready for school and getting the kids ready for school (2nd grade!  Kindergarten!), I have a lot to focus on.

Here is how I did:

And here is a post-run selfie that I took previewing the run u mother running hat.  They will be giving one of you, OMIM readers,  a hat of your own this week. 

And speaking of selfies, this is what I found when I picked up my phone this morning:

Have a good night.  Giveaway coming tomorrow!