NA, NA, NAS-CAR...

Last year, Jacob got the birthday present of all presents from his folks...6 laps in a NASCAR stock car at the Talladega, Alabama NASCAR race track, his dad, RD, got a ride-along for his birthday...This past weekend we finally all made the time to go and experience some serious gasoline-fueled speed...I'm not a fast car fan, but once you see it happening less than 10 yards away, it takes your breath away ...



RD all suited up for his turn riding along with an experienced driver...

Jacob all suited up and "rarin' to go" for his turn behind the wheel with a driving coach in the passenger seat...

RD gets stuffed into his car....I'm pretty sure there is no vanity mirror in there...both said the cars were very tight...

Jacob giving me his handsome, happy smile (somehow this reminds me of a high school senior picture - a very cool one) He was so excited and he rocked the tracks going almost the maximum speed (175 mph) and even passing other cars (rare). His "diploma" says his top speed was 174.19 mph, but he says it's OK to round up...

NASCAR (cont.)

Father-son bonding just seconds after RD got out from his ride-along...Jacob is all nerves, waiting to have his turn at driving...

Jacob all suited up, belted in and ready to take on the track in one of Dale Earnhardt's retired race cars...

This is what 174.19 mph will do to your facial features...the big smile is permanent...so far...

Debriefing over root beer with RD. They both loved their birthday presents...

NASCAR (cont.)

Gus wasn't all that impressed by the big cars and the helmets...

...but he soon found what he was looking for. These guys are cool. Gus spotted them quickly and was instantly accepted into their midst...

Aside from driving golf carts, they also have keys? (Gus loves keys) they can open ANYTHING!!!

S(more)s!

Really, that whole thing in Granna's hands is for me?

Let me taste it...

Hmmm....(quiet contemplation of the rivaling flavors: sweet, sweet and sweet)...

OK, I'll have another and while I wait I'll help myself to a square of Hershey's chocolate...I'm not one to pass up something sweet.

Red, hot....very hot!

Just like me, Gus is a sucker for uniforms...and tonight our combined dreams have come true now that Daddy is an official volunteer firefighter with the Brevard Fire Department...he brought home the goods and we made him put it all on for us! Wow!

Red, hot...don't blame us if we set something on fire...congratulations to my very cool (I mean hot) husband.

Fast fast fast...

...ok, this might reek of self-pride (that's a saying in German, by the way, if someone is given to lavish self praise, usually accompanied by frantic sniffing at the air to make the point) but I have to brag a little bit about running my first sub-50-min. 10K....check out the results here

Mainly I need to say, running caps off to those three ladies who were ahead of me in both time and age!!! You all inspire me to keep going and - hopefully - get faster. You should have seen them...all three were a vision of efficiency and endurance with beautiful gaits and regal bearings...it carried me to the finish just thinking about them (and the knowledge that they weren't messing me up in my age category).

Also my thanks to my patient husband, who has had to endure my singlemindedness about running since February and to my wonderful running buddies who have been running me ragged and have made me faster and stronger in the process - the Morning Glories rock!

I got second place in my age group but moreover I ran a 7:58 min./mile pace (if you know me you know that I once routinely ran 10 min./miles and felt lightning fast). That's the payoff for getting up four times a week at 6 a.m. ...if you are a runner you know that's a deal!

Memorial Day weekend

Good friends, good fellowship, good laughs, good food, good kids (all three and one-half of them) and some very wet weather = another wonderful weekend full of fun memories.

Let's do it again, next year!

Emma Kate figures out the mechanics of the tricycle...nothing will stop this busy little girl...she held her own among two toddler boys...

Tailgating in the driveway, where we coralled all the pickups...

Sweet Leah and sweet Boone reading books....

Boone and Birdy (the dog) hang out with Gus at the backstoop

Memorial Day Weekend (part II)

Fast friends....these three were up to no good at all times...

At the campsite, where sausages were grilled, and stories were told...

Gus and Boone got to "drive" the fire engine and wear appropriate headgear with it...

Boone the gentle cowboy

Yardwork au naturale

This just struck me as funny as I passed by our backyard door and watched my guys mowing the lawn...

Neither a shirt, nor pants are required for yardwork in the Dinkins household...

Bye bye, Osi

Thank you for mornings at the playground and cookies at the coffeeshop. Thank you for flowers hanging on the porch and landscaping around the house. Thank you for knitted doll clothes and keeping Mommie out of the grocery store for two weeks. Thank you for a fun visit, Osi. We enjoyed it very much!

Barrel of fun

Brag alert: Just had to post a picture of my very cool, very artisan water barrel, which I got from my handy husband and my feisty son for mother's day...made from reclaimed chemical container and "purdied up" with spray paint (check out Gus' contribution, a stubby hand print)...it was a huge surprise although I knew I would go blue in the face if I held my breath for a traditional hand-made card or breakfast in bed. Jacob did cook up a great omelet brunch though...

One day of rain fills the whole thing right out of the gutter spout...I can't wait to put my collected rainwater to good use on my heirloom tomatos and my kitchen herb garden....Gus can't wait to fill his baby pool with it...

To my guys...

I couldn't know what it means to be a mother without these two and they are special to me in every way. Thank you, Jacob, for making a mother out of me, when I didn't count on it anymore and thank you, Gus, for challenging me to dig deep, laugh hard and just simply marvel at all those mother instincts that are within me.

Not fair, but fun

So here we are: Me (on the right) who busts her butt 200 days out of the year, running and loving every chance I get to compete in a race. My mom (on the left) spent Friday coming up with increasingly more creative excuses as to why she might not be able to compete in the 5k run/walk I had signed us up for....guess who got a medal?

Yep, it wasn't me. No it was Mrs.-I-can't-run-nor-walk-if-it's-too-hot-or-not-hot-enough-what-if-I-get-lost. Here she is showing off her fancy glass medal (with the prinicpal of Brevard Academy, the school the benefit race was for) She got second place in her age group...now she is full of it and I will not hear the end of it.

I'm proud though to have a Mother who can get off the couch (truth is she hikes and bikes quite a bit) and beat almost all the other ladies her age...gives me hope for what lies ahead...plus, I can run rain or shine and I push a stroller...she can't...or won't.

Good job, Mom!

A toy for all ages...

Grosi brought this train set that used to belong to my brother, Dominic, all the way from Switzerland for Gus to have. And wouldn't you know it, he loves it. He hasn't shown a huge affinity for trains yet, but I guess a few tracks and a couple of train wagons brings out the best in every little boy.

Here he is, just marveling at the fun of it all!

Three and one...

This is how Jacob likes to celebrate his birthday: Being bombarded with balloons by his son, Gus in the morning...

...followed by a nap and a light snack, before deciding to climb up into our big backyard tree to cut down some dead limbs all by himself, armed with nothing but a rope, a ladder and a chainsaw...yup, I know, he is pretty buff for a 31-year-old...I got the chair out to enjoy the view...and provide backup and be ready to dial 911...

...it's a big tree, but Jacob wouldn't have it any other way...the man enjoys a good challenge...if it wasn't a little bit scary, he wouldn't have any fun...

Finally a good dinner and one/two chocolate cakes (thank you, Cindy, you are a good mom)...and some help blowing out the blaze of candles...what more can a man of 31 want?

It's come to my attention that all bloggers are happily married...at least all the ones I visit. Everyone gushes over how great their respective spouse is, so I'm just adding fuel to the fire of blogging-induced adoration, but I can't help it...because my husband - birthday or not - is pretty much the coolest, smartes, funniest, goodliest, handsomest (is that a word?), handiest (word?) and so-on guy on the planet....I think the key emphasis is that he is all these things for me...he may not be that to others, but to me he is.

The most telling story I know that explains who Jacob is, comes from his sister, Leah. I wasn't even in the picture yet, and I love every nuance of it. The gist of it is that Jacob was only mildly interested in the prospect of driving out into the forest and cutting down a tree for Christmas. What gets other REI-outfitted yuppies frothing at the mouth with wholesomeness, can't get his heart to miss a beat, but when their old Jeep got stuck in the mud a good ways from any civilization on the way to find said Christmas tree, Jacob's day improved markedly. "That's when Jacob started having fun," is how his sister most often words it when she tells the story...and, after knowing the man for four years, I have no doubt that this is true. They got a tree and decorated it, but Jacob's favorite memory of that Christmas was likely a mud-encrusted moment.

He loves to rig and he is good at it. Give him a wire hanger, some duct tape and his two hands, and he finds a way out of the most hopeless and inconvenient situation. He is a connaisseur of sweet spots, knowing just how to tilt something heavy to make it spin like a feather, and he can picture solutions where others throw their hands up in defeat. He is incredibly smart and thoughtful in a modest way that makes me want to shout from the roof tops.

Did I mention (shout) that this guy is amazing? Happy birthday to my awesome husband, Jacob.

Cottage industry

Voila! Except for a few finishing touches and some upgrades that will happen as finances and opportunity arise, our guest cottage (ex-free-standing garage) is finished. Jacob and our friend George worked on it over the weekend and yesterday I got to clean, move furniture and primp it for my mom's impending visit today. I wish I had a picture of the hovel is was before we - half-jokingly - started on this, our first home-improvement project - the longer we worked on it (I have fond memories of prying at mortar and bricks the day after my due date) the more sense it made. It's a detached place where visitors can go and rest and get away from the Gus-induced hubub of the main house...and sometimes, we use it to give each other a break from parenting after a particularly long or stressful day.

This morning while hurridly snapping these pictures (my batteries were about to give out) I just stood and stared and smiled. Everything in here is special, salvaged and scrounged up. Everything in here has a story and few items are store-bought. It's hard to describe it and do it justice in these fuzzy images. You just have to come and visit to see it and experience the tranquil boutique-cottage at the end of our driveway. There is no room service, for that you have to walk to the main house, but it comes with an industrial-themed full bathroom and even a hand-me-down coffeemaker. Can you tell I'm pleased with how it turned out?

And here is the man behind the vision and the hours of hard labor. He is a craftsman of the finest degree, I tell you.