Cougar track 2024

 Truth be told, Nolen no longer finds joy in running. He hasn’t been able to get faster for the last year. He is feeling defeated. I wish this wasn’t the case but it is.  So we took a nice and easy track season. We skipped when we didn’t want to go and we didn’t do all of the track meets. The only meet we attended was the cougar track meet. It was a fun hot day. We, as coaches, all worked so hard to have a good meet. It took a long day but every kid seemed to improve. It was fun to see them all run at their best. 

Bang! It's May!

 Hold on to your hats, my friends, the world is moving at warp speed and you may not be able to keep up.  Today, we had a track meet and family photos.  The track meet took forever as expected.  We drove home lightening fast and got ready for our family photos up in the Sandia's.  As we were driving up the mountain, I saw a lady pop up from behind the guard rail and wave her hands back and forth.  I pulled over and Stephen jumped out of the car.  Turns out there were two women who had two dogs that had been lost for four hours in the wilderness of the Sandia's.  They had hiked up a cliff to get to the road and were so glad to see someone and waved us down.  We drove them back to their car as they cried in the back seat.  It was intense for a few minutes.  

Nolen had a better meet this week and ran a bit faster.  He is feeling less excited about track season this year than he did last year.  I am hoping he isn't feeling burnt out.  He definitely needs a long summer break. I can not wait for both boys to finish up school so we can just RELAX! 

Edward also worked on his science project with Stephen over the weekend.  He really wanted to explode something but hadn't thought about how to actually do that, so we came up with blowing up some small containers.

Track Season

 It's track season!  I would say it is amazing, but it is just normal fun.  Cross Country Season is so much more fun.  But that is my opinion and it accounts for nothing.  Nolen LOVES track.  Well, and so does Edward.  They are both having more fun running and throwing this season.  I am so glad we are having a normal track season after two years of no track because of covid-19.  

We have had our first meet today.  Both boys have been working hard at practices so that they could perform at the meets.  Nolen is running sprints, which he loves, and Edward is throwing javelin and shot put. 

What in the world have the Barnes been up to?

PROJECTS!

My parents are only in town for one year.  I decided to seriously take advantage of having them by my side this year.  I have had a few projects that have needed to be completed for the last five years.  Some projects have literally sat half done for five years!

 Edward had been feeling a bit neglected and I could tell he was sad because we are all running track and he isn't.  So instead of going to track, I took him out for sushi.  Just him and me.  We did homework at the table and talked.

 Our sweet turtle, Sally, is awake for the spring and summer. 

 Nolen had a lunch date with his best friends.  There is a double decker bus that sells doughnuts so after lunch we headed up stairs to eat at the top of the bus. 

 I had this hair brained idea to fix the rubber stop in the bottom of the sink.  I thought it was going to be so easy.  It was not.  This one hour project took two days.  It was so annoying; however, my Dad figured it all out and we finally got the garbage disposal to work properly with the rubber stop perfectly in place.

 Track season started back in April and Nolen is loving it.  He has so many friends at track.  He loves going and pushing himself each practice.  He has some amazing coaches that truly care about him.  Since Nolen broke his arm he has been doing more push-ups to strengthen his arm. 

 Here is the project.  I wanted to clean up the second tier of our back yard five years ago.  So I added 300 red bricks.  That was the easy part.  I had to move some rocks off one area in order to add red bricks to that area.  So I started on the project.  I shoveled rocks with the intent to move the wheel barrow and dump them where the same type of rocks are in the yard.  I was doing the Santa Fe Opera at the time so I had very little time to get it done.  It was a long project.  I asked my niece Amanda to help.  Instead of dumping the rocks in another part of the yard, she filled up the wheel barrow completely full.  So full that we could not move the wheel barrow.  

Well the wheel barrow sat there for five years.  Unmoved.  

My amazing Dad finally moved the wheel barrow!!  

Sweet freedom.  We are now in the process of fixing the railroad ties and finishing the rock project.

While working on the back yard, I decided to paint the kitchen.  Yeah.  Not my brightest moment but it had to be done.  My mother in law dropped a bottle of nail polish on the kitchen floor and it splattered all of the wall.  Stephen grabbed a gallon of paint from the garage and painted part of the wall grey.   It sat like that for nearly five months.  I decided enough was enough.  My Mom and I spent two days painting the kitchen grey.  Phew.  It's done and it looks great!

Lastly, we have been spending some good quality time as a family.  I have given up most of social media and I am much happier.  Family is everything.

 

 This little rabbit lives in our neighborhood.  I caught him sitting on our front steps one morning and snapped a photo.

Saturday's are busy days

Happy Mother's Day to all women!  

My mom sent me chocolate covered strawberries and my sweet husband made breakfast and bought me some flowers and chocolates.  As I was heading out the door for church this morning, Edward said, "My ear really really hurts!"  I took his temp and decided it was best he stay home.  Nolen and I went to sacrament meeting together then came home.

I feel asleep as soon as I sat down after church.

Saturday's are busy days.

Yesterday, Melanie and I woke up before dawn to go on a nice 13.5 mile bike ride.  It was wonderful.  The sunset was beautiful to watch as we road out and back on the Bosque trail.

As soon I got home, I woke up the boys and got them ready for their track meet.  Track meets are long days.  The boys enjoy running and I really enjoy running with them.  It is wonderful to watch them grow each week and push themselves harder every single meet.  I sprayed the boys vigilantly with sunscreen all day.  I sprayed myself twice, but spent most the day away from my bottle of sunscreen.  My legs got the worst of it.  They look like lobster legs. HA!

The track meet ended around 3:00 so we headed home.  I took a quick shower and went straight to the church for my piano/voice recital.  I arrived just as a graduation party was ending.  The graduation party hosts kindly helped me set up 60 chairs and move the piano around.  I am so grateful to their kindness.  Everything worked out wonderfully!  The girls sang great and the pianists played brilliantly! I had so much help with the recital.  I am so grateful to good friends who help with every part of making music possible.  I think the kids really enjoyed listening to every one else perform.  It is such a good experience for them to get up in front of people.  I love every single one of my students.  They light up my days!

 (This is half of my students, the other half perform on Wednesday)
The recital ended just before 6:30.  I cleaned up the gym and kitchen then headed home.  We had planned the most magnificent date with the Iverson's.  We sat at the chef's table at Los Poblanos farm.  Stephen and I ate there for our anniversary back in March and our server mentioned we could eat with the chef.  I could not turn down  the opportunity.  

The food was DELICIOUS! It was so well prepared.  It was mesmerizing watching the kitchen work seamlessly.  We had a 10 course meal and every bite was different and delicious.   The food is all (mostly) locally grown and sourced.  The cheese we had was from Tennessee and I think that was the only thing that was from out of state.  The chef said he worked with many local farmers to provide the food for the restaurant.  I loved learning about how they prepared the sauces and vegetables.  I wish I could have the patience to prepare food that looked good and tasted good!

We were in such good company.  Although, I would have liked to face Melanie and Paul, we still had a great time talking the hours away as we were served different dishes.  We had trout, lamb, artichoke, duck, mole with veggies, Halibut, pork chop, blue cheese with raspberry sauce, and a taste of every dessert on the menu! 

If you live in Albuquerque, make a reservation for the chef's table at Los Poblanos farm.

(All photos of food taken by Melanie Iverson)