Now if you are not a fan of the Picksburg Stillers or know that it gets slippy out in the winter time then you probably have no idea what or who the hell yinz are. Yinz is the Western PA version of you guys or y'all. My yinz is pretty big. It is made up of 2 parents, 2 sisters, 1 niece, 1 nephew, 5 aunts (pronounced ants BTW!!), 4 uncles, 9 1st cousins and a plethora of cousins-in-law and second cousins. There simply is not enough room in the blog to talk about all of you but I do want to say that I love you all very much and I am so glad you are reading this blog and following this journey of mine. It makes me very happy to read all of your comments so keep them coming. When I think of family I think of things like the big kids table, easter-egg hunts (always fixed huh Mef!!!), Aunt Lorrie's pool, homemade ravioli, the Greenhouse, mass chaos and laughter at each and every family gathering, awesome family reunions, fireworks on the fourth of la, and the first step of a 5 step stoop. Of course those are just a few. We all have so many wonderful memories of our times together and none are better than the ones when all of us are in the same place at the same time. Too bad that doesn't happen often enough. Honestly I wasn't going to blog this week about the village people but it became necessary for one reason. Once again a member of yinz needed something and once again the rest of yinz came through. David put out a request to see his aunts, uncles and cousins. Within the next two weeks whether coming by car or plane David will see just about every aunt, uncle and cousin. We will be converging upon the Baltimore suburbs from Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. For you non-family member blog readers my cousin David is 44 years old with a beautiful wife and an adorable 5 year old son. David is also fighting a losing battle with brain cancer. It has taken so much away from him and frankly it pisses me off. Stay strong my cousin. I will see you May 15th. We all love you dearly.
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| David and Collin a few years ago |
Ok now I need some damn tissues. Onto something trivial and humorous. I read undoubtably the best article of my entire lifetime this week. In fact I identified with it so much I tore it out of the magazine and took it home to post on the refrigerator for Quinn to see. For some reason she wasn't nearly as impressed with the article as me.
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| If it is in print it must be true...My loathing of housework has been validated. |
On another note because unless something exciting happens during my 4 hr bike ride tomorrow I won't be writing any training updates this week.......Monday begins my last 11 weeks of training leading up to race day. It is commonly referred to as the peak period as in your volume, intensity, exhaustion, lack of a life, etc all peak. Judging by my schedule for next week it is absolutely time to put on my big girl panties and fasten my seat belt because I am looking at over 17 hours of training next week. OUCH.
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| This will be Quinn's favorite saying for the next 10 weeks. |
well again let me be the first to say...really Dee ...do you have to make us cry over every blog?? I must say, you hit the nail on the head again with the family memories, those are the times that make me smile the most when I think of them..just like I said this week, there is no time or distance that can separate the love we have for each other...so on to you, I think you already put your big girl panties on the minute you decided to do this thing sissy....you continue to amaze me...hopefully after your 4 hour bike ride tommorrow me, you , minty and quinnie can meet and celebrate your hard work with a frozen yogurt.....hahahaha..oh the things I do for you....Love you..U go girl
ReplyDeleteGreat blog dee-you truly have a great way with words. There are so many great memories of us growing up together and it makes my heart happy that when one of us is in need we are all able to pull together from afar! I pray every day for strength for my dear cousin David, Tracey, Collin, aunt Lorrie and uncle Jim, Chris, and Susan. I know how hard this is for me to accept so I can't even begin to imagine how I would handle it if it were one of my sissys! I look forward to our gathering in Baltimore on may 19th and love you all very much!
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Sissy jack
Dee, what an exceptional blog...after this race is over you really should think about writing a book!! Once again with the crying & then the laughter. That's what life is all about, huh? All of our thoughts are with the Burns family..they have truly been heros through all of this. And by the way, those Easter egg hunts were never fixed. Some of you kids just could never find the eggs....not my fault!!
ReplyDeleteThat was a wonderful tribute to our family! We honestly have a truly amazing family. I am grateful for every memory that I have - the good ones and the bad ones - for they are what makes us as close as we are. I love all of you.
ReplyDeleteP.S. - for the sake of accuracy in your blog - it was the first step of a five step stoop...
While totally not concerned with grammer and spelling I am all about historical accuracy so the 3 step stoop has become it's rightful 5 step stoop.
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