Another great day at the beach!

We drove down to Nags Head today and had a GREAT day. The kids, as always, had a marvelous time playing in the sand and surf. It was Piper's first trip to the beach and she had a blast as well!

Kids say the darndest things...

I was really dragging this morning, not much in the mood to teach my 60 minute step class at the Y. I got started with my class but my energy seemed to be kaput. Always one to try to kick the butts of my class participants, I felt I was struggling to keep them going. I know I was struggling to keep going. At the end of the cardio portion of my class, I looked over at two of my regulars - who can always keep up with my attempted butt-kicking - and they both looked exhausted. That helped me feel a little better. Shortly after my class ended, the young son - about 10 or 11 - of one of the class members came in to talk to his mom. He pointed at me and asked "who is that?". She responded "that is my teacher, Laurie". The boy thought for a second and said "Oh - she's the teacher whose classes you LOVE, right?" and mom said "yup - that's her!" So... a well-timed, much-needed ego boost for me on a day when I felt like I was doing a horrible job. It's all about perspective, I suppose.

When I got home, I took a shower, of course. When I came into the kitchen, Jake said, out of the blue, "mommy, you're pretty"...and I thought to myself "how sweet". But then he continued "...but not so much with your hair all wet like that". Maybe not so sweet. Oh well. The ego boost was nice while it lasted.

What a HUGE pain in the eye!

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to put a contact lens in your eye when your eyelid is swelled up like a dark blue balloon? VERY DIFFICULT. Just so you know...

Wear your SPF!

This morning I had two small skin cancers (basal cell carcinomas) removed from my forehead, bringing the grand total of removed skin cancers to 11! Yikes! And 10 of them were on my forehead. The 11th was on my nose and I have a lovely fish hook-shaped scar to show for it. So in place of these two latest basal cell carcinomas, I now have a beautiful sideways "J" stitched above my left eyebrow. I'm lookin' good. Eventually it will fade and blend in with the rest of the scars. And at least I will never have a wrinkle-y forehead...it has been so lifted, tightened and stretched over the years.

And now for a Public Service Announcement: PUT SUNSCREEN ON YOUR KIDS. EVERY. TIME. THEY. ARE. OUTSIDE. I am living proof that sun damage from your early years will come back to bite you in the ass (or forehead) when you are older. Now - I'm lucky that I have had just basal cells. I realize it could be worse. Sunscreens are getting better and better, more effective and less greasy, sticky and smelly, so the list of excuses to not put it on yourself or your kids is dwindling....fast.

That said....I wish someone would just invent sunscreen in a pill already! There are many drugs that make you more sensitive to sun exposure, so why hasn't someone come up with a drug that does the opposite??? I'll get right on that. Me and my scientific self. Right.

A new home...

...for the Storch Stuff blog! I have many friends and family members who use "blogspot" for their blogs and I just decided that I like the way it is set up better than the MSN Spaces page that I have. So - here it is...

...Oh and I promise to try to update more often. I've been seriously slacking off for the last two months.

Beach Vacation

We just returned from a fantastic week at the beach with two other families. What a great vacation! In this case - a picture is really worth a thousand words. Err...well...several pictures.

One of Jake's favorite things about the beach...
being buried in the sand!

Another favorite beach activity for Jake: karate chopping the waves!

Megan boggie boarding in a tide pool...
the real waves were a bit much for her

Crossing the Oregon Inlet Bridge

The server seems to be having some problems with uploading photos, so the rest will have to wait.

Piper the puppy

On May 10, the Storch family brought home a new addition to our family: Piper, a beautiful yellow lab puppy. It's sortof like having an infant in the house again...getting up in the middle of the night, frequent feedings and some crying, but she has really adjusted well. She is now 12 1/2 weeks old and is doing great. She loves to play with the kids and cannot stop chasing Max the cat! When she catches him, she chews on his head until he gets tired of it and runs off.

I will post some more recent pictures soon...the rest of them are saved on the other computer.