Adventures in Walking From the Couch to 5K - Chapter 8

The sun is coming up in the east, peeking over the tree tops, painting the sky bright blue with no clouds in sight. In the tree outside of AJ’s window the birds are chirping and the squirrels are chattering. Across her room is an essential oil diffuser disseminating a blend of peppermint, eucalyptus, cypress, lemon and elemi. AJ lays in her bed looking out the window and listening to all of the sounds of the morning. The boys have not yet woken up. Time to get up, she thinks to herself putting on her robe, opening her bedroom door, and checking on the boys. Both are still asleep, and she goes downstairs to her kitchen.

AJ makes herself a large cup of hot cocoa with mini marshmallows. She lets it sit on the counter while the mini marshmallows melt across the top of the mug. This morning’s breakfast is going to be scrambled eggs mixed with Dearborn ham and mushrooms. First AJ chops up the mushrooms and puts them in a cast iron skillet along with some butter and minced garlic. She lets those cook up while stirring them periodically to keep them from burning. In between stirring AJ dices up the ham, when it’s all diced up she adds the ham to mushrooms and mixes them all together.

Suddenly Carson comes running down the stairs and into the kitchen, “Mom, are we having ham for breakfast?!” he excitedly questions as he slides across the kitchen floor towards the stove to look into the skillet.

“Yes, Carson, we are having scrambled eggs with ham and mushrooms,” AJ replies.

They hear Cooper bounding down the stairs and into the kitchen, “Do I smell ham?” he exclaims.

“Yes, Cooper, you smell ham. We are having scrambled eggs with ham and mushrooms,” she answers him.

“Ok boys, wash up and get dressed, after breakfast we are going over to the track,” she tells them.

“Yeah!!!” they reply and dash out of the kitchen and up the stairs to their room.

Meanwhile, AJ mixes together eggs, coconut milk, and Canadian steak seasoning. She pours the egg mixture into the ham and mushrooms. The boys hurriedly come down the stairs and into the kitchen and sit down in their seats. AJ finishes up the scrambled eggs, makes their plates and gives them to Carson and Cooper. She makes her own plate and sits down, eating breakfast with her boys.

Carson and Cooper are all done with their breakfast. They put their plates in the dishwasher, get their shoes on and go into the garage to get their bikes out. AJ cleans up the kitchen, goes upstairs to get her walking clothes on, comes back downstairs and out into the garage to get the boys.

AJ opens the side door of the garage, the boys ride their bikes outside, she steps out into the bright warm sun, and she locks the door behind them.

Carson leads on his bike, closely followed by Cooper.

AJ says to the boys, “Stop at the corner.”

She catches up to them at the corner. They all wait for the light to change and walk across together. The school track is a quarter mile from the corner. Carson leads them to the entrance of the school parking lot and stops to wait for Cooper and AJ to catch up to him. They catch up and Cooper and Carson race to the track. AJ meets up with them at the entrance to the track.

“Alright boys, you guys stay to the outside of the track,” says AJ to the boys as they head out onto the track on their bikes.

For the long stretch of the track she goes as fast as she can walking and reaches the first curve at the end and switches into walking knee hugs along the curve. When she reaches the next curve she walks as fast as she can again through the straight away section. AJ repeats her walking knee hugs along the curved section of the track. She gets to the straight away section and catches up to the boys. They look behind them and see her and take off down the track again. AJ does her track workout for two more laps. Carson and Cooper are laughing and racing around the track on their bikes.

As she finishes up her last walking knee hug section, AJ walks over to the entrance to the track and yells out to the boys, “Hey boys! Time to go home!”

They race over to AJ, “Let’s go!”

Carson races ahead to the track gate, Cooper follows close behind him. When she gets to the gate the boys race to through the parking lot and to the sidewalk where they stop to wait for her. AJ catches up to them.

She reminds them, “Wait for me at the traffic light.”

Cooper takes off in front this time with Carson following a few yards behind him. They get to the traffic light and stop and wait for AJ to catch up to them. She gets to the traffic light, it changes, and they all cross together.

Arriving home the boys want to play outside. AJ opens the garage door so that Carson can get his ramps for his BMX bike. Cooper puts his bike away and gets his basketball. AJ goes inside the house and gets fresh cold water bottles for everyone, her book and comes out the front door to sit down on the front steps.

“Boys here’s some cold water,” she tells them.

“OK,” they both reply, and they continue to play.

AJ smiles watching the boys playing outside in the bright sunshine. She looks around the neighborhood from the front step and sees a few kids playing, and she can hear them laughing. A flock of ten Canadian geese in a “V” formation fly overhead honking as they fly by.

Looking down at her watch she sees that it is getting close to lunch. She doesn’t feel like fixing anything for lunch. So, she asks the Carson and Cooper, “Would you guys like to go out to eat lunch?”

“YEAH!!” they respond.

“Well, let’s put everything away, get cleaned up and head out to the 5-1 Diner,” she says to them. The boys put away their stuff and go in through the garage. AJ meets them inside. They all go upstairs to get ready to go eat.

“I’m ready!” yells Carson as he bounds down the stairs to go get his shoes on.

Cooper is close behind him, “Me too!”

AJ walks down the stairs, gets her shoes on, and they all go out and get into her truck.

They head to the 5-1 Diner for lunch, it’s a short distance to the next town where it is located. AJ finds a parking spot in the back parking lot, as the parking along the building is too short for her truck.

They walk through the park area that is by the diner. The park has a white gazebo on the side by the back parking lot. It also has a memorial to veterans in the corner by the parking lots. Carson and Cooper run along the sidewalk inside the park and stop as they get to the sidewalk next to the road. AJ catches up to the boys, and they all continue over to the diner.

They enter the diner on the side and get in line for a table. Nicole greets them and takes them to a table outside on the patio that faces the busy main street of town. Jenn comes over, gives them menus and says, “What would you like to drink?”

“Root beer,” both boys order because it’s served in its bottle.

AJ orders, “I’ll have water with lemon.”

“I’ll be right back with those and take your order,” replies Jenn.

A few minutes later Jenn returns with their drinks, “Are you ready to order?”

“I want the fish sandwich and fries,” Cooper replies.

Carson orders, “I want chewy bacon and hash browns.”

AJ puts the menu down, “I’ll have the chicken Caesar wrap.”

Taking the menus, “I’ll get those right in.”

She goes and puts in their order and comes back out in a few minutes to talk with them, they are regulars.

“So, how are you guys doing?” Jenn asks.

“Great, I started a 5K walking training program. We are at the three week mark now,” AJ replies.

“Is that the one over in Oakland?”

“Yes it is. I am enjoying walking with a great group of ladies. Plus, we have homework and I do some of it with the boys. Today we went and did a track workout. Well, I walked and they rode their bikes.”

“Did you boys have fun?”

“Yeah!” they both replied.

“Then we decided to come here for lunch. I love coming here to eat and they love the food and sitting out on the patio watching all the vehicles going by.”

“There’s a 76 Chevy Corvette,” Carson interjects as the car goes by.

“Wow, you really know your cars,” Jenn replies.

“Yep, over there is a 70 Ford Mustang.”

“Well, I am going to check on other tables and your food.”

It isn’t very long and their meals arrive to the table. Everyone gets very quiet while they eat lunch. Jenn arrives back at the table and asks, “Do you guys need anything else?”

“No, we are all set for today,” replies AJ.

She leaves the check on the table.

Everyone finishes their lunch. AJ says, “Ready to go boys? We can go play in the park downtown.”

“Yeah” they both reply.

Carson and Cooper get up and go inside to the register where they can get suckers. AJ leaves a tip on the table and follows behind them.

“How was everything?” Nicole asks.

“Excellent, as usual,” AJ replies.

“Glad to hear it. How’s everything going?”

“Great, I have started a 5K walking training program in Oakland.”

“Well that sounds like fun.”

“So far it is.”

“Here’s your change. Have a great day.”

“Thanks, you too. See you later.”

“See you later.”

They walk back to the truck the same way they walked to the diner. It’s a lot safer than going through the parking lot.

Everyone piles into the truck and go to the park downtown Lake Orion. The towns are really close and it only takes a few minutes to get to the children’s park.

Carson and Cooper see the park and both get big smiles on their faces. AJ asks them, “Are you excited to get out and play with the other kids?”

“Yeah!” they both replied.

They get out of the truck and Carson runs for the swings. “Watch how high I can go this time!” he says.

Cooper runs over to his favorite slide that is built into the side of the hill. AJ enjoys sitting on one of the hill seats watching the boys and taking lots of pictures of them.

AJ says, “Carson and Cooper, time to go home.” They all walk over to the truck and head for home.

Continue Reading - Chapter 9