2 Moms- It can be done!

Egg carton crafts

2012-02-16T06:14:00.000-05:00

You've got to love how an egg carton can become traffic cones and a volcano with a little one's imagination.

I wanted to make these googly eyes but kiddo wasn't having it. Another time perhaps.

Bath stuff

2012-02-15T12:29:00.000-05:00

Kylie and I are both enjoying this new body wash/shampoo. She likes the wonderful strawberry smell. I like that it is made with all natural, organic nutrients with no synthetic chemicals, artificial fragrances, chemical preservatives or any other toxins. She loves the bubble bath and kid lotion too. I've also started using their anti-aging skincare line.

Sending a hug

2012-02-15T07:35:00.000-05:00

I saw this idea on Pinterest.

You trace your kiddo's upper body onto paper and then let them color it in.

And send someone you love a hug!

Project Life Week 6

2012-02-13T17:55:00.000-05:00

Most of these pictures and stories have been shared on the blog, so I'll keep this short and sweet. You can click on the picture to view the credits.

Top right picture shows Kylie in her fort made of chairs and a sheet. On the 2nd row, there are some pictures Karen snapped of me riding my bike set up on our indoor trainer. I'm out of practice on the bike and the temps (even here in Florida) have been nippy so I'm building my base on my indoor trainer. The phrase, "It just takes time" is something I tell myself over and over when I feel like I should be stronger/faster/better during a workout. It reminds me to just stay with it and to try to be patient.

The 2nd card shows a picture of a Backyardigans episode. I wanted to explain the "Flower Power Hurray" picture that Kylie drew (located 3rd row, left picture).

This week I included a picture of one of Kylie's dirty shirts sitting on my washing machine. I have to scrub out her stains with a toothbrush dipped in bleach. Just something to remember about the joys of uniforms.

I journaled a bit about Kylie saying grace at our meals and saying "Bon Appetit". And finally I included the front of a bi-fold card that the staff from our favorite Starbucks gave to us for a free coffee.

On the second page, I included pictures of Kylie that I took at the park along with some journaling about her learning to slide down the fireman's pole. I inserted a picture and journaling about her washing the glass in our home.

I used a brown journaling tag on which to write about her Trash or Treasure picture (the artwork displayed in the lower right corner) where she glued bits of trash she found at our playground, and finally a picture of the eagle that came with an aviary group to Kylie's school.

On the right side, I added an insert with a recipe from March's Highlights Magazine that Kylie and I made on Sunday. And on the back, I included this bit of schoolwork.

Kylie drew this roller coaster picture at school. Kylie had a very long story that went with the picture. She told the story to her teacher who helped her summarize it. The teacher wrote the words with a highlighter and Kylie traced over them with her pencil. She said she "felt like a kindergardener" on this bit of work. We were very proud of her.

And that's it for another week of Project Life!
If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
Ali Edwards blog
Big Picture Classes Gallery

Fireman's pole

2012-02-10T10:46:00.000-05:00

Kylie learned to slide down the fireman's pole. Wheeee!

Windows

2012-02-10T06:04:00.000-05:00

The other day when I picked Kylie up from school, I saw some of her school mates cleaning some windows.

I got very excited.

"Kylie", I exclaimed. "Do you get to clean the windows and glass doors at school?"

"Yes", she replied. "It's fun. We get a spray bottle, a squeegee and a sponge."

Fun? Windows?

May I say that I RAN to Target and got her the supplies.

May I also say that I didn't think this through.

Kylie was very conscientious about her work. I was tickled with the energy she brought to it all. But her finished glass was FULL of lines and smears.

Oh my.

We have a LOT OF WINDOWS. Kylie had so much fun cleaning them ALL.

Oh my.

I was pretty busy after she went to bed.

There is nothing quite like a fort

2012-02-09T06:02:00.003-05:00

Trash or treasure?

2012-02-08T12:30:00.000-05:00

The parks we frequent are quite clean. But if there is any bit of anything, leave it to Kylie to find it and treasure it. She is all the time tucking bits of this and that into her pockets or handing them to me. Then these little bits end up in Kylie's room.

Recently, I had the idea to ask Kylie to make some artwork (right away) with whatever she brought home.

In this picture, there are some "special" rocks, a broken silly bandz, a plastic clip-on earring, a brown plastic cap, a toy car tire (which she made into a car on her picture), and a broken watch battery which looked like an owl's nest in a tree.

On the next day, she brought home the yellow barrette, soccer ball sticker, red string and leaves, and some sort of plastic twist top, all from the park. Once home she added the toilet paper rolls, cotton, fruit sticker, broken bit of plastic hanger, and silver string all found from our trash cans at home along with the silver bells from her craft stash.

I'll let you decide-- is it trash or art?

I just know that I'm happy these bits are glued and taped down on paper rather than floating around our home.

Project Life Week 5

2012-02-06T13:32:00.003-05:00

Let me just say that I'm loving Project Life. I think I'm really finding my groove with it. This week, there was a fair amount that made it to the scrapbook that I didn't share on the blog so I've included some journaling. Remember, you can click on the the picture for credits.

Row 2, 1st card
Our kitchen sink developed a leak around the faucet. The water was dripping under the sink. Karen and I bought a new sink and faucet at Lowes. On Monday, our handyman Joe came to install it. Of course, nothing is as easy as one wants it to be. He spent 4 hours on it on Monday then had to come back Tuesday to spend 2 more hours to finish installing the sink. Then another leak developed around one of the valves under the sink. This time we called a plumber who fixed the leaky valve on Friday. He replaced the valves and some of the piping. But now we have a small leak around the new pipe. I’m afraid the sink saga will continue into next week.

Row 2, 2nd card
Kylie had a playdate on Tuesday with last-year’s best friend, Clara. Kylie hasn’t seen Clara in 8 months. When she learned she was going to see her Kylie said, “My love was missing and now she has returned”. The playdate at Sunshine Park went well except that Kylie cried buckets when Clara had to leave. We are going to get the girls together ASAP. Kylie loves Clara so much.

Row 2, 3rd card
This is a punch card for my strength training gym.

Row 2, 4th card
Kylie proudly told us that she completed the Montessori Hundred Boardthis week at school. The teachers drew all the students attention to Kylie’s completed work and the children whispered “Wow!” Kylie was thrilled and we are so proud of her.

Birdfeeder picture:
This month is National Bird Feeding Month. Coincidentally, we bought a bird feeder for our backyard. The cardinals have found it and have delighted us by eating from it regularly. Usually we see them when we sit down for dinner together. Kylie still doesn’t believe that the male cardinals are the bright ones. She doesn’t believe that the female cardinals would want to be so drab when they could be fancy.

Artwork picture:
Thursday 2/2 was Groundhog Day and Phil saw his shadow which means 6 more weeks of winter. Kylie made the paperbag Groundhog puppet in aftercare along with the jellyfish for her “J” week.

Page 2 was all about Kylie’s school Family Farm Day at Hidden Fields Farm. Here is the journaling on the 3 cards: This was the 2nd time we have been to Hidden Fields. I knew just how dusty the farm was and that the best footware for Kylie would be her rain galoshes, which I quickly renamed “cowgirl boots”. Kylie coordinated the rest of her outfit including her pink cowgirl hat and pink, silly bandz bracelets.

Kylie enjoyed jumping in the bounce house and climbing around the tree house. She was excited about the prospect of making her first s’more. But when the wind turned and smoke blew in her face, she wasn’t so excited anymore. Still she took two healthy bites of the s’more before declaring she was ready to ride the horses. Afterwards she played on the see-saw and tire swing with her friends.

When she noticed her friends had their faces painted, she decided she wanted her face painted too. She desperately wanted her favorite character “Puss in Boots” but was happy to get a close replica with this orange cat with green eyes. Kylie got a bit teary when it was time to go but overall it was a lovely trip.

There were a few more pictures that I wanted to print and keep so I tucked them in using a photo insert.

I printed the story about mean girls that I blogged on 1/31.

And finally I tucked in two cards that Kylie made for her friends Clara and Margo. She made me a copy of the cards she'd made. Very sweet. I secured the cards with self-seal laminating sheets. I did a horrible job with these laminating sheets. Oh well, live and learn. Once sealed, I used a 6x12 page protector to hold the cards.

Here's the back of her cards. I love how she wrote her friends' names and her TO and FROM. Priceless.

And that's it for another week of Project Life!
If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
Ali Edwards blog
Big Picture Classes Gallery

Those faces

2012-02-01T13:19:00.000-05:00

Kylie has started making some very interesting faces lately.

There's the "What? I don't want to do that!" face.

the full-out pout which makes me want to laugh.

And before you scroll to the next face, check out one of Kylie's favorite videos "The Dramatic Cat."

And here is "Dramatic Kylie".

You delight me kiddo!

Mean Girls

2012-01-31T13:30:00.000-05:00

Back in the Fall, Kylie started having trouble with one of the girls from her school. Let's call her GirlA. Last year at Kylie's same Montessori school, she had two best friends. One friend moved to a different school and the other friend moved out of state. When the new school year began, Kylie had to look for new friends.

She gravitated to two younger girls--GirlA and Girl B. GirlA was sweet and nice to Kylie at first. Then in November, things started to change. GirlA started playing with Kylie and then would suddenly say something like, "I never want to play with you again".

This confused Kylie. She would try to figure out what she had done to make GirlA feel this way. Kylie would try to sort it out with me. After several weeks of this behavior, I started telling Kylie that it sounded like GirlA was wishy-washy and maybe Kylie should play with other friends.

At this point, I truly didn't understand that cliques and groups had already formed. To make matters worse, GirlB started copying GirlA's behavior too.

Things came to a head when at the first of January, Kylie came home in tears. She told me about how she went from group to group of kids on the playground asking if she could play with them and no kids wanted to play with her. She spent the entire playground time trying to find someone. GirlA noticed this and at the end of playground time pointed at Kylie and said, "Ha, Ha! Kylie doesn't have any friends!" This made Kylie embarrassed, mad and sad. She later drew her first unhappy face in a drawing. She drew out the scenario.

Until now, I had approached the playground dynamics that Kylie had shared with me seriously (wanting to hear her share and validating her feelings and thoughts) yet also casually. I was shocked and surprised by the unexpected and complicated clique-y issues that surfaced. This was something I expected in middle school--not with my four year old!

Wanting to understand and take some action, I purchased this book (you've got to love the accessibility of the Kindle) and read half of it that night.

I learned about "yo-yo relationships where a close friend is often cruel or exclusionary one day and again best friends the next" and how "cruel words, silent treatment, exclusions, and backstabbing" are all forms of bullying.

I also read about active listening--a way to be attentive without imparting my feelings, values, judgments and advice. I know how to be an active listener but I honestly hadn't framed my relationship with Kylie that way. My time with her on this bullying issue had been to listen and repeat but also jump in with some advice to, I hoped, alleviate her pain and help her avoid future situations.

The next day I went out and bought this book in hard copy.

And Kylie and I sat down and read pages 45-49 on betrayal. And Kylie opened up about how GirlA and GirlB said all these mean things. As she talked, I had to keep biting my tongue and chant silently to myself, "Listen. Just listen." She would talk and then want me to read again and then she would talk some more.

My mind was reeling. I wanted to scream, "My baby is just four! FOUR! I can't believe she is having to go through this already!" But I kept listening and reading. The end of the American Girl case study story has the Kylie-character continuing to be nice to GirlA but also making other friends. GirlA had run out of chances to be Kylie's close friend. It made sense to Kylie. She decided she would make other friends.

It hasn't been easy. GirlA and GirlB want to lure her back. They say nice things to Kylie and play with her but in no time, they are back to saying mean words and excluding her. Over this month of January, Kylie has gotten over it. She's tired of their yo-yo behaviors. She tells me about other girls and boys she is playing with. When she shares with me about her playground time, I can tell things have gotten better. She shares funny stories instead of overly dramatic ones. She's calmer and happier. But she misses having "best" friends this year. She still misses her two best friends from last year and the carefree nature of their friendship.

And, as a side benefit, Kylie really uses the American Girl book. When she opens it up and brings it to me, she will show me a page with two friends who look unhappy with one another. She'll point to the picture and ask me about their story. I'll read it and then ask what is going on with her. The book has provided a way for us to talk about friendship troubles.

I'll end this long blog post with this. While sharing the story of GirlA and Kylie with different friends, I've been surprised at how many people nonchalantly shrug it off and say "Little girls are mean". I've been bombarded with advice such as "Kylie is just going to have to suck it up and toughen up" and "She'll learn to sink or swim" to "Demand that the school do something". The feedback has been all over the place.

I'm simply relieved that Kylie isn't coming to the car in tears and that I'm a little more prepared to hear about her friendship troubles. I see that my role is to empower Kylie, to role play or do whatever so that she feels strong and secure. I want to continue to strengthen my relationship with her, to be the great listener in her life not always the "know-it-all" Mommy, and to help her navigate the learning through social struggles.

Mostly, I'm very grateful that she shares so much of her day with me. I'm grateful we have the time from when school ends until bedtime to play together so that I can marinate her in lots of love.

Project Life Week 4

2012-01-30T13:42:00.000-05:00

You can click on any picture to see the credits.

There were a lot of words to describe this past week. My journal cards were filled with tiny type.

The top row has a date card along a picture of Kylie playing her new sneak-up game at the park. The second row has Kylie showing off her flexible gymnastics moves, a picture and some journaling about her red envelope to celebrate the Chinese New Year, some journaling about Karen's travels this past week, and finally some journaling about the sneak-up game. The bottom row has a picture I snapped of Kylie playing with her wind-up toys (had to get on my belly to get that shot) and another picture from the day at the park.

The second page has more park pictures on the top row. The second row has some pictures and journaling about my running and Karen's running. The second picture shows a scrape Kylie got on her temple. She ran into a tree at school trying to tag a boy before he reached base. There was a funny story associated with this accident that I wrote on a pull-out card and tucked in between the pictures. Because of the way the small card page protectors load, you can see the "pull me" brown tab just on page 1. Still, I'm glad I captured the story and like the "tuck it in" cards. There was so much text on this page 2 so I tried to off-set it with a bold block. I put the 37 to document how much Kylie weighs. The last picture on the 2nd row shows Kylie attending a movie night at her school.

The bottom row has a picture of Kylie displaying a mug with her handprint on it that she brought home from school and some pictures and journaling about the dragon masks Kylie and I colored and played with at home.

Each week, I pick 2-4 pieces of Kylie's artwork to keep with the Project Life pages. I put the artwork in either an 8.5 x 11 sheet protector and/or I usually mount some artwork onto a 12x12 piece of white cardstock. I have a rubber stamp for the journal lines and I make a point to write a few lines. The white 12x12 pages separate my project life week pages quite well. The page on the left has the red envelope I gave to Kylie on the front of the insert. On the back of the insert is this picture she colored of a dragon, adding fire and a tower to the page. The page on the right is a beautiful and colorful fish she made in aftercare.

Kylie brought home new school work in this week's folder. In her class, she has a lesson were she matches a word with a picture and then writes the word on a slip of paper. These were just some of the many slips of paper she brought home. My darling one can't wait until she gets a journal like the ones the kindergarden students use for this type of work. I also included a very cheerful flower she colored for this week's work around the letter F.

And that's it for another week of Project Life!
If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
Ali Edwards blog
Big Picture Classes Gallery

Jumping the ditch

2012-01-24T06:02:00.000-05:00

Kylie has a new game she likes to play at the playground. She likes to cross this mostly dry ditch and try her best to seem nonchalant.

Then she likes to S-N-E-A-K up towards me

then run close to me, but not within tickle range...

as we both race for base (tree).

Some times I catch her and tickle her. Other times, she makes it to base. As soon as she lets go of the tree, we race back towards the ditch. Only kids can jump the ditch to the kid-zone.

It's a fun game for us both!

Today's base tree had two boys high up in it. This is the face of a tomboy who hasn't yet learned to climb trees.

But a few more games of chase had her smiling again.

Chinese New Year

2012-01-23T19:54:00.000-05:00

Happy Chinese New Year--the Year of the Dragon. I had read that it is traditional to give a red envelope to your children on this special day. I couldn't find any Chinese red envelopes here in Florida. So I whipped up a photo in Photoshop and glued it onto a red envelope I had on hand.

And after school Kylie was thrilled to open it and see her gift. My kiddo loves to get money.

To show her gratitude, Kylie colored this picture for me. I love the castle she added and the fire coming from the dragon.

Project Life Week 3

2012-01-22T16:03:00.000-05:00

Click on the photo to see the credits.

This page documents:
our recent letterboxing trip,
the funny photo I took of Karen teaching Kylie subtraction,
a picture of Kylie with a blue heart sticker on her lips along with journaling about Grandpa getting a smartphone,
and a picture of sweet Kylie in the tub.

The second page documents:
the three cards Kylie and I made to send to our family in TN,
Kylie on a cat statue taken at Atlantic Beach town center,
Karen & Kylie playing together "Where's My Water" on the iPad,
a picture of Kylie sick in bed on Friday (she missed school due to a tummyache),
and our recent trip to the beach. I included some additional beach photos on an insert page.

And on the back of the insert page, I put more letterboxing photos and the letterbox clue sheet.

Saturday night was one of those nights I just couldn't sleep. So I stayed up past midnight working to put the pages together. It's hard when insomnia hits but there is something magical about getting creative when the house is quiet with everyone sleeping.

{this moment} Counting

2012-01-20T12:53:00.000-05:00

{this moment} - a Friday ritual. A photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Karen using her fingers and TOES to show Kylie how to calculate 14-9.

This moment posts are inspired by SouleMama's Friday posts.

One of my favorite sounds

2012-01-19T12:48:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite sounds is listening to Karen and Kylie playing games together while I'm in another part of the house. Their voices and laughs rise and fall like ocean waves. I adore it. I like to sneak in and listen more closely. And every once in a while, I'll snap a picture.

Like this one of my girls playing marbles.

And this one as they play their new iPad obsession: Where's my water

Don't hate us because we live in Florida

2012-01-18T07:51:00.000-05:00

What do we do when it is 75º and we have half a loaf of stale bread?

We go to the beach and feed the gulls!

Project Life Week 2

2012-01-17T17:10:00.001-05:00

Click on any image to see the credits.

Page 1 has a picture of me, my Dad & Kylie the day we drove home from Orlando
a picture of Kylie checking out her books at the library,
a picture of Karen wearing her new computer progressive glasses,
a picture of Kylie opening the presents we got her at Disney,
and some journaling about Kylie putting worms in the edible garden at her school.
I really want to incorporate more handwriting in this year's Project Life. It's easy for me to write on her art pages because I have to write small. Writing "big" intimidates me, like on the card next to the picture of Karen's glasses. I wrote that card 4 times. The first 3 times the handwriting looked like a cross between a child's writing and that of a hurried doctor.

This page has lots of little "bits". On the blue card, there is some journaling about the fact that Kylie had her eyes checked at school and that she had a visit from "Officer Friendly" from the police department at her school. I took a picture of Kylie and added some journaling about her haircut. I included a part of the envelope with the "intent to re-enroll forms" from her school. I love having a place to put movie ticket stubs; these were from the Alvin & The Chipmunks- Chipwrecked movie, and lastly the descriptive cover from our new set of our favorite sheets.

I included this information sheet from her vision screening.

On back of the insert, I put in a piece of Kylie's artwork. "G" was the letter of the week and she brought home pictures of goats, groceries (including this food pyramid) and a goose (on the back page not pictured here).

If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
Ali Edwards blog
Big Picture Classes Gallery

Letterbox at Fort Caroline Park

2012-01-17T06:08:00.000-05:00

Today, we made our second letterbox experience.

Letterboxing is "an intriguing pastime combining navigational skills and rubber-stamp artistry in a treasure-hunt style outdoor quest." Our first letterbox experience was in February 2009 when we lived in Portland Oregon.

I found today's letterbox through atlasquest. We started at Fort Caroline National Memorial Park.

We took the trail behind the visitor's center. Then we followed the signs to the fort and played there for a while.

Then we followed the nature trail just a short distance. Following the clues, we passed the #3 ecology sign and took 27 paces. We were told to look for an old stump on the left. Kylie saw it right away.

Behind the tree you see in the right of the picture, there was a fallen timber. The letterbox was hidden under some moss under the timber.

The box had two stamps--an owl and a teacher. These were beautiful hand-carved stamps. We stamped them into our book and then stamped our three-star stamp into the box's visitor's book. Karen wrote a note in the book and Kylie signed her name.

On our return trip to the car, we stopped and chucked rocks into the River of May, making Karen laugh and shake her head at how horribly Kylie and I throw. It was a fun family afternoon.

Bird feeder

2012-01-16T12:52:00.000-05:00

Earlier in January, when my Mom was visiting, we made pine cone bird feeders. We smeared peanut butter into the crevices of pine cones and then poured birdseed over the cones.

And then we hung the new feeders from the trees in our backyard.

I'm happy to announce that the birds have found our feeders! Whenever Kylie sees a bird eating the birdseed, she lets out the most delightful squeal and then runs to consult the bird guide she got for Christmas. She dutifully looks at every page until she finds the bird she saw.

After she finds it, she copies the name of the bird into her journal along with the date she saw it. So far she has seen Northern Cardinals, a White-Eyed Vireo, and a Northern Mockingbird at her feeders. She has also seen Canadian Geese and Mallard Ducks flying overhead.

I love her enthusiasm for the birds and her scientific approach to recording them.

Project Life week one

2012-01-13T14:50:00.001-05:00

I started using the Project Life Scrapbooking method back in August 2011 in the hopes that it would help me catch up on my digital scrapbooking from 2010. Well, I'm still behind on finishing 2010's pages (still slowly working on it!) but I've fallen in love with using the Project Life system.

So I'm tickled to have my new 2012 Project Life album. And I plan on sharing my pages here on the blog. Some of the photos and stories are ones you've seen here on the blog. But I think you'll see some new ones too. Click on any image to see the credits.

Because of the way I keep Kylie's artwork each week, I find it best to use a "front and back" page method for each week rather than the usual "left and right" method so many others use. On this page, I documented our 34º temperatures early in the week, my last week of marathon training, a sweet picture of Karen and Kylie on the couch together, along with a bold 2012 card.

On this page, I wrote about Grandpa's visit along with photos Grandpa and his girls and of the banana pudding Kylie and I made for him (his favorite dessert). There are also pictures of us at the park and some smaller cut-out pieces of Kylie's artwork.

This was a piece of artwork that had a great story attached to it. I printed the story on an 8.5x11 piece of paper and attached the picture.
Journaling:
Grandpa called us on Saturday because one of Kylie's shows on Netflix got hung up and wouldn't play. He called us and left a message. Then he put in one of Kylie's DVDs. Kylie, who was put out by this, decided to draw out the story. In this picture, Kylie is on the left (with a frown) sitting on "wiggle worm". Grandpa with his long hair is standing in front of the tv and on the phone to us. Kylie, this is so very you to draw out this story.

Each week, I pick 2-4 pieces of Kylie's artwork to keep. I put them in either 8.5x11 inserts or I glue it to a 12x12 piece of white cardstock. I use a black stamp I got at my local scrapbook store as guiding lines to make notes about her work.

Left insert: Colorbox work from Kylie's Montessori school.
Right: "E" was the letter of the week in Kylie's Aftercare class. Kylie made this elephant fashioned after the Elmer book by David McKee.

That's it for week one!

If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
Ali Edwards blog
Big Picture Classes Gallery

Grandpa's breakfast

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

Grandpa was with us from 1/4 to 1/10. We had a wonderful visit. Each afternoon, we went to a different park. Karen and I left for Orlando on Saturday morning and Grandpa took care of Kylie by himself on Saturday, Sunday, and took her to school on Monday morning.

My favorite story from that weekend happened on Sunday morning. Grandpa toasted two waffles for Kylie but couldn't find our maple syrup. He offered Kylie honey or jelly, both of which she refused. So he then offered her chocolate syrup. She, of course, LOVED it. Grandpa is officially awesome in Kylie's book.

Race videos and pictures

2012-01-12T16:24:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone!

I've got some marathon videos and race pictures from the official race photographers. I'm thrilled to get both!

Cinderella Castle
To see me, look for the women in the pink and green tutus. These were the "tutu girls" I blogged about earlier. I'm tickled to have them in this video because they were the only two that I stayed with for the whole race. I'm behind them and I'm out of view after 13 seconds. I'm running downhill and it shows in my stride but at least I'm smiling at this point.

Hollywood Studios
I remember running through Hollywood Studios (around miles 22-23) but I don't even remember the huge Mickey Wizard hat. I was so drawn into myself and putting one foot in front of the other. Yeesh, this video is hard to watch. I'm just shuffling at this point and you can see me start to limp. I'm out of view after 10 seconds.

Finish Line
The finish line is great to watch! Makes me grin every time I see it. I'm running right down the middle and I raise my hands up right after they say my name.

Giving a thumbs up here.

Marathon

2012-01-11T12:40:00.001-05:00

Are you ready for the epic marathon post?

Our day started at 2:00am. I rolled out of bed and forced myself to eat a Zone bar for breakfast. I was pretty nervous but excited too. Karen drove to get my Mom and her friend Ula Rae from the Port Orleans Riverside resort and bring them back to the Port Orleans French Quarter resort where we were staying. At 3:00am we boarded a bus that would take us to the starting line. While riding the bus I turned to Karen and whispered, "This feels like the ride to the hospital to deliver Kylie. There's a part of me that is saying "Are you really going to do this?" and "There's no going back now". There was a 15 minute walk from where the buses dropped us off. Ula Rae was having some inner ear troubles so we got her a wheel chair from her resort for the walk.

From 3:30 -4:30 we mostly stood around the race prep area until we noticed a photo shoot opportunity.

Jeff Galloway was at the start line. He said that he attends all the Disney races. When asked what his favorite part of Disney races was he answered, "The Disney characters. I love how the characters bring out the joyful kid in people". This was certainly true when I saw Chip and Dale. I squealed like a little girl and jumped in line to get my photo taken.

And then acted like a complete goofball posing with Daisy Duck.

About 4:45, they announced that it was time for runners to start the long walk to the starting gate. We all hugged...

and I did my last sound check for my headphones (getting serious here).

Notice the bracelet next to my watch--it was a pace bracelet. I picked up a bracelet with a 4:15 finish time at the race packet expo. My goals were to a) finish the marathon b) finish faster than Oprah Winfrey's 4:30 time and c) finish in 4:15 if at all possible.

It seemed like the walk to the start took forever. I had been shivering in the 55 degree temps for hours and I was just ready to start running. I walked into the B corral and tried to move around just enough to get some blood moving to my cold-numbed toes. I spoke briefly to a guy who told me that this race was his 122nd marathon--how cool is that?

I had a few things during the race that really surprised me. The first was at the start. I noticed all this activity on my left. I looked more closely and there were hundreds of men leaving their corrals, running to the tree line, peeing, and running back. There was a solid line of men with their backs to me doing their thing for the whole 30-45 minutes we had before the race started. There were plenty of porta-johns nearby but these men chose a different option. I snorted out a laugh each time I glanced over.

The second thing that surprised me was in the few minutes before the race started. People were wearing "throw away" sweatshirts and coverups made of plastic (like garbage bags) to help stay warm prior to running. When we were just about to start, the people wadded up these warmups and threw them over to the side of the road. There were so many people doing this that it looked and sounded like like a scene from a movie where battle arrows fly across the night sky. Hundreds of items getting chucked over made me raise my eyebrows and simply say "Wow!"

Then the marathon started. For each corral's start there were beautiful fireworks.

(Photo courtesy Disney Photos)

By the time I crossed the start line, there were five minutes on the clock. And I was so happy to be running. I found my pace right away. I could barely see my watch. Since I never mastered hitting my watch light button without turning my clock off, I had to rely on looking at my watch when we passed the lights. Every time I looked, I was between 9:00 and 9:30 pace.

I was seriously impressed with this race course. We had plenty of room to run, usually 2 whole lanes on the highway. Anytime the course narrowed, there was a loud recording announcing "Runners! Course narrows ahead!" loud enough for me to hear over my music.

For the whole race, I never really noticed the runners I passed. I did notice the runners who passed me but the race was so incredibly huge that it didn't matter in the least. I didn't feel the need to run as fast as them. This was great because I was really worried that I would get caught up in "chasing" people and run out of steam.

There were Disney characters everywhere--at least every mile and usually every half mile. The only runners I saw consistently were two women running in tutus. Like tons of other runners, they ran with their camera phones in their hands. They would run to the characters, wait in the short line (usually only 2-5 people ahead of them), pose, then get back into the race. I would pass these two women as they were posing, then in a few minutes, they would pass me. The Disney characters made the race fun and kept pulling me along with the thought of "I wonder who I'll see next".

I ran the first 5 miles in 46:11. I remember checking my watch around the 8 mile mark. Mile 8 has been my "magic mile" all during my training. I noticed early on that if I finished my run strong, I had also felt strong and/or good at mile 8. If I finished my run feeling like crap, I noticed that at mile 8, I usually felt weak or nauseous. I was praying to feel good at mile 8 and felt like celebrating when I did, in fact, feel good.

After I got through mile 8, I started looking forward to seeing Karen at the Magic Kingdom Cinderella Castle at the 10 mile mark. At mile 10, I had been running for 1:32. I spotted Karen right away and made my way over to where she was standing. I grabbed her hands and said, "Karen! Karen! Karen!" as she looked right at me and said "Good Job! Good Job! Good Job!". I kept moving and she got a picture of me running away. (I'm in front of the man with the blue shirt. Look for the white hat and black long-sleeved shirt.)

We ran by the Cinderella Castle, looped around, then ran through it. As I ran through, I got tears in my eyes as I thought, "Oh Kylie would just love this!"

Once we got passed the Magic Kingdom, we were soon at mile 13 which was the Relay point for the Relay runners. A part of me sighed with envy when I saw the relay runners head off, I knew their race was done. And then the new runners came charging into the race with lots of fresh energy. I grumbled a bit in my head with ungenerous thoughts like, "Yeah you feel good; you just started!" but reminded myself to focus on MY race not anyone else's. I finished the first 13 miles in 2:01.

After the 13 mile mark, there was a long stretch of open road. It was 7:30 and the sun was up. I entertained myself by looking at all the different tattoos on people's calves. I had eaten about half the GU chews in my pack and drunk half the water in my pack water bottle. I started drinking cups of water at the water breaks.

There was an amazing 21 water stops on this race. The volunteers at these water stops were fantastic and I was so grateful for all of them. I drank more water than I ever had during a training run and my body felt much better for it.

Somewhere between mile 16-17 we went from a service road, right into Animal Kingdom. There was no real transition just boom! we were into the park. Straight ahead of me were two drummers in costumes. They were banging away on their drums. I almost stumbled to a stop because for just an instant, I thought I was hallucinating!

I started giggling to myself! I knew that my family would get a kick out of that story. I also thought it was a good idea to cool off a bit. The temps were in the mid 60's, heading toward 70. At the next water stop, I dumped an entire cup of water down my back, another on my head, and drank a third. I felt a little more normal after that.

There were lots of spectator spots throughout the race. It was great to see and hear so many cheering fans. The fans became even more important to me at this point in the race. I reached out to high-five people with Mickey Mouse gloved-hands. I remember thanking a tween boy who was high-fiving runners while yelling, "Go! Go!" At this point, I needed any little extra boost of energy. I was particularly grateful to the staff members in Animal Kingdom who held out tissue boxes. The simple act of blowing my nose on a tissue held me in grateful prayer for several minutes.

It seemed like we just briefly touched on Animal Kingdom and then we were back on a long stretch of road. I was thrilled when I saw mile 20 and was fine until mile 21.

I had read a quote from Dean Karnazes that went something like, "You can plan, train and condition for the marathon and that training will get you to mile 20. Absolutely anything can happen those last 6.2 miles". This quote had been one of comfort and of fear to me in training for my marathon.

At mile 21, my calves felt like they exploded. It was the weirdest sensation. It felt like they swelled up to twice their size within seconds. It felt like my calf muscles were going to explode out of my pants. And they started really cramping and hurting yet also feeling huge and numb. All of a sudden my quadriceps starting screaming in harmony with my calves. It didn't feel like "hitting the wall" (which I had experienced a few times before), I felt like my legs just reared up and started yelling at me to stop.

"All right," I told myself. "You knew this was going to happen. You've got to keep running. Just keep running."

Right before mile 22, my left knee starting hitching and my right heel starting yelling more than my calves. And bam! My run descended into a shuffle. I looked at my watch and my pace bracelet. I knew I was ahead of pace for a 4:15 finish but I didn't think there was a chance for a sub-4 finish. I decided to walk through the mile 22 water stop. I drank my first cup of PowerAde. I had never drunk anything but water on a run before and was fearful of breaking my "nothing new" rule. But I was desperate to try anything that might make me feel better. I ate my last 2 Gu chews. I drank another cup of water and threw another on my back. I walked somewhere between 2-4 minutes in the hopes of getting some blood to circulate in my calves. Walking hurt just as much as running.

"Ok", I told myself. Walking hurts just as much. It's just going to hurt from here on out. It doesn't matter how fast you run but you've got to run." I had run out of my "special" end-of-playlist music. I decided to start my playlist over. This was the best decision I could have made. My body had moved to those first songs on my playlist so many times so I was able to start running/shuffling again.

Then we entered Hollywood Studios. The park was open but there was a running lane just for us. There were spectators cheering but there were also people who had paid to come to the park and didn't look to happy to have to wait for a gap in runners to cross the street.

And at Hollywood Studios, there were small rolling hills. These hills probably wouldn't even register as bumps on a normal day for me. I could get up and down them in 8 steps. It was "Up, up, up, up" then "down, down, down, down" and then I was on a straight-away again. But the first time I went over one, I wanted to cry. All my legs muscles started cramping even more. "Brutal!" I thought.

There were a stretch of these. I could see each one ahead. These little bumps of agony. "Up, up, up, up, down, down, down, down." "AAAGGHHHHH!!!"

I was oh-so-glad to leave that park. Then there was a short down-and-back--a split highway where you can really see all the people that are ahead of you. I've never been a fan of these. I whimpered to myself "Just look down. Think about picking your feet up. Concentrate and help your legs."

And then, I was at mile 26. There was a huge choir singing. As I ran by, I took off my headphones. This beautiful choir raised their arms in harmony and sang one loud "Jesus!" as I ran by. "Yes!" I shouted out loud. I knew I was almost done. That I had survived. That there was just a little left to go.

I rounded a corner and there was the finish line. "Pick up your legs!" I told myself. "Pick up your legs and really run!"

My family was waiting in these Cheer Squad bleachers.

They say I looked right at them. But I don't remember seeing them.

I don't remember seeing Goofy and Daffy. All I could see was the finish line arch. They called my name "WENDY!" and I lifted my hands in celebration.

It was one of the proudest moments in my life. I ran a marathon in 4:12:57. As I'm writing this, tears are pouring down my face remembering it. My dream had come true.

I walked to the medal bearers and started sobbing as they draped my beautiful medal around my neck.

I met up with Mom and Karen. This was a hug I will cherish for the rest of my life.

I told Karen that I wanted a ton of pictures. But it was suddenly hard and painful I would go from smiling...

to leg cramps, leg cramps, leg cramps!

By holding onto Karen, I hobbled my way over to the porta-johns to change clothes. Karen had to take off my shoes and put my other shoes on. I couldn't bend over or lift my feet. After getting my official times, we made our way back to our bus and back to our hotel.

I took the most painful ice bath in my life. Then a shower and then more ice (frozen pea packages are the best!) I ate my post-race bagel, a pack of pretzels, a bottle of PowerAde, and my celebratory Hershey's bar. Then I collapsed into sleep.

We woke up about 2 hours later. I was starving. So we got dressed and Karen presented me with her gifts. Flowers from the Disney florist

and this beautiful framed poster along with several cards and a marathoner coffee cup.

The Disney employees were great in congratulating the runners. I heard "Congratulations" over and over throughout the rest of the day. "You are loving this attention." Karen commented to me. "Oh Yea" I said. "I can eat this up with a spoon!"

On Monday, walking was doable as long as I went slowly. Sitting in the car made me stiff and I had to lean on Karen again to get around. We made it home in time for me to share all about my marathon with my Dad who had graciously taken care of Kylie all day Saturday and Sunday and taken her to school on Monday. My final gift from Karen was seeing Kylie come home from school on Monday afternoon with this great shirt.

That night, we started a Disney movie. At the start of the movie, there was the traditional shot of the Cinderella Castle. "Did you really run through that castle on your marathon Mommy?" Kylie asked. "And was there fairy dust?"

"Yes I ran through that castle." I answered. "And there was fairy dust. It was a dream come true."

Thank you dear readers for all of your comments. I've printed them all off for my scrapbook. You each became part of my journey and I'm so happy to have your words of support.

I may have to share my race photos from the official race photographers when they get posted, but for now, I plan to move on to telling more Kylie stories and less running ones.

Thanks again!

Marathon

2012-01-08T15:00:00.000-05:00

I did it! I ran my marathon in 4:12:57!

I have so much cool stuff to share about the marathon with you and a bunch of pictures to share but for now, I shall turn to the writing of one of my heroes, Dean Karnazes. Here is one of his quotes:

Don’t we spend enough of our lives doubting ourselves, thinking we’re not good enough, not strong enough, not made of the right stuff? The marathon gives you an opportunity to tackle these doubts head-on. It has a way of deconstructing your very essence, stripping away all your protective barriers, and exposing your inner soul. The marathon tells you it will hurt you, that it will leave you demoralized and defeated in a lifeless heap on the roadside. It says it can’t be done—not by you. Ha! It taunts you. In your dreams!

So you train hard. You dedicate yourself wholeheartedly, you sacrifice, and you overcome countless smaller challenges along the way. You pour everything you’ve got into it. But you know the marathon will ask for even more. In the dark recesses of your mind, a gloomy voice is saying, You can’t. You do your best to ignore this self-doubt but the voice doesn’t go away.

On the morning of your first marathon, the voice of doubt multiplies, becoming a full chorus. By mile twenty this chorus is screaming so loudly, it’s all you can hear. Your sore and weary muscles beg you to stop. You must stop. But you don’t stop. This time, you ignore the voice of doubt, you tune out the naysayers who tell you you’re not good enough, and you listen only to the passion in your heart. This burning desire tells you to keep moving forward, to continue putting one foot boldly in front of the other, and somewhere you find the will to do so.

Courage comes in many forms. Today you discover the courage to keep trying, to not give up, no matter how dire things become. And dire they do become. At the twenty-five mile mark, you can barely see the course any longer—your vision falters as your mind teeters on the edge of consciousness.

And then, suddenly, the finish line looms before you like a dream. A lump builds in your throat as you cover those final few steps. Now you are finally able to answer back to that nagging voice with a resounding Oh, yes I can!

You burst across the finish line filled with pride, forever liberated from the prison of self-doubt and self-imposed limitations that have held you captive. You have learned more about yourself in the past 26.2 miles than on any other single day in your life. You have never been so free. A marathon finish is more than just something you earn; a marathon finisher is someone you become.

As you are being helped away from the finish line, wrapped in a flimsy Mylar blanket, barely able to raise your head, you are at peace. No future struggle, doubts, or failure can wipe away what you accomplished today. You have done what few will ever do—what you thought you could never do—and it is the most glorious, unforgettable awakening. You are a marathoner, and you will wear this distinction not on your lapel, but in your heart, for the rest of your life.

Dean Karnazes—50/50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days

Marathon countdown- 1 day to go

2012-01-07T06:00:00.001-05:00

Over the past 16 weeks, I've run 576 miles.

My hope is that I'm able to run my first marathon in good time on Sunday.

Please give us safe travels to Orlando.
Please let us have an easy check-in at the hotel and at the marathon packet pick up.
Please let me get a good night's sleep tonight.
Please let my alarm go off so I don't miss the show.
Please let the weather be 55 degrees and either sunny or overcast.
Please no rain or snow.
Please let me not panic when I see the 14,000 other runners.
Please let the people I'm starting with not be too fast or too slow.
Please keep Karen and my Mom safe, sound and happy while they wait by the sidelines for me.
Please keep Kylie and my Dad safe, sound and happy in Atlantic Beach.
Please let me find my rhythm and pace early on and may I hold that pace as long as I can.
Please let me feel strong and capable at mile 8 (my magic mile).
May my legs and feet have strength and endurance.
If my legs give out, let me run from my heart and soul.

Please let me finish.
Please.

Marathon countdown- 2 days to go

2012-01-06T10:00:00.001-05:00

Here's the music that will hopefully carry me through 4 1/2 hours of running at the marathon. I actually have 11 hours loaded on my ipod shuffle if, heaven forbid, it should take me a long time to finish.

As I took these screen shots, I had a premonition of Kylie looking at these lists 20 years from now and laughing her butt off at the goofy music her Mommy listened to.

I find music so motivating. If you need an extra "umph" in your workouts, try incorporating some new songs! In fact, check some of these out.

Notes on songs:

I Drove All Night by Celine Dion
This is an oldy but goldy that has been on my running playlists for many years. But I love it because it reminds me of my favorite Jazzercise teacher in Oregon. She gave so much energy while teaching her classes. She just poured energy into us while we were working out with her. And she always made me smile and laugh as she lip-synched Celine. So I send her blessings when I hear this song.

Dynamite by Taio Cruz
Although Kylie mostly listens to music by Justin Roberts and Laurie Berkner, she fell in love with this Dynamite song. She has asked to hear it over and over. And I love to watch her dance to it and to sing along. I think of Kylie so many times when I'm running, yet this song has a special place in my heart.

Apache Rocks the Bottom by Scooter
This was my favorite training song when we lived in Burke, VA. It brings back memories of trail running in the rain and snow. I've heard it hundreds of times but I never get tired of it.

Little Bad Girl by David Guetta
David Guetta's Nothing But the Beat cd has been a godsend these last two months of training.

Raise Your Glass by Pink
Well since I am "wrong in all the right ways, an underdog, loud and nitty gritty" naturally this song makes me want to wave my freak flag proudly!

Firework by Katy Perry
This song got me through my first half marathon.

Without You by David Guetta and Usher
This song is for Karen. Karen is the best thing in my life.

And since I'm a die-hard Rocky fan, those last two songs on the playlist are a must!

Marathon countdown- 3 days to go

2012-01-05T10:00:00.000-05:00

I've watched this youtube video of my "120 pound journey" over and over. It never fails to motivate me or to bring tears to my eyes. As I get ready to run my first marathon this Sunday 1/8, I thought I would look back at my own recent weight loss journey.

I was a skinny kid. I stayed skinny through my 20's although heaven knows I had crappy nutrition and hardly ever exercised. In my 30's, I started putting on some pounds and my weight fluctuated between 140-160. I made an effort when Karen and I decided to have a baby and Jazzercised my way to 140 before conceiving. While pregnant, I kept Jazzercising but still put on lots of weight. I stopped looking at the scale in those last weeks before Kylie was born but I know I was past 185. I dropped some weight after Kylie was born but the pounds came flooding back on. I became immersed in being Kylie's mommy and lost some sense of myself outside of that role.

When Kylie was 2 1/2 years old, we went to TN to visit our family. I was shocked when we got home and looked at our photos. I had started diets and stopped them over those past 2 years but there was something about seeing these pictures that started me once again.

November 2009
Weight-185
Sizes-XL shirt & size 18 in jeans
I called my Nanny (pictured here) and told her that I was going to lose some weight. She told me that was good because she was worried that I'd become diabetic. My Nanny was diagnosed with mild diabetes late in her life. From the moment she heard this, she never ate anything with sugar again. Never. She had amazing will power.

This was my last visit and last photo with Nanny. We exchanged letters and phone calls. By the time she passed away in February, I had lost over twenty pounds and she was proud of me. I was even more determined to reach my goal of getting to 140 (my pre-baby weight) before Kylie's April 17th birthday.

First goal reached:
April 2010
Weight-140
Weight lost: 45 pounds in 5 months
How I lost it:
In the beginning, I exercised with my Wii gaming system. I was (and still am!) a huge Biggest Loser fan. I did the Biggest Loser, EA Sports and Jillian Michaels workouts on the Wii. I woke up at 5am, crawled down to the basement and did my workout as silently as possible as to not wake up Kylie. On some days, I would work out again at night. But I made it a point to get five workouts in per week.

I recorded everything I ate in the LoseIt app on my iPhone. I was determined to eat "normal" foods instead of frozen diet foods. I added more fruit, vegetables and grains to our weekly menus. I went through all of our favorite dinner recipes and calculated the calories and nutrition of each. That way, I knew the calories in our favorite chicken enchilada casserole dish or my usual pot of chili. I could calculate the appropriate portion based on the calories and plan for those calories in what I ate for breakfast and lunch.

Later, I added in some running. Even running in the rain and snow in that horrible winter in DC. And then I joined Gold's Gym and started running on their treadmill in the evenings after Kylie was asleep and on the weekends. The first time I ran 6.2 miles (10K) was on the treadmill at Gold's. It was a 12:45 pace.

In May 2010, we moved from DC to Florida. I still recorded everything I ate but stopped working out on the Wii. I found a gym and kept up with my running on treadmills. But in July, I started to feel stagnant. I had maintained my weight at 140 for four months but I felt like I could so very easily slip back into old eating patterns and gain back the weight.

Plus, Kylie was now in preschool and I had 4 precious and wonderful hours that I could use to workout each day. Having some time to myself made a huge difference in me. My eyes were opened to new hobbies, new possibilities, new energy! So I decided to take on the challenge of running 13.1 miles. Between July and November, I trained for my first half-marathon and my weight dropped to 132.

Second goal reached:
One year from my weight loss start date
November 2010 (my 40th birthday)
Weight-132
Weight lost-53 pounds in one year
First half marathon time: 2:11

Running the half-marathon gave me a huge confidence boost. Running became something I loved to do instead of something that burned the most calories in the least amount of time. I enjoyed pushing myself and I enjoyed training. I was no longer embarrassed when I walked into my gym. I started thinking "What's next?"

In December 2010, I started training with a personal strength trainer at my gym in Florida. I still ran mostly on the treadmill but I added a fun Body Combat class and a spin class into my weekly workouts. I discovered that my trainer had completed an Ironman triathlon. I joked with her saying what a huge stretch it would be for me to complete a triathlon (since I could hardly swim or bike at all). But in January 2011, I took on the huge goal of training for a triathlon for 2012. I started swimming and biking and running mostly on the road. My body loved all this variation and without really trying, my weight dropped to 115 in May. In June, I signed up for a life-long goal of running my first marathon. As part of my marathon training, and as a wonderful reminder of my 1st half marathon, I ran my 2nd half marathon in November.

Third goal reached:
Take time off my half-marathon time. Ran 13.1 miles in 1:56 (last year was 2:11)
Two years from my weight loss start date
November 2011
Weight-118
Weight loss- 67 pounds
Sizes- Small in shirts, 4 in jeans.

So in just a few days, I'll be at the starting line of my first marathon. I know as I run, I'll be thinking about that youtube video and my own weight loss journey. As I run, I've been known to pray like crazy (and not just "Please God let me keep running!). I pray for my family and friends. I pray for people I've known and for our nation. I always add a prayer for those just beginning their weight loss journey and for those faltering in their weight loss journey. So if you fall into any of these categories, just know that on Sunday morning, I'll be sending energy and prayers to you.

My dear readers, thank you all. Thank you for your encouragement and support.

And stay tuned for my running playlist!

One Little Word 2012

2012-01-01T15:10:00.000-05:00

Image courtesy of Ali Edwards.

This will be my fifth year with the One Little Word project.

I first read about this from Ali Edwards blog. She encouraged me to pick a word that would be a guiding force for the year.

My first word, in 2008, was Create.
I loved that word. For that year, I was ALL about creating. I created new experiences for my baby Kylie. I created a lot of love with Karen. I created a loving home in Portland. I created tons of scrapbook pages. I created lots of knitted projects. It was a fantastic word that truly motivated me throughout the year.

My second word, in 2009, was Choose.
This was an interesting word for me. The thought behind it was that life with Kylie was so encompassing that all lot of other things were starting to slip. Like my health/fitness. Like our finances. Like anything that wasn't Elmo-related. It was easier to go about the day-to-day stuff and not think nor work on the bigger goals. So picking the word "choose" was like a light slap on my cheeks encouraging myself to wake up and start working on my life. I was partly successful. But my memory of the word "choose" was that it wasn't much fun.

My third word, in 2010, was Steer.
"Steer" was "choose" on steroids.
I did steer my family to our new home in FL. I did steer my but to the gym and steered my attention to our budget. But "steer" was heavy in responsibility. It was my least favorite word of all three.

My fourth word, in 2011, was Triathlete.
For the entire year, I ran. I learned to bike. I learned to swim. The process was fear-filled yet exhilarating. And I fell in love with the training. I believe that in a non-competitive sense, I did become a triathlete. I have a long way to go before I feel ready to compete in a triathlon. I hope to do a triathlon the summer of 2012. So I'm still hanging on to this word. And I'll still be sharing my triathlon journey with you on this blog.

But I want to do more than just train for a triathlon in 2012. After a lot of thought, I chose CULTIVATE as my 2012 word. Or as Becky Higgins writes on her blog: Cultivate a good life and record it. I fell in love with this phrase. So when it was time to pick my word, I knew that cultivate would be the word for me.

You can read more about the One Little Word project here. And for inspiration, you can see Ali's list of words here.

If you've picked a word for the year, please share it with us!

Gymnastics

2011-12-30T12:44:00.000-05:00

Kylie has attended gymnastics camp this week. She has learned straddle jumps, tuck jumps and ziz-zag jumps. She has jumped on the low trampoline, hung on the uneven bars, and walked the balance beams. She has played duck,duck, goose and other games too.

And she has stretched. Or as Kylie puts it "stretched and stretched and stretched!"

"Mommy, Kylie said "They told me to put my nose to my knee, to my other knee, to my toes. They want my nose everywhere!"

She has worked hard this week and for the first time, she is actually sore. Her back and ribs are a bit sore. Karen and I got to explain what "sore" was and how it was different than an injury.

Even though kiddo is tired and ready for a relaxing weekend, she is also quite proud of her new skills.

Book list for 2011

2011-12-27T06:02:00.012-05:00

If 2010 was my year of the memoir, then 2011 was the year of the series. I’m cheating a bit on my “top ten” list as three on my list weren’t individual books but series of books. In 2010, I only read 47 books. This year, I read 75. I attribute this to Kylie’s growth and her new-found tolerance to me sitting still and reading.

Here are my top ten favorite books of 2011:
11/22/63 by Stephen King
The Tower, The Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart
The Soldier Son Trilogy by Robin Hobb (Renegade’s Magic, Forest Mage, Shaman’s Crossing)
The Rain Wilds Chronicles by Robin Hobb (Dragon Keeper, Dragon Haven)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians-all 5 books- by Rick Riordan
The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
A Discovery of Wtiches by Deborah Harkness
The Radleys by Matt Haig
The Long Run by Matt Long

This year I read six Jennifer Cruise books (Getting Rid of Bradley was my favorite), six Melissa de la Cruz books (the first book, Blue Bloods, was my favorite), three Anjali Banerjee books (Haunting Jasmine was my favorite), three Amanda Hocking books and two of Chelsea Handler’s. Here’s the rest of the list in no particular order:

Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James
The Kinshield Legacy by KC May
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
Dance Upon the Air by Nora Roberts
The Search by Nora Roberts
The Matchmaker of Reigord by Julia Stuart
Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Violets of March by Sarah Jio
Groundswell by Katie Lee
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Fast Women by Jennifer Cruise
Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Cruise
What the Lady Wants by Jennifer Cruise
The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Cruise
Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Cruise
Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Cruise
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler
My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler
The Art of Forgetting by Camille Noe Pagan
Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz
Blue Bloods books by Melissa de la Cruz (Masquerade, Revelations, Van Alen Legacy, Misguided Angel, Blue Bloods)
The Ninth Wife by Amy Stolls
Working It Out by Abby Rike
Invisible Lives by Anjali Banerjee
Imaginary Men by Anjali Banerjee
Haunting Jasmine by Anjali Banerjee
Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking (Switched, Torn, Ascend)
The Wildwater Water Walking Club by Claire Cook
Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes
Horns by Joe Hill
Run! By Dean Karnazes
Metal Cowboy by Joe Kurmaskie
Awakened by PC Cast

Healthy Living section:
Secrets to a Healthy Metabolism by Maria Emmerich
Unlimited by Jillian Michaels
Big Book of Bicycling by Bicycling Magazine Editors
Triathlon Start to Finish by Sam Murphy
Swim, Bike, Run by Wes Hobson

Audiobooks:
Karen and I adore the JD Robb “Eve Dallas” audiobook series. This year, we were pleased to listen to these three additions:
New York to Dallas, Treachery in Death, Indulgence in Death.

I also enjoyed Patrick Taylor’s Country Doctor audiobook series and listened to:
An Irish Country Courtship, An Irish Country Christmas, An Irish Country Village, Irish Country Doctor.

Feel free to share your comments and/or favorites! Happy Reading Everyone!

Christmas

2011-12-26T12:16:00.000-05:00

What a fun Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, I enjoyed watching Karen and Kylie track Santa's progress on Google Earth via NoradSanta.org.

The anticipation of Christmas Day wiped Kylie out. On Christmas Eve afternoon, I asked Kylie to play quietly in her room. A short time later, I noticed it was too quiet. I opened her door to find her sleeping soundly on the floor. She hardly ever conks out like that! Of course I had to take a picture of her.

On Christmas morning, we got up at 6:30am to open presents. We had presents from the family on our living room table and presents from Santa under the tree. I'm not sure this distinction meant much to Kylie. She loved all her new things. We heard the most squeals from her when she saw her hula hoop...

her Groovy Girls prince and princess,

her first pillow pet,

and her Rapunzel doll.

If you scroll up to one of the earlier pictures, you might see three pink suitcase-looking storage boxes sitting under the tree. We got those to store Kylie's wind-up toys, Barbie clothes and other things. I made some suggestions on what she could store in them but I also told her they were her boxes to do with as she wanted. When I was cleaning up last night I opened one up. Can you quess what I found lovingly stored away?

Some of you long-time readers much guess correctly....empty toilet paper rolls.

Sigh.

Happy holidays from Karen, Wendy and Kylie

2011-12-24T06:23:00.000-05:00

Winter camp

2011-12-23T13:30:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here hoping and praying that the presents for Kylie I ordered from Amazon make it to my house today or tomorrow. Someone please remind me next year to get my act together and order presents a tad earlier.

Kylie's been at winter camp held at her school this week. She's come home every day with several completed holiday crafts. She's had fun playing lots of games. The other day she was telling us about a game where the kids sit together in a circle and one puts on a blindfold. Another child tiptoes behind them and starts the game by saying, "Knock Knock". Who's there? "I'm a little elf coming out for Christmas. Guess who?" and then the blindfolded child guesses who is behind them. Kylie loved this game; we had to reenact it several times at home. Her camp lasts until 3:30 and it has worn her out. Last night she actually fell asleep while brushing her teeth before bed.

She has loved her camp experience. When I pick her up, she is so excited to share all about her day. Her fast little run-on sentences prompted me to shoot a few videos of her.

I hope all of you are doing great this holiday season (and not sweating over post office and ups service like I am). Cheers!

Santa's message

2011-12-17T14:48:00.000-05:00

Big thanks to Ali Edwards who introduced me to the free, customized Santa messages on the Portable North Pole.

Watching her video from Santa was one of Kylie's highlights for the week. She has seen it six times and still loves it.

Here's a picture of her waving to the Santa on the screen.

Here are some other pictures I took of her at the park on Thursday. We've loved the warm temperatures and have gone to the park every afternoon this week.

She and I were having an interesting conversation while I snapped the below pictures. I was explaining why she had to wear shoes everywhere at the park except the sand lots. She was debating the merits of wearing shoes.

Kylie can get quite serious and intent.

And just like that, she decided she was done with talking. She thew herself onto the sand and giggled and how the grass tickled her neck.

Ah, childhood.

Christmas Crafts

2011-12-13T19:49:00.000-05:00

Today was holiday craft day at Kylie's school and I got to participate. I volunteered to bring 30 white bags with handles decorated with the children's names. And I volunteered to help out with the crafts.

Kylie got to decorate a gingerbread man cookie,

and a gingerbread girl tree ornament,

a reindeer candy cane,

and "reindeer food" made out of oats and sugar.

The children were so sweet and so well behaved but I still felt like the top of my head had blown off by the time we were done. It was a lot for this stay-at-home Mom to handle. But seeing the Kylie's smile and the way she was proud to introduce me to her friends made it all worthwhile.

Kylie dancing to Madagascar

2011-12-09T15:24:00.000-05:00

I watch this video once a day because it always makes me smile and laugh. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

{this moment} 20 miles!

2011-12-09T11:45:00.000-05:00

{this moment} - a Friday ritual. Some photos capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Today, for the first time ever, I ran 20.25 miles. I did it in 3:12:45. And I could even smile for the camera once it was done.

This moment posts are inspired by SouleMama's Friday posts.

Noodles and pages

2011-12-07T17:37:00.000-05:00

My Dad got Kylie some Magic Noodles and Kylie had so much fun with them. They were very easy to use. She just tapped a side of the noodle onto a wet paper towel and then she pressed the noodles together.

She made a pyramid...

and a horse (head on the left and tail on the right).

Here are some scrapbook pages from May 2010 that I completed while on the cruise.

Skipping, scavenger hunts and more

2011-12-05T13:11:00.000-05:00

Kylie is so proud of her new skill of skipping. Her little brain and body have put all the skipping motions together and now she skips everywhere.

Kylie got to have several scavenger hunts with her cousins while in TN. She insisted we have one yesterday. Kylie, Karen and I each wrote onto a piece of paper at least five things we wanted to find in our backyard. After we found everything, we each checked one another's lists. It was sweet and fun and reminded me yet again of how much Kylie likes to collect little bits of nature.

Two other little things that I've noticed:

Someone taught her the word "disgusting" and she has used it twice in sentences about food she hasn't wanted to eat.

Kylie is calling me both "Mommy" and "Mom". I have to confess that I'm not thrilled with "Mom". I honestly didn't think that "Mommy" would get shortened to "Mom" until Kylie was 9 years old or so. I didn't realize how much I had riding on "Mommy" until she stopped using it. Oh well, I'm trying to roll with it.

Cruising

2011-12-02T15:24:00.000-05:00

Karen and I just returned from a Carnival cruise to Nassau and Half Moon Cay. For five glorious days we reveled in some private time. We slept late, had some spa treatments, got in lots of reading,relaxed and enjoyed one another. Can I just say how wonderful it was to not make anyone's breakfast, lunch or dinner for five days? Wow! I had so much free time! I made some scrapbook pages that I'll share with you in a bit.

Kylie stayed with her Nana and had all sorts of fun with her cousins, including a day at Dollywood.

We are trying to get our land legs back and get caught up in all our usual home stuff. I hope you are all enjoying the start of December.

Postcards from TN part three- Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T13:39:00.000-05:00

Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Postcards from TN part two

2011-11-23T17:27:00.000-05:00

We spent Wednesday 11/23 with my Dad and his partner Margarita. We had lunch together and then went to the East TN Discovery Center Museum.

Some of the highlights were a space shuttle module with a black light. Kylie had fun working the controls and blasting into space.

There were whisper dishes set up on either side of the museum.

The museum had a very nice kids play area. There were only a few other people there so we were able to visit together quietly which was lovely.

We stayed for the 30-minute planetarium show. Kylie loved seeing the stars but then she got really sleepy. She took a nap in the car on the way home. And played with her cousins for the rest of the evening.

Postcards from Tennessee part one

2011-11-22T18:23:00.000-05:00

Kylie and I stayed at the same hotel in Columbia SC that we stayed at last winter when we went to TN. Kylie brought her favorite two stuffed animals for the trip. Her best quote from the journey was on Friday when we had been on the road for about four hours and had stopped to eat dinner. Kylie said, "You know Mommy, if we had flown we would have been there by now". My little traveler loves flying.

We arrived Saturday afternoon and Kylie got lots of love from her Nana.

On Sunday, we were letting Kylie run around the nearby track. Her Aunt Amy and cousin Emily found us there. It was so fun to see the girls running towards one another with their arms opened wide. And I loved their full-body tackling hug.

Hanging around the house on Monday. Kylie loves to accessorize.

On Tuesday, my Mom made us a wonderful pre-Thankgsiving lunch at her house. Afterwards we went out for a walk. We don't have much of a Fall in Florida. As we drove through the North Carolina mountains on our way to TN, Kylie kept saying, "These Fall leaves are so beautiful!" So I wasn't surprised that she wanted to play with them.

Kylie's leaf enthusiasm was catching.

I woke up with a bit of a head cold on Monday which shows a bit around my eyes.

It's lovely to get my picture made with my darling Karen. We don't get much of an opportunity when we are away from our photo-happy family.

And later in the day, we saw Happy Feet 2.

More family pictures to come! I hope you are enjoying this Thanksgiving week with your family!

Half Marathon

2011-11-20T14:30:00.000-05:00

Karen and I are in Tennessee this week to visit with our family and to celebrate Thanksgiving with them. I knew with the distractions of family that I would be tempted to slack off on my marathon training. So I was tickled to find the Secret City Half Marathon.

I ran it this morning. 13.1 miles and my unofficial time is 1:55. Today was simply fantastic because my Mom, Dad and Karen all came to root me on.

Here are a ton of pictures!

Sunrise at the start of the course.

It was 55 degrees which is a perfect temperature for running for me. But it felt quite chilly before we started moving.

Waiting to start.

And we are off! My family was cheering and waving at the start line.

The race was a loop that we ran twice. So it was easy for everyone to cheer us on as we ran by at the half-way mark. Seeing Karen, Mom and Dad jumping up and down, waving and shouting encouragement to me was priceless. It was a moment I'll treasure forever.

And here I am nearing the finish line.

They called my name and I threw my hands in the air and whooped it up.

After the race, I was so happy. Here I'm celebrating with my Mom. We were talking about the fact that my first half-mararthon race was held last year around Thankgsiving, and that I ran it in 2:11. I was elated with my new time and shouting out 1:55! with my Mom. I had to hug and kiss everyone. I kissed Karen and my mom...

Here I'm kissing my Dad.

And kissing my medal.

What started out as a long, training run became a personal-best run filled with some awesome moments.

Weekly round-up

2011-11-17T19:56:00.000-05:00

It looks like a post-it note tornado has hit our home. In taking time to consolidate all my little notes into a workable "to do" list, I found the following notes about Kylie that I thought I would share. Nothing earth shattering...just little bits about her.

She wanted frozen waffles every morning for breakfast. And this week, she started eating two waffles instead of her usual one.

She started making her own bed in the mornings. I'm a bit surprised because I've never asked her to do this. It's difficult bed to make up because it's pushed against the wall. But Kylie is giving it her best effort.

She learned the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" game from the movie "Rio". She loves to play at it.

She leaned out the window of our car every morning during drop-off. One morning she shouted to a friend, "You aren't the boss of me! My Mommy is the boss of me." Yeesh. I don't know where she learned that phrase but we had a long talk about it. Here she is showing her friends her silly scarf and Harvey.

Kylie brought home this finished piece of school work. I had to look up the bottom word "plastron". I knew at some point Kylie's school work would show me something I didn't know. I didn't think it would happen before kindergarden.

Kiddo had a haircut-just a trim. The folks where we take her love to dress her hair up. I wish I could do this for her at home...

...especially when I saw her school picture. Check out Kylie's really boofy hair!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Skin tone

2011-11-17T13:39:00.000-05:00

Kylie has been interested in skin tone recently. She wanted to know "why some people are peach, some people are light brown, medium brown or dark brown?"

Karen and I really got into our reply. We talked about your family of origin and which continent that family was from. We got out the globe and pointed to different continents and skin tones of people there. Mostly our explanation went way over her head.

Later that day, she asked me the same question again.

I borrowed a line from a movie and answered, "Because God loves wondrous variety." (Extra credit if you can name that movie in the comments.)

Here is some artwork that reflects how Kylie is trying to work out this question of skin tones with her art. I just love her rainbow people!

That's new!

2011-11-11T15:34:00.001-05:00

Kylie did THIS at the park on Thursday. This is the first time I've seen her complete this move. Hurray!

We were both happy as clams. She was playing with everything the park provided and I was standing back shooting happily away with the camera. I'm tickled I made myself go with her to the park-- after that l-o-n-g run I really just wanted to sit down. I was tempted to plop her in front of the tv. But then I would have missed these fun pictures and hearing the kiddo squeal on the tire swing. When we came home, Momma Karen took over so that I could kick back on the couch and ice my right heel.

Have a great weekend everyone!

16 MILES!

2011-11-10T12:17:00.000-05:00

Kylie's running

2011-11-09T11:17:00.000-05:00

Kylie has had a surplus of energy for the past few days. Yesterday morning before leaving for school, she was bouncing around the house like crazy. So we went outside and I had her run around our cars in the driveway 20 times and down the sidewalk to our front door and and back 20 times. I hope she got a bit of her bounce out of her system and was able to sit still for school.

Neighbors who see me run and also see Kylie running around will stop and ask me if I'm "teaching her to run". Absolutely not. Running is something Kylie simply loves to do. It makes me very happy when Kylie will ask me, "Going for a run today Mommy?" or "How was your run?" or "Going to workout this morning Momma?" It tells me that from Kylie's perspective, exercise is a daily activity and just a part of what we do. I'm so glad that Karen and I are providing this healthy example.

After school, we went to the park and she ran back and forth and around for an hour. I think I read in a John Bingham book that kids make such beautiful natural runners because they carry no stress in their bodies. I love to watch Kylie run. Reminds me of this episode of Friends where Rachel describes Phoebe's running as a "mix between the Six Million Dollar Man and Kermit the Frog." Kylie runs with arms straight in front of her and straight in back. At some point, someone will "correct" this. But for now, I just watch her and grin.

The smuggler and the cop

2011-11-08T19:34:00.000-05:00

Kylie LOVES empty toilet paper rolls for her crafts. She colors them with markers or crayons. She puts stickers on them. She glues feathers and faces and makes birds out of them. They are binoculars and telescopes. They are a source of science experiments (what will fit down this tube?). She uses them as mail carriers and secret vaults for her drawings.

And trust me, I'm grateful that she enjoys this "free" craft supply.

Right now, we have 6 empty toilet paper rolls sitting on the shelf next to her crayons. We have 4 more empty rolls under the vanity in Kylie's bathroom.

I think ten rolls are enough.

Kylie doesn't think so.

The little stinker is tall enough to peer into our cardboard recycle bin in the garage. If she spots a toilet paper rolls, she grabs it and shakes it vehemently and says (in a very parental voice), "What is this doing in here?!"

The discussion surrounding the toilet paper rolls always ends in Kylie being pissed off and/or tearful and me ending the very reasonable discussion (which got me nowhere) by saying "Because I said so!"

Good times.

So, I've started smuggling the little things. I flatten them and put them inside flattened cracker and cereal boxes. I bury them at the bottom of the recycle bin. I hoard them and run them to the recycle bin the moment before the garbage people come.

My mom always says, "You've got to pick your battles". I really don't like arguing with Kylie over toilet paper rolls.

So I'm the smuggler. And kiddo is the cop.

Kids...one heck of an adventure.

Here are some recent park pictures.

Triathlete- October 2011

2011-11-05T14:21:00.000-04:00

This month has been about running, running and more running in preparation for the marathon in January.

The high point for the month was on October 21 when I ran 13 miles in a personal-best time of 1:57. The marathon felt totally doable and I felt on top of the world for the rest of the day. I laughed and sang songs and was pretty annoying in the way that only the truly euphoric can be.

The low point was the following Friday when I was supposed to run another 13 and I bottomed out at 9.5 miles. This was only the second time I've ever hit the wall and wasn't able to complete a scheduled run. I'm pretty sure it was because I didn't carb load appropriately the night before and I was just tired. But poor Karen, who was working from home that day, heard me grumble. My rant sounded something like this:

"Why the heck am I doing this to myself! This is insane! Only crazy people take ice baths. I'm sick of having to do laundry every day to wash our stinky workout clothes. I'm tired having to drink recovery drinks and protein drinks. And look at me! My face is getting all runner's gaunt and I'm getting more and more wrinkles. And I still have all this fat on my belly and tons of cellulite on my ass. It's not fair! This sucks! It's crazy! I'm too old for this shit!"

And on and on. You get the gist.

My sweet wife listened and nodded appropriately and then on Monday, she encouraged me to lace up my running shoes and go for a run.

Training for a marathon has its serious ups and downs. And the loving support of your family can make all the difference.

Here are the stats for October:

I ran 5 miles every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. My average pace for those 5 miles was 8:52 per mile.

On Wednesdays I ran a slightly longer run (but not the long run of the week). This run is supposed to be at a faster pace than the long run.
6 miles in 53:07 8:51 pace
8 miles in 1:16 9:30 pace
9.52 miles in 1:28 9:15 pace
9.6 miles in 1:25 8:54 pace

On Fridays, I ran my long run for the week.
12 miles in 1:54 9:34 pace
12.5 miles in 2:01 9:43 pace
13.02 miles in 1:57 9:02 pace PR!
9.5 miles in 1:28 9:16 pace

The total miles run each week were 32.5, 35.5, 37.57, 34.1 (plus 5 on 10/31) puts my total for the month at 144.67 miles at an average pace of 9:07.

Swim
I had 6 swim practices this month. At one practice, I swam 6 50's, all at 55 seconds or less and with only 10 seconds between intervals. At another practice, I swam 4 100's and they were at 2 minutes to 2:03, again with only 10 seconds between intervals. I'm pleased that I've been able to maintain some amount of endurance with my swims while training for the marathon.

Bike and Strength.
On alternating Sundays, I took in two spin classes. And I participated in four strength training workouts.

Overall, I worked out 24 days and had 7 days off. And my weight stayed the same at 118 (gaunt face and cellulite and all).

Thanks to all of you who take the time to comment on these long triathlete posts. Comments lift me up more than you know. I leave them in my inbox so that I read them over and over.

September 2011
August 2011 summary
July 2011 summary
June 2011 summary
May 2011 summary
April 2011 summary
March 2011 summary
February 2011 summary
January 2011 summary
December 2010 summary

Goal: Triathlon in 2012- initial post from December 2010
One Little Word: Triathlete post

Week in review

2011-11-04T13:20:00.000-04:00

With all the excitement of Halloween, the rest of this week flew by! Here are a few highlights.

This week in after-care, "N" was the letter of the week. The students made these bird nests. Kylie was so proud of hers. She named her bird "Sparkle". She had fun taking care of her pretend bird for the rest of the week.

Her school is supporting a local food drive. Kylie and I had several interesting discussions about homeless and hungry people. She still doesn't quite understand but was more than happy to drop food off at her school bin each day.

Wednesday we had parent-teacher conferences and we got a copy of Kylie's report card. If interested, you can read her report card here and here(the print is very small and hard to read on screen). Kylie is doing well in school. Her teachers wrote: Kylie is very pleasant to have in the classroom. She has a great outlook and rarely needs redirection. We are currently working on getting her to choose more challenging work on her own. She is ready to start higher Montessori materials. She seems very happy at school and is always enthusiastic to learn.

Thursday was my birthday. Karen and I celebrated Wednesday afternoon. I was grateful to my family for their phone calls and cards. Kylie gave me a wonderful card; she decorated the envelope. And fortunately, I was able to understand what she had written and drawn.

Kangaroo, elephant, giraffe, snake, and alligator.

Kylie really wanted to get me a cake or cupcakes but I didn't want either. So Karen was able to convince Kylie to get two cookies and to decorate them for me. It was so sweet.

All in all, it was a great (and fast!) week. Have a great weekend everyone!

Our Halloween Cat

2011-11-01T07:52:00.000-04:00

We got an early start to our Halloween. By 5pm, Kylie had her costume on and her face painted.

We played around in our yard for an hour before meeting up with our group to start trick-or-treating. It gave me a chance to take a ton of photos.

We went with our neighbor Lily and some other neighborhood kiddos.

Although Kylie was the youngest of the group, she did a great job keeping up with the older kids. And she loved running from yard to yard.

Some of our neighbors really decorated their houses! Kylie said "thank you" at each house. I was proud of her good behavior. She cracked me up when she came back from a house and said, "I didn't grab two candybars Mommy. They gave me two!"

It was a great night of fun!

School Halloween

2011-10-29T17:23:00.000-04:00

Kylie's preschool had their Halloween celebration. Small groups went to the school library where they made the following crafts. Kylie's group was one of the last ones to go. She told me, "I could hardly concentrate in class and in Spanish class because I thought I would never get to go!" But she did get to participate and brought home these cool crafts.

Spider web. The orange thing on her finger is a plastic spider ring. The white paint had lots of glitter in it which made her especially happy.

Mummy's hand. A rubber glove filled with candy corn and popcorn.

{this moment} 10/28/11

2011-10-28T12:38:00.000-04:00

{this moment} - a Friday ritual. Some photos capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

We made Spinach Balls and Banana Bread together. Kylie learned how to crack an egg. "Gross!" she laughed, wiping her hands on the towel. "Let's do it again!"

This moment posts are inspired by SouleMama's Friday posts.

Writing

2011-10-27T19:18:00.000-04:00

Kylie has been writing like crazy! We are so proud of her and yet it has created lots of tense moments around the house.

Take this little bit of writing for example.

While I was folding some laundry, Kylie was in another room writing this. She finds me and asks me to read it. I'm sounding it out the best I can and at first glance I guess "drum?" for the top word. "No!" Kylie yells. (Kylie is normally not a person who yells but she's been pretty dang uptight about my ability to read her writing.)
"Darling, you read it to me," I reply.
"I can't read. YOU can read. Read it to me." Kylie says.
Finally I cipher that she has made a map. Her map reads toyroom, dining room, kitchen, hallway, Kylie's room (that last bit got cut off). But the five or more minutes that it takes the two of us to work this out are some intense minutes.

She wants soooo much for me to read it. I want so much for her to explain it so that I can oohh and ahhh appropriately. For the past week, when she brings me something to read, I feel like I'm on some crazed gameshow where I'm tip-toeing through a minefield trying to read Latin.

Yesterday, she decided to walk around our neighborhood writing down the words she saw on our neighbors' flags, signs and numbers by the road. We started with the Happy Halloween flag in our yard.

And she just kept going and going! Up and down our neighborhood...

until she had an entire page.

Happy Halloween
Hokies (as in Virginia Tech Hokies)
Watson (and several backwards phone numbers for the realty company)
Speed Limit 20
Toter ® (I love that she included the Registered symbol)
Florida
1172
Michigan
ADT
Caution Ghost Xing
1155
Give it Back (written backwards)
Stop
1905
No Dumping
Beck
7714
AEO
Suncast
Telephone
Sienna LE
Toyota

I'm happy to say that today's writing was easy. I figured it out immediately, "I found a nut!", which made the kiddo very happy.

Tigress

2011-10-25T11:52:00.000-04:00

This is the character Tigress from the animated movie "Kung Fu Panda".

And Kylie likes to copy her moves.

Fierce!

Powerful!

If only you could hear the sound effects.

She likes to draw Tigress too!

Crafts

2011-10-24T20:47:00.000-04:00

Kylie does an amazing job creating her own crafts. She loves construction paper and is really into glue and lately, masking tape. She has her own freestyle flair. But occasionally she asks for a more defined craft. We picked up this craft box and we give it two thumbs up. Follow this link and grab it from amazon because it's cheaper than it was in the store!

Here are just a few things she has made from the kit.

PS- The acorn shoe revolt continues. Kylie had 16 acorns in her shoes today!

Four and a half years old

2011-10-21T12:50:00.002-04:00

I forgot to mention that Kylie turned 4 1/2 on Monday. A little ice cream and lots of hugs and kisses to celebrate.

Montessori Showcase

2011-10-20T12:59:00.000-04:00

Last night we got to go to Kylie's school for her showcase. For an hour, the kids get to show the parents what they've been working on in their preschool class. The class is divided in half with the 3 year olds participating at 5pm and the 4 year olds, like Kylie, at 6 pm.

Last year, with a different set of teachers, the children got to pick what they wanted to do for showcase. Kylie surprised her teacher last year by picking things for showcase that she had never attempted before. This year, the children had a list of three things to show their parents.

Kylie's activities were the ABC Roll, bead stair and small color box. Kylie was supposed to do the ABC roll with her friend Landon. I was looking forward to watching Kylie interact with Landon on the task. Kylie can be so bossy and I wanted to see if she was that way with Landon. But Landon didn't arrive so Kylie got to do the ABC roll all by herself.

In the basket are all the letters (the vowels are in red) and Kylie placed them on this long roll.

She is so precise!

When she had all the letters in place, she opened a box of small objects and matched them with a letter--like "e" for elephant and "f" for fish.

She cracked me up when she whispered "This one is easy. My Mommy loves Y-Y-Yarn!"

It took a while to do all the letters and objects but Kylie worked quickly and steadily. I never saw her get distracted even with all the parents in the room.

Her second activity was the Bead Stair. Kylie got a rug and showed us the proper way to unroll it. Then she quietly got her activity from the bookshelf.

This activity had small numbered tiles and beads. She put all the tiles in order on her rug. Then she counted the beads and put them next to the matching tile.

When that was done, she gathered the corresponding worksheet and colored pencils she would need to complete the project. She traced her numbers and colored in the beads on the worksheet. Notice how the number two bead string is green and how she used the green pencil on her worksheet for that portion.

Once her teacher checked her work, she put that task away and got out the final one--the small color box. These were small tiles that Kylie matched together. I love how she lined everything up precisely with the top of the rug. This activity had a worksheet as well but we ran out of time before she could do it. Kylie started to get upset about not finishing her work but her teacher said that she could leave it out with her name tag on it and finish it the next morning.

Kylie was so focused. Her teachers said she was a hard worker in class. We are so proud of her and she was proud of herself!

Here In Florida...

2011-10-18T06:06:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the temperatures got up to the low 90's. After school, Kylie and I went to the park and after playing, biking the loop several times, climbing ladders and such Kylie and I were dripping with sweat. She hooted with pleasure when she saw the fountain was on. I was jealous as I watched her get drenched. I had fun taking pictures though!

Over the weekend

2011-10-17T12:06:00.000-04:00

Kylie got to go to a schoolmate's fourth birthday party. The invitation said to come as a fairy princess or pirate. There were about 20 kids attending at the birthday girl's house. Kylie said her favorite part was decorating the birthday card for her friend (pictured here), the magic show where she got to pet a green dove and a bunny rabbit and dancing with all the girls after eating cake.

And last night I was able to finish a few scrapbook pages I've been working on, including a page celebrating Kylie's third birthday (I'm still so far behind!). Click on an image for the credits.

First dentist appointment

2011-10-14T12:30:00.001-04:00

Kylie had her first trip to the Dentist. We found a great pediatric dentist with a kid-friendly staff and office. The appointment started with Kylie brushing her teeth for dentist. She said Kylie did an excellent job! Then Kylie went away from Momma Karen and into treatment room for her x-rays. Kylie had her first cleaning, which was done with just a gritty toothpaste, and a flouride treatment. Kylie was completely at ease. Afterwards she got a certificate, a cute plastic ring and a sticker. We were so relieved it was an easy appointment.

Museum

2011-10-13T17:43:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was a four-day weekend for us. Kylie's teachers had a professional development day on Friday and Monday was the Columbus Day holiday. Four-day weekends can make me a bit antsy for something new to do.

So we went to the Museum of Science and History (MOSH) for the first time. I liked the exhibit they had about the human body.

And Kylie liked all the dinosaur replicas.

When I asked Kylie her favorite part she told me she liked excavating the dinosaur bones (pictured here)....and riding the elevator. Sigh.

Acorns

2011-10-11T20:23:00.000-04:00

Karen picked Kylie up from preschool today. When Kylie got into our car she said, "Momma, my feet hurt." When they got home, Kylie took off her shoes. Inside each shoe was 6 acorns.

12 acorns in her shoes!

Karen said, "Honey, why do you have acorns in your shoes?"

Kylie said, "Because I wanted to keep them!" "And," she added proudly, "I told the other kids to put some in their shoes too."

Our nature-loving girl is leading an acorn shoe revolt.

You crack me up kiddo.

New Bike!

2011-10-10T19:05:00.000-04:00

Kylie got her first bike on Saturday! She did great riding around the track at our nearby elementary school and in our neighborhood. I'm so dang proud of her!

Project Life week 6

2011-10-08T06:16:00.000-04:00

I love all of Kylie's smiles on this page. I made the "count to 100" piece in Photoshop using font named 4990810 for the numbers and a whimsical font named MA Sexy for the journaling. I included some journaling about Kylie celebrating Jewish New Year at school with Ali Edwards Small Journal Card Overlays.

This page was all about Karen coming home from her business trip and her birthday.

I got the birthday cake element from this element pack. I like how it added some pop to the page.

Karen and I got to see the movie "50/50" this week. I love how Project Life gives me a place to store movie ticket stubs. I got the cinema tag from this kit.

Six beach photos of Kylie (3 pictures front and back).

The three photos are in 6x12 Photo Protector that holds 6 horizontal photos.

Kylie made a huge jump in her artwork. She made a great picture of her favorite tv show characters "The Wonder Pets". I also like how she colored this car from one of her aftercare worksheets. She still writes her name backwards sometimes.

Handmade birthday card for Momma along with giraffe envelope.

Hurray for another finished week of Project Life!

Project Life week 5

2011-10-07T06:02:00.005-04:00

Project Life week 5. The first page has a date card from the kit in the upper left corner. There are two journal cards (made in Photoshop and printed as a photo) that have some of the interesting things Kylie said for the week, a few small pictures of her, and some artwork where she traced her hand.

Page 2 has a map of Pittsburg (downloaded from the internet) along with some journaling about the dates Karen was there. On the right is some journaling about how much I appreciate FaceTime and texts from Karen when she is traveling. The days at the top of the journaling card are from this overlay pack. Then there are some sweet and goofy photos that Karen and I sent to one another. I purchased some Life Is Good shirts and included some of the tags along with a little sticker they sent to me. I also included some tags from our Build-a-Bear visit.

I loved these photos of Kylie blowing bubbles. The three photos are in 6x12 Photo Protector that holds 6 horizontal photos.

On the back of the smaller page protector, I put three photos about the fact that I started marathon training this week. I love the Life is an Adventure title.

I made an 8x10 scrapbook page documenting the Build-a-Bear heart ceremony. It's held in place with a standard letter-sized page protector. On the back, I put the birth certificate that came with Kylie's bear.

Karen sent Kylie a card from Pittsburg. I put it and the envelope in another 8.5x11 page protector.

I loved the detail Kylie took in coloring in this worksheet from aftercare.

Globe picture. Kylie put together a puzzle at school that looked like this and then colored this worksheet to show her finished work. I journaled about this a bit in the "Things Kylie says" card.

I usually only put two pieces of Kylie's artwork in the notebook for each week. But I loved these next two pieces and had to include them. Kylie made this drawing using a template for the first time.

And this is one of the best handprint pictures we've ever made.

A lot of pages to represent this week! So far, I'm loving this project.

FYI- Project Life kits are now available for sale.

Triathlete- September 2011

2011-10-06T05:56:00.002-04:00

September was a family-filled month. My mom came to visit, then Karen's folks came to visit. Then Kylie and I caught a chest cold and then Karen went out of town on business for 11 days. Whew! Some workouts were missed but I'm pleased with how I stayed focused.

I started marathon training the week of the 19th. I'm using the intermediate plan from this Runner's World training plan. I got some good advice at the start of the month which was to "pick your marathon training plan carefully, commit to it, and then trust that it will get you there". Every time I start to freak out and think that there is no possible way I can run a marathon, I repeat to myself, "Just follow the plan; it will get you there".

Yes, I freak out. And yes, I talk to myself.

At first I thought I could keep up with my biking and swimming while training for the marathon. Sweet Karen helped me see that this just wasn't feasible or healthy. Something had to give and it was a pretty easy choice. I adore swimming. My two swim lessons are the highlights of my week. And swimming lengthens my muscles that get all cramped up from running. So I decided to drop the biking until after the marathon. Biking is my weakest point right now and I've heard that you should train your weakest point first. But it is simply going to have to wait until after the marathon in January.

I had some great highlights for the month:
I ran my fastest long run ever: 14.5 miles in 2:19, 9:37 pace. Followed by my first ice bath.
For the last two weeks of September, I increased my running from 2 days a week to 5 (and my mileage from 15-20 miles a week to 23-33 miles) and so far, my body is holding up very well.
I started swimming with another triathlete (more on that below).

Here are the stats for September:

Swim
My swim coach teamed me up with another female triathlete (her name is Claudia) for one of my 2 weekly swim lessons. She's a bit older than me and has done several triathlons. Our coach had us isolate different parts of the swim and it turns out that I have a stronger pull and that she has a stronger kick. Overall, we swim at about the same speed.

We are both competitive and end up racing each other in the pool. But this is a good thing. I have seriously sucked at kickboard drills. It would take me 48 seconds to kick one lap with the kickboard. With Claudia beside me I was able to kick harder and can now do it in 36 seconds. This little bit of competition is helping me swim faster. At the start of our training together, I was really shy and nervous to swim with someone but now I look forward to it. We have a nice comaraderie.

Our last few lessons of the month have been filled with drills. Coach Gus is really working on improving our swimming form. Overall for September, I had 7 swim lessons and 1 IKKOS lesson (side view of the catch and pull).

Bike
2 bike rides, one for 21 miles and one for 12, both were only 13mph average. Slow, slow, slow. I also took in one spin class.

Run
Regular Runs and Tempo Runs
5.25 miles in 46:11, 8:48 pace
5.25 miles in 48:20, 9:12 pace
5 miles in 47:21, 9:01 pace
6 miles in 53:48, 8:58 pace
6 miles in 55:45, 9:18 pace
3 miles in 26:48, 8:56 pace
4 miles in 34:42, 8:41 pace
6 miles in 52:28, 8:45 pace

Long Run
14 miles in 2:19, 9:56 pace
14.5 miles in 2:19, 9:37 pace
10 miles in 1:39, 9:54 pace
12 miles in 1:57, 9:48 pace
14 miles in 2:15, 9:39 pace

Other
I attended two strength training classes. My weight stayed the same at 118. I worked out 22 days and had 8 days off.

WOW! You made it through another L-O-N-G triathlete post. Thanks!

And Thanks to everyone who takes the time to comment. Comments mean the world to me.

August 2011 summary
July 2011 summary
June 2011 summary
May 2011 summary
April 2011 summary
March 2011 summary
February 2011 summary
January 2011 summary
December 2010 summary

Goal: Triathlon in 2012- initial post from December 2010
One Little Word: Triathlete post

Right Now 10/5/11

2011-10-05T07:35:00.000-04:00

Right now I'm...

amazed at how Kylie is singing Do-Re-Mi. She sang it in its entirety the other day. Out of the blue. She hasn't been working on it; she just sang all of it. She said that one of her teachers sings it while the children eat lunch. Check out this video.

grateful for teachers who sing.

proud that Kylie has learned to count to 100 by tens. Here's another video.

pleased that she has learned to write "Mommy" and "Momma" by herself.

enjoying some cooler temperatures. Highs in the low 80's and lows in the mid 60's. Heaven!

running to some new songs from this album by David Guetta
Nothing But The Beat.

listening to the latest Eve Dallas audio book. This is my all-time favorite audiobook series. I've listened to all 31 books. I was so tickled when this last book came out.
New York to Dallas (In Death)

reading Room on the Broomto Kylie. Karen found this book on her business trip and we just love it.

finishing Robin Hobb's Soldier Son trilogy. If you've not read Robin Hobb, you should give her a try! Here are the first books in her different series:
Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 1)
Ship of Magic (The Liveship Traders, Book 1)
Fool's Errand (Tawny Man #1)
Dragon Keeper (Rain Wilds Chronicles, Vol. 1) (The Rain Wild Chronicles)
Shaman's Crossing: Book One of The Soldier Son Trilogy

hanging around the park (and chasing soccer balls) with Kylie. It's wonderful to spend some time at the park and not come home drenched in sweat.

Happy Birthday Momma

2011-10-02T16:30:00.000-04:00

I adore you Karen. I hope this will be a wonderful year for you and for us.

(The green lights on their faces are from the candle reflections.)

{this moment} 09/30/11

2011-09-30T10:33:00.000-04:00

{this moment} - a Friday ritual. Some photos capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

A fun Halloween craft Kylie and I completed together. Have a great weekend everyone!

This moment posts are inspired by SouleMama's Friday posts

Scrapbook pages

2011-09-29T07:56:00.000-04:00

Karen has been away on a business trip since last Sunday. Thank heavens she is coming home today! While she was gone, I made the following scrapbook pages. Click on the page to see the credits.

Beach

2011-09-27T20:49:00.000-04:00

Here in Florida it still gets to 85-90 degrees in the afternoon. There are lots of swimmers and surfers at the beach, including me and Kylie.

See that mischievous look in her eye...this was right before she...

kicked a whole bunch of water on me.

There was a little tide pool forming here. I love this shot.

She found a few more larger tide pools.

Kylie had a meltdown on the trek back to the house. When we got home she had finally stopped crying. I gave her two baths (one to wash off the sand, then clean the bathtub, and another bath to wash her body and hair). As I washed off in my shower, Kylie was banging on my shower door telling me she was starving and thirsty. I was completely tired and discouraged thinking, "Why the heck do we go to the ocean when we both feel tired and grumpy when we get back?"

Then I look at my photographs. I can feel her joy when I look at them. I can remember how much fun I had shooting over 100 pictures. I can remember how I put the camera down and chased her up and down the beach. And how we waded out and jumped the waves, sometimes with her holding my hand and sometimes with her in my arms. I think about how we both smile the whole time we are there. It's worth it. At the end of the day, I feel so lucky to live close to the ocean.

The things Kylie says

2011-09-25T18:23:00.000-04:00

I made a point to write down some of the things Kylie said this week. Here’s a small sample:

Make the “hang loose” sign with your hand. Now put it up to your ear—it’s a telephone!

I want to learn to throw a strawberry in the air and catch it in my mouth.

I love my family more than anything else.

Dear God, thank you for my stuffed animals. I love them all.

When a vampire is scared, he turns himself into a bat so he can be protected.
(She said the boys at the playground talked about vampires and bats).

A volcano spits out lava, fire and smoke. There are a lot of volcanoes in Hawaii. I don’t want to go there because I don’t want to get burned.

I have something important to tell you. A boy on the playground pointed his finger at me and shot me and said “Fire, fire, fire”. I ran away from him; I told him to stop. He kept doing it and I didn’t want him to shoot me. I’m going to try to play nice with him tomorrow so that maybe he won’t shoot anyone. After talking about the “shooting”, she said, “Telling bad stuff to you makes it better.”

I did two new things today even though I was scared. Actually I was excited. I counted pumpkin erasers with a new friend. And I did an earth puzzle. My friend left the earth puzzle but I stayed and finished it and did the coloring sheet for my folder so that I could show it to you.

I’m not covering up my artwork so that you can’t see it. I just like laying on the table like this.

Today at school, I matched the entire alphabet with an object.

Dear God, Please tell Mommy to take me back to Build-a-Bear. I want the purple bear with swirls. Dear God, you tell her because I don’t want to be annoying.

{this moment} 09/22/11

2011-09-23T07:36:00.001-04:00

{this moment} - a Friday ritual. Some photos capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Kylie laughing as I shouted, "Hey! You're cheating!" when she picked up the cards from our Spot It game. Cracked her up.

This moment posts are inspired by SouleMama's Friday posts

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Segregation

2011-09-22T09:34:00.000-04:00

This is new. There is segregation in her bathtub. Boys on the left and girls on the right. My girl likes to sort and organize.

Project Life -week 3 & 4

2011-09-20T11:28:00.001-04:00

Week of 9/5 - 9/11 starts out with the story I blogged about perfection. I used Ali Edwards Remember Outline Word Overlays.

On the back was a counting worksheet from school. I love how Kylie repeated her color pattern here.

Then the pictures of Kylie on the tires. I used two cards from the Project Life kit--one date card and one pretty little art card.

On the back are pictures of Karen's parents' visit. I blanked out names on the photo. The sun and fish stitches are from this digital template that I had in my stash. I used a long Project Life journaler to write about their stay with us. I still feel a bit awkward using my own handwriting for scrapbooking but I liked how I tucked the story in a small space and can pull the card out and read it in the future. I downloaded a ten-year 9/11 graphic from online because it felt weird to not acknowledge it in some way. The bit of writing on the photo in the lower left corner is from this brush pack.

Then on a 12 x 12 sheet of white cardstock, I glued one of Kylie's artwork pieces. I liked this one because she drew a butterfly life cycle with a caterpillar in the right corner, a cocoon in the tree and then the red butterfly in the sky. I included a bit of journaling and used a stamp I bought from my local craft store to create the journal lines.

On the back, I glued a school worksheet about ants that Kylie colored and a small booklet that Kylie created (lots of cutting practice) from her Highlights magazine. Thanks Granna for the Highlights! Kylie really loves getting them in the mail and she just pours over them.

I love that I had a pile of about 12-20 different art things from the week but that I pick just a few to put in her scrapbook. It really helps take the pressure off what to do with all that stuff that piles up during the week!

Week 9/12 - 9/18 includes more family pictures and another Project Life date card. I used a small picture of the hotel they stayed at along with check-in and check-out dates. I really use my scrapbooking to remember important dates so I always try to get those dates on my pages. Karen and I were laughing last week that she remembers her folks visiting us in Virginia last year. For some strange reason, I don't have any pictures of their visit. No pictures meant no scrapbook page which meant I didn't remember it at all. I put up a fight that Karen was wrong and that they hadn't come. Karen was right of course...they had come and when she told me details of it I finally remembered. But it just goes to show me how much I rely on pictures and scrapbook pages to remember things.

On the back are a few pictures you haven't seen. Kylie got to work in the edible garden at her school. The little journal card describes how she got to plant something and water it with a yellow watering can. The journaling also describes how I downloaded the garden and friend picture from the school's Facebook page. The upper right picture of Kylie waiting at school drop-off has the word explore printed around it. I used this brush pack and this digital cutie pie tag. Karen and I saw a movie on Saturday so I did a little write-up about that and used some elements from this digital kit that I had in my stash. I love that I now have a place to put movie stubs. I think it will be cool in the future to look back to remember how much movie tickets cost.

The work from Kylie's school the week was pretty simple--just some poking and gluing.

And on the back, some completed pretend grocery sheets that Kylie played with at home and a little journaling about how she played with them.

So that's it! Two more weeks of Project Life!

Artwork

2011-09-16T12:01:00.000-04:00

Kylie had a big time doling out which stickers I could use and instructing me on where to put everything. But it's funny that when I let her bossy side go wild for a bit, she's far less bossy for the rest of the day.

Kiddo did marble painting last week at school and begged me for days to get her some marbles so she could do it again at home. She was so tickled when I brought home marbles. We had a blissfully quiet hour while she worked on her marble painting.

I look forward to getting her school work today. She brings it home in a green folder on Fridays.

Hope all of you have a fantastic weekend!

Karen's Parents

2011-09-15T17:15:00.000-04:00

Karen's parents stayed with us for a few days. This was their first visit to our Florida home. We all had a wonderful time. We wish they could have stayed longer!

Scrapbook pages

2011-09-14T18:30:00.000-04:00

In addition to my Project Life scrapbooking, I'm also working on catching up on my digital scrapbooking. Here are a few recent pages. Click on the pictures for details.

Clever

2011-09-12T19:10:00.000-04:00

Kylie traced her dolls on pieces of paper and then colored her drawings. Pretty clever!

And if you thought these looked like crime scene sketches...you read a lot of mysteries...just like me.

Perfection

2011-09-11T16:00:00.001-04:00

Perfection has been on my mind this week.

On Tuesday, when I picked Kylie up from school, she told me that she had worked a lot on a particular drawing but then she had made a mistake on it and thrown it away.

This bothered me. But I had a hard time wrapping my thoughts around why it bothered me. I think I said something like, "All your work means something to me, Kylie. I like to see how you are learning. I like to see all of your artwork even when you think there is a mistake." Kylie shrugged and I didn't blame her. It was a pretty wordy response.

That afternoon, we went to the park and Kylie played on these tires. If she fell off a tire, she would go back to the "beginning" and start over. Then she came to one tire that was a big leap for her. She just couldn't quite get it. Instead of moving on, she kept starting at the beginning. She would get to the same tire, fall off, and start at the beginning. Again and again. On one hand I thought, "Well, she is gaining confidence by walking across the tires she knows she can do and then is using that confidence to try this harder one".

She kept trying again and again and was getting so frustrated with herself. I suggested that when she fell off the one troublesome tire that she get back on the previous one and try for that one tire again. Just that one. I offered to help by giving her hand to balance.

She wasn't having it. She kept starting at the beginning, over and over.

"Strong-willed", I thought. "Determined."

But again there was something about it that bothered me. It was confirmed that after an hour of watching her play at only the tires, I told her it was time to go home.

Meltdown. Huge meltdown.

She only calmed down when I told her we could come back to the park tomorrow.

The next morning after breakfast and before school, she threw away three of her drawings. And as soon as I picked her up from school she said, "I want to go to the park. You said I could."

So we went back to the park and she walked right up to the tires again.

She kept trying again and again, each time starting over at the beginning. She was getting really frustrated. And it was making me anxious too. So I started telling her jokes, getting her to laugh at me and lured her away to another part of the playground. When she asked me, "When will I be able to do all the tires?" I told her "It just takes time and practice. You'll get it. And remember, the tires and the playground are here for you to have fun."

After pondering it all week, this is what I think. I think she might be experiencing "fish out of water" feelings with her first weeks at school. She has three new teachers and she has to make new friends because her two best friends moved away. I imagine she might feel bewildered and nervous. So when she sees something she can "master" she grabs it with all her might.

I think her "perfectionism" made me nervous because I can see myself in her. And I worry, "Have I done this to her somehow?" I don't think I have but I still worry about it. There have been times this week when I thought, "Wow. A "Tiger Mom" would love this. She's not going to quit until she does it perfectly." But then I think, "She can't do it perfectly. There is no "perfect"; it doesn't really exist."

I let it simmer in the back of my brain even more and finally hit bottom with this thought: I'm afraid that if she continues to drive herself this hard without taking time to acknowledge her progress or to take the time to see beauty in her work, that she will feel like a failure. I think it's far too easy to say to one's self, I've failed and to quickly make the jump to "I'm a failure."

Now, do I honestly think my four-year-old is going to make this leap of logic. Nope.

But I have been saying things like,
"Life is messy and full of mistakes. And life is awesome, sweetheart." and
"It's a process of experimenting and learning. You learned that magic marker colors run together (which she didn't want and threw her picture away) but that crayons don't run together."
"Your picture is very nice. Did you have fun coloring it?"
and so forth.

I also lightened up and let her throw away as many pictures as she wanted to. I stopped making any sort of fuss.

Sigh. It was one of those weeks where she taught me as much I taught her.

Project Life

2011-09-08T19:51:00.001-04:00

I've found a new way to scrapbook. It's called Project Life and I'm so excited about it. I love digital scrapbooking and I plan on making lots more digital pages. But I'm scrapping events from April 2010; I'm about 16 months behind. So I thought it would be fun to scrapbook Kylie's 2011 school year as each week goes by using the Project Life method and using Ali Edwards' pages as inspiration.

The Project Life album and supplies for 2011 should be available in October/November. I didn't want to wait, so I bought last year's kit off Ebay. If you are interested, you can buy a binder and page protectors here.

Project Life- Week 1

This page shows the page setup that I prefer with room for 4 4x6 horizontal pictures and room for 4 other small pictures or cards or whatever. For the smaller pictures, I simply create a 4x6 photo in Photoshop and load the two pictures I want. After the picture is printed, I simply cut it in half and tuck it into the sleeves. Easy Peasy. This page documents our recent zoo trip including the armband we purchased to get into the stingray exhibit. The journaling overlay is from this story pack from Ali Edwards.

Pictures and journaling about Kylie's first day of school. The writing is from this brush pack.

Then on a simple 8 1/2 x 11 sheet protector, I tucked in the schedule of Kylie's day that we were given.

For the back, on another sheet of paper, I put two of Kylie's recent sticker puzzles as well as a note. I used a simple journaling stamp with ink that I bought at my local craft store. Then there is another letter-sized sheet protector with some of Kylie's artwork from her first week (both front and back).

Since the first two pages were about 2 specific days, for the third page I used one of the Project Life week cards to signify that the rest of the pictures were for the week 8/22. I journaled a bit about Kylie seeing her first rainbow and about Kylie finding the free sugar cookies at the grocery store. I did the journaling in Photoshop but in the future, I'll use one of the Project Life journaling cards.

For the second week, the week of 8/29, I used another Project Life week cards and bunches of pictures of Kylie.

I had a lot I wanted to write about these pictures, so I created the letter-sized document.

And on the back, I put some of Kylie's arwork. On the other page, I included pictures and journaling about Kylie and the waterslides, a quick trip we made to the beach and how snuggling Kylie is when she wakes up from a nap. The "favorite moments" script is from this brush pack.

The next page was all about Granna's recent visit. On the facing page, I'll include the digital page about our beach trip once it is printed. The artwork on the next page will flip over to the back of that page.

Poking exercises and artwork Kylie brought home from school.

These last two pages show some work Kylie has done at home. The journaling explains how Kylie will ask me or Karen to write out different sayings for her like "Kylie's book about mermaids and princesses." Kylie takes it and reprints it on her own paper, making little books.

This back page has Kylie's pretend restaurant juice menu complete with juice pictures on the inside.

So there you have it! My first two weeks of Project Life! I know a lot of this is repetitive of some of my blog entries. I don't want to bore you. So let me know if you are at all interested in seeing each week's Project Life scrapbook pages. And feel free to ask questions because heaven knows I love passing on the scrapbooking bug.

Triathlete- August 2011

2011-09-07T12:14:00.001-04:00

Hi folks! It's time for another triathlete post.

The big news this month was the two IKKOS swim training sessions that rocked my world. Let me explain. For months my swim coach has been demonstrating the swimmer's "high elbow catch" to me. I would understand what he was saying but I couldn't really do it in the water. But then I got to watch a perfect high elbow catch in super slow motion through completely cool video goggles as part of the IKKOS training system. As I watched it over and over, I was basically training by brain on what to do. Then I got in the pool and did it. I was blown away at how quickly I improved. My coaches took an underwater video of my swimming before the IKKOS training and then after. And basically, it looked similar to this.

It was pretty trippy to see myself in the underwater video. I didn't look as sloppy and out of control as I thought I would. As my coach ran the tape forward and back, we talked about how I improved and other areas of improvement. The best part is that I did the first IKKOS training on August 11th and I've been able to maintain the better stroke all month. It really is revolutionary training and I'm blessed that I was able to do it. Poor Karen has heard me raving about how awesome it was all month. Especially after I had my second session on the freestyle kick on August 24. Karen really is a saint putting up with me talking excitedly for hours on end about swimming, biking and running.

Swim
9 practice sessions with my coach (2 of those IKKOS) and 2 practices on my own. The other huge win on swimming this month is that I went from swimming a maximum of 100 yards freestyle (4 laps of the pool) to swimming 450. On August 30th my coach leaned down to me in the pool and said, "I know you can do this. Just don't freak out and keep swimming." And I did it, I swam those 18 laps (1/4 mile) in 10:56:45. And as I drove home, I cried big ole buckets of proud tears.

It truly was a dream come true.

For my next practice, my coach took my total yards from around 850 to 1250. He smiled and said, "You are ready to take it to a new level." I left that practice shaky and winded but so happy.

So the swim has been the big winner of the month. Here's my other training.

Bike
24.68 miles in 1:39 14.9 average mph/ 18.1 max
15.25 miles in 1:04. 14.2 average mph/ 17.0 max
11.12 miles in 45:48. 14.5 average mph/ 17.3 max
24.21 miles in 1:41. 14.2 average mph/ 16.9 max
10.36 miles in 44:41. 13.9 average mph/ 17.7 max
4 Spin classes

Run
Tempo Run
5 miles in 45:52. 9:10 pace
5 miles in 43:30. 8:42 pace
5 miles in 45:41. 8:42 pace
5 miles. Stopwatch ran out of batteries.

Long Run
13 miles in 2:10. 10:00 pace
13 miles in 2:05. 9:39 pace
12 miles in 1:56. 9:40 pace
10 miles in 1:37. 9:42 pace

Strength train
I'm enjoying my strength training classes at Atlantic Beach Performance. I love the variety, the class atmosphere and the music. I got in 5 classes for the month and one additional strength training session on my own at my regular gym.

Weight.
The last time I posted about my weight was on June 2nd in the May triathlete summary. How did you guys let me get away with that? I was 116 in May. I'm pretty sure I was 117 in July and now I'm at 118. So two pounds have crept back on. I would love to say that the 118 is more muscle than fat but the truth is I just don't know if that's true. I'm back to tracking my meals and exercise in LoseIt. I don't have a goal of getting back to 116. I just want to sharpen up on what I'm eating and burning and try to make my calories the most nutritious I can.

Overall I worked out 23 days and had 8 days off.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to comment. Comment mean the world to me.

July 2011 summary
June 2011 summary
May 2011 summary
April 2011 summary
March 2011 summary
February 2011 summary
January 2011 summary
December 2010 summary

Goal: Triathlon in 2012- initial post from December 2010
One Little Word: Triathlete post

Weekend with Granna

2011-09-06T19:18:00.000-04:00

My mom came to spend a few days with us over the Labor Day weekend.

We had a blast at the beach,

We saw "Born to be Wild" at the IMAX theater. It was Kylie's first IMAX and 3D movie.

We ate in at our house and ate out...

We had a marvelous time!

School

2011-09-02T10:06:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture of Kylie and I waiting in the drop-off line. Kylie has been so forthcoming in sharing about her school day. Here are some notes I made for each day. She's so happy to be back at her Montessori school.

Monday
Kylie experienced the scent bottles; mint was her favorite.
Played with the screwdriver table.
Did some sort of bubble exercise.

Tuesday
Kylie liked the book "Recess Queen" by O'Neil and Huliska-Beith that the teacher read aloud.
Kylie worked at the art center- poking and coloring.
During playground time, she played in the sandbox.
After lunch she is responsible for cleaning her area of her table with a sponge. When she leaves the table, she always pushes her chair back under the table.

Wednesday
She saw her neighbor/friend Lily during the fire drill. (Lily is in 2nd grade).
She decided to eat the school snack today which was blueberries, wheat thins and pretzels.
She ate lunch with her 2nd favorite boy, Matthew. (Ian is her favorite boy).
She got to play with Emma during 1st playground time. They played Tag and Fairies.

Thursday.
She stayed at the art center; mostly doing cutting exercises.
The teacher read Goldilocks and the Three Little Bears in English and Spanish.
And here is a video of the Spanish song she learned to sing.
Como te llamas tu? or What's your name?

We are excited that my mom is coming to visit for a few days. I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend. Here's one last picture of the kiddo!

Mornings

2011-08-31T08:53:00.000-04:00

Kylie wakes up at 6:00am every morning. She does a great job of turning on some lights and occupying herself. I get up at 6:30 and after getting dressed, I leave my bedroom at 6:45 to see what the munchkin is up to.

Some mornings, I'm greeted with an elaborately dressed little girl who is in the midst of pretend play.

Other mornings, Kylie is engrossed in some craft involving her foam stickers.

Every morning is different and every morning is a creative adventure.

Water Slide

2011-08-29T19:16:00.002-04:00

We've been going to Adventure Landing Water Park off intermittently all Spring and Summer. Kylie mostly likes to play in the wave pool. She would walk through the Pirate Ship (pictured below) with its jetting water everywhere just enough to get my head soaked and wash away any sunscreen. Then she would be done and move on. I could not entice her to try any of the water slides.

But today the wave pool was closed. She hemmed and hawed about trying a water slide. So I simply swept her up, plopped her on one of the yellow-green slides and pushed her.

Luckily for me, she loved it.

I was able to sit on a pool chair with my feet dangling in the cold water while little bit climbed these 6 stairs and went down these slides for about two hours.

Going down the slides was easy. Getting past this torrential waterfall was trickier.

She did belly slides at the slide at the base of the ship.

She loved the red slide

and even tried the bigger yellow slide twice. She bonked her head on the side of the slide the second time and didn't want to try it again.

The only downside to the afternoon was that Kylie decided to check out the opposite side of the Pirate Ship without me. I saw her make a dash for it and went tearing after her but quickly lost her. This is the part of the pirate ship that I don't like. There are lots of interesting alcoves to explore and you can "exit" the ship in all four directions. And two different directions can lead you out of the park. I ran up to the very top of the thing and looked down for five breathless minutes until I spotted her. I told her to "Stop there wait for me!" (which luckily she did). We sat and had a chat about how Mommy gets scared when I can't see her and about stranger danger. Then we went on to playing.

All in all, it was a great afternoon and I was tickled to see the munchkin finally have fun on those slides!

{this moment} 08/26/11

2011-08-26T12:42:00.000-04:00

{this moment} - a Friday ritual. Some photos capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Kylie has discovered that our grocery store bakery gives away free sugar cookies to little ones. Grocery shopping may never be the same again.

This moment posts are inspired by SouleMama's Friday posts

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

First day of school

2011-08-23T19:20:00.000-04:00

I think Karen and I were just as excited as Kylie for her first day at school. I loved snapping a bunch of photos before we left home.

Sweet pea picked up some fallen flowers for Momma and I.

I simply had to take a few more photos as we waited at drop-off.

When I picked her up, Kylie said she had lunch with a "very sweet brown-haired girl". Today Kylie learned to insert her straw in her Capri Sun juice box by herself (she had to demonstrate again when she got home). She mentioned that Ms. Kirby worked with the 4-year olds and that she read them a story with a panda on the cover and an eagle on the inside. Kylie stated that she did some sorting practical life work. She explained that the snack today was carrots, grapes, crackers and water but that she was too busy for a snack. She said she didn't do any work with a mat during school and that she played in the sandbox during playground time.

This was a large amount of sharing for Kylie; last year she would usually grunt and say, "I'm not ready to share yet" when I asked her about her day. Thanks for sharing Kylie! We appreciate it!

Here are her new teachers.

Ms. Kirby

Ms. Elizabeth

and Ms. Valery

Zoo trip before school

2011-08-22T19:51:00.000-04:00

Here in Jacksonville Florida, kids started back to school. Kylie had a 20-minute, meet-the-teachers event this afternoon. I plan to post more about that tomorrow or the next day. I had purposefully planned to take Kylie to the zoo this morning. It was wonderfully bare of people and it seemed like we had the zoo all to ourselves. We were there about two hours until we were ready to wilt from the heat.

This "groovy chic" picture cracks me up.

The dinosaur exhibit has moved on to another zoo but the stingrays were back.

I've had several folks tell me how tall Kylie has looked in the last few days. I couldn't agree more. She's shooting up all of a sudden.

Monkey Bars

2011-08-21T14:02:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Kylie crossed the monkey bars! It was her first time all by herself.

She did this at a newly-found park.

Swimming and artwork

2011-08-18T19:06:00.000-04:00

Kylie and I have been making up some swim classes for the past three days. It seems like all we've both done is swim, swim, swim. Even though I grumble just a bit sitting by the side of the pool in 93 degree temps, it's all worth it when I see her swim like she does in these two videos.

Her swim coach has been the best. She combines the perfect amount of instruction and discipline with fun and play. I usually have to have one very short talk with Kylie during her lesson to remind her to not splash her coach nor to "go" before her coach says to go. I feel like it's my job to make sure that she shows the proper respect for her coach and to help bring Kylie back to her best behavior for her lesson. Usually I make this one reminder in my "mom voice" kneeling at eye level by the side of the pool. It is usually all Kylie needs to get back on track.

In this first video, Kylie swims to a pool weight, bobs up for breath and dives down to get the weight. She loves to dive for pool weights and would do it for hours if we let her. She does a couple of side breaths in this swim.

On this second video, she swims a lap--25 yards. She was getting tired by the time we filmed this and she opted to do back floats instead of side breathing which is perfectly appropriate for her age.

I'm so incredibly proud of my little swimmer.

I have a pile of Kylie's artwork sitting here by my scanner. Hopefully I'll get to it this weekend and show you a couple of nice drawings she has made. Until then, here are a few of my recent scrapbook pages. You can click on the picture for the credits.

Here's a page with pictures and memories of Kylie swimming in April 2010.

I call this one Blurry but Beautiful.

Beach

2011-08-15T12:11:00.000-04:00

It's been too long since Kylie and I had a morning at the beach! We got up early Saturday and were at the ocean as the sun came up.

Kylie tried to catch some fish with her net.

She played with her boat

and her rolling, floating turtle. She would fill it up with water and then fling it.

Then it was time to get serious and do some body surfing. She started by sitting in the sand and have the waves lift and twirl her around.

After a while she was ready for deeper water and some excellent surfing.

I'm so proud of my little swimmer! She loved it!

See the boat in the distance on this picture. It's part of our beach re-nourishment project. They dredge up sand off the ocean floor and pump it back to the beach. It's a project done by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Beach renourishment occurs about every five to six years to maintain our beaches. The project is scheduled to place approximately 735,000 cubic yards of sand along a total of about six miles of shoreline. They were working on our section of the beach on Saturday and it was a very cool endeavor to watch.

After about 2 1/2 hours, kiddo started winding down and we made our way home.

It was a great day at the ocean.

Science week

2011-08-06T19:53:00.000-04:00

It was science week at Kylie's school this past week. The focus was on experiments. I was impressed with two of the simple experiments they did. The first is pictured above. Kylie took an empty juice bottle to school. She got to fill it with water and then change the color of the water with food coloring. Then the teacher poured in some type of oil. The kiddo thought the oil would mix like the food coloring did and was intrigued when the oil kept floating to the top. Pretty cool experiment!

The second experiment was very simple. Each child got a black piece of construction paper. They they got to pick out a toy. Kylie picked out a plastic pizza slice. The kids put the toy on the construction paper outside in the sunshine first thing in the morning. Before lunch, they took the paper and toy back inside. The background of the paper had faded while the toy shape stayed the darker black. They called it "sun prints".

Friday was science show-and-tell day. I told Kylie she could either take her Alex Toys Shrinky Dinks Kit, Jewelry and show the what the shrinky dink looks like before it is baked and then after. Or she could take some of her Dinosaur Magic Capsules. After much deliberation, she chose the magic capsules. When I picked her up on Friday she proudly announced "I had the coolest show and tell of all the kids!"

Score Mommy!

Right now

2011-08-03T05:46:00.002-04:00

Right now I'm...
Loving how often Karen, Kylie and I dance together.

Grateful to all my blog readers and commenters for your words of support. You mean the world to me and your encouragement lifts me more than I can say.

Watching WordWorld with Kylie before bedtime. We just found this show via Netflix and Kylie loves it.

Watching Downtown Abbey at night via iTunes and Apple TV.

Listening to a fantastic audiobook series--Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor.

Bemused by how Kylie says "Don't look at it!" with regards to her artwork. When I pick her up from school or when she draws in the car or when I look over her shoulder at her art table at home, it's always the same, "Don't look at it!" She wants it completed and then she wants me to sit on our couch while she proudly displays the finished artwork to me. At first all the suspense and fuss was charming. Now it's getting a bit old.

Looking forward to starting back to Kylie's regular school on August 22nd. Kylie has picked up a few bad habits from her friends at summer school but I'm confident that we will be back on track once regular school begins.

Astonished at how Kylie is now in "Girls" clothes (size 4 or 5) instead of "Toddler" clothes. Makes me shake my head in bewilderment and ask Karen, "How did that happen so fast?"

Admiring Kylie's joyful approach to life. Here's a video where she is so happy that she just has to sing a little Good Morning song.

Scrapping when I can make the time.

Here's to all of our everyday and treasured moments!

Triathlete- July 2011 Overcoming adversity

2011-08-02T10:47:00.000-04:00

“You should be biking faster than you are; you must be doing something wrong.
You certainly aren’t biking as much as you need to.
And you aren’t clipping in to the bike? Well, that’s just crazy.
You are just now swimming 100 yards without stopping? After all your practicing, that’s it? You should be farther along in your swimming than this by now.”

These words and more came from a trusted advisor at the start of July. Hearing this triathlete, this woman I admire, speak of my efforts with such scorn just wrecked me. I felt so old. So slow. So incompetent. And so foolish.

I came home and ranted to Karen for an hour. After the rant, there were shaky tears. For the first time in 6 months, I seriously considered giving it all up.

When I was calmer, Karen asked what I wanted to do. I laughed and said, “I want to give her a ticket! The way a traffic cop gives a ticket. I want her to pay a fine. I want her to know that it is not ok to speak to me or anyone else like that!” The entire month of July, I wanted to give her a ticket. I composed speeches in my head that I wanted to say to her. Her harsh words hurt a lot and it took me a while to heal from them.

It's the first time since I started this journey that I've had someone say, "I don't think you can do it." But now, at the start of August, I can wholeheartedly say "Yes. I can."

When I’m facing a struggle and trying to overcome adversity, I look for the truth. My search for the truth starts with data. So I looked up sprint triathlon results from a ton of races from the past three years. With all that data, I created a time-based goal for my first triathlon. In searching bike statistics, I saw that 14mph is the average speed for most beginners on the bike. I am not “too slow”; I’m right where most beginners are. I need to be around 17-18 mph and I confident that in time I will get there. Same with my swimming. And I'm actually ahead on my running.

After crunching mountains of data, I felt calmer. And from my calmer space, I found these truths. Triathlons are filled with more “elite” athletes than “average” people like me. But I still want to train for and complete a triathlon. I love the training. I love facing my fears every time I get in the pool or on the bike. It’s hard to feel scared so much of the time but it is exhilarating too. I feel physically and mentally stronger as each month goes by. I love working out in all three sports. I’m so damn proud of my small triumphs.

What’s true is that I’m intimidated by some of the elite athletes that I bump into. I have no desire to train with them or hang out with them. I would rather hang out with the people who are at the start of their weight-loss and get-fit journey. When I’m running down the street and I see someone who is overweight and slogging through a 12-minute mile, I want to give them a high-five and tell them that they are fantastic and that it does get easier. Because I know how much courage it takes just to get out the door and exercise.

I guess I still identify with Biggest Loser contestants who look so amazed at how far they’ve come. I feel that way too. Like a former fat girl who is out there giving it her all. So I don’t care if it takes me one year to feel ready to do a triathlon or 2 or 3 years. I will keep on training and I will do my triathlon when I know I’m ready.

With that said, here are the stats for July.

July
For the month, I worked out 23 days and had 8 days off.

Swim
8 swim practices all with my coach. Here were my favorite practices for the month. If you don’t swim laps, this might look like blah x numbers = more blah but I just loved these practices and wanted to share them here.

7/13 Swim. Warmup 100free, 50 kickboard. Then same with fins. Then 8 25s, 4 50s, 2 100. Then 4 100s w fins. Total 900+400 fins = 1300 yards

7/15. Swim. Best set ever! 10min warmup. Then 3 100s, 6 50's, 8 25's. First with fins then without. First time I've done 3 100's! 800 + 800 with fins = 1600.

7/20 Swim. Warmup. Then 6 75's with kickboard and fins (50 regular, 25 fast). Then 2 25s, 1 50, 8 25s, 1 100. Then the same with fins. Then same again without fins. 800 + 850 with fins = 1650

7/26 Swim. Warmup. 4x50’s with kickboard and fins. 4x50 with buoy (work on stroke and right-side breathing). Then 100 (75free, 25 breast), 2 x 50 (10 second rest), 100, 1 x 50 fast (54 – 58 seconds). Do that set twice. 700 + 400 with fins/buoy = 1100

7/28 swim. Warmup was 50 free then 25 kickboard (no fins) four times. Then fins on and 8x25, 4x50, 2x100 kicking with kickboard. Then 2x100, 4x50, 8x25 with fins swimming. 1200 with fins + 400 = 1600. Last thing was timed 100 freestyle. Did it in 24, 28, 32, 34 seconds for a total of 1:58. First time to swim 100 under 2 minutes.

Bike
10 miles in 47 minutes. 13mph average, 16.9 max
13.5 miles in 1 hour. 13mph average, 17.6 max
24 miles in 1:43. 14mph average, 17.3 max
10.4 miles in 45 minutes. 13.9mph average, 17.5 max
10 miles in 45 minutes. 13.5mph average, 17.8 max
25 miles in 1:43. 14.5mph average, 17.9 max. This ride is my personal best.
Plus 4 spin classes.

Run
Tempo run or off-the-bike runs
3 miles in 27 minutes. 9:00 pace
3.25 miles in 28:03. 8:60 pace
2.5 miles to warmup before strength training. No time.
6.5 miles in 1:00 9:23 pace

Long Run
13 miles in 2:09. 9:92 pace
10 miles in 1:41. 10:00 pace
9 miles in 1:27. 9:66 pace
13 miles in 2:11. 10:07 pace

Strength Training
I had two sessions with Joy. I’m utilizing a free month at Karen’s gym. I did 2 of their Performance/Strength workouts and I just loved them.

I’m impressed you made it through this L-O-N-G post. Please leave a comment. Comments mean the world to me.

June 2011 summary
May 2011 summary
April 2011 summary
March 2011 summary
February 2011 summary
January 2011 summary
December 2010 summary

Goal: Triathlon in 2012- initial post from December 2010
One Little Word: Triathlete post