A metal medal!

Today we ran the Foot Traffic Flat 1/2 Marathon.  It is a great local race.  Last year was our first year running it, and it ended with a very big disappointment for me.  See this post if you don't remember.  But this year's race had a happy ending as far as medals go.

No race would be complete without the traditional night-before bib pinning and posing for pictures.

 I bought my sweet USA outfit at the Olympic Trials last weekend.

 As far as the actual race went, Mark had a fantastic day.  He gave it his all and finished the 1/2 marathon in 1:27:45!  If you care, that is a 6:42-per-mile average pace.  He is on track for a sub-3-hour marathon this fall.

Joel ran the 5k in 25:28.  Noah's first race ever was amazing.  He never stopped running and ended up finishing in 28:29.  Not bad for a kid who just turned 11 and trained 1.5 miles a day 3 times a week for the past month.

My day was not the best.  I had a really great first 1/2 of the 1/2.  I was on track for a 2:05 PR.  But at mile 6 my left IT band flared up as it did in Seattle 11 days ago.  I ran as much as I could, but had to walk from time to time to give my knee some relief.  It was so sad to have plenty of energy and strength to keep running but to not have a functional knee to allow me to do my best.  I sucked it up as much as I could and finished with a 2:23.  Not my best, not my worst.  Now it is time to let it heal.  If you need me I will be aqua-jogging at the pool for the rest of the summer.

But the good news of the day is that this year the race awarded medals made out of---metal!  No cardboard; no recycled bicycle chains.

I gathered all of my courage to run through the pain for the last mile, and as I sprinted across the finish line and received my medal I decided it had all been worth it.
 
The medal met all of my requirements for a medal:
1-It is made of metal
2-It is shiny
3-It is heavy
4-It is waterproof

No matter what my time was, I finished my 9th half marathon in 3 years, and I have a beautiful strawberry medal to add to my collection.

 That's what I'm talking about.

OLYMPIC TRIALS

Mark and I took a trip to Hayward Field in Eugene on Saturday. Months ago we purchased our tickets to the Usatf Olympic Trials. It was money well spent. I cannot begin to describe how awesome it was.

We were it section T, which just happened to be the best spot in the entire place. The field events were right in front of us, and the finish line for the races was just to our left. Best of all, the awards podium was in the stands exactly 4 feet behind us. When each group of winners left the track from their victory laps, the walked right in front of us and up the steps to the podium!

The womens high jump was so exciting. It was literally right in front of us. We had a close-up of the whole thing!  Seriously, I saw Chante Lowe do this right before my very eyes.
Even more amazing than this feat of jumping 6'7" was her awesome dance moves to celebrate each successful jump.  And then to completely dazzle everyone, after she had won the event she went to the side of the track and picked up her two little kids--one a baby!--and walked them around the track with her on her victory lap.  This lady is incredible!

We will be back in 4 years--for more than one day. It was just so amazing.  And when we go next time we will buy exactly the same seats we had for this occasion.   Who wants to come with us?

My week at camp

I just got back from the best week of Girls Camp ever.  The weather wasn't fantastic, but we still had fun and I loved every minute.  My friend Karlee Jean was the camp photographer and took this shot of Aubrey and me, and also the picture below.

My job at camp was to run rafts down the river every day.  That's it.  It is the best gig of all.  Thank goodness I have rafting skills!  I give the girls a river safety lesson to teach them how to paddle and what to do (and to NOT do) if they get thrown out of the raft.  And then we go for a ride down the beautiful river.  I absolutely love commanding a raft.  My dream job would be to spend each day as a rafting guide.  It is my favorite thing to do.  I love it when I hit a hole perfectly and hear the girls scream.  Rafting at camp couldn't happen without the awesome camp dads who transport our rafts and girls up the river.  I love that they send us off with a splash!  The squealing girls make it just awesome.When I'm not on the river or scaring girls about what could happen if their foot gets stuck between rocks at the bottom of the river, I get to wander around camp and visit girls.  

 Each morning at camp a group of leaders and girls go walking or running.  I usually stay back and walk with the younger girls.  On our first morning walk this year, I spied this very odd yard decoration.

I started freaking out!  It was a tar baby!  Just like in the story my dad told me at bedtime throughout my childhood, and the story my kids always request when we visit my dad.  The girls I was with had never heard of Br'er Rabbit or Br'er Fox or the Tar Baby, so I told them the story.  They loved it, and I told them more Uncle Remus stories every morning for an hour while we took our walk.  When I ran out of Br'er Fox stories I had to move onto other stories, such as The Five Chinese Brothers and The Fisherman and His Wife.  The girls had never heard any of these, which made it very fun for me to be the first one to tell them.  Every morning after we found the Tar Baby I would make the girls say "GOOD MORNING! to it.   I'm not sure if the people who live in this house intended to have a Tar Baby decoration in their yard, but I have no idea what else they might think it is!

One thing I dread every year at camp is the night I am to be involved in a skit.  I don't do skits.  I feel totally stupid acting out anything.  I can't even play charades.  This year someone came up with a brilliant idea for the stake leaders skit.  We came up with six scenarios involving Stake leaders, and then we had girls from the audience come up and choose one of us to imitate in the skit.  We sat back and watched as the girls totally made fun of us in different situations.  When someone was acting like me it involved rafting, singing, sharing baked goods and identifying birds.  It really was the best skit ever to sit back and watch the girls pick out each of our eccentricities.  I hope it is our new tradition!


It was fun to be at camp for the week.  The kids at home survived without me once again.  I look forward to camp every year, and I can't wait to see what next summer brings.

A race adventure in Seattle

We went to Seattle on Friday morning for an overnight trip for a half marathon.  We spent Friday afternoon at the Rock 'n Roll Seattle race expo.  The kids won prizes, stocked up on the giveaways from each of the vendor booths, and had a lot of fun just roaming around.  Aubrey, Savvy and I each bought a new Sweaty Bands headbands that are so cute.

After the expo we headed to our hotel and checked in.  Next we walked across the street to Whole Foods to get some dinner.  We have learned that the night before a race you don't even try to find a seat in an Italian restaurant.  It is best to either get take-out spaghetti or to find another option entirely.  Whole Foods is perfect.

We got an amazing surprise when we got to Whole Foods.  There was a sign at the front of the store saying that Fabio was going to be there....June 22nd....4:30-8:30 PM.  I was stunned to realize that we had walked into the place exactly when Fabio was there.  My kids were freaking out.  If you have not seen Fabio on the episodes of Ned's Declassified then you are missing out.  This is what my kids know of Fabio--that he was in one episode of Ned's and also a couple of episodes of Big Time Rush.  And now they all know that he is quite handy in the kitchen!

So we snapped some stealthy pictures of Fabio promoting his new whey protein powder.    Noah said that was the best birthday EVER because he got to talk to Fabio.

We were in a hotel near the Space Needle starting line (and finish line).  After a birthday celebration for Noah, we hit the sack to be ready to wake up early for the race.   But first we had to do our traditional bib-pinning and arm-swishing.

Race morning we walked to the start line, and later Aubrey brought Savvy, Noah and Zack to the finish line to watch the runners finish.  I loved having a little cheering section just before the finish line.

Mark and I ran this race as a training run for the 4th of July Sauvie Island Flat half marathon in a couple of weeks.  We took it easy.  For Mark, that meant he ran it in 1:34.  For me, it was 2:20.   Jacob didn't train AT ALL and was just hoping to survive.  I passed him at about mile 9 even though he had started at least 15 minutes ahead of me.  He finished sometime around 2:50.

But Joel dazzled us all.  He had trained to run up to 8 miles, and was planning to just walk miles 7-8 because of the race profile. But when it came to that point, he saw the hills for real and he decided to see what he could do, and he ran the entire race!  I beat him by only 6 minutes.  But I beat him, and that's all I cared about.  When a mom of 7 can beat her two teenage sons in a half-marathon, that is a good thing.

The post-race concert was not my favorite.  When I heard which band was playing after the race I told the kids it was just some strange band I had never heard of... Gym Class something.  They all freaked out....  "YOU MEAN GYM CLASS HEROES?"  Indeed, that was the one.  Apparently they are on the radio quite frequently, but when my cd player is full of Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, John Denver and Sesame Street I really had no way of knowing this.

I thought they were all idiots.  The kids demanded to know how I could think such a thing.  I told them to take one look at him and tell me why I shouldn't think so.   I like 80's music as much as the next person who grew up that excellent decade; however, Hall and Oates tattooed on your hands?  Not the biggest sign of intelligence in my book.  So I'm not their biggest fan.  But we had a great time, and it was fun to see the kids all dancing around and singing along.

But no matter the band, it is fun to be in a crowd of runners enjoying a post-race concert.

As the concert ended, the rain started.  We scurried back to our hotel, checked out and loaded up in the van for the drive home.

It was a fun weekend, and we have already signed up for the race next year.

Substitute diary

So this past week I had some interesting sub gigs.  After the alternative school day of sitting around doing nothing I had the opposite experience.

Teaching kindergarten.

I took this job with a bit of trepidation.  But it was at an awesome school that I wanted to get in with, so I accepted the job.  It was the longest day of my life--and entirely frustrating.  The classes each had 32 students, and the room was enormous.  The tables were spread waaaay out around the room, so I never quite figured out how to engage the entire class at one time, especially with their backs to me.  Plus, this classroom had a full-time assistant and I felt like the kids looked to her as the authority figure and me as just some stupid visitor that they didn't need to listen to.  It was really not an enjoyable day, but it was good experience and I survived.

This week I had 4 sub jobs.  I started Monday at the same elementary school as a "roving sub."  The teachers all went to a meeting throughout the day, and so I stayed an hour or so in 4 different rooms of all different ages.  Luckily the kindergarten was not on my schedule this day!  I had 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th grades.  I was fine until I got to 5th grade and had to teach math for that hour.  I was stunned to see what a typical public school math class was like--I had totally forgotten.  My guys have been at charter schools forever where you go where you need to go for math regardless of your age.  No stigma either up or down--just go where you are learning and feel successful and it is all good.  I had forgotten the other side of life.

This classroom had 33 kids in it, and all 33 were taught the same lesson about the order of operations.  I came in just after this lesson and was told to pass out a worksheet for them to do.  I passed out the worksheet and then came the powerful reminder of why we switched to the charter school.  One boy came up to me within 5 minutes and told me he was finished--and 45 minutes were remaining of "math".  The teacher's instructions were for those who finished early to read.  So this boy misses out every day on future math development because it is inconvenient to teach him as much as his brain can handle.  Over the next 5 minutes there were a few more kids who finished, and they grudgingly pulled out a book.  And then there was a large group who finished at about the same time, and then a handful of kids who had absolutely no hope of ever finishing the math sheet.  They had no idea what was going on.

The public schools here believe it is detrimental to self-esteem to group kids by ability levels.  I feel that these kids sitting in a class staring at their worksheet watching other kids all around them breeze through the same thing is more damaging than having each child sit with a teacher who can work with them to be successful at whatever math concept their brains are able to handle.

But what do I know?

The next day I had a dream job--high school English teacher.  AT MY KID'S HIGH SCHOOL!

It was finals week--half days with 2 classes each day.  This teacher I subbed for had one of those classes which was all seniors (who had graduated the previous week).  So I actually did nothing for quite a while.  Finally my other class came.  I took attendance, and passed out their final exam.  I made my way around the room, and then settled into the back of the room.  After about 10 minutes I noticed that two kids had open notebooks on the floor!  I walked around and casually picked up their books.  Each boy had his notebook conveniently open to their Animal Farm vocabulary notes!  I left them with their exams to finish, and after class told them that I would not give the books back.  They were stunned.  Pretty much the school has a strict "zero points if you are caught cheating" policy.  Busted!

Yesterday I subbed for a class with no students.  It was a "make-up day" for kids who had things to turn in or tests to take.  I graded finals for the other teachers for a couple of hours, but other than that I did nothing all day.  I ended up getting an offer to come teach Medical Terminology for two periods a day at this school next year.  It would be fun, and I love the school, faculty and kids there, but I don't think it would be worth the commitment of being there every day.  Then I couldn't take any other sub jobs, either.

Today I got a sweet gig, though.  A teacher at Joel's middle school decided she didn't have energy to make it through Field Day this afternoon, so she called in a sub and went home.  I got paid for following 6th graders around to their different stations for the afternoon.

Now school is over, and so are my sub jobs.   It was a busy week, but I made some great connections at the two high schools and am on their preferred sub lists for the upcoming school year.  I am so excited about that.

Let summer begin!

Graduation day for Abram

Time flies.  My little Abram is now all grown up.

He has always been such a good boy.  Always helpful, always listens, always obedient, always a great student, always practiced his instrument, always loads the dishwasher, always tells me he loves me, always tells me I am right.

We will all miss him when he leaves for college at the end of the summer.

I dread graduations because they are soooooo long.  But this one was actually tolerable.  Only 90 minutes long, AND Abram was one of the speakers, so I checked my bad attitude at the door and actually enjoyed the night.

 Abram's friend Heidi had her graduation right before his, so Abram went to her graduation first, and then she came along with us to his graduation.  Crazy kids.

We found our seats quickly and waited for the program to start.  The kids filed in and Abram took his spot.  Then he did what EVERY child does--started looking for his parents in the audience.

He looked once...

He looked twice...

And then he found us.

And gave a salute so we knew that he knew exactly where he was sitting.

Abram gave such an excellent speech.  He ended with Winston Churchill's quote about the Battle of Britain, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."  He did a perfect job of writing and delivering the speech.  He has no fear of public speaking.

 And then it was time to walk.
He waved to us,

And then hugged his awesome history teacher,

 And then hugged his awesome biology teacher,

and took his seat again,

 And then gave us the thumbs up.

 The program ended and everyone threw their caps in the air to celebrate.  Abram took off for the all-night party and we headed home.  It was 11PM and waaay past my bedtime.

Hooray for Abram!

Teaching again

After spending 18 years in a filing cabinet, my teaching license is officially active again.  I was able to register with the local subfinder system, and last Friday and yesterday I taught school for the first time since baby Abram was born.

I have had an easy re-introduction to teaching.  My first gig was an elementary school English Language Learner classroom where I taught groups of 8 kids (Hispanic and Russian) a basic grammar lesson.  For sure this would be a dreamy job.  Small group of kids, no homework to grade, teaching English grammar (which I tend to do anyway even when not teaching school)?  Wow!  It was very fun, and the kids were delightful.

Yesterday was also pretty easy.  At first it was a let-down, because when I clicked on the job it said "General Science grades 6-8."  I jumped for joy.  That is exactly what I love--science!  I was so excited.   I noticed that it was at an alternative school, but I figured that just meant it would be a smaller group, and maybe kind of watered-down science.  But science is science and I couldn't wait.

When I arrived at the school I learned that the teacher I was subbing for was not a science teacher.  She was a case manager and spent 3 of her 7 periods each day doing paperwork, testing, and working to keep kids motivated to stay in school.  So I ended up spending 2 periods baby-sitting a computer lab class, helping 4 kids finish essays, and then teaching one girl a math lesson.

There are still 7 days of school.  We'll see what kind of experiences I get before the year is over.  Maybe an actual classroom of kids?  Maybe?