Procrastinating????

Dare I say that I've been procrastinating with my posts this week because I know that 100th post is right around the corner?!?!? *chuckle*. This is Post #97, but this week has been full and crazy and getting back to what "normal" is going to be soon once school starts.

Monday consisted of sewing and quilting! (duh, right!) I have put together all of blocks needed for Masha's Wonky nines; I'm not keen on the 5x8 layout, though, BUT I'm trusting the pattern. (FYI--I would set this up as 6x7, specially since I have 45 total blocks made, but I've already put 4 of the extra blocks together to make a pillow case). The colors are bright, and hopefully she'll enjoy. It'll end up being a twin, with each block being 10" finished.

Tuesday consisted of picking up the house AND I needed to put some finishing touches on Julie's quilt I made last year. I hadn't quilted it much last year and I wanted to ensure it wouldn't come apart in the future, so I "traded" my OC with her for the time being so I could put some quilting on it. However, I wimped out and simply tied the quilt instead of doing any machine quilting on it. It's SO BIG that I just didn't have the heart to schlep and fight that thing under my machine. I put a tie in each of the yellow sashing corner squares and called it done.

Tuesday evening, I also helped lead the 7th Grade Orientation, since our new Principal's first day wouldn't be until today (Thursday). We have a Junior High still (7th and 8th grade) instead of a Middle School (6-8), so we always have a special orientation for our incoming 7th graders; talk through expectations, hand out schedules, and have them try out their locker combinations. You wouldn't BELIEVE the amount of students that can't open their lockers, even by the end of week 1!!! This transition is very difficult for some...

Wednesday found me in school all day. I spent 3 hours in the morning just putzing in my room; hanging new posters, cleaning out my storage, getting books and binders ready for Math 7 and Pre-Calc, etc. Then I spent Noon-3:00 in a technology meeting to learn our new student-information system so that I can be a "teacher-leader" for other staff during the school year. Quite intense, a lot of info crammed into 3 hours, but fun and exciting things coming for the year-to-come!

Finally, today was a "field-trip" to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN, for those of you not familiar with our nickname of the two cities). We spent the day visiting Julie since she was off of work. AMAZINGLY we actually hit the road at my goal time of 8:00 am and we arrived at Julie's by 10:00, and headed directly to the Como Zoo. The day was muggy, but thankfully the full sun decided to take the day off. The sky was 50/50 cloudy/sunny, but was more cloudy than sunny for most of the morning hours.

We saw the entire lot: Primates, aquatics, cats, "african hooved" animals (aka: giraffes and zebras) *chuckle*. By FAR, the hilight was the big cats, although most of them were lounging and sleeping in their shaded areas. Also, a baby orangutang (OMGoodness-HOW do you spell that??!?!?) was absolutely precious and adorable!!!!

By 12:00, we had seen the zoo and were ready to find our own shade and plop down for the picnic lunch I packed. Then, the rest of the afternoon was spent at a beach Julie had heard about from a friend. Very nice beach!!! I didn't realize how much Caitlyn LOVED the water! Holy Buckets! When I finally said it was time to leave, I almost had to drag her from the lake! Actually, I reverted to good-ol-fashion bribery----McDonalds was promised!!! Yeah, yeah---shoot me! :0)

So now, I'm kicking back, posting, and icing my shins. Yup, Yup.....I almost forgot! My Garmin Forerunner 305 arrived on Tuesday, so I used it right away Tuesday night after the 7th Orientation by running home from school. (Sadly, I had always though it was 5 miles, but ended up being only 4.75 miles, according to my lovely Garmin!) Without a doubt, the feature I love the BEST is the elevation mapping once I upload my runs to my computer. I live in a rather hilly area, so just about every run of mine could be considered a hill workout. I've really upped my mileage this week; probably too fast considering the standard rule of 10% increase MAX per week. I haven't really looked at my numbers, but I feel like I've upped my running quite a bit over the past week just because I am MOTIVATED again. Yeah........ But the bad thing about increasing mileage too quickly is injuries, and right now my shins are thanking me for two days off!!! I'll be back out tomorrow though for a simple 4 miles (and a goal of 14 miles on Saturday). Then off again on Sunday.

Well folks, I think that's a pretty good update, huh? Plans aren't definite for this weekend, yet, but I think my arm is going to be twisted by three lil' girls to head up to the farm to see Gma and Gpa. (I don't think they need to twist too hard, though, because it actually sounds like a good idea to me, too). DH will hang back here and get some work done for a client.

To close, Amanda HAS reached her 100th post and will be drawing on Friday for her give-away. Three more posts to my 100th give-away. I THINK I almost have the give-away put together, too :0)

Happy quilting
Happy weekend
Happy closing ceremonies of the Olympics

*10:30pm EDIT*
Okay folks----I was letting the girls unwind from the day's events by watching a movie in our bedroom---that was a little after 9:00. I don't even know how long they lasted, but I do recall things getting rather quiet around 9:45......