2013 Running Log wrapup

Yes!  You read correctly.  I know it's March 17 of TWO-THOUSAND FOURTEEN already, but....
I never posted my 2013 running log wrapup.

After my knee problems nagging me in July and August, I hung up my running shoes for a few months.  There was a feeeeeble attempt to get back on the running wagon in December, but.... that lasted all but one day! ;}

Despite my knee issues, 2013 was an AWESOME AWESOME year for my running.  My mileage for the year was a new record;  my mileage in the month of March was also a new monthly record, and I hit a new PR in the Half-Marathon (Oshkosh Half-marathon).

Today was my first day back in 2014 -- watch my Running page for my 2014 numbers.

2013 Running Log WRAPUP

Totals: 487.8 miles

1/1/13:  2.00 miles on treadmill

1/2/13: 2.50 miles on treadmill

1/7/13: 5.00 miles on treadmill (power walk / run)

1/8/13: 1.75miles on treadmill

1/9/13: 1.75 miles on treadmill

1/10/13: 3.75 miles on treadmill (run/walk)

1/11/13: 3.00 PW on treadmill

1/13/13: 5.00 miles on treadmill EZ/long

1/14/13: 2.00 miles on treadmill PW

1/15/13: 2.50 miles on treadmill PW

1/16/13: 3.50 miles on treadmill

1/19/13: 2.50 miles on treadmill PW

1/20/13: 7.00 miles on treadmill L/EZ/PW

1/21/13: 2.25 miles on treadmill PW

1/24/13: 3.25 miles on treadmill PW

1/26/13: 2.25 miles on treadmill PW

1/27/13: 5.00 miles on treadmill PW/EZ

1/28/13: 4.00 miles on treadmill EZ

1/29/13: 2.50 miles on treadmill EZ

1/31/13: 2.50 miles on treadmill PW

2/2/13: 8.5 miles on treadmill EZ/L

2/3/13: 2.75 miles on treadmill PW

2/4/12: 3 miles on treadmill W

2/5/13: 2.38 miles (Brooke Dr-OUTSIDE!) 10:04/mile

2/7/13: 2.93 miles on treadmill

2/8/13: 3.01 on treadmill

2/9/13: 4.11 on treadmill

2/10/13: 4.79 outside

2/12/13: 3.01 miles on treadmill (tired legs!)

2/15/13: 10.0 miles on treamill

2/17/13: 3.1 miles on treamill

2/18/13: 5.00 miles (10:33/mile) EZ

2/21/13: 5.25 miles (10:01/mile) Tempo x4 miles

2/23/13: 3.14 miles (10:10/mile) Grantsburg Frigid 5K

2/24/13: 10.0 miles (10:50/mile) L

2/25/13: 1.83 miles (9:56/mile) T

2/26/13: 4.04 miles (10:50/mile) EZ {{windy}}

3/2/13: 3.25 miles (9:37/mile) T

3/3/13: 12.0 miles (11:03/mile) L

3/4/13: 2.00 miles (9:55/mile) EZ

3/5/13: 4.00 miles (10:40/mile) EZ

3/6/13: 1.50 miles (9:46/mile) EZ

3/7/13: 5.75 miles S; 3xmile@8:57

3/8/13: 2.00 miles (10:20/mile) EZ

3/9/13: 14.3 miles (11:17/mile) L

3/10/13: 1.81 miles (10:33/mile) EZ

3/11/13: 1.82 miles (10:23/mile) EZ

3/12/13: 4.00 miles (9:58/mile) EZ/T

3/13/13: 5.07 miles (10:07/mile) EZ

3/14/13: 1.82 miles (8:42/mile) T

3/16/13: 7.67 miles (10:25/mile) EZ L

3/17/13: 9.17 miles (10:09/mile) L

3/18/13: 1.57 miles (10:12/mile) EZ

3/20/13: 3.00 miles (10:07/mile) EZ

3/23/13: 8.33 miles (10:31/mile) EZ

3/24/13: 15.02 miles (10:47/mile) L

3/25/13: 2.00 miles (10:23/mile) EZ

3/26/13: 3.11 miles (9:12/mile) T

3/27/13: 1.81 miles (9:45/mile) EZ

3/28/13: 3.14 miles (8:52/mile) S

3/29/13: 5.04 miles (10:19/mile) EZ

3/30/13: 17.3 miles (10:50/mile) L

4/2/13: 2.00 miles (9:55/mile) EZ

4/3/13: 2.01 miles (9:41/mile) EZ

4/4/13: 4.56 miles (9:29/mile) H(wind)

4/6/13: 8.9 miles (10:55/mile) L

4/8/13: 3.00 miles (9:58/mile) EZ

4/14/13: 5.00 miles (10:22/mile) EZ/L

4/14/13: 2.41 miles (10:12/mile)  EZ

4/15/13: 2.00 miles (9:48/mile) T

4/16/13: 6.59 miles (9:28/mile) RP

4/19/13: 2.00 miles  (10:13/mile) EZ

4/21/13: 13.1 miles (9:31/mile) Oshkosh Half-marathon

5/4/13: 9.21 miles (10:56/mile) EZ/L

5/6/13: 5.02 miles (9:28/mile) T/S

5/7/13: 1.27 miles (10:50/mile) EZ

5/11/13: 4.66 miles (9:47/mile) T

5/12/13: 9.02 miles (10:39/mile) L

5/14/13: 3.13 miles (10:20/mile) T

5/15/13: 3.98 miles (10:02/mile) S/T

5/17/13: 2.26 miles (10:03/mile) EZ

5/19/13: 26.2 miles (11:45/mile) Green Bay marathon

5/25/13: 1.85 miles (9:07/mile)

5/27/13: 3.26 miles (9:34/mile) T

5/28/13: 1.00 mile (10:12)

5/29/13: 4.00 miles (10:13) T

5/29/13: 1.01 miles (9:28) Cont 400s

5/30/13: 2.10 miles (9:08/mile) EZ

5/31/13: 3.26 miles (9:55/mile) EZ

6/4/13: 3.00 miles (9:29/mile) Treadmill

6/8/13: 6.00 miles (9:57/mile)

6/10/13: 2.01 miles (8:50/mile) T/S

6/11/13: 1.83 miles (10:03/mile) EZ

6/12/13: 1.50 miles (9:20/mile)

6/13/13: 1.00 mile (8:52)

6/13/13: 2.00 miles (9:36/mile)

6/19/13: 3.01 miles (9:52/mile)

6/25/13: 2.00 miles (9:52/mile)

7/6/13: 3.00 miles (10:07/mile)

7/8/13: 1.80 miles (10:04/mile)

7/29/13: 1.82 miles (9:23/mile)

7/30/13: 1.84 miles (9:30/mile)

8/1/13: 3.27 miles (10:04/mile)

8/2/13: 1.82 miles (9:49/mile)

8/3/13: 4.01 miles (10:06/mile)

8/3/13: 0.50 miles (16:50/mile)

8/4/13: 1.62 miles (10:11/mile)

8/5/13: 2.48 miles (15:42/mile) Walk/Run w/Sis

8/6/13: 2.55 miles (9:30/mile)

8/8/13: 3.00 miles (13:38/mile) Run/Walk

8/11/13: 1.83 miles (10:00/mile)

8/18/13: 5.13 miles (13:53/mile) PW

8/19/13: 7.89 miles (13:01/mile)

8/20/13: 2.08 miles (11:22/mile)

8/21/13: 3.24 miles (12:09/mile)

8/25/13: 2.02 miles (11:19/mile)

8/28/13: 1.62 miles (9:35/mile)

8/28/13: 1.57 miles (11:24/mile)

9/11/13: 1.25 miles (10:48/mile)

12/1/13: 0.99 miles (12:26/mile)

Another evening run [Running 2013]

Tonight after Cassie's softball game, I chit-chatted, batted my eye-lashes and sweet-talked our school's physical therapist into taking a look at my knee.  

LOL.... 

He's amazing and was openly willing to look at it and advise me; no bribery needed.

The good news after some simple inspection;  I can continue with my running without huge concerns at this time.  He ruled out some tendons that are typical runner injuries, and gave me advice to run the shoulders of the roads more than the hard asphalt, and to also run on the "wrong" side of the road from time to time due to the natural curving tapers that roads have.  Only running on the "proper left side" of roads can increase compensation for one leg over the other.

So.....

....tonight, I ran on the gravel shoulder.  It's not my favorite surface, BUT I am definitely open to seeing if the surface reduces the strain on the knee. 

Not even half a mile into the run, I saw a Doe and Baby in the distance.  As I neared, Mamma bolted off, and this lil guy dropped to the road.  I had never seen this type of behavior by a fawn before, and I truly wondered for a moment if he was injured.  

But, I continued on and would only worry if he was still there on the return trip.

No second picture should communicate to y'all that the return trip was uneventful.  No sign of Mamma or Baby, so I have to assume there were reunited.

It was another GLORIOUSLY BEAUTIFUL evening!!!!!!!  The app says 75 degrees; but with the sun at and below the horizon, it did not feel that warm at all.  The nice-n-easy pace also helped to make for an enjoyable run.

Tomorrow, very little is on the "must accomplish" list, so I am hoping for some free-time for some sewing playtime.  The girls are also hoping for some free-time after we've been working them around the yard so much the last couple of days.  Of course, we have softball on the late afternoon/evening schedule, but the day should still allow for some task(s) of choice.

A morning tour of the hobbyfarm...

 I grabbed the camera and headed outside after a morning cup of coffee.  This morning is GLORIOUS!!!!!! so I thought I'd see what the lens could capture...

Since there's nothing to show in the garden yet, I didn't bother heading that way.

First stop was by the rain gauge.  Yes, folks, WE HAVE HAD LOTS OF RAIN this past week.  We haven't emptied the gauge lately, so over the past week (or so?), we have around 3" of precipitation.  I just wish we could have had the garden in before much of this rain came.  Ah well.....

Directly to the left of the rock pile (where the rain gauge hangs out), the chickens were enjoying a breakfast of crumbs that Paul had just tossed over the deck ledge.  Two roosters and five hens here.  Our clutch is MUCH smaller than in years past :(  We lost quite a few to predators last fall.   We do have ONE more hen, but she wasn't to be found this morning;  off protector her two lil' chicks that happened to hatch a couple of weeks ago!  YAY RED MAMMA!  You'll be adding two more to our lil' clutch :)

Further along my journey, there was NO mistaking the squawking rukus of our ducks!!!  They came waddling right up to me as I neared.  We have four Peking and three Mallards, and all of them are reaching the stage of losing their baby fluff and growing feathers.

Squawk, squawk, squawk!  MY GOODNESS!

So, when I peeked into their covered section (hinged open here), it was NO WONDER!  They were out of water.  AGAIN!  Let me tell ya folks... if you have never had ducks before....HOLY MOLY!  They go through water so stinkin' fast!  Fear not, their waterer was filled to the brim.  I'm sure it'll be empty in an hour :)

Here's a panned out view of the duck pen Paul and Candace worked on the other day.  It'll eventually be a "tractor-style" contraption that will be moved throughout the yard ever-so-often.  For now, the ducks (and us) are simply happy to be out in the sunshine.

Right next to our duck pen is our lil' piggy area.  FOUR of them this year.  Already tamed to come a'running when they hear us coming, the runt of the bunch was the first to get his (her?) nose out for a handful of weeds.  TRULY!  Isn't the runt usually the one picked on???  NOPERS.  Not this guy.  He got his nose right in there, head butted away some of the others, and snagged up the whole handful of greens!  Therefore, I took the liberty of naming him "Lil' Bully."  

I can already hear Candace now......"Mom!  Look!  It's a pattern!  Black, white, black, white."  

That's it for this morning's tour.

In other news, I'm still trudging through my knee pain, probably to my own demise. :\

But the weather was SO BEAUTIFUL last night, I HAD to enjoy an evening stroll :)

Softball is still in its infancy of the summer.  Cassie tried her first night with catcher's gear since our normal catcher couldn't make the game.  Her Aunt Jen (my sis) was a catcher back in her glory years :) Taking right after her, I could say.

Okay!  Time to hit the garden to give my tomato plants some TLC before needing to head back to school for an extended half-day of our meeting from yesterday.  We made great progress, but still have items to tackle on the agenda, so.... it got extended into today.  Then, MORE softball directly following.  Therefore, another non-quilting day.  I'm okay with that, though :)

HAPPPPY TUESDAY!

There's always next time, right??

Start of race:  7:00 AM, 70 degrees, sunny.

You gotta love it when 8000+ runners are packing the street at the start of a race!  If you've never experienced a big race before (either as a participant or spectator), the start can be comical the first time you witness one;  the gun sounds, but no one moves (back by us) for a few minutes.   For those of us hanging back at the 10:00/mile starting "gate," it can literally take about 5 minutes to actually CROSS the starting line!  LOL.  (5 min. 30 sec. to be exact for me today)

Runners, as far as thee eye can see.....

Life was going pretty okay for the first 6 miles, averaging about a 10:10/mile pace

After some on-course texting with my family (LOL!-Gotta love technology, right?!?!), the first sighting of my cheering crew was at mile 6.8.

The day was heating up nicely (if you weren't a runner)....

It was heating up too much if you WERE a runner... starting to hit upper 70's...

So, I started slowing down my pace; now averaging about 10:30s (my realistic goal pace).

And no... I'm not saying "talk to the hand."  :D  I was simply waving a goodbye to my family after they met up with me at the Mile 10 marker.    The next planned cheering spot:  halfway point.

:(

But shortly after departing, a text came in from my sister that traffic and roads were blocked off, so they were going to jump ahead to mile 20 and wait.

Oh boy...  10 miles until some happy faces could greet me with some motivation.

Miles 10-15 were tough.  A lot of open areas;  head wind (maybe 10-15 mph at times?)), and.... HOT.  Officially breaking 80.  My pace was certainly slowing down, although I came into the 13.1 checkpoint clocking 2:20, which isn't a shabby Half time for me.

But after that......major slow down!  

Holding 11:00's when running.... with lots of walking breaks between running spurts.....

In the meantime, my crew diligently awaited, cheering on other runners and trying to pass the time as best they could...

Little did they know that they were actually sitting at about 19.3, so when I saw them after the water-stop, I was a bit surprised.  Mom caught me sucking on some ice cubes here. 

And little Candace was going to get her way---she wanted to run a little bit with me!

After about 200 meters, I sent them back to Grandma after final hugs and goodluck kisses, telling them I'll see them at the finish line.

I wish my iphone hadn't died!  Afterall, the ONLY reason I ran these 26.2 miles was for the final half mile!  All runners were able to run through the Green Bay Packer stadium tunnels, followed by a lap around Lambeau Field.  I WANTED PICTURES!  Whaaaa, whhaaaaaaaaaaa.....

LOL....

.... but then, working our way back through the tunnels, we were 200 meters from the finish line.

And even though I was welllllll off my goal-mark today, I am happy with the finish.  I simply slowed down and ran a smart marathon.  It wasn't worth killing myself over.   (I guess lady-in-blue here moved at the last minute.  It's okay Mom!!!!!  I appreciate all the candids from today!) :D

The AWESOME finisher's medal and finish line Rootbeer :)   And even a smile ;^)

My amazing girls!

 And.....the shake down....

Thanks for reading!!!!

Happy Sunday!

15 hours, and counting... [Green Bay Marathon]

Please forgive my lil' bit of attitude today.  Saw this on FB... and liked it. :D

I'm chilling at my sister's house right now.  Seeing that she lives an hour north of Green Bay, I made the drive over with the girls after staying at Grandma's last night.  Grandma ended up tagging along, and my sister also decided to make the trip down to GB in the morning.... So, I went from having no spectators planned to now having 5 (my 3 girls included)!  Woohooo :)

My sister likes it when I visit because I usually cook up some kind of bigger meal; something that she and her husband, Derek, aren't accustomed to, being just the two of them.  Tonight's menu:  Lasagna.  She even requested TWO pans of lasagna so that she could freeze up some for smaller meals for herself and Derek :)  LOL.  No biggy.

Feeling a bit antsy right now.  Ho-hum, ho-hum...

Off to see what everyone is up to in their quilting rooms today :)

Happy Saturday!

Am I ready?

I have been asked quite a bit lately....
"Are you ready for Sunday, Amy?"

My response has been simply... "You bet."

This isn't my first trip to the rodeo.  My answer would certainly be different if it were.
I know I'll finish.
Walk or run... I'll cross the finish line.  That I know.
I have trained for a total of more miles than I ever have for any other race.
I have established both a reasonable goal established and an ultimate goal for this race.

Reasonable goal:  Improve on my Personal Best time previously run, which is 4 hours 59 minutes from 2007.  My confidence of meeting this goal is 90+%.  I feel I have put my training time in, and  I am more ready now than ever before for a marathon race.

Ultimate goal:  The training program I've been following has 10:01/mile written for my average goal per mile.  Ummm......  I am about 5% positive on being able to achieve that.  :\  I really just don't think I can sustain that pace for the whole 26.2.  I know I can sustain it for 13.1;  afterall, recall my 9:31/mile Half-marathon a couple of weeks ago.  BUT, extending that for another 13.1.......???....   I think I know the limitations of my legs and body right now....and 10:01/mile just seems a bit too much.

Therefore, here's my Reasonable Ultimate goal:
4 hours 35 minutes -- 10:30/mile.
It's a steep goal!  Truly.
But I will shoot for it :)
However, the little voice in my head is saying that I'll even be happy with 11:00/mile (4 hours 48 minutes).

The weather outlook:  So far, the weather app is showing a sunshiny day:  57 low / 75 high.  Not sure about wind (which is MY achilles heel!!!  ick)

My left knee has been bothersome during my last few runs which is a bit concerning.
The course is rather flat, so hopefully it'll last the duration without too much difficulty.
The water stations are nicely distributed to match with my "1/2 GU every 3 miles" training I've done.
My girls and mom will be cheering me along the course (yayyyyy!)
All in all....

Yeah, I'm ready :)

And besides... I get to run around Lambeau Field, home of America's Green Bay Packers during my final mile!  That's ENOUGH reason to put in the first 25 :)

Holy Wind Batman... and HOT

Alright, alright, alright.... Paul:  SHUSH!  I know, I know....

It was just a couple of weeks ago when we (I) was complaining about being ready for WARM temperatures!  We were DONE with all the snow.  Remember that??!?!

And now...

LOL...

87 degrees and FULL sun.  

And really, I'm NOT complaining...really....

{{It's just a weeeee bit warm for running though}}

Not to mention the wind gusts in excess of 20+ mph.  

LOL

But really.... I'm not complaining! 

:D

Happy Tuesday

T-minus 5 days .... and counting.

My, my... that's quite the "poof" I have going today...

Lazy Sunday; 2010 BOM UFO; Mother's Day running

Two hours of sewing time this morning was all that was needed to piece together the 24 blocks for Bonnie's Lazy Sunday Quiltmaker mystery; Part 2.  I love that I'm all caught up AND that I'm feeling the quilting mojo returning :)

With deadlines done;  Lazy Sunday all caught up;  and having been so long since I was in any kind of "flow" in the sewing room, I elected to tidy, clean, organize, purge...

...and then I came across a buried stack of 2010 Mystery BOM blocks.

After laying them out and coming up with a sashing idea, I was off and running.

Sashed AND the first of three borders attached.    The next little 1.5" white border is prepped, and I'm planning for a final blue border (maybe 4.5" ??).  With summer looming, I realllllly want to set a goal of quilting all of these flimsies I have laying around all over the place!

By 1:30, I turned everything off and started to mentally talk myself into getting prepared for my 9 mile run today.  It was WINDY out, and I wasn't looking forward to it;  in fact, I was putting it off for as long as I could, HOPING the wind would die down :\  No such luck.

BUT, with a nice-n-easy pace in mind, the 1.5 mile windy stretches were tolerable, KNOWING I would have a 1.5 mile tail-wind as soon as I hit the turn-around.  I ran my 3-mile "Brooke Drive" loop again (x3 today);  it's a great training loop AND keeps me close to home.  I also set up a "water stop" at the loop turn-around, so I know that I'll have a water break every 3-miles.  It works out nicely :)

And my lovely lovely Candace had a Mother's Day snack surprise waiting for me when I got home :)

A Fruit-Veggie flower!  LOL.  Ranch dip at the ends of each carrot;  peanut butter in the center of the apple-slices flower, and a banana stem.  

Cassie brought home her first hardware of the track season last Friday night.  She's been working on her 400 meter run, and Friday she was scheduled to run three separate 400 meter runs.  One of them, a 1600M medley relay (200-200-400-800), she ran the 3rd leg, and ended up helping her relay take a Gold :)  I think she slept with the medal Friday night :)

Y'all know the song..."Back to Life....Back to reality..."

Yup.  Starting to sing that right now.

Happy Sunday.

Life interrupted...

So, Andee put a call out to my Facebook page last week, saying she missed my posts....

Can I just claim that we're still working on digging ourselves out from all the SNOW we've been getting?!?!?!?!!?

SERIOUSLY!  May 2nd -- 8 inches!  May 3rd -- another 1 inch dusting. 

What'cha gonna do?

Wisconsin and Minnesota have quite literally gone from one extreme Spring last year to the opposite-end extreme Spring this year.

Farmers and gardeners were already putting in crops and seeds at this time last year.  But today.... we still have a good 4 inches on the ground.  

What'cha gonna do?

Last Friday, the weather was actually AMAZING!!!!!!  The first 70 degree day we've had since October.  That's a long haul!  

The first track meet of the season finally got underway... and of course there were jokes about still having snow piles on the ground.  (NOW, the track is completely covered, and all the track meets from this week were cancelled.)

It goes without saying... those of us in the North are ready for some sun and no more white stuff.  LOL.

Life has really been interrupted over the past few weeks;  once again different priorities keeping me away.

I'm neck deep right now in preparing one of my classes for the Advanced Placement (Statistics) exam that is scheduled for this upcoming Friday.  Looking at the calendar, it's crazy to think we are already 4 1/2 weeks away from summer break.  Summer?  What is summer?  How 'bout some Spring first!?!?!?!

To close up this post, I want to fill you all in with one of the biggest events of the past three weeks...

My half marathon in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

As the pictures show, the weather was NOT snow covered, but there was a 15 mph wind and the temps were in the 30s.  All in all, not a TERRIBLE day weather-wise, although......that wind ended up being a full head wind at miles 3-4 and again 9-10.

Despite......   I STILL rocked the course with a new personal best!!!  I broke 10:00/mile pace (my goal) and THEN some!!!!   Training certainly pays off.

Sadly.... I have not run since then :(

Scarily.... the full marathon is two weeks away from this weekend  :\

Today, I have to break through my mental 'blah' and get out on the roads, snow covered as they are, with sleeting weather - n - all!  Honestly, I'm not extremely worried about the two weeks off.  My mileage and training build up prior to the half marathon were in excess of any training I've ever done.  My marathon goal is to hold 11:00/mile pace;  that should still be an attainable and comfortable goal.

On the quilting front:  I actually HAVE been working on a massive King size quilt, BUT it's "top secret" right now.  Graduation gift :)   HOWEVER, I do hope to finally dig into some fabrics for Bonnie's mystery in the Quiltmakers magazine now that most of my deadlines of the past couple of months have been met.

Happy Weekend everyone!

Thanks for catching up on me :)

Finally, a substantial post :)

Yes folks, there are quilting related photos in this post.  Can you believe it?!?!?  :D

My mother-in-law sequestered me into quilting a couple of tops; one for a customer of hers, and one for a family member.  This earth-toned one has such beautiful colors!  The customer left all design aspects to my MIL.  I love the framework that MIL came up with.

I quilted it with an Edge-2-Edge feather pantograph, but I left the center photo section untouched.  It has a poofy effect now that I'm not a big fan of, but the decision of quilting/not-quilting over the picture wasn't mine to make.  Overall, it still turned out alright.

Total quilting time and machine binding sewn on:  About 7 hours on and off during this past week.

This little thing was a smaller wall-hanging that a cousin of my husband asked my MIL to make, and for me to quilt.  I again used the E2E overall feather pantograph in a taupe color.  I loaded and quilted it today in just under 3 hours.  Pretty quick.  Nice-n-small.

THEN, I decided to actually shower up for the day :) LOL

I know I'm not the only one who goes for one (both?) days of the weekend without "looking human."  BUT, there is an article being written about the QOV program; my name was shared with the writer of the article by the Wisconsin QOV representative.  Last weekend, there was a presentation in a local city where two of my quilts were given to local QOV recipients.  Sadly, I could not make the event due to Hunter Safety and needing to be a single mom for the day, driving everyone around to where they needed to be.  So, the writer asked if I could share a picture of me either working on a QOV quilt, or presenting one.  Well....psht!  I didn't have one!  In all my pictures, .... nada.

So, I got all "humanified" and had Cassie take a picture this afternoon.

{{sign of a happy quilter = clutter and mess. Right??}}

 But yeah....THIS is part of the reason I couldn't make the event last week.

Not only did Cassie sign up for Hunter's Safety Education... I did too :)  

And we both passed :)  People keep joking with Paul (husband) about needing to share his hunting gear.  He just laughs and says..."HA!  It just means I can buy MORE tree stands, blaze orange, food plot land, .....etc...etc...etc..."

Last weekend was also Caitlyn's birthday.  Nine this year.  And that girl...... yup.  She wanted jeans.  

On the running front... 

I hit a mental wall after a botched 20-mile run last Saturday.  At mile 7, I texted Paul to come get me if he could.  By the time he got to me, I had run 8.9 miles....a far cry from the 20 I had set out to run.  I just wasn't feeling it.  And I've been fighting the mental block of "failure" all week, ONLY having run once since that day.

But today, despite the weather yet AGAIN bringing on blizzard-like conditions.... I ran .... and this was the view from my treadmill.   Only 5 miles, but they felt good.  And truth be known;  I'm considering jumping back on the 'mill once I'm done with this update post.  Time is still on my side;  Five more weeks until the Green Bay marathon.  Next weekend, there is a Half-Marathon that I'm pretty certain to run in.  I haven't completed my registration yet, but... yeah.  Pretty sure I'll be running it.  {{Amy--it's in Oshkosh.  Interested?  There's a 5K too, I think}} :)

Oh!  Need a funny to close your weekend before heading back to work?

One of my 7th grade advanced math students.  And I honestly don't know whether to laugh or not at this.  Does this show proficiency in mathematical reasoning???

LOL

I think we all need sunshine and 70s!  {{Heck, most of us will even settle for 40s!!!!!}}

Happy Sunday everyone.

Another week (or so...)

Spring is trying to make its way to northern Wisconsin, so I wasn't about to complain when I saw this as my hourly forecast this AM, knowing all too well that I had a plan to run 18 miles.

And in all actuality... the weather was quite nice!  By mile 4, the rain stopped, and it was a very comfortable temperature outside.

Really not trying or meaning to boast here... but I am amazed with my own progress and dedication to running these past couple of months!!!  In March alone, I've run just a hair short of my years 2009+2010+2012 TOGETHER.  Yes, YEARLY totals together!!!!!  ALMOST beat just in one month!!! With one more day left in March, I may just set out to make that a record.  We'll see how my legs are feeling tomorrow after today's 17.3 miles :)

The afternoon was family-time of egg coloring.  This is the first year that I used food-coloring as the egg dye, rather than those Paas kits.  Couldn't even tell the difference :)  

Recipe:  about a cup of water, a tsp of vinegar, and enough drops of food coloring to create a pleasing hue.  Easy-peasy.

Precious patience, right??!!?!??

:D

And another precious pic - Snaggle-tooth here!  Thank goodness corn-on-the-cob isn't in season yet.  Lol.  

We only had Friday off for our Easter/Spring vacation.  :(  Yeah, big sad face here.  So many of us (teachers and students alike) could really use a few days away from each other.  Patience is beginning to wear thin for everyone.  

Most days, the girls ride the bus home after school, but when they need to visit my classroom after school, they usually enjoy grabbing the colored pencils and computer paper.  They waited patiently the other day for me to finish up some tasks before we were able to 'get outta there.' :)

And just last night, I updated my iCal with my running events, so I counted the weeks until the marathon:  SEVEN!

But what made my jaw drop even more......

that means EIGHT more weeks until Graduation!

and Nine-n-half weeks until school is over for the rest of us.

Suddenly, time seems to be flying by again.

Happy Saturday.  And have a blessed Easter tomorrow.