Friday, December 7, 2012

Is it December??

I guess life with five kids and a dog finally caught up with me.....

the blog has been tapering off since summer time and the posts are fewer and fewer.

What's going on?

Well.....Michael is winding up soccer season and Isaac is winding up cross-country and it will be time for the youngest three to have a turn in the mom taxi to do something they enjoy.

(instead of just riding from practice to practice for their older brothers.)

The girls are hoping to do gymnastics and we may all head back to the pool with our friends at Tsunami Swim Club.  It's great exercise and I LOVE that all ages and skill levels practice at the same time and at the same place.  It's a mom's dream come true - for real.

We had some half days for parent / teacher conference and all the kids are making progress.
They all struggle in some area - but of course, that's normal and I am not so caught up in my own kids as to think they are prefect.  (PLEASE.....I'm so messed up, it's a miracle they are as normal as they are!)

We had Thanksgiving with our small group from church and a couple friends.  We had such a good time that I didn't even crack the camera out of the case.

For some cross country photos - click here.

And for soccer photos - click here.


And did you know I have a Christmas blog?

Just for Christmas..... I love Christmas!

I take 101 photos - so click here ---->  (*Christmas blog)
to see how successful I am at getting them actually LOADED!


Thanks for checking in!


Friday, November 9, 2012

October Running

The month of October found me 2 weeks away from the half-marthon and a dental surgery on the horizon.

I started second guessing myself, again, about why in the world did I sign up for a half-marathon,
and then schedule a dental surgery before it?

I actually scheduled it between two races.

THE BEAST (which you can read about ----> here) and the half on Sunday the 14th.

On Monday, October 1st, I ran 8 miles not sure if it would be my last long run before the race.

On the 2nd, I had the 2nd surgery in a 3 step process for this broken tooth.
(really, take care of your teeth people....it's nuts what has to be done for ONE TOOTH)

The doctor told me to take 3 days off and then "ease" back into running,
with the instructions to STOP immediately if I felt anything funny in my jawbone.

I ran two miles on the treadmill on Friday and felt fine.

On Sat. I ran in the STRIDE FOR THE CURE 5K in honor of my amazing grandmother,
Geneva Duke, a breast cancer survivor.













On Sunday,
one week before the race -
I logged a 9 mile run
and that was the last long one.

The days following involved some
hill training and speed work, short distances -
and then race day.
race bib and timing chip (loop?) on my shoe....night before the race
A little encouragement from my brother Derrick -
personal motivation .....

I actually looked at this on my arm several times during the race.

The great news is:  I felt good.

I had learned the hard way about "hitting the wall" during a few training runs and played with my nutrition and what I would drink / eat during long runs.

Thankfully, it all worked out on race day.

According to my timing chip:  I ran the course in 2 hours 1 minute and 35 seconds.

I don't know how long this link will be available:  but try to click here  for photos.

It was a Sunday morning and I was singing at church -
so I ate 2 bananas and walked to the van and headed home.

Looking back, I wish I had time to hang out with friends that ran,
laugh together,
tell our stories
and take photos,
but even without the photos,
I am thankful for each and every one of my "running friends" and how they support and encourage me to be my best.

My total mileage from October was 81
(*less than other months - but I took some time off after the race)

a total for the year is 962 -

so close to my goal of 1000 for 2012, and looking ahead to running in 2013.












Saturday, October 13, 2012

Sports shift

Well,  Isaac finished up his last two soccer games
and Michael ran in the All-Island Meet for cross-country.

Starting next week,
Michael will be doing soccer and Isaac will be doing cross-country.

So expect more of the same in the way of pictures....just switch the boys.

Zion and the girls have been troopers to spend MANY hours in the van back and forth
to practices, meets and games.

Doing lots of homework in the van too.

Kudos to all the little brothers and sisters out there that spend their lives on the sidelines.

Your turn is coming!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isaac got a good bit of playing time in the last two games.










They finished the season at 6-2

Great job Seahawks!!



Love this photo of the boys praying before the meet - amazing!




First Harvest runner - Kyle

Joe Cook - son of our dearest friends here on Guam



Our pastor's son,  Levi

one of Michael's swim team buddies
and son of friends

the son of Michael's coach - Andrew

so many people in the pack that Michael came in with.....

my photos are just horrible!  SO BUMMED!


most of the team with their super muddy feet!


Although they were undefeated in the regular season,
they couldn't pull off the numbers somehow at All-Island and came in 3rd.


Congratulations Eagles!!!




Friday, October 12, 2012

Running update and "The BEAST"

I haven't posted a running update since July -

so here it goes.

On August 6th, the ladies that are part of the running group on base convinced me to sign up for a half marathon.  (okay, actually, in true women fashion, the kicker was that the first 100 people got a "free" shirt)....never mind that the registration was $30, it was a "Dri-fit Training Shirt"!!   So in a moment of some form of IMPULSE shopping, I dug out my credit card and registered online.

and then for a week I was walking around thinking....

WHAT

HAVE

I

DONE??!!

So anyway....here are my August and September stats as I ramped up the mileage and trained for the 1/2.




We did a couple of races to get us ready for competition -

On September 1st - I did the Two Lovers Point race.  It was 8.6 miles.

The following Sat. was the 9.11 run (*9.11K - is about 5.6 miles)

and then, the runs that are the most fun - the relay race,

THE BEAST

Our team of 10 ladies had a great time spending the day together,
encouraging each other -
laughing -
sucking wind (that was me)
and leaving a little of ourselves all over  the island of Guam.
(runners will get that, others, maybe you will have to think about it)

I love these ladies and how SMOKIN' HOT they are in make-up and heels,

but what I love the most about them is when they are pushing themselves to the limit.

they are
STRONG

they are
POSITIVE

they are
FUN

they
NEVER GIVE UP!

My favorite thing to say in our group is:

"Well behaved women seldom make history!"  (*by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich)

We came in second in the female division and 11th or 12th overall.
(for some reason, I can't open the links?)
I don't know, someone tell me our time!  (*results - click here)

Here are some photos from the day!

Erin's rainbow!


Emily - smoking the men 

Jane

hand off to Diane

Jaime coming out of the MUDDY jungle leg

hand off to Emily

Emily had a tough hill,
but of course, she smoked it!

Tough second leg for Erin too -
I think of all the morning legs of the race -
she had the most sun
(not a good thing!)

the two with the biggest smiles are DONE!
Good job Emily and Erin

Lisa had a hot second leg too....good job!

Lisa to Tricia - these ladies,
for real - they ROCK!

We think Shea was trying to beat the car
she BOOKED down this hill

Hand off of LEG 20 - the last one!
Jaime kicked it in to home for the 2nd place victory!




(left to right - Lisa, Sara, Shea, Diane, Emily, Tricia, Erin, Jaime and Melda)

The only bummer of the whole day is that we never got a picture of all 10 of us together.

Of course, during the race, one person was always running - and after the race - we had one member (Jane) who had already gone home to attend her son's soccer game.

But aside from that one issue, the day was AWESOME!

(*oh yeah, the half marathon, Sunday, October 14th....
of the ladies above,
I think the five on the left are all doing it too -
looking forward to running alongside (okay, BEHIND) these ladies on Sunday!)