Field Trip with Lauren

Friday I took the day off and headed to Carolyn's pumpkin patch with Lauren's 1st grade class.  It was a gorgeous day and I had so much fun hanging out with Lauren and watching her interact with all her little friends.  I had 4 other kids that I had to keep on eye on...they were a really great group.  

Here is her whole class.  She has a few friends from Kindergarten, and she is already making lots of new friends.  

Zooming up on her...

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We toured around the animals...peacocks, goats, chickens, pigs, donkeys, then headed out down the slide.  

I think I took a picture of Lauren in EVERY one of these things out at the pumpkin patch.  What is it about these that the kids love? 

Then we took a ride out to the pumpkins so each kid (and Moms too) could pick out a pumpkin to take home.  

After lunch Mrs. O attempted another group picture...it was sort of a crazy mess!  

Lauren posed for a few for me.  Don't you love her shirt?  They made them in class a few weeks ago and they were perfect for the pumpkin patch.  

We spent about an hour after lunch playing on this playground area.  I kept an eye on my little group, but it took me literally 10 minutes to find one of my boys...he kept getting away from me! 

All the 1st grade classes were out there, so Lauren and Gabriella got to play as well.  

I love this picture of Lauren.  Posing perfectly, holding her pumpkin for me.  She is such a sweetie.  

We hit the train before heading back to school.  Lauren is sitting next to Taylor and Sean.  Her and Taylor seem to be pretty good friends.  We had a great day at the pumpkin patch and I am so glad my name got picked to be a parent volunteer.  

More Fun in Omaha

So most of these pictures were taken with my I-phone, so they are a little blurry, but you get the idea.  We stayed at the Hilton in downtown Omaha and it was a gorgeous hotel.  Of course, as soon as we arrived the girls changed into their swimsuits and started jumping from bed to bed.  

Lauren absolutely loves swimming now and would have Mark throw her in the pool over and over again.  He loves it as much as she does.  

Addison was attached to Rae Ann all weekend...you know, your cooler older cousin that you want to be like.  Rae Ann adores Addison and Lauren as much as my girls adore her.  

Saturday night we enjoyed a pasta dinner prior the the race.  The guest speaker at the pasta dinner was Dane, who ran 52 marathons in 52 weekends!  Can you even believe that?  His talk was great, super inspiring and motivating, and truly to Mark and I who have taken up running pretty regularly now.  

Addison refused to take any pictures with me at the finish line after the race, but was completely cooperative at I-hop right before breakfast.  

and of course funny faces.  Love these girls!  

Omaha Half Marathon

Half Marathon #2 is done!  On paper it looked like an easier race, but personally it was harder than the Kansas City Half Marathon I ran last fall.  Last fall I ran the KC half marathon just to complete a half marathon.  Today, I ran to race.  Race against my self.  Beat my time from last year...and I did by over 4 minutes.  (This is my unofficial time.  A half marathon is 13.1 miles.  My Garmin read 13.26 miles at the end of the race with a time of 2:14:20...well that is .126 farther than a half marathon.  So, when I uploaded my run and my Garmin read 13.1, my time was 2:13.  So in my head, that is my half marathon time for today.  Clear as mud for all you non-runners???)  

When I decided to do this race, I convinced Mark to stay in a hotel near the starting line.  We stayed at the Hilton and it was one block away from the starting line.  It was swarming with runners this morning.  It was awesome.  The girls were up before I left, I am sure you are not surprised.  They are early risers.  It was great to get lots of hugs and kisses before heading out!  

The route was basically a figure 8 so I looped around our hotel three times.  Mark, Grandma Harding and the girls just hung out at the hotel, stayed warm inside and cheered me on!  I saw them at the very beginning, about 1/2 mile into the race, and not again until almost 6 1/2 miles.  

This route had a killer hill from about 7 1/2-10 miles, so I knew I would loose a lot of time in that 2 1/2 miles.  So I broke the golden rule of running and ran much faster than I should have the first 6 miles.  I wanted to finish the first 6 miles under 1 hour and I did.  It was around 58 minutes.

Mile 1- 9:37

Mile 2- 9:39

Mile 3-9:44

Mile 4-9:31

Mile 5- 9:42

Mile 6- 9:45

I rarely keep that good of a pace at any race.  I was very impressed and felt pretty good.  I had a side cramp early on that seemed to subside about this time.  The first half of the race was pretty boring as far as scenery.  We did run to Creighton, and that was the highlight and very pretty.  Otherwise if was old neighbors with foul smelling sewers...yep, seriously.  Yuck.  

Then Mark and the girls were waiting for me again at mile 6 1/2.  It was so great to see them and feel so good half way into the race.  

It was all downhill from there...and not literally speaking.  Shortly after seeing them my mental state changed. I know it would be another hour..mile 12...before I would see them again and I knew I have a 2 1/2 mile  hill to climb.  Around mile 7 I started to notice my calf muscles cramping up...it was awful.  Right before I started the 2 1/2 mile climb I pulled off and stretched my calf muscles for a few seconds.  

Mile 7- 9:47

Mile 8-10:27

Mile 9- 11:29

Yep, see that mile 9.  Killer hills at that point.  I think I could have walked faster then I was running.  I will say the spectators at this point were awesome.  There was a group of high school cheerleaders that were a lot of fun on the long, never ending hill.  

When I got to the top I stopped again to stretch my calf muscles.  They felt awful.  So incredibly tight, it was so painful.  I have never felt that much pain.  A few minutes later a group of guys passed me.  I noticed them because they had on some funny looking clothes.  All 4 or 5 of them had on a black and plaid button up shirt over their running clothes..and one guy had sparkles all over the back of his shirt.  I barely heard them laughing and carrying on over my music and one guy tapped me on the shoulder.

He asked how I was doing and why I was not talking to them.  I told him I had to have my music going so I would not collapse.  I told him my calf muscles were killing me and I was slowing down because of that.  He said,  you are low on sodium.  You need more salt.  Well, I do not and have not ever ran with salt pills.  Well he pulled out a whole bag of goodies and gave me a salt pill.  

One of the other guys joked around and said "didn't your Mom teach you not to talk to strangers and not to take candy from them...especially little white pills."  There was also a joke thrown in about a little blue pill as well...They were a great group of guys.  I told them I was "just" running the half marathon and not the full and now guy turned around and said "there is not just.   You are running the half."  He was right!

I did not take the salt pill right away because I did not have any water...so the guy gave me his water bottle, told me to take the salt pill and drink all the water.  Well, I did not drink all the water, but I did take the salt. It seemed to loosen up my calf muscles for a good mile or so...I wish I had a few more there at the end.

This is one of the reason why I love running so much.  Runners a great people, always cheering others on and helping everyone out.  This guy pulled back with me for 1/2 a mile or so..then caught up with his buddies  It really helped my run.  

Mile 10- 10:11

Once I hit mile 10 it was downhill and flat.  I knew all I had left was a 5K and I was ready.  That was about the time the salt pill wore off and my calf muscles felt EVEN worse.  Oh my I was in so much pain.

Mile 11- 10:26

Mile 12- 11:00

I was so glad to see Mark, Grandma Harding and the girls at Mile 12.  I yelled at Mark to put the *amn camera away, the I was dying and did not feel like I could go another mile.  Hugs and kisses from the girls and a pep talk from him put a little spring in my step...for maybe 1/4 of a mile.  At that point my stomach started cramping, but not like it hurt and I needed to do to the bathroom...it felt like the pain in my calf muscles.  The last mile was tough, painful, hard, draining, exhausting, and a reminder that if I ever think about  signing up for a marathon...please stop me :)  

Mile 13- 10:17 and so happy to be done.  

Mark and the girls had to walk very quickly to the finish line since they just saw me at mile 12.  I was so thrilled to see that they had made it and could see me finish.  And, I was so thrilled to be done.  This race hurt.  I pushed hard, I met the goals I wanted to meet and there are no regrets at all.  

We saw some old college friends at the finish line, which was awesome.  We hung around for a while getting some snacks, talking to Murphy and Mo (nicknames of our old college friends) and listening to the announcement of the first marathoner finishing in 2:37...oh my word that is fast.  

I absolutely love the signs.  

Overall, I am very pleased with this race, but it was painful.  The weather was perfect, but pretty cold.  It was 34 degrees at the starting line and 41 degrees at the end, but sunny and no wind.  Mark, Grandma Harding, and the girls were able to go back into the hotel and stay warm while I ran.  

Afterwards, I showered up and headed to I-Hop for brunch with Mark's family. I wore my shirt and my medal proudly.  I was looking forward to biscuits and gravy and sausage.  It was a huge disappointment.  It tasted awful...such a let down.  

So on the way out of town, we stopped at a gas station and a I grabbed this.  The perfect snack for after the race.  

It was a great weekend and a great race.  We headed home and that was tough to be stuck in the car for 3 1/2 hours, but we made it.  

1st Grade

I wanted to take some time to remember how proud we are of Lauren right now.  Mark and I feel very blessed to have a smart, talented, hard working child.  Lauren is doing a tremendous job in 1st grade and we could not be more proud.  Mark and I truly believe this is a time to build and develop important school skills and lessons that will carry Lauren very far in life.  I know it is only 1st grade, but she has done amazing so far. 

 

She is required to read 75 minutes a week and she has been reading over 150 minutes each week and last week was 190!  She comes home and starts reading when I am fixing dinner almost every night.  She usually takes Tuesday and Thursday nights off because she has other homework and gymnastics, but we usually make up that time on the weekends.  You can usually find Addison right beside her listening to the story Lauren is reading.  It is priceless. 

 

I look through each and every paper that comes home at night (and end up shredding a lot of them...don't we all!) The ones I keep are the writing papers.  After Mrs. Ostrander reads to the class they have to write about the book, what they are thinking, feeling, seeing, etc.  Her little stories about the stories are very creative and it really shows that she is listening and comprehending the books. 

 

Her math skills have taken off this year.   They are working on a lot of addition right now and almost very page has a 100% on it.  She never has math homework, so that means she is finishing it all at school. 

 

Every Monday she has a spelling pre test.  If you pass on Monday you don't have to take it again on Friday and you don't have to study spelling words all week. 

Lauren has passed the first 5 tests on Monday morning this year.  100% each week on Monday morning with the PRE TEST!  Way to go Lauren. 

 

Don't you just love her teacher? 

 

I don't even know what some of those terms mean on this first test, but all I know it that it is 100% and a score of 3 is an "A."  I am most proud of her handwriting being an "A."  That is definitely something she could improve on and it looks like she is starting to already. 

 

As I mentioned before, gymnastics has started up again.  This picture is from a birthday party at her gymnastics place.  She has improved tremendously over the last few years on the bar and it has become one of her favorite events.  She was asked to do competitive gymnastics, but she told me she does not want to.  She told me she just likes to go once a week for fun, so that is what we do.  She is very strong and very good at several things in gymnastics, so maybe one day she will want to do competitive.  We will see.

 

Religion class starts on Wednesday night (I will take Addison to dance, Mark will take Lauren to Religion class) and girl scouts starts next Tuesday night!  This year is off to a great start! 

Wordless Wednesday

2 Weeks From Tomorrow

September 23rd I will be running my second half Marathon up in Omaha.  I started training shortly after we returned from our Summer vacation back at the end of June.  I decided to follow a level 1 training program, rather than the beginners program, since after all, this is my 2nd half marathon!  Mark warned me a few weeks ago that I might get burnt out and that I might have started training too early.  I had that thought in the back of my mind, but figured I wanted to step it up and follow a more intense training.

Fast forward to school starting and all the back to school activities.  Meet the Teacher night, curriculum night, Back to School BBQ, skate night, PTA Fall Carnival, gymnastics on Tuesdays, dance on Wednesdays, religion class on Wednesdays, parent teacher conferences, etc...

Things have gotten pretty crazy in the last 3 weeks.  At the end of August I knew I was ready to run a half marathon.  I started searching for one at the end of September.  With all the back to school craziness and activities at night I knew it was going to be very hard to train for the next 7 weeks.  (The KC 1/2 marathon is October 20th.)  

I found the Omaha half marathon and know it would be perfect....just look below.  

Seriously, why did I ever run the KC 1/2 marathon?  Look at those hills...The Omaha 1/2 marathon should be a breeze (or at least I can hope!)  Many people have mentioned that the KC 1/2 marathon is one of the toughest and after looking a several over the last several weeks, I believe them.  Once I saw the elevation of the Omaha half, I signed up!  

Although Mark's family lives up there, we are going to stay at a hotel right at the starting line.  That will be so great to wake up and just walk right down to the starting line.  The girls can swim all night at the hotel and can easily come down to the race to cheer me on!  It is going to be a great weekend.  

I stepped up my training and did 9 miles on Sunday September 9th and 11 miles this morning.  Oh my word my legs were not happy.  I had a total of 32 miles this week.  I ran 32 miles in one week.  That is just crazy. Last week I ran 19 miles.  So, I really stepped it up this week and did 6 miles on Tuesday on the treadmill...utter torture, and I got up at 4:30 Thursday morning and did 6 miles before work.  Back to school BBQ was that night and I knew I would not want to run after getting home from work around 8:00.  

My 11 mile run today was tough.  Especially at around mile 7 and very far from home my legs really started yelling at me.  As I finished the last 4 miles my legs ached, and the pain continued slowly up my legs into my knee, quads, hips, and even my back.  I came home and stretched for a good 30 minutes.  I was sore.  But tonight, I feel great.  

Now it is time to taper and rest up for this half marathon.  Shorter runs during the week and some cross training is my plan.  I will do 8 miles on Saturday and continue to taper the week of the half marathon.  

I am looking forward to a new route and the challenge of a half marathon again. Wish me luck!  

Dance

Dance class started tonight..and oh my word it was SO CUTE.  

We signed Addison and Jenna up together since they are best friends.  They did so good.  Jenna's Mom, Denise, and I just could not believe how well they did.   They just march right in, sat down and did not look back.  No tears, just fun!  Yea for Addison and Jenna.  

I am sure there will be several more pictures and stories to come.  It was a great first night at dance!  

Labor Day Weekend

It was a great unofficial end of summer.  We managed to fill the weekend up with all kids of fun activities.  

I took the girls to a birthday party Saturday afternoon.  My friend, Kelly's daughter, Quinn turned 2.  She had a Minnie Mouse pony party.  

Thank goodness the rain stopped (it rained for over 24 hours straight!)  The girls loved the pony rides.  

Lauren was not so sure of herself standing next to the pony.  Whenever it moved she jumped and was freaked out.  Yes, she changed clothes...apparently her's were a little wet.  

Addison is always willing to pose and smile.  

We hit the pool Sunday afternoon and saw tons of friends.  That is one thing I love about Lee's Summit.  It is small enough that you generally see someone you know everywhere you go.  

Addison went around the baby pool twice getting every little inch of the bricks wet...all around the whole pool...twice.  It was hilarious.  She was very focused and determined.  The girl can entertain herself anywhere with anything.  

Monday Mark went golfing so I took the girls to the zoo.  

We covered the whole zoo again.  The new tiger exhibit was pretty neat, and we enjoyed the skyfari in Africa.  We lasted until after 1:00 and at that point we were all hot and tired!