Hmmm...

As I sit here, perusing reading and phonics curriculum for Ali, math curriculum for Isabella and editing a paper for Jimmy, I am struck with the idea that I should rename my blog (or maybe name our homeschool)

K to PhD and Everything in Between!

Birthday Girl

Five years ago today, God blessed us with our sweet little Ali-cat!

Being with you and watching you grow has been nothing but a joy for all of us!

Happy Birthday, Ali! We love you!

Puppy

After MONTHS of waiting, the girls finally have their dog! We don't have a name chosen yet, but are tossing around several, hopefully one of them will stick! He is TINY - he only weighed 1.6 pounds when we took him to the vet! He is sweet and playful and sleeps alot!

On your mark....

Once a year, the Navy hosts a run that allows runners to cross the Coronado Baybridge. It is a 4 mile run, and if you slow down and enjoy the moment, allows for some fabulous views of downtown San Diego and Coronado. I wasn't able to do the Valentine 10K with Jimmy that I had trained for, thanks to my hernia! So, the race today was my first "official" race. We were able to get in a few pictures, but it was hard to stop in the middle of all of the runners without getting run over, literally! We had a good time and I ran my four miles in record time - well, a record for me anyway!

PS - I discovered from these pictures that my nose flares when I run. Lovely.

Rumors

The rumors are true. We are getting a dog, in June to be specific. Here are some pictures from our second visit to see him. Yes, him. Jimmy needs some testosterone in the house, and the male dogs cost less than the females!

Little Miss

Just sayin'

Me: "Ali, how was the park? Did you have a good time?"

Ali: "No, I didn't have a good time, but I got used to it."

Wow, it has been a long time since my last post probably because I am REALLY busy! We are still homeschooling and still LOVING it! I am extremely grateful for all the parents who have gone before me and made it possible, even easy, to homeschool.

Today I took the girls and a laminated world map to Whole Foods. They each found a piece of produce they had never seen before and we looked up the country it had come from. Bella chose red currents from Chile and Ali found some toe-like mushrooms from Korea. There was a music display with cds of music from around the world (Brazil, France, American Blues) and so we listened to the music while wefound the countries on the map. We found a lot of countries to look up in the coffee section (Ethiopia, Costa Rica, El Salvadorto name a few) and the girls had fun smelling (and spilling) the beans in the open containers. The girls helped me choose some coffee to try and I had them write the name of the coffee on the bags for the cashier. Ali chose "Eye Opener." She could only manage to write "eye" but the cashier figured it out and I had a proud moment! The Whole Foods here has mini shopping carts for the kids and so the girls had fun pushing their own cart as we explored the store. Isabella ran into Ali's ankles FOUR times, but let's not focus on that! I probably looked like a crazy lady with my map and two kids going in two directions with their carts, as we stopped in the aisles to discuss geography, but we had fun! My goal with home school is to teach the girls how to learn, not just how to do well in school. I am discovering that the way to do this focuses less on finding answers and more on training the girls to ask questions, to actually think!

After Whole Foods, we went to the gym on base, which has an area where the girls can play while I exercise. When we were walking back out to the car, Isabella found some coins on the ground. They were from Bahrain and Quebec and so I pulled out the map and we looked those countries up too!

Say it Loud, Say it Proud

Ignore my previous post.

I woke up this morning significantly more uncomfortable than I was yesterday. I knew I couldn't run today, even though I wanted to, when the first thing I did when I got out of bed was take an 800 milligram Motrin. I decided to go the doctor not beacause I couldn't handle the pain, but because I wanted whatever is wrong with my hip to be made well as quickly as possible so that I can run again. Soon. As in a couple of days. Or tomorrow.

I head to the doctor, he asks his questions, pokes my hip several times(which felt like someone poking a really tender bruise), does some crazy manipulations of my hips and informs me that "You can start running again in 4 to 6 weeks, maybe." Whaaaaaaat???? That was not what I wanted to hear! "The injury you have is caused by running, specifically increasing your distance or pace in too short an amount of time." Ha! I have increased my distance in the last two weeks and dropped my pace average by almost a minute! "I was doing so well" I tell him. "I am on a roll, this is going to totally screw it up!" I then began to negotiate with him about how I could get back to running sooner. Ice it? Elliptical? Stretching? What if I just run a little, or not as fast? And as I am trying get his permission to continue an activity which is making it painful to sit, much less run, then, my friends, I realize

I AM NOW OFFICALLY A RUNNER!

What's in a Name?

I have been running for one year. When I started last October to prepare for a turkey trot I never imagined how much I would come to enjoy running!
I have asked myself many times at what point does one become an official runner. When can you call yourself a runner without feeling like a poser? People who run marathons are clearly runners. People who run 5,6,7 miles as if they were out for a Sunday walk are runners. People who think running is easy are runners. I will say that running has gotten easier, but it still isn't easy. I feel like a fraud calling myself a runner, even though I have run in the snow, in the sunshine, in a 15 degree windchill, along the beach, along the mountains, at 7,000 feet and at 7 feet. I now run on vacations, in the middle of moves and set my alarm to get up at 6AM so that I can get in a run before my day begins. I even check the tide schedule for the sole purpose of determining if I can run on the beach or if I need to run on the pavement. However, those things don't make me feel "official." They never made me feel like I had earned the right to call myself a runner. But, today as I hobbled around the house, feeling my hip click thanks to IT band bursitis and as I painted my toes the darkest color I own to cover the bruising under my big toe nails I decided, that I can, with no shame, call myself a runner.