Project 365: Day 90 - March 30

And now for my next trick...

Burley Game 1

These pics show the progression - lasting about 30 seconds - from when Caroline (in the orange sleeves with pink t-shirt at the right side) recognized the need for help and the ball leaving the opponent's stick!

Project 365: Day 89 - March 29

Orange Crush Game 1

Two quotes from today's game:

I hope we're undefeated this year...

and...

You know that girl who was defending against me in the game? She said she felt really tall.

10-Miler 2008

Here we are before the race!

It was a wonderful day for a run - though mighty cold! No sleet or snow, so I won't complain.

Morgan and I started out running together, only because she needed a friendly running partner for the start. We managed to stay together for not even an eighth of a mile - just past the first turn, when our friend Erin popped up. Morgan took off with her and left me to run with myself.

My hope for the race was to finish, and to finish having run my average mile under 12 minutes - which would put me in front of the 12-minute-mile pace car. Not a very lofty goal at all, but certainly one that fit my training!

I stuck with the trusty Galloway method of running and walking. It worked so well for me last November in the OBX half that I really won't be able to give it up until I can get some really consistent training in - which I figure will be in about 10 years!

The race itself was great - the course is challenging, yet relaxing, too. Of course, I can say this having run slower than almost everyone else! But, to me, it is a relaxing race. The company was great too -once Morgan left me, I found myself in the periodic company of our school principal! She had signed up just the night before - what a champ! Anyway, I say periodic because while she was running the whole way with no walking - I was doing my running -walking thing. It's got to be annoying to some people to have someone do that - in fact, until I tried it I never understood why anyone would ever walk in a race! Ha, that was before I was so pitifully out of shape! Anyway, having Ashby to run with made the race that much better.

So we're running along and every so often there's music to run by, or pink ladies to cheer us, and lots of volunteers yelling the most encouraging things. With all that to distract me, all of the sudden I found myself crossing the street and facing the last hill - all that was left was to go over the railroad bridge and to the finish line.

It was all I could do to get myself up over that hill - then I saw Morgan. I heard David say to her - "run with her but don't talk to her" - funny, but true. I get a little cranky when I'm finishing a long race! But when I saw her I started asking about her time and how she felt, then came the finish line and I was done!

Thank goodness! I'm not sure I could have gone another step! Being almost the last person to finish everyone else was there waiting! It turns out that my non-runners worried about each of us when we weren't coming as soon as they thought we should be! They must have really been worried about me!!

Here's Carter's dad after running his very first road race ever! He rocked! Next stop - OBX!!!!

Here's my girl, who also rocked! She looked strong and knocked a few minutes off of last year's time!

Morgan and David kept lookout for me and ran me in -wasn't that nice?! You can tell that Morgan is telling me to look at the camera and smile for LF who was pulling double duty taking pictures and keeping track of Carter and all our non-running kids!! Ha - what a kidder! It was all I could do to cross that finish line!!

Project 365: Day 88 - March 28

We were treated today to a performance by each of the 4th grade classes! Each class wrote the lyrics to 2 songs which were then taken by the Lyrics Alive duo and put to music. Because schools were closed Thursday the students had to learn the songs on Friday morning and be ready to perform them Friday afternoon!

The songs really touched on the highlights of their year - there were two songs about their trip to Camp Albemarle, and songs about eagles, birds at the window, Mars, shad, and recess.

Project 365: Day 87 - March 27

Orange Crush Practice Pics

Project 365: Day 86 - March 26

Will dyed his very first Easter eggs - today.

Morgan assured me that there is no real rule about when to dye eggs, so it was okay that we didn't do it before Easter. I could have packed up the dye kits (again) to wait for next year, when we're sure to have even more time on our hands (ha!), but we decided to go ahead and do it tonight!


The boy had fun. He wanted to make them into yellow eggs - that's his term for scrambled eggs - and handled it well when we told him they were already cooked!

Wednesday Work Walk

Katherine's class had a river work walk planned for today and her teacher asked me to come along!

After gathering all their supplies and going over who had which job, the kids walked across the soccer field to the path that leads down to the river. Once there, K's teacher had the kids sit silently on the benches so they could look and listen to their surroundings. They were supposed to try to see or hear something new.

Afterwards, they were to share what they heard or saw with a classmate. Katherine and this boy exchanged looks at stones and bark!

Then they were free to come down to the river to begin their jobs! There were photographers, water testers, temperature takers, waste water collectors, etc.






After all the data was collected and recorded the students were asked to write about what they observed at the river. K's teacher was very specific to ask them to relate their findings to other things rather than to just write that they saw a snail, or a frog, or a rock.



Once they were finished writing, the kids headed back up through the trail to recess!

Project 365: Day 85 - March 25

Project 365: Day 84 - March 24

Here's Caroline's handmade sushi plate.

You might remember this post, and might remember wondering what on Earth that was.

Some of the moms took their middle school girls for a night out several weeks back. We started out at The Glass Palette and ended up eating at Tip Top. A great time!

The girls had great fun creating their glass wonders - One made a set of coasters, two made round plates; one with a horse and one with a chicken, and mine made the sushi plate!

The owner was even kind enough to give us a gift certificate for our elementary school's upcoming silent auction.

The moms decided it would be fun to go back sans kids - so I might have to bid on that gift certificate!

Project 365: Day 83 - March 23

We all love the flowers!

All but Caroline, who demanded her allergy medicine as soon as we brought these and two other vase-fulls into the house!

Easter

It's Easter Day now. After eating dinner at Grandmama and Granddaddy's we all went outside for the egg hunt. Hunters included Will, Katherine & Caroline! Morgan was the Hider!

Will left his basket behind after falling and spilling the contents into the grass! He then went off to find more eggs and came back with an armful!

I have to wonder how much longer this one will join in the hunt! She sure does enjoy the fun!

It's getting more and more difficult to get these four children to sit still and smile nice smiles long enough to get a picture. So this is what we get for this Easter. I am so thankful that I have one last holdout daughter who will let me dress her cute! Notice the lack of bow though.

Project 365: Day 82 - March 22

Run for Life 2008

I can't remember how many times we've run this race, but it has become somewhat of a tradition for the girls to join me for this one race. We all ran it together last year, with Morgan going all out, Katherine running with me and Caroline walking with Valorie.

This year Morgan ran all out again, coming in at 26 minutes and 3rd in her age division. That's her behind the runner in the hat.

Caroline took some nudging but ended up running by herself for the second half and finished in just under 36 minutes.

Katherine, her friend Marnie and I ran and walked with our goal being to beat the "dude in the dress" and his friends. Once we were sure to beat them (by a looong way!), I suggested that they try to beat the woman in the pink shirt, which they did. Little did I know she was cancer survivor - boy did I feel bad.

Oh well, these little girls finished their race in just over 40 minutes!

With Starbucks and Panera at the end everyone was a winner!

Valorie and Cassandra joined us again this year!

Project 365: Day 81 - March 21

No school today. It should have been a free and easy day. But no. It wasn't.

Morgan had to be at school by 9 for her envirothon team practice, and then stay there all day until it was time to join her lacrosse team for their game. We laid low until noon when we headed over to Bill and Carolyn's for a delicious lunch and (finally!) a tour of their new house! Then we headed to pick up one of K's friends for a last minute sleepover, and went on to Morgan's game. After picking up our race packets we ate a quick dinner and headed home.

So nice to be home.