A Little Life, A Little Work, A Little Running

Sorry my postings have been sparse lately.  It's not that we haven't been doing anything, just that I haven't had as much time to write.  I've put in two full weeks at work so far, and that really limits my Internet time.  What a bummer, huh?!

So what's new with us?  Well, not a whole heck of a lot, actually.  Jacob started Karate classes at the YMCA a few weeks ago, and that is going well.  He seems to really enjoy it, and I am very impressed with how laid back and nice everyone is.  The instructors and the other families are all very welcoming and friendly.  We have met some new friends, and I even met up with a few people I haven't seen for a very long time!

We went to my niece's 10th birthday party last night, which was fun.  I know it's cliche, but I can't believe how fast the kids grow.  She's such a beautiful, sweet and smart little girl - soon to be a young woman.  Happy Birthday, Brookie!

Work has been hectic, as is typical for this time of year, but manageable.  This is my second year as a supervisor, and while I still have a LOT to learn, I feel much more comfortable in my position this year than I did last July.  I feel like start-up is off to a much smoother start this year, and I believe that I am not out of line in surmising that the case managers would agree with me.  Those few days each week that I put in over the summer break paid off.  I think next year, I will probably work more than I did this summer, just to make sure I can tie up all the loose ends before we bring the case managers back.  Start-up will always have its stress, no matter how prepared we think we are.  Let's face it, we have 464 children across the entire county who we are registering for the start of classes.  Just the fact that we are working with people - some of whom are facing some unbelievable challenges, and all of whom have children - makes for some interesting situations, to say the least.  But this year has been running pretty smoothly so far.  We are busy, but we aren't fried.  Busy is good.  Fried...well, not so good.

Other than that, it's been the same old same old.  I have been running for almost two months now, and I haven't missed more than two days between runs yet.  Many weeks I run 3-4 days in a row then take a day or two off.  My progress is slow, but it's progress nonetheless.  My emotions tend to vacillate between encouragement and disappointment, but I try to focus more on the encouragement side than the disappointment.

What am I disappointed about?  Well, the speed of my progress, really.  I haven't been able to get past 2.5 miles without stopping for a walk break, which bums me out a little.  But truly, I think that given the heat, and my hip issues, 2.5 miles isn't so bad after all.  I am encouraged that I am running in 90 degree weather and not collapsing, and I am even more encouraged that my hip is holding out OK so far.  It's tender.  I feel it.  I especially feel it if I have been sitting for a long time (like on the computer at work), but it's also tolerable.  I whole-heartedly believe that the foam roller is largely responsible for my progress.  I roll religiously after each run.  It hurts like a son of a b****, but the pay off is worth the pain.  I bought an extra roller to keep at work, so when my hip feels tight in the middle of the day, I just close my door and roll a few minutes in my office.  So far, it seems to be doing the trick, and no one at work has commented on me crying out behind a closed door...kinda makes me wonder if they are hard at work and don't hear me, are afraid to ask, or if they already think I'm strange enough that it doesn't phase them?!

As for the heat, well, I've never been a hot weather runner.  Give me sub-zero temps with blistering wind chills, and I'll still head out, happy as a clam in mud.  But heat and humidity kill my mojo.  So, considering the heat and humidity wave that we've been having, I guess 2.5 miles isn't so bad after all.  This morning it was only 65 degrees when I hit the road and I did 3.20 miles without stopping, hills and all.  Still only at a 10 minute/mile pace, but I got the distance.  Like I said before, I am trying to focus on the progress, not the deficits.  It took me a long while to be able to run 10 miles straight at an 8:30 mile.  I can't expect to jump right  back to where I left off.  Indeed, pushing too hard to go far and fast right away will lead to inevitable injury and set me back even further.  So for today, I am thrilled with my 31 minute, 3.2 mile run.

I spent a good deal of time gathering some new tunes for my running playlist, and weeding out the old songs that I wasn't listening to anymore.  It got to the point that I was spending more time surfing through music on my iPod during runs than I was actually listening to music.  I purchased about 15 songs, which will hold me over for a while, but I am always up for suggestions for more songs.  So if you know of anything upbeat, new or old, please send me the titles!  Once my mileage gets up to where I want it to be, I will need much more than 15 songs on my playlist!

I'm also very impressed with my new kicks.  When I bought shoes earlier in the year, I actually had a sales person who knew what he was talking about.  I have the new Brooks Pure Cadence.  They are lightweight stability shoes.  They are awesome.  They're so comfortable.  It's like wearing socks with cushioning.  They're so lightweight I can hardly feel them on my feet, I can feel the road beneath me, and yet they still provide the stability that I need.  If you're a pronater, I recommend trying out a pair.  They're worth the cash!  I have the bright pink ones, and I've gotten a lot of comments about the color of my shoes.  Several people have asked if they were glow-in-the-dark (they're not).  I've joked that they are my safety shoes - drivers can't miss these shoes!  One day when I was running on my lunch break, the mailman I ran past said, "Whoa.  Pink shoes!"  Haha! They're definitely eye-catching!

And that's it in a nutshell.  Mom and I are headed out to the Martinsburg pool today with the boys.  They don't open until 12, so Andrew and I will only be there for about an hour, and Mom will stay with Jake so he can actually enjoy some swim time.  If you're going to be out in the area, look for me!

Say It Again

I don't remember when I last shared the cute and funny things the kids say on the blog.  If I don't remember when it was, then it has obviously been too long!  Here are some of the conversations I remember from the last few months:

Andrew can be really stingy with hugs and kisses.  He'll be very affectionate one minute and then turn around and tell you, "I'm all out of hugs" a moment later.  A few months ago, we met one of my friends and her son for ice cream.  When we were leaving, she asked Andrew for a high five, but he refused.  I tried to encourage Andrew to give her the high five, but he just wouldn't do it.  Finally, Jake looked at me and said, "Hey, if he won't even kiss his own grandmother, then he's not going to give a stranger a high five!"
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Jacob was exploring the applications on my iPhone one day when he found the stocks app.  He was really excited when he said, "Oh mom!  It's shocks!"  He thought the wiggly line showing surges and declines was actually an earthquake meter on my phone!
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Andrew: "If I eat lots and lots and lots of chocolate, I'll get really super big.  Bigger than you, bigger than Dad.  Big like God!"
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Andrew confuses the phrase "good luck" with "it's a good thing."  He constantly says "good luck" in situations where it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  For example:  "Good luck no water got in my window."  "Good luck we are going on vacation."  "Good luck Sam likes his toys."
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Andrew speak:

Jetson ski = jet ski
Ear bombs = headphones
GNG = TNT (As in the AC/DC song)
Sweet Emotion = blue ocean (Aerosmith)
Vigiger = vinegar
Slipperly = slippery
Hot-n-candy = cotton candy
He says "come" in front of a lot of words for some reason: comeginning (beginning), comesheen (machine).
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I took Andrew to Kohl's with me one day.  He looked around at all the mannequins and said, "Mom!  Look at all the people without heads!"
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When I was weeding our front yard one day, Andrew said, "Do all bushes have horns?"  (It was a rose bush).  I told him only some have thorns.  He then said to himself, "Horns and jackers.  Horns and jackers."  Then he began singing, "I've got the moves like jacker.  I've got the moves like jacker.  I've got the mooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-oves like jacker!"
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Whenever Andrew sees a police car, he says, "Uh-oh.  It looks like there's trouble here."
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Whenever the  boys have a minor injury, I always tell them that they'll live to be married.  One day, Andrew was being particularly rough with Lily, Jacob's hamster.  I told him that he had to be very gentle with her because she could be hurt easily since she is so small.  He looked at me and said, "Oh, well, she'll live to be married."
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One morning my 5 year old niece came to my house early to spend the day with us.  She and Andrew ate cereal bars and drank milk for breakfast, and I made myself a veggie omelet.  She asked me why I was eating eggs, and I told her that I ate them because they are healthy.  She asked a lot of questions about my meal, so I told her if she liked eggs, I would make her some.  "No," she said.  "I only like eggs in cake."
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On a recent drive home from Pittsburgh, Andrew told me he was starving.  To hold him over until we got home, I stopped at Sheetz.  As soon as I pulled in the parking lot he said, "Oh, yeah!  This is a great store for eating!"
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Andrew to Jacob: "Jake, do you know who won the spearmint bass pool?"
Jake: "What?  That doesn't make sense."
Andrew: "Yes it does!  Do you know who won the spearmint bass pool?"
Jake: "Andrew, spearmint is a flavor."
Me: "I think he's asking if you know who won the bass tournament last weekend."
Andrew: "Yeah!  It was dad!"
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Andrew is obsessed with my iPhone, and likewise my mom's iPad.  One day when we left my mom's after he had been playing with her iPad, he said, "Mom, maybe I should get an iPad for Christmas."  I said, "Yeah....maybe you should ask Santa for that."  He got a little upset and said, "But I don't know how to spell iPad!  How am I going to write that on my list!"
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While we were driving one, "Wild Nights" by John Mellencamp came on the radio.  After Andrew heard the line, "Walking out on the street," he said, "Walking out on the street?  That's where cars drive!  They might hit you because you're little and they can't see you!  That's dangerous!"
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That's all I have for now, but stay tuned...there will be more to come, I promise!

What To Do?

This summer we spent almost every free minute on the boat.  If we weren't traveling, or getting together with friends and family, we were boating (usually also with friends and family!)  We were blessed with nice weather this summer, so we didn't really have to worry about storms at all.  We even had our packing streamlined!  The first few times we went on the boat, I took all kinds of stuff and spent a good amount of time getting ready.  By mid-June, I could whip out our supplies in 30 minutes and be out the door!  We got so used to boating on our open days that when we had a day that was cooler and rainy, we couldn't think of a darn thing that we wanted to do!  Seriously.  The weather last weekend wasn't so great.  It was overcast and sporadically raining.  Greg and I sat around for several hours Saturday morning trying to figure out how to occupy ourselves!  And as you saw in my last post, we went out on the water on Sunday despite the storms!  We're hopeless!  

Oh well, if we are hopeless, it's a good kind of hopeless.  I've enjoyed every minute of this summer.  I've gotten absolutely nothing done at home.  Instead of my usual summer cleaning catch-up sessions, I chose to play this year.  Just as I was feeling overwhelmed with the amount of crap I have to do at home, I remembered that I have two broke teenage nieces.  I asked them to do my "spring" cleaning and they accepted!  So now, I am feeling much relief knowing that all my floorboards, woodwork, cupboards, etc will be cleaned, and I can keep on playing!  I guess now it's not a question of whether to work or play, but rather what to play!  It's like being a kid again!  I think the boat will still win out over anything else as long as it can!

Oh, and if you're wondering what we did last Saturday, here it is:  We took Andrew out to the Spring Dam to feed the fish and the ducks.   Then after his nap, Andrew and I walked down to visit my aunt Carmen and meet her new kitty.  It was a pretty laid back day, and just as enjoyable as boating...well, almost! 

Siblings gathering together for warmth on a chilly summer day.  So cute!

See...we can have fun off of the boat! 

I think there are some issues with the Cove ducks.  Either this guy breathed in too much paper mill air, or there's some serious in-breeding going on.  The poor thing was the ugliest duck I've ever seen! 

Fish frenzy.  Oh what a little Dollar Store popcorn can do!  

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Despite an iffy forecast, Greg, my brother-in-law Rob, and I decided to take the kids out on the pontoon boat yesterday.  Now that I'm going back to work, our multiple, mid-week trips to the lake are over, at least until next summer.  We always have so much planned on the weekends, that our pontoon boating in general is going to be very limited now.  We may be able to go out this coming Saturday, but  we wanted to squeeze in another outing while we had the chance.  It was drizzly when we left Hollidaysburg, but by the time we got to Huntingdon, it was humid but dry.  I'm always amazed at how different the weather is at a place that's only 30 miles away.  I guess it's the mountains, or the water...I don't know why, but it's always just a little different.  We hopped on the boat, traveled around and did "boat things" for a while and just when we were getting into our groove, the storms hit.  I can't say I was surprised.  The weather man said there was a chance of scattered thunder storms.  So we packed up our stuff and headed home around 1:30.  4 hours on the boat is better than none!  

  

It started out promising.  After a little ride down the lake, the sun came through the clouds and the gang got in for a swim. 

The kids even swam to the bank and wandered around collecting rocks.

"This sure doesn't look like Michigan's shore line!" 

They swam for over 30 minutes and then decided 

that it was time for some lunch and relaxation under the bimini (or afimaby, as Sharon says!)

And then the rain hit.  

It started slowly, and we thought it would pass, but as you can see, it did not.  When the thunder and lightning started, we had no choice but to get off of the water.  

Even with the rain, the kids had a good time.  

We just bundled up in wet towels and headed home.  

The "boys" (Greg and Rob) stayed to fish and, as is typical for a rainy day, caught us enough fish for both of our families to eat dinner.  All in all, it was a good day.  It could have been longer for the kids and me, but I'm not complaining.  I'll take what I can get!  

Cat Napper

Warm and cozy under the covers.

"What on earth could be important enough to disturb my slumber?"

"I'm not opening my eyes."

"Too comfortable to get up."

"Oh, just scratch my neck a little over here..."

"Purrfect.  Now, let me go back to sleep."

UP North

OK, we weren't actually on the UP, we were on the tip of the lower peninsula in Northern Michigan, but LP North didn't have quite as good of a ring to it!  

Let's start at the beginning...

A few months ago, my friend Linda invited me to visit her in her lake home in Northern Michigan.  Linda and I have been friends since I was 19, a sophomore at Allegheny College.  She was the head of the German Department and I was a student.  I only took one class with her as my professor, but we became friends almost right away.  I should say, she was a good friend and mentor to me.  I don't think it was really until years later that I would consider the friendship to be equal.  At any rate, she took me under her wing throughout my years at Allegheny and we have kept in touch ever since.   For years, she has been asking us to visit her in Michigan, but the timing was just never very good for us.  Even though we wanted to go, it was a long ride, with small children and I just didn't think it would be the best option for us.  This year, however, the timing seemed right.  Jake was going to the beach with my mom.  Andrew is 4 and much easier to handle now than as a toddler.  So we decided to go for it!

 The night before we were planning to leave, we had a major storm blow through our area and wipe out our power.  After hearing all of the horror stories about people along the East coast who had no power for days, we were worried about all the food in our fridge and freezer.  I was afraid that in the morning we would still be out of power and I didn't want to be calling friends and family at 5 a.m to ask if we could use their freezers until we got home.  So at 930 we started moving all of our food to my mom's house and Greg's brother's house.  Just after we were done, what do you think happened?  Yep, the power came back on.  Ugh.  We didn't unload their refrigerators that night.  We left everything until we got back.  It made for quite a busy morning on our first day home!

We didn't want to drive the entire way to Indian River, MI in one day.  We left relatively early on Sunday morning and drove to Sandusky, OH to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge.  Greg had fished many tournaments in Sandusky and had been eyeing up the lodge as a potential place for us to take the kids for years.  It worked out well, because it was almost exactly half way.  The Great Wolf Lodge was great for Andrew.  He had a blast!  It has an indoor water park, an outside pool, two restaurants and an arcade as well as several activities that they do with the kids daily.  Greg and I were a little less than impressed with some it.  The food left a lot to be desired and the staff were all a bit strange...but then again, maybe you have to be a bit off kilter to work in a place like that!  At any rate, we won't stay there again.  It was really too young for Jake anyway.  But Andrew had a lot of fun and that's what mattered for this trip.  Here are some photos:  

Now that's riding in style - neck pillow, ear phones, and a DVD player with Power Rangers movie.  Who could ask for more?

Looking down on the water park from the lobby.

The bed area for the kiddos was cool.  Andrew thought it was the neatest thing ever. 

He gave it a definite "thumbs-up!"

At dinner, they gave him wolf ears.  One of the things that I thought was really odd was that the mascot at the Great WOLF lodge was a raccoon.  They made tons of references to wolves, but I didn't see a single wolf character there, except the stuffed ones in the gift shop.  Hmm...

Andrew begged and begged for a pack of Swedish fish.  I finally caved in and bought him some, only to have a near heart attack when the cashier told me it would be $7.52 for the container!  Damn!

I was the coolest parent in the arcade with my ears, plastic beaded necklace, bracelet and plastic bull.  (Actually, you would think that this would be an unusual sight, but sadly, it was not.  There were plenty of other parents wearing wolf ears and plastic necklaces!)

Monday morning we got back on the road and headed to Michigan.  What a nicer drive the second day was!  Once we got out of the cities, it was just highway and forest.  Calm and serene.  The calm and serene feeling lasted all week long.  Linda and George's home is on Mullett Lake.  It's a beautiful lake in the middle of several water ways.  We spent most of our time on the water.  They have a fantastic (and fast!) ski boat which kept us more than occupied.  We toured the rivers, explored some amazing sand shoals and swam.  In the evenings, we ate dinner on the deck and talked while Andrew threw rocks into the lake and played in the wooded area behind their house.  Andrew was amazingly well behaved the entire time, which was a real blessing.  I hope that Linda and George had as good of a time hosting us as we did visiting!  

Shortly after we arrived on Monday afternoon, we loaded up the boat, took a quick zip around the lake and swam for a little bit.  What a great way to shake of the road! 

"Come on, Koelle!  Get your butt down here so we can get going!"

The water was simply amazing.  I know I keep using that word, but honestly, I was nothing less than amazed throughout the trip.  The water was so clear and blue-green, if I didn't know better, I would have thought I was in the Caribbean!  The bottom of the lake wasn't slimy and rocky like our lakes, but was rather covered in sand!  It was like visiting an ocean without the salt! 

This is the mouth of the Cheboygan River, which also lead into the Black River, where Linda's sister lives.  It was pretty neat to take the boat across the lake and through the rivers to visit her family!

Some trees popping through the surface of the Black River.  Beautiful, isn't it?

An old restored boat we saw along the Black River.  

Andrew, loving his seat at the front of the boat! 

Now that's some wide open space! 

We took some "science" activities for Andrew.  He had fun showing Linda the baking soda and vinegar experiment, but mostly, he loved throwing rocks into the lake and battling the trees in their back yard!

We saw some gorgeous sunsets from their deck.

This is one of their kitties.  Unfortunately, the cats are not used to little ones and it would be an understatement to say they hated us.  Can't you see the contempt in her face, "What the hell are you doing here?"  

There were also a lot of loons in the area.  

Greg go to do some fishing too, which was the "cake topper" to his vacation.  He didn't catch any fish in this spot, but he did catch several bass at Linda's sister's house on the Black River.  We had them for dinner on our last night there!  Yum! 

Linda and me on the last night, looking happy, but a little beat up from the sun and wind.  My camera ran out of batteries right after this shot, so I don't have the photos of all four of us together.  George is supposed to email them to me and I'll share them soon.

Cutting it a little close on gas on the way home, with an estimated 3 miles before puttering to a dead stop on an empty tank! 

We made it home in one day.  It took almost exactly 12 hours for us, including stops.  Andrew was great in the car.  He didn't complain or have any tantrums at all.  That's a lot for a 4 year old!  Greg and I had more behavior problems than he did!  As soon as we crossed the Pennsylvania boarder, the speed dropped 5 miles an hour and the rain began.  Seriously, rain hit our windshield immediately after the sign, "Welcome to Pennsylvania."  Ugh.  Actually, we need the rain, but it's hard to come home to dreary, cloudy weather after so many beautiful days out on the water.  

We can't wait to get back to Michigan.  Greg already has plans for next year, but in the meantime we will have to get by on some lovely memories.  Thanks, Linda, for hosting.  We had a wonderful time!