Are you kidding me?!

For the last 7 years, my children have attended Sangre Ridge Elementary school. Teagan will be in 1st grade next year so by the time she's finishing her 5th grade year we will have been at Sangre for 13 consecutive years.

So Stillwater is growing. Apparently growing so much that Sangre is overflowing with students compared to the other schools in town. So there have been some changes made to the boundary lines and those changes were announced today.

According to the map Sadie and Teagan will no longer be Sangre Ridge students. I don't like change. I really don't. I know this will be fine but it's change and I just don't like it.

We are less than a block from the boundary line for Sangre, but it doesn't matter. We're now in the Westwood district and the girls will travel past their old school to get to their new one.

This affects lots of kids so they'll know people at Westwood. I still don't like it though. Sangre is like home. I know all the teachers. I know the staff. I know where everything is. I'm comfortable having my kids there. I'm comfortable there. It's not about me though. Right? This is going to be fine. Right?

Marathon Highlights

Yep, slacker. That's right. I got sidetracked reading some books and working and well...just with life in general I guess and haven't had a chance to blog. Oh well, what can ya do?!

I have been meaning to update with the rest of my Vermont 1/2 marathon details. So here ya go...

On Saturday we went into one of the small towns that we were to run through where there was a small tent set up with 1 guy answering questions about the run. It was a far cry from the huge expo we attend the day before the OCK Memorial Marathon but that run has 16,000 entrants and this one was like 2,700 so that makes sense. The guy drew the course on a map and Brad and I drove it to see what was in store.

The elevation looked really good on the computer but let me tell you...Vermont is hill-y! There was only one really super steep hill but the entire course was winding and up and down quite a bit.

On Sunday, we had to be at the run by 8:00 in order to catch a bus to the start of the run. So then we get there, to the start, and we wait. And wait and wait and wait. Seriously, that was the worst. I think I just had my mind all focused and ready but we got there at about 8:30 or a little before and it didn't even start until 10:15! And there was no cell phone service in the mountains so I just had to sit there. And wait.

Brooke on my running blog recently told me about a trick from Glen-the-trainer for shin splints. So I did my regimen of applying Icy Hot to my shins and am happy to report that my shins felt great throughout the run. By mile 7 though my left knee started hurting a bit, I think from the downhill work. Then by mile 10 my hips started feeling like they might fall off. You know like a chicken that you cook and it's so tender that you just barely touch it and the leg comes off? That's what I thought would happen to my legs. Honestly.

Brad ran with me and bless his heart he pushed me as hard as he could but I honestly just finally gave up on myself. It was a hard course, he even said it before I did. Near the end we were walking and he asked if I could walk fast and I told him no but I could run slow. And seriously, my running pace at that point was his walking pace. That's how bad it was. And then there was this crazy lady named Sue from Chicago that we'd met under the tent the day before and she was loud and obnoxious and we passed her near the end and I just could NOT let her beat me and she did. (Although, according to her net time I actually did beat her so there Crazy Sue!)

The worst was the nausea. I always tend to get sick to my stomach in the last mile. Especially when I do a bit of a sprint towards the finish line. This time though, it started at about mile 6 and just got worse and worse. I was on the verge of throwing up for at least an hour after the run.

Looking at my time, it really wasn't nearly as bad as I feel it could have been considering how I felt. I am just disappointed in my results and the fact that I felt so "off" for basically the entire run. I am hoping to really get on track with cross training and building all my other muscles so that I at least FEEL decent for my next half in November!

The good news is that Vermont was beautiful and now we can say we've been there. I love traveling and seeing places we've never visited before. I took a lot of photos (or course!) that you can see in my
flickr album. Enjoy!

Wedding Shower

We had the wedding shower for Tarissa yesterday. You remember, the one that I sent out the invites for and put the
wrong day of the week on them? Yep, that one. Well, it was yesterday and it was a nice time.

I actually went on Saturday too because one of the other hostesses called me all frantic because the restaurant where it was to be held called her all frantic saying that someone had dropped off a gift for the shower that afternoon and they thought it was on Sunday. At least that's the story I got from her. I'm wondering if they were really that frantic because when I went up there they all acted like it hadn't been that big of a deal to them. Um, ok. At any rate, she was concerned that all sorts of people would show up on Saturday instead of Sunday and since that would have been my fault I offered to go sit up there for a bit to turn away anyone that came and encourage them to come again Sunday. Luckily, no one showed and it gave me a chance to get out and run some errands so it all worked out.

I still can't believe Tarissa is getting married in a couple of weeks. I remember when she couldn't drive yet and we couldn't wait for her to start so we didn't have to drive her back to her house that was so far away. Now she's not only driving but she's graduated both high school and college and is going to be tying the knot! I told her yesterday not to be having kids anytime soon because it would probably just throw me over the edge.

For the rest of the photos you can view them here.

Sadie Bug turns 8

Once again...Wow!

Sadie turned 8 today. Unbelievable. I'll have to post more about it another time because right now we're picking up the living room so the kids can sleep downstairs. We got home from dinner to find that the upstairs a/c is not working and it's currently 88 degrees!

I'll leave you with this though. A screaming 2 month old Sadie with me and my Mom hair and post-pregnancy body. A far cry from how we've both grown over the last 8 years!

Exhausted with a capital E

I just told Hubby that I thought I could sleep for the next week. He said that I got a good amount of sleep last night. Which is true. But I think the week leading up to this trip and then some late nights before the run have just hit me hard.

I'm actually sitting in Chicago Midway airport right now and having bought a new book because I finished the other one I brought, I'm getting ready to start it. We had a light breakfast at the hotel this morning and then McD's for lunch before leaving the airport in New Hamphshire. We got her a while ago and I was dying for some nachos so Hubby and I split some but they just didn't do the trick. So here I sit hungry, sore, and exhausted. I miss my bed.

Vermont was just beautiful but the run was awful. No injuries to speak of but it was really hard. The course was hard. And I was very disappointed in my attempt. I did manage to finish but not because I wanted to. If Hubby hadn't been there with me I think I would have probably just walked to the finish line. I didn't even have a final push for that sprint to the finish line once it came in to view.

I'll update again in the next couple of days with more details about the trip and Vermont. Thanks to those of you who were thinking about me on Sunday. Without your thoughts and prayers there's no telling how poorly I might have done!