So, it's over with. I ran the Madison Marathon and whoo...it was hard. I ran it in 4 hours and 5 minutes and I ran the whole time. My knee was sore the next few days, but I did it!
The very best part of the whole thing was seeing Ryan's enormous smile as I crossed the finish line. It was the best! The pizza wasn't so bad either.
We have been working on a new website for the school as well as a new blog. Check it out:
www.swmsracine.org. You can access the blog from the site.
Have a great day!
I can't believe my Meyer bear is now a first grader! Where did the time go? He is really getting to be such a big boy and such an enjoyable big boy. 
We were super excited that Ryan's Grandma Schaal could be at his graduation. She is such an important person in our lives and it meant the world to Ryan, as well as Meyer to have her there with us. I was also elated to show her my school and introduce her to everyone, but it's really Mally who has the special relationship with her!
Next year will be the first time that Meyer has been at a place where I am not. I am sure he will do great and I too will adapt. There has been some challenges this year in having him so close to me, but as mentioned previous times, it is blessing. I get to help him with his projects, watch him succeed, and hold his hand when he is scared. When the summer is over, I will have to let go...at least I have the summer to hang tight.
Meyer finished his map of Europe. I was super excited because I got to go into class and help him glue it. It was a bit embarrassing as I do not know my countries as well as him.
Me: Meyer, can you pass me that purple country?
Meyer: You mean Moldova?
Me: Oh, is that what country that is?
He really is so into his maps. Now his is onto Africa.
It was a wonderful stormy rainy day for us today. Ryan and I each had our morning Saturday activities; yoga for me; softball and soccer for him. After that, it was a family day including a wonderful nap, cards, and a very long Mary Poppins. I really didn't remember Mary Poppins being so long. Wow. It is especially long when we are waiting to watch our movie!
I really love my family. Of course I do, but I am so in love with my family. I love spending time with all of them. They each have such unique personalities, but are all so wonderful.
Mally is our terminator. No fear, no pain, all action. On our Saturday bike ride, she was a bike machine. She rode as fast as she possibly could to the point where I had to jog next to her. To get to the park, you have to go down quite a hill, but she did it, and did it fast. She wanted to make sure she was the first one at the park.
Meyer is our cautious one who is more emotional. He loves so deeply and is so sweet with all of us. He is like a German Shepard, which is interesting because in German, Meyer means farmer, which is like a shepard. Anyway, it took him a bit longer to get to the park. He was a bit more scared on his bike. Which, actually, he needs a new bike. I tried to ride it and it really is difficult to ride.
Then there is Ryan. The love of my life. I really don't like it when he has facial hair and this weekend he had a beard. I begged him to shaving citing the scratchiness of it...so what did he do? He shaved "Wolverine Chops."
It wasn't scratchy, but I still thought it was silly. He shaved them off in time for work and before I had a chance to capture a picture, but you get the drift.
Anyway, time for me to run...literally! Have a great day!
I ran 20 miles today and it felt great. Well, as great as 20 miles could feel. My last long run did not go too well, but I did it. This one was fantastic. Thank you God!
Meyer has been a mapping machine at school. It is amazing. He now knows all of the countries in North America, South America, Europe, and more than half of Africa. Along with knowing where the countries are located on the maps, he also knows the flag that corresponds to each country. I once read a quote that said something like, "Your children are not meant to preform. They are not monkeys." Obviously, it was stated much better, but you get the idea. Anyway, my point is, it is so fun and amazing to watch him with his maps that how can he not preform it!
His reading is wonderful as well. He is in a book club at school and can pretty much read most things. For example, at stores he will read labels and ask me if we need a particular product such as Lip Smackers Lip Gloss. Quite often, it catches me off guard as I do still think of him as my little baby Meyer Bear. And he is so sweet and cuddly that it's hard for me to think of him as a big boy.
Although I don't like to admit this, he is very good at video games. Really, he is. And he loves to play. We limit the time that he gets to play his DS to a couple of times a week. He is also wonderful on the computer. I am hoping soon that he can help me maintain this blog!
He is love Tae Kwon Do and had a tournament a few weeks ago. In his tournament, he won three trophies. Two second place and one third. There were three kids in the group. It was amazing though, he broke boards and got up in front of a lot of people. We were so proud. He is a little soft when it comes to his moves, but he is very proud and loves to do it. We have been practicing with him to be loud and stiff. 
Speaking of loud, that boy is a loud talker when he is excited. It is hilarious if it doesn't drive you crazy!
He is a wonderful family boy and loves us all so deeply. He walks around the house saying Mally is his best friend, but of course, they have their fights!
We have decided to send him to Racine Montessori after this year. It will be hard to not be where he is as I have since he started school, but it will be great for him. Many of his friends will also be going there so it is perfect. I will just miss him.
It was a super productive day for me at work today...not that every day is not, but I was in a groove. That is until, I received the following phone call from Mally's teacher who was at the park on a field trip, with Mally.
Mally's Teacher: Uh...Amy, Mally has been hurt...pretty badly. She has been hit in the face with a log.
Me: (Thinking...what! Are you kidding me?) Is she hurt like ER hurt.
Mally's Teacher: Well, she is hurt, but probably just some ice.
Me: Ok, I will be right there.
Luckily the park was right around the corner. She is fine and was fine, but obviously has a big mark on her forehead. Apparently some boys thought it would be fun to put a log down the slide and Mally was curious and watched it as it hit her face. When I picked her up from the park, she really didn't want to leave. She seemed more upset about having to leave the park and come back to school with me. I would have left her there, but I really didn't think it was a good idea to leave bark in her forehead. Reluctantly, she came with me and we went back to school.
But seriously, what's up with this girl? She is always falling and getting injured. Just last week, she climbed up on the table to get something and fell onto the chair, which then fell onto the table. And she was fine.
The best part about today is when I picked her up, a boy, who she is quite smitten with, came up to me, hugged her and said, "I hope you are better, Mally." He is so sweet.
The funniest part of today, when I asked Meyer about the park and he said it was bad because he got a scrape (which was the size of a dime). I reminded him of Mally's injury and he said, "Well, the park was better for me than it was for Mally."
What have we been up to? Wow. It has been a while. It really doesn't feel like it's been that long. It is scary how time really does fly by.
When I sat to write this, there was so much that I wanted to update you all on...the wine tasting, Meyer's Tae Kwon Do tournament, our trip to visit family, but all of those will come...but not tonight. I am tired from two little visitors who came at 5:00am, and I want to spend some time with Ryan...how could you not?
Well, it has been a rough couple of weeks here, but things seem to be on the up and up in our house. No more visits to the doctor, however, Mally did want to make a visit to tell him achy her medicine was! 
Our house has been an infirmary. Wow. It all started last Friday. Not this past Friday, but the previous Friday. Mally came home with a fever of 104. She was sick all weekend and had to stay home on Monday. Ryan stayed home with her, then he got sick, with strep! So Tuesday and Wednesday, Ryan and Mally stayed home again. Ryan stayed home all week. His throat had white puss balls all over it. He finally started to feel better, but then Meyer started getting sick. On Saturday, I took Meyer to urgent care and he had a double ear infection and strep. It was Auntie Mandi's party, so the kids were pretty sad about missing it, but they got over it when they found out they could watch TV and movies all day. 
Despite waking up to Meyer's bloody ear on Sunday (his ear drum popped), it seemed we were all better. I made everyone's lunches, picked out their clothes (yes, we really are that organized, which is super surprising, I know) and got all ready for the next day.
I woke up this morning, and all systems seemed go. I actually took time to style my hair today. We headed out the door and went to school. I knew something was up when Mally came into my office wearing a sweater, vest, sweatshirt and was shivering. I took her temp, which was 104 and headed out the door, grabbing Meyer while leaving.
You may be asking yourself, how does one leave the house in the morning with a four year old with a fever that high. Doesn't she show any signs? This is Mally, who seems to have quite a high tollorance for pain. Remember the stitches? She amazes the doctors with her giggles after shots. 
Needless to say, I did not run 5 days this week and this week isn't looking so good either!
I added a new spring widget that gives a countdown to the Madison Marathon, which I am registered for. I would like to put it on the side of the page, but am having trouble figuring out how to do that, but I will try. Anyway, I still have over 80 days, which is nice, because the past two weeks have been difficult.
Let me talk a little bit about my training. My goal, what I aim for, is to run 5 days a week. One day of hills, one day of a short fast run, one day of an easy longer run (4-7 miles), one day of close to 10 miles, then one day where I increase by one mile each week until I get to 20, which is my longest run.
I don't fully expect to run 5 days a week. In fact, rarely does that happen. I am a mother, wife, and many other things before I am a runner. Having said that, I do love to run and I do have a schedule that usually allows for an early afternoon run.
As mentioned, the past two weeks have been rather challenging. Last week, my long run was 13 miles, which really isn't that crazy, but it was a cold day. I got all bundled up, and headed out. It started pretty good, but after a couple of miles in, I had to use the bathroom. Nothing bad, just a little too much water. I stopped at my friend Tiffany's house to use her bathroom. After a quick bathroom break, I was on my way.
(Warning: This might get a little gross.)I kept running along and my nose was really runny. Typically, when that happens while running, I blow my nose in my sleeves. Yes. I know. It's gross, but I have to admit, I kind of feel tough when I do it. Anyway, this time I did it and my nose ring got caught in the fleece jacket I was wearing and fell out. I was running along on a gravel shoulder which made finding a nose ring impossible.
I looked for a while in the cold until an unbelievable wave of diarrhea came over me. I quickly ran to the nearest gas station (coincidentally it was the Marathon station) and used their bathroom. Thanks Marathon! It is very difficult to run 3 more miles in the cold, after diarrhea, but I did it, with a whole lot of prayer involved! Not the best 13 miles, but I did it.
This past week, my long run was 14 miles. There was a snowstorm on Saturday, so I did it on Sunday. I used my Camel Backpack which is a little backpack that you wear filled with water. My plan was to drink some water after I had some gel (gel gives you energy after you have been running for a while) around the 7 mile mark. It was cold again so I really had to bundle up.
This run started out great. I felt really good the whole time. When 7 miles approached, I opened my gel, and went to drink my water, but it was frozen. I can't tell you how upset I was about this. That gel, makes you so thirsty. I couldn't believe my water was frozen. Anyway, I wasn't going to let this get me down and I kept on going.
I kept running along smoothly, until I hit 12.5 miles. I turned the corner and slipped on the ice and fell. It was horrible. Again, I got up and I finished the run.
I haven't been running since Sunday. I was planning to run yesterday, but Ryan really needed sleep and rest and my schedule at work didn't allow for a daytime run. I was going to run 10 miles today, but my fever isn't cooperating with me. I know that it will get better, and I will be able to do this marathon, I just have a case of the marathon training blues! But I think I ordered something to help me out of the blues. More on that later.
We spent Valentine's Day at the Domes. They have an amazing Lego exhibit that we spent over an hour looking at. Here are some pictures.
Last Friday, Mally's teacher came into my office and said she was acting a little funny. I took her temperature and it was over 104. We canceled all weekend plans and stayed home with her. She still had a fever on Monday, so Ryan stayed home with her. Monday night I came home and Ryan was ready for bed, at 4:30! Mally stayed home with him yesterday and today she went back to school.
I have never seen Ryan so sick and even Mally said, "Daddy's really crabby when he is sick. At least I smile when I'm sick." This morning, I looked at Ryan's throat and it had white puss balls everywhere. He went to the doctor today and he has strep.
I had a big night planned as well, but now I have a fever. I guess it gives me a chance to update my blog!
My friend Tracie posted this on her award winning blog and I just love it so I thought I would post it on mine to see as well. Thanks Tracie!
http://feedprojects.org/content.asp?tid=16
A while back, when I was pregnant with Mally, we worked hard to transform my husband's old childhood bedroom, into our son's room. We had ideas of what we wanted it to look like and we had dreams that our son would gaze upon the maps and become curious of the world. It is very satisfying to post this picture. 
At school, he has been studying all of the continents and countries. He has mastered the 7 continents, North America, South America, and he is now working on Europe. I took this picture the other night when I went to check on him and he was studying the countries in Europe.
I think I have explained the enormity of mastering a country, but here is a refresher. He has to memorize all of the countries in the continent, then punch out each country with a pencil like object, then assemble it properly on a large piece of construction paper. It's a huge deal. And, he loves doing it.
Meyer had another belt test on Friday and now has his orange belt. He was so happy and excited about passing. He really works hard and tries his best. We are so proud of him. Here are some highlights.
Here is Meyer working on his sit-ups. He may have used his hands to help him up, but at least he worked hard. He has been practicing with me at night, on the rare occasion that I actually do sit-ups!
Here is Meyer getting his new orange belt.
This is Mally with her first crush. He goes to school with her and when he comes around, she turns red. He is a sweet boy, if I do say so myself. She wrote him a letter and drew some pictures for him. Yes, at four, she is boy crazy. Luckily, she is crazy about us as well.
Meyer finished his first chapter book tonight. Amazingly, he began it yesterday. The book was Life With Dick and Jane. It has 198 pages, granted, there are not too many words on the page. I am so proud of him, but more importantly, he is so proud of himself. The look on his face when he finished was priceless.
Ok, so the imaging is horrible, but look at that ship he built. He did this sans instructions. Just sat down, and created a ship. I was impressed.
Meyer and Mally are playing legos right now. I took a break from playing with them to share this story.
The arm of one of Meyer's lego characters fell off. It's super easy to put back on. It's basically like connecting two legos. It was certainly a task that he could have done if he wanted to but he didn't ask me if I could fix it, he asked this:
"Mommy, do you think you are strong enough to fix my lego guy?"
I wanted to answer, "Are you kidding me? Oscar (our dog) probably could fix that." Instead, I replied, "I think so."
Of course, I fixed it and he said, "Wow. All of your exercises are really making you strong."
"Thanks for noticing, Meyer."
It's a lot better than the tofu belly comment I received a few weeks ago!
It is nice when they notice little things like that. Even yesterday, Mally gave me an up and down look and said, "I really like your outfit, Mom."
Anyway, back to legos!
January 13th? That was the last time I wrote an entry? Oops. I am so sorry. Hmmm. Here is what we have been up to:
1. I spent a wonderful four weekend away with amazing women at my friend Tracie's cabin. We woke up, ate an amazing breakfast, talked, then it was lunch, then we played games, then it was time for appetizers, then we talked some more, then it was dinner, then dessert, then we talked some more. If it sounds like all we did was eat, talk, sleep, read, that's because it's all we did. However, I did manage to sneak in a few quick runs.
2. I have been super busy at work. There was a big licensing project that took me a week to complete, but I am done. Now, I am on to enrollment, and planning a huge silent auction/wine tasting. When I get home, all I want to do is snuggle and play with the kids.
3. I have been running. I am registered for a marathon. More on that another day.
4. The kids and I have been busy playing. Oh, how I love to play with these kids of mine! Meyer loves to play legos and he is so good at it. He builds and builds and builds. Seriously, the things he builds are fantastic. He build rockets and boats that I couldn't dream of building.
He has also really been really into The Guinness Book of World Records (GBRR), the upgraded version complete with 3D glasses. He loves to read this book and it is hilarious. He will bust out random things like, "Do you think I could get in the GBRR for using the most yellow in a picture?" Or, I will ask him, "Do you think we should grow out your nails so you can be in the GBRR?" To which he replies, "Someone already has that record, Mom."
I am also teaching him chess, which is awesome. He knows all of the pieces, where they belong, and how they move. He is now developing some strategy. He also loves his Nintendo DS and playing Super Mario Brothers. I like to play it as well!
Mally has the most incredible imagination. Lately, she has been setting up our house as a Montessori School, complete with different work areas. Some of the work areas that she has set up have been napkin decorating, learning letter sounds and writing letters, staying in the lines when you color, putting clothes on Barbie, cutting hearts, and a reading area. She set out these little work stations all over the house and Ry and I were the students. She gave us lessons on each of these. It was fantastic.
She has been playing birthday party with her babies as well. I wish I had the technology to upload some of the pictures that she has been drawing for these party cards. I will ask Ryan about it when he gets home. Anyway, she finds gifts, wraps them, then puts gives them to her babes (as she calls them). She also pretends to be married and play dress up.
My favorite family activity is dance party, which we have been doing a lot of lately! It always happens in the kitchen and we put on some great music and dance. Meyer and I actually developed a routine! It is pretty sweet. We were at a birthday party over the weekend which had dancing to disco music and the kids wouldn't dance. When I got home and asked them why they weren't dancing, they said, "That wasn't dancing music." It was pretty funny.
Anyway, if you are still hanging on despite my lack of entries to this blog, I thank you and promise my entries will be more frequent. If I can make time for Facebook, I can make time for this blog.
It was back to school and today, after what turned into a long weekend. It was a wonderful weekend with the kids. Lots of lounging and relaxing.
It was an average day for me at work, nothing too stressful, and no special treats, but it was a day at work, which is a blessing in and of itself.
I know so many people who are either loosing their job, or facing some sort of cutbacks, and although I don't make a whole lot of money, I am extremely blessed to have the job I have.
I am a Montessori School administrator. Some call me the principal. Sure, there are times when I do have a lot of stress, but I typically begin my day greeting 3-6 year olds, which is awesome.
I also happen to have a great staff that I enjoy working with. Sure, I get frustrated, but really, I do actually enjoy coming to work and being with them.
But, the absolute best part of my job, the part that makes me praise God throughout the day is when Mally comes running into my office with pure excitement when she learns to read her first words, or when Meyer brings me some leftover snack from his classroom. I get to be there with them as they learn and witness their proudest moments.
Meyer will not be in school next year with me, and Mally will follow soon after that. But at this point, right now, I am so blessed to be with them. 
This is a picture of Meyer finishing the 100 board. It is quite a process for a 5 year old to master. He has to arrange the numbers 1-100 on this board in order, while reciting the numbers. Mally just finished her 45 board.
This is Mally and I just after she finished her continent map. Finishing a map is a huge deal. We toast this in our house upon completion and then hang it up. First, the students memorize each continent, by doing a puzzle where each piece is a continent. After they can name all of the continents, they use a puzzle piece to trace the continent onto a piece of construction paper. Next, they punch out the continent with a pointer. Upon completion of punching out all of the continents, they punch out the hemispheres. Next, they put together the map and glue it onto a large piece of construction paper. You can see why we toast map completions in our house. Meyer has finished his continent map, his map of North America (which means he can name all of the countries in North and Central America) and is almost done with South America.
We had Mally's 4th birthday party on Saturday at the Racine Gymnastics Center with 20 of her little friends. It was a great time for her, her friends, and because of my wonderful friends, it was a blast for us as well. 
I really want to thank everyone who came to celebrate this wonderful occasion with her. I love celebrating birthdays and want to make the birthdays for my children as fantastic as they can be. 
My friend Brigitte made Mally's birthday cake. It was a three-tiered cake that took her three days to make. It was only her fourth cake. It was the most beautiful cake and absolutely delicious. Thank you so much Brigitte, it was so special and we will never forget it.
And thank you to Tracie, Jane, Tiffany, Brent, Brigitte, for being there for me that night, and always.
http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2008/12/27/local_news/doc495568026e9e8297331702.txt
In April, I did a relay with 11 other women in California. It was an amazing experience. I will never forget it. I was quite shocked to see that the Journal Times featured us in this article, but very honored. I was also shocked that they looked up our time.
Below is the original article that was featured.
http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2008/02/03/local_news/doc47a69b4fbcf51617992905.txt
Thanks ladies for such incredible memories.
We had a wonderful New Year's Eve/Mally's Birthday. We spent the day with our family, then we went to visit some friends. Our friend Tiffany was kind enough to have cake and a little party for Mally. We all had such a great time. Thanks so much Tiff. 
Oh, and if you look very closely, you might be able to see the new nose pierce. 
For Christmas, Ryan got a good amount of Best Buy cards, which I thought was fantastic because I really thought we could use an upgrade in our digital camera. Ryan disagreed and thought what our family really needed was Rock Band 2. What! Rock Band 2?
So Ryan and Meyer headed out to Best Buy while I stayed home with my mom and Mally. When they got home, we had a delightful after Christmas, but Christmas dinner. Then after some pumpkin pie it was off to play our game. 
Meyer came up with a band name for us that was quite impressive: Beluga Bubbles (no idea where that one came from, but I love it.) Now that we had a name and Mally had her glasses on, we were ready to rock out!
I was the singer, Meyer and Ry started with the drums, and Mally rocked out with the guitar. I wasn't preforming my best because I could not stop laughing. It was hilarious! Meyer was so focused and was actually rocking his body to the beat. Mally was just doing whatever. I haven't seen my mom laugh like that in years. It was great. 
Then it was switcharoo for everyone and my mom even got a turn singing. 
It was such a great night and I have to admit, a great purchase. We have continued to enjoy the game. And Ryan, what's with the hat?
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