Four one-gallon cans of paint? Check.
470 square foot of new carpet? Check.
3 new curtain rods? Check.
New window treatments for two long windows, one bay window, one sliding glass door, and one kitchen window? Check.
New lighting fixtures for kitchen, stairway, dining room, laundry room, and main entry? Check.
New refrigerator ordered and on its way? Check.
Four rooms on main floor remodeled?
Flipping CHECK.
This weekend has been a frenzy of moving furniture, dripping paint, lost screws, sticky painters tape and minor fears of electrocution.
(Don't worry. We cut the power to the entire house rather than risk it.)
The kids have been systematically banned from one room after another, and spent a fair amount of time watching movies or playing in the secret agent room in the basement.
Poor Canada has barely been allowed to roam the house for fear of getting dog hair trappings in the wet paint.
BUT. It's mostly over now, save for some minor finishing touches.
And me trying to get all the paint speckles out of my hair.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
At least this time, I didn't need a head lamp.
This past weekend, I completed my "big" run of the year, a 10-mile trail run at Winona Lake Trails. It solidified one thing for me.
I LOVE trail running.
This was my second-ever trail run and I gotta say, I'm kinda hooked on it. I've spent the last few days Googling trail races and trail running websites and trying to figure out what Ben's reaction would be if I told him I planned to travel the country and hit random trail races every other weekend or so.
This course was a challenging one, and by challenging I mean barely-one-foot-wide-single-track-winding-through-the-woods-with-steep-ascents-and-descents-and-I-mean-STEEP-as-in-I-am-having-to-grab-onto-this-here-tree-trunk-as-I'm-climbing-this-hill-to-keep-myself-from-sliding-back-down-it.
It was FABULOUS.
My time was decent, I'm not a super-star by any means, but my goal was to finish in under 1:50; I made it in 1:43:43.
I think I can honestly say I would not have enjoyed a straight 10-mile run nearly as much. There's just something about trail running that energizes me so much more.
The problem is, trail runners tend to be....how can I say it....NUTS.
The two trail runs I have done have both had multiple races, so you can choose between a) long, b) really long, or c) you are clearly certifiably insane.
Like my first race, a quarter marathon (6.55 miles); the other two choices were a half-marathon or full marathon.
This race, I ran the 10-mile loop. You could also sign up for a 30-mile or 50-mile race.
Yes, you read that right. FIFTY miles. Through the woods. It took one person 14 hours to complete this. I can't even SLEEP for fourteen hours straight very well.
I'm really not interested in marathoning, certainly not ultra-marathoning, and I'm pretty hesitant to even try another half-marathon. I did pretty okay on this 10 miles, so another 10- or 13-mile race might be doable, but that's really not my passion. I adored the quarter-marathon race, that distance is PERFECT for me, but it's a lot harder to find trail races that are that short of a distance.
At any rate, up next for me is the sprint triathlon next month. 500-yard swim, 11-mile bike, 3.1-mile run. This is my first ever triathlon, it's one of those things on my list that I've always wanted to do, so I'm pretty pumped about crossing this one off.
(As an aside, I found a nearby triathlon including trail run that is scheduled for August. If my first tri goes well, you can count on me signing up for that one.)
I LOVE trail running.
This was my second-ever trail run and I gotta say, I'm kinda hooked on it. I've spent the last few days Googling trail races and trail running websites and trying to figure out what Ben's reaction would be if I told him I planned to travel the country and hit random trail races every other weekend or so.
This course was a challenging one, and by challenging I mean barely-one-foot-wide-single-track-winding-through-the-woods-with-steep-ascents-and-descents-and-I-mean-STEEP-as-in-I-am-having-to-grab-onto-this-here-tree-trunk-as-I'm-climbing-this-hill-to-keep-myself-from-sliding-back-down-it.
It was FABULOUS.
My time was decent, I'm not a super-star by any means, but my goal was to finish in under 1:50; I made it in 1:43:43.
I think I can honestly say I would not have enjoyed a straight 10-mile run nearly as much. There's just something about trail running that energizes me so much more.
The problem is, trail runners tend to be....how can I say it....NUTS.
The two trail runs I have done have both had multiple races, so you can choose between a) long, b) really long, or c) you are clearly certifiably insane.
Like my first race, a quarter marathon (6.55 miles); the other two choices were a half-marathon or full marathon.
This race, I ran the 10-mile loop. You could also sign up for a 30-mile or 50-mile race.
Yes, you read that right. FIFTY miles. Through the woods. It took one person 14 hours to complete this. I can't even SLEEP for fourteen hours straight very well.
I'm really not interested in marathoning, certainly not ultra-marathoning, and I'm pretty hesitant to even try another half-marathon. I did pretty okay on this 10 miles, so another 10- or 13-mile race might be doable, but that's really not my passion. I adored the quarter-marathon race, that distance is PERFECT for me, but it's a lot harder to find trail races that are that short of a distance.
At any rate, up next for me is the sprint triathlon next month. 500-yard swim, 11-mile bike, 3.1-mile run. This is my first ever triathlon, it's one of those things on my list that I've always wanted to do, so I'm pretty pumped about crossing this one off.
(As an aside, I found a nearby triathlon including trail run that is scheduled for August. If my first tri goes well, you can count on me signing up for that one.)
Me, crossing the finish. (I'm the one in the blue.)
Me and Tammy, post-race. Tammy clearly taking advantage of the post-race goodies.
Tammy and her husband, Dave.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
We've created a monster.
I've mentioned in the past that we use marble jars as a form of reinforcement for the kids. Good behavior = marbles earned, poor behavior = marbles lost. Earn a certain number of marbles, they earn the right to buy a toy. The first time, they had to earn 25 marbles, then 30, then 35, and so on.
The boys have lately become obsessed with the Skylanders video game on the Xbox. They like the game well enough, but they also actually like just playing with the characters as little action figures (since the game consist of actual figurines that you place on the "portal" so they can come to life in the video game). They also like reading about the Skylanders and their various powers and histories in their Skylander book.
At any rate, because of this newfound obsession, the boys have been saving their earned marbles up in order to purchase new Skylander characters.
Okay, put the Skylander/marble topic aside for just a moment, and let's talk about Travis's timed math work at school. He's a whiz at math, but has a hard time focusing well enough to buckle down and get the timed work done in time. His teacher has been sending it home for him to finish.
I've been timing him, and pushing him to get 3 rows done in 1 minute. He's come close one time, but keeps getting distracted and hasn't yet met this goal.
Tonight, I told him that if he accomplished this goal of 3 rows in 1 minute, I would award him with a marble.
Mom, what if I got 3 rows done in 30 seconds?
Well, that would be amazing and I would give you 5 marbles.
What if I got.....um....what's one-half of 30? Oh wait, I know. What if I got 3 rows done in 15 seconds?
Well, then you are a super-amazing genius and I would give you...uh...50 marbles!
That would mean I have 82 marbles!!
Yep, that's right. [Needless to say, he currently has 32 marbles.]
So.....[thinking]....what is 12 minus 5? Um....7, right? So that would mean that if I got both Stump Smash and Drobot, I would have 7 marbles left.
At this point, I was lost. I wasn't sure what he was trying to calculate, I didn't know why he asked what 12 minus 5 was, and I had no idea what he meant. I know that Stump Smash and Drobot are both Skylander characters that he wants, but beyond that his statement was meaningless to me.
I asked him to clarify.
He explained.
If he were to somehow earn those 82 marbles, used 35 for Stump Smash, used 40 for Drobot, he would have 7 marbles left.
I actually had to pause, re-do the math in my head, and confirm he was right.
It took me longer to confirm it in my head than it had taken him to make this deduction.
I'm still not entirely sure why he needed to know what 12 minus 5 was, the only thing I can think of is that he first calculated if each toy were worth 35 marbles, thus 35+35=70, and then the difference between 82 and 70 is 12, and then he knew the 2nd toy would be worth 5 marbles more, so 12-5=7.
Ironic for a kid who is struggling with math at school, eh?
The boys have lately become obsessed with the Skylanders video game on the Xbox. They like the game well enough, but they also actually like just playing with the characters as little action figures (since the game consist of actual figurines that you place on the "portal" so they can come to life in the video game). They also like reading about the Skylanders and their various powers and histories in their Skylander book.
At any rate, because of this newfound obsession, the boys have been saving their earned marbles up in order to purchase new Skylander characters.
Okay, put the Skylander/marble topic aside for just a moment, and let's talk about Travis's timed math work at school. He's a whiz at math, but has a hard time focusing well enough to buckle down and get the timed work done in time. His teacher has been sending it home for him to finish.
I've been timing him, and pushing him to get 3 rows done in 1 minute. He's come close one time, but keeps getting distracted and hasn't yet met this goal.
Tonight, I told him that if he accomplished this goal of 3 rows in 1 minute, I would award him with a marble.
Mom, what if I got 3 rows done in 30 seconds?
Well, that would be amazing and I would give you 5 marbles.
What if I got.....um....what's one-half of 30? Oh wait, I know. What if I got 3 rows done in 15 seconds?
Well, then you are a super-amazing genius and I would give you...uh...50 marbles!
That would mean I have 82 marbles!!
Yep, that's right. [Needless to say, he currently has 32 marbles.]
So.....[thinking]....what is 12 minus 5? Um....7, right? So that would mean that if I got both Stump Smash and Drobot, I would have 7 marbles left.
At this point, I was lost. I wasn't sure what he was trying to calculate, I didn't know why he asked what 12 minus 5 was, and I had no idea what he meant. I know that Stump Smash and Drobot are both Skylander characters that he wants, but beyond that his statement was meaningless to me.
I asked him to clarify.
He explained.
If he were to somehow earn those 82 marbles, used 35 for Stump Smash, used 40 for Drobot, he would have 7 marbles left.
I actually had to pause, re-do the math in my head, and confirm he was right.
It took me longer to confirm it in my head than it had taken him to make this deduction.
I'm still not entirely sure why he needed to know what 12 minus 5 was, the only thing I can think of is that he first calculated if each toy were worth 35 marbles, thus 35+35=70, and then the difference between 82 and 70 is 12, and then he knew the 2nd toy would be worth 5 marbles more, so 12-5=7.
Ironic for a kid who is struggling with math at school, eh?
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