Tuki turned 8 today!!

We had a busy day today. First it started with walking dogs, then Mim went Black Friday shopping with Grandma, Cousin Eden, and aunt Darla. She wanted to experience it so she went. The wee ones, and I went to a nearby town, I had some blood drawn for the Lyme disease check up and then we went to Grandma's home with the rest of the family to send quality time with them.   

Yesterday we had Thanksgiving at my sister's home and it was real nice because my brother Jeff and his wife and daughter came to visit from Louisiana for the holiday.

photos to follow one I get them downloaded

We plan to buy the Christmas tree and put up the outdoor Christmas deer and tree, along with a few stands of lights.

The Nutcracker

The girls and I attended a local jazzier version of the Nutcracker yesterday. What was so extra amazing about it to me was there were at least over six students that I have taught over the years in this ballet. The lead, Clara, who is now an 8th grader was in my science class last year, One of the dancers I had several years when I taught 7th and 8th grade and she is now a Junior...I could go on and on. It was wonderful as always. I love the Nutcracker in all its versions. Now I am in the mood for the Christmas season....I am thinking we try and get a Christmas tree over our Thanksgiving break since we are right on top of December.

Conferences

Tonight was P/T Conferences...for all 3 of the girls....

The elementary is grading based on the Standard Based Assessment. 4 - 1, with 4 the highest.

Tuki earned all 4's and 3's. A ton of praise from her teachers about her behavior. She is at a DRA reading level of 34, which is 500- 800 lexile, which is about mid-3rd grade level.

Ve earned 1, 2 and some 3's. What I didn't like is she had 2's on her effort. So she came along tonight and we talked with her teacher about her effort. What came out of the conference is that the teachers feel now is the time to check her for ADD since it is now getting in the way of her learning. Her DRA is also 34, mid 3rd grade while she is at 4th grade. She wastes a lot of time with everything around her and doesn't get to work, especially on her own. So I will be calling her doctor tomorrow to start the evaluation process for her ADD diagnosis. Her classroom teacher even had the school psychologist conduct and observation and it is her report that confirms she needs help focusing.

Mim earned all A's & B's in her classes. Not bad for her sophomore year in a new school.

Other than that we are all doing well.

Comeback - 2

run 3 min
walk 1 min
run 4 min
walk 1 min
run 5 min
walk 1 min
run 6 min
walk 1 min
run 5 min
walk 1 min
run 4 min
walk 1 min
run 3 min
walk 1 min
run 3 min
run total of 33 minutes and feel good, at a pace of 5.5, 5.6, 5.7..getting there :)
Little more tire tonight since this running day back the previous increased workout

Comeback - 1

I have decided to chronicle my comeback to running. Since I had stopped 4 years ago, I have had some major health issues which were due to Lyme disease.

I am not under treatment for it, and have been since March and I am feeling great. I have also requested prayer from my church to help restore my health. Believe what you want, but I can feel the healing power of God as I am making a comeback to not only restoration of my health, but then to running. A way to keep myself healthy as I enter the second half of my life.

I have been walking 2 miles daily with my dogs since this summer, which was after the June reconstruction surgery. Before that since I had 7 surgeries last year, I was doing no exercise to speak of, simply because I was so tired.

As of two weeks ago I started to consistently run/jog. I attempted to start before school, but then the start of school exhausted me and I didn't keep going. It was at this time I started making prayer requests from my church body. My workouts the last two weeks have consisted of 2 - 3 times each week for 35 minutes of running/jogging and 10 - 15 minutes of stretching and strengthening.

My workout looked like this:
walk 1 min
run 1 min
walk 1 min
run 2 min
walk 1 min
run 3 min
walk 1 min
run 4 min
walk 1 min
run 5 min
walk 1 min
run 4 min
walk 1 min
run 3 min
walk 1 min
run 2 min
walk 1 min
run 1 min
walk 1 min
total of 25 min running

but today I stepped it up and my running pace stayed at 5.5 (10:45) the entire time, so now my owrkout looks like this
run 1 min
walk 1 min
run 2 min
walk 1 min
run 3 min
walk 1 min
run 4 min
walk 1 min
run 5 min
walk 1 min
run 4 min
walk 1 min
run 3 min
walk 1 min
run 2 min
walk 1 min
run 2 min
walk 1 min
total of 26 min running

My goal is to increase minutes by walking less and increasing my pace. So far I feel strong and my feet are holding up. I do stretch them A LOT after I am done running and then again throughout the day. I know I am dealing with scar tissue as well as other issues, so my stretching is quite involved and I am ok with this. At 50, it is imperative to stay limber. My left shoulder and arm started tightening up since 6 of the 7 surgeries were from that side, and now that I am stretching it, my mobility is returning.

Dog Walkers

"Are you the dog walkers?" we heard hollered at us, as my daughters and I were leaving the yard for our nightly romp with the five, yes five pooches. I stated adamantly "no they are all ours", to ensure she would not request our employment in walking her dogs, that is if she had any.

She then stated with joy "yes, I know that they are all yours, people around here (here meaning our apartment neighbors) call your family the dog walkers and we are so envious because we all want dogs too”.

Nearly my whole life I have been called some sort of animal knick name, "bird lady" or "owl lady" when I gave programs to schools around Wisconsin, then "chicken lady" most recently by co-workers since we have chickens and we sell chicken eggs, thus the code name Aves (order for birds) but this is the first that I and we have been called "dog walkers"......I just may need to change my code name to Caesar...:)

BUSY BUSY

Busy week. The two wee ones have started HOOPS. That means Monday and Thursday nights are Tuki's practices. Tuesday and Friday nights are Ve's practices. Plus on Tuesday nights it is also Ve and Tuki's Skating practices. In addition on Wednesday nights Mim attends Youth group at church. This means we (me) are running every night of the week. Tuesdays nights are especially crazy since Ve's skating is at 4:30 - 5:10, then Tuki's skating is at 5:40 - 6:10 and then again Ve's BB practice at 6:30 - 8:00 pm, and I am running on the treadmill during the time they are at practice....busy and tired but doing well.

Report cards came for 1st quarter. On a scale of 1 - 4 (1 lowest and 4 highest), Tuki received all 3 & 4, meaning she is achieving or has achieved grade level expectations, and Ve earned mostly 2's and some 3's. What bothers me most is she earned 2's on her effort. That means she isn't trying as hard as she could. I don't worry about their comprehension grade, as long as they are working at their best. She is not. I have given her until the end of December to earn 3's on effort or she will not complete her basketball season.I want my girls to know that I value athletics, but I value academics more. Mim earned all A's and B's, which I think is pretty darn good for her first year at the high school. She works hard for her grades.

Tonight Mim is at Pam's house helping to clean it, and the wee ones are bathing and getting ready for bed. I am blogging and finishing a literature review that was due Wednesday...only 2 days late, thank goodness the prof has given me an extension. We has parent teacher conferences last night and then again on this coming Monday,

Our neighbors who have girls the same as my two wee ones are moving since their Dad has been moved to another town. Ve and Tuki are emotional about it. They are moving on Nov. 20th so now we wait for our new neighbors.

Zamboni has been neutered and slowly he is settling down..thank goodness

and of course the holidays and birthdays are around the corner!!!

Mim's 4 years

home was yesterday. It has been a good road and yet at times a bumpy bumpy road. In the good times, I get to see what a sweet girl she is and the woman she will become. She is maturing daily and I think that along with attaching to a new family at 12 1/2 has made it all so hard. We are getting there ever so slowly. I have had to "Let Go, Let God" in all areas of my life but I feel especially with Mim.

When she first came home I had to be involved, protective and on top of all aspects of her life because of her age, her lack of schooling and because of not understanding or speaking English. Many times my family and others didn't and still don't understand, but then again all they could relate to was the rearing of their biological children who never had a major loss of close family members at a young age.My health issues scared us all in thinking yet again my girls will lose their parent, so that set us into another tailspin, but I think we are seeing our way through this as well.

As she matures and is a home longer, the more she seems to settle in and she also is beginning to relax a little. So all in all it has been worth it for her and for me.

It is all a learning adventure and I think just when we get Mim through these years, Ve, and then Tuki will be teenagers...but hopefully I will know better as to what I am doing as a parent.