School's Out!! (almost!)

"The most beautiful sight in the world is a little child going confidently down the road after you have shown him the way."~Confucious

It's nearly the end of another school year and while I'm not a mom with kids in the schools anymore, I have 4 school-age kiddoes in my life that I love dearly and it's pleasure to see how well they have all done this year.  Daniel and Maya are finishing 2nd grade and Ben and Mason are finishing up Kindergarten.  I can't quite comprehend how this has happened.  Add to that Simon and Lucy who are 3 1/2 and 2 respectively and it makes me wonder where the time has gone.


There have been piano lessons, tai-kwon-do, volleyball, swimming (both lessons and swim team), gymnastics, tumbling -- you name it, it's been done by one of the kiddoes this year.  And they have all grown and stretched themselves in lots of ways.   All 4 of them are fantastic readers, which is a great foundation for them to continue building their education upon.

I hope it goes without saying that we are incredibly proud of these precious grandkids of ours -- we love them dearly and are so excited to watch them learn and grown.  But we are also extremely proud of their parents:  Chris & Tara and Chris & Natalie are wonderful, loving, involved, patient and creative parents.  I truly couldn't ask for our beloved grandkiddoes to be in better hands than the ones they have been blessed with.

So fun to see them moving on into their lives -- confidently and well prepared.

Time is Flying!

It's already May 10 (seriously -- where has the time gone?) so it's time for a little updating, I guess.

The finger:  I am now down to less than 2 weeks in the splint and bandaging -- it seems like it has been forever but it also seems like it has happened quickly.  I will be so glad to have my finger back.  Maya asked me the other day what the Dr. would do - - I'm guessing he will take the splint and tape off and blow a kiss at me as I run out the door.  At least that's what I hope he will do!  I'm hoping for the best.

There's been a picture of Natalie and I that has almost taken on a life of its own.  (see above) My friend Macy took the picture a few months ago and it has ended up in the Deseret Book Spring Catalog and in their Time Out for Women online ads as well.  We have had so many friends all across the country contact us when they have seen it and that has been fun.  I just love having such a fun picture of Natalie and I.

In other news, I ran a 5K this past weekend.  I was pretty nervous about it because in the past 2 weeks my running has been awful.  I had no stamina, my breathing was hard and really, I had no interest in even trying to hang in there.  It was lame.  So I was very afraid of how this 5k would turn out.

I was happy to discover that I am still a runner, and really, not such a bad one either.  I ended up finishing in 30:23 -- which was good, and made it a 9:39 pace.  And I ended up 7th in my age group (which, admittedly, is old) -- but there were about 25 people in that group.  And I loved it.  So much fun.

And the best part was that I ran it with family.  Chris, Natalie and Maya all ran the 5K too.  Chris smoked us all - he was amazingly fast (23 min, approx, I think), Natalie beat me by around 30 seconds and Maya did it in 35 minutes with no training.  Awesome all around.   Can't say I love the way I look in the picture but with hair pulled back at 8 a.m., I guess that's the best I could do!!

So my plan is to just continue to work at getting quicker and to keep loving it.  So that next year - -I can move myself up in my age group and beat a few more oldies like myself.