I really don't wanna ride the Sweep Bus.

Right, so the Pittsburgh Half marathon is a week and a half away and I am officially freaking out. The fears of getting picked up by the "You're going to slow, we have to reopen the streets" Sweep Bus. I was doing great and training on target until I tripped on the sidewalk (yeah, check out that story here.) The next training day, I was on the last turn of a 2 mile run and a twisted my knee weird and hobbled back home.

I thought it was nothing and a weekend off and I would be fine. Nope. No such luck. No pain while I was talking around, unless I was carrying the Enforcer up the stairs. (An extra 20 lbs on one side does not help with any kind of pain, in case you're curious.) But about half a mile into a run and I was limping. SO, long walks for about a week and then I took another weekend completely off.

I was super bummed. You can ask my sister. She went for a 6 mile run with me that turned into a walk and I was quite frustrated every time I tried to go any faster and was met with shooting pains. I knew I could go faster and farther because I had done it before, but my knee wouldn't cooperate. Before now, I didn't fully understand this state of frustration people would get into when they were forced to do less then their mind had set because of limitations from their body. It has taken me a few weeks to move past the frustration. I realized how much I have come to enjoy running though. Now that I have been forced away from it longer runs. I usually will get up early on Tuesday and Thursday and run a short 2 miles before the Dad goes into work. Those are also the Dad's long days at work and he's not home until around bedtime for the kiddos. Having that half an hour to myself in the morning is what helps me make it through those days. I am so much happier and such a better mom on days I get up and run. The weekends are the same way.

The morning was gorgeous! 

Perfect Drillfield playing weather.
Until the downpour.  

My view while running in Christiansburg. 

This past weekend we were down at Virginia Tech (GO HOKIES) for the spring football game.The game itself ended up getting rained out. Of the couple downpours on Saturday, one of them was right before game time to make them suspend the game (thank you to the kind tailgaters who shared their tent with the kids and me while the Dad got the car) and another about half an hour later. So no game. But we had a really great weekend anyway. On Saturday, I got up and went for a 4.5 mile run. Half of which I walked, but I really wanted to make sure I can stay below the 3.5 hour time limit for the half. For the marathon, you need an average pace of 13:42 minutes per mile to be able to finish and that's what I was pushing for. I would really like about an average of about 13:30/mile though as long as it stays about 16/mile I can finish. I had a little bit of knee pain, but nothing like it was before. And if I keep a faster pace, I had almost no pain. It was the starting and stopping that hurt more. SO I guess that means I just need to push faster next weekend!!

I am glad I have been able to get back out and run outside. I enjoy it so much more then running on a treadmill. I can do about half and hour on the treadmill, but after that I  get really bored really fast.

This weekend is my April run, Marsh Madness in Grasonville, MD. It's a trail run at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center and as long as it doesn't run it is "shore" to be beautiful. Here's to hoping for  no rain and no knee pain!!

Only for the SERIOUSLY Advanced

Yesterday, the kids and I walked over to our local elementary school to get the application to try and enroll the Politician in to kindergarten next year. The cut off is five by September 1st and his birthday is mid-September.

The deal is you fill out this application and then the reading specialist calls your kid in for a test before the end of the school year and then if they pass that test, there is another one before school starts in August. If the child passes both tests, they can be enrolled in kindergarten early. Before we left the lady we spoke to in the office said, "Just so you know, only about 3% of the kids that submit applications for Early Admission get accepted."

3%?!?! The whole elementary school has less then 500 kids. So that's about 80 kids per grade level and about 7 kids have a birthday per grade each month. With the window for Early Admissions at September 2nd to October 15th, about 10 kids in our school's area are eligible. Of those 10, say maybe half (that's probably high...) of them want to try to be admitted to kindergarten early. If my math is right, that means our elementary school admits one kid early every 6.5 years. On average.

Well, this made me stop and think for a bit. We brought the application home and there is a checklist of things to assess your child on, each with an ALWAYS, SOMETIMES, and NEVER category. There are few that the Politician does ALWAYS, a few more he does SOMETIMES and then quite a few we haven't even attempted. Counting in 5s and 10s?? Counting up to 31? With the right numbers?? And there are no periods at the ends of his sentences. Just lots and lots of Os.

With there being a few checks in the NEVER category, we're thinking the Politician isn't in the top 3% just yet. Early Admission is clearly in place for a significantly advanced child. I definitely think the Politician would enjoy and do well if he went to kindergarten this year, but why put him, and us, through the testing process unnecessarily. I think we will look for something a bit more structured, even if it is something a little different at home. Who knows, maybe we'll try for getting into 1st grade early instead, or maybe not.

There is a lot out there on how, and when, to start a more "formal" education. There was an article in the Washington post not to long ago about the Finnish education system. Their kids don't start school until they are seven years old. They also have a government funded childcare system, but kids aren't expected to sit in a classroom and be taught. Learning through young childhood is so much about exposure and less about rote memorization. Do we ask to much of our kids to soon? Do we set them up for failure by pushing to far? Or are we not challenging them enough and boring them into laziness? Way to many questions and finding the right balance is definitely not easy. And we will ALL make mistakes. (Yup, even me. I know hard to believe right, haha. I do happen to be right quite often, but I have a problem following my own advice sometimes.)

The Enforcer is already starting to enjoy books and learning.
 At least he's not eating them here.

While looking up some information on kindergarten homeschooling, I came across this comment on a post: "My children’s education is an overall plan, of which public schooling is only one component. So I don’t supplement their education, I am in charge of it. Some pieces are outsourced to the public schools."

I love this. Really, it is exactly what I needed to hear. I have to say, I don't have a lot of faith in the direction of public schools today. So much of the emphasis is on getting good test scores, kids forget how to be creative, artistic, innovative and pure genius. On top of that, technology is moving much faster then the schools can keep up with. The world our children live in is smaller then ours. Everything is global. And sometimes seemingly instantaneous. The comment above really eased my fears a bit. Outsourcing some pieces of their education to the public schools doesn't seem so bad to me.

Watching an Era End: Discovery Shuttle's New Home

For awhile this morning I couldn't decide if we would drive into DC to try and catch a glimpse of the shuttle Discovery as it made a loop around the capitol. We had heard there was going to be a lot of traffic and traffic is one of my least favorite things. But, the excitement of shuttle flight won out. Watching it on TV wasn't going to be enough for me, especially if I didn't at least try and see it.

We left a little later then I would have liked and there was a few minutes that I was afraid we had missed it!

We were driving along the DC beltway and out of the trees to the left flew, the most gigantic plane have ever seen, very close to the ground. Excitedly, I hollered to the kids in the back to see the plane. I wish I could recreate my excitement for you, it was like seeing a celebrity from far away that you think might be someone important, but then second guess yourself, thinking there is no way that was who you saw, all the while you are freaking out just a little.  At first I wasn't sure that this was the 747 we were hoping to see because it quickly disappeared above the trees to the right of the road. And it was about 9:45, about 15 minutes before the predicted viewing window. All we saw was the underside of the plane, it really flew just over top of us.

As we drove up towards our exit, at the National Harbor, we got a REALLY good look at the shuttle piggy backing on the 747. We were in a nice open space and a little higher up then a few other roads. I pulled the car over to the shoulder behind a line of other spectators with their cameras standing on the side of the beltway.

Now is when my hands were shaking I was so excited. It was an amazing site to see! The kids were still strapped in the back of the van, but had a great view out of the window. The Politician was pointing and exclaiming in delight. It was awesome.

I'm not sure what PT is doing with her tongue out.

After the pair flew over head, we pulled back onto the road and went off the exit. On our way cars lined the exit and when we found a spot we pulled over again, hopping to catch another glance. There were so many people our on their cars with cameras and binoculars. It was so great to be apart of. Felt very American. I reminded me a little of the scene in Armageddon before they fly out and there is the little kid playing with his toy spaceship running around in the grass. The Politician and PT were running around in the grass with two other little boys who were there with their mom. Every so often, a cry would go up "There it is!!" and everyone would turn around frantically until we could find it in the distance. Binoculars in hand, the Politician would stop running and glance up into the blue sky and yell "I see it!" We stayed on the side of the road for awhile with everyone else after the normal flight patterns had resumed and we watched a few flights go in for a landing in DC.

Today was definitely the end of an era and I am happy to say I got to witness it. And so did my kids, though they probably won't remember. The Politician might though, he has one amazing memory for a young guy. PT and the Enforcer will remember the stories for sure. Maybe one day one of them might help get America back in space. Being an astronaut is going to be something different for our kids generation. With so much new, smaller technology just how an astronaut looks will be different. But for now, we'll keep exposing them to new, exciting things as often as we can because who knows what might spark a dream.