School is back in session and it's still the middle of summer. So strange. I'm long overdue for some new photos so I've just put together some of our highlights from the past two months.
We had fun visits with Ram's youngest sibling and her family, a week camping with our ward at Hukilau Beach, a week with my BFF who came with her mom & daughter for a visit and a bunch of just random stuff in there too.
Enjoy the show!
Zana was just selected by her teachers for the Gifted & Talented (GT) program for Language Arts. She's the only student in her home room class in GT so it's a pretty select group from each grade. She is also in the accelerated math class. 7-years old in 3rd grade and doing really well.
Zeth is so close to being potty trained that every time I change his diaper or pull-up I think to myself, 'This could be the last diaper I ever get to change for him.' He's wearing underware more & more but still has way too many accidents. I hope his potty training phase doesn't get as drawn out as his teething phase always did. He'd drool incessantly and go through rounds of fevers for months before popping that tooth through. Remembering that is helping me remain patient with this phase.
I'm near the end of my first week of official marathon training. 17-weeks to go til my 12/11/10 marathon. I have a lot of work ahead of me but the carrot in the back of my head is remembering how fit I got last fall when training for my 25K and how great I felt. It'll all be worth it in a couple of months.
I found a new motivation in a random biography I picked up of Lynne Cox who, among innumerable other impressive feats, set the world record time swimming the English Channel in 1971 at the age of 15 and then did so again the following year. Her stories are amazing, self-motivation, determination and her grueling workouts give me some healthy perspective on my meager little runs. Her bio is titled 'Swimming to Antarctica' - which is just one of the many insane feats she has done over the past 40 years. I don't know of many teenagers who'd willing get into the 50-degree ocean at 4a every day and swim 10-miles in the dark before school. I used to grumble on my way to my 6a workouts in the heated pool through high school. She goes on to work for 11-years straight to get approval to swim the 40-degree turbid waters of the Bering Strait as an act of good will to help end the cold war between the US & the Soviet Union.
I feel a sense of accomplishment if I can get the kids to stop fighting over the same toy on any given day. Lynne used her swimming talent to help build international political and social good will all around the world. This is the kind of thing I remind myself of while I'm training for my little marathon fun run. Twenty-six miles seems totally possible in my mind but when I'm on the treadmill during the week pushing hard on mile 3, I have to remember running a marathon is no easy feat but all the daily workouts will get me there.
**PS - if you read this post earlier, it was just a bit shorter. I noticed I misspelled Lynne's name and came back to fix that then got a little carried away editing. BONUS!
