November 30 - The Locked Out Edition

I locked myself and the dogs out of the house tonight.  Yup.  I don't really know how, I swear I checked the door before we left for a walk, and yet when we returned, boom, locked out.  Of course we have a spare key, but wouldn't you know it, that was in the house.  Great place for it huh?  Luckily my mom is the best and drove out here with her key to unlock the door.  Otherwise we'd be some frozen pup-sicles.  After that, I went to Target and bought a bunch of stuff for our Boy's Raffle Basket.  Maybe a little bit too much stuff, but I just couldn't help it.  I kept finding things that I thought the boys would like, and probably would never get on their own.  Hopefully whoever wins the basket has a sibling to share with! While at Target I also bought another nutcracker, because I love them, and the white fudge covered Oreos, because they're the best ever.  Yesterday I made a real fancy Christmas decoration, which I really like.  I really need to get more decorations though, because I feel like we're really lacking in that department.  Right now we just have a bunch of mixed up pieces, old and new.  I'd like to get everything more together though, some bigger pieces to decorate the empty rooms.  Let's see....I also ordered the Harry Potter adult coloring book, signed up for the Louisiana Marathon, and bought a few Christmas presents for the family.  Seems like a productive weekend, even though it doesn't really feel like it.  Is anyone watching Charlie Brown Christmas right now?  I'm not a fan of the second version, none of the character voices are the same and Sally is real annoying.  However, Charlie Brown is drawn a lot cuter in this version, so I like that part.  I like adorable Charlie Brown better than old Charlie Brown.  In fact, if you've ever read the original Charlie Brown comic strips, he starts out as a real young kid, and he's super adorable.  I used to have a whole book of them somewhere, I'd love to find that again. It's probably long gone by now, but it might still be at my mom's house.
Alright, so there's nothing in here about running, but don't worry, I'm still on it.  I ran 15.5 on Wednesday and 7 on Sunday.  I definitely need to do more, but I'm not sure I'm going to have the time this week.  Looks like I might have to bring back the Saturday run.  Not my favorite, but sometimes you have to do things you don't want too. After my 15 miles I also climbed the rope at boxing.  Maybe not a big thing, but considering I've never done a rope climb before and managed to master it in just under 5 minutes is pretty good, I think.  Ok, now that I've covered all that, here's a few pictures of the Christmas decorations. Enjoy.

Locked out! :(

Beaching in November....she loves it there

Oooh the top of the hill.  Mid-15 mile run

Boom...climbed that rope all the way to the top.  It's all in the leg swoop

And of course a pie

My medal holder is getting too full!

Told the 2nd grade that boy turkeys were called Toms.  Later, got this picture from a 2nd grader. He really took the Tom thing and ran with it.

Test Turkey

I don't know about you, but around here we have to make a test turkey before we make our actual turkey for other people. After all, new house, new oven, you never know how it's going to turn out.  Overall it wasn't bad, but either the thermometer was broken or the pan made the turkey cook real uneven, but whatever it was, I'd say about half of the turkey was still pink.  Not raw, but not a color I'd want to serve people. So for anyone coming over on Thursday, you're welcome for getting this figured out now. By Thursday the turkey should be good to go.  Of course, we still need to buy another turkey, but that's not the point.  Actually, I still need to go buy all the side dishes too, so I'm definitely prepared for this....

I am excited for a long weekend because there's a chance I can get in a long run without having work get in the way.  You know how it is when all you want to do is run but you have to do real life stuff instead, like go to work and be a functioning adult.  Tough days, real tough.  I've been thinking about ways to improve my running, as I always am, and have come up with a few ideas. First, a weighted vest.  My thought is that I will have to work harder to run with that on, so once it comes off, running faster will be easier.  Any experiences in this I'd love to hear, because "I may be as woefully wrong as Humphrey Belcher who believed the time was ripe for a cheese cauldron."  Second, I think it might be time to switch over to a hydration belt or backpack.  I've been running holding a 24 oz water bottle for about two years now and I'm really starting to notice that my arm is getting cramped up in the bicep area on my longer runs. Yea, I know, I'm sure there's another reason besides just the water bottle, but I think switching over would alleviate some of that.  Again, I could be way off, so if you've made the switch, let me know how it went.  Third, and it doesn't really have to do with improving running so much as it is something I want.  There's an awesome jacket out there made by Craft that I'm coveting.  It's beautiful and looks great for winter running. But it's $129.  Between the shoes that I use, the Tailwind that I need to reorder, and the cost of the races, I just can't convince myself to spend that much on another running jacket.  Even if it comes with attached gloves. If you're interested in checking it out though, here's a picture and a link to the women's jacket.

http://shop.craftsports.us/weather-jersey-w.html


Speaking of races, I'm still waiting to hear who the Louisiana Marathon is giving away their free entry too.  Do I think it's going to be me? No.  Do I hope it is? You bet.  If it's not, I'll be signed up by the end of the month anyways, but it sure would be nice to have a free entry.  It would make paying for Boston in a few months seem less harsh.  And while we're on the topic of Boston, my team for my main man Morty is still taking donations.  I know it's close to the holidays, but if you get your donation in before the new year, it's tax deductible for this years taxes! That's bonus that I know everyone wants. Plus, Morty's birthday is this week, and what better gift to give a child than a donation to a center that has helped him out in so many ways?
You can donate here if you're feeling extra giving this week.
 Donate to Allison Gibbs Michael's Miracles Boston Marathon Team

There are so many other things I wanted to talk about here, but I've decided not to go down that road today.  The whole thing with the Syrian refugees is clearly a major topic, but I have no interest in getting readers to this blog just because I dropped a hot ticket key word, or because people want to argue and tell me why I'm wrong about my thoughts and feelings on the situation.  So, if you're wondering why that hasn't come up, there you go. The most I will say is that I've never felt better about voting Seth Moulton into office than I did this past week.
For those of you who may not know it, the Philadelphia Marathon was today.  While I did not run it, my awesome crew of running partners did and they all did a great job. Huge shout out to Jenna, who finished in 3:59, and to Cynthia, Murdock, and Tracy, who ran their best and finished the marathon strong, like I knew they would. Maybe someday we'll all run together again, if we can ever all get on the same page for the same marathon! I'd love it if they all came to Chicago next year, but maybe we should start looking at NYC instead, since it's closer.  I'm pretty sure you're up to date on my entire life now, so it's time to end this with a beautiful selfie I took at the end of my 9 mile run on Friday.  It was 60 degrees, in November, I couldn't pass up a beach run with that kind of weather.

Side bar: I want a pair of wireless headphones so I took to Amazon to read some reviews.  Who are all these people who get products at a discounted rate in exchange for a review and why can't I get in on that? I'll review anything if you're going to send it to me fo' free.  Or at least fo' cheap.  Of course, it might be sentences like that which explain exactly why I'm not one of those people, but I promise to use proper grammar in the review.  I am a teacher after all, and I only say that type of stuff in jest on here. 

Veteran's day means extra hard work

You know, I figured since the veteran's did hard work every day while they were deployed, I could do an extra set of sprints today during my run.  Sure it's 100% not the same, but whatever gets you through the run right?  I won't lie, those sprints were tough too.  Mostly due to the fact that the side rails on the treadmill I was using were broken, so instead of hoping off to slow the tread down, I had to use my arms to pull myself up and hang there until it slowed down enough for me to jump back on without flying off.  The last round of sprints my arms almost didn't support my weight and it could have ended poorly, but I managed to throw myself forward instead of falling backwards, which balanced out the weight enough.  After that though, I did give up, because I didn't want to end up dead or smashed up by the concrete wall behind me.  Also, terrible idea, putting a treadmill in front of a concrete wall, get that worked out!
That's all I did in terms of working out today.  Then after that I took my cousin out to breakfast, since it's been a few months since I've seen him and since he's a veteran and I felt like he deserved it.  My veteran brother was also supposed to join us, but he chose sleep instead.  RUDE.  We were also going to take my veteran grandfather out for dinner tonight, but that fell through.  You like how I worked that into this huh?  I never really thought much about it before, but it's interesting thinking about the fact that we've had family in all the branches of the armed forces.  My grandfather was in the Navy in WWII, fought in some of the biggest battles in Europe, but not D-Day. He was also a lightweight boxer, had 5 matches before hanging up the gloves after a KO in Algiers.  I like to think I picked up my skills from him.  They called him Spider because he moved like a spider.  They might still call him that, I don't actually know. But anyways, my cousin was in the Army and fought in Afghanistan and my brother was a Marine and fought in Afghanistan.  All my grandfather's brothers and sisters were in the armed forces too, during WWII, so I'm pretty sure my family has covered every branch at this point. Not sure about the Air Force, but everything else is covered.  Of course, I have zero pictures from my grandfather's Navy experience, because he still has them at his place, but I do have the pair of wooden shoes that he got in Belgium when he escorted Harry Truman over to the Potsdam Conference.  So, that's cool.  
And now for something completely different...
As you know, I'm all about selling my creative ideas, even though I never actually sell any of them.  My newest one is selling educational anchor charts.  If there was a market for such a thing, I'd have that on lock.  Imagine being able to buy a poster for $5 instead of trying to make one on your own.  Yea, teacher friends, you know what I'm talking about.  Sure, it's nice to make your own, but let's be honest, who has time during the week, and who really wants to do it on the weekends?  Well, except for people like me, who actually have a dedicated drawing area.  So, that's my new plan.  Buy my posters.  Thanks.

Enjoy some pictures now

These are the Belgium shoes, with a locket of my grandparents when they were children.

And a math anchor chart to explain the area model to 4th grade.

Possibly the most important question you'll answer today

We're going to be in Baton Rouge the weekend of the Louisiana marathon.  Do I sign up and run it, aiming to break 4 hours, or do I sideline it and only focus on Boston?  Both options seem good. I'd like to run it because I'm almost 100% positive I could break the 4 hour mark and I really like the medals this year.  On the other hand, it's close enough to Boston that if something happens, it could easily put me out for enough time that I wouldn't be able to run.  Plus, it costs money, something I don't like spending if I don't have to.  As you can see, it's a real dilemma.  So many good reasons and yet, so many reasons not to run.  Clearly I've gone around in circles thinking about this and have come up with no good answer, so I'm throwing it out there to the people of the internet.  To be clear, if an entry was sent my way, free of charge, I'd be on board no problem.  Who turns down a free race entry?  No one in their sane mind, I hope.  But, since I've yet to have any sponsorship or free race bib offers, I guess I'm stuck doing this the old fashioned way, which is asking a bunch of different people their opinion and then deciding which one I like the best.

In other running news, I ran 10 miles on Sunday with the old training crew.  Their all going to Philly next weekend, but I just couldn't bring myself to sign up for that.  I have no good reason to run Philly again, since I didn't love it the first time around. I'm sure they're all going to have a great time though, and I'll be a little jealous that they're running without me, but that's ok.  I have a feeling that even if I did run, it would end up like Newport, and I don't want anymore of those times under my name.  Ya, I know, that's a silly thing to say, but it's been said, so I can't take it back now.

Tomorrow I'll probably get in a few miles since I have the day off.  Veteran's day and all that, you know how it goes. Remember to high five any veterans you see too.  They really like that way better than people saying thank you.  At least, they do on the race courses, so I assume that carries over into every day life.  After all, who doesn't love a good high five?

That's my basic recap of November so far.  I'm not signed up for any Thanksgiving runs, even though there's plenty of them around. We have people coming over for dinner, so it seemed like it wouldn't be a good idea to try and run before getting everything ready to go.  If I'm really feeling it, I'll run the 3 miles around my neighborhood and save myself the drive time of getting to and from the races in Salem and Lynn.

And now, a selfie from the end of my 10 miles on Sunday.  Chilly, but nice.

Wake up, wake up, wake up, it's the first of the month

And I swear in 10 seconds I'm going to go make my math posters, which is what I came up here to do.  But first, an update! Nothing to do with running, since I haven't done any of that all week. I have either a) a cold or b) allergies, but whatever it is, it's preventing me from running properly, because my lungs/nose are all clogged up.  Apparently every time I long run now, I'm going to have to take a week off due to clogged airways.  It's really going to make my training so much better.  I guess it could help with lung capacity, so that's something to think about.  Since I have no running info for you, I thought I'd share my Halloween instead.  If you're super pumped to hear about how exciting it was, I hate to let you down, because it wasn't anything fancy.  We handed out candy for two hours on our front porch listening to Halloween tunes.  It was fun, but it wasn't a wild party.  I did upgrade my skeleton costume from last year.  This year I added skeleton feet shoes and a mask.  At first I was just going to go mask-less and face paint free, but then I found a plain white masquerade mask in our Halloween bins.  Since I had it, I figured I might as well add to it and make it a full on skull mask.  All in all, I think it came out fantastic.  It was super easy to make too.  I cut out a top half of a skull, taped that to the top of the eye holes, and then cut out a lower half.  It was a little tricky to get the teeth and the mandible right, but I managed to pull it off.  I taped that part to the bottom of the eye holes, colored in some excess areas black, and added some cracks.  Boom. Instant mask.  The top and bottom probably should have been glued on, but I was in a time crunch since I decided this super last minute, at 4 p.m. yesterday.  Aside from that, today we raked up all the leaves in the yard, filled seven lawn waste bags, and died a little bit because the trees still look like they have the majority of their leaves.  Then I went to Michael's on my way to the grocery store and found out that Fall decor was 80% off.  I bought a few items because I realized that our house is lacking in the Thanksgiving aspect of decorations.  We have tons of Halloween and Christmas, but for the month of November, we're really boring.  So I bought some things to make a wreath.  That's basically it for this weeks exciting adventures.  One more thing, I can't remember if I shared this already or not, on Tuesday Title Boxing Saugus was looking for a new design for their blank chalkboard wall, so I went over and drew a boxing Mickey.  It came out real nice, considering it was the first time I ever really worked with chalk, especially on a large scale.  Alright, that really is all for now, check out the pictures to see the mask, wreath, and boxing Mickey!

Full costume - all hand-painted!

Fall wreath

Hit it Hard