I can't feel my legs when I'm with you

I'd like to dedicate that title to the ice bath.  Last year I had no interest in such craziness but this year I'm full on embracing the whole thing.  I'm not really sure why, because I hate being cold, but my legs just feel so good afterwards.  Sadly, my back still hurts, so it wasn't a cure-all like I was hoping it would be.
Anyways, I had my box-a-thon fundraiser yesterday and with that I made it over the top of my donation goal.  I'd like to take this moment to thank everyone who donated something to my fund because every donation made an impact. Now that the hard part of fundraising and running 20 mile long runs is over, I can't wait for Patriot's Day to get here so I can go run the streets of Boston, FINALLY.  I've avoided training on the marathon route at all, so it will be new and exciting for the entire run.  That's about all I've got to say today, but  here are a few pictures to check out from the box-a-thon and my legs in an ice bath.

Best trainers on the planet.  They both gave up their Sunday morning to come help me out!

This photo is 100% staged.  I don't usually punch like that...or laugh while I'm boxing, I swear!

Grad school besties

BRRR

I got smart and wore socks this time though

And a long sleeve shirt, that helped

Oh yea, here's a homemade chicken kabob sub I made for dinner. It was bomb!

Post run stretch on Sunday

Finisher medal and the coolest bib number I've ever had. 

Full of myself, but still hungry

And I promise that's the last Eminem lyric I'll use as a post title for a least a month.  At least I'll try to make it the last.  Sometimes I hear these things while I'm running and they just stick.  And speaking of running, I managed to turn today into 10 mile Wednesday.  With a the temperature up in the 70s, I really had too.  There's not much of a choice when it comes to running in nice weather.  Turns out it was a bit harder to go back to warm weather running than I thought though! I kind of got used to having a breeze to cool off the sweat, so it was a tough reminder when I started sweating in mile 1 that there wasn't going to be a big relief from that.  Still, I made the run at an 8:51 pace, so I'm ok with how it went.  I have the Black Cat 20 miler on Saturday, but I feel more prepared for it now that I've run some this week.  I may be stuck in the bad habit of doing long runs and then not managing to fit runs in during the week with all of my actual work after-school programs going on, and I really need to break that.  Hopefully with daylight savings time coming in, it will be a bit easier.
Aside from that, my fundraising is now at 81% and I still have the box-a-thon on Sunday.  So if you're in the area, stop by Title Boxing Danvers at 11:00 a.m. for a great time.  If you're not in the area, you can donate at this link - https://www.crowdrise.com/michaelcarterlisnowboston2016/fundraiser/allisongibbs
For those people who did donate and requested a Disney drawing, they're finished and going out soon.  I took some photos for you to see how amazing they are, and that led me to my next point.  Every time I take a picture on my phone, holding the camera horizontal and parallel to the subject, the photo automatically flips upside down and I have to go in and rotate it.  Anyone else having this weird problem with their Nexus 5x? I don't know if it's a phone glitch or if I hit a setting somewhere and I'm just not bright enough to flip it back.  So if you also have this problem, let me know. In the meantime, enjoy some right side up photos of the new pictures going out.  And the old box-a-thon poster too.

Calling all Irish

And non-Irish, and anyone who thinks they want to try boxing.  Now is THE TIME! Title Boxing Club Danvers is holding a box-a-thon for me to help with my fundraising for the marathon.  So if you've ever felt the need to hit something or wondered how to throw a perfect punch, get in and join us for the 12 rounds.  I promise you'll have a great time and you'll be supporting a great cause.  The class will be St. Patrick's themed, which means you need to wear your best green workout clothes, or come in full on leprechaun gear, whatever you prefer.  There will also be at least one raffle at the end, for a sweet pair of wireless headphones.  Hopefully more to come with the raffles, but for now, at least there's that.  So wrap up your hands, lace up your shoes, and get on down to Title Boxing Danvers next Sunday, March 13, at 11:00 a.m.
See you there!

Of course if you can't make it, you can donate here instead: https://www.crowdrise.com/michaelcarterlisnowboston2016/fundraiser/allisongibbs

Marathon Training: The Gibbs Method

I've decided, inadvertently, to try a brand-new method of marathon training. It may come as no surprise that I'm calling it The Gibbs Method.  Here's how it works. Sign up for a fall marathon and a winter marathon. Train for a fall marathon starting in the spring, following a regular training schedule with increasing mileage until you hit 20, and then taper. Run (or run/walk) said marathon in the fall.  Three weeks later, run a half.  Two weeks after that, run a 15 mile long run.  Finally, 4 weeks before the winter marathon, run another 20 miler.  No taper for your second marathon.
 In between these, run a random mix of mileage at varying paces, ranging from 1 - 13 miles. (I say varying paces because at this point in the year, it's very hard to find a consistent group of people who want to run long runs for no reason, and can hold the pace I want to hold.)  Add in short 3 mile runs on the treadmill.  These are for one mile warm-ups, one mile sprint intervals and one mile hill inclines. Your one-mile warm-up should be at your best pace, which should be faster than your marathon pace.  Example, my one mile warm-up is around a 7:40, my goal marathon pace is around an 8:50. Sprints should be done in 1 minute on/1 minute off intervals.  And by off, I mean, walking.  And by on, I mean a full out sprint, at least 2 minutes faster than your fastest pace.  Hills should be done on at least a 7 incline.  If you're only going to 7, you need to be running up that hill at your regular race pace, or a bit faster, for .10 of a mile.  Then you get to pause for 1 minute.  This is your pretend walk back down the hill, since you're not going to bother lowering and raising the treadmill incline every .10 of a mile.  Repeat for the full mile.  Now, if you want to get REAL crazy, you can go above a 7, all the way up to the highest incline setting on your treadmill.  For the one I use, that's a 15.  Be prepared to die if you do this. I can run up the 7 at a regular race pace of 8:30ish, give or take a few minutes, if I'm not feeling or really rocking it.  At the 15, I barely made it up the .10 of a mile in a 10:00 run.  It's a real challenge, but I like it, so I keep doing it.  Plus, I'm sure it will help when I get to Louisiana and there is nary a hill to be seen.  My legs and lungs will be all, "whhhhhhhattttt?So flat. NBD, we got this." Or, at least, I assume that's how it's going to go.  Just realize that after the first time, your calf muscles are going to feel like the fires of hell are burning deep within, and you might actually want to consider crawling up the stairs the next day.  That feeling goes away a little bit if you stretch and definitely gets better the more you do this activity.
To really complete this cycle of training, you have to throw in at least 4 days of cross-training activity that fully engage the rest of your muscles, continue to help you build endurance, and work your core.  That means something like Cross-Fit, bike riding, or, obviously, boxing classes.  Trust me when I say this method will never work if you don't do any sort of extra workouts with those runs sprinkled in.  Since I've yet to actually put this method to the final test, I can't say it will work for you either, so, unless you're looking for the lazy man's plan, I wouldn't take this to heart until I can prove it's worth in January.  After January though, if I do manage to hit that sub-4 marathon, I'm taking this plan to the bank. *patent pending*  Pretty sure this how the internet works, so now that it's official, no stealing.  Bonus points if you know that that is referencing.
Now that you have the inclusive Gibbs marathon training plan, I hope you're excited to check back in a month and see how well it worked out.  I know you are.  The good news here is that I did re-order some Tailwind, and if my Christmas list was taken seriously, I should have another bag on the way, which means I'll be solid for Louisiana and Boston.  I've always been convinced Tailwind worked, but I've never been more convinced than I was today, after not using it for a few months, and then using it again at boxing today. There was a serious upswing in my participation and endurance for the entire class, which is good, because I've been lacking in the push department lately.  Also, my poor little toe still hurts, and though I never saw a doctor about it, I'm pretty sure there's a break or a fracture in there somewhere.  However, it doesn't hurt enough to stop running or working out, and I was getting super bored not being able to do anything anyways, so I figure if it really starts to hurt again, I'll throw some tape back on it.  Because that's how I roll, and it's easier than actually doing anything about it.
Aside from all that, even though this week has been totally crazy, it's one of those weeks where I've simultaneously felt like an awesome teacher and an awful one.  Awesome because I just corrected the tests from the multiplication unit we just did in 4th grade and all the kids really rocked it.  They showed their work for every problem, they were using the BUS method, and the open responses were set up accurately.  It was a moment of YASSS for me.  But, then, it was also awful, because we had to cut half of the basketball team.  There's a couple of us coaching the 4th and 5th grade boys basketball team this year, and I guess we're real popular, because we had 38 boys sign up.  Yup. Apparently that's way too many, which I should have known, but knowing next to nothing about basketball, didn't really occur to me.  So in the end, the three of us got together and decided that the best thing to do was to cut some of the 4th grade boys.  The 5th grade boys get their spots automatically because it's their last year at the school, but the 4th graders had to go, unfortunately.  And if you think being a teacher is hard, try being a teacher who also has to tell 18 ten-year-olds that they can't play on the basketball team this year.  Because no matter where you teach, no matter how tough your students act, when it comes to something like this, suddenly they're all just 10 years old and crying in the hallway.  Oh, and how to handle that type of a situation is definitely not taught in any class you're going to take, so if you plan on being a teacher, you better be prepared to face that eventually.
 From experience, I've taught in all levels, whether as a sub, teacher, or coach, and there is ALWAYS tears.  And yes, this is an inner-city school, these aren't coddled little boys who are used to having everything they want in life.  They're tough kids, who understand and are somewhat used to disappointment, which made it even harder. I suppose I had another awesome moment yesterday though, when a third grader was super upset that he failed his eye test for the second year in a row.  So I showed him my contacts and talked to him about how I had glasses and had to wear them or the contacts every day.  He came back today and told me that I made him feel better about glasses after I showed him my contacts, so he went home and told him mom he needed them, and now he's going to get them next week.  Actually, these two paragraphs are a great example of real world teaching experience.  If you want to be a teacher and really understand what it's like on a daily basis, look no further.  This is it.  A series of events in which you feel awesome, awful, terrible, loved, and hated, sometimes all at once, and all in a 6 hour time block.  Throw in a 20 second bathroom break and you've got teaching. Of course, then you continue to worry about the kids long after they've left the school, and the feelings keep rolling in when you're correcting homework, classwork, or tests, and the scores are either amazing or terrible.
We did also have a nice visit from the Greyhound Friends Organization, which is out in Hopkinton, MA.  The third grade just wrapped up a unit on helper animals, and the Greyhound Friends came out with their dogs so the children could see and learn about them.  This is the second year they've done it, and it is awesome.  There's nothing cooler than dogs in school and the kids loved learning about the dogs and being able to meet and pet them.  If you ever need an assembly, I definitely recommend getting in touch with these people.
So that's everything from the past two weeks, I suppose.  Global warming, which obviously doesn't exist, has kept the temperatures around here in the 50s for a while, so that's real great.  Definitely doesn't feel like Christmas with this weather hanging around.  But it's great for running, so while I'm not a fan of the reason for the weather, or the lack of Christmas-y feelings, I do enjoy the extra time to run outside.
And now please enjoy some pictures of the Greyhounds and anything else I may find interesting at the moment.

A manual collator.  The best invention you didn't know you needed. 

Oh right, Google sent these awesome kits as a holiday gift for using ProjectFi.  It's a basic pack of Legos with instructions for how to make a phone stand or a cable organizer.  I went with the phone stand and I really do love it.  Plus they sent an extra power cable, since the Nexus uses the USB Type-C, which isn't commonly found yet.  Yet another reason to love Google. They're always thinking ahead.  What other company would send a second charger to every customer just to make their life a little easier? Thanks Google. 

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here

  I mean, sure, it's like, 60 degrees out, there's barely any lights around the neighborhood, and our tree is a little bit of a reject, but still, it's Christmastime.  That means it's almost Christmas vacation, which means it's almost time for the 20 miler.  Because what better use of vacation time than to run 20 miles.  There's not much else happening in the running world right now, but I do need to order more Tailwind stat.  Unrelated to anything happening here, I'm watching last weeks Saturday Night Live and I really have to say, Ryan Gosling is not a great live actor.  He's funny enough, but he can't keep it together very well.  But, more than I could do, so way to go you.  Plus, I suppose if you look like Ryan Gosling, you don't necessarily need to be good at what you're doing, you just have to look it.
Back to running now, I took a week off because I thought I had a broken toe.  Upon further review, it may have just been super bruised, but I don't really know.  It hurt for a while and was all purple but now it's just kind of red and doesn't hurt anymore.  So, back to running like nothing happened on that front.  I ran 5 today at an 8:04 pace and no water.  I clearly made a judgement error on that one, but it worked out fine.  I'd also like to take a moment to note how hard it is to keep a sentence flowing with Weekend Update on in the background.
Let's see, so aside from running, I've been sort of feeling a little bored of my workouts.  Here's the thing.  I'm Facebook friends with a lot of people that go to the boxing club and I constantly see updates about how hard the workout was.  Yet, I don't really feel like the workouts are that hard whenever I'm there.  Maybe it's because the workouts have to be beginner ready and I'm really past that stage.  Or maybe it's because I've spent so much time running that the short, hour long classes, just aren't enough.  Whatever the reason is, I figured that I needed to get some answers/results.  Doing what any good athlete would do, I went to the trainers and asked what I should be doing differently to get better results.  Smart move, really.  This was my answer: Climb the rope 3 times, run a fast mile before class, and add push-ups to the mountain climbers.  So, like any good athlete, I did that.  The rope climb was definitely the hardest, but I made it up.  Turns out that wasn't enough though.  Instead of doing a first round, I got bombarded by trainers and was told to do push-ups for 3 minutes instead of doing the actual round.  That was a lot of fun.  Until I couldn't do push-ups anymore and then still had to do them during the mountain climber active rest later in the class.  Today, after I ran 5 miles I was going to do uphill/sprint repeats on the treadmill.  Unfortunately, both treadmills were being utilized during the time I had, so I was instructed to do the row machine for 5 minutes instead.  Way harder than I thought it was.  Seriously, have you ever used a rowing machine and tried to keep it in the 2:00/500m range for 5 minutes? I have no idea what that means, but it was super hard.  I actually never got it down to 2:00, but I managed to hold it steady at 2:30, so I figured that was close enough.  Then I did a mile of uphills and was basically dead, so I wrapped it up and left.  But, I have to say, after all that, it was definitely worth it.  I actually feel like I did something again.  My legs are little tight, my arms are sore, and I have a giant blister on my left palm. A perfect ending.
In case you're wondering, I haven't run any new races lately, and probably won't run any before Louisiana, so you'll just have to put up with my mess of poorly flowing paragraphs and not very informative running information until then.  I'm sure I'll have a great update after Louisiana but sadly, probably not 26 selfies this time.  Don't be too disappointed, I just really want to get in under that 4:00 mark, and I don't think the selfies helped.  While you're waiting patiently for new running information though, enjoy some pictures from Winter Wonderland, the school's winter open house that held last night. It was a big hit.  And of course, I'm still taking donations for Morty.  As always, click here to donate

I was recruited to draw a Christmas theme at the Saugus Title.  For those of you reading this from out of state, or even out of the North Shore, there used to be a mini-golf course right down the street on Rt 1 that had a giant orange dinosaur visible to people driving by.  The orange dinosaur is well known around these parts, so if you're from here, it's kind of funny. If you're not, it probably doesn't make a lot of sense.  Don't worry, my January board will be better, if I'm still allowed to do it!

Got myself the Harry Potter coloring book and I love it.  Plus I made that little canvas, just because

Last weekend while I was babysitting I had to come up with a creative way to move the Elf on the Shelf.  Since the little girl I was watching wrote a letter to Santa, I made the elf a mail-box out of an empty Kleenex box. Of course I had to decorate the box to make it more Christmas friendly.

Boxing selfie with the other Ali and Brian.  

Santaaaaaa!

I feel like through this picture, you can really tell how well squats work. 

Our little Christmas tree.  The Nexus really does take good pictures for a phone.

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

Oww

My triceps are dead.  Seriously. 100% gone off the deep end dead.  At least for today.  I first noticed it when I woke up at 2:30 a.m. with a serious pain in my right arm.  It hurt to move my arm in any direction, so I just lay there hoping to fall back asleep.  Which I did.  Then I woke up again at a normal hour just to find out that it still hurt almost as much as before.  It was a serious struggle to brush my teeth, get dressed, or really do anything conducive to my morning routine.  But I pushed through and made it through the day.  You would not believe how hard it is to write/teach when your dominate arm does not want to work.  Around noon both arms started to hurt, so that was extra miserable.  I finally managed to ice them when I got home for work, but the ice ran out far more quickly than I would have liked.  Now they're both super sore, but I think the worst has passed.
"How did this happen?", you may be asking.  Well, I started the week with my usual 12 rounds of boxing, not a problem.  Then on Monday I did my usual 8 rounds plus 3 miles on the treadmill.  Tuesday was generally the same, except one noticeable difference.  On Tuesday I finished my treadmill run  just a bit earlier than usual and I wanted to keep my muscles warm. So I asked one of the trainers to give me an exercise to do in the meantime.  The challenge was 100 push-ups in under 10 minutes. Me being me, of course I took that challenge.  The first 50 went ok and I was able to do them in 3 minutes.  Then I took a break because my arms were sore.  I manged to get in the next 50 in the next 5 minutes, so I totally won that challenge.  Unfortunately, then I went on to do 8 rounds of boxing.  Since I like to take Thursday as my off day, I go boxing on Wednesdays so I don't feel bad taking two days off in a row.  That was another 8 rounds.  Plus I ran outside because it was so nice out! Anyways, that's the reason my arms are dead today.  36 rounds of boxing and 100 push-ups in the past 4 days, plus all the warm-ups and ab workouts.  Which involve lifting medicine balls. Lesson learned there.  Ice is your friend.  If you're going to do all that, ice those muscles and ice them good. Otherwise suffer the wrath of angry arms. I'm going to attempt another round of ice in a few minutes just to see if I can get some relief before bed.  That's about all I've got for today. Oh yea, poor Stella has a toothache that needs to be taken care of, so in the meantime she's got a puffy face. She's very lopsided at the moment.

Ice arms

A Spring-like run surrounded by snow.

A puffy faced Stella

Springing Forward

Tonight, or tomorrow morning I guess, it's time to SPRING FORWARD! Wooo woooo! I love daylight savings because I no longer have to turn the lights on when I leave the house at 3:30 to make sure I can see when I get back home from boxing at 5:30.  In short, I hate when the day is dark except for the time when I'm at work and the hour or so I have to be out doing things before I have to get ready for dinner etc.  But I love the daylight.  I don't even care that we lose an hour.  You take that hour and enjoy it mother nature, because all I want is the sunshine and some snow melt.  On top of this wonderful phenomenon, it might actually be over 40 for TWO days next week.  That's right, TWO WHOLE DAYS! Everything's coming up Milhouse.
Mostly I'm looking forward to the snow to melt so I can get back outside and actually run.  Last weekend I did the 4 miler in Lawerence as part of the Wild Rover series.  There was supposed to be a 5 miler in Lowell this weekend, but it's been postponed due to the hulking snowbanks that are still taking over the streets.  So, now, the 3 miler and the 5 miler are not being held until mid-April. Which is fine and dandy, but it's severely impacting my actual running regime.  I've been using the tread at boxing, but only getting in 2 miles.  And, full disclosure, sometimes it's not even speed work.  I know it's my own fault for not getting myself moving faster, but it's just so hard to run on the treadmill when all I want is to run outside again.  I'm thinking that maybe I ought to check out the lake or the beach.  Those areas might be clean enough to run for a few miles/laps and at least it's something other than staring at a wall.
There hasn't been much else going on.  Since it's March, the MCAS are coming up, though for once, the state decided to push the test date back a week.  That's huge, because I was panicking a little bit about missing all those snow days and not having time to make up the lost curriculum.  So now the test is at the end of March and the first two weeks of April.  Along with that, we're in the midst of buying a house.  I haven't said much about it to anyone yet because I want to be sure that we're actually going to get the house.  The inspection is today and as long as that goes well, our closing date is April 10.  So, family members, if you're reading this, Ryan and I are probably moving out next month! (I'll be honest, I just remembered that the family reads this, so I probably should have told them before publishing this post, but, I didn't.)  There's also a  track coach job open at one of the high schools here, so I'm going to go ahead and apply for that.  Never hurts to try, right? I can't think of anything else of particular excitement right now, so I guess that's it.  Here are some pictures for fun.

I made this fantastic leprechaun as a door decoration

This is the medal from the 4 miler.  One piece of a three part medal.  The other two attach to either end.  What I'm saying is that this medal is going to be gigantic. Maybe a little too gigantic

Door

Making posters

I'm going to mail these to Disney and have them hang them up during their marathons.  I feel like that's a reasonable plan....

So much room for activities!

Apparently I have a race on Sunday. We'll start there.  I signed up for the Wild Rover series again this year and didn't pay much attention to the dates.  I knew the first one was the weekend of Hyannis, and that the rest were the following weekends, but I didn't give it much thought.  Then they postponed the first one and I really forgot about the dates.  Until I got the email that it's Sunday.  Cool.  Don't get me wrong, it's only 4 miles, I'm ready to do it, I just don't particularly WANT to do it.  It's still fairly cold out and a lot snowy out.  Although the temperature for Sunday is looking pretty good, so that's a plus.  This will be my first run outside since the marathon though.  I think it's more the fact that the race is in Lowell, which is feeling kind of far at the moment.  At least it's a late start, 11:00 a.m., so I have plenty of time to get there.
Aside from the running, which is back on now that I don't have a choice, I just have miscellaneous subjects to talk about.  We'll start with motivation.  Usually I'm pretty good at going hard and fast during the 8 rounds of boxing, but I always, always get bored during abs and 9 times out of 10, don't put in my best effort.  Part of it is that it hurts and part of it is that looking at the lights on the ceiling is the most boring thing I can think of, outside of watching paint dry.  I got so sick and tired of looking at the ceiling and the black steel beams holding up the bag system that I decided to brighten up my little area.  Now, there's technically no assigned bags or anything like that, but generally the regulars have a favorite bag, myself included.  I've been using this bag for the past year or so now and it's really broken in to my specifications.  So when I go, this is my general area.  To brighten it up, I made some posters that I can look at while I'm doing abs.  This seemed like a good idea because it would distract me from the abs and maybe motivate the people around me too.  Plus, when I get bored with them, I can bring them to school and hang them up in the room to motivate the kids for MCAS. After all, it's all about reuseability.  Which is a word I just made up, so enjoy that.  I'll stick up some pictures of the posters after this next paragraph.
Speaking of MCAS, because that was the closest I could come to transitioning that paragraph smoothly, I've decided to offer tutoring services for MCAS/summer work.  Nothing fancy, but I figured I could help out the parents who want their students to get some extra help.  I'm also offering to teach the parents how to do Common Core math, which I feel is a service that should be utilized.  A lot of the math can be confusing if you're used to doing math the way we learned it in school, so this could help a lot of parents help their students! Right now I'm only really offering services on the North Shore area of Massachusetts.  However, I do have teacher friends in other areas, so if you want a tutor but don't live on the North Shore, feel free to let me know and I'll pass your information onto those teachers. For more information on my tutoring services, visit Gibbs Tutoring. You can see pictures of my classroom and watch a short video clip of a first grade class in action.

And now for those pictures! If you're interested in my posters, but not in my tutoring, you can always contact me about these.  I love to draw and would be open to drawing/making personalized posters, for a small fee.  *These particular posters are not for sale, they are for personal use*

The great Muhammed Ali.

This is actually my favorite, I really like the way Huntress came out. This was made almost completely with oil based sharpie pens and I really like the effect they made.

Hercules, Hercules!

Wonder Woman hanging out between the bags. 

Punchies

Ahh vacation week.  Nothing like it when you've already had 7 days worth of snow days in the past two weeks.  All I've really accomplished so far is, baking brownies, making a lasagne, watching some old Disney animated classics, and eating a bunch of junk food.  Right now I'm catching up on Gotham and assuming that Jerome is going to be the future Joker. Because look at those lips. Chap city. 

But anyways, basically all the road races for the next month have been cancelled.  Hyannis is flat out done, not even a reschedule.  The Frozen Shamrock, which was supposed to be on February 22, is rescheduled for April 12.  Hopefully we'll be able to see the ground by then. I've been really great at NOT running, but I should probably get back on that treadmill.  I tried to add my 100 punches to last week and I've managed to achieve that.  What I've learned is that there are two ways to count punches. The REAL way, which follows the instructors combos and makes you work hard, and the fake way.  The fake way is when you stand in real close to the bag and just fire off punches without fully extending your arms and pulling them back.  Imagine a T-rex with boxing gloves on. That's the fake way.  Not that I didn't try both, but I didn't really find a huge difference in either way.  Other than that, it's been more and more snow.  FUN!

These are the punches from Monday, regular full punches following the combos and taking some breaks. 1378 and 1223 for a total of 2601

These are punches from Tuesday, using T-rex arms and no breaks from punching.  I'm also fairly certain that the left didn't record all punches, they should be much more even.   1612 and 1915 for a total of 3527. So almost 1000 more.  Fine, maybe there is a bit of a difference.

It's snowy and it's cold.  Welcome to Alaskachusetts.  -25 yesterday. :(

This is what my street looks like now. 

Disney Movie Day