Today is my last day of spring break. Well, technically, I don’t have students tomorrow, but I have training and meetings all day. So I consider this my last day of spring break. At the beginning of the week, I had lots of little things planned to get done…and I barely accomplished any of them. Over this past week, I was the laziest I have ever been in all my life. I didn’t do anything, and I LOVED it. I guess I am always so busy that I forget what it feels like to slow down and just relax. I do feel guilty about not getting much accomplished over break, but I know I needed to give myself a break.

I needed a break, as the month of April is going to be an extremely crazy month. Soccer continues to keep me occupied, and for the first few weeks of April, I will be playing on four soccer teams and subbing on one team. At work, I am on the search committee for our new administrator, which means many hours of looking at applications and sitting in interviews. Spring time in my classroom is always busy as often new ‘fun’ behaviors appear.

As for the running, I find myself in a state of frustration. Lately, I have been quite accident prone, and some of these injuries are not healing as quickly as anticipated, mainly my ‘turf toe’ that has spread into foot pain. I am new to distance running, but I am trying to figure out how much pain is worth tolerating. The last thing I want to do is pull out of the half marathon as I have trained so hard for it for so many months, but I am concerned about my chronic foot pain. Over the next week, I am really going to have to evaluate what is best for me. At this point, I don’t want to give up soccer, but maybe the combination of soccer and running is just too much for my body right now. I just wish I could snap my fingers and make my foot pain go away…

If are ever at Trader Joe’s, I insist that you pick up my new favorite food addiction….Veggie & Flaxseed Tortilla Chips. These are the most delicious chips ever…and healthy, well as much as chips can be. The chips have three different yummy tastes, all in one bag: Carrot & Tomato, Red Beet & Onion, and my favorite, Spinach & Garlic. These chips are tasty plain or with humus or cheese or any other dips and spreads. Rarely is there a food I am addicted to for more than a month, however, I will love these chips now and forever. I love you chips!

Not really sure why I just wrote a post about chips…I guess I wanted to share the deliciousness.

It’s no surprise to most people that I am often clumsy. I have been known to fall up stairs, fall down in soccer and run into things randomly. So I’m not perfect, but who is. My dad often calls me a ‘walking disaster’ and I am starting to agree with him.

I was out for my run yesterday, and I took Harrison (Heidi’s boxer) with me. I have a leash that attaches to my hip so I can run hands free. I set out on a run in between down pours. I started on a 5 mile loop. It was garbage/recycling day so all the bins were out on the sidewalks. I had done a good job of dodging them, however, at almost exactly 2.5 miles, I misjudged one. Normally Harrison just ran behind me to avoid the bins, but on this one, I went to the right, and he went to the left. The leash knocked over the bin, which scared Harrison. In his panic, he pulled me to the ground hard. I’m not sure how I fell but my ‘cheeks’ landed on the edge of the curb, and Harrison ended up pulling me down the side walk a bit. Once I had him settled and I realized what exactly had happened, I pulled myself up to make sure both he and I were okay.

Aside:
We were both fine, but I realized that there were three cars who saw this happened and no one stopped to ask if we were okay. Maybe I’m just too nice, but I would have stopped to make sure everyone was fine. Are people just so into themselves and unwilling to help others? Where’s the altruism?

Anyway, once I was up and moving, I noticed a sharp pain on my left quad, a sore right hamstring and a sore rear end. I tried to continue my run only to find out that running was just too much as I was sore and in pain. So I started on the 2.5 mile walk, when suddenly the clouds opened up and the rain began to come down. So I walked home in pain in the pouring down rain…not much fun at all, and even Harrison seemed to think so too. Needless to say, it was not the best run and I have a gnarly bruise on my leg and a sore bum. Through all of this, I just have to laugh…because I seem to prove my title of ‘walking disaster’ a little more accurate everyday.

Well it’s officially Spring Break, one of the benefits of being a teacher. And it’s a break much needed. My class has been rather ‘busy’ lately, and for my sanity and my kid’s sanity, we need this break.

As far as plans go, I don’t have much planned…which is a nice change for me. I’m headed out to Black Butte for a few days with the family (and Ginger gets to go too-thank to my dad for caving in)! Other than that, I plan on doing lots of sleeping, movie/TV watching, running, relaxing and other fun house tasks, like mowing the lawn, organizing the garage, cleaning the house, etc.

I’m looking forward to being lazy…which is something I don’t say that often!

Unfortunately, this is a phrase I am saying far too much lately. Yet again, the half marathon gods have thrown a kink into my training. After Thursday night’s soccer game, I came away with a seven inch long bump with bruise on my shin and a sprained toe. (It’s not broken, so I guess sprained is the best way to describe it. Some people have also called it ‘turf toe‘.) So yet again I am out of training a soccer for a bit, but hopefully only a week.

I get frustrated that I can’t go injury free, yet I refuse to give up soccer. Many ‘wiser’ (not older) adults in my life say I should slow down a bit on soccer. But I love soccer and I look forward to days when I get to play soccer. I make the choice to keep playing on top of running. With these two injuries, I am hoping they will not affect my ability to run the half marathon. I’m trying to stay positive, but also be realistic and listen to my body.

On another note, here is my new purchase for the house. Not really exciting, but needed.

This is the story of tonight’s soccer game. After being in a funk about scoring and never scoring more than one goal per season, I came through with a hat trick tonight. So I have now joined Susan in her hat trick glory. Woot!

If only this large bump on my shin and bruised toe would stop hurting, I would feel even better.

Today I ran my first 10K ever, which is also the longest I have run in my life. Heidi, her friend Emily and I ran the ‘Run for the Shamrock’ this morning. I was excited to run, but was worried about how I would do with a crummy head cold and a sore throat. Obviously, it didn’t affect me too much as I finished under my goal, 1:07:35. My goal was to run 11:00 miles, as that is the pace I have set for the upcoming half marathon. Heidi and Emily finished before me, and they were there the last .2 miles cheering me on to the finish. With all my strength, I kicked it hard and sprinted to the end. It felt so good to finish, and it made it even sweeter to finish on my projected time too! Nevermind, that I was towards the back of the pack, but it didn’t really matter to me. I stuck to my pace right from the start and continued on. Now I’m off to Portland to spend some time with the family, and I will be enjoying a nice steak dinner tonight…probably the best reward ever.

Mile Splits (approx):
1 Mile: 10:48
2 Mile: 22:44
3 Mile: 33:48
4 Mile: 44:33
5 Mile: 55:48
6 Mile: 1:06: 22
Finish: 1:07:35

Pajama day at work = best thing ever! If only I could do this everyday!

So the fundraiser (that was mentioned in the previous post) raised $2600 for the family. It was the largest grossing fundraiser the pizza parlor has ever seen. How awesome it is to work with such wonderful people!

Last night, there was a fundraiser at a local pizza place for a kindergarten teacher in my district. She had a child almost two months pre-mature and the baby is currently at Sacred Heart in the NICU and will most likely be there for a few months. In order to help pay for medical expenses, our district sent out flyers for 50% of food orders would go to the teacher and her family.

Last night, my friend and I stood in line for 20 minutes and then waited another 40 minutes for our pizza…something I would not normally do, especially for mediocre pizza. However, this was all for a good cause. This was the story for many people waiting in line, but yet no one cared. I saw several people from my building as well as other schools. Everyone was happy to stand in line and wait for pizza for a lengthy amount of time just to support a teacher in our district. I look back at last night and realize how much our district is truly a family, and I feel incredibly lucky to be working for such an amazing district.