The Speech Team

Awhile back Madi was sent home from school with a paper telling her to select a poem to recite in front of her class. There was a little note on the paper mentioning that a couple of students would be chosen to move on and perform in front of their grade level, and then in front of the whole school. I guess the higher grades go on to compete against other schools. So, we helped Madi choose a poem and made her practice every night. When it finally came time for her to present her poem, she had it down pat - memorized, great fluency, good expression, and cute actions to go along with it (thanks to help from Boppi :)!

Her poem was "Ations" by Shel Silverstein

Madi was first asked to say her poem to her teacher, then to her class. She was then selected as a top presented from her class:

After that she went onto present in front of all the first graders. The first grade teachers chose Madi and a few others to move on and recite their poems to the Speech team teachers - Mrs. Luna and Mrs. White.

It was a pretty exciting day when Madi came home with the letter saying that she made the speech team!!

I think Madi was most excited about the t-shirt they gave her to wear on the day of the speech assembly!

She did such a great job - didn't miss a beat! I love watching Madi's confidence and excitement when performing in front of large groups.

A few of the kids that Madi performed with:

Two of Madi's biggest fans:

Great job Madi!! All your hard work really paid off! 

Little things from March

Catching up on a few things I haven't yet gotten to from March . . . 

The first Saturday of the month, I had a little reunion with 2 of my old college roommates. Natalie lives just an hour and a half away (unfortunately traffic usually makes it 2 1/2 hrs), and Ashley is another hour from there. So I drove to Natalie's house, picked her up, then headed onto Ashley's.

It was so great to spend the day with these girls! Loved catching up, and it was so fun to see Ashley as a wife and new mama!

Since Ashley has a 4 year old step son, Natalie and I figured it'd be fun to bring along Elle and Kaitlin (who are 4 1/2 and 5). I was especially glad for the company on my drive (Elle's a good little traveler - very low maintance), and she and Kaitlin got along seamlessly. 

Elle was thrilled about getting to hold sweet little baby Ava (just a couple weeks old). It was such a great trip. Hopefully we'll all be able to get together again soon!!

Spencer went on a week long business trip - first to Houston, TX, then onto Asheville, NC. It was hard not to be jealous of all the nice places he got to stay at, the gourmet food he ate, all the cool places he got to visit, and most importantly - WHO he got to see!! The Calhouns happened to be in Asheville the very weekend Spencer was there so he got to hang with Tish, Curt, and the kids for an evening. Unfortunately, this was the only picture taken - Ez with his Uncle Spencer! 

After a 6 week head cold/sinus infection, I finally decided to go see a Dr. Got the best prescription EVER!

I also got antibiotics that helped to finally knock my head congestion out of the park! Just a week later I felt a million bucks better!

Madi's primary teacher is such a sweet lady. She knew about Madi and Elle's obsession with Frozen and she painted a picture of Elsa and Anna for them one afternoon after church! Madi couldn't believe Sister Sanchez's talent! She spent the rest of the afternoon trying to replicate the painting (which ended in complete frustration and tears with me trying to explain how Sister Sanchez went to school to learn how to paint this good. I foresee an art major in Madi's future!)

Sister Sanchez also documents her Sunday lessons and posts a picture on facebook each week - sharing what they learned. Here's Madi's sweet little CTR 6 class:

Another exciting thing in March was Madi making the speech team (more coming on that later)!

We had several hot days this month, which means blowing up the pool, popsicles, and the beach!

Going to Grandpa Al and Boppi's for Sunday dinners is always a highlight!

Even though Elle reads to Calvin everyday, I never tire of seeing it. No matter how often it happens, I always want to take a picture. These are some of the moments I cherish most!

  

A gem

I found this little gem while going through Madi's notebook this morning:

I couldn't stop smiling while reading it! Can't wait to give that sweet girl a hug when she gets home from school and let her know how much I love her and how much I love reading her writing.

And while I'm documenting writing samples, I might as well throw the next page in her notebook on here:

Oh how I love this stage when they start to record their feelings on paper! On Monday morning Madi was super excited to get to school to write her morning journal. When I dropped her off at school she told me she was probably going to write a "book" which means that they write more than just their little half sheet of paper. Here's what Madi was able to write in the short 15 minutes they're given for journals in the morning:

 Three pages of writing!! Definitely "awesome writing" if you ask me!! Thanks for helping me to document the weekend while I was away Madi! I love you!

So Cal Ragnar 2014

Let me preface this post by reiterating that up until this past weekend  (and not counting running track in junior high) I had never ran a race before and really never had any desire to do it. I'm a total "fair weather" runner - I like to run in the nice, cool, early mornings and usually not more than 5 miles. Paying to run has always seemed absolutely crazy to me - cause seriously, why would anyone want to PAY so that they could run!

But it was back in January when I was sitting in Stake Conference and Debbie Morris turns around to tell me I'm going to run Ragnar with them. (For those of you who don't know, Ragnar is a 200 mile relay race with a team of 12 people). Completely taken by surprise, I listened, smiled, and told her I'd think about it (all while trying to come up with excuses and ways to say no). But then I found out some of my favorite people were also going to run on the team, so I decided it might be something I could give a try. So I committed, all while back in my mind thinking maybe I'd get pregnant or something and be able to bail! No such luck! A week or two before the race I bit the bullet, payed my $140 Ragnar fee, and attended the team meeting. Now up until this point I was still just doing my regular 3 1/2 mile morning runs with a longer run on Saturdays. So I threw in a few longer (7, and 8 mile) Saturday runs and called it good. I was nervous but also excited for something totally new to me. The only thing really keeping me committed was knowing the awesome friends that would be with me. Aside from Lindsey, we were all newbies to Ragnar and it was exciting doing something new together.

Thursday night we all met at the Stake Center for a team picture and prayer before van 1 headed out.

Friday morning at 6 am all of us in van 2 met and headed down to Irvine to be at our first exchange by the time van 1 finished running all their first legs. Our van should have won an award for being the most prepared. We were totally organized and early to every exchange! Once we checked in, we had several hours to kill before our first runner was up.

Shoe wings donated by the talented Emily Bartlett!

We got in trouble for camping out in the parking lot and were asked to move elsewhere. 

And glad we did, cause the grass was so much more comfortable!

While it was nice to have some time to relax, the waiting was killing me!  I was totally nervous and getting myself all worked up. Since I always run in the early morning, on an empty stomach and bladder, I was worried about eating and drinking too much too close to my start time. Since I was runner #10 (out of 12), I didn't run until about 3:45 Friday afternoon. I was so worked up at that pointed that when the bracelet was slapped onto my wrist, I took off in a dead sprint! My heart was pounding and I couldn't relax. I didn't want anyone to pass me! It wasn't until mile 3 when I finally got into my grove, passed everyone I was going to pass, and started to enjoy the run. The only annoying part was that my Nike sports band was totally off and telling me that I'd run further than I really had. It was such a great feeling to round this corner and see everyone cheering!

We tried to follow each other and stop to cheer each other on as much as possible, but my first leg was on a trail, making it impossible to have any support from my van. The first two runners in our van (Annie and Jessy) got the most support and the loudest cheering because the rest of us were all fresh and excited. Here's Lindsey and I checking on Jessy in the middle of her run. 

Lindsey was always so great about offering water every time we'd see our runners. We called her our "mother hen" because she took such good care of all of us. Lindsey was the last runner though, so when it was her time to run her first leg, we were all so exhausted and did a terrible job at following her and weren't there to offer water and support. I felt terrible, so on her second run (in the middle of the night) we all went out of our way to cheer her on, stop every chance we got, and Kathleen even ran across the street and waited with water bottle in hand. I was driving, and was so focused on not loosing her, that at one point I looked up and saw cop lights flashing behind us. My heart sunk! A ticket was the last thing I wanted to deal with. When the police woman came to my window, she asked what was going on, I told her about the Ragnar race this weekend and how we were really just trying to do a good job supporting our teammate. Then she tells me, "Oh, you were just driving super slow and I thought you were drunk!" I assured her that we were most definitely not drunk and she sent us on our way! Phew!!

We finished up with our first legs in Dana Point around 5:30pm and then headed onto Oceanside where we checked into a Marriott. My stomach was killing me and I just wanted a real toilet, shower and bed! We were able to lay down, but it was hard to fall asleep! I laid there for a good hour before drifting off for about 40 minutes!

Around 10:45pm we headed out to meet up at the next exchange to begin our second legs.

My second leg was a piece of cake - 2.1 miles which I ran from 2:14am- 2:33am! It was nice to have something easy that didn't cause me any anxiety. 

We got back to our hotel sometime around 4:30am. I must have fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow because I remember nothing else. I just remember waking up at 6:54am and not being able to get back to sleep. So I called Spencer, took another shower, and got ready to go!

Our third leg of the race started at Torrey Pines! It was such a gorgeous morning!

We were able to find the one spot we'd be able to cheer Annie on, so we got out and waited.

These girls were SO much fun to hang out with!! These were the moments that made the Ragnar totally worth it! That's the key to a successful Ragnar - having a great team that gets along great - low maintenance, and no drama!!!

We really did luck out with gorgeous runs! The weather was pretty phenomenal too!  We had 60's almost the entire weekend! 

I went into my third leg with a completely different mindset. I was not going to run fast, my goal was to take it nice and easy and enjoy myself! I was pretty excited about getting to run around the San Diego bay! Here I am - getting ready for my last and final leg - 7.5 miles!

A final wave good-bye (11:18am): 

I definitely enjoyed this leg of the race! It was gorgeous, with so much going on! I saw birthday parties, family reunions, people vacationing, kayaking, rowing, swimming, paddle boarding, fishing, and even a wedding! I talked to Spencer for about 10 minutes at the beginning of my run - it was fun to hear the kids cheering for me! And I snapped a bunch of pictures - not many turned out though since I didn't stop running to take them.

The first half of my run I was feeling great, but then I had to head up a flight of stairs and I lost the cool coastal breeze. All of a sudden it just got really hot and I started feeling nauseous! I pressed on though. Thank goodness my team found me - just when I was needing some moral support! I believe I got in at 12:23pm - couldn't have been more excited to see that finish line!! 

Another hard part about the racing was that after running, we'd have to hop back into the van without getting a good stretch and/or cool down in. My muscles got very tight! 

The end was pretty anti-climatic. I was wishing we had someone there cheering us on and to take our picture.

Madi was super excited when I got home and she saw my medal. She couldn't stop talking about how cool it was that I won!! I couldn't bear to tell her the truth! :)

These "Really Awesome Massage Tools" felt pretty awesome on our sore muscles!

Van 2 victors!

The other half of our team finally showed up and we were able to get a complete group picture!

They are all such fun ladies!! It really was a neat experience to run Ragnar. Even though I told our team captain I'd probably never do it again, I'm slowing starting to forget all the bad stuff and can only remember the good, fun stuff! Another Ragnar might possibly be in my future after all!

Our after race celebratory dinner which no one on our team could even finish. Note for next time - share a plate with someone!

The ride home was one of the best parts of the weekend. We finally got to relax and play Annie's question game that she'd been wanting to play all weekend. Good times! Sure love you ladies!

Also, want to give a shout out to my amazing husband who took the whole weekend off to be with our kids. He flawlessly managed school drop off and pick up, a couple park outings, a trip to the library, breakfast at Denny's, General Conference at mom and dad's, frozen yogurt, and Saturday jobs! I came home to a clean house Saturday night! What a stud! Thanks babe for supporting me in this crazy adventure!