The Race

All my gear for the day.

I ran my half-marathon on Saturday. It was seriously great! It was a cool, windy and kinda rainy day, I did see some sunshine around mile 6 though! There is much swirling around in my head, feelings and impressions that I am still processing. I will post more later, but for now here is the day in pictures.

My Lucky Charm came with my in my shoe.

My Number

Starting Line

Mile 2

Mile 6

It was a long way to go, and I was pretty wet by the time I was done. I was overwhelmed with the cheering that met me at the finish line. The absolute best parts of this whole experience were:

#5 Seeing to completion a goal I had set in September 2010

#4 All of the sweet comments people made on facebook

#3 Seeing my cousins at the mile 2 and mile 11 drink stations, and having them cheer for me

#2 Having Uncle Barry drive by with his window down cheering for me, he passed me by about 12 times I think and cheered every time.

#1 have Little Bear jumping up and down at the finish line shouting "THAT'S MY MUM!"

The End.

MIS-ter Walowitz

HAPPY! BIRTHDAY! 

To one of my baby brothers. 

Hope it's a good one!

Sleeping

I attended my regular Thursday evening yoga class yesterday. It starts at 8:30, so Little Bear was already in bed sleeping, or so I thought! When I came home, I did all the things I usually do, brush my teeth, turn off lights, check the doors etc... When I went to my room and turned on the light I nearly had a heart attack! There was a Little Bear sleeping in my bed! Sounded a little like a mixed up fairytale.

Track and Field

Yesterday I was able to watch Little Bear participate in her schools track and field day. She competed in several events, and here are a few pictures. First is Little Bear coming up the home stretch on the 1500M run,

Next, is the baseball toss, not really sure what the point of this one was, but I think it was to replace the shot-put.

 Here is the long jump, this was a great event for her. She is good sprinter and I think with some practice she could totally dominate this event.

There she is in the background running her leg of the 4 x relay. In this event Little Bears team came in first place!

I was very impressed overall with the entire grade 3 group. They were such good sports, and cheered for everyone. It was a nice day to take some time out from life and just enjoy watching Little Bear doing something she enjoys.

Mother's Day

Papa Bears job started last week, but he was only gone 2 days. He was able to come home Tuesday night and stay until after Church on Sunday. What a blessing! I was grateful he was home for Little Bears Dance review and of course Mother's Day! I didn't really expect much of anything in the way of gifts, I don't really need anything. What I really wanted was to sleep in. I've been getting up early to complete my 1/2 marathon training before Little Bear gets up for school, so I just felt like I need to a day off. I was able to sleep in until about 9:30, it was perfect. I was surprised however to go into the living room and find gifts! Little Bear had made me a beautiful "flower arrangement" at school, I had the vase and rocks on hand, and it looks perfect on my desk. Then she also got me a basket for my bicycle! Which made me so very excited! I wanted one so I could use my bike around town rather than a car, or carry a heavy bag. I took it out for a test run this morning when I went to get milk and it is perfect! I am so incredibly lucky to have these 2 wonderful people in my life.

Wings On Her Feet & Stars In Her Eyes

Little Bears had her year end dance review last Saturday, and it was wonderful. We were super blessed to have Papa Bear home with us for the weekend, so he was able to come! I was lucky enough to be asked to help with some of the costuming for 4 different dances, and I had a lot of fun making the outfits. I do not have a video of the dances, you will have to come over to our house to watch them, but here are a few pictures.

The first tap number was to "Achy Breaky Heart" I made each of the girls a skirt from an old pair of jeans and purchased fabric.

The second tap number was "I Got My Mind Set On You" I did not make these costumes, though I wish I could have. They were all pretty ill fitting and not super cute.

The Ballet number was "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" I made all 12 girls a rainbow tu-tu and a big flower for their hair. This was really my favorite costume to plan and make.

The Down. The Low

The grand march into the auditorium stalled, and this was the best shot I could get of him.

My brief post yesterday was all about cheering for Papa Bear and his being done school. We are still kind of in shock that it is all done, despite the fact he left yesterday to go to work. Papa Bear doesn't have an official title, but he does have a lot of fancy new skillz he'll be putting to work. We are excited that he was courted by 3 different companies over the past few months, it gave us the opportunity to be really picky about who he worked  for. We ended up choosing the same company he did summer work for last year, they are Alberta owned, and diversified, and encourage continuous learning. We have high hopes that this company will provide Papa Bear with advancement opportunities, and maybe even give us the chance to move back to a place we love, and miss very much. All in all we are very happy with how things have turned out for us, we take no credit at all for ourselves. The windows of Heaven have indeed been opened.

Graduation

Yes, you read that right. He Graduated! He is DONE!

Papa Bear is all done school, it was a long haul for us, but we made it. He also had a job, he starts tomorrow! We are so grateful for his education, for his new job and for all the things we have learned over the past two years.