Jog-a-Thon

Melinda and Jacob got to participate in the biggest school fundraiser of the year this week - the 2nd annual Jog-a-Thon. Each student was asked to get pledges from friends and family, either a flat rate or a per-lap pledge. Our family has been so generous, which we're so thankful for! It definitely motivated the kids to do their best.

Our schedule was so crazy on the day of the Jog-a-Thon. It was supposed to be a Walk & Wheel Wednesday, where students are encouraged to walk or ride a bike/scooter/etc. to school if at all possible. After looking at the schedule, I decided that it sounded simply far too crazy to add walking/biking into the mix, since it takes a good 15-20 minutes each way.
8:00am, had to have Melinda to school.
9:00am, had to be back at the school to cheer for the Melinda and the rest of the 1st Graders for their Jog-a-Thon scheduled slot time. They finished up at about 9:35, and then we had to head back home.
10:45, Jacob had to be fed lunch (I still have issues with lunch before 11am).
11:40, Jacob had to be at school. (Normally, if we walk, we're leaving the house at 11:15. You can see how we wouldn't want to shorten our home-time anymore than necessary this day.)
1:05, back at the school AGAIN to see and cheer Jacob with his turn at the Jog-a-Thon. They finished ~1:40.
And, at last, 2:30, we had to be back to school to pick them all up at the end of the day.

We further complicated this schedule by deciding to go to the mall and switch to Verizon for our cell phone plans, securing an awesome deal on new phones (which I desperately needed). We squeezed it into the slot between dropping Jacob off at school and the start of his Jog-a-Thon running. We badly misjudged how long it would take to finalize our contract, and we didn't even leave the mall until 1:15. At 1:05 when I couldn't stand the anxiety anymore, I speed-walked across the length of the mall while Jesse finished signing papers, got to the car, buckled Alex into his seat, and drove to the entrance of the nearest department store by the Verizon kiosk. When Jesse FINALLY emerged, he was running to me, and once he was into the car I drove as swiftly as I could back to the elementary school. I felt like I was going a million miles an hour, though I was barely going 5 over. I was just so heart-sick that I wanted to cry, thinking of Jacob starting his running without us there to cheer him on. He knew we were supposed to be there, we told him we would be there, he saw us there for Melinda, and he was so excited for the event.... but thinking of his typical reaction to hiccups in his day, and his ability to take everything very personally, I could only imagine him in a crumpled heap on the school field, crying his eyes out inconsolably. I was so afraid of what we'd find when we arrived at the school. We kept hoping for the best-case scenario, that maybe they'd spent 10-15 minutes discussing rules/expectations/encouragement, and warming up, and we'd be arriving just a couple minutes after they really started.

When we got to the school, Jesse hopped out of the car and headed quickly over to the field to find Jacob and run with him (Jacob asked for Daddy to run with him, I ran with Melinda... part of the way, at least!). I went to park the car and strap the now-sleeping Alex into a carrier to go join them at the field. By the time I got there, the PE teacher was announcing through the megaphone that they only had 30 seconds left!! I quickly scanned the field and found Jacob and Jesse at a water-cooler station just a corner before the finish line. I didn't even get to see my boy run! He sort of half-jogged to the finish, getting his last punch in his card. He and Jesse both came over to see me, and Jacob so proudly showed me that he jogged TEN (!!!) laps. The laps were 220 yards - half a normal lap on a track. Ten laps is 1.25 miles, and he did that in 20 minutes of allotted jogging time. Jacob!! The boy who I can hardly drag to school (0.8 miles) if he's not on a bike. The boy who non-stop complains about not having enough energy on a simple, flat walk. Jesse told me they did 2 laps in the time it took me to park and get back to them. Which means Jacob did a FULL MILE before his lame-o parents even showed up to cheer him on. It was amazing!!!! I've never been more proud of him and more impressed. I'm simply astounded that he could do that. I suppose it was the element of competition that kept him going - all those kids, running at the same time! Jesse said that Jacob told him a few times that he "had to catch up to Luke". And Jacob was all grins!! Did I mention that?!? When I apologized to him for being so late, all he did was grin and say, "Yeah! Good thing I had enough energy!" He was pink-cheeked and sweaty, but upbeat and proud of himself. I wish I could bundle up that attitude and put it inside him every single day. He was so amazing. I just wish I could have seen him running myself. Maybe I would have cried in amazement.

Melinda was just as great. In her 20 minutes in the morning, she did 12 laps, for a total of 1.5 miles. She only took walking breaks a couple times. I couldn't keep up with her. I probably only jogged 4 of those laps. But she kept right on going! I was originally just as amazed with her: In trying to guess how many laps they might do, I thought that tops, Melinda and Jacob might be able to do 8 or 9 laps, which is slightly more than the distance they walk/bike to school. I thought they'd get tired and have to take long breaks for walking. But nope, Melinda started the day by blowing my high guess out of the water. I'll know better next time!!

Here are a few pictures and videos of their day. Thank you so much for those of you who supported them and their jogging! And if you'd like to make a pledge still, we have until October 12 to have the pledge sheets and money turned in. Just let me know!

The 1st Graders begin their warm-up. Melinda's at about the left-hand third of the picture, in a light pink shirt and long purple pants, with her arms up in the air and her hand holding her yellow punch-card. This picture makes me smile because Melinda's morning teacher in on the right (in her blue school shirt), in the middle of a jumping jack, joining right in with the kids.

Here is a video of the start of the jogging! The PE teacher leads the group in a pacing lap.

Melinda jogging her 2nd lap. Woo!

Melinda's class at the end of the jogging, holding up their punch cards proudly, and enjoying their ice pops as a reward for all their hard work. (Melinda's in the back, clearly interested in something off to the right of the camera.)

Jacob's last stretch to the finish line

Jacob eats his ice pop and shows me his TEN LAPS punched on his card! (See his sweaty, pink face?!)

Jacob's Kindergarten class sits down to rest with their ice pops, their teacher in the white jacket behind them.

The PE teacher congratulates them on all their hard work, giving them final instructions on what to do with their cards. You can kind of see Jacob's head in between the two blonde boys right near the middle. Jacob loves to be up near the front of a crowd.

By the way... we had *just* enough time in between Jacob's jogging and the end of school to run and get food before picking everybody up at the end of the day. Phew!! So much back and forth. But the kids sure had so much fun!! And slept so soundly that night! And cooperated with each other all afternoon!! Maybe we need to run a mile every day. ;)

Conglomeration

I have a number of fairly unrelated things that I wanted to share all at once.

First, my sister-in-law Sarah's sister-in-law (say that five times fast!) is having a giveaway on her blog for a bunch of random fabric scraps along with a yard of their favorite designer fabric.  If you're at all into sewing, you should check it out at their blog Made On Maple!  I know I'm keeping my fingers crossed!  I love pretty fabrics, but don't often get more than what I need for a specific project.  Getting a bunch of random pretty fabrics would be so much fun to play with!

Second, I have a new favorite song:  "Anchor" by Mindy Gledhill.  You MUST listen to it!  It's so lovely.  And easy to sing over and over and over again.  I actually bought the mp3 album just because I love the song so much, and I actually love the whole album!  It's difficult to not feel happy listening to it.  :)  So, really... listen to this song!!!


Third, Jesse realized just a couple days ago that it was officially one year from the day he lost his job out in Maryland.  I could probably write an entire post just on my thoughts about that (a whole year unemployed?!??!!!), but my thoughts on it are generally pretty muddled.  Suffice it to say that we've been very blessed with having unemployment compensation all this time, and that our expenses have been small enough that we've only had to dip into savings a handful of times.  Jesse had to re-apply for unemployment, as our state-funded payments have run out, but we still have up to 31 weeks left of federally-funded unemployment, as long as Congress doesn't opt to get rid of such extended benefits.  Of course, we both sincerely hope that Jesse gets a job long, long, long before those benefits would expire.  One year without a job is far more than enough.  If I'm being completely honest, I need Jesse to get a job just to get him out of the house!!  (Sorry, honey!!)  I love him to death, and I love having him around so much, especially when it comes to errands and juggling kids and doing chores.... but having him around so much for a whole year is a little exhausting.  I just don't function the same when he's around all the time.  My brain and body go into vacation mode (even after all this time!), and it's difficult for me to do things with the kids that I would do if he weren't around, like trips to the playground, or craft time, or even sitting down to read books.  I suppose it might be a glimpse into the life of retirees?  It's awesome having your husband at your disposal almost whenever you want him.  On the other hand, it's not.  He needs a job.  ;)  Plus, I have an unhealthy addiction to browsing realty websites and fantasizing about buying houses.  Maybe if he had a job I could put that fantasizing to practical use!!  Wouldn't that be fun?  Anyway, bottom line is that this job hunting thing has been extremely frustrating.  Since his one-and-only interview months ago, we've heard pretty much squat from every employer he's applied to.  We've got a couple decent leads right now, with personal connections, and he continues to find jobs to apply for.  But the black hole is often very discouraging.  Still, we remain confident that the Lord prompted us to return to Colorado for a good reason.  We'll just continue to hang on as long as we can.

Fourth on the docket:  Wildfires in Colorado.  We've had a very wet winter and spring here this year, but once mid-August hit, we got into a dry spell.  Combined with the hot temperatures, things dried out quickly.  And after all that precipitation, there was a lot of growth with things like grasses and brush.  Translated: Easy tinder is abundant.  We went to the city of Louisville's annual Labor Day Parade on Labor Day last week (and got waaaaay too much candy tossed our way! But it was fun!), and as we left, we looked up, where half of the sky was completely covered in a thick plume of brownish smoke.  We went to the highest hill in Louisville, got out of our car, and looked out at the mountains.  Not only us, but a whole crowd of people.  There was definitely a big wildfire out there.  We later found out that it was in the Fourmile Canyon area, just west of Boulder in the mountains.  It quickly got out of hand with the high winds we had that day, and eventually burned more than 160 homes to the ground.  It is just now, a little over a week later, finally seems pretty much contained, and residents are being let back into the area.  It is the most destructive fire in Colorado history, and happened practically on our doorsteps.  It's been sobering.  A couple of the staff at our elementary school are even affected.


View Boulder Fire Area in a larger map

We had plans to go on a hike that day at Chautauqua Park in Boulder.  The fire was north and slightly west of that point, and the wind was carrying most of the smoke away from the area, so we went ahead with our plans.  Well, it was a vastly more difficult hike than I anticipated, because of the constant rather steep uphill, on top of carrying an approximately 30-lb. Alex on my back. I had to keep reminding myself, "What doesn't kill you will make you stronger!"  I want to get into better shape.  How better to do it than tote around a heavy toddler??  Anyway, this was the first time I had hiked Chautauqua.  It was a beautiful area!  I can see why it's so very popular.  And the kids did great, especially Jacob, who could barely manage a short, flat, easy walk on Memorial Day without complaining that he was going to fall over and die if someone didn't carry him.  He not only kept himself from complaining, but he was running ahead of me, up the steep hill!!  I was very proud of him.  Anyway, here are a few pictures from our hike:

View of the famous Flatirons from Chautauqua Park.  A bit of smoke haze in the foreground.

Isn't this gorgeous??  Melinda, Jacob, and Jesse pose on the trail heading uphill towards the Flatirons.  Melinda and Jacob are carrying American flags they got from the Labor Day Parade.

One of the cool things about mountains in Colorado is all the neat boulders and cracked rocks and mountainsides.  We spotted this little stack of boulders on the way back down, and had to take a picture with them. 

The plume of smoke darkening the sky over Boulder on Labor Day (1st day of burning), just northwest of where we were hiking.

It was more than a little shocking when, on our way to Grandma and Grandpa Newson's house this past Sunday (just less than a week after the Fourmile Fire started), we saw another plume of wildfire smoke to the north.  Turns out it started out in the area about halfway between Estes Park and Loveland.  Someone burned a "slash pile" (branches and other yard waste), and it got out of control.  Honestly, what are people thinking, burning fires outside when the ground is bone dry and there's a wildfire not fully contained right in plain sight??  They're lucky that there were already federal firefighting resources nearby working on the other fire, so they could get a head start on containing that fire.  But they still have a ways to go.  We've been praying for rain and moisture.  And Jesse helped volunteer at a Boulder County emergency resources collection center, accepting and sorting through donations.  Wish we could do more... but hopefully the dry summer is well on it's way out.  For all we know, we could have snow in a few more weeks!

In Real Life

Last week, Jesse and I had the immense pleasure of finally meeting some friends of ours... in real life.  We've known "Echo" and his wife Holly since a few years before they even met and got married.  When Jesse and I were still newlyweds, Jesse somehow managed to get me hooked into gaming.  Well, okay.  I suppose I had some predisposition to gaming, battling my Mom in Tetris as a teenager, working my way through Super Mario Brothers 3 (but chickening out at the stress of trying to beat the very last Bowser fight, sigh).  He and I used to play Diablo together, between our computer and his Dad's computer when we lived with them for a few months.  And then when we moved into our own home, it wasn't long before Diablo II came out, and whaddya know- they included online gaming for free!  It wasn't long before we took the plunge into the world of online gaming together.  And there is where we first met Echo, roughly 9 or 10 years ago.  He became our guild leader, and has always been one of the most fair-minded, easy-going, fun-loving people I've ever known on the internet.  It wasn't long at all before he seemed like a fast friend to us.  Years later when we all started playing World of Warcraft together, we got to know his voice through the use of headsets and microphones in-game.  Even later, we got to know his face and his wife's face, and then his wife's voice as they had their lovely daughter and shared pictures and videos online.  We've been friends on Facebook for a good year, too, getting to know each other even more.

So when Echo (fine! Matt! I have a hard time referring to him by his real name!) and Holly headed left their home in Oregon to come visit her family in Colorado for vacation, and offered to meet a whole bunch of friends, of course Jesse and I jumped on the bandwagon.  How could we pass up the chance?

We drove to a park in Denver as sort of a middle-ground meeting location, and hung out for a good 2 hours just chatting and letting the kids play.  The little trip was so well worth it.  Matt and Holly are great, and just the same people I've come to know online all these years.  It's nice that we've been able to keep in touch through forums and Facebook, since Jesse and I have stopped playing games online for quite some time now.

Melinda and Mia playing in the playground sand.  Melinda dug a hole that became a horse den.  Mia later made "bowls" for soup... one of which included a pink pony.

Melinda was quite enthusiastic about pushing Mia in the swing.

Matt and Jesse chatting.  Presumably about video games, lol.

Jacob took this picture.  Not bad!

Another picture courtesy of Jacob.  Mia, Holly, Matt, myself, and Jesse, with Alex throwing himself in the forefront!

We're all laughing here - Jacob did something funny with the camera, I think.

Jesse talks to Matt (not pictured) while Melinda and Mia work on one of their holes.

Melinda took this picture of Jacob on the playground.

Alex goes down the slide...

...Followed quickly by Melinda...

...And followed by Jacob.  They love to go down and bump into each other at the bottom.

Melinda and Jacob showing me how they hang from the bars.

Jacob took this picture of Melinda!  (They really loved having control of the camera...)

Jacob snaps one last picture of Mia before we head home.

It really was so nice to meet Matt and his family in person.  It's awesome that we've had the pleasure of meeting so many good people over the years through our games.  Maybe in another few decades we'll have finally met them all.  ;)