Newport Marathon

We headed for Newport on May 29th and stayed the night there.  We stopped and picked up some spaghetti at a restaurant in Corvallis on our way.  The Marathon was on May 30th at 7am. I was super nervous and trying to just remember that I had done all the training I needed and now just needed to run.  In the weeks before the race I had been struggling with my long runs.  I had a lot of self doubt and was feeling like I couldn't fuel my body properly.  I would always feel completely exhausted at about 17 or 18 miles.  I decided to run the first few miles a bit slower than pace, and try to end faster than I started.  That failed completely.  I started off sticking to pace just fine and had to stop once around mile 14 or so to go to the bathroom.  I ended up carrying my gels in my hand because they were bouncing weird in my pocket, and that was bad too.  At about 16 I was slowing off pace and then it just went downhill.  I allowed myself to walk after water stops, I felt like I was going to throw up and that was an unusual feeling for me while running.  Natasha ran the last couple of miles with me and I walked quite a bit and was moving along at a snails pace.  I think the 4 hour pace group passed us with around 2 miles to go and I thought that if we stayed with them I could still be under 4 but instead I ran so slow that my time ended up 4:09.  I was super disappointed in myself, but still utterly exhausted and felt like complete crap afterward.  I just wanted to sleep for days.  I also feel like because I was trying to qualify for Boston, but instead ran so terribly that it sent me into a few months of depression.  Ridiculous I know -- because it is just a race -- but it was pretty bad.

No - 385
Division - F35-39
Place Overall - 315
Division Place - 29/84
Female Place 128/406
Time - 4:09
Pace 9:31

These pictures were taken after the race

I did have the cutest cheering squad out along the course

May 29, 2016 Watering with a Boot

Dantley was helping me water the lower garden this afternoon.  I was watching him out of my bedroom window.  The hose was up by the blueberry bushes and he started filling up his rainboot with water and walking it down and dumping it on the raspberry bushes.

After a while of doing that, he started getting some water out of his boot (almost like he was drinking it) into his mouth, holding it there and then walking down to the garden and spitting it out.

These photos are still out of the video I took of it.  Funny kid!

May 27, 2016 -Talent Show and Art Show

La Center's Got Talent

Today was the school talent show.  Both Tamsyn and Thurston tried out over a month ago and they both made it so they have been practicing every week.  There was a show for the school in the afternoon and then one for the community tonight.

Thurston did a hula hoop routine to a mix of music that Natasha put together for him.  He did pretty well at the school show, but knocked it out of the park at the community show.  I don't think he made one mistake and he even added a few things.  He was really working the crowd.  It was great.  Sometimes I just watch the video of it if I need to smile.  If you search Thurston Hula Hoop routine on youtube you can watch it :)   Natasha and her friend Katie Nelson were his assistants.  They handed him the hoops he needed and tossed all of the hoops on him at the very end.



There were a few dances, a few songs, two kids played piano including Tamsyn's friend Savannah Mendenhall.  Antother girl read some poetry.



One boy did karate (or Taekwondo -- I can't remember which),  and some boys a year younger than Thurston demonstrated wrestling moves.



Tamsyn's was unique because she did a shadow puppet show of an original fable she wrote about an elephant and a rhino.


Here are the words to it --

The Elephant and the Rhino

A fable by Tamsyn Lewis

There once was an elephant and a rhino.  They were very good friends.  One day they decided to go on a journey together. They had heard of a beautiful place that had so much food that they would be fed everyday for the rest of their lives,if they stayed. There were banana trees, apple trees, big tall trees with fat juicy mangos --- they had heard from some birds that there was even said to be a fancy-scmancy mud spa -- the birds had said that the mud spa was slightly disappointing to them because there were no worms.  But Rhino and Elephant who were both delighted at the thought of a cool and squishy mudbath - actually preferred their mud wormless.

As they were nearing this wonderful land, they came to a HUGE raging river.  The only way across was a narrow bridge. It was obvious that only one of the heavy creatures would be able to cross at a time.

Elephant stepped up to the foot of the bridge and said,

“I have decided that I will cross the bridge first!”

Rhino got angry and yelled back,

“That’s not fair!  I think that I should be the one to cross the bridge first!”

Elephant- It was my idea!

Rhino- No it wasn’t!  The birds told me!

Elephant-you were first on our last adventure!

Rhino- But that was in my backyard!

And on and on it went, Elephant trumpeting and stomping his feet and Rhino snorting and charging about.

Suddenly as they stormed and yelled charged about, one of them, it might have been both kicked out and crashed down on the foot of the bridge.

Crrrrrrrrrraaaaaack!

Moments later both of the animals jumped back and watched as the bridge (the only way to get to soothing mud spa and delicious fruit) came crashing down into the deep, wild river below. Now they would never get to soak in the mud spa or eat the wonderful fruit.

The Moral of the story is....

WHEN YOU FIGHT OVER NOTHING -YOU MAY LOSE WHAT IS REAL!

Another favorite act was done by two 4th grade girls who did a dance called evolution of music in the dark with glowsticks attached to their black clothes.  It looked like glow in the dark stick figures and was a lot of fun.  The finale was a 5th grader who sang "Happy."  Towards the end, all of the kids pulled out happy face signs and held them in front of their faces.

After the talent show we stopped in at the Middle School art show.  Natasha took one semmester of Art this year, so she had a few pieces in the show.

May 26, 2015 - Growing Garden

I love to see the garden when things are just starting to grow.  It always amazes me to think of all of the wonderful vegetables and fruits of the vine that will be coming from these small little plants. These types of photos make me happy :)

Chicks!

The chicks hatches over a period of a few days.  Only about half of the eggs we had in the incubator hatched.  Many of the eggs didn't even have a growing chick in them (we checked with a light) and a few of them didn't fully develop.  I was surprised at how long it takes them to get out of the shell.  At first I was worried that I would need to assist a little bit because I had read online that sometimes if they take over so many hours they need a bit of help.  It was fun to keep checking the incubator to see if more eggs had pipped and move the new chicks out once they fluffed up.

Most of these photos were taken on May 26, 2016