Today, Jacob came home with another fundraiser from school.

But this wasn’t just any fundraiser.  Oh no, this one was a throwback to a fund raiser I did when I was in school.

As soon as I saw the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital logo, I was immediately drawn back to when that Math-a-Thon packet came home from school with me. I would sit at my kitchen table thinking about who I was going to hit up for ask for pledges.

It wasn’t a long list.  Besides my own family, there was only about 4 or 5 families that I would ask, most of whom lived on my street.  I would head out my front door and take a left and go to the Orells’ next door.  Next, I would go 2 more doors down to the Flecks’ house…I still remember how the house smelled and that Mrs. Fleck would always give me Strawberry Sugar Wafers.

Next, I’d go back around the corner and hit up the Rhittenhouses, the Briggs’, and around the next corner to the Schwartz’s.  I’d always end my trip at the Adamshicks’ who almost always gave me another sweet treat (I’m thinking Nestle Strawberry milk…)

I’d head home with my pledges secured and start on my math problems.

There was something about that math book.  The pages seemed special somehow.  It was more like newspaper print…a little bit flimsier than my normal notebook paper.  It was slicker, smelled different even.

Despite my current math skills, I used to LOVE math.  I would tear through that book in record time. I realize now that I may have been a little smug about my academic prowess.

Jake won’t be going door to door (most everyone on our street have their own kids who’re trying to get pledges), but he’s already started making phone calls to our family.  Hopefully, his own Math-a-Thon book will be here in the next week or two.

Maybe I’ll buy some Strawberry Sugar Wafers and Strawberry Milk to celebrate.

I was very excited to hear that this weeks challenge was sunrises and sunsets. I love sunrises and sunsets.

And then I remembered what time sunrise is and that I really like to look at PICTURES of sunrises. The sun rises early. Way earlier than I’m up.

So here is my picture of a sunset. This was the only sunset I saw in a WEEK. The weather here has been crappy. But at least I got this one!

You Capture is hosted by Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry!

The latest after school conversation with Emma…

Emma: Can I have some gum?

Me: No, you’ve lost candy and desserts for a week.

Emma: How long is that?

Me: You can have candy on Friday.

Emma: Can I have candy after my snack today?

Me: You know the answer to that one.

Emma: There’s a lot of toys in the centers at school.

Me: I know, that’s pretty cool, isn’t it? What’s your favorite center?

Emma: Housekeeping.

Me: That’s pretty cool. What’s your favorite part of housekeeping?

Emma: The white wings.

Me: That’s in dress up. What’s your favorite part of housekeeping?

Emma: Dress up is in housekeeping. On the brown spinny thing. You can dress up as the mommy or the daddy or the dog. I wear the white wings.

Me: What are you when you wear the white wings?

Emma: A fairy! Can I have some gum?

Me: (Ignoring the gum question) What do fairies do in housekeeping?

Emma: Moommmy! They FLY!

Me: Oh, right. Of course. What do the mommies do?

Emma: They cook and they clean. And vacuum.

Me: What do the daddies do?

Emma: They can vacuum, too.

Me: Who dressed up as the daddy today?

Emma: J was a bat for Halloween!

Me: I remember that! I liked his costume. Did he dress up like the daddy today?

Emma: No.

Me: O.K. So what do the doggies do?

Emma: Mooommmy! They POOP!

Me: How silly of me.

Emma: Can I have some gum?

I feel like I’m floundering in my own little corner of the blog world.

I haven’t been very interested in posting lately.  I am hitting “Mark as Read” in my Google Reader more often than I want.  I have officially become a lurker.

I don’t have much to say on Twitter.  Facebook seems a little crazy right now. I can only keep up with so many different social networking sites.

The computer is slowly getting pushed out of my schedule.

I don’t want to quit the blog.  I really, really don’t.  But I feel like I’m not contributing  a lot lately and that makes me feel like a hypocrite…like each post is just a big Fakey McFakester attempt to put something out there so I don’t fade away into oblivion.

Blogging seems like a job lately.  It’s just one more thing on my ever present To-Do List. And I know that’s not how it’s supposed to be.

I need to ask myself why I blog.  Who am I doing it for?

The honeymoon is over, but how do I make it fun again??

Well, my life this week has been kind of all about sickness and ickiness and blech.  I didn’t get the camera out much, but I did get it out during a rousing game of Uno.

Uno is pretty big in this house.  We play a couple of times a week and at least one of those games ends up being an hour long. I wish I were exaggerating.  That’s a loooong game of Uno.  Emma usually poops out after about 15 minutes.

But Dave and Jake, they are in it for the long haul. And Jake wins an more than nay one person should win anything.

You Capture is hosted by Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry!

Dear throat,

I’m really sick of you not feeling good.  I drink plenty of water, I treat you right and all you do is give me swollen lymph nodes and nasty phlegm.

Get over yourself.

Please get better,
That sick girl

Dear knee,

I’m really sorry if I put too much stress on you yesterday.  I thought you would enjoy the 2nd day of running, but obviously I was wrong.

I didn’t realize how sensitive tendons were!

I hope you like the ice and ibuprofen I got for you! I really enjoy not limping so please get well soon.

Please get better,
The limping girl

Dear Jake and Emma,

I hope that one day you realize I did this for you.

I love you.

Now please clean up the green stamp ink from your desk and the play-doh ground into your sheets. Then stop screaming. Then get dressed. You can have your stuff back when you start listening and doing what I ask you to do.

Have a good day at school!

All my love,
The crazy lady who’s trying not to yell

Yesterday was World Run Day 2009 and also our EA Sports Active 5k Challenge over at The Sisterhood.  There was no race in my area yesterday, so I had to come up with own route.  Luckily, there’s a race in a couple of weeks so I just went online and stole the course.

And oh my, it was a beautiful day for running.  It was sunny and mid 60s.  The park was PACKED! It was kind of like being in a race anyway.

So, I donned my GPS and my iPod.  I had my directions all written out (It was 11 turns…I wasn’t about to try and remember all of that.  The directions continued on the inside of my hand, LOL!)

I had my print out bib provided by World Run Day. Click on the pick to see who I was running for.

And most importantly, I had my headband and tube socks. (FYI, if you ever want tube socks in a pinch and can’t find any, red duct tape works WONDERS on a pair of regular ol’ tube socks.)

Why the tube socks?  Well, to promote the newest challenge over at The Sisterhood, of course.  I’ll let you go there to read about it.

And off I went.  I had one goal in mind: to run the whole thing.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.  Stupid hills.  I really hate running on any kind of incline.  I ended up walking for a total of 2:30 (in 3 separate chunks) and had a final time of 35:14. But that’s still 11 seconds off my last race!

I hit 3.1 miles before I made it back to Dave (you gotta love a man who says “Sure, I’ll come take pictures of your fake race!”) which is why I’m walking.  He said I should have run it out to him.

Whatever.

But for the first time ever, I placed first in my age group!!  Whoohoo!!

I realize it’s been a while since I’ve posted a Fitness Friday, but I finally feel like I have something to talk about!

This past Wednesday, I ran 3.1 miles without stopping for the first time EVER!  I’ve completed 2 5k races, but I always had to walk a portion of them.

The key this time?  I slowed down.  WAY down.  When I first started training for these races I was trying to run at 6mph because that’s what I thought running was.  Then I always felt disappointed in myself when I couldn’t finish.

On Wednesday, I ran at 5mph.  It took me over 37 minutes, but I ran the whole thing.  That’s huge.  HUGE!!

I am doing a virtual 5k this Sunday in conjunction with World Run Day and the latest fitness challenge at The Sisterhood.  My goal?  Run the whole thing.  Now, I have no excuses because I know I can do it.

On Sunday, The Sisterhood is starting a new fitness challenge…we are going to log as many miles as we can during the challenge.  You know what that means?  Time for a new ticker!  I’ll be updating my mileage on the sidebar for those who are interested.

If you’re not interested, than I’ll be updating it for myself.

Because really, this is the one thing that should be all about me.

This week was Photographer’s Choice for You Capture. I always seem to struggle when left to my own devices, but I absolutely loved this shot when I downloaded it.

Seriously, you can’t beat this for a backdrop for soccer.  And I just love how patient Jake looks!

You Capture is hosted by Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry!

For more pics, visit Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom!