Field Trip to Davis Farms

Owen's Pre-K class recently took a trip to Davis Farms.  The Davis family has a large farm with a variety of animals on it. Not only were the kids able to see the usual farm animals like donkeys and sheep, they were also able to see some more "exotic" animals like llamas and emu.  Neither Brian nor I were able to chaperone due to work.  If only we knew someone who was retired and could go with Owen on his field trip.  Oh wait, we do.  This "Gigi is retired" thing just keeps getting better and better.

Girl Scout Cookies

Olivia continues to enjoy her first year as a Daisy in the Girl Scouts program.  One girl scout right-or-passage is participating in cookie sales.  Selling cookies has been a great experience for Olivia.  I don't have an exact number of boxes that she sold, but I do know that it is somewhere between 225-249.  She worked hard sale this many.  She and her daddy took a wagon around the neighborhood a couple of times and sold quite a few boxes that way.  In addition to this, she and I helped work a cookie booth on three different Saturdays.

Olivia was a little shy on her first Saturday at the booth.  The troop leaders were smart and paired up the Daisies with the older scouts.  Olivia picked up on what the other girls were doing- and by the third weekend she was a pro.  She was speaking up and asking people if they would like to buy cookies, re-stocking the table, and helping give change.  She could even describe each cookie and correctly answer questions about them.  Although selling cookies was a good experience, I'm glad that it's over.  Having all of those girl scout cookies sitting around the house was detrimental to my diet.

100

 We recently celebrated my Great-Granny Moore's 100th birthday.  There were many, many relatives and family friends at the celebration.  Everyone brought a dish, and the food was certainly good.  There was so much on the dessert table that I had a hard time choosing a treat.  The event was organized by the grandchildren, and they did a really nice job.  The room was decorated with 100 balloons and some of the quilts that Granny Moore had sewn in her younger days.  For being 100, Granny gets around pretty well.   Lots of pictures were snapped, and I am posting three of the ones that I took.  In the  first, we are singing Happy Birthday.  The second is of the kids with their great-great-grandmother.  The third is of Granny Moore and her three surviving children (including the lovely and awesome Quen Buie).  This is such an awesome milestone, and I'm glad that everyone came together to make this day special.

Celebrating Seuss

 In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, Olivia's school had a two-day celebration.  Both days included various fun activities and many many Dr. Seuss books.  Day one of the celebration was hat day.  Students could wear Dr. Seuss hats to school.  We couldn't find Brian's old red-and-white hat, so we sent Olivia to school with $5 so that she could purchase one.  They had all sorts of color combinations to choose from.  She opted for this lovely purple and white number.  The second day was crazy hair day.  We put a plastic cup on Olivia's head and pulled her hair up around it to produce a tall-standing hairdo.  At the school, students were able to get their hair sprayed in different colors.  The hairdo didn't make it through the day, but the spray did.  She had pink and blue hair when she came home.  It sounds like everyone had a great time.

26.2

The event: I did it.  Over President's Day weekend, I completed my first full marathon.  The marathon that I participated in was the 26.2 with Donna- aka the National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer.  I don't think I've ever seen so much pink in one place before.  All of the runners and volunteers were decked out in this color.  The course began at the TPC (golf course) in Ponte Vedra and ran through the beach neighborhoods of Neptune, Atlantic, and Jacksonville Beaches.  A few miles of the course were actually run ON the beach.  All of the residents of these communities turned out in force to cheer for the runners.  Many had decorated their houses, businesses, and streets.

The crew: This race served as a "first" for many in my running group.  In addition to being my first marathon, it was the first half marathon for Maura and Hunter.  This was Quincy's second half, and she PR'd.  .

The experience:  Excitement was definitely high for all in my running group.  Even the below-freezing weather couldn't dampen the mood.  I'm glad that we could feel the excitement- because we couldn't feel our fingers or toes.  We arrived super early so that we could avoid traffic and ended up huddling up in the "warm" tent for about an hour.  The race started late, so we ended up shivering at the start for thirty extra minutes.  Thank goodness that we went to Target the night before and bought extra gear to keep us warm.  Once the race started, we warmed up quickly.  My strategy for finishing the race was to get with the 4:30 pace group and stay with them.  I wish I had stuck to this plan.  About a mile in, I got bored with the pace of this group and sped ahead to catch up with the  4:15 pace group.  This was a mistake because I used too much energy doing this and paid for it at the end.  I did catch up with the 4:15 group and stayed with them til about mile 10.  This is where I decided to hang back and slow my pace.  At mile 14 something happened to my knee.  I don't know what it was, but I was in extreme pain.  [Side note: I have since been to the doctor about the knee, and he said that I probably injured my meniscus or IT band.  He won't know for sure until he does an MRI- which will only happen if it keeps bothering me. So far it has not been bothering me.  I'm suppose to be cutting back on the mileage and icing my knee for a little while.]  Anyway, the pain in my knee began at mile 14.  There was no way I was quitting, so I ran / hobbled for the last 11 miles.  I was so happy to see the finish line. My time was 4:49:23.  Not going to qualify for Boston with that time, but I'll take it.  I'm just glad to have finished in a upright position.  Overall, I really enjoyed this race, and I plan to do more in the future.

Snaggletooth

Some of the kids in Olivia's class have started losing their teeth, and she has been eager to join in.  Last week one of her bottom teeth became loose, and she spent the rest of the week wiggling it.  When she came into my classroom on Thursday, she was excited because it had come out at school (with some help from her teacher).  That night we put the tooth in the "Tooth Fairy" pillow and waited to see what would happen.  There was some discussion on the topic of the value of a tooth in our home.  When I was young, I received a quarter per tooth.  A quarter is no longer the going rate.  In our one afternoon of tooth fairy research, Brian and I learned that teeth bring much more than a quarter these days.  We also learned that the first tooth lost is worth more than the others.  Olivia said that one boy at her school recently got $20 for his first tooth.  Yeah- that's not happening here.  She ended up with $5 for her first tooth and will be getting $1 for each tooth lost in the future.  Although she was excited to find the money, she has been more excited by the fact that she lost the tooth.  She has been eager to show it to anyone who will look.

Winter Running

Our little group of runners kicked off the new year at the Cool Shark 5k in Brunswick.  This was the first time that my cousin Jessica had run with us, and I think she liked it a lot.  The course was nice, and there was plenty of food at the finish line.  We all ran well, and many of us received age group awards.  I finished at 25:41 and placed first in my new 35-39 age group.  Nothing makes you feel old like going up an age group.

Here we are- getting ready to start.

A few weeks later, I completed The Run 5 (5 miler) with Anna and Krystial.  This run benefits the Wolfson Children's Hospital.  Anna is an avid supporter of this race.  I mentioned this last year, but I'll say it again- this is a tough course.  The big plus is that the last few miles are on the Riverwalk, which is one of my absolute favorite places to run in Jacksonville.  I finished in 44:05 and placed fourth in my age group.  After running, we rewarded ourselves with an early dinner at The Olive Garden.  That certainly made all of our effort worth it!