Thanksgiving Play

Emily's kindergarten class put on a little Thanksgiving show for their families last week.  They learned a bunch of different songs, made some cute costumes and lots of Thanksgiving-themed projects.  It was so adorable!!

1-2-3 Pilgrims 

Emily and Elizabeth 

I am thankful for...my family (love the drawing). 

I am thankful for...Lambie. 

Thanksgiving placemat

Thanksgiving

We had a relatively low key Thanksgiving Day this year.  Grammy and Grampy came down from New Hampshire for an overnight visit and we had plenty of games, good times and lots of food.

The pre-dinner table.

Elizabeth was so into the Macy's parade this year that she videotaped parts of it with her camera...

Carving the turkey. 

Dinner is served! 

The family (Lee is talking on the phone with his brother Michael). 

The wishbone! 

Emily got the bigger half, but forgot to make a wish!

Philly

Although we didn't have a lot of time for sightseeing, we did spend some time on Saturday walking around Philadelphia.  I had the brilliant idea to go to the Liberty Bell - but apparently, so did every other marathoner, as the line was at least an hour long and the girls were in no mood to wait.  So, we bummed around Independence Hall, the Visitor Center, and a few other places of interest.

Outside of Liberty Bell Center. 

Reading about the Underground Railroad. 

Independence Hall was under construction.... 

City Hall 

Outside of our hotel (which we could never afford to stay at without the marathon discount!).  It was fabulous!! 

Logan Circle.  Too bad the fountain was off for the season.

26.2

In 2010, I decided to return to running.  Although I have always been an athlete, my running history was as a sprinter; I considered a 5K to be a "long distance" even though it is only 3.2 miles.  My new year's resolution in 2010 was to run a half marathon and over the course of ten months, I went from slowly jogging 1.5 miles to running 8-10 miles with relative frequency.  In October 2010, I ran my first half marathon and just a few months later, in February 2011, I ran another one.  Although I knew that I could use another year or two of running to build a solid base, I decided that my new year's resolution for 2011 would be to run a full marathon.  In April, I registered for the Philadelphia Marathon, which is held at the end of November each year - prime time of the year for me, because it's (usually) cold - and told three people of my plan - Lee, my sister Kathleen, and my good friend Sarah, who I run with on Saturday mornings.  Along the way, word leaked out to one or two other people but in general, we remained very tight lipped.  The day we came back from our summer vacation, I started a training program and over the course of 18 weeks, I logged 491.52 training miles.  Along the way, in addition to weekday mileage, I did long Saturday morning runs of 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 miles - many of those runs were solitary although some weeks, I was lucky enough to have Sarah run all, or at least the first 11 miles, with me.  At the height of my training, there were several weeks during which I ran more than 40 training miles.  I completed my last long run the morning of the October Nor'easter, running a relatively fast 20 miles in a frantic effort to finish before the storm started, and then eased into the taper.  On Sunday, November 20th at 7 a.m, I joined 25,000 other runners at the start line of the Philadelphia Marathon.
When I first started training, my goal was simply to finish, but as the miles piled up, I thought that I might be able to finish in 4 1/2 hours.  When the race started, I knew right away that it had the potential to be a good day because my body felt good; the only potential problem was the weather.  The average temperature at the start of the Philadelphia Marathon is 20 degrees; this year, it was just shy of 60.  I am not a warm weather runner, which is why I picked this particular marathon, so I knew that I was going to have to be extremely careful.  Luckily, the sun was only out part of the time - otherwise, it would have been brutal.  Even so, I had a sunburn on my face when I finished, which is pretty ridiculous for the end of November.  I stopped at 20 different water stops along the course, just to make sure that I stayed hydrated - there were people cramping up all around me and I saw more than one person get taken away by ambulance.
In the end, I finished with a time of 4 hours, 20 minutes and 15 seconds, which was almost ten minutes faster than my goal - I couldn't have been more pleased.  My time put me as 5,703 finisher out of more than 10,000 finishers (top 56%); 1,894 out of 4,155 females (top 45%); and 292 out of 624 females between the ages of 35-39 (top 46%).  There is no way that I could have done this without the love and support of Lee and the girls, who never once complained when I got up at the crack of dawn to go running; or without Sarah, who was such a huge supporter and logged way more miles than she wanted to this fall, many beginning at 5:30 in the morning; or Kathleen, who simply knew that I could do it and never let me think otherwise, even for a moment.

Over last winter, my sister Kathleen and I made a secret pact to run Philly together; then she had to go and qualify for the Boston Marathon, putting a wrench into our plans (just kidding - qualifying for Boson is an amazing feat and I am soooo proud of her!)!  Despite the fact that she had better things to do (like get ready for Boston), Kathleen trained for and ran the Philadelphia marathon this weekend too.  Thank you so much, Kathleen, for being such a great inspiration!  You are the greatest big sister one could ever ask for! 

My bib. 

Post race, with the girls (grimacing because I had to stand still).  I actually saw Lee and the girls at mile 6, which was such a huge boost! 

My medal.  For some reason, the Philadelphia marathon motto is "Best Time of Your Life" - perhaps once I am fully recovered, I won't find that so sadistic.

The Reader

Somewhat to our surprise, the start of school did not lessen Elizabeth's appetite for reading at all.  She usually has 30-45 minutes each afternoon to read (after she finishes her homework until they leave to pick up Emily from school) and she tears through books during that time.  She also reads in the morning while I make her breakfast; at night while waiting for dinner to be ready or while waiting for Emily to get out of the shower; at church; in the car; and generally, during any downtime in the day.  Lee actually brought her to the gym with him one day - while he worked out, she read.  She barely resembles the restless, high-energy child that she was just a few years ago - while she still has an incredible amount of energy, she can also sit and read for hours at a time.  This is such a huge transformation and really changes how we interact with her on a daily basis.  And not only does she read, she retains, reciting items of historical significance and using the information she learns to inspire her pretend play.
When I was a little girl, I was a crazy reader like Elizabeth.  My current three-times-a-week trips to the public library have triggered memories of when I was a little girl, riding the bus to the library with my mother several times a week.  My favorite childhood books were Nancy Drew mysteries and a few weeks ago, I brought home from my parents' house my childhood collection of hardcover Nancy Drew books, books that I lovingly packed away more than 20 years ago, in the hopes that my children would one day love them as much as I did.  I don't think that she is ready for them yet, but in a few months, I think that she will dive in, feet first.
I signed her up for a Goodreads account in order to keep track of what she reads (titles), how much she reads and to get recommendations for future reads.  Since September 15th, she has read 97 books.  It is getting harder and harder to keep up with her.

Emily

While both girls continue to grow in leaps and bounds and make progress at school, Emily in particular seems to really be blooming.  She absolutely loves school and loves telling us - in excruciating detail - what she does every day.  She is also learning like crazy - her numbers, new songs, and all sorts of information.  It is really fun to watch her grow.

So excited about "Hat Day" at school. 

With Logan, Simon and their soccer coach Marci (thanks for the photo, Sonia!).

Em and Mommy on her field trip.

For some reason, snuggling with Emily during his competitions is a great stress reliever for Lee.

Our Comeback Kid

As most of you know, Lee tore his pectoralis muscle over the summer.  He got very lucky - it was a shallow tear, so he did not require surgery.  He did have to take off six weeks and spend three days a week in physical therapy during that time.  Despite being upset about not being allowed to lift, Lee followed the advice of the orthopedic surgeon and physical therapist and took the rest time required - and the very day he hit the six week mark, he went back to the gym.  The guys were very supportive and did not rush him through his recovery but by early October, I could tell that something was going on and asked him what was up.  He said that he felt good enough that he was going to test his pec to see if he could be ready for competition in November (originally, he had decided to enter that competition in deadlift only).  I was very nervous, but he was very careful and by mid-October, he thought that he could be ready, but that his benching numbers would be down where he originally started last year (370 lb range).  What he hoped was that his squat and deadlift numbers would be good enough to get him a respectable total in full power.  On Sunday, he squatted 550 lbs; he deadlifted 550 lbs; and he benched 400 lbs (after first hitting 370 lbs and 380 lbs).  His total of 1500 in Full Power earns him the APA World Record as a 198 Submaster and *should be* good enough for a national ranking in the 198 weight class (all ages) of 28th in the country (and I say should be because the meet results have not yet been submitted to Powerlifting Watch), which means his is now nationally ranked in bench press (35), squat (31) and full power (28).  We are so unbelievably proud of him!  Watching him lift is such an amazing experience, he is just so good at what he does.  I am also immensely grateful to the guys that he works out with, day in and day out, for providing such a great support system, both mentally and physically.

Wrapping the knees. 

Intense concentration. 

Getting ready to squat. 

My heart was in my throat for every bench press attempt, but he rocked them all. 

Dead lift.

400 lbs Bench Press

  

550 lbs Squat (can't wait to see him do this in the monolift - 600 lbs can't be far off)  

550 lbs Dead Lift (this is practically warm up weight for him; he went for 600 lbs on his second and third attempt but just couldn't make it happen)

Bay State Open

On Sunday, Lee and several of his fellow lifters from The Refuge competed at the Bay State Open, an APA sanctioned meet held in Northampton, Massachusetts.  This was Lee's first competition since April and his first time truly testing the pec that he tore over the summer (more on that in a later post).  Once again, Lee and the other competitors from The Refuge completely dominated the meet.  There were 53 powerlifters from 7 different states competing, yet everyone from The Refuge that competed won their division, some setting new records along the way.  It was a great day for The Refuge!

If this isn't love, I don't know what is. 

Team Refuge

 

Un-Halloween

Due to the Nor'easter, Halloween was canceled, then rescheduled, in our town.  Unfortunately, we were not home during the rescheduled time, so the girls were unable to go trick or treating.  Despite that, they got all dressed up in their costumes and went to a few of our neighbors' houses on Saturday night to show them off.

Emily wanted to be a witch this year - the broom sold her! 

I had an identical costume made for Bitty Baby and she couldn't have been happier. 

The witch and the gypsie girl. 

Special dangling earrings - just for this costume (and future, more grown up years). 

Snowtober: Wrap Up

On the afternoon of Saturday October 29th, a historic Nor'easter hit Connecticut, dumping between 6"-22" across the state.  Although the snowfall at our house was minimal (about 6"-8" inches), we lost power at 8:30 pm on Saturday evening and it was 116 hours before it was restored, late Thursday afternoon.  The peak number of outages in Connecticut topped out at more than 884,000 customers (easily 1.5 million people), far greater than the historic numbers from Hurricane Irene, just two short months ago; as I write this post, more than 280,000 households are still without electricity.  On Sunday morning, our entire area (for tens of miles) was without power and without heat.  We had cranked up the heat in our house before we lost power on Saturday, so we had a bit of cushion but when the temperatures plummeted into the 20's during the overnight on Saturday and Sunday, there was no way to keep the house warm.  By Monday morning, the house was 52 degrees and the temperatures continued to drop each day.  Despite the temperature, and the fact that you could see your breath when getting dressed in the morning, the girls amazed us with their resilience.  They barely uttered a complaint.  In fact, we think that they secretly like having no electricity - we went out to breakfast almost every morning (to get warm), they came to work with me twice, went to the movies and showered at the Y, all of which are high on the fun meter for them.  They are very special people and we are truly blessed to have them.
Lee and I decided that we needed to get ourselves, the girls and dogs through the power outage before we turned to the other major issue - our backyard.  But now that electricity has been restored, we have some work ahead of us.  We lost many branches, some small trees, and more than 50% of a large, beautiful old red maple tree.  Honestly, it brought me to tears when I saw the damage done to this tree and to our yard.  Yet again, however, we know how lucky we are that there was no damage to our home - and that people have it so much worse than us.  Below are some images from the historic storm (to quote our governor, the last time a storm like this happened in October in Connecticut was "never") and there is a link to more photos on the sidebar.

On Saturday afternoon, the snowfall was lovely - but you can see that even early on, the limbs were weighed down by the weight of the snow (you can't even see the clubhouse portion of the swing set). 

Our area got very little snow in comparison to the rest of the state, but it was more than enough.

The blood maple in our front yard was sagging from the weight of the snow. 

The red maple in our backyard took a beating.

You can't even imagine the sounds these limbs made when they broke off. 

As soon as the snow melted, these limbs sprang back off of the power lines. 

The girls really enjoyed playing in snow on Sunday morning. 

Lee buried all of our food in coolers and lidded containers and covered them in snow.

Sunday night dinner on the grill = all of the perishables from the refrigerator, including eggs, hotdogs, bacon and chicken. 

Covered in blankets on the couch, Emily fell in love with her Leapster all over again (unfortunately)... 

...and Elizabeth spent the week doing what she does best - reading. 

With the snow melted, the damage to the tree is much more stark. 

Lucky for us, this limb was almost completely weighed down with snow before it landed on the porch room - the sound of it snapping was thunderous, but there was no damage. 

Our backyard.