Easter

We hope everyone had a good Easter holiday. After original plans had fallen through, we invited ourselves to the Glanzers' after denying their invitation on Friday. Good thing they consider us like family. Everyone had a great time and we stuffed ourselves with delicious food.

Here are the girls in their new dresses that they picked out. I asked Jamie if she wanted to be twins with Caitin and she said "no," so here they are.
What a photogenic little girl ...when she's not pulling a silly face.

Both are growing up so fast. This one is going to be at Kindergarten this fall!

We sure miss being around family for the holidays, but find comfort in the "family" we have made up here in Spokane.

Closet Doors...Finally!

Due to some minor changes while constructing my very first closet, I had the wonderful opportunity of adjusting both height and width of every door.  AND since I decided that I would build the ultimate dooring system: quad-fold doors, that meant adjustment and additional modification of 4 doors for each side of the closet.  That's 8 doors...for one closet. 

That number struck such fear in my heart that I've largely put off the task.  But I'm married to Sarah.  Who is persistent.  And persuasive.  And persistent...so...eventually the time came for me to measure up to the task.

After flubbing through the first set of doors and then doing the work over again, I figured out a system, and the second set only took half the time.  That pretty much sums up most of my construction projects.

Here's the result:

After about 30 minutes spent fine-tuning the doors to match up and hang just right, Sarah said, "Alright, take those down so I can paint them." 
"I have to take them down?!"
"Well, yeah!"
...
"Great.", I mumbled.

Sadistic Optimism

Last year as I laid out training plans for my first marathon, I believed myself semi-invincible.  I did not worry about hills when laying out my training routes.  It would be cheating to only run flat paths.  I mean, what has distance got to do with anything if you can't handle a hill now and again? 

So when it was time to run 20 miles I determined to run one of my favorite cycling paths that included several hills.  In doing so, I was more concerned with the short steep hills along the way than I was about the fact that I was running 10 miles down-stream along a river, and hence the return trip would all be uphill.  Which uphill is generally mild, with a 200-foot steep climb that grades back to a mild uphill about two miles from the end. 

That 20 mile run was the hardest run I have ever completed.  (Yes, even -slightly- harder than the 5-hour marathon)  Physically, I was in a terrible state.  Mentally, I was stretching beyond any limit I had ever approached.

Fast forward to this year.  I ran a fairly difficult route for my 18 mile run and felt great.  Truly, I am a force to be reckoned with!  So, I planned to run my 22 mile route (last weekend) as a longer version of last year's 20 miler.  You know...because I'm awesome...and sadistic.

In short...It hurt.  A lot. 

Actually, for 16 miles it felt pretty good.  I was mostly pain-free, and had little trouble climbing and descending the steep hills out there.  In those 16 miles I had climbed 911 feet, and descended 1171 feet.  I had met the 13-mile point just below the 2-hour mark. 

But I had the dreaded highway miles left:  3 miles of uneaven grassy terrain that would generally be pleasant, but following 16 knee-grinding miles...they were pure torture.  Every change of camber, every bump to lift over, each tuft of grass that caught my shoe, and every curb to hop over along the way felt like shooting staples into my knees. 

Although my heartrate remained around 160, my pace dropped to a crawl. Mile 20 took me over 14 minutes.  I was running, but I could have walked just as fast.  I think I fell off of the hydration bandwagon as well, and by the time I finished, I just sat down...and thought about stretching.  I didn't move for about 5 minutes.  By not moving...I could almost imagine not hurting. 

My total time for 22 miles was 3:44:48.  My time last year for 20 miles was about 3:45:00.  Last year the pain cave was twice as deep and dark.  That's progress. 

My average pace for 22 miles was 10:13 min/mile.  My goal pace for the marathon is 9:10 min/mile. 

I take solice in the fact that the marathon includes a massive 187 feet of climbing (compared to the 1266 feet I climbed in 22 miles) and an overall drop of 241 feet.  Being relatively flat, I'm confident that it will not hurt quite as much.  My day of reconing is May 14th!

The Rest of the Story

This is the second half of a recent bedtime story I told to the girls.  If you don't like bedtime stories...particularly amateur bedtime stories...check in on the next post.  Otherwise, (and I'll say it despite my fear of saying something before I actually do it) the reason I'm writing this one down is that I felt like it had the tiniest bit of potential.  A goal of mine is to one day write a children's book...you know...like one people would buy.  At a store.  Hopefully at lots of stores.  I feel I'm really throwing myself out there by stating this, but...well...anyway...here's the rest of the story:

Caitin and Jamie smiled widely to each other as soon as they heard that familiar croaking song.  They waited impatiently as the singers wound through the forest.  Finally, around the bend came their two favorite people:  Ookie and Gookie - the Ogre princesses.  Oddly enough, the ogres were dressed all in white today!  Both of them wore beautiful flowing white dresses.  Ookie wore a pure white wreath placed delicately over her orange hair, and Gookie wore a finely laced white bonnet.  This was such a change from their poorly matching pink and purple and orange clothing that Caitin and Jamie just stared at these gorgeous princesses.

"OOOHhhhhh, it's Caitin and Jamie!" bellowed Ookie with a great toothy smile.
"Oh Hello, Caitin and Jamie!" echoed Gookie.  Everyone paused and looked at Gookie with surprise.  It's not often that she remembers names...at all.
"What are you doing there in the mud?" asked Ookie.  So Caitin told the story of how they followed the perfectly white animals down the path, and that when the dragon floated overhead they were not looking where they were going, and by the time she finished she was almost in tears with how terribly silly it must have sounded.  Ookie looked at Caitin very seriously and asked, "Was the entire forest quiet?"
Thoughtfully, Caitin responded, "Yes, it was!"
Gookie replied reverently, "You've seen the Great Cumulous!"
Then Gookie chimed in, "Ooohhh!  The Great Conbobulous!"
Everyone smiled wide, for this is the Gookie they knew.  "No, Gookie...The Great Cumulous!" said Ookie.
"Oh, yes.  That's right.  The Great Crutopulon!" smiled Gookie.
"No, Gookie...The Great CUMULOUS!" chuckled Ookie.
"Yes.  Right.  The Great Com...Cub...Crab...uhhhh...the Big Cloud!" stammered Gookie, and everyone had a little chuckle.

"I've never heard of the Great Cumulous," said Caitin, "But it sure got us into a mess here.  Can you help us out?"
"Sure!" said Ookie and Gookie together.  And they walked right into the swamp.  As their feet sunk into the mud, the hems of their white dresses started to drag and and float across the muck. Easy as pie Ookie lifted Caitin and Gookie lifted Jamie out of their boots, then bent down and pulled their boots out with a stinky SCHWOOOOP!  Then they walked out to the path and set the girls down. 
"Ookie, what about your dresses?" asked Caitin concerned.  But just as she did, she looked down and saw that both of their dresses were still as white as ever they had been.  She even noticed that they were wearing white slippers that were perfectly clean! 

Jamie was looking at those slippers too, when suddenly they noticed that the slippers were no longer on the ground, but were as high as their heads and moving up into the air!  Floating higher now, Ookie and Gookie both gave wide green smiles as they waved goodbye with humungous arms.  Rising higher off the ground they were growing bigger!  As they got bigger, though, they somehow became harder to see.  Quicker than they would have liked, Caitin and Jamie both realized the Ogre princesses had evaporated into the clouds. 

As they walked home, the girls talked about what they had seen.  Although they had not seen the real Ookie and Gookie, they both felt as good as when the princesses were really around; and they decided the Great Cumulous was very nice indeed.

Later, when they tried to tell the story to their mother, they could harldy remember if it had all really happened, or if they had only been staring at the clouds the whole time.

Star Stories

When everything goes well at bed time for the girls, they earn a "Star Story" (named for one of the original characters a couple of years ago).  Here's part of last night's story:

The girls were listening to the sweet chirping of birds in the trees; when suddenly everything went silent.  There was no more chirping of birds, no more squaking of squirrels, no slithering of snakes, and no chittering of chipmunks.  The entire forest was silent.

Ahead on the path, Jamie saw a little white cotton-tail rabbit.  She pointed it out to Caitin and they began to follow it.  It was hopping away from them.  The rabbit was moving just fast enough that they were not catching up to it, but they were close enough to see that it was a soft and pleasant little bunny. 

But just as they noticed how fine it looked, the rabbit transformed mid-stride into a beautiful deer!  Still perfectly white, but with large, stately antlers the stag continued to walk away from them.  Though surprised, Caitin and Jamie continued to follow, and soon enough the deer transformed again! 

Now a majestic elephant walked the path in front of them!  This pure white elephant had huge ears that hung down almost to the ground and swung forward and back as the elephant walked.  But despite its size the elephant still made no sound as it walked, and the forest remained silent.

The elephant began to grow, and it soon turned into a large dragon with a swishing tail.  The girls were not afraid of this creature because of it's color.  Like the other animals, the dragon was white, and like the other animals, it made no noise.  Even though the branches of the trees brushed it's back there was no sound to be heard. 

Then, the dragon began to float!  It did not move it's wings at all, but floated higher and higher.  Pretty soon the dragon evaporated into the clouds.  Caitin then looked at Jamie and Jamie looked at Caitin and they wondered if they had only been looking at the clouds the whole time. 

Then they smelled something terrible.  They looked around and realized they had walked off the path into a swamp!  Stinky black mud was up to their ankles and they could not lift their galoshes out of it!  And worse, they were sinking!  Luckily, they were close enough to hold hands and keep their balance.  They stopped moving and then they heard something.  It was not a normal noise of the forest, but rather a strange light tune in the distance.  Uh-doom eeeh oooo. Ba-doo oooo eeeh. Ba-doo ba-dee, ba-dah duh dah do eeeh whhhoooo!  This tune grew louder and clearer until around the bend came...