January 18, 2007 by Kala.

After School Enrichment was the last two Thursdays and my friend, Kim, and I decided to lead a class on how to make cute little graham cracker gingerbread houses. What a hoot!!! We ended up with 10 girls - grades 3 thru 5….lots of broken crackers, lots of frosting everywhere and candy left over at the end. I think the girls did an awesome job with their houses so I’ve uploaded some pictures for you to see.

It was a lot of work to prepare - I think next year we’ll choose knitting or crocheting or something similar.

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January 18, 2007 by jon.

It’s been a rough start to the year for me.  The first week I had shingles and had to stay home due to being contagious.  Luckily I could work from home just as well so I didn’t really miss any work, but it sure messed up the rythym.  Thank the Lord that I had a mild case and wasn’t to uncomfortable.

Then my son decided to share his cough with me.  I started coughing around Friday and have been since.  Of course I am traveling all this week which has made me more miserable.  After 3 trips to CVS I gave in and called my doctor to call in a perscription.  Once I got the good stuff in my, I slept well.  Thanks Doc!

I have also been chronicling my problems with my back.  I am learning more about it but I also had a weird episode.  Last Thursday night driving home, my back under my left shoulder felt “Tight”.  Got home and Kala started working on it when I had a spasm.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a spasm like that before.  I had trouble moving (But not breathing) and was stuck in some weird positions. 

Called Dr. Mark and they told me to ice it and see them in the morning.  My lovely wife went to scouts for me and I kept the ice pack on.  Friday morning it actually felt a lot better.  The spasm was gone but even to today, it is tight.

BUT, I’ve figured out my lower back problems aren’t caused by running.  Dr. Mark has given me some stretches to put my hips back in place.  So I did some experimenting to see what causes it to go out of Whack.  Running…No, Sleeping….No, Driving to work and a full work day…Yep.  So I need to work on ergonomics at work and find the best positions.  It’s all a learning process.

The good part is that I have run a few times without much problem.  I’m really glad to be able to do that and even ran with my old boss/friend Diane in Richmond while on a business trip.  Very enjoyable to good to run with her.

So it’s been a rough start, but with some stretching, proper eating and exercise and the Lord’s help (Ok, it’s mostly him!) I should be getting back on track.

Have a great day!

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January 15, 2007 by jon.

I’m in Richmond and spent all day Sunday with Richard, a friend I used to work with.  We are both history buffs and he took me to some Civil War sites.

Our first stop was the Petersburg battlefield.  This was the site of a 10 month siege of Petersburg by union troops.  We were able to tour some of the old fort earth works and see some period cannon. 

The battle of Petersburg included the famous Crater Battle where union forces hoping to punch a whole in the confederate defenses dug a 511 foot tunnel under a fort.  They then put 4 tons of powder in the fort and blew it up.  It was a great success in that the fort ceased to exist and over 200 confederate soldiers were killed.  Union soldiers ran up to continue the attack but ended up being shocked by the carnage and never pressed the advantage.  This gave the confederates time to mount a counter attack and they regained the fort/crater.

The union won the battle in April 1965 and headed North to Richmond.  This was just before Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House.

We then returned to Richmond and toured the Museum of the Confederacy next to the Confederate White House.  Pretty cool stuff that documents the timeline of the war.  There are a lot of personal items of Lee as well as models of the various naval ships and maps of engagments.

Side note - There were a lot of the officer coats on display.  Those must have been some small guys as there is no way a average sized person of today could squeeze their shoulders into them.

By this time things were closing so we took a quick walk around Belle island to finish our day.  Most of the island is just a park with trails but there are some markers showing where the prison was as well as the gravesite for the union priosoners.

It was a great day exlporing Civil War stuff.  My first time being on an actual battlefield.

Thanks Richard!

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January 13, 2007 by jon.

Brad and I spent Friday night and Saturday at the Lifetime Fitness club in Bloomingdale.  This was a Lock In for our Pack.  We ended up swimming, rock climbing, playing basketball and staying up late.  (Actually I didn’t do all that due to my back, but Brad sure did)

I was quite impressed with the place.  It’s more like a rec center than a work out gym.  While it has all of the machines a gym does (And more!) it was family friendly.  The pool had some slides, the day care had it’s own basketball court and best of all Brad loved it.  May be a membership in the future…

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January 1, 2007 by jon.

3 is the number of miles I have run this year.  Not much when you think about it, but today is the first of the year.  I just had to get out there today and get a few miles in. 

I also took a running companion.  Shay joined me for the first time and he did great!  We ran an easy out and back.  He kept pace (Easily!) and I think enjoyed it.  For the most part he was ahead of me, sometimes at my side.  Only once or twice did he tie the leash around me.  Not too bad for never running and not walking well on a leash.  I think he was trying to work on negative splits because once we turned around, he started pulling hard.

Glad I have a new running buddy.

As for 2006…I ended up running 627 miles for the year.  When you consider I had no firm plans at the beginning of the year, 600 and a marathon is a pretty good accomplishment.

My goals for 2007?  Probably only 500 miles.  No marathon this year but I would like to run a half marathon as well as a relay with the Denver HRH office again.  Rather than up and down in running for weekly mileage, I’m going to try keeping it steady.  (Last year I sometimes went weeks without running many miles and some weeks I cranked them out)  Hopefully having a running buddy will help get me out of bed in the mornings.

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