This week, at Calista’s school, they made leprechaun traps. Why they need to trap leprechauns, I don’t know. On Friday, she came back from school saying there were small green footprints everywhere, and the bait (gold) was gone, but the leprechauns escaped. She was totally beside herself with fear. James had to pretend to look around the house to ensure they didn’t find refuge at our place. The following Monday, the footprints were gone, as the teachers must have cleaned them up … or at least most of them. Walking to her classroom, Calie saw a missed green footprint and just crumbled “They’re back!!!”. Oh why, oh why must teachers do this to us! They’re not the ones dealing with a skittish 4-year-old who is now afraid to be in any room by herself. They must be paying us back for all the times we sent her to school on sugary cereal. (Only joking – Calistia has the best teachers ever, and I’m thankful they do creative stuff like this with their class that I would never even think of! 
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On Saturday, after Calista’s dance class, we went to Melissa’s house for brunch and Easter egg dyeing. My confidence in science was shaken by Sam’s amazing hashbrowns … could we have rebutted a founding principal of physics, the conservation of matter? (I am such an ungrateful guest!)
Afterwards, I took the kids to the library and nearby park while James finished up taxes. (Why does it seem our rasies aren’t keeping up with the new tax laws? 
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Sunday, I got up at 5:45am and completed my first half marathon ever. I was very concerned, as the week prior to race day, I had heel pain that seemed to get worse. I researched online and determined I had plantar fasciitis on my left heel. Something very common for runners who are “weekend warriors”, have a heavy heel strike, and increase mileage too quickly (more than 10%/week). Check! Check! Check! With 10 weeks of training completed, I really didn’t want to drop out last minute … so I did all the stretches recommended (I trust online diagnosis and treatments, don’t you?) and bought a pair of Superfeet shoe inserts. Based on advice from a marathoner, I opted to run sans Superfeet … “never do anything different on race day.”
Good advice. I felt great! No heel pain at all, the entire 13.1 miles. My original goal was to keep it under a 12 min/mile, but with plantar fasciitis, I decided to change my goal to just finish the run. I ended up finishing at 2 hr 18 minutes, which translates to a 10:33 min/mile. I think the increase in speed was due to the fact that I trained on hilly terrain and the actual course was very flat. Also, there were pacers, bands, and cheering spectators. But most of all, thanks to my running group (Bev, Er-jia, Cooper, Shilpa, and Jaybal) for the training support and encouragement. Plus my family and 2 coworker/friends who cheered for me at the finish line.
Excellent run! When we got home, Calie said,”I want to make a poster that says GO! for you next run” Um… riiight. My quads were so sore the next day, I almost fell off the toilet at work. I’ll think about it in a few months.
After the run, we met up with Melissa and Karen’s family for ‘Shrek the Musical.’ It was a great show … not a huge New York or San Francisco Broadway production by any means, but we got great seats and the theatre was only a few miles from our home. I love being able to share live theatre experiences with my kids for such little effort and expense. Maybe I have low expectations, but I was impressed Calie (at 4-years-old) sat through all 2.5 hours, announced it was “fun”, and understood most of the storyline. She might have done better than Zach … who complained “Musicals are for grownups.” Do I sense a surly pre-teen in the making?
All while the kids played at home.
… hopefully someone else took a few and can send them to me/her?), but I did get some good shots of her with her best friends!
