Frozen and Les Mis Mashup

My legs are jello.  I can barely keep my eyes open.  I did a 7 mile run this morning and now my evening is toast.  I was ready for bed at 4:00!

The run however, was fantastic.  For the last few months I've been listening to the Frozen Movie Soundtrack while running.   I LOVE it.  It's perfect and yes, I have been seen laughing, crying, singing and even doing jazz  hands with Olaf while running.  Today I decided it was time for a change,  I knew I was going to run longer and I needed a few more songs. 

I went to switch to my standby favorite playlist "Country Running".  Huh, nothing in it.  I suck at Itunes so I am sure I did something wrong.  Anyhow I didn't have time to be messing around and I needed to get out the door.  I had big plans today...Costco was waiting.  So what did I actually have on my phone that would work....Boris Karloff's the The Ginch?  Nope, no good.   Les Mis soundtrack?  Yep, that will do!

So I hit a few of my favorites and added them to my Frozen playlist.  OMG it was so perfect!  When "Valjean's Soliloquy" transitioned to "Let it Go". It could not have been more perfect!  He ends with:

I'll escape now from that world
From the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now
Another story must begin!

Pretty much the same thing Elsa is singing about in "Let it Go".  I was pumped!  Music really motivates me and of course the emotions in both of these are so inspiring.  So I  managed to pull off the whole 7 miles and felt pretty darn good!

My good friend Karen convinced me last November that sticking my legs in the pool 1 minute for every mile was good for my recovery.  She's not wrong, but she might be crazy.  Last fall I couldn't last more that 3 or 4 minutes.  Today the weather was nice and the water wasn't quite as cold.  I did the whole 7 minutes.  Guess I am crazy too!

 

Bunny Chaos

There was a lot of excitement in our backyard today! I looked out the window from the kitchen and I could tell that Finley was showing lots of interest in something on the lawn. The next thing I see he has picked up something in his mouth and is running toward the door. As he gets closer I can tell what it is and I proceed to spill my large cup of coffee all over the counter and drop my bagel (cream chess side down) on the floor as I rush to the door. He has dropped it at the door and is looking up at me with such excitement and joy!  He has brought me a gift, a very tiny scared baby bunny!!!!  OMG!

I was afraid to open the door for two reasons. 

1. It was likely Finley would pick it up and carry his treasure in the house to show me. 

2. It was so close to the door I was afraid that if he didn't pick it up then the bunny would startle and run inside on its own! 

As I talked to Finley through the door, while grandma tried to clean up my breakfast that was now all over the kitchen, I decided I had no other option but to try and rush out the door before either of my concerns could come to fruition. 

Long story short, the bunny chaos multiplied as I tried to keep Finley away and coax the bunny toward the bushes.  Suddenly, another bunny popped out!!!! Finley had to pick this one up too...of course. After  much noise and commotion I managed to get Finley inside. I was able to gently scoop up each of the bunnies and put them back in the bushes hoping they would recover and decide this was NOT the yard for them. 

But y'all know me ....even in the chaos I was able to grab my phone and I snap a few pics. Look carefully and you can see the bunny at Finley's feet! 

UPS Tracking

Things have been pretty rough around here for awhile now.  Likely to continue for some time to come.  While the beautiful dusting of snow we received today was a little bit of a lift. The thing that truly lifted my spirits was the tacking e-mail I got from UPS a little after 7pm tonight.   One Certified Marriage License from Los Angeles County Courts is arriving tomorrow!  It's the little things. 

The Friz

Do you remember The Friz?  Also, known as the BEST teacher ever! I've used so many of her books in the classroom and the shows were so well done!  I remember being so excited when my son was little and finally old enough to be interested  watching The Magic School Bus!  I can actually hear the kids saying, "Ralphie!" just thinking about it!

I've dressed up as Ms. Frizzle twice even!  Once when Scholastic sent a costume to the school I was teaching at and I volunteered to be the mascot for the book fair.  The second time, I had my mom help make a bee themed jumper dress. I found perfect outrageous earrings and a fantastic red wig! My class was studying bees at the time. I made a  large yellow paper beehive bus just like the one in the book.  My 2nd graders helped me carry it in the school Halloween parade.  Such great memories!  Maybe I'll see if I can dig out a photo of that day?  Maybe not.....

What inspired my thoughts of Ms. Frizzle today? I saw this shirt on Pinterest today and I just LOVE it.  Not only because I love The Friz, but because I love to run and this is just a perfect motivating thought!  I sure wouldn't want to miss that bus!

 

PS.  Professor McGonagall actually ties the Friz for best teacher ever....and I've dressed up as her too!

Pre-lit?

I love my Christmas tree. It's a 12 foot pre-lit tree we bought at Costco in Thousand Oaks. I'm guessing 2004, maybe? Anyhow it's fantastic and TALL. The term pre-lit doesn't really apply any more, but I'm not ready to give it up yet.  To be honest I haven't seen any trees I like near as much.

SO...last year we modified it and took out the bottom section. It's now a 10 foot tree with a slightly narrower base. Good thing for space reasons and safety too. We aren't getting any younger you know!
We knew when putting it away last Christmas that we weren't even going to attempt to use the pre-lit lights this year. Instead we used the zillion lights we had from the year we built the parade float. Sweet! It looked pretty good.  I probably need more than a zillion to make it look the way I'd really like. That and I can see all the non-working pre-lit lights & wires. Others said they aren't really noticeable. I think they are wrong.

Thus, I attempted the removal of pre-lit lights and wires as we took the tree down this year. I started in the middle and did a branch or two and then I remembered we had taken off the very top section already. It being only a small section I could sit down and comfortably remove the lights from it first.  OMG!  I CAN'T believe how many lights are on that one itty bitty section and how long it took me to unwind them all.  Needless to say, I think the remaining 8.5 feet of tree will likely still have dead lights and wires on them again next year.  But hey...way at the top of my tree....you know 10 feet up....there won't be any wires for me to notice.  gah.  

Top section and all the lights I took off of it.

Victory!

I did it! All by myself!  The trains are usually not my department. The boys set them up and take them down each year.  Puzzles are also not my department.  Not only do I not enjoy them, I am also not very good at them....probably why I don't enjoy them. Duh!  Putting this away was both dealing with trains and puzzles...and much to my GREAT surprise it did not take me near as long as I was expecting it to!  I did however, take this picture so that next year should I be stuck with the task of putting it away it will be even faster.  Wonder if I should tell the boys I have this handy dandy answer key next year?  ;-)

Santa Finley

We still haven't gotten around to torturing Norbert with silly pet wear, but I did stress Finley out for a few minutes on Christmas Eve with a Santa Hat. He is such a good boy!