Run, Collin....Run!!!

Collin and I ran this morning in the 12K of Christmas run.  He wanted to run the Kid's 1K so I ran the 12K without him.  It was such a humid, very warm day (73 degrees) for a long run but I pushed through it.  It was so tempting to only run one of the loops but I did turn back around to finish the second loop.  I finished the 12K at 1 hour and 13 minutes putting me 12th in my age group.  Considering I had a Reclast infusion on Thursday and the weather, I was very happy with the outcome. 

Collin and I before my run

I love this picture of my awesome family

Here I am at the finish.  I was so excited to see my boys.....and get a drink of water.  Collin had a cup of water waiting for me.

Collin did fantastic during his quick run.  He started out close to the front of the pack and then kicked it at the end to come in 1st place.  We were so proud of him!!!

Here is Collin at the start of the race:

....and here he is at the finish.  See how many people he passed to get 1st place.  He rocks!

HE loved seeing Santa this morning

 

Ready to run

"I'll take the medal, thanks!"

A New Landlord in the House

While we were away in Vegas for the weekend celebrating my birthday, Mimi took care of Collin.  She said that she and Collin played HOURS of Monopoly over the weekend.  Here is an excerpt from a summary email she sent.  The setting is at her house after two morning basketball scrimmages:

Collin wanted to play a board game and saw my 1961 Monopoly game.  We played a couple of hours with him winning. This game gave him reading and making change with money practice. We ended the game when it was lunch time and I had $15, little property and no houses. Collin had about $2,000 in houses, $1,000 in cash and owned all the properties except for my 5 properties. He got most of his money from me when I landed on one of his four railroads and Illinois Avenue with three houses. Early in the game, he landed on chance or community chest cards and went around Go a lot more than me because he rolled higher numbers on the dice than I did. I rolled mostly threes and fives when he was rolling doubles and 11

Between his afternoon Odyssey gathering and his 6 pm basketball practice, we played Monopoly with the newer version at his house. We played a couple hours and just like the other game at my house, Colin was winning with thousands of hotels, lots of cash and lots of properties while I was struggling with no hotels, not much property and low cash.  I have never played the game where I ended up with only around $10. 

When we came home from our trip and Collin came home from school, the first thing he told me was, "I have a new favorite thing to do inside the house...and, can you believe, that it's NOT the iPad?  I love to play Monopoly.  Can we play?"  We played for about 45 minutes before it was time for dinner before basketball practice.  He said, "I have a strategy which helps me win.  I would tell you but I don't want us to use it and then beat me!"  The little stinker got all the way down to $1 and then back up to over $1,000 because he landed on Free Parking.  Before that time, he even mortgaged a few properties so he could buy 3 of the 4 railroads which ended up being a great move because I kept landing on them and paying him $100. 

This is my favorite picture of him during the game.  He was so proud of his recent purchases and charging me a high rent for Boardwalk

Making his move to buy up Boardwalk or Park Place

Love that smile and how happy it made it to be playing a game with me

His strategy is to buy up all of the properties he can so he can charge his opponents a lot of rent. 

Raptors Scrimmage the Sixers

Last night, the Raptors scrimmaged the other team from Collin's school, the Sixers.  Collin played on this team last year.  Most of the kids on that team were new but they still have the great point guard and two really tall kids.

The Raptors did well for their first "game".  Some of the boys did not remember the plays and other plays do need to be practiced more.  Collin did remember his plays.  As Dad reminded him several times, he did get in there and get the rebounds but he had trouble making the basket.  Most of the time, he did not think he had the shot and quickly passed the ball instead of trying to make the shot.  Dad talked to him about this after the game and Collin said that he did not have enough room to make the shot.  They plan to work on this after school some.

Their next scrimmage is this Saturday.  Dad and I are headed to Vegas for my birthday, so we will have to miss this one.  At least it's not a real game.

Christmas Decorations at the Holmes House

In addition the Collin's tree in his room, we have a Christmas tree in the dinning room.  We have had it in the office before but there is more room in its current location.  Because we do not have a fireplace, stockings are hung at the entrance of the staircase which includes garland wrapped around the hand rail.  Garland is also hung on the entrance to the dining room and foyer (both sides).  Collin insisted on the Snowman that counts down Christmas. I also pulled out a few Christmas pillows.  Otherwise, I did not decorate the dinning room table, foyer table, breakfast area, kitchen bathroom or kitchen island like I have done in the prior year.  With how busy we have been AND because we decided not to host an Ugly Sweater party or Gingerbread House party like we have done the last 3 years, I took advantage of decorating sparingly inside the house this year.

Dad changed up the outside decorations a little but our lights are still the brightest on the street.  He added the Minons decorating the tree and a Captain American blow up.  We have already received multiple complements from neighbors about how much they like the decorations and the way the house looks.

Mechanical Pencil Thief

I am moving floors at my office so the boys helped me Saturday pack up a few things and take some personal items to the car.  I noticed Collin "helping" by opening up the desk drawers and discovering my pens and pencils.  I did not know how many mechanical pencils I had until Collin let me know these details:

• Collin:  "Mom, you have a 0.7 pencil!  I don't have one of these.  Can I have it?"
• Me:  "That's the one I use every day.  See if you can find another one you like."
• Collin:  "What about this one?  My favorite color is purple."
• Me:  (thinking that he is saying purple is his favorite color so I will give in) "Why don't you take that black one that has the gripper on it.  I thought you like those with grippers."

I did not pay attention after that because I did not want to stay too long.  It was also time to eat and my family knows they need to feed me soon after I announce I am hungry.

 

Well....this morning when I came to my office, I noticed I am missing a purple mechanical pencil and the refill lead for this pencil.  Did a co-worker take it?  Maybe not.  I think I know where I will find it or at least someone at home that knows its whereabouts.  Little thief!  :)

Collin's Cozy Bed

Collin still likes to make his bed really cozy at night before we climb in and read books before going to bed.  Tonight, he made this video for me to watch instead of leading me into his room with my eyes closed.  I like that he is using electronics productively like this and listening to how he describes what he created for us.  Burke jumped on the bed and fell asleep within 5 minutes.  I guess he really liked this design tonight.

Half Marathons

I know this is Collin's blog but his Mommy, that would be me, does have to take the time to sit down and write the blog.  It would be a lot easier if I can get an App on my phone to work to do this when I think about it and not when I am sitting in front of the computer.


Another reason I have not had a lot of time in the last several weeks to keep up with the blog is because I have ran 3, yes 3, half marathons in the last 5 weeks.  Probably not too smart to run two of the back-to-back but I did it anyway. 


This first one was a relay in a Half Ironman.  The cyclist asked me to run.  She just finished colon cancer chemo and this was her first race back after chemo.  I was honored to run and part of the team.  I knew this one would be tough because I would not start the run until 11ish and it would be hot out.  It was a REALLY tough race for me but I did finish.  I was not too happy with my time (2:33) but I was happy with it based on the conditions of the heat and the run path.

The next half was the following Sunday.  I ran by myself.  The weather was really good and we started at 6:45am which was great.  I am used to running early in the morning so these conditions were great.  I felt really good during the run which was surprising because I had just run the weekend before.  I guess it not too much different from running the long runs every week except that I don't usually run these at race pace.  I was feeling so good during this race that I decided to sprint the last 1 1.5 miles finishing at 2:11.  Better than last time so I was really happy with this finish time.  It really, really helped that my crazy besties came out to cheer me on.  They were at every 3 - 4 miles which was awesome!  They were yelling and acting crazy which kept my mind off my tired legs.

I ran another half marathon today which was three weeks after the last one.  This one was tough because it was 50 degrees and it poured on us a few times.  Therefore, I was running in the rain or was wet the entire time.  That's a new one for me.  I do like running in the cold though.  I finished this one with a surprising 2:06 finish.  Yes!!!  I cannot wait until my next race which won't be until February 2017.  This girl needs to rest her legs a little.