Running with Tabblettes: No, I'm not M.I.A

Whew! These past two months have been a whirlwind! Let me get you up to speed on all the happenings.

Since my last post I have been training for the half marathon, started a new job as a pre-school teacher and therefor put my kiddos in the pre-school where I teach, injured my knee from running, was sick and had sick children on and off, husband traveled for work, 2 of my daughters had birthdays, I had a birthday, Lily-Kate started dance, and Jared and I started working in our church's youth group on Wednesday nights. I'm out of breath from typing all of that. ;)

Let's start with running. A few weeks ago, when attempting my 7 mile run, I felt a new kind of soreness in my left knee. Seeing as I am a new (stupid) runner, I didn't pay much attention to it, thinking no pain no gain, right? Wrong! I tried to run 6 miles the next week and had to stop after mile 4 because my knee was in so much pain. I iced it at least once a day for a week and took about 2 weeks off from training as well as purchasing some new running shoes from Fleet Feet, per the advice of a more knowledgable, more experienced runner friend. You know who you are. ;)
Once the knee was feeling better I got back to running, starting at 3 miles and now I'm up to 9 miles. 9 miles!!! I'm incredibly proud of myself because I NEVER thought that was possible! I will be running my first 15k race this Saturday, the Tulsa Run, and the Route 66 half marathon is in 4 weeks!

The job: A couple weeks after my daughter had started pre-k, the preschool director at our church approached me about taking on a teaching position. One of the teachers had decided last minute to not teach this year and the school year was about to start. The director told me that all 3 girls could attend Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and I would only teach Tuesday and Thursday. That meant I would have 1 day a week all to myself to do whatever I needed to do/ wanted to do. Ever since our third child was born, I had been saying, If I could just have ONE day to myself, I could get so much accomplished and that's exactly what I got! One day where I can clean the bathrooms, do the dishes, or go shopping minus the kiddos. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely treasure my time at home with the girls, I really do, BUT, I have a 14 month old who insists on "helping" me load the dish washer and who unrolls an entire roll of toilet paper while I try to clean the bathroom and two other little helpers who think that if I'm sweeping, they need to sweep too with their little play brooms and suddenly my pile of dust and crumbs on the floor is once again strewn about the house. (sigh) When I'm home with the girls, I'd much rather be playing with them so that's why this "mommy day" is so nice. Also, now that we are a family of 5, we are so thankful for the extra money. I didn't think there was any way I could have a job at this phase in our life but this job provides me with the ability to take the girls with me. I love teaching my class of 3 year olds. They are at such an enjoyable age. It's definitely a challenge but I do love it. I'm so thankful that I was given the opportunity to work amongst friends at a christian pre-school and share the love of Christ with the little boys and girls in my class and also SO grateful that my girls have the opportunity to attend! They LOVE it and have learned so much already! We took Lily-Kate out of public school but she will return next year for kindergarten. (tear) God basically opened the door and lovingly pushed me through it with this job. =)

Life is BUSY, folks, but we are happy, blessed, and doing the best we can during these precious years while our kiddos are little. =)

Here are a few pics of what we've been up to the past couple months.