Back to Work

I had toyed with the idea of going back to work for a while but there didn't seem to be a way to work it out.  The kids schedules are so busy and I did not want to take away from them in order to go back to work.  I started looking to see if I could find a part time job that would be interesting, local, and flexible.  It seems impossible right?? Well I have found it!  I accepted a job at Faith Community Church as a Communications Associate.  It is a new challenge for me and a change from my career in Human Resources.  I have been working for a week and a half and everyone seems very friendly.  I'm still learning the ropes as one does in a new job.  It will be something to challenge my brain and gives me the flexibility to work 9am-2pm while the kids are in school.  If one of the kids is sick I can stay home with them or if there is a snow day I don't have to worry about coverage.  The kids schedules can stay the same too which is great.  Of course it means I have a lot more on my plate since I am now working 24 hours a week but Jason and the girls are going to have to help out more around the house.  I think we can make it work.  It will be good for the kids to see that Moms can work and it will be good for everyone to help out around the house to see how much work goes in to keeping the house running smoothly.  I'm still fitting my exercise in but it is definitely a challenge.  I am having to be very flexible.  I will do split work outs where I do cardio for half and hour and then a few hours later get in the weights.  Flexibility is the key for all of us so we will see how this new chapter in our lives goes.

Hip Update

I saw the doctor a couple weeks ago for my hip.  It was a great check-up!  He cleared me to start skiing which is great because going up north for a ski weekend and having to stay at the house when everyone goes off to have fun at the mountain kinds of stinks.  The other big news was that he has cleared me to start running on the treadmill.  I can increase my distance on the treadmill by 1/4 mile a week.  I'm up to 3/4 of a mile now and it feels fine.  I get to increase my mileage up to the 2 miles mark and then I have to hold steady until July and then I CAN RUN OUTSIDE!!!!  I can't wait to be able to hit the roads again.  It will make my workout schedule so much more flexible and running outside is WAY more fun than running on the treadmill!  I do have to take it slow and if my hip starts to get sore I will have to pull back a bit but I've been good about not pushing it for this long I can follow instructions to the home stretch.  The anchors that are in my bone take two years to be absorbed by the body so until they are completely absorbed I will have to make sure I am babying my hip.  I don't want my body to attack the anchors after all the work I have put into having my hip fixed.

Piano Recital

In between skiing, swimming and gymnastics we also managed to squeeze in a piano recital.  Sofia was a trooper.  She had a swim meet this same weekend which meant we woke up on Sunday morning and drove to Seekonk for a 6:45am start time.  I entered her into three events that were early in the event list so that we could get out of the meet quickly and head home.  She had time to rest, shower and dress and then it was off to the recital.  As usual, Sofia did a great job.  Here is the video of Linus & Lucy.

Meets, meets and more meets

Between ski weekends we have been attending meets . . . swim meets and gymnastics meets.  Sofia has been struggling with swimming and her times have been all over the place.  While she has had some races that she has added 11+seconds to her time I have to say I am proud of her.  She has been putting in a lot of effort.  Unfortunately when she puts in a LOT of effort her for
m falls apart.  At some point she will put it all together and she will start cutting down her times.  She has one meet left this weekend to make her cut time for championships but I do not expect her to make the cut.  She needs a little more time to pull things together.  I think it will be good for her to not make the cut because then she will get a break from swim meets for a while and I think she needs that break.


Ali has been doing great at her meets.  She went to the Brestyan's meet (home of Aly Raisman) and had a tough meet.  It was an early morning wake up at 5:45AM with a drive into Tufts.  She started on the beam.  It is a tough way to start and she fell from the beam.  It was her first meet fall.  It really shook her and she struggled on floor and vault.  I felt so bad for her and kept wishing she would shake it off.  She got to the bars and I watched her warm up and I didn't have much hope of her shaking off her fall but she surprised me.  She LOVES the bars and she rocked it.  She placed 1st on bars out of all 69 Level 3 girls at the meet. She finished and turned to me with a HUGE smile.  I was so happy for her!  After the meet we went to the awards ceremony and then headed back to the gym floor to meet Aly Raisman!  It was such a cook experience for Ali and a little embarrassing for me.  As Ali was standing there I kept saying, "Ali look at me, ALi at the camera Ali smile"  Then it occurred to me that HER name was ALY too!!  I quickly apologized and explained that I wasn't speaking to her and that she had a very nice smile.  A classic mom moment!!

 Here is a video of her bar routine from Brestyans.

Level 3 

At her next meet (which was this past weekend in Connecticut) Ali and her whole team rocked the meet.  The team placed 1st as did all levels from Elite except level 9 (placed 2nd)!  I'm still unclear to me what is the proper ranking for gymnasts since they make the awards based on level and age and not just on level 3 so I will give you the different options.  To me it would seem the age shouldn't matter since every kid competing at Level 3 must have the competency to move into a Level 3 team regardless of their age.  So, while she gets awarded based on her age division I like to know how she did regardless of age.

Intermediate age division session 7B
2nd All Around
1st Bars
2nd Floor
5th Vault
7th Beam

Level 3 Session B
4th All Around
1st Bars
3rd Floor
9th Vault
18th Beam

Level 3 All Sessions (about 190 girls from 34 teams) - This does not seem to be how anyone ranks because the sessions compete at different times of day and even on different days but I think it is interesting to see.
10th All Around
3rd Bars
7th Floor
Beam/Vault  - I don't know her place because they only list the top ten girls

Any way you look at it though she did awesome.  She works so hard every practice (13 hours a week) and has improved greatly since joining this gym.  It is nice to see all her hard work pay off for her.  The best part is that she is thoroughly enjoying gymnastics and her teammates and even after a three and a half hour practice she is bubbling with happiness.

New Years in Vermont/ MLK weekend in Vermont

We went up to Vermont to spend New Years with Jason's brother Matt and his family.  Matt and Jodi are so nice and easy to be around.  Our kids get along great and we always have fun together.  Everyone skied three days while we were there and I spent time shopping and at the gym since I'm not cleared to ski yet because of my hip.  It was strange to send them off for the day and not be going along but it was relaxing.  I got to workout and it didn't matter how long I took which was nice.  Jason and the girls had a great time skiing and at night we all hung out together.

Matt, Jodi, Jason and I took one night for ourselves and headed out to a kid free dinner.  Keely was great and watched everyone while we were enjoying a fantastic meal together.

We headed back up to Vermont for MLK weekend.  Jason's co-worker owns a house in Vermont and he let us borrow it for the weekend.  We invited our friends to come up for the weekend and we all had a fantastic time.  The house was beautiful and very secluded.  We went with our friend Ally and Jerry and their three kids, Paigie (Ali's friend), Colby and Tucker.

Jason skied with the girls and Ally and Jerry joined them for most of the day.  Our friends kid hit ski school for the day and had a great time.  I spent the day going for a walk and doing an at home workout.  I managed to find a small shop to buy a cappucino which was great!  I met up with everyone at the mountain at the end of the day and we all headed back to the house to hang out.  The kids played and once the kids were fed and in bed the adults got a chance to talk and play board games.  It was a lot of fun to travel with friends and our parenting styles meshed really well which was great.  The second day noone went to the mountain.  Instead we went for a walk in the woods right from the house.  The owners must have had trails cut in the woods because there were many clear trails to follow.  It was a lot of fun and we hope to get back up to use the house again.