There Will Be Days Like This

Remember last year....It was Myles special week to bring cupcakes.  He was Star of the Week, the one time of the year he gets to bring a treat for his class.  We went to the store the night before and the ladies made "boring" cupcakes special by putting rings in them. He was SO excited to have his special day.  Then, he spent the entire night up with a seal bark and was too sick to go to school on his special day.  His cupcakes went to school without him.

Well, today was our yearly tradition of making pancakes for Sophie's class. New school, new kids, new teacher...but we wanted to keep the tradition going.  Brian had the day off because of the kids conferences also being today, so he was excited to participate this year. The kids had been reminded on Friday to come hungry Monday morning.  Well, Sophie and Myles took ill on Sunday with bad coughs, fevers, headaches, dizziness, and Sophie had the added fun of tummy troubles.  So, mom and dad went to school, without Sophie, and made pancakes for her class. A bit odd to be doing when our kid, who we were doing it for, was at home, sick.  But, we couldn't leave a class of kids hungry, so it had to be done.  Poor Sophie!

We came home and dropped the pancake stuff off, and while the initial plan had been to get my first training run of WTC in the books....the plan changed to meeting with the principal of the middle school.  This was a meeting to discuss the fact that my 6th grader had been body checked hockey style on Thursday, was in pretty bad pain on Friday, told her teachers (two teachers) what had happened, who hit her, and that she was having a hard time taking deep breaths, lifting anything, bending to the side, etc. She was in such pain that she could not carry her bag to walk home Friday. Her teacher called me to come get her, said that she had a "stitch" in her side.  Never mentioned that she had been hit by another student in the ribs the day before.  Eventually I got the story out of Emma and got her to urgent care to have her ribs checked out.  Nothing broke, just bruised.  Thus the meeting with the principal and teacher.  I will say that I was extremely impressed with the fact that the Principal got my email Monday morning, and by the time we got there at 10:15, she had done a lot of investigating, questioned the teachers, students who saw what happened, and the other student directly involved, had called that students parents and put into place her disciplinary action.

Next in the day came a small window, just enough time to get some grocery shopping done and lunch for the sickos.  One requested "chicken on the bone" and one wanted candy canes.  They both got special cupcakes, too. There's also been a lot of ice-cream eating which helps their throats.  They are sick, what can I say.

Did I mention Emma got her progress report on Friday? 6 A's.  After groceries was Myles conference.  Have not been looking forward to this one.  His actual report card was better than I thought it would be, and he's doing really, really well.  Needs to work on being organized and working quicker, and not being so emotional,  but I am convinced he knows more at this point in the year than his sisters did.  HOWEVER, he's reading way below where he should be and this earned a check in the dreaded "in danger of repeating 1st grade" box.  His teacher did say he has seen drastic improvements in the past 2 weeks since he was testing, and he expects to be out of danger soon.  Still a gut check.

Next, we headed to Sophie's room for her conference.  I swear she's some sort of mini "Rainman" kid.  She has aced, and I do mean aced, every test.  Her attention to details is mind boggling. Her work in general - math, language arts- is at a 6th grade level, at the start of 4th grade, and he said it would be higher but that is as high as his test scale goes.  He is not allowed to give 3's (CA has a 1,2,3 grade system, with 3 being excellent/above grade average) at the beginning of the year, however he asked what he was supposed to do because she aces everything and 3's are what she's earned...so she got 3's.  He gave her the exit exam for 4th grade (which is mostly things that he has not taught the class yet, but will by the end of the year) and she got an 83%.  Her one blip is that she struggles when time tested, so passing her multiplication timed tests has been a challenge.  She can stand in front of him and do them verbally no problem.  But written, and timed, and she shuts down.

After that, Brian walked up to the middle school to meet Emma so he could carry her bag for her because her ribs hurt to carry it.  Then, we came home : ).

Not at all how I wanted today to go, but that's the reality of trying to train for anything with 3 kids.  They come first. Always.  Sometimes we runners can get super excited for a run, or a race, or the start of a new training cycle...and when it doesn't happen we mentally go to the dark side. The "it's the first day of training and I missed the very first run", "this whole weeks shot/screwed up now",  " I wont' hit my target time/miles/pace/elevation, etc. for the week now"...... we all go there from time to time.  But, in reality, my real life always comes first, it'll always trump my running life, and a big part of figuring out this whole training thing is finding that balance of real life and running.  Real life, family, my kids...they will always be my priority and will always win.

Tomorrow's another day. The new  "first day o training."

(That's a lot of words and no picture....sorry about that)