Nos. 78 - 84

I rounded out the year with a massive number of books (for me). The past several years have ended with about 55 books. A few things made the difference this year: audio books and listening while doing family chores. I spent many, many, many hours doing solo projects to prep for Mom's house sale and such, and listening to books helped pass the time. I love learning and doing at the same time :)

No. 78 - Blended by Sharon M. Draper:

No. 79 - Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli:

No. 80 - Eleventh Hour by Catherine Coulter:

I had a vague feeling that I had read this before. But I couldn't remember any details, so I read it anyway :)

No. 81 - Catherine Coulter's Double Take:

No. 82 - Brittney Cooper's Eloquent Rage:

Cooper's book, read by the author herself, had so many good nuggets! It's times like these when I wish for a paper copy so I can write down the great quotes. You should read this one!

No. 83 - Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson:

I listened while doing chores and putting away Christmas decorations. I didn't realize it's a series, so the "ending" was disappointing. Fortunately, the second book was available, so I checked it out and immediately started listening :) 

No. 84 - Christmas Sweets by Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine, and Leslie Meier:

This is actually a compilation of three short stories, so I debated whether it's one book or three books. I decided to lump them together for No. 84 for 2019. Finishing this book was my only real goal for the today. Mission: Accomplished!

How many will 2020 bring? 📖😁

Happy December!

:)

Nos. 69 - 77

Another busy month! I've never read more books in one year in my life! And I love it :)

Discovering audio books (free from the public library!!) has been a game changer. But I also love sitting and holding a paper book.

No. 69 - Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds. I've added a lot of POC and LGBTQ+ books to my library wish list. Representation is very important! This one is a teen drama - but think "Groundhog Day":

No. 70 - Deadly Secrets by Robert Bryndza: 

No. 71 - The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline:

No. 72 - Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga:

No. 73 - All Hallows' Evil by Valerie Wolzien:

I realized about halfway through that I read this years ago. But I didn't remember any of it, so I kept going. I laughed when they started talking about running:

"I'm thinking of signing up for the Franklin marathon next week... It's a ten K." Hmm.... So many things wrong.

No. 74 - Joanne Fluke's Christmas Caramel Murder:

No. 75 - Joanne Fluke's Christmas Cake Murder:

No. 76 - Michelle Obama's Becoming:

Michelle reads the book herself - all 19.5 hours! This amazing woman kept me company on a 20-mile run. A perfect distraction :)

No. 77 - A Cup of Holiday Fear by Ellie Alexander:

Finished with a cat on my lap, hot chocolate in a mug, and a fire in the fireplace :)

:)

Ladies' beach weekend

Last month, some friends joined me for a ladies' weekend at the coast. Debbie and I started the weekend with a trail run in the Coast Range:

Luann and Lindsey joined us at my grandparents' house in Oceanside. We did a ton of relaxing, eating, chatting, and some sweating. We took a trip up Maxwell Mountain to take in the view:

The runners in the group then ran to sea level:

We celebrated with a traditional cheese buffet. YUMMO!

The weekend flew by, and soon it was time to head home. Lindsey had to get to work, but three of us made a stop for ice cream. 

Such a great weekend with great friends 💓

Tucson Marathon, here I come

After my successful September half marathon, my mind started wondering what would happen if I upped my mileage toward a full.

I didn't want to commit, and I only told a few uber-supportive running buddies that I was even considering it. But I plotted out a training schedule and kept building my mileage.

I scoured the Internet and found a West Coast race within the right time frame: The Tucson Marathon on Dec. 7.

We booked a discounted room in the host hotel a week or so ago, and we finally today pulled the trigger on plane tickets, rental car... and race registration!

Brad's been upping his mileage, too, with no real goal in mind. He easily ran 15 trail miles yesterday, and when he saw that the full was only $10 more than the half, he decided to run the full, too.

The race is predominantly downhill, so my peak 20 miler next weekend will be on a down-hill route. Then my plan is to have fun, enjoy the experience, and do the best I can with where I am right now. Would I love a PR? Of course! But that's not my goal. My goal is to hold it loosely and finish marathon #6 upright - hopefully strong and with a respectable time.

YAY for doing hard things and putting myself out there :)

BALG + Silver Falls

I'm a proud member of the Badass Lady Gang community. The running/female empowerment movement was started by Kelly Roberts in NYC and has "chapters" all over the world - including here in Portland.

We have online chat groups (the big group and the local group) and several pop-up runs around town. But our main meetup is the first Sunday of the month in downtown Portland.

Friends Debbie and Connie joined me for the October run. Before:

 

During:

After:

It was a beautiful morning to run along the river!

Then it was time to trade Connie for Tina and Brad and drive south to Silver Falls State Park for some trail running.

Tina and Debbie wanted to test drive the course for their upcoming trail race, and I was happy to join the fun. The canyon was magnificent!

We're all kick-boxing buddies, so we stopped part way to show off our sidekicks :) That's very hard to do on tired legs!

Brad did a little different route and was on his own for this run.

It was a challenging day with lots of tough miles - 16 in total for me. But the perfect weather and the company of great friends made it a wonderful day!

The whole crew :)

The Silver Falls race was this weekend, and Debbie and Tina killed it! Congrats, ladies! I'm so glad you let me be part of your training :)

Endangered

Nos. 62 - 68

No. 62 - Live and Let Pie by Ellie Alexander:

 No. 63 - On the Come Up by Angie Thomas:

This was a wonderful book. Read it!


No. 64 - Internment by Samira Ahmed:

No. 65 - Dark Water by Robert Bryndza:

No. 66 - Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth:

I almost didn't read this because I saw the movie. But this is much different from the film - and I highly recommend!

No. 67 - Last Breath by Robert Bryndza: 

No. 68 - Cold Blood by Robert Bryndza:

I'm a reading machine! :)

Annual CE2 pumpkin carving

A handful of my students humored me again this year by carving pumpkins in CE2!

(They didn't want to smile for the camera, but they had fun - I promise :) )

Leticia:

 Jen:

 Meli:

 

 Lilly:

 Shel's cat butt:

 

 Haley:

(With all our new CE2 WINDOWS, we have to go in the bathroom for darkness!!!!!)

Plus Ed-Anna and Daniela, not pictured :)