hellooooo.....

Sorry for the long absence, but I wanted my CF plea post to remain up for as long as possible (i.e., until my mother demanded an update! :-)

It's still a month away, so if you can, please donate to our team. I'll be doing the bike ride in September too, so if the time isn't right, I'll be sure to beg you in the Fall as well. :-)

Training has been going well. I fully admit that I was a complete, yet very happy, slug this winter. I was sick a LOT and when I wasn't sick I was cooking. While I did run, swim and do spin classes, it wasn't with any regularity and I was worried I'd really be suffering when these first few weeks of training kicked in. But I've been fine. And I am so shocked by how fine I am that I can only wonder if it's the iron.

Last year, if you recall, my friend Wendy encouraged me to have my ferritin levels tested. Being vegetarian, it was possible that low ferritin levels were contributing to my utter and complete exhaustion after a long workout. Sure enough, they were ridiculously low. I had one IV (very painful - don't plan to do that again) and began adding meat back into my diet. I laid off the meat in the winter, since I wasn't training, but re-introduced it in April. Now I bake a (Whole Foods! happy chicken!) fryer once a week and eat chicken with vegetables for lunch. I also make chicken soup from the carcass (Rosa showed me a delicious simple chicken soup recipe that I've been using) and enjoy that for snacks. Once a week I treat myself to a LarkBurger, which is Angus Beef and makes me both incredibly happy and incredibly guilty. I may bump the red meat to twice a week in June. I've had no problem completing workouts. I've not needed a 4+ hour nap after a long workout. I have enough energy to stay up til 10 or 11 at night (I was hitting the hay with the kids last year.) I am so happy!

I rejoined the TriBabes last week (to encourage myself to stay true to the schedule and not skip things.) So far, so good. I feel like my biking is a little weaker than last year, as I have more trouble on the hills, but that might be due to lack of spin classes (the spin classes at FAC are at 6am - maybe when we're in Boulder I can make them.) My swim is as it was and my running seems slower yet easier. Not sure what's up with that but I'm sure Andie's killer track workouts will help, anyway. My first 5K of the year was a dismal 32:50, which leaves plenty of room for improvement! (It was windy. And cold. And at night. And it was my first one of the year. Oh, who am I kidding - I need those track workouts!)

Here is the basic schedule:

Mon: recovery day
Tue: swim/track
Wed:bike
Thu: swim/run
Fri: off or bike/swim
Sat: long run
Sun: Brick

(Saturday and Sunday workouts may flip around. In June, Sylvie and I want to start riding with the group, but at this point don't feel quite up to it.)

We've made great strides ourselves, doing a lovely loop around my neck of the woods. I'm going to try Old Stage this Wednesday and see how that looks. We start swimming in the Rez after Memorial Day (brrr...) and I have to remember to sign up to volunteer at the Summer Open. Watching Wendy complete that last year is what motivated me to sign up. It will be fun to watch again this year and help out. (There is NO WAY I would race this early. Brr!!!)

In kid news, Ted's play is this Wednesday night and we are all very excited about it. He is very in to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series right now and I love-love-love that I have to yell at him nearly every single night to stop reading and go to bed! It's the best. :-)

Sam loves OT and wears his glasses like a champ, when he remembers them. Yesterday he had a little tummy bug but didn't tell us because he wanted to go to Sunday School. He loves Sunday School so much - it is so sweet. Heather was going to bring my kids home and ended up taking them with her, after picking up their bikes, and Sam and Eliot had a great time together, biking from Heather's to the ice cream store and then doing laps around the park. As babies, they spent nearly every day together, so it is very sweet to see them reconnect.

Speaking of bikes, Mae is ready for the next size up. She was whipping around the park yesterday on Sam's bike like a pro. She is also an amazing pumper and can go for a loooong time on the swing. I am very curious to see how it all plays out for her - whether she'll be the athlete or the scholar - the artist or the actor - etc. She is getting ready to give up her bedroom for our beloved babysitter/good friend Heather for May & June. She'll room with the boys - she is so excited about that! She's signed up for summer camp with her little friend Zoey at the YMCA in Boulder and I think they are starting preparations for Graduation at preschool. She is very excited and ready to be in Kindergarten. While it will be a rough transition for her, I think she'll love "being one of the big kids." As of now, I plan to keep her in half day as I've done with Sam. Sam loves school but also loves our one-on-one time together when I pick him up at 12:15. Mae already talks about her mommy day (no school on Fridays for K's) so I think I can handle one more year of half days. Everyone in one school - priceless!!!

All 3 kids are doing TKD and seemingly having lots of fun. I'll have to get a picture of them with their doboks on.

Well, that is our update. We are loving spring and hoping the house sells soon - showings continue so we are just cleaning and hoping - hoping and cleaning... :-)

CF Walk 2010

It's that time of the year again! Time for the Annual CF Great Strides Walk! For those of you who don't know the special friendship our family shares with the Stoutenbergs, let me share it with you.

When Ted was 6 weeks old, I went to a new moms group at the Boulder JCC. In walked Stacy with her 9 month old son, Jack. It all began with that first meeting. Ted and Jack swam together at Infant Aquatics, took soccer together, went to the JCC Preschool together for 3 years, and are now in 2nd grade Sunday school together at Har HaShem. They are going to Shwayder Camp together this summer, ensuring a lifetime of friendship! Sam and Jason, both 6, have followed their brothers’ example and are also great friends. What treasures my boys have found in Jack and Jason. I have no doubt that our families will remain friends throughout our lives.

Jack and Jason were diagnosed with CF (Cystic Fibrosis) as infants. CF is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000 worldwide). A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and obstructs the pancreas, causing lung infections and stopping natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food. In the 1950s, few children with cystic fibrosis lived to attend elementary school. Today, advances in research and medical treatments have further enhanced and extended life for children and adults with CF. Many people with the disease can now expect to live into their 30s, 40s and beyond. We want Jack and Jason to live long and happy lives!

I am going to walk in the annual CF Great Strides 5K in Denver on May 15, 2010. I have chosen $1000 as my personal fundraising goal. If you would like to sponsor me, I would be so grateful!

I have set up an online donation page at: http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/EllenMoeller. Your generous gift will be used efficiently and effectively, as nearly 90 cents of every dollar raised is available for investment in vital CF programs to support research, care and education.

Thank you in advance for any donation you can pledge- no amount is too small!! I’ll be sure to post pictures from the walk on my homepage. It is an annual family event and will be thoroughly documented! More info about the walk can be found at: http://www.cff.org/

We've been doing the CF Walk since Ted and Jack were quite little and I can't imagine Springtime without it. Of course, some day, we all hope we won't need to walk or raise money because a cure will be found. But until then, we walk! Thanks for reading and hug your children close today!

it's time!

Well, I wondered when this would happen. Ted's been asking some "birds and bees" questions lately. Let me first say that we are a v-e-r-y open family and he knows all there is to know about women's reproductive systems! But the boy part of the equation hasn't been addressed yet and he's asking. My good friend Lisa recommended this book, It's So Amazing!, and I picked it up today. Ted spent some time looking through it but he's very into The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series right now and didn't bring it with him to his room. I'll just leave it out and wait for the discussions to start. Wowza!

Passover & Rosa!

It's been a busy few days! Between Easter rehearsals for my church gig, Rosa visiting (remember, we were sick all of March so finally able to move again!) and hosting a seder, it's been lively around here. Rehearsals have been long and slow (those tenors are l-a-m-e!) but the payoff will be good (extra rehearsals mean extra money!). Rosa's visit was great - lots of catching up, some hikes, brunches, lots of coffee and even a massage and pedicure! I can't wait to see her in June when we are in Chicago. We hosted a seder this year and Rosa helped prepare all the food with me - thank goodness! Ted's teacher and her family joined us this year. It was one of my favorites for sure because Ted (and Aria, Julie's daughter) took part and read a lot. I have one copy of A Children's Haggadah and we've xeroxed it and used it each year. This year I made a few more copies and highlighted "parts" for everyone to read. The kids were so proud to be part of it. Besides the reading, my favorite part was watching the boys act out the plagues. Too funny.

Today was a big day in Ted's classroom - the wrapping up of their Egypt studies. Called "a living museum," we were invited to tour the classroom and view all the things the kids had learned about and created (including the chicken they mummified, the 1/100 scale pyramid they constructed and the model of the Sphinx they created out of clay.) Very cool. Tomorrow Ted will give a presentation about the different types of pyramids that were built. This will be videotaped and put into his file for school. He is very nervous - which I think is cute. They are also at work on their play - Ted's play is The Epic of Gilgamesh and he is Humbaba- the monster. My mom, who taught this for years, likens Humbaba to the Black Smoke of Lost lore. The costume aspect of his role frightens me a tad. *gulp*

Rosa flew Southwest this time and informed me of the truly amazing low fares they offer. I checked it out and they are nuts! $69 one way! I am definitely going to fly home from our summer vacation this year! So, if you want to fly somewhere, forget Travelocity and those places and just check Southwest! It's free to check bags too (up to 2 I believe.) Hooray!