Coleman's big stage debut!

Coleman has been interested in movies for a long time.  He's like a walking calendar for movie premiere dates. A couple of months ago he began asking me how movies were made and what he needed to do to make his own movie. Sufficeth to say, I really had no idea what to tell him. I only got as far as telling him to write a screenplay. And he did write a couple "screenplays" and then when I told him that we could video he and his friends acting it out he asked, "Then they will play it at the movie theater?" Uh, not exactly, bub.  He's so not interested in making movies unless it's going to play at the local Cinemark. :)

So, in order for him to learn exactly how much work goes into a real production we signed him up for his first musical theater production.  We told him that he could learn things that will help him when he goes on to make movies- stuff about sets and stage direction, etc. He was all about it.

The local arts council does a couple of plays a year for 4-8 yr olds to star in.  This go round they were putting on 101 Dalmatians.  Coleman auditioned (every kid was awarded a role) and got the part of Chihuahua #4, perfect part for a first-timer! He continued to go to practice every Mon and Wed from 4-5pm for 7 weeks. He learned all the songs and dances and was ready for his debut performance last Thursday.  He was a little nervous the first night but it played to his advantage because it helped him to be more focused.  (Well, as focused as Coleman gets anyway.) Coleman did his very best that night and the two subsequent nights and we couldn't have been any more proud. Go Coleman! Our very own li'l actor.

Here's part of the song "Twilight Bark" where the Chihuahuas were center stage.  He may have been a bit off-beat but we think he stole the show! I say he just added his own flare to his character. :)

Here's Coleman posing by the truck on set.

Getting our photo-op with the star.

I also want to mention that Coleman had great support in the audience every night as well. June and the kids came on Thursday night. Jenn, Madi and Jackson came on Friday night and Jenny, La and Talon came to see him on Saturday night.  We love and appreciate all of our supportive friends and family. You guys are the best! Coleman is so lucky to have such wonderful people in his life.

Here's a bit of the final number.

By the way, Coleman says he never, ever wants to do another play. Too much practice, he says. Ha, ha! Next up for Coleman? He wants drawing and writing classes. That sounds about right.

Catch-up post!

Ok. Just taking a minute here (after midnight!) to catch-up a little on my blog. I've been posting about once a week on my other blog and I guess that's all I've really had in me to write lately.

First of all let's catch up a little on Coops. I just love this redhead so much. I just want to eat him up some days! He has been so affectionate lately always giving Mom and Dad lots of hugs and kisses and "I love you's." Will has really been appreciating this because Cooper has typically given Mom all the love and Dad all the kicks to the head. Oh, and he just finished up his very first season of soccer. The Purple People Eaters had a great fall season.  Cooper has gotten better each week and even scored a goal a couple of games back! Even so, I'm not entirely sure that soccer is his sport. While he enjoys playing, when they ask if anyone needs a break, he is always to first kid to volunteer. He really just likes sitting on Mom's lap, drinking some Gatorade and cheering for his team. We're thinking he may be more of a baseball guy, as he's been excited to watch games with Will and has begun asking lots of questions while he watches.  Since t-ball won't be until next summer, we've decided to sign Cooper up for some MMA (mixed martial arts) classes until then. Starting that in a couple weeks! He's a natural fighter so I'm sure he'll do really well.

Now Coleman. My sweet Coleman. He is such a great boy! He consistently does as he's told and always without complaining.  He loves to read and going to the library is the highlight of his week.  Lately, he's been obsessed with writing (and illustrating) chapter books of his own. He will work on them for hours at a time, breaking only to think about what his next book will be about. Sometimes, he'll go and pace around in the back yard "acting out" what he wrote. And yes, he does look a bit crazy walking around talking to himself but at least he's being creative, right?!  Coleman has also been enjoying a bit of fame this month from his appearance in the Friend.  It seems like everyone and their brother has seen it. Every day he comes home and says that someone else mentioned they saw him. I think he's really enjoying his 15 minutes of fame. He plans on extending his fame by appearing in the Lehi Arts Council's performance of the Kidz Musical 101 Dalmatians at the beginning of November.  Watch out because Chihuahua #4 just might steal the show! :)

As for Will, he's been busy working.  Being an asst. principal at a jr. high is no easy task!  He's so blessed to have a job that allows him so much time off, though. We really love having him home on the days that school is out.  Of course, work is not all he's been up to. He has been taking ukulele lessons for the past few weeks. Ukulele? Really?! Yes! He has always wanted to learn. He says he just loves how calming the music is.  He's determined to do some mean strumming at the beach next summer. I've been listening to him practice and he's getting quite good. He can now play the Happy Birthday song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Gotta' start somewhere!  Will is also training for the marathon along with me. He had a brief spell with a swollen ankle but all is well now and he's training at 100%. So proud of him!

As for me, it's same ol', same ol'.  I am keeping myself pretty busy lately shopping for the perfect new flooring for our downstairs. I've narrowed it down to either hardwood or laminate. Still trying to decide what will look best with our maple cabinets. I'm terrible at making these kinds of decisions. Too indecisive.  And absolutely no clue what looks good. I need some help! Other than the floors, I've been running (a lot!) and doing all the busy mommy stuff that I do everyday. Gotta love it!!

My Marathon Blog

www.aliciaruns.blogspot.com

I thought about calling it i-need-a-nap.blogspot.com or i-may-hurt-myself.blogspot.com but AliciaRuns seemed simple and to the point. Just training updates and random thoughts. I actually just really wanted to keep some kind of journal to remember it all but thought others might enjoy it, too. Or maybe not. But, either way, it's out there.

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time!  This past Saturday our elephant came in the form of a half-marathon that Will and I signed up for on a whim back in July. I hadn't really considered running that far before. In fact, I had only ever run 6 miles at one time but Will's sister, June, and her husband, Steve, convinced me that we could do it so I signed up for it quickly before I could change my mind. (It's funny how sometimes we don't believe in ourselves until someone else does.) Anyway, there was no backing out. We paid our money and had no choice but to go for it. As soon as we were home from vacation I found a training plan and we got started.

The training was challenging but never more than we could handle. We did all of our long runs on the Jordan River Trail which made those runs really pretty nice. It's so quiet out there and you can feel secluded but without being too far from civilization. I actually look forward to my long runs because of that trail. Even though I saw at least one snake cross my path every time I ran out there. Creepy but it usually put a little extra pep in my step!

The only snag in training came for me 3 weeks before the race when I wore some new shoes out for a 9 mile run. By the time I made it back, I had strained a ligament in my foot and was out of training for a little over a week. Not smart! Injuries are certainly a part of training, though. And I'm learning to work through them and  not get too down when it happens.  After all, it always gets better, right?!

Race Time: I was really anxious/excited the day before the race. I spent the whole day doing the two things I do when I'm nervous- cleaning and baking. I really get a lot done when I'm anxious about something.

That night I made pancakes for dinner (a little carbo-loading) but I really had to force myself to eat it. I just didn't feel like eating but knew I had to so that I would have fuel to burn on the run. So, I ate a pancake but wasn't able to eat anything else the rest of the night. Will's sister picked the boys up at about 8:00 pm and took them to her house to stay the night (yay for awesome sister-in-laws!) and Will and I got to bed early to get some much needed rest. Well, I should say we both got to bed early only I wasn't able to fall asleep until past 11:00. Pesky anxiety.


So, finally we made it to race day. The day that I would become a bonafide long-distance runner. I was so excited that I jumped right out of bed when my alarm went off at 5:00 am. I ran downstairs to eat half a waffle with peanut butter and 1/2 a banana. Again, I didn't want to eat but knew I had to.  Will and I were out the door by 5:45 and on our way to Spanish Fork.

It was dark and rainy when we arrived but once we got our race packets, put our race chips on our shoes and pinned our numbers on our shirts, the sun was starting to come out and the rain stopped. It looked as if it would be perfect weather for a run.  I made a pre-run trip to the loo and met a bunch of friendly ladies while waiting in line. People are super friendly at long-distance races. I even met and talked with a few people while running! It's like some kind of "we're all in this together" attitude and it's infectious. I love that.


Will and I made our way over to the starting line. We were both feeling confident and ready to go. The race started and we were on our way. Knowing we didn't want to go out too fast, we stuck to our race plan and ran at about a 9:25 min/mile pace for the first 6 miles. Our plan was to run a negative split (basically run the 2nd half faster if we felt like we had the juice to.) Around mile 6, we hit the big, mile-long hill.  No kidding, we ran uphill that entire mile! The Garmin beeped when we hit mile 7 and I realized that we had run our fastest mile yet! That's when I knew we could pick it up a little. Miles 7-13 we averaged a little under a 9:00 min/mile and finished the race in 2:00:45, a 9:13 min/mile average pace. Wahoo!! It's great when things work out the way you plan them to! Of course, I would have loved to have finished in under 2 hours but I was just happy to have finished. Under 2 hours can be my next goal. :)

As soon as we crossed the finish line, my legs locked up. I felt it right away. I had to run around for a couple minutes just to keep loose as I cooled down. Will seemed fine. He was just happy to be done I think. Let me take a minute here to talk about my husband. I basically forced him into running this with me and I think it was the best training decision I could have made. What a huge support he was for me. He was right by my side the whole time, giving me gels when it was time and gentle encouragement when my IT band was acting up. I loved sharing this with him. I just love him.

Anyway, we congratulated ourselves, had some water and fruit, and walked around until they handed out medals. We finished 108 and 109 out of about 270 runners. No awards for us although we were hoping maybe Will would finish in the top 3 of the Clydesdale division. That's for guys that are 200+.  But alas, he didn't. We sat through the billion different raffles hoping to win an iPod or a camera or even a chicken dinner but it wasn't in the cards for us. It's okay, though, because we had already gotten our award- the feeling of knowing that we had finished the race was enough for us. And finishing easily, without a single thought about stopping, was our reward for all the hard training.

All in all, a great experience and way easier than I expected. I'm feeling completely confidant about training for the full marathon. Training starts next week!