On Broken Bones...

So, Saturday, we ran a 5K, if you guys didn't guess from my excited postings earlier. It was a blast, and I definitely think we should do more of them in the future. Unfortunately, Saturday afternoon, Matt and I were walking to the car to go grocery shopping. Matt said, "Ow!" I didn't see what he did, and he says that he was just walking and he got a sharp pain in his foot. That's no good. Well, it was ok, it hurt, but he was able to hobble around while we shopped, and I made him stay off it on Saturday evening. Sunday rolled around, and his foot was feeling pretty good. But then came his attempt to fix the brakes on the car.....Well, first he got the tire on the front passenger side off-no problem. Except one of the wheel bolts stripped out and is no good. Yikes! Then came the front driver side wheel. Boy did he have some problems with that one! Needless to say, he was barely able to manage to put it back together into driveable condition. We still have to take it to the mechanic who has some better tools to fix it completely (that will happen on Wednesday). What does all that have to do with his foot? Well, the whole project involved a lot more walking than he anticipated, and his foot was hurting pretty badly by Sunday night. Then, this morning when he woke up and put his foot on the ground to get up, he screamed like a girl. Ok, not really. But his foot hurt really bad. Any pressure at all sent sharp pains shooting up his leg. What to do? Hobble to the ship, wait around for medical call? Or go to the emergency room? Well, I decided for him. We headed to Portsmouth Naval Hospital emergency room. I knew that we weren't going to get fast care, since it wasn't an actual emergency. But we were eventually seen, and x-rays were taken. The doc says that even though no fracture showed up on the x-ray, it is not uncommon for fractures to not show up so soon after an injury. He recommended that we get another x-ray taken on Friday, about a week after the injury. If there is a fracture, it will show up by then. In the meantime, Matt needs to use crutches and stay off his foot! Well, they don't quite know what to do with him on the ship, since he got 7 days of LLD (Light Limited Duty), so he basically has to call in every day and muster until Monday. I know that it is going to kill him to be home and not be able to work on a whole lot while he is here. And it kills him that I have to do so much for him. But I don't mind taking care of him. And, Bonus!, I get to spend extra time with him this week! I am always happy for that!

Ok, well, I just got done working out, and I need to shower and go to bed. I have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow, including a dentist appointment, plus homework, and I have to go to the elementary school and get some more hours in.

Talk to you guys later,
Pam

PS. I am only 2 days away from completing my first round of P90X. Looks like I'll be starting Round 2 on Thursday! Yeah! Go me! :0)

The results are in

If you want to see the results list, here it is. But here's how Matt, Kate and I did:

Matt finished 57th out of 99 in his age group (180 out of ~700 overall) with a time of 27:25.
Pam finished 55th out of 78 in her age group (411 overall) with a time of 38:11.
Kate finished 60th out of 78 in her age group (431 overall) with a time of 40:23.

Woohoo! I think we did great.

Good job, guys. I proud of us all.

~Pam

Kate Tagged Me

So, after running the 5K today, I decided that I would respond to the tag that Kate tagged me with yesterday. Here are the rules:

1. Go to your pictures on your computer
2. Go to your 6th folder
3. Go to your 6th picture
4. Post it
5. Blog about it




My picture isn't nearly as cool as Kate's or Beth's pictures. But this is one of the sidewalks that I used to ride my bicycle down on my way to school at Old Dominion last summer. It was a beautiful day, and I decided I wanted to take a picture of the flowers on the trees. Yes, I know, I'm turning slowly into my mother (she has more pictures of flowers on her computer than anyone I know). :) But, there it is.

Anyways, more about the 5K, as I'm sure you guys want to know all about it. Kate, Matt, and I started out together, then Kate dropped back, Matt stayed with me for a while. Then I finally had to walk for a little bit, and I told Matt to go ahead. He ended up finishing at 27 minutes. I walked/jogged the rest of the way, and my goal was to finish before 45 minutes (that would mean 15 minutes per mile). When I saw the time board, I was surprised to see 36 minutes, so I pushed it out and finished around 37 minutes! I'm so proud of myself. I knew Kate wasn't too far behind, and she ended up finishing just 3 minutes after me. I'm so glad we decided to do it. Not only did it support a good cause, the Wounded Warriors, but it was challenging and rewarding. We had great weather, and a great time.

Ok, now I need to shower so we can get some lunch and go grocery shopping. I'll talk to you guys later!

Pam

Weight Loss

OK, so I had a little bit extra time today before class, and I was curious. What exactly has my weight loss looked like the past 90 days? Well, starting with January 1st, 2009, here is what my weight loss has looked like.



As you can see, it hasn't always been weight lost. And I didn't include the week that I spent in London. But the gradual, steady, decrease in weight has made me terribly excited, if no one could tell yet. I'm ready to start ROUND 2 of P90X. Bring it on!!!

Pam

134

Ok, for those of you who came over here from Peggy's site and want to see more about our trip to London, just scroll down :)

So, today I climbed on the scale. I never thought I would say this, but I weigh less than 135 pounds. I can't believe it, I'm in total shock. My clothes are huge on me. My pants keep falling off. This isn't a huge deal for my jeans, since I can just put on a belt. But with my work/school clothes, there are no belt loops. I'm considering taking them to Ann's (the local tailor shop) and having her take in the seams. I don't want all these clothes to go to waste, but I can't keep pulling up my pants all day every day either. It gets old after a while.

The other exciting thing is my shirts have started to fit me right once again. I went through a phase where I would wear a sweater or a jacket to hide the fact that my shirts were too small. But now, I can pretty much wear any shirt in my closet. It has been a long time since that happened. I'm excited for summer to come, when shorts get shorter and trips to the beach (hopefully almost every day) will become more frequent. I'm excited, maybe for the first time in my life, to put on a bathing suit.

So, Matt and I are on our last week of Round 1 of P90X. We are already preparing for Round 2. I'm excited to see how much further I can take this. I mean, how much better shape can I get into than I am right now? Oh, and btw, I'm running a 5K this weekend. That's right! I don't know how well I'll do, but lets just say I'm excited to test my actual fitness level. I haven't run in a long time, but being 10-15 pounds lighter might make a huge difference, don't you think? I haven't ridden my bicycle in a while, but Matt and I are determined to stay on the same schedule, even between rounds of P90x, so on our down week, we're going to try to ride bikes in the morning. We'll see how that goes. I think it has been too long since I've really ridden, and I'm excited to get "back in the saddle."

Anyways, just a rambling update to let everyone know what's going on. I'm muddling through school. I taught my first 2 lessons to the fifth graders. I taught them Math about percentages and turning percents into decimals and fractions, and then trying to find the discount for a sale. Fun stuff. Then I did a guided reading lesson with two groups of students. I've never done that before, so that was a little different. But I liked it. The students were so insightful.

Well, I'm going to relax for the next hour and enjoy my little mini-break before it is off to class once again. I'll talk to you more later,


Pam

Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Ok, so here's the next installment of my London Saga. Thursday dawned bright. Actually, no, it was cold and rainy, but that's ok. Peggy and I decided to go to St. Paul's cathedral. That place was way cool. Unfortunately, before we could go up into the upper domes, the place shut down! We were able to talk them into giving us a pass for the next day so we could check out what I think turned out to be the best part. But we still enjoyed ourselves. We left St. Paul's in search of food. We found this charming restaurant called Centre Page, where we had a dish called the Tower of London. I wish we would have taken a picture of that! Anyways, we walked across the Millenium Bridge,here's Peggy in front of it-

We checked out the outside of the new Globe Theatre, and peeked inside the Tate Modern (which turned out to be not quite as bad as we imagined. We saw a bunch of Picasso's and some paintings that Peggy recognized, so not a total waste). We walked over to the tube station (turned out to be a bit of a walk) and saw this cover-


Then we headed back toward Mom's for a tour of the Victoria and Albert museum. Holy cow! That museum is crazy! Way too much to see. Kind of like the Smithsonian. No way anyone could possibly see everything in one day, or one week, or even one month. We picked a few things, and learned about them in depth.
Here's the front of the V&A-

Me, trying on a hoop skirt. It is heavier than it looks!

Me, with a corset.

Sherlock Holmes, I presume?


We waited on dinner for Mom, and ended up going to a restaurant down at Piccadilly Square. Very cool. Peggy popped into a souvenir shop and got a bunch of things for her family. Then we headed home and finished up the night watching Singles Ward II on my laptop in Mom's living room.
Friday, Peggy and I decided to finish up at St. Paul's and boy did we have fun walking up the 300-odd steps to as high as they let us (the upper gallery was closed for cleaning).



We enjoyed the view, and also the Whispering Gallery (which was my favorite part. We could whisper secrets to each other-I sang Mary Had a Little Lamb..). Then we went to the V&A for lunch, which was quite good, and we tried clotted cream for the first time. We met Mom, took a bus to watch a movie, had dinner in the "mall" at a place called Nando's, then rode the tube for the rest of the evening. We ended up at Paddington, so Peggy could get a Paddington Bear book. Then we went to King's Cross, where we went to Platform 9 3/4. Finally, after a full day, we headed back home.
Saturday morning was sunny but cool. Peggy and I amused ourselves at Harrod's, then we headed over to Mom's work.
Here's part of the view from Mom's window at work. This is what is called the "Mews". This row of houses used to be where the stables were and all the horses for the horse drawn carriages were kept. Now they are highly sought after housing. Pretty cute, I think!


Sister Taylor told Mom to head to the Airport, so the three of us rushed back to the flat, got Peggy's suitcases, and headed to the tube to the Airport. There was a bit of an accident on the tube; someone had thrown up in the car that we tried to ride in. Eventually, all the people on the train transferred to another one so they could get the mess cleaned up. We got Peggy checked in, then ate lunch at a bagel shop at the airport. We said our goodbyes, and Mom and I headed to Hyde Park for a walk around. We ate a scone with clotted cream and drank hot chocolate, then headed to the church. We decided we wanted to watch one last movie, so we went through the dinosaur exhibit (which was awesome!) at the Natural History museum. We made it early to the show, of course, and relaxed in the lounge area. After the movie, we went to a little Mexicali restaurant we spotted on the way, and headed back to the flat to finish packing. Whew! It was an exhausting day. I fell right asleep, woke up at about 4 am, and the cab was there before 5am. I got to the airport with plenty of time, and had a great plane ride back. I even got bumped up to Economy Plus with 5 extra inches of leg room, b/c my seat cushion kept sliding off my seat...

Anyways, that's about our London journey in a nutshell. If anyone wants to know any more details, let me know. I had a great time, and I think Mom enjoyed having two of her daughters to show off. :)

Tube signs

Peggy took a bunch of pictures of all the tube stops we saw. Here are a few...



As in Paddington Bear :)

Where we went to a couple movies, or cinema, as they say in England.

St. Paul's is the tube stop for St. Paul's Cathedral. I'll talk more about that later.



South Kensington was Mom's stop. The tube station was only about a block and a half from her flat.



Oh, and King's Cross? Well, if any of you are Harry Potter fans, you might remember King's Cross train station. That's where they go to platform 9 3/4 to catch the Hogwarts train. Speaking of...



Pretty cool, huh?

Signs

There are many strange signs in England. Here are just a few that we saw.

Wednesday

Wednesday was our busiest day, or at least the day we traveled the furthest. It was the first day Mom had to go back to work, and boy did we miss her! But we decided to pack in a bunch of stuff. We took the tube to Westminster, looked around the Abbey, but didn't go in b/c it was pretty expensive. We looked into going to see a session of Parlaiment, but evidently the PM (Prime Minister) was set to speak and there was a long line and no tickets. So we walked over to the London Eye, where there was no line, and saw an awesome view. The Eye is technically not a Ferris Wheel, it is an "Observation Wheel." Whatever! Anyways, that was way cooler than the last time I went, b/c it was sunny and we could see a long ways. We were hungry, so Peggy and I went to a "sushi go round" called Yo!Sushi. That was a fun experience! Next, we took the train to Greenwich (as in Greenwich Mean Time) and walked through the Maritime Museum, then up the hill to the Royal Observatory where they keep GMT time. It was a cool place, and we learned all about the clocks they built to solve the problem of Longitude. Ask Peggy to elaborate, b/c she knows the whole cool story. Anyways, we headed back towards Mom's work, and had dinner at an Indian restaurant, then met up with Mom. She was done earlier than we expected, and was hungry, so we went to the Creperie (where they make Crepes) and she had dinner while we had dessert. I could only eat half my crepe, and took the rest home. I wanted to work out, so I did while Peggy and Mom went to see Big Ben and the Eye at night, and then stopped in at Leicester Square for some souvenir shopping.

In front of Westminster Abbey, where the kings and queens have been crowned for a long, long, time.

Parliament (Big Ben) with the London Eye in the background.

Parlaiment and Westminster Abbey from the top of the Eye




Here's the sushi-go-round. Cool, huh?


Then it was on to Greenwich.
This is the Maritime Museum to the right, with a covered walkway leading to the Princess House (or something like that. It might be the Queens House. I can't remember)

The hill up to the Royal Observatory.

This is the view from the top of the hill. The city in the background is London.

Me, straddling the Prime Meridian. Pretty cool, huh?


It was a great day. We had tons of fun and saw so much. :)

Monday and Tuesday

So, Monday and Tuesday. Let's see, what did we do? Well, we started out taking a "Top of the Bus" Tour. That was a lot of fun. We ended up at the Tower of London, and had a really fun tour, then took a boat ride back up the Thames to Westminster, finished up on the Top of the Bus at Marble Arch, and took some regular busses back to Mom's flat. Or that's how I remember it. I think we might have stopped in for some dinner at one of Mom's favorite restaurants. We were the only people in there. Here's some pics from the day...
Me and Mom on the top of the bus

Can you see us in the reflection? Cool pic, huh?

Trafalgar square during the day.

Tower Bridge, from London Bridge.

Me and Mom, in the Tower of London, with Tower Bridge in the background.


Mom an Peggy with the Eye behind


The Eye and Big Ben, at night.


Tuesday-Leicester Square, Covent Garden (a big Market), British Museum, and the Lion King!!!!
How fun is that? Here are a few pics...
Mom and me in front of Charley Chaplin's statue


Covent Garden, where the first Punch and Judy puppet shows took place.

Me, Mom, and Peggy at the British Museum

Me and Mom, before Lion King.


Ok, I really have to go to school now, so I'll continue this later.

:)

Pam

England was Brilliant!

Ok, so that's how they say it over there. I think "brilliant" is their favorite adjective. One thing that I'm not going to miss is the keyboards; when we used the computers at Mom's work, some of the keys are all mixed up. Ask Peggy. It was crazy.

Anyways, I guess I want to give just a little synopsis of our trip.
Saturday: Arrival-me at 6 am, Peggy around 10am. Both Peggy and I entered the country without Mom's phone number or address. I guess we were both lucky that she came to get us, huh? Well, after we got Peggy, and rode the train back to Mom's, we dropped our suitcases off and headed out for lunch. We got lunch at a Pret A Manger, which is a great "take away" place. We got sandwiches and ate them on a bench outside the Victoria and Albert Museum. Then we went quickly to Mom's work, checked in with home on email, and headed out for a walk. We walked down the block, got on the bus at Hyde Park, and rode to Notting Hill Gate, where we walked down to Portobello Road. You might remember this from Mary Poppins (if you don't, don't feel bad. I didn't remember the song either, but Peggy did!)
Here's us on Portobello Road- where you can get whatever you want!

We also saw this cute shop, and Mom and I HAD to get our picture taken by it:

Get it? Mimi and Fifi! (Although, Mom prefers 'Fe' and not Fifi, but hey, it was close!)
So, anyways, after we walked down Portobello Road, we took the bus back and walked a little bit through Hyde Park, past Kensington Palace-where Lady Diana lived after the divorce.

And then past the Prince Albert Memorial.

It was a nice walk, but we were all glad to get back to where we could eat some food..we were hungry!
Let's see...That was just Saturday.
Sunday, we went to church, checked email, and went back to the flat (apartment) for lunch/dinner. We wanted to go to St. Paul's for evensong, but it was storming, with lightning and everything, so we decided to hold off on that. We waited around, and then when the sun came back out-as it inevitably does-we headed out for a walk. This time, we walked past Harrod's and Harvey Nichol's, then down the road toward the Wellington Memorial and Buckingham Palace. We ended up walking all the way down to Big Ben, then around to Trafalgar Square, and then took the tube back. Here are some of our pics from that walk...
Mom and Peggy at one of the memorials at Wellington's Monument (there were lots of monuments to Wellington...)

Mom, walking up to take pictures of flowers in St. James' Park.

Me, in a London phone booth. :)

And Peggy!

And Mom!

Big Ben!

Mom and Peggy, standing at the geographic center of London, from which all distances are measured. This is right by Trafalgar Square.

Ok, then we took the tube (subway) back to South Kensington Station and to Mom's Flat. We had a small dinner of egg salmon sandwiches, which was delicious after all that walking, and headed to bed. It was a great day. Oh, I think we might have played a little round of Boggle. Of course, I let Peggy beat me (actually she kicked my butt. She had one ridiculously great round and I never could catch up!)

All in all, the first two days were outstanding. But that's all there's room for in this post, I'll write more later.

Love,
Pam