Picture 174 - Stripping and painting

My dear friend Elaine and her husband have recently purchased a house in need of a makeover. To that end, we spent today stripping the old varnish off, sanding everything down, and painting them white. I love home improvement projects and I enjoy being able to help people. Put the two together and I'm loving life this summer.

Picture 173 - Beach Day!

It's the Beach (Lake Michigan style)!! 'Nuff said.

Picture 172 - Sisters

I am fully aware that outside of myself, my family and a few others are the only people that read this journal. That's okay with me because I didn't start this to have followers, I started it to keep a record of my life for a year. With the knowledge that my sisters will read this, I am hesitant to get overly sentimental and mushy. But, suffice it to say, I am so very happy to be able to be in their company and honestly don't think that anybody out there has any better sisters than I do. I love you guys and am so proud to be your sister.

Picture 171 - Tennis Tuesday

In an attempt to not lose any skill I might have gained in the last few months of practice, Elaine and I have decided that 9 am on Tuesdays will be a perfect time to play tennis. Of course, more catching up happens than points scored, but it's an enjoyable time none the less.

Picture 170 - Goals

I hate running. No, no, make that I abhor running, or at least what running represents to me. All through elementary school I dreaded that time every spring when we all had to go out and run a mile. I was not an athletic child by any stretch and I remember wondering what I could do to get out of the run. But, no matter what I thought of, nothing was plausible and I would be forced to run, always being the last to finish while all my classmates sat and waited for me. As I have grown out of my childhood insecurities, I've found that I do enjoy sports and physical activity.... except running. I will do aerobics for two hours gladly before I would run a mile. But now that I'm home and my parents have a treadmill, I am going to attempt to conquer the stigma that running has for me.

It's kinda like some of my students that come to me and believe that they are bad readers. In fact, I had a student say to me, "I suck at reading". Because he believed this of himself, he then didn't put in effort to improve because he felt he couldn't. Drawing the obvious parallel to running, I have long believed myself to "suck at running" and so have never really pushed myself to try. This summer I am setting the goal that I would attempt to run 5 out of 7 days. I am home for 5 weeks, so that should be a total of 65 miles by the end of the month. I may never be someone who loves to run, but there's no reason why I should fear it.

Picture 169 - Fraidy Cat

At my apartment Linus is the alpha cat. He really does have the run of the place. Now that I'm home and Tree is around, he just doesn't know quite what to do. He spends most of his time hiding on my shoulder or up on chairs (he tried getting up on the table, but after a few days of getting squirted with a water bottle, he got the idea).

Picture 168 - Home, Sweet, Home

The goal was to be on the road (as in driving, not packing, not still getting organized, not just getting out of bed, but driving) by 4 am Sat. morning. Turns out I didn't quite make it, but by 4:03 I had pulled out of the driveway with two cats and a month's worth of luggage. By 5:45 I was looking at a gorgeous sky above my hometown. The drive was smooth and the car had no troubles. Now for five weeks of relaxation.