Aching Muscles, Report Cards, the Death of a Toyota, and a Brief Thaw

It's been a rough week. I had a bit of a head cold to start off and I've had a hard time getting enough rest. In addition to my normal routine, I've added in extra double-under (jump-rope) work, and drills to help me improve my handstand, so I can eventually walk on my hands - which is a skill that may come up if we get a team to the CrossFit Regional Games this year. I struggled through the workout this morning at the gym and my shoulders, back and legs are aching - especially my shoulders. Jeremy (my coach at CFUV) has been having me do various lifts in low-rep sets at 80-95% of my max as wel as a battery of short metabolic conditioning workouts. For those of you whose eyes glazed over at the word "lifts" that just translates into some crazy hard effort! It is just four weeks until the CrossFit Games begin. I've been training for the Games since July. I can't believe it's almost here.

But enough of the gym. Caleb and Isaac brought home their report cards this week. I am so proud of Caleb. (I am also proud of Isaac, just for the record) He hit a slump at the beginning of this year and his teachers and I met to discuss ways to help him improve his scores in writing and reading. His last scores were drastically improved, so much so that he is not only scoring at normal levels, but is even above grade-level in some categories. I got all teary-eyed when I finally deciphered all the numbers (btw, what is up with report cards these days? No more A, B, C...) Caleb, sitting next to me at the kitchen table, got a little worried and had to ask me if he did badly. I told him he did awesome. It is so stressful as a mother to have a child struggle with school... or with anything for that matter. And it is so satisfying to see them do well.

All the snow we've been having has been exciting and a little stressful. I spent most of the day last Friday hacking away at all the ice that had built up on our walks. Today so much of it is melting. The weight of the snow shifting makes our roof groan. It is sunny, and the air is clear after weeks of nasty inversion. It is a relief not to worry that every breath I take is burning my lungs bit by bit.

The engine in our car recently failed. And as these things usually are, it was totally unexpected and unbelievably inconvenient on so many levels (most of which involve our bank account). After much wailing and gnashing of teeth we decided to go ahead and replace the engine. Our (not so) trusty Toyota Matrix should be returned to us by the middle of next week, with a brand new and hopefully MUCH longer lasting engine.

The Professor reminded me last night that I have been neglecting my blog. I do more with Facebook lately, but that can hardly be a replacement for actually writing a complete sentence or two here. If I say that I will try to write more frequently, I probably will not. So I will leave it unsaid. But I do hope to hear from you if you are still kind enough and patient enough to be reading.

Much Love,
The Professor's Wife