Walking Half -Marathon

Hey, can you believe that I made a little more than a half-marathon of walking within one week with my pedometer? It is a really huge leap for me from walking one and a half mile within two days to 15 miles within one week !

Frankly, I had two valid reasons for keeping my motivation up. One is that wearing a pedometer which it really helps me a lot. This is a continuous reminder for me. Second, I have a mind set up by slathering the cafeteria workers! In case you didn't know, we are having a competition between the teachers and the cafeteria workers!

I am pretty sure many of you assume that the cafeteria workers tend to stay in the cafeteria all day with a little movement. I thought the same about taking advantages against them. Well, I just found it out that one of the cafeteria workers walks to work and home two miles each way daily! That's NOT FAIR ! You bet I wish I can walk ALL the WAY to work and back to home, especially with two young boys!

That wouldn't work because it would make us one total walking marathon in both ways. Otherwise, I would have whining kids daily, or having their teachers giving me a bad report about me as a parent for giving them a severe punishment.

Since I was out of luck beating one of the cafeteria workers, this does not stop me. Even better, it does increase my motivation for keeping my legs going. For example, I made slight excuses by taking my two sons out to Target to buy small Valentine gifts for their teachers! I already made two goals: to increase more steps and to drink more water. Oh yeah, you may be wonder how did I survive without drinking water??!! Actually, I do drink water, but not enough to waste all of my toxic body!

Once I increase my walking half-marathon, I will strive for a marathon within a week in a couple of weeks from now, and continue through out even after the contest ends. I will buy myself a pedometer and a walking diary.

This sign displays that I made my mind up for not wanting to cheat my "walking" goals.

Wish me Luck!

More Photos of Dylan!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy 7th Birthday, Dylan!

Where did the time go? The moment you were born, you had given us so much joys.

We hope you have a wonderful 7th birthday.
We love you very much.

I CAN READ!

This is an exciting moment to share with you all that my younger son Ryan, who is in Kindergarten, can read at between first and second grade level. Actually, I already started noticing he can read at a kindergarten book, "Five Little Monkeys Jumping off the Bed."

Last week, I noticed he might be reading at a higher level because he read some of the passages from Dylan's all time favorite series, " The Magic Tree House." That even included the word, "whisper!"

So, I asked his special education teacher what was his reading level. To make a double check that we both are on the same page, she had another evaluator assessing him because I wanted to buy him appropriate reading level for him. As a result, the evaluator was pleased to see that he does have excellent intonation and fluency when he read difficult text. He could recognize the words beyond second grade, but he is weak on reading comprehension.

Both his teachers: special and general education teachers and I agreed that he would be better to start off from the book, "I CAN READ"at a first grade level, and ask him comprehension questions. That would build his comprehension skills.

While he was reading his new book, I thought you might like to hear hear what he was saying. (Note: Ryan was feeling antsy while reading a book because he just got a haircut. At the end, he realized I was filming him. He actually loathes having a picture taken or being filmed.)

Walkaholics

Hey, come to think of this new definition for me !

Believe it or not, I have done all kinds of excerises for years until I had Ryan. The physical fitnesses I have done were: running, swimming, cycling and karating except for walking.

1. Believe it or not, I used to run daily with my barefooted dad on the weekends and even joined 3K for the fund raising. I had to pretend that I didn't see my dad for not wearing his running shoes when the strangers were starting at us.

2. Swimming was my all-time favorite sports. I used to swim over 200 laps per day, 4 hours daily. That means I even had to wake up at dawn and be at the high school pool at 5:15 A.M. The best part of being in swimming was swimming against the Variety Breaststrokes with the high school boys in Finals. My mom was there shouting from the bench, "Go, Go, Laura!" Then she realized I couldn't hear her shouting, but her presence meant a lot to me.

3. Riding on my cycling was another thing I have done without having a driving license. It was a good thing I didn't get my license until I was 18! My best average of riding a bike was 36 miles per day for Mc Donald's fund raising. Not only doing the fund raising, I remember running a bike at Big Bear Lake on Alpine Magic Mountain, the top of the mountain, down to the bottom of the hill without realizing the brakes weren't working properly. Good thing, I didn't crash to other cyclists or cracked my head. (The helmet didn't invent at that time.)

4. Last, I earned a brown belt. It meant I was only two belts away from getting a black belt. Too bad, I was not able to compete with Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris. However, I did flip one of the students over at a recess because he didn't believe I could do karate. From then on, he never bothered me again. So watch out because I still have the left-over karate skill. It would be wise to be nice to me.

5. Walking??? Believe it or not, it is a new definition for me. I have joined the walking club at my work site. I wear Pedometer daily. With 15 of us walked more than 31 miles within a week! Our destination is to plan on beating the race against the cafeteria worker's. The only crime is a lonely pedometer sitting on the bathroom vanity. So, I just reset my pedometers and keep on walkin' throughout the day! At the same time, it is a good thing I'm rovering from one classroom to another.

Consequently, I come to think that it is a valid excuse to keep me going throughout the day, even a slight excuse such as making copies for other teachers' request (not my job description but winning against the cafeteria workers fits my plan.) That's my way of thinking of escaping being in a cooped place all day in a classroom or taking care or helping my kids' at home after having a LONG DAY at work! Maybe I can stop thinking about all of the "stressful" lists I have in my manic mind such as having kids' making mess on a kitchen floor, dirty clothes, and many more you can image. The best part of walking and counting the steps I have done so far. As least, I can be proud to make it over 10,278 steps on first day, especially for who are like me, is really out of shapes! I must admit.. but it all comes back to me that this is a good way to start all over with my long overdue of
excerises!

Our Big Day at Big Bear

On a bright day at Big Bear Lake, we headed for Alpine Magic Mountain. This small amusement park offers Family fun activities year round.

Since we were there for the Winter Activities, we decided to start off slowly especially with our young sons. First, we joined the sliding down the hill with our rubber tubes. Dylan was able to go alone because he was over 48 inches yet got a free admission because he is not even seven. Ryan had to go with me on every rides.

Before we went on a top of the hill, we entered in a tubing hill that has escalator. I admitted I thought it was pretty cool especially who were not feeling security to go on a chair lift. On our first round, Dylan wanted to be close to me. We held each other's rubber tube while Ryan was on the top of me. It was not easy for me especially of his age and his weight! Lucky David, who was at the bottom of the hill to preserve his hernia repair, enjoyed and took pictures of us.

On our second round trip, Ryan decided to carry his own rubber tube against his weight. He definitely had a strong-willed to do whatever he could do on his own. By the time we were on the top, Dylan was gallant enough to go on his own while we were behind him. However, the other couples crashed on us.

After we made a three round, Dylan wanted to go on a scenic chair lift. Since Dylan could not go with me nor David helping him due to his height, he kept saying that he wanted to go alone. You know how panic I would, but I had to remain calm. Dylan was gallant enough to go alone while I was in a front of him with Ryan to keep an eye on Dylan.

As for me, the operator had to stop me shortly because I was not able to do fast enough to get it on the chair lift with Ryan before we went up on the of the hill. Admittedly, it had always been my weakness though I was able to ski, but not getting on a chair lift. Wasn't that strange?

By the time we were on the top of the hill, we could see the most panoramic views of beautiful Big Bear Lake and the surrounding mountains. I wish we could have a house on the top of this awesome view.

From there, we navigated our own individually controlled sleds. Boy, I was not sure if either of us would flipped over the two-quarter mile long cemented track with lots of turn and straightways on our Teflon runners and ball bearing wheels. Dylan and I were able to apply the control the speed with the control handle. But Dylan would rather to accelerated the speed to the end, instead of using the brake. At the end of the ride, he made a hard hit without getting hurt. Good grief, he was not like Dale Earhart, the race driver! I was the total opposite of Dale Earhart because I was a designed driver since Ryan was with me.

Boy, I was pretty pooped out after dealing with two active kids and even had a lack of sleep. We soon were heading for home. While I was resting, David took over the van and drove on our way back home in a late afternoon. On our way home, the fog reminded me as if we were in a movie, "The Shining." It was scary especially driving on a wet road, without needing to put our chains. But that was not the only thing we saw... it was full of clouds over the mountain. It looked like we were in Heaven. I guess it was the sign that we would be arriving home safe and sound.

Indeed, I had to say it might be corrected because the next day was "raining cats and dogs" in our home area. We evoked ourselves we might have been caught in a bad blizzard storm up in Big Bear Lake.

Nevertheless at the end of our mini get-away vacation, we would not argue that it was one of the lifetime memories, especially for the boys' first time experiencing in the snow. There was no way to replace this quality of time to spend together. Life is too short to waste. Grab and spend the time with your loved ones.

First Night of Our Mini Vacation

On early Friday morning, we headed for our mini get-away vacation . We all were excited to give our two active boys experience the snow for the first time.

After we finally passed the worst construction we have experience between 215 and 10 Freeway, seeing the snow from the distance released from the traffic tension. Both Dylan and Ryan became excited and counting the hours down until we arrived to the City of The Big Bear Lake.

While driving on the road to Big Bear, we could see FULL OF SNOW at 8,000 feet high. It was indeed a beautiful sightseeing on both side of the road. As we were approaching to our nice Northwoods Hotel, we were pleased that the Alpine Magic Mountain that designed for the family activities was only about three blocks away. Unfortunately,we had to wait until the next day.

The boys instead explored our hotel for a little while before going outside in the snow. Ryan was especially thrilled to see the REAL fireplace and explored our overview baloney in our hotel. Not only finding the new stuff around them, they especially were excited to touch the real snow instead of man made snow as soon as they got out of our van.

Of course, we allowed them to play at night snow. We felt that it was appropriate for them to experience at the low 30's degrees first time. During their night play, they played hide and seek, made snow angels, snow fights, and sitting on the top of the snow. While they were playing in the snow for a couple of minutes, Dylan decided to be SILLY by putting his head in the snow. I guess he wanted to experience what was like to have his head being COLD.

At the end of their night playtime, they had enough for being so cold so long. We headed for the cozy hotel. The only problem while we were sleeping in the hotel, Dylan kept me awake almost all night: telling me that he saw a ghost, thought we had fires, and thirsty. I was REALLY exhausted by the morning arrived.

Instead of sharing the same bed, our next visit would be bringing the two air mattresses for the boys to sleep on their own while we sleep on a guest bed in a cabin that we had eyes for it when we saw at Big Bear. Did you know that there were over 300 cabins in The Big Bear Lakes? I would highly recommend you all if you guys ever want to visit The Big Bear Lakes.