Guess what?!?!

Congratulations Are In Order...

Michelle recently passed the final test necessary for her to become a certified teacher: the Praxis Pedagogy exam. This is the third round of Praxis exams we have had to take. She had to take this test in her field of teaching (elementary education) , and I have to take it in my field of teaching (World Languages exam, and I happen to be taking it tomorrow at 7:30 in the morning).

Since Michelle is in her last semester of her Master's degree at GMU, passing this Praxis test was basically the last thing she needed to do to be able to become a certified teacher. Hopefully I will be in the same position as her when I get my test results back a few weeks after I take the test. If you don't hear anything for a while, assume I am having to take the test again in June, but I am optimistic that I will pass it tomorrow and I really don't want to pay Praxis anymore money to take their tests. We had to drive to Vermont back when we were starting up with TFA and lived in Syracuse because my Spanish Praxis II test required me to record myself speaking and answering certain questions in their equipment and there wasn't anywhere closer (ugh!). So yeah....it would be really really nice to be done with Praxis exams.

You may be wondering how we were able to teach for the past two years if we are just now finishing up our degrees in the field of education/teaching and taking these final tests for licensure. That would be a good question on your part. Basically, we have been working under a provisional license, and you have two years under a provisional license to do all of the stuff that we have been doing to get certified by the end of the two years (graduate classwork, Praxis exams, etc.). This is how people with no prior experience in the field of education are able to become full-time teachers like we did through programs like Teach For America or Teaching Fellows (a program a lot like TFA but more decentralized, I think).

Holiday Crafts

These are the original blocks.

Around Christmas time my good friend Jenny and I found these Christmas blocks at Costco for $4.  There are 9 blocks inside that can be used to spell all kinds of Christmas words.  Jenny had the great idea to buy several sets and redo them for all of the different holidays and seasons. Jenny, Tana, and I have had a lot of fun working on these together and shopping for additional decorations.  To make the blocks we first painted the them white. Then we decoupaged scrapbooking paper onto the blocks and used Jenny's cricket to cut out letters to decoupage onto the block. So far I have done it for Valentines Day, St. Paticks Day, and Fourth of July. Pictures are below. It was a lot of fun and I am excited to do more!

To make the block on the far right I just bought some cute Valentine's stickers and stuck them onto a piece of scrapbooking paper and then decoupaged over the top.  A very inexpensive and cute decoration!

I found this pink cup at Michael's for $1 and the hearts on sale after Valentines day for around 25 cents each.  Then I wrapped leftover scrapbooking paper around the cup and stuck the hearts into craft foam covered in pink tissue paper.  It was a fun and very inexpensive decoration to make!  Next Valentines Day I plan to put chocolate kisses all around the cup.  With Chad's sweet tooth though, I better have a pretty big stash on hand!

This will be my Valentine's door hanging - only $5 and it matches the other decorations perfectly!  Since this was so cheap I actually bought 2 and took the second one apart to use for decorations inside.

These are for the fourth of July. I had originally planned to but blue star paper behind the letters, but decided I like this better.

I printed this cool subway art (in the frame) from online.  It also matches perfectly.

I also printed this St. Patrick's day subway art from online and put it in the frame. Then I bought these cute clovers, hat, and pot of gold for 99 cents and stuck them in some craft foam - Jenny's idea.

Here are my St. Patrick's day blocks (which are actually the back of my Valentine's blocks).  Next to them is my pot of gold. It's actually a flower pot that I painted black and filled with gold coins and soon chocolate with gold wrappers. This was also Jenny's idea.  Where would I be without her? I don't think I'd have any decorations - thanks Jenny!  The "leprechaun" next to the pot of gold was actually my idea.  It was just a little green jar I got at the dollar store and then hot glued the hat on. Then I used Jenny's buttons for the eyes and a heart sticker for the lips.  Then we fan folded green paper for arms and used four leaf clovers for hands. I plan to fill it with green jelly beans or m&m's soon.  Jenny made the cute "Kiss Me, I'm Irish!" sign next to him. There's a better picture below.

Second Century

I have completed my second century (100 mile bike ride). I did it on the Washington & Old Dominion trail, which is the same trail I did my first century on. This trail is a lot of fun, and it goes through a lot of really gorgeous areas. Now that it is warming up, and there is no ice or snow on any parts of the trail, my second century was a lot more enjoyable than the first; I didn't go numb in either or my hands or feet this time so that is definitely a good thing!

I improved my time tremendously on this century. I did this century in 6 hours and 11 minutes, compared to 7 1/2 hours on the first century. In other words I shaved off well over an hour off my first century. I did push myself, and I was very sore afterward, but that is how you get stronger! I completed the first half of this century in 2 hours and 56 minutes, but didn't finish until 6 ohurs and 11 minutes. Thus, it took me 15 minutes longer to do the second 50 miles. I think I can live with that, considering I was really feeling it in my legs and back on the way home. I think I have progressed in the sport of cycling enough that to be able to continue to progress as much as I want to and be able to be able to complete a half Ironman (this fall hopefully) and eventually a full Ironman (sometime next year hopefully), I am going to need to invest in a much nicer bike. This is a good thing and a bad thing. It is good because I would love to have a nicer bike, but the bad thing is that they can get really expensive really quickly. I used to think I would sell my current bike but after talking to enough cyclists I think I have decided to keep it for rides when I know the conditions will be bad and when I will need to lock it up (so as to not take any chances with your nicer bike).

The picture above is of me on the Washington & Old Dominion trail on my most recent century. I took it myself so I had to stay focused on the trail. I was planning on filming and talking into the camera a lot during the ride and thus documenting how I was feeling and how it was going, but I couldn't find the battery charger and the battery barely lasted long enough to take a few pictures. Next time I will definitely bring a charged camera and document the experience; or better yet, maybe I will buy a camera that you mount to your helmet or shirt - that might be fun!

Swimming, Biking, Running -- Update

I have been continuing to work on improving my swimming, biking, and running skills in preparation for my Triathlon on April 16th. I have been very pleased with my progress in all three areas.

Biking:

I continue to commute to and from work every day by bike which is a 26 mile round trip each day. In addition to this I usually go for a ride on Saturday to an aquatic center in D.C. to do some swimming. I think this is good preparation for doing multiple events all at once on the actual Triathlon. I will also usually go for a long ride (50 miles or more) on days I don't have work, such as on holidays. The most recent long ride I did was a 50 mile ride last week on the Washington & Old Dominion (the 'WOD'). I did the 50 mile ride in just 3 hours, I really pushed myself the entire time, as opposed to just going at a natural pace that felt good. So by pushing myself I made pretty good time, not quite the goal I had of maintaining a speed of 20 mph the entire time, but I am progressing. That is the beautiful thing about this sport, its all up to you how much you will progress, how hard you will push yourself and so on. I am planning on doing my second century bike ride (100 miles) soon and hoping to shave a lot of time off my first one.

Biking is definitely the sport out of the three sports in the Triathlon that I am the most comfortable and confident in. I have already biked a 100 mile bike ride and actually bike the Triathlon distance every day I ride to work. The Ironman distance ride is 112 miles, but the other events will make it a lot harder than just completing this event alone. Nevertheless, I am confident for the Triathlon and am not too worried about it for my ultimate goal which is the Ironman.

Swimming:

I have been swimming one mile (about 1600 meters) twice a week. I have improved my time significantly from when I first started. I started at a time of 45 minutes, and the last two times I have completed the mile in 39.5 minutes. There are many things that I can do still to improve my time, like wear a Speedo and do the fancy somersault flip to turn around after each length and lap, but my goal is not to just improve my time in the pool. In fact, I am not really concerned at all about my time in the pool, it is completely irrelevant to my goals of being able to swim the length of the Triathlon and other events in lakes and rivers. There are no walls to push off of in these events, so I am not too preoccupied with my time in the pool, but timing how long it takes me to swim 1600 meters it is still a great way to measure my progress swimming.

Also, the most recent time I swam a mile I went to the shorter pool (Takoma Aquatic Center) and I was able to complete the entire mile using only freestyle. My goal is to eventually only use freestyle because it is the fastest and most efficient stroke (from what I have heard). It was easier to use only freestyle at the Takoma facility because I got to push off the wall many more times than at the longer pool distance at Wilson Aquatic Center, so consequently I wasn't using the freestyle muscles as much the most recent time; instead I would be using my legs to push off the wall a lot and this definitely makes it a lot easier. Nevertheless, it was the first time I swam a mile using only the freestyle stroke.

I have a long way to go in my ultimate goal, which would be to swim two and a half miles in an Ironman -- followed my a 112 mile bike ride and a marathon distance run -- but for now I am focusing on the Triathlon distance.

Running:

This is the sport that I have to be really careful with. I injured my leg (the IT band) really badly two years ago and it took me out of the game for a long time. There is no problem with the IT band when it comes to biking and swimming, but when I run even short distances I can still feel a slight pain where the injury was. What I have been doing is going on long walks and running a mile or a mile and a half at some point in the walk, when my leg muscles are really warmed up.

I have been very pleased though that I have been able to walk and run the distances I have attempted so far without any real pain or lasting discomfort. I take a very long time to stretch out the important muscles before and after doing the running or walking. I went to physical therapy a few times a couple years ago and learned how to stretch out the muscles and it really helps a ton to put in the time to stretch out. The longest walk/run that I have done so far was 6 miles, and I ran for 1.5 miles of it. I was really happy that I was able to do this because that is the distance in my upcoming Triathlon. I know I will have to be able to walk/run a marathon (26.2 miles) to complete my ultimate goal of an Ironman, but for now I am just focusing on taking things REALLY slowly and increasing the distances I run VERY slowly. You have 17 hours to complete the Ironman race, which from my research is a very generous amount of time and you could theoretically walk a large portion of the marathon at the end of the Ironman competition. So in terms of running, I am just taking it really slowly and as long as I am progressing, even if it is by very small amounts, I am completely satisfied with that.

Congratulations Elder Wallace!

My brother Andrew finished his mission last week and Michelle and I had the wonderful chance to spend a week with him and my parents out here in D.C. Andrew served in the Washington, D.C. South Mission so he had been in the area the whole time, but for all of last week he actually stayed at our apartment with us, along with our parents as well. We cherished every moment we got to spend with my parents and brother. We all had so much fun together and did so many neat things. We did a lot sight seeing here in the D.C. area, and we even took a road trip up to New York City. The best part of all these things we did though was that we got to do them all as a family. Congrats Andrew on completing your mission! The pictures below are of us all having a good time in New York at Times Square, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, the Met (one of the most amazing museums in the world), the M&M's and Hershey stores, and Ben's Chili Bowl right here in D.C.