Jared and Michelle in the UK

Follow their trip with the PCPC Choir here.

http://uk09.pcpc.org/

Soli Deo Gloria

Anticipating Next Week

On August 3rd The Nelson School of Learning will once again open its doors :) The teacher of said school has been working very hard to prepare her classroom. Hours of planning and organizing have come to an end and everything is prepared for the first day of school.

The population at this amazing school has been growing exponentially in the last two years. This year we expect to increase our students body by 33%. The grades covered will be 3rd grade, Kindergarten and 2 year old preschool.

The students have mixed emotions at the coming school year. But having already met their teacher they are assured that she will love and care for them during the coming year. There are bound to be good and bad days. And I am sure it will be difficult at times to push forward and conquer the material at hand. But with the loving guidance of their teacher and fellow classmates they will see the fruits of perseverance and mental discipline.

Grandparents, Friends, Happy Joes and Running!!

This weekend we took a much anticipated road trip to the QC. During our visit we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa :) We enjoyed every minute of our visit. They are such wonderful grandparents.

We were in the QC so of course we had to eat at Happy Joe's, a favorite food stop for our family. On Saturday I met up with an old friend and ran in the Bix. After running we were able to meet up with some more friends :) It was wonderful to just sit and chat with wonderful people.

Here are some pictures from our trip..

Elliana sitting by "the bell"

Riding tractors with Grandpa

Grandma and Elliana. Elliana came up to me and said "hug Netta?" Grandma Netta was more than happy to oblige.

Grandpa and the boys admiring the tractors in the barn.

Heading back to the house

Evergreen Triathlon!

This morning I completed the Evergreen Sprint Triathlon. I placed 6th in my age group and I improved a lot from last year :) Here are my results and how they compare with past results:

Swim-11:28.7

Last year-13:05.4

T1-2:37.9

Last year-4:46.2

Bike-1:32:20.3-many hills :)

Last year-1:29:58.6- no hills

T2-1:23.8

Last year-2:14.5

Run-32:06.7

Last year-36:24.6

Overall Time-2:19:57.4

Last year-2:26:29.3

The bike route this year was completely different so I can't compare those times. I am proud of my times but I do have several areas to work on for next year. Here are some pictures Aaron took during the triathlon. I am sure I will have more race info to pass along at a later date.

Waiting for the swim :

I am swimming in that big group:
Coming out of the swim:
The bike:

The run:

They Are Always Watching

The Evergreen Triathlon is two days away. I have been training for an entire year and feel that I am physically ready for the challenge. With such a short time remaining I decided I had better practice my transition from swim to bike. Last year my T1 time was over 4 minutes!

This was what was going through my mind at that time "I did it!! I finished the swim!! WooHoo!!" I was not at all in a hurry. I sat down and put on my socks and shoes. Made sure I had everything I needed for the bike portion (did I mention I was not in a hurry) and then headed out for the 27 mile bike. This is what will be on my mind this year "Fast! Fast! Fast!". I had Joshua time my transition practice and I was at a little over one minute :) It was fun to have the kids cheering me on to go faster.

After I practiced several times we played outside. Joshua decided that he needed to practice his transition time as well :) They are always watching :)

This is Joshua's bike all set up for T1 (he even took his socks and shoes off!)

Joshua going as fast as possible..After practicing several times he decided he needed some competition. So he coaxed his younger brother into a mini "triathlon". Here they are racing during T1. Elliana is taking off with Asher's bike :)

Love Her!

An Awesome Math Tool !

Joshua loves this new math tool I purchased. It is called a Math Balance. It can be used to solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. We have already started math and this balance has shown itself to be very useful.

Our date :)

Aaron and I went on a 67 mile bike ride this morning!! It was for the Fellowship for Christian Farmers and was called Pedaling for Kicks. We had a lot of fun talking and laughing for almost 4 hours :) I just love that man ! Here are some pictures I took while we were biking...

Aaron and I at a food stop.

There were many hills on the ride. They were fun and also very hard (depending if you were going up or down :) This was one of the larger hills.

My man looking awesome (as usual).Just a little scenery...

This is the lake I will be swimming in next weekend (Evergreen Triathlon).

Backyard Fun!

Lapbooks!

Here are two lapbooks the boys completed last year. I am currently tracking down lapbooks that can be used in this years curriculum.

Asher completed a lapbook on the book entitled "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".

Joshua had a blast completing this lapbook on Abraham Lincoln. After completing this assignment we took a field trip to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield :)