Run, Steve, Run

I had a goal of running over 100 miles during the month of June. I surpassed my goal, barely, ending up with 100.45 miles for the month. That's an average of 3.34 miles a day.

The highlight came on the last day of June when I set a new personal best time for running the 5K. I ran it in 23 minutes, 35 seconds; bettering my previous best (set in May) by 34 seconds. To get 23:35, I averaged a mile every 7:37. This is way faster than I run day in and day out. As a matter of fact for all of June I averaged one mile every 8:58.

1st mile 7:34
2nd mile 7:29
3rd mile 7:50
last tenth :40

So far in 2009 I have run 262 miles, which has burnt about 26,000 calories (about seven and a half pounds worth!)

We Didn't Start the Fire - What I Think - Part 7

This is the seventh post in my blog series about the song We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel. I am writing about the significance of each item mentioned in the song. That is, what significance I THINK they have. I am not doing any research or looking anything up, so I could be totally wrong. (And I've been starting to take a little ribbing at just how wrong I have been on some of them. That's OK though, I think I've got today's nailed.)

More information about this blog series can be found in the series' first post.

Einstein - Albert Einstein was a mathematical and physical sciences genius. He was born in Germany where he grew watching his father's businesses fail. As a youngster, his teachers didn't give his creative thinking much credit. Eventually, he published an academic paper in college which started to gain him acclaim in academic circles. After college, Einstein moved to America, where he oversaw the invention of the atomic bomb.

James Dean - Dean was born the small town of Fairmount, Indiana. During his early twenties he became a cooler than cool actor who caused many a teenage girl's heart to swoon. He died at the age of 25 when the Porsche Spider he was driving at a high rate of speed on Pacific Coast Highway in California crashed.

Brooklyn's got a winning team - The Brooklyn Dodgers won the world series in 1943.

Davy Crockett - There was a fad during the 1950s in which young boys wore coonskin caps like the one Davy Crockett wore back in the 1820s.

Peter Pan - This was a popular Broadway musical in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Sandy Duncan played the part of Peter.

Elvis Presley - Elvis was a popular rock and roll singer. He had more hit records than anyone else in America during the 1960s.

Disneyland - Walt Disney opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California in 1955.

Book Review - The Unlikely Disciple

The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose is a non-fiction book that tells the story of the author's semester at Jerry Fallwell's Liberty University. Roose went to Liberty as a self described atheist, however during the semester he played the roll of evangelical Christian - with the intent of writing a book about his experience.

I read The Unlikely Disciple way faster than I read most books. Why? It was just tough to put down. I couldn't wait to get to the end of it to see what would happen, (with Anna, Kevin's faith, his secret, and more) yet it was so good I didn't want it TO end.

The book is laugh-out-loud funny. The entire book is interesting, without even a hint of dullness. It is one of my favorites books I have ever read. I highly recommend it to everyone!

The Unlikely Disciple trailer

The Thriller

The catalog of Michael Jackson's work earns him the spot as my favorite musician of all time. I even chose two of his songs for my recent list of top 10 favorite songs of all time. I've been missing the Michael of old for a long time though. His strangeness over the past 15 years or so, I think, shows the unimaginable difficulty of gaining his extreme level of mega-stardom.

Still, I sure am glad that I have his music to enjoy - and even watch other people enjoy, like in this wedding reception video.

Family Trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan

Our summer calendar is filling up fast, so we decided to take a quick family get away while we had the chance. I checked hotel prices through HotWire for some area cities and went with a 3 star hotel in Grand Rapids that we got for $36 a night. This was an amazing bargain. I checked the hotel's website and the lowest price for one night was $120. The hotel ended up being an all-suites Holiday Inn Express with a nice breakfast included.

We spent one afternoon at Sagutuck Dunes State Park, on Lake Michigan.

Landen had lots of fun playing in the sand. We did not have so much fun battling the beetles and biting flies at the beach though. We also did not have so much fun getting there because we took a 25 mile wrong turn, then got in an hour long traffic jam.

Makenna swam the most at the beach. It was cold water.

The kids loved the pool at the hotel.

Landen is watching himself ride his bike on YouTube in the Apple Store.

Kylee and Makenna are sitting in a bowl of "Daddy's favorite cereal."

I liked the Grand Rapids Public Museum better than the Indianapolis Children's Museum. The exhibits were more aesthetically pleasing, it wasn't crowded and it only cost $19 for our family of five to enter - due to their summer special prices. We spent about four and a half hours touring the museum at a leisurely place. I would describe it as a science / history museum with an emphasis on history and a focus on how people lived in the early days of Grand Rapids, the late 1800s.

Kylee standing in front of a section of the Berlin Wall. In the exhibit photo just to Kylee's left, the section is photographed at Checkpoint Charlie when the wall started coming down.

There's no extra charge to ride the museum's carousel. We rode it three times.

Kylee and Makenna in Yesterdog. We all agreed, "That was a good dog."

We took one of the seats out of our van for the trip. It worked out pretty well, as this picture from our trip home shows.

We Didn't Start the Fire - What I Think - Part 6

This is the sixth post in my blog series about the song We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel. I am writing about the significance of each item mentioned in the song. That is, what significance I THINK they have. I am not doing any research or looking anything up, so I could be totally wrong. (And I've been starting to take a little ribbing at just how wrong I have been on some of them. That's OK though, I think I've got today's nailed.)

More information about this blog series can be found in the series' first post.

Roy hn - Hn was the military commander of the South Korean forces battling against Soviet aggression to turn the whole country into a communist state.

Juan Peron - Juan Peron was Evita Peron's husband. Evita was the first femal leader of Chile, makeing Juan the first 'first gentleman' of the country.

Toscanini - Toscanini is a city in Italy. It is mentioned in the song here because the city was the place where Italy's president was assasinated.

dacron - Dacron is the Vietnamese word for 'chemical weapon."

Dien Bien Phu falls - Phu was the freely elected leader of Cambodia who fell to communist backed Khmer Rouge.

"Rock Around the Clock" - This was the first hit song of the rock and roll era. It was sung by Bill Haley and the Comets.

Miles Biked in 2009 - Landen Leads!

I haven't done (much of) one of these in 2009 yet.

Distance biked in 2009 so far:

Steve 112.4 miles
Kristi 58.9 miles
Kylee 85.5 miles
Makenna 93.7 miles
Landen 120.1 miles

The three-year-old is leading the pack!

I'm 57 miles behind where I was last year at this point. Kristi is about 70 miles behind 2008. Kylee is 28 miles behind and Makenna is 20 miles behind. Landen is 120 miles ahead of last year's pace.

I've actually run twice as far as I have biked so far this year. Last year at this point I hadn't run my first mile yet. So, I'm actually 226 miles ahead of my 2008 running total at this point.

Book Review: The Five Love Languages of Children

I love, love, love, love, love my kids. But, do I ever let their "love tanks" get empty? I think so. Authors, Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell, offers some sound advice on keeping kids' love tanks full in The Five Love Languages of Children.

This is not a very entertaining book to read. There is not very much humor or exquisite use of the English language. And even though I found much of the theory to be common sense; I did learn some things. I must admit that reading this book has changed some of my behavior in interacting with my children.

My least favorite chapters were actually the ones about each of the five love languages: quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service and physical touch. Each of these chapters followed the exact same writing pattern. After reading the first four of these chapters, I felt like I could have written the fifth one. I knew exactly what was coming. I also did not get much out of the chapter on determining your child's primary love language. The ideas presented were just pretty hokey.

My favorite chapters were; Discipline and the Love Languages, Learning and the Love Languages, and Anger and Love. Here's an excerpt from the Anger and Love chapter.

Anger management is the most difficult part of parenting because children are limited in the ways they can express anger. They have only two options, verbal or behavioral expression, and both are difficult for parents to handle. Parents find it hard to understand that the anger must come out some way, that it cannot be totally bottled up. As a result, many parents respond to children’s expressions of anger in wrong and destructive ways.

As you consider the two options, recognize that it is better for your child to express anger verbally rather than behaviorally. When your child vents anger in words, you are able to train him or her in the direction of mature anger management. You want to avoid passive-aggressive behavior at all costs.

Until the age of six or seven, you are working primarily to keep passive-aggressive behavior from taking root in your child. The first and most important way you do this is to keep his emotional love tank full of unconditional love. The prime cause of anger and of misbehavior is an empty love tank. Speak your child’s love language clearly and regularly and you will fill that tank and prevent passive-aggressive behavior from taking root. When that tank is full, the child is under no pressure to display his unhappiness by asking, through his behavior, “Do you love me?" Of course, an empty love tank is not the only cause of misbehavior or anger, but it is the most common.

In the three chapters I liked the best, there were a number of sections that I truly stopped to contemplate. I was forced to self-analyze my actions as a parent and even decide to work on doing some things better. And if I do some things better as a parent because of this book, I guess that makes it an excellent read. It just wasn't excellent reading.

We Didn't Start the Fire - What I Think - Part 5

This is the fifth post in my blog series about the song We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel. I am writing about the significance of each item mentioned in the song. That is, what significance I THINK they have. I am not doing any research or looking anything up, so I could be totally wrong. And if I have no clue, I am just taking my best guess - so don't use anything here for a U.S. history report source.

More information about this blog series can be found in the series' first post.

Joseph Stalin - Stalin became the president of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s. He took steps to further cool relations with the United States, thus escalating the Cold War. It was under his reign that the Soviets successfully launched Sputnik and greatly increased their nuclear arsenal.

Malenkov - He was the president of Yugoslavia when it was a part of the Eastern Communist Bloc. A pawn of the Soviet Union, he did as Moscow directed.

Nasser - He was the president of Egypt. During his administration he had plans to join with other Arab nations to eliminate Israel through a surprise military attack on the Jewish holiday of YomKippur. However, the Israeli Air Force quickly quashed the aggressors and the war only lasted a few days. Later, Nasser mellowed his stance on Israel and met with Israeli President Menachem Begin for peace accords. The talks were held in 1978 in Geneva Switzerland and were led by United States President, Jimmy Carter. Nasser was also one of the names mistaken by "Ronald Reagan" in a classic 1982 Saturday Night Live skit.

Prokofiev - He was the president of Switzerland in the 1960s. He remained neutral.

Rockefeller - John D. Rockefeller was a United States oil baron. He built his oil empire in the middle decades of the 20th century, much like Bill Gates built his software enterprise in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company was eventually found to be a monopoly and was split into smaller, stand alone companies like Amoco and Chevron.

Campanella - Roy Campanella was a great American athlete. Billy Joel seems to have a thing for boxers. And boxing rings a bell here, so I'm going to say he was a great boxer and that he had a tremendous record as a pro, but he had a tendency to falter in championship bouts.

Communist Bloc - This refers to the bloc of countries surrounding and including the Soviet Union. East Germany, Yugoslavia, Turkey, and Poland come to mind as countries that were a part of this "Eastern Bloc."

We Didn't Start the Fire - What I Think - Part 4

This is the fourth post in my blog series about the song We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel. I am writing about the significance of each item mentioned in the song. That is, what significance I THINK they have. I am not doing any research or looking anything up, so I could be totally wrong. And if I have no clue, I am just taking my best guess - so don't use anything here for a U.S. history report source.

More information about this blog series can be found in the series' first post.

Eisenhower - Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 35th president of the United States. He was preceded in office by Harry Truman and followed by John F. Kennedy. He oversaw the U.S.'s involvement in the Korean war while he was in office. The famous "I like Ike." campaign slogan is his.

vaccine - During the 1950s Dr. Jonas Sulk perfect the Polio vaccine. Soon after, a massive vaccination campaign took place in the United States. Polio was quickly conquered in the U.S.

England's got a new queen - In the late 1950s Princess Elizabeth became the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II. She is still the queen today.

Marciano - This refers to another boxer, Rocky Marciano. Who at first thought, I would pinpoint as the fictional boxer in the Rocky movies. However, the movie doesn't fit the timeline of the song. So, I am going to say that Marciano was an actual boxer who was quite the knockout king. As a matter of fact, he had a career record of 53 - 2, with 37 knockouts.

Liberace - Liberace was the sequined piano player. His talent with the ivories was only upstaged by his flamboyance.

Santayana goodbye - Manuel Santayana was the freely elected president of Cuba who was overthrown during the revolution in 1953 that brought communism and Fidel Castro to power in Cuba.

2003 Town & Country vs. Bird (But, What Kind?)

Today when Kylee, Makenna and I were riding in our new Town & Country van to Mishawaka we hit a bird on the U.S. 20 Bypass. I had the cruise control set for 64 mph. I had just glanced at the radio and I looked back up to see a bit of a blur, then smash and a major explosion of feathers - so many feathers that the car behind me swerved into the other lane right away.

I immediately looked into the rear view mirror - lots of feathers, but no bird. Had it totally disintegrated or was it stuck in the grill of our van?

After we got off the freeway I told the girls we should probably find a spot to stop and check to make sure the bird wasn't stuck in the grill. But, I didn't see much of a spot so we kept on going, figuring I could probably just take care of it when we got home.

A little later we were stopped at a stoplight when someone across the intersection from us blinked their lights and hazards on and off a few times. As they turned left in front of us, they made eye contact and both driver and passenger pointed at the front of our van. I nodded at them and knew what this meant - and started to feel like maybe there was a little bit of a site on the front of our van.

After that I started watching the eyes of the other drivers. And indeed I saw a few bug out. We turned onto Day Road and I knew we needed to stop before getting into the main retail area. Fortunately, we crossed a railroad track and saw a little drive by the tracks with some trash dumped nearby.

I pulled in. I got out of the van. I walked to the front. I turned the corner. I jumped back. I said, "Oh yeah. That's a big bird."

Makenna walked around the other corner and jumped backwards two feet.

Kylee walked around the corner and went running back to the van door.

It was a wild turkey. I think it was a female.

"Females are smaller at 37 inches tall, with a wingspan of 50 inches."

The one we hit was full grown. The turkey's foot was stuck in the grill with its wings pretty well extended - spanning over half the van's front end. The birds head was hanging about an inch from the ground.

It's not the kind of thing you want attached to your vehicle while you cruise around Grape Road.

I found a stick and managed to dislodge the bird's foot from the van's grill.

The van's a little dented, but hey that dent's got quite a story, not to mention memory attached to it.

And, after searching Google for "wild turkey" hit by car - I'm just glad the thing didn't hit our windshield - it could have ended up in Kylee's lap.

We drove like this for about 10 miles.

We Didn't Start the Fire - What I Think - Part 3

This is the third post in my blog series about the song We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel. I am writing about the significance of each item mentioned in the song. That is, what significance I THINK they have. I am not doing any research or looking anything up, so I could be totally wrong.

More information about this blog series can be found in the series' first post.

Rosenbergs - The Rosenbergs were a husband and wife spy team. They spied on the American government for the Soviet Union and provided the Soviets with vast amounts of classified information. Eventually they were caught and spent the rest of their lives in prison.

H-bomb - As soon as the Soviet Union got the bomb in the early 1950s they competed with the United States in a nuclear arms race. Both Americans and Russians spent the better part of four decades in fear of nuclear obliteration by the other side.

Sugar Ray - Sugar Ray Leonard was a world champion boxer. This doesn't quite fit the general timeline of the song, but he was the light way champion of the world during the 1970s and 1980s.

Panmunjom - Panmunjom is the capital of Laos. It fell to a communist uprising in 1957.

Brando - Marlon Brando was a world famous American actor. He was known for being suave and debonair.

The King and I - The King and I is a book that was turned into a Broadway play.

The Catcher in the Rye - This is a book by J.D. Salinger. It had definite social undertones for one of the major issues of the its day, race relations.

We Didn't Start the Fire - What I Think - Part 2

This is the second post in my blog series about the song We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel. I am writing about the significance of each item mentioned in the song. That is, what significance I THINK they have. I am not doing any research or looking anything up, so I could be totally wrong.

More information about his blog series can be found in the series' first post.

Joe McCarthy - McCarthy was a senator from Minnesota who went on a witch hunt for communists in the mid 1960s. This was during a time when countries were falling to communism like dominoes and McCarthy wanted to make sure there weren't any communists in American leadership roles.

Richard Nixon - Nixon won the presidency in 1968, then won reelection in 1972. Shortly thereafter he "resigned the presidency" in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal.

Studebaker - Studebakers were cars built in South Bend, Indiana. Like most other smaller companies that made automobiles, Studebaker couldn't compete with the big three and went out of business in the 1960s.

Television - Television gained widespread household infiltration in the early 1960s. Half the TV sets in the country would be tuned to the same station during popular shows.

North Korea - No longer just Korea, North Korea became communist and a separate nation the South. The leader of the communist uprising was Pol Pot. He tried to make all of Korea communist, but settled on just the North under heavy resistance from the South.

South Korea - Separated from the North and maintained its status as a free county by holding off Pol Pot's Northern military.

Marilyn Monroe - A blond bombshell, Marilyn was a wildly popular singer and actress who frequently made the tabloids for her tawdriness. She was even rumored to have had an affair with JFK.

Summer Blog Series - We Didn't Start the Fire

This is the first post of what will be a pretty long and (I think) pretty fun blog series. The series will be about the lyrics to the song We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel.

For each post in the series I will take a section of the lyrics and explain why each phrase is significant enough to be mentioned. Here's the catch, I will not do ANY research on the items mentioned in the song. I will just write what (I think) I know about each item and be relatively specific. And if I have no idea, I will just have to take my best guess. Sound like fun?

And hey kids, don't use this information for your 11th grade history reports. I may have no clue what I am talking about.

Oh and before I begin, let me explain what I think the song is about. I think the song is about times changing rapidly in the face of a world in conflict. The lyrics cover the time from just after World War II (at the beginning of the Cold War) through the late 1980s, which as it turned out was almost at the end of the Cold War.

Harry Truman - He was the President of the United States after World War II ended. He was preceded in office by Franklin Roosevelt and followed by Dwight Eisenhower.

Doris Day - Doris was an actress. She was the beauty of her day in the early 1950s. She was quite the pin-up girl.

Red China - This is a reference to the communist take over of China, led by Mao Tse Tung. I tried to write about how Tung took control and brought communism to China, but I couldn't even think of a reasonable guess.

Johnnie Ray - Johnnie is listed in reference to the 1950s civil rights movement. He was killed during a protest in Birmingham shortly before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the march across the bridge that leads into Birmingham.

South Pacific - This was a popular musical on Broadway in the late 1950s.

Walter Winchell - He was the newscaster who did the first live report from an active war zone (the Korean peninsula) in 1956.

Joe DiMaggio - Joe was a great baseball player. He played for the Yankees and dated Marilyn Monroe.

Now I'm going to click Publish Post, then look up who the heck Walter Winchell is (I keep thinking maybe he has something to do with a consumer product.) And feel free to comment away with corrections.

What are you doing this summer?

I get the same question Robby gets. I think I sometimes even get the question with a tonal hint of "You're not just sitting around, being lazy, relaxing while you take the summer off from work are you?" I enjoy my summers, always have. And with the added knowledge of Robby's perspective, I will probably enjoy them even more from now.

So what am I doing this summer?

I'll probably run some errands on my bike, water the flowers, teach my kids, go to family camp, watch the turtles in the ditch, write some blog posts, read for information, eat some pop sickles, read some books, help at Bible School, watch some movies, sit on the porch, analyze my running data and have camp outs in the living room.

Most importantly though, what I'm doing this summer is spending time with my family.

Infuse Podcast

While running recently I have been listening to the Infuse Podcasts that are produced by Life Action Ministries. Actually, I have only listened to two of these podcasts so far, but both of them were excellent.

• Mark Bearden discusses a Biblical perspective of fear.
• Sammy Tippit speaks about "teaching, calling and training people to pray for their families."

In addition to being availabe on the Life Action website, the Infuse Podcasts are available for free subscription on iTunes as well. Just search for 'infuse podcast' in the iTunes store.

Job Change

After teaching second grade for 14 straight school years, I will have a new position at Bremen Public Schools for the 2009-10 school year.

At Tuesday's school board meeting I was approved to be the Differentiation Integration Technology Coach. . . a technology coach. My job description has a long list of responsibilities, but in brief my new role will center on training teachers in the use of various aspects of technology and assisting them on using technology in their classrooms in ways that are the most effective.

I have definitely enjoyed the 14 years I have spent teaching second grade, but I am ready for a new challenge. I think the technology coaching position sounds perfect for me. I think it is a job I will be good at and enjoy. I feel blessed to have this new opportunity.

14 Years, starting in 1995 . . .

Running Songs - Tuesday

I think my Tuesday running playlist is the best of the seven.

• Bad Day by Daniel Powter
• Billie Jean by Michael Jackson
• Cool It Now by New Edition
• Don't Bring Me Down by Electric Light Orchestra
• In Your Wildest Dreams by The Moody Blues
• Kissing A Fool by George Michael
• Missing You by John Waite
• My Life Would Suck Without You by Kelly Clarkson
• New Sensation by INXS
• Roll With It by Steve Winwood
• Turn, Turn, Turn by the Byrds

This playlist has one of my two favorite running songs, Don't Bring Me Down by ELO. My other favorite is Stars on 45.

The day-of-the-week playlists are nice, but I think I've decided that I really need to make a playlist for each day of the month instead. It would be a lot less repetitious.

Running in May

I had really a great month of running in May. I ran at least two miles 27 out of the 31 days in May (and a few days I ran more than once.)

During May I:

• Did six 2 mile runs
  
• Did nineteen 5Ks (3.1 mile runs)
• Did one 4 mile run
• Did two 10Ks (6.2 mile runs)
• Ran 87.3 miles total, an average of 2.8 miles a day
  

Running Songs - Sunday & Monday

Here are my running playlists for Sunday and Mondays.

Sunday

1. Le Freak by Chic
2. Funkytown by Lipps, Inc.
3. I'm Gonna Be by The Proclaimers
4. My Girl by the Temptations
5. Never Surrender by Corey Hart
6. Pop Muzik by M
7. She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Canibals
8. Something About You by Level 42
9. Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles
10. Your Love by The Outfield

Monday

1. Breakout by Swing Out Sister
2. Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
3. I'm a Believer by The Monkees
4. Monday, Monday by The Mamas and the Papas
5. Nasty by Janet Jackson
6. Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel
7. Stayin' Alive by The Bee Gees
8. Take it Easy by The Eagles
9. Viva La Vida by Coldplay
10. We Built This City by Starship
11. We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel
    

Running Songs - Friday & Saturday

My current playlist for running on Fridays:

1. All I Need Is a Miracle by Mike and the Mechanics
2. Beat It by Michael Jackson
3. Jack and Diane by John Mellencamp
4. The King of Wishful Thinking by Go West
5. Money for Nothing - Dire Straights
6. Wake Up Little Susie by Everly Brothers
7. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' by Michael Jackson
8. We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel
9. Wild, Wild West by The Escape Club

My current playlist for running on Saturdays:

1. Alive and Kicking by Simple Minds
2. All Summer Long by Kid Rock
3. Baby, I Love Your Way / Freebird Medley by Will to Power
4. Come on Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners
5. Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears
6. Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndy Lauper
7. Jive Talkin' by The Bee Gees
8. Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer
9. The Long Run by The Eagles
10. Puttin' on the Ritz by Taco
11. Stars on 45 by Stars on 45
12. You Might Think by The Cars
    

Up in 3D

I had to wonder, "How good can a movie about a floating house be?"

I saw Up in 3D tonight with my daughters. The answer to my question, "Excellent!" It is full of whimsy, humor and is an all-around terrific story. With the exception of a few overdone action scenes, I would describe it as the perfect floating house movie. Now that's saying something.

Definitely worth seeing!

Running Songs - Thursday

Here's my running playlist for Thursdays.

1. Centerfold by J. Geils Band
2. Dirty Laundry by Don Henley
3. Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone) by Glass Tiger
4. Hey Mickey by Toni Basil
5. Invisible Touch by Genesis
6. Rock Me Amadeus by Falco
7. Shattered Dreams by Johnny Hates Jazz
8. Things Can Only Get Better by Howard Jones
9. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham!
10. Walk of Life by Dire Straights
11. West End Girls by The Pet Shop Boys
    

Running Songs - Wednesday

A general shuffle of all songs or a genre of songs just doesn't cut it when you are running. You just don't want to have to mess with pressing skip. To eliminate this problem, I made a running playlist for each day of the week.

Running Wednesday

1. All Summer Long by Kid Rock
2. The Climb by Miley Cyrus
3. Hippy Hippy Shake by The Georgia Satellites
4. Human by The Human League
5. Kiss by Prince
6. Lean on Me by Club Nouveau
7. Lonely Ol' Night by John Mellencamp
8. The Reflex by Duran Duran
9. Rumors by Timex Social Club
10. She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Canibals
11. Top Gun Anthem
12. Walking On Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves
    

Landen Riding Video

Here's a better video of Landen riding his bike without training wheels than the one I posted a few days ago.

New Personal Best

I set a new best time for running a 5k (3.1 miles) today. My previous best time was 24:40, which I ran in the Nappanee Apple Festival race last September. I started off pretty well today and decided to go for a new best time. I ran it in 24:09.

Today's run stats:

• Average heart rate: 168
• Maximum heart rate: 175
• Fastest quarter mile time during the run: 7th and 9th ones at 1:53
• Slowest quarter mile time during the run: 11th one at 2:04
• Weather: 62 degrees and cloudy, there was some wind.
• Final tenth of a mile time: :36
  

This chart shows each quarter mile time of the run (adding up to 24:09.) The blue line shows my average pace at each point of the run (starting at 8:14 minutes a mile and dropping to an average pace of 7:50 at the run's finish.)

The map shows where I ran. The numbers one through twelve show where I was at each quarter mile split.
I usually don't like to backtrack when I run, (it's a quirk) but I was trying to avoid the wind so I backtracked a lot.

How Old Should My Kid Be to Teach Him to Ride Without Training Wheels?

How about three years, two months?


Landen learned to ride without training wheels today in a matter of minutes. Since his birthday on March 15, he had ridden his bike (a Specialized HotRock 12) a total of 66 miles with the training wheels on. So he definitely had some experience. Landen also had mastered balancing his Razor Scooter, which I think helped him know how to balance the bike. The Balance Buddy handle we used made it easier to get him started, but he caught on so fast we probably would have been fine with out the handle.

He's already ridden three more miles without the training wheels. Here's a video (not all three miles - just a half a block.)

Second Grade Chapter Book Read Alouds - Ranked

Last week each student in my second grade class ranked their top five favorite chapter books that I read aloud during the school year. I totaled their rankings giving 5 points for a 1st place vote, 4 points for a 2nd place vote, etc.

Here are the results from their rankings. (Sorry for the blank space. Scroll down a ways to see the rankings.)

Rank	Title	Author	Poll Points
1	Where the Red Fern Grows	Wilson Rawls	60
2	Miles to Go	Miley Cyrus	57
3	Holes	Louis Sachar	38
4	The Tale of Despereaux	Kate DiCamillo	38
5	Shiloh	Phyllis Reynolds Naylor	28
6	Poppy	Avi	26
7	Summer of the Monkeys	Wilson Rawls	23
8	My Side of the Mountain	Jean George	18
9	The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane	Kate DiCamillo	15
10	Stone Fox	John Reynolds Gardiner	13
11	The Best Christmas Pageant Ever	Barbara Robinson	13
12	Wayside School (series)	Louis Sachar	12
13	Junie B. Jones books (series)	Barbara Park	9
14	Weird School books (series)	Dan Gutman	4
15	Flat Stanley	Jeff Brown	3
16	The Incredible Invention of Hugo Cabret	Brian Selznick	2
17	Scholastic Chapter Book Biographies	Peter Roop	2
18	Now You See Me . . . Now You Don't	Dan Greenburg	1
19	Ready Freddy – The Pumpkin Mystery	Abby Klein	0

In the many years that I have done these end-of-year polls, Where the Red Fern Grows has never finished anywhere but first. Although it was way closer this year than usual, probably in part because I just finished Miles to Go.

Edward Tulane should have finished higher, but I read it a LONG time ago and I think they kind of forget after a while. Also, many students really enjoyed the Wayside School series, but if I separate the three books it's hard to get consistent votes for them since students are only voting their top five overall books. I don't think lumping the three together gives perfect results though either - it sort of takes away from voting for a certain book.

I also read Holes last fall. It must have held up pretty well. It is REALLY good!

Relate post: Steve, Kylee and Makenna rate the chapter book read alouds

Book Review: Miles to Go

Miles to Go is Miley Cyrus' newly released autobiography. I read it to my second grade class and just started reading it to my eight-year-old daughters.

I enjoy biographies. Learning how someone climbed the ladder to success is something I find very interesting. Miley Cyrus' life story is far more interesting than I imagined it would be. If you just figured that Miley got the part as Hannah Montana because of who her dad is . . . I think you would be right, but not because of who you think her dad is - it's better.

From a low, low, low that I think a lot of people can identify with to an incredibly fast change (that happened oh-so-slow,) Miley's story is fascinating. Miley's anecdotes and corresponding commentary show a wisdom way beyond her years. Any girl who is a fan is bound to be positively influenced by reading Miles to Go. I highly recommend it. (And there's really no reason that boys wouldn't enjoy the book as well.)

There are two other people groups that I would strongly encourage to read Miles to Go .

1. Moms of child stars. Reading Miles to Go would offer them plenty of solid advice on how to do this job well.
2. Dads. I challenge any dad to read Miles to Go while pondering what kind of dad he wants to be and not be challenged to do some things better. I was.

There were two or three parts I skipped when I read the book to my second grade class. They just got a little too grown up for that setting. I will likely read these parts to my daughters though and tackle any discussions they bring about.

I think most anyone would enjoy this book (if they like biographies at least,) but here are some people that I think in particular SHOULD NOT MISS reading this book.

• Tilly
• Carly
• Emma
• Rob
• Stephanie

I Got What I Wanted

Goodbye truck. . .

hello minivan #2.

It's really nothing fancy, a 2003 basic model Town and Country with 86,000 miles on it. I traded in my truck and wrote a not-so-big check to pay the difference. It will set back our goal of paying off our house by one month.

The major advantage is simply that our family will fit comfortably in both of our vehicles now. The Dakota actually was a good truck (other than the gas mileage) but it was not so good for a family with three kids.

I had posted my truck for sale on Craigslist last week, but didn't get a single e-mail of interest. (Our hope was to sell the truck now, then go with one vehicle until August.) It was starting to look like we were going to have to go the trade route with my truck, and if that was the case we figured we might as well do it now rather than later.

We bought the van at the same place we bought our blue 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan, (minivan #1. - and the VAN I'VE BEEN WANTING) from Nappanee Auto Sales in the L.J. Wagner parking lot.

We're really not that picky about our vehicles. When we bought the Caravan six years ago, we spotted it on the way home from McDonald's and said, "Hey, that one has doors on both sides."

The new van? We actually spotted it the other day on the way to Taco Bell and said, "Hey, that one has captains chairs in the second row." (Our main criteria this time.) We bought this one the same way, but we waited a few days and ended up eating supper at Dairy Queen tonight instead of McDonald's. We stopped and asked about it on the way to DQ and bought it on the way home.

We're mostly just picky about not paying too much for a vehicle.

Our new Town and Country meets our criteria and we're super excited to have it, even though it isn't "anything fancy." Actually, I think that's part of what excites us about it.

Predictions

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962

"Kris is the next to go."
Steve Gall, predicting the contestant to leave American Idol's round of 11 on March 12, 2009.

The Beatles ended up doing OK and so has Kris. I'm pulling for Kris to further shame my prediction and win it all.

Bad News

Hacienda does not give out free Frisbees with their kids' meals anymore. This will limit the demand for the Frisbee holder I invented.

The Last 15 Movies I've Seen

Here are the last 15 movies I have seen and how I rate them on a scale from 1 to 10. (A 4 is sort of my baseline for didn't really like, but didn't really dislike it either.)

• High School Musical 3 - I did like it. I give it a 6.
  
  
• Garfield: Tale of Two Kitties - It gets a solid 5.
  
  
• The Lake House - Uggg. I'm being kind with a 3.
  
  
• Bolt - I saw it in 3D and thought it was great. I also rewatched part of it with Landen and it held up well. I'm sticking with an 8.
  
  
• Enchanted - It was pretty good. An even more solid 5 than Garfield.
  
  
• Ella Enchanted - It's not my type of story. A 4.
  
  
• We Are Marshal - I liked it pretty well, and give it a 6.
  
  
• Slumdog Millionaire - This is one of the best movies I have seen. I give it a 9.
  
  
• Coraline - I did not like this one at all, only the claymation gets it a 3.
  
  
• Marley & Me - It was fine, a 5.
  
  
• Pearl Harbor - I liked this one quite a bit. It gets a solid 6.
  
  
• EdTV - I like the premise of this movie, but did not like the movie, a 3.
  
  
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - This might have been good if I would have seen it in a theater surrounded by 10 year old kids cheering on the turtles throughout the show, but I wasn't, so it wasn't. I think I'm being nice with a 3.
  
  
• Hannah Montana: The Movie - I liked the movie and enjoyed my company even more. It gets a 6.
  
  
• The Negotiator - (Spoiler ahead.) I liked it OK, but found it a little frustrating. It was filled with things that wouldn't really happen - like all the cops just leaving after their raid and Danny not getting arrested at the end. The end reminded me of Mystic River, which I also found frustrating. I give it a 5.
  

New Tree

Some Recent Pictures