Easter bunnies, both seen and unseen

Oh, the Easter bunny came to our house. He left all kinds of fabulous things, and he hid eggs all over the front yard. 

 After church and a nap, we took Mia to the zoo. They were having egg hunts, and after so much excitement this morning, we thought for sure she'd love it.

Apparently not. But with a little help from Leigh, she conjured up the courage to pluck up a few eggs. After that was over, she had a fabulous time playing in the stream, watching a sea lion show with my mom and petting various fuzzy creatures. Success!

My class on the beat

Jennifer, a business reporter, plays the roll of a distraught coworker.

Today is one of my very favorite Saturdays of the year. My students pretend to investigate a crime and my coworkers pretend to be bodies and killers and such. Hooray!

Newsroom 101 is a high school program that The Oklahoman offers for students in the Oklahoma City area who are interested in journalism. I've been teaching in this program since my first spring at the paper. (That was back in 2005. What? Has it been that long really?) The students come in on Saturday mornings and learn all about reporting. They write their own stories, which are printed in a special publication sent out across the state. It's pretty fantastic, and my students are the absolute best.

One of the most fun classes we have is when we create a fake crime scene, complete with a police officer. Sgt. Mike Klika helps us out every year, and he is great. The students interview him as if they're on a crime scene, and he treats them just like regular reporters. And he usually gives people guff if they aren't Green Bay Packers fans. 

Students busy taking notes.

Students busy taking pictures.

Sgt. Klika giving people guff.

The "scene."

Get your motor runnin'

Show and Share

Mia loves Show and Share. It's something my generation called Show and Tell, so I guess you now have to share whatever it is you bring. Very smart, teachers. Very smart. Today, Mia took her toy airplane. Leigh gave it to her for Christmas. She kind of re-discovered it in a toy chest and was so excited to take it. Look how proud she is! Best airplane ever!

Are you there, Dog? It's me, Mia.

 Sometimes you have to make phone calls to your dog, and the only way to do that is with plastic yellow cups.

The complexity of ice cream

Sometimes eating an ice cream cone is, you know, complicated. You'll probably need a bowl, a knife, a spoon and a wink to get the job done.

Running around

I have some good news about this weekend: I didn't die. For me, this is a big deal. 

We went to Dallas this weekend for my fourth half-marathon. It was such a fun weekend! My dad and Nancy came up from Victoria to hang out with us, so that made it even better. 

We stayed at a hotel with a pool as basically an apology to Mia for taking a long car ride. She thought it was fantastic - maybe the best thing ever. She also enjoyed jumping on the beds in our room. 

So no matter how the race turned out, at least Mia got to do that. At least she's not old enough to remember that the whole building smelled like smoke and it's probably a hideout for prostitutes. 

Somehow I have no photos of us kicking around in Dallas with my parents. We ate some delicious food, including pre-race pasta. If there's anything I'm good at, it's carb-loading. 

I'm going to be honest: this race wasn't the best. The temperature was barely above freezing and it was windy. I took this picture of myself waiting at the start line. Clearly, I was no impressed with you, Dallas.

 

It took 30 minutes - 30 minutes! - for the crowd to cross the start line. Finally the pack made it through the gates, and my dad snapped this picture. Obviously, I was happy to start warming up. 

  

Lord knows I'm not the fastest runner, but this race was a real challenge. The first 8 miles was uphill. Eight. Miles. Uphill. Up. Hill.  How can this town be all uphill? Is it just one giant slant?

I wanted to quit. My shins hurt. It was cold. No hills ever went down. Then I thought about the logistics of quitting. I'd have to basically stop somewhere random, call my parents and then wait for them to pick me up. In the meantime, I'd get colder and colder. To warm up, I'd probably have to jog in place. In that case, I might as well just keep running. I decided just to finish the stupid race.

Then the clouds parted, the land flattened and the last five miles were lovely. I stashed my hoodie in a bush and enjoyed the rest of the run.

 My dad documented my finish. Weirdly enough, I felt so good at the end, I think I could have run further. (What?!) Not, like, another 13.1 miles further, but maybe another few miles. It was crazy.

 

I set a personal record by 4 minutes! I have no idea how that happened. Seriously. How did that happen?

It was really special to see my dad and Nancy at the finish line. It meant a lot that they came. Leigh and Mia weren't able to make it in time for the finish. (Trying to find parking at the Texas State Fair and then getting a 3-year-old to cross 30 miles of parking lot is no small feat.) But we found them just a few minutes after. I saw this smiling face running to me ...

... and then running past me. She wanted to hug Nancy. Whatever. Thanks for the congrats, Mia.

Miss Fix-It

After seeing her Oupa install new door handles, Mia has been hard at work doing the same with her play drill.

Downward-facing dog

Leigh and I have started doing yoga, and our dogs are pretty sure that the yoga mats are for them. As you can see, Deter is particularly interested and the most reluctant to move. He is especially disturbed by my rendition of downward-facing dog.