Take 3. No kidding.

After suffering the emotional trauma of cyber-bullying (I will not mention any names), in which 3 of my loved ones commented on my horrible blogging record of late, I decided to (finally) sit down and write a "catch-up" post. That was 3 days ago. I got distracted by, oh let's see...a 3-year-old with a cold, 3 sets of 10th grade Biology RAFTs on Aerobic cellular respiration (now THERE'S some stimulating reading), Honors Biology anything.... So then I tried again yesterday, but did I mention that grades are due Wednesday and we also have Parent Conferences next week?

Okay, I will admit that I am also easily distracted by "The Office" marathons, which seem easy to come by these days. Oh wait!!! I nearly forgot! Next week is the Mr. Cougar contest. Please go back and read my posts about this last year, just to refresh your memory about this fun, family-friendly event. 1. Act Screenings, titled "Am I Getting Old?" and 2. The Fallout, titled "And the Answer is YES!"

So this year, we've got some pretty nice boys signed up for the contest. I'm hoping that it is a much, much cleaner affair than last year. But just as a precaution, one of our Assistant Principals is going to be in charge of the curtain, so it can be his responsibility to make the call and draw the curtain if necessary! I'll be screening acts for the next 3 afternoons, but you might recall from last year that what the contestants SAY they're going to do and what they actually DO can be quite different!!!

... That's all the complaining you'll hear from me today...only 50 more school days until summer vacation, which will be it's own sort of busy, but different...and better!!

Elijah's doing great. He rode his little Huffy bike (with training wheels) for big, long stretches both days this past weekend. I think it's his new favorite thing. Last weekend, I took him and his little friend Tiller to ECHO, the aquarium and science center in Burlington. That was really fun, but I never knew how hard it would be to keep tabs on TWO children in a busy place like that, and I really, really, REALLY didn't want to lose somebody else's kid!

I'm getting excited about some upcoming runs my running gals and I have "enlisted" in. The first one will be our team for the Vermont City Marathon, followed by the Covered Bridges Half Marathon in Quechee (which I'm a little nervous about b/c I've only ever run half-marathons in the fall, with the whole summer to train, and I wonder how ready we will be by early June). This summer we are also running the "100-on-100," a 100-mile relay that begins in Stowe and ends in Killington. It sounds like an amazing experience, but I have no idea what it will feel like to run that type of race.

Of course, none of this sounds like much when I think of what Tyler and Matt will be putting themselves through 2 weeks from today, when they run the Boston Marathon!!! If anyone wants to follow their progress, you can log onto the Boston Athletic Association website and enter their bib numbers- Matt is bib #2175 and Tyler is bib #2852. We are SO excited for them and I really, really wish we were going to be down in Boston to cheer them on, but Ed says it's just CRAZY NUTS down there on marathon day!

So, no pictures to post today, sorry to disappoint but I cannot be bothered with trying to upload a few scrawny pics (My camera hasn't seen much action lately).

Oh, yeah- R.I.P. "Zoe the Fish." After 8 weeks of not eating a single bite of food, the poor thing finally gave up the fight yesterday. I don't know much about fish, but I was surprised how long he lasted without eating. That was weird. It's too bad, he was a pretty little fish and I liked him a lot. Ah, well. I mean, it's just a fish after all.

Well, wish me luck. April vacation will be much-deserved. now if only I could talk someone into taking me someplace warm and sunny and tropical for the week...