Lazy Day, heading into a very busy summer!!

Caught my "Sleepy Bears" snuggled up and taking a mid-Saturday nap. Tired out from hours of driving like maniac's on MarioKart Wii.

First off- WOW, it's been almost a year since I posted anything and I can't believe it's been that long. Time has flown by and there's been a MILLION things going on. I'm going to try and get you all caught up and hopefully get back into the regular habit of posting on here!!

Gabe is growing like a weed and is doing really well. He loves his new class and his new teachers this year- He's in a spit program between the LSS (Life Skills Support) and the MDS (Multi-Disabled Support) each class provides him with something essential to his social or educational day. I'll post additional information about this soon!!

Also, Gabe got a new chair!! We're very excited it has a dynamic back and is so much better for him both as far as positioning and long term comfortability. Plus now we don't have to worry about him getting the rub marks from the lap belt!! Yay!! Post and Pictures to follow I promise!!

Let's see what else?? I hurt my back over Thanksgiving and had an emergency L4-L5 microdiscecotomy surgery in December- spend until the middle of February home recovering, after many weeks of working my way back up I am now totally off restrictions and back to my normal activities!! Yay!! I've recently gotten back to running a bit (I'm still taking it easy there) but I'm looking forward to getting rid of the roughly 8 pounds that I picked up while not being able to stay as active. I'm still on that mission as well... While I made it down to a size 10, I'm right on the border between a 10 and 12 right now since I picked up the 8 pounds :(

I'm getting back on the wagon now that I am physically able and hoping to end the summer somewhere around a size 6!! (I'll be happy with a size 8, but I like to set big goals!!)

Jeremy is doing well and loves working closer to home. He is still taking two classes every semester and is consistently on the Dean's List for maintaining a GPA above 3.5 (GO BABY!!)

He just started an Earth Science class so the pressure is on to see if I remember all that stuff- since I have a bachelors in Earth Science... well, hopefully I can be a little help if he needs it! HAHAHA!!

That's it for now, I'll try to make it on again soon and fill you all in on more of what we've been up to!!

"Gabe's Gang" @ the Easter Seals "Walk with Me" 5k

Getting out of the van in morning it was still a bit chilly.... but it warmed up fast!Gabe was ready to go and was very consistent in telling us so!! (haha!)Gabe's Gang!!

Ed, Nicole, Jeremy, Dan (you can only see the top of his hat!) Shannon, Shawn, Bernie, and Adam, and of course the team captains Kari & Gabe!

Dan took 1st place in his age category (Adam took second) and Jeremy got 3rd!!!

It was a great day and an inspiring event, we beat our fundraising goal- check out our Team Page!

After the race there was food, music, and a little fair at the end and.... Gabe got a tattoo!!

He didn't even last 5 minutes in the van when we headed home!! It was a fun and tiring day!!

Gabe, knocked out on the way home, sporting his Elmo "tattoo"

GABE'S GANG: Easter Seals "Walk with Me" 5k

We are running the Easter Seals "Walk With Me" 5k again!! This year Gabe has his own team!

If you are in the area and want to join our team, PLEASE DO!! It is going to be a great race and a really fun day down by the Art museum in Philadelphia.

If you can't join, maybe take a moment and see if you can support our team with a small donation. Every dollar counts, we're about halfway to our goal and we appreciate every single donation- literally every single dollar goes to a great and worthy cause.

To learn more about Easter Seals, to join or team or to make a donation to Gabe's Gang just follow this link.

No pressure- we know how tough times are right now, that's why we're stressing that we don't want big donations, we're just trying to get enough small donations to reach our goal.

Thanks so much for stopping in and supporting us!!

Go Team Gabe's Gang!!

We're running the Rock-n-Roll Half!!

I'm super excited. Running 10 miles was a challenge, and with the heat even more so. I'm putting my all into training for this and I'm excited to run the ING Rock-n-Roll half marathon in September here in Philadelphia. It's funny how I never thought I would run 10 miles, and now I'm registered for 13.1!! Jeremy is registered for this one too~ I'm excited to do it together. He hurt his foot during the training for Broad St which really set him back, plus it was difficult to train while he was in Michigan for work-then we didn't have anyone to watch Gabriel on race day so he bowed out and let me run it.

This one we have a bunch of friends registered for it too, so hopefully we'll get to run it in a big group to make it even more fun. There are bands playing at every mile marker and it's just an overall Rock-n-Roll atmosphere~ I'm super excited!!

Well, back to training, I'm hoping to really increase my endurance over this training program and hopefully the weather will cooperate for this race! I'll update every so often on how our training goes, and of course there will be tons of pic's from race day!!

IBC Broad St 10 miler.... I did it!!

Well, I trained for it, and I DID IT!!

It's a famous race out here, very popular with first timers. It's straight and pretty much flat and for that reason people come from all over to run the Independence Blue Cross Broad St 10 miler. It was something I thought would be challenging but I had no idea what it was really going to be like because I've never ran 10 miles before. (even in training I never ran more than 6 miles at a time) But I never could have anticipated how hard the weather would make it.

It was in the high eighties by the time the race started. (in the low to mid 90's by the time I finished) I was in the last corral (I wasn't sure how long it was going to take me, so I chose a 15 min. mile time to keep me towards the very back- just in case) But this actually made it so I had to stand there and wait in the baking sun while all the other corrals started the race. For 30 minutes- ugh! People were falling down and passing out along the way- it was a trip!! There were a couple times where I was thinking what the H*LL did I get myself into?!?

Anyway, I told everyone my goal was to finish... but personally I really wanted to beat that ridiculous 15 minute per mile time that I told them I would need to finish. Considering the heat I'm surprised that I did- but I did!! Don't get me wrong- I wasn't fast by any means and I did walk parts of the race, especially the water stations and through the fire hydrants that sprayed us with water to cool off.

But I finished in 2:20, basically 14 minute miles.

Not great - but I met both my goals... I finished and I got less than the 15 minute miles.

Watch out Broad St- I'll do much better next year!!!

A few random pictures left from our family day out and about...

Daddy picking us up so we don't get rained on...Such a sweet guy our Jeremy! :)Getting kiddo into the car...Rainy Day van pic's Cheeeeeeeeeeeese!

(for my mom, who says there's not enough pictures of me on the blog- in all fairness... I'm usually the one taking the pictures!!

But I have been trying very hard to get a few more pictures with all of us in them... regardless of how I actually feel about being in pictures! LOL!!)

Family Time...(Part Two)

Nothing tastes better than fries you feed yourself!

Love this because you can see the "MMMMMMMMMM" here and here you see the AHHHHHHHH part of "MUAH"Mommy's turn for the good kisses!
Daddy enjoying our family time!Mommy- still sportin' her race-day pigtails! Gabe just LOVES to color!

Family Time...(Part One)

Enjoying some coloring time before the food comes!!I wanted them to pose for a picture... Gabriel had other plans!Not sure if it hurts or tickles but Gabe sure likes messing with Daddy's ear!I said something to Jeremy along the lines of... "I think I was sticking my tongue out on that one" I have a tendency when I'm happy to do that and I don't like it for pictures so I wanted him to take another one... Well, our son heard me say- sticking out my tongue.....So a little bit there and then by the next picture....yep, that's my kiddo alright! What a stinker!My cute guys!!

One more nice part of living near Philly

Well, while you can't take the hockeytown out of the girl, you can obviously misplace the hockeytown when it comes to the actual players- That last game was pathetic and I won't even go there... however I will say it's nice to live where everyone hates the Penguins.. One more reason I love it out here!

You can take the girl out of Michigan, but you can't take the Hockeytown out of the girl!!

Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoff Highlights! GO RED WINGS!!!!

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

a night out on CHOP

My friend Shani works at CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) and invited me to a dinner to honor one of the surgical practices. It was semi-formal and down in Philly. We got "Doll"ed up and had a great time. Thanks so much Shani for having me as your guest! It was great fun!
on the way down to Philly, that's the Art Museum over on the left.a little bit of the Philly skyline! Me and my gal pal Shani enjoying our girl's night out!

Well, it's been a while!

Hello!!
It has been very busy around the Anderson household!!
Since last time we've had...
A couple family visits, time out with friends, real winter weather (more than once!!) , Some holiday stuff from Kari's side, new weight and height milestones for Gabe, new semester for Jeremy, a test passed for Kari, Biggest Loser, new routines, Jeremy's on the run for FUN (and health) an evil virus for Kari, pneumonia and sinus infection for Gabe, an excellence award for Jeremy, and the list goes on and on...
I'll be updating quite a bit over the next few days so stay tuned!!
Hope all is well for everyone!! Talk to you again real soon!!

oh yeah... I'm legal!

This post is a bit late, but anyway, as of October 1, 2008 I am officially licenced to teach in Pennsylvania~ Woooo Hooo!!

Where to begin???

How exactly do I begin blogging the last oh... two months?!?!

It's been crazy busy and really great! Let's see, end of August a day or two after my last post- I was called for an interview with North Penn School district for an assistant position I applied for. It has been taking me a little longer than anticipated to straighten out my PA certification- so I decided to apply for an assistant job. Mostly to get back in the day to day routine of working with students (the same students every day) since subbing doesn't feel much like teaching most of the time. Anyway, they called me back that same day and I got the job!! It's about 4 miles from the house and I can still get Gabe off the bus everyday- the benifits are incredible and I really like the staff. So, first thing down... NEW JOB.

OK, next.... Jeremy started back to school the fifth of September! Looks like he's decided on accounting and will most likely end up at Temple University but he's going to get as much as he can out of the way at Mont Co. since they have a companion program. (and are much more resonably priced!) We're really excited about it (I'm very proud!!) and Jeremy is doing great in his classes. More updates as time goes by... promise!! second down COLLEGE.

Gabe is doing well, he is really enjoying his weekly swimming on top of his normal weekly physical therapy. He's growing like a weed again. Last doctor visit has him at 49.4 lbs and 4' 1" tall. Our 8 yr old is really getting big!! He's learning new words and working on new tasks. I've got tons of new pictures and video to share!

Well, I'm out of time for now- more to come!!!

It's the thought that counts...right?

I am RETARDED. I just thought I would go ahead and come out of the closet right now. (LOL)

OK, here's the story- I had decided to start recycling again- I hadn't been doing a lot since the move because I was still figuring out our new system- what goes where- when they'll take it- IF they'll take it etc... anyway- so I was cutting the paper label off a can and was being so careful so as to not accidentally cut myself with the knife.... that I didn't even notice that I hadn't pushed the lid into the can. I sliced my finger open on the sharp edge of the can lid.

Anyway, I couldn't get it to stop bleeding, plus it was at a steep angle, and I could see the meat inside my finger....(and a lot of pressure from Jeremy) I was convinced it needed to be looked at...(I did this on a Saturday- of course- no doctors office open, no clinics open in my network- so off to emergency I go- embarrassed all the way!!!)

Just thought I'd share my story... 3 stitches and a tetanus shot- woooo hooooooo!! I am such a DORK!!!!

(hey, but I did decide to start up recycling again! ~LOL!!)see, it's not that bad, it's still a bit swollen- honestly, the shot (tetanus) and the splint are the worst part.