Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Most of the people who pay attention to this blog know this already, but as of tomorrow Liz and I are vegetarians for the whole month of August. No chicken, beef, pork, and not even fish. It's going to be tough but we aren't going at this alone.

After briefly mentioning it in a previous blog, Scott and Hillary (Liz's brother and sister in Colorado (see the link on the right (yes I have 3 sets of parenthesis))) emailed me and said "We would totally do that with you!" So we chose August as the best month to do it. Why August? Well I think this was brought up around April-ish and I wasn't so prepared that I wanted it to be May, June and July were shot because Liza was here, October was shot because of my marathon, and November and December because you've got to be kidding me. So that left us August and September and I'd rather be eating meat during the part of training that I am doing 17 and 20 mile runs, so August it is!

I also found out this week that Liz's Mom will be joining us but I haven't gotten a definitive answer whether she is including fish in her vegetarian month. I'll let her comment on that :).

So I think the only thing left to be answered is the why, and I think the only answer I can give is "why not?" I could go into a big list of pros and cons like my brain always likes to do, but I won't this time. There's absolutely no down side other than the fact that you'd miss meat. You aren't going to go into meat withdrawal. I don't think there is a whole lot I'll be missing out on other than protein and I'm fully prepared to make it up with some beans and peanut butter. I know for some argumentative people this statement is difficult not to pounce on, but I think being vegetarian is healthier. I am hoping that by giving up meat I will realize that my plate doesn't have to revolve around one substance and I will eat less because of it. I think we'll be doing a lot more snacking on things like watermelon and bananas. I think our(and by "our" I mean Liz and I'm going to try really hard to contribute) cooking is going to become a lot more creative because we can no longer just throw some sausage on the grill and make a side item. It's going to be a lot more casseroles and stir-fries and pasta recipes.

If we get nothing else out of the month, we will get some sweet new recipes and a better work ethic around the house. Liz has checked out 5 vegetarian books from the library and we have a big huge list of options now for dinners. I was thinking Vegetarian Month was going to be less expensive but looking at what goes into these meals, it might be the same.

I will update periodically on our progress but tonight as our "last meal", it's cube steak parmesan... mmm... delicious cow.

I am writing this blog entry with no direction in mind so be aware of that as I ramble.

I have been feeling very guilty about the negativity I have brought to my blogs about Liza. I figured I needed to rectify that with another post.

Only 10% of the time was she ever difficult to deal with. As you could see in my last post, she didn't like showers, going to bed, and was randomly nasty in situations, like for example, when we picked her up at places, which still mystifies us. That was it though. The other 90% of the time she was either all smiles and giggling or just completely quiet and shy. I think her true personality was the one we saw the most and I have to blame the issues we had with her on the fact that she was being an 8 year old and many miles away from home.

I think respect played into it a lot too. I don't think she expected two 20-somethings to be taking care of her and telling her what to do. I think had we been an older family with kids she would have treated us differently and with more respect. Maybe she saw us as more the baby-sitter type that she could get away with a lot on our watch.

The honest truth is that I missed her a lot today. I kept thinking about where she might be in her travels home. If I calculated it right she should be getting home around 8 or 9 PM tonight Eastern Standard Time. She is right now on a bus from Kiev, Ukraine on her way to Minsk, Belarus. Tuesdays were always my days to stay home with her and when I came home at lunch I couldn't help but notice how empty the house felt. I got the same feeling when we dropped Daisy off at the kennel and don't even get me started on how it feels when Liz goes to NY for a week. It is just a weird feeling without Liza around and it will just take time to adjust again.

Liza is a good girl with a good heart. She really cared for Daisy and Gryffin and gave them a lot of love and attention. One time Gryffin ran across her legs and seeing how he has unusually long nails for a dog, he scratched her legs up. She easily could have gotten angry and hit him or yelled at him but she didn't. She is also extremely intelligent and hard working. She would often times just sit down and read on her own or write out her multiplication tables. She had homework for her bible classes she attended and she finished 4 weeks of homework the day after her first class. We never had to care about it because she already did everything. It was amazing.

There are so many good qualities about her that it stinks we let her difficulties get the best of us. Hopefully I can show those good qualities with some videos here soon. I think we'd love to have her back next year but only if she wants to. She can't come here with an attitude that she is being forced to be here. We know her well enough that that is never a good thing. Plus we want a child who wants to be helped. She is in perfectly good health so if she doesn't come back, I don't think Liz and I would feel guilty at all. We would just request another child that is in need of help. Hopefully over the next few months she realizes what a great time she had and what a wonderful opportunity it was and will want to come back.

I realize my blogs have been on the wordy side and lacking the picturey side so I'll do my best to correct that soon.

This is my blog to attempt to sum up the last 6 weeks with Liza. I will admit I haven't done a good job keeping up with blogs about her. I think partly because anytime I geared up to blog, she would do something to annoy us and I'd end up putting it by the waste side because you never want to blog angry. So now that she has left, I am finally prepared, and this may be a long one.

As most of you know she left this morning and it was a chaotic exit to say the least. She was supposed to be at the airport at 9:15, fly out at 11:40 to JFK, and then fly from JFK to Kiev, Ukraine. We got an email at 8:40 saying "Flights canceled", stay home and wait for more information. So then at 10 we get an email that said "GO TO AIRPORT ASAP." The flight schedules got completely butchered and the kids got split into 3 groups and Liza will fly through Atlanta, Dusseldorf Germany, and then to Kiev.

As far as how the exit went emotionally, I will get to that in a bit.

Liz and I have mixed feelings on the visit. Like I've said in the past, at times she was an angel and just so happy and lively and wonderful to us. Other times she was the biggest brat, unappreciative of everything, and treated us like we were the meanest people on the planet. I will give some examples of her wonderfulness:

• Her laugh was too adorable.
  
• Her craftiness. She loved play-doh and drawing and Liz loved being crafty with her and spend time scrapbooking and taking pictures.
  
• She loved playing copy-cat with us, imitating everything we did. She would giggle endlessly imitating me dancing and me speaking. It was fun to reverse it on her when she broke character, and she'd throw her hands down and go "nooo" just cracking up laughing.
  
• There were times when she wanted to know what everything was in English. We would point to something and say it in English and she would learn that word. At one point she was joking around and just started naming all the words she knew in English, it was really cute.
  
• She was always a really good eater. Saturday night was the first time she didn't enjoy her dinner, it was Chicken Teryaki from Pei Wei. Her favorite foods were watermelon, grilled cheese with pepperoni in it, and chicken fingers and fries.
  
• She always wanted to do things herself. If she wanted to watch a movie and I started to get up to help her, she would go "DAT DAT DAT" and wave me to sit back down because she wanted to do it. It happened with everything especially with the dogs. She'd crate the dogs up, take them out, feed them.
  
• She always said thank you.
  
• She LOVES movies, especially Disney, which fits right into this family. I watch 15 movies a month on Netflix so to have a movie running all day long is awesome to me. Although I am a little tired of seeing Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and Ice Age. Her favorite was The Little Mermaid, and Liz and I never get tired of that one.
  

So you know I had to get to it. The negatives, things that drove us up the wall:

• She WILL NOT shower! Only twice did she shower without a fight and that was after the camp days in which she was out in the sun and sweating all day. Those days she came home and showered and we were stunned. However the other days were not like that. This past Wednesday was the worst without a doubt. She hadn't showered in 10 days, yes a week and a half. At about 8, we tried the old "shower then ice cream" trick but had no luck, she said no and just sat there. We turned off the TV and she stomped upstairs crying and slammed her bedroom door. After a few minutes we went up and the tears became wails and sobs and the "AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!" garbage that kids do just to make their crying louder. I am not joking, I think our heads were about to explode. It's nearly impossible to keep your cool in that situation with a normal child, then add to the fact that you can't communicate. So she balled up in the corner wailing still and after about 30 minutes I went in there, picked her up, and put her in the bathroom. Had it been my own child, 29 minutes ago she would have been in the shower with her clothes on. So she stood in the bathroom crying for another 10 minutes while the shower ran and Liz went in and threatened to call the interpreters. As most of you know from my previous blogs, this is not something Liza wants to have happen, so Liz left, Liza got in the shower and proceeded to curse in Russian. We say curse because it honestly sounded like she was saying something like "I hate you both! I can't wait to leave! You can't make me use shampoo! RRRAAARR!!!" So she went to bed with no ice cream and no words were exchanged between Liza and us until Friday.
  
• Going to bed was always a struggle. It was cute the first few weeks because anytime it was time for bed, it was time for us to deal with a new ailment that plagued Liza. One time it was her knee, another her elbow, another her finger. The funniest night was when we said "Ok bed time" and then all of a sudden an immense toothache caused her not to be able to leave the couch. It's terrible to say but we cracked up laughing as she crawled up the stairs clutching her jaw. We finally figured out that if we and the dogs went to bed at the same time as her, she had no problem going to bed. So win-win.
  
• Anytime we picked her up from places like camp, bible school, the doctors office, or anything, she was not happy to see us. If we tried to ask her, "how was camp", "fun?", "tired?", or try and help her carry what she was holding, she would throw her hands down, let out a big huff, and throw a mean disdainful look at us, as if to say "stop talking to me". We finally decided we'd not talk to her until she talked to us. That worked pretty well.
  
• Without sleep she got REALLY grumpy and was nasty in the mornings. If we let her sleep in she would be all smiles.
  

So in retrospect the list of positives far out weigh the negatives.

So this morning we were not expecting a lot of emotion from her as far as leaving. I think we were prepared for her just saying "ok bye" and heading up the escalator. I think what surprised us is that we were dead on with our expectations. She gave Liz a hug but it was completely unemotional for Liza. I then tried to give her a hug but it was the kind where I was hugging her arms too. Maybe as an only child she doesn't get a lot of love and attention, who knows? When it finally became time for her group of 8 to head up the escalator and she turned around to just wave at us and she gave us the going through the emotions goodbye and said "bye, bye, bye, bye" as if we were just dropping her off at camp again. While we would have liked a little more emotion and thanks from her we understand that she is only 8 and is going home to her Mom who she misses very much.

On the way home, Liz and I talked about it and we agree that the sad emotions from our side of dropping her off wasn't from the fact that we'll miss her or that we are sad to see her go, it is directly due to the fact that we are surrounded by other families with the opposite experience. The kids were crying and giving big hugs and most of the Belarussian kids were very sad to be leaving. It was clear that they all loved being there in America. In the meantime, we were standing there with our child who 2 minutes before we say goodbye, gets mad at us because all the other kids had backpacks and she had to carry her heavy carry-on bag over her shoulder (let's ignore the fact that 24 hours earlier at the store, Liz tried to buy Liza a backpack for her trip and Liza refused saying "no backpack"). It was the same bag she came with, and it was NOT that heavy, but she was annoyed at us anyway. Liza is not spoiled, she never wanted anything when we went shopping for her but usually we could gauge whether she was just being polite. But nonetheless, she was angry at us because she didn't have a backpack. It was the perfect ending to a trip with the same ups and downs.

While at the airport we were talking to a woman who goes to our church and also talking to her Belarussian boy named Artsiom. Artsiom is a perfect gentlemen who when walking into the conversation, shook my hand and said "hello". I think that's rare for a 13 year old. I asked him to ask Liza some questions. The first three he asked were "did you have fun here?" "will you miss Michael and Liz?" and "Do you want to come back next year", and as expected she gave a definitive "no". Then I just had to ask the question we all knew the answer too, "will you miss the dogs?" and of course it was a "YES!".

She doesn't want to come back and if she doesn't then we don't want her back. Although I will say we'd be happy to have her. Her Mom emailed us and said that she'd like Liza to come back next year. So as for next year, who knows? We will see.

Miles run this week: 3, 6, 3.5, 10.3

So I just completed week 5 and this coming week is a "rest week" so that will be a nice change. I am pretty exhausted physically but I must admit I am not as sore as I thought I'd be and training has started to kick my butt yet. So I'm looking forward to the future progress. The runs during the week were easy and they are getting easier. I am doing all of these runs at or faster than 9 minutes a mile and for the 3 and 6 mile runs they were pretty easy and I finished without feeling exhausted. I expect that to only get even better from here on out.

I was not looking forward to the 10 mile run today. It will be my last run on a treadmill for a while. It was at the gym which meant I didn't have to deal with the elements. I also got to watch some Nascar coverage which made the miles crawl by. Oh football season, where art thou? I started the run with a heart rate of 145 bpm and I finished at 160. The reason for this is I ran faster today than the 9 mile run last week. Today I was doing 6.7 mph (as opposed to 6.3) and for the last mile I went up and down between 7 and 8 mph. I ended up running for exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes so I got to 10.3 miles. I must note that this is faster than a 2 hour half marathon which is faster than I want to be running the marathon.

My first two marathons took 4:20 and 4:47. I have not set a goal for the upcoming marathon because it basically relies on how Brandon is doing as well. I know I want to go fast and finish as soon as possible but I also care more about helping a friend cross for the first time than beating some stupid times. With my enthusiasm as high as it is right now, I am tempted to schedule my next marathon so there will definitely be another after this (*cough* the flying pig *cough*).

The 10 miles really felt good and while I am tired especially after coming home and playing with Liza in the pool, that is to be expected. After finishing at 160 bpm, I stopped completely and after two minutes my heart rate fell to 127 so that's pretty good. I'd love to get that down to 110 or 100.

Liza leaves tomorrow :( so I will blog tonight a little more about her time here. Pictures may have to wait because we are busy packing.

mile counter: 65.8

What an amazing week of running! Who'd a thunk! I ran 3 miles on Tuesday, 4 miles on Wednesday and then 3 miles on Thursday. I have to note that I drank 24 ounces of milk while writing the running blog last Tuesday and that wasn't smart before a 3 mile run. But I ran all 3 of those runs at 9 minute miles which is good enough for me right now. The Wednesday one was tough and miserable but I finished it with a little walking. Sometimes the point of runs is not to do them fast but to do them period. Especially the long ones between 15 and 20 miles.

Today I ran 9 miles on the treadmill at the gym and did it in 1 hour and 25 minutes. I basically set the treadmill at 6.3mph and then finished the last mile at 6.5 mph. I didn't feel tired after it either. My legs were a bit sore but it was a great run. The amazing part is that from the second I started to the second I finished, my heart rate never moved from 145 bpm. 9 miles and my heart was still 145!! Granted it was indoors with no wind or heat but during my first marathon, I set a goal for myself to not exceed 160 bpm before the 10 mile marker. I am already there!! That's ridiculously exciting. I am very encouraged and am looking forward to the running this week.

I have read that a good predictor of your physical condition is your heart rate 2 minutes after you completely stop running. If you are in good physical condition it should be 40 bpm slower. I was speed walking for 3 minutes after the run and my heart rate was 125 after 3 minutes. And then I stopped completely and stood still for 2 minutes and my heart rate after that was 100 bpm. So it's not too bad, definitely have some improvements to make there. I think next time I'm going to stop immediately to see what it is.

Anyway, I'm psyched about running now and hopefully I can keep up the training!!

mile counter: 43

Tomorrow Liz, Liza, Liz's Mom, Liz's Dad and I are all going to Wet-n-Wild Emerald Point. It's a massive water park. Liza is psyched and so are we. Check it out:

http://www.emeraldpointe.com/

Hopefully we can get some good pictures and post them this week.

Back in 2002, I started co-oping with IBM and rooming with Justin, who was a web development fanatic. I really have him to thank for much of what I know about websites and how to run them, but at that time I was looking for a hobby. I workg during the day and after a while, coming home and watching TV just isn't that entertaining. My list of prospective hobbies got narrowed down to two activities I was interested in, web development and motor powered remote control cars. Obviously you know what I chose, but remote controlled anythings always interested me. I was on my own for the first time with money of my own for the first time so I really could choose whatever I wanted. The idea that I could get a little motor running that causes the car to go 40 MPH is amazing to me. I figured I'd learn a lot about motors and engineering and have fun at the same time. Never happened, but maybe some day...

A week ago I finally retired the website that I began that summer in 2002. I used it as a platform for developing school websites, messing around with personal sites, and creating my own personal blog. It wasn't expensive to own (about $80 a year) but I haven't used it consistently for a year and a half since we started this blog and I saw no reason why I needed it anymore. I am definitely going to miss it. I always enjoyed having a little space of my own on the internet. But I don't need it anymore. Liz and I have our own space now, it's right here on this page.

I think some company is trying to take advantage of the traffic because for now it's an advertisement site. I've got news for them though... not a lot of people go there... give it up.

RIP fultonjr.com.

Running has been such an after thought lately for me. With Liza here and the summer heat and so much fun in my life it's been tough to make time for an activity that makes me miserable. But as miserable as I feel while running lately, I'm going to drive on and train for the marathon I'm running on October 26th, The Marine Corp Marathon. Here's a link to the course.

This blog post is just as much for me as it is for any readers who care about the fact that I like to run. Ha! I just just said "like". I used to like to run but lately it has felt like a chore and something I am doing because I feel like I have to. To be honest, I do have to. If I don't run, I slowly gain weight and I have noticed lately that my endurance has really not been the same as it used to be. Weight gain has come to a crawl though since I've been eating more organic food and eating more in the house rather than going out all the time but it's still there. So I have no choice but to continue to run and force myself to like it again. It's just my performance and the results that have pulled me down.

So I am currently in week 4 of the 18 week marathon training, which requires a 3 mile run today, 4 mile run Wednesday, 3 mile run Thursday, and 9 mile run on Saturday. So far the longest run I've done is 6 miles and I've done that 3 times in the last month. Two of the times went fine(54ish minutes) but the last one, this past Sunday, was miserable. I ran with John which normally means my competitive spirit comes out and we have a great run, but 3 miles in I just threw in the towel and we ran/walked all the way to the end. I am not going to use this as an excuse but we ran at 1PM and I hadn't had any lunch, I biked to get there which is a 5 mile bike ride on a mountain bike, and it was mid-90's and really humid. It was a recipe for disaster so I can't be too bummed about it but I also am not thrilled to ever have a bad run.

So this will be the first week I will actually stick to my training. To avoid the heat Saturday I am going to run on a treadmill at the gym so that should really improve things since I have no heat to compete with. I am going to try my best to update every week on the blog on how I am doing in running just to keep myself motivated. I want to get back to where running is fun and feel great doing it. I am running the marathon with a friend named Brandon from school and I read his blog about how lately the first mile is miserable and the rest is great. I remember those times and I'm going to work to get back to them. His blog has been really motivational for me but at the same time I envy the brand new exciting feeling of running and succeeding for the first time. For me though it has just been miserable the whole way through so far. I'm both out of shape and completely exhausted of motivation.

So as I push "publish post" I am heading out to do my 3 mile run and I won't stop until I complete it. Then after the run I am playing a softball game. Just like the first time I used the program, I'm going to once again rely on the training program to prepare me and trust that I will improve.

For anyone interested in seeing the training program, it is put together by a man named Hal Higdon. I followed this same program for my first marathon and it went spectacularly. The second marathon, I attempted to follow his "Intermediate I" program but toward the end I trailed off and did my own thing. I mean if you look at some of the weeks, it asks you to run 8 miles and 12 miles in back to back days. No thanks.

I'm sure inquiring minds want to know how Liza is doing and how we are doing with her? I keep saying I will blog when I have time and I promise I will. It's just whenever I get the time she then picks that time to annoy me and I don't want to blog when I'm annoyed. So alas, it gets put off. 80% of the time she is wonderful but the other 20% of the time she gets an attitude that even baffles the interpreters. Maybe that's what her Mom meant when she emailed us and the first thing she asked was "How is her behavior?"

Maybe tonight after softball I will blog about her.

Since Brandon started a mile counter during training, I might as well post one and keep track: 24

I am not feeling very wordy so this may be a short blog. I apologize. So we had a garage sale on June 28th. It was incredibly successful. I woke up at 4AM and started setting things up and Matt and Meg came over as well as Andrius and Kristin. So we had 3 families worth of stuff but we were not very hopeful. We kept having conversations like this before anyone arrived:

"I think I'll start it at 10 dollars and then bring it down as the day progresses."

"Yeah, but you are assuming that we have people here that care."

But somehow, someway, at 7AM sharp people started coming. We had a constant flow of people from 7AM until 11AM and then it went down from there. All in all the 3 families made $600 and we came away with about $200. We still have a considerable amount left though so we'll either save it for another sale or donate it to Goodwill. Here is a few pictures:

After the garage sale we went to the pool. Liza loves the pool so here is a picture of that:


This past weekend we went to Pawleys Island and that was a blast. It was amazing because we were camped out both days on the part of the beach where the marshland meets the ocean so during high tide the water flowed toward the marsh and during low tide the water flowed toward the ocean. So the whole time there was this flow of water we could hop into and float down. It was really enjoyable.

One funny story, Gryffin really won my heart this weekend. Jon and I took Dewey and Gryffin over to the flowing water because Gryffin showed interest in water and Dewey loves swimming in water. When we got there we realized the water was too strong for Gryffin so we just waded a bit. I then said to Jon "I bet I could swim upstream against the water" and he responds "I'll give you 5 bucks if you can for 30 seconds." So I handed him Gryffin and hopped in and started swimming. I made it for a good 15 seconds when all of a sudden Gryffin jumped in to save me. Or at least that's the way I like to think of it. He was just floating on down the river making no progress whatsoever. But it was so cute to see his little paws doggie paddling as fast as possible. He could float so that was at least something. I immediately stopped and grabbed him and helped him back to shore. But he really won me over with his effort to try and save me.

Here are our favorite pictures and then the photo album of the weekend. If you click the album, it will take you to the pictures:








http://picasaweb.google.com/EMDickman/4thOfJuly

I apologize we haven't blogged about Liza in a while. I am a bit disgruntled with her right now and her attitude about... hmm... pretty much everything. I will try and blog the next time she is sweet so it's not so negative.

Instead of saving the top of our wedding cake last year, we had our baker make us a mini cake to celebrate with. And it was good....