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its rainbow day in the first grade! I hope Bee finds a pot of gold!!!

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this is the red hot needle Ive been using to pop my blisters. When blisters are the size of california it takes several tries… In other news Chooch is back to her old self after having her reproductive rights stripped from her two weeks ago. She was out and about on a 3 mile trek this morning, that with criss crossing, zig zagging, and all around craziness must have added up to about 12.8 miles for her…

>Barefoot running seems to be all the rage these days…According to Runners World, “based on your body’s proprioceptive abilities–that is, the way it can communicate up and down all pathways. When you run barefoot, your body precisely engages your vision, your brain, the soles of your feet, and all the muscles, bones, tendons, and supporting structures of your feet and legs. They leap to red alert, and give you a high degree of protection from the varied pressures and forces of running.” Barefoot running sites have popped up all over the web. I even read a series of articles about it in the new york times. Now I have been curious about this but am too afraid to try it outside – i dont want to step on glass or something worse!
So, when scott went out of town on sunday and I was stuck running on the treadmill or not at all, I decided hey lets try barefoot running. My goal was to do a simple 4 miles. Well, it felt great! I thought, hey there is something to this! Well, that is until about mile 2.5, then my the soles of my feet started to hurt. I made it another half mile before i had to stop. When I looked at my feet i had blisters the size of california!

>Cho Cho has a new middle name. Its Zippity. Cho Cho Irish Bag of NutBags, Zippity Calabrese Barton, or CCIBoNZCB for short. Here she is after zipping around the playground:

>Marble school is closed for the rest of the week due to over half the kids being absent from what they think is H1N1. Party time, Bee says! (I should note that today was Bee’s first day back at school since she got the flu on friday, so it really is party time for her.)

>Both Bee and Frankie have had what is probably H1N1 – at least the Ingham County health department reports that it is H1N1 that is going around. I read in this morning’s paper that Bee’s school has been hit pretty hard so far in east lansing, with 32% of the kids absent yesterday! Now that is a lot of kids! The rest of us are eating oranges like they are going out of style. Even Cho Cho is liking oranges. The good news is that Bee was better yesterday, and frankie is on the mend herself. So, wash your hands and take your vitamin C!

>the flu has hit east lansing! Poor Bee is down for the count, along with half of her school. Not sure if its the type-a a or h1n1 but she has the fever, congestion, headache, malaise, etc. We actually tried on Monday to get flu shots at the clinic but they had run out, and said “try again next week.”

But the good news is that the extended forecast has been revised and we are looking at highs in the 60s this week! Yahoooooo!! And it is brilliantly sunny today and the foliage is more vibrant than it has been in the last few years. Last year seemed to go from yellow to brown. This year we have so much more fire red and bright orange. I will try to take a pic. I think i posted a while back that the warm and sunny september days and cold nights were good for foliage and the trees did not let us down.

Scott is going out to fix our garage door, which is stuck partway open. So we cant get car or bikes out, nor can we shut it all of the way. Go scott Go!

>Sunday, Oct 25

Periods of snow

>Here is Bee performing Skip to my Lou! We got a 3/4 sized guitar on Monday and Im giving her guitar lessons. We are starting with simple chords (C and G7), and also how to read music. We are using a kids learn to play guitar book that claims to be the easier guitar method ever! I couldnt remember if when I learned to play guitar if I started with notes or chords, but Bee likes the chord approach. After she gets these two chords down, we will move onto D7 so we’ll be sure to update you!

>So maybe you remember the picture of our pumpkins from a week ago? Well, we added another little one (from the garden). And last night would you believe that someone stole our pumpkin!! But, they only stole our “Meijer” pumpkin – they left our two little home grown punkies (as frankie was calling them because they are baby pumpkins). Why they opted for that Meijer pumpkin over our little punkies is beyond me!! ha ha. Here is our porch this morning – i think the little punkies miss their mama!