Socorro got it's second dusting of snow yesterday and it was just enough to build a little snowman this morning.  Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and enjoy continuing or starting new family traditions.  We've already driven around to look at lights and we're getting ready to open a gift, make reindeer food, and settle in with Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Another Great Day...

We were welcomed with beautiful weather today. Steven and I both got our runs in and spent good quality time with the girls. Now that Grace is getting older and not needing me so often to eat...I can use that time to work out, do homework, and spend time with Emsters. So, when Steven got back from his run Emma and I went for a bike ride. We rode through Tech, collected Mistletoe, and played at the park together. We climbed on a swing together and sat like a "spider". We laughed and laughed, the higher we got the more we laughed! I felt like a kid again. No worries or responsibilities, just magic. It was a lot of fun, just the two of us.

When Grace was six weeks old I started running again...only to pull a muscle in my stomach. So, I stopped running for a while and have now recently started again....thanks to my husband, and friends Emily and Fran. Without them I would not be able to get myself out the door on a regular basis and go more than twenty minutes! So, our longest run was Monday...a ten miler in the drizzling rain. It was really beautiful. I got home and plopped myself on the couch. Steven and Emma both said "Are you ok, you were gone for forever"! It was perfect timing though because Steven had hamburgers on their way...special delivery by his mom. I really enjoy getting out with Emily and Fran; they are very encouraging and supportive. It feels so good to be running again and I really like that Emma sees me doing it. I think it is really important for her to see her mom for more than the one who takes care of the babies!

Socorro saw snow for the first time in a while! Emma enjoyed playing outside, running around, and throwing snowballs! She stayed outside last night until about 7:00pm playing. I even got a night run in with Fran and Emily...lots of fun!

Thanksgiving

No Holiday is complete in our house without arts and crafts and this Thanksgiving was no different. Lindsey and Emma made some Thanksgiving Luminarias for the outside of the house and some very edible and delicious pilgrim hat treats for desert. I got in trouble for eating too many of them and I had the girls make more on Sunday because they were so good.

The weather in Socorro could not have been better and we were able to spend lots of time outside enjoying the sun and our pup, Kona.

The turkey came out great. It was the first time that I prepared the bird and I decided to try and deep fry it and it came out surprisingly moist and flavorful. Lucky that my brother in law the fireman was here to make sure there were no 911 calls.

The big hit of the day was our new Wii game, Band Hero. We all rocked out pretty good and really enjoyed laughing and having a good time. Here I am doing my best Brett Michaels impersonation singing, Every Rose Has it's Thorn. In middle school I knew Poison was always going to be cool! Since Band Hero does have 3 Taylor Swift songs, Emma was able to dress up as her favorite singer and do her best impersonation also.

A well deserved rest on the couch with 2 of my 3 girls.

All good things must come to an end.

This has been my first week without XC and it has been a difficult pill to swallow. On Monday I think I was actually depressed and I moped around for most of the evening. I had worked with these kids roughly five days and sometimes six days a week since July. Unlike other sports I have coached, I never looked forward to this season ending. I love this sport and I love the kids that I am lucky enough to work with. Nobody ever gets into coaching for the money and I know I could be in better shape and see my family more if I didn't coach, but I would not be better off.

Today, we held our first annual run-a-thon at our school track so I was able to see all the kids in that environment one more time. I am hoping that this will prove to be a successful fundraiser for us and we will not have to do many more besides this one. The kids went out and got pledges per lap or donations and we ran around the track for an hour. Very easy for one thing. There are even different levels of fundraising a kid can achieve and they can earn things in return like T shirts, hoodies, or a Nike watch. So after school, we all met one last time at our normal spot and ran. My top boys ran in sync and comfortable at 7:30 pace, finishing 32 laps in the hour. Most importantly, we had fun one more time. Money is not due for a little while longer so we'll see how we did. With all of the expected budget cuts I am unsure of the funding we will have for XC next year. It is unfortunate that sports like XC are affected when in reality we really need very little at all. We are in fact, just about self sufficient. If anyone reading this would like to make a donation to the team or a pledge to any individual on the team that you might know, please let me know via email: stevenmontoya (at) q.com


Wednesday has also become our newspaper day for XC. The state championships were only the second race that I did not have to send in an emailed race report. There were actually two newspaper reporters attending from rival Socorro area newspapers. Here is a link to the Defensor Chieftain article. Some other notes on the team and their performance:

• 11 kids ran personal bests out of the 12 runners Socorro took
• Both the SHS boys and girls records were broken
• First time we had both a boys and girls team qualify for the meet
• Tim Abeyta finished 33 places and 1:21 faster than 2008
• We graduate zero girls from our state team and our oldest girls were sophomores this year
• The girls beat rival Cobre, by 62 points, after having finished runner up at district to them
• We finish the season with 4 trophies. 4 more than last year :)
• We will graduate 2 very good boys from our state team who I will miss but I look forward to see who will "step up"
• We had fun and we got faster. When you work hard, good things happen.

As for now, I need to start running more as I have a marathon in December. I am also working on the end of the year DVD for team and will share that when it is finished. I will show it at out banquet which I also need to get planned. A lot of my kids have already started swimming and I look forward to watching them learn something new and become a better person because of it. And last but certainly not least, I get to see my family a little more. Nothing beats that.

Master's in Technology

When we moved back to Socorro, my teaching contract stated that I would have to complete my master's degree within five years....So, last year I started my Master's Degree in Technology through Lesley University. It is a pretty easy program that meets one weekend a month for 22 months. The classes are easy, and most of them I do not really learn anything new. However, since Grace was born I decided to take one of my classes online so that I would not have to leave her, and this class has been the best one so far! It is a lot of work, very time consuming, but fun! I am learning so much about web design (in code) and how to really use Photoshop. My problem is that I could spend so much time...maybe too much time "playing" with photoshop. I am not that good at but I am learning and I am getting my money's worth with this class! Here are a couple of pictures that I had fun editing!