15 down, 45 to go. Another exhausting weekend is in the books. It’s fun to see new places and meet new people, but wow is this tiring!

First things first, I ran the Knoxville Marathon yesterday. It wasn’t a particularly easy run for me, but are they ever? You can read my race report here. Also, I got write-ups today in Knoxville News Sentinel and also in the Knoxville Shopper-News, although I don’t have a link to that second article yet.

Just in case this is your first time here, I’m a marathon runner and a father of three. My middle child, 6-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and I’m attempting to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a great charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m accomplishing my goals and I’ve completed 15 of the 60 races.

Mess With The Calf And You Get The Bull
My weekend started a little earlier than I would have liked on Friday. We had an incident with Benjamin at school and I had an issue with how the school was managing his safety. I’m pretty big on protecting Ava, 4, my only daughter, and Jack, 6 1/2, my special-needs child. But nobody messes with Benjamin, 8 1/2, either.

I was in a pretty grumpy mood when I got to his school, but he was pretty happy to see me there, knowing I have his back. As a dad, it was a pretty cool feeling. I didn’t make any friends Friday afternoon, but I wasn’t trying to make any friends. Nobody hits my son and gets away with it. The end.

Proud To Be A Kansas State Wildcat
Most of you probably already know that I’m a K-State grad. We always say “It’s a great day to be a Wildcat!” after big wins, and then we often correct ourselves and say, “Win or lose, it’s always a great day to be a Wildcat!”

Last Thursday, we had an epic game against Xavier in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. I had a blast watching that game, but the double-overtime thriller probably took about 10 years off my life! We lost to Butler Saturday and narrowly missed advancing to the Final Four, but I’m still proud to be a Wildcat. I love my school and I’m glad I chose it.

This season was an unexpected surprise. If you would have told me in October we would have won three times as many Tourney games as rival Kansas, I would have never believed it.

As for the Final Four, I think I’m like about 90 percent of this country, pulling for Butler. I’d love to see a mid-major, with a coach who looks like he still gets carded for beer, win the whole thing. Plus, if the Cats are going to lose, let them lose to the eventual champs!

Good thing college basketball isn’t like college football. Otherwise, we’d be sitting around waiting for Kansas and Syracuse to play in about a month.

I’m Officially Settling Any Five Guys Vs. In-N-Out Debate
I ate Five Guys yesterday after the race. It was absolutely delicious. It was enough for lunch AND dinner.

One thing I really liked about Five Guys was that you can get mushrooms on the burger, a huge plus. The fries are pretty tasty, too. I got the cajun variety and they’re super salty, which I dig. They have Coke Zero on the fountain, another huge plus in my book.

The burger tasted like it came straight from my grill, and I was absolutely full afterwards. That says a lot, because I eat a ton, and I rarely get full on race days. All in all, it was a great meal.

That being said, In-N-Out is better. The portions aren’t as big, but bite-for-bite, it holds a slight edge. It’s kind of like a Ferrari beating a Viper in a race. They’re both fast. But one has to be faster. And In-N-Out is better than Five Guys. It’s just a solid burger, with slightly better quality and better vegetables. It’s also easier to eat. And as a tiebreaker, you get a better value for your dollar with In-N-Out. A meal costs about $6 there, vs. about $9 at Five Guys.

I know you were dying to get my analysis on the subject. So, you’re welcome.

Minor Details
I flew home through Atlanta last night. My plane was there on time for the 8:40 p.m. departure. The only thing missing was the pilot. We waited, and waited, and waited. Our on-time arrival time was scheduled for 10:41 and Orange County has an 11 p.m. curfew, so if you miss it, you get re-routed to Los Angeles and then bused down. It makes for a pretty late night, especially when you woke up at 2:10 a.m. Pacific time to get ready to run a marathon in the Eastern time zone.

By 8:40, we hadn’t even started boarding. We started getting on a little before 9 p.m., but then sat there on the tarmac for what seemed like forever. We FINALLY took off at 9:36 p.m. and once we were in the air, they told us we would land at 10:56. We touched down with a nice, rough landing at 10:45 p.m., and we didn’t have to go to LA, but it was a little closer than I would have liked.

The Joys of Technology
I told Tiff to text me or email me if she went to bed so I’d know not to call when we landed. When I powered on my phone, there was no text or email from her, so I sent her a note to let her know we landed safely. I waited a few minutes and didn’t hear from her, so I called her cell (I didn’t want to call the home phone and wake anybody up). About 10 minutes went by, and then I saw … a Facebook status update from her? So I changed my Facebook status to the following:

Sam is mad that Tiff won’t return his texts or calls, but is playing on Facebook. Maybe she’ll reply here? Hey babe, I landed safe, be home in 30!

Well apparently, her cell phone died, and she was just getting it charged back up when she responded to my text at about the same time I posted my status. So, I pulled it down. Only in 2010, huh?

The Joys of Technology, Pt. II
I don’t think I posted this last week, but this was pretty cool, so I figured I’d mention it. On my flight home from Virginia last week, I had a code for a free wi-fi session, so I was able to do all sorts of things — post a race report, update some code on the Operation Jack site, send emails and play around on Twitter and Facebook. But the coolest thing I did was do a video chat with my wife, Benjamin and Ava on iChat. Nothing like saying hi from 35,000 feet!

Thank You Orler Family!
I met Bob Orler of Knoxville through Operation Jack and Twitter and he offered to put me up at his house over the weekend. I had a nice time hanging out with him, his wife and kids, his brother-in-law and his in-laws. We chatted for a while and watched a fair amount of basketball.

Bob ran his first marathon yesterday and couldn’t have picked a tougher course! We celebrated with Five Guys afterwards and then watched some more basketball. Not only does staying with a host family increase the amount that goes to Train 4 Autism — it makes the time away from my own family a little less lonesome. So thank you Bob and Jennifer!

By the time I’m through with my first 18 races of Operation Jack, I’ll have spent only five nights in motel rooms and nine nights in hosts’ homes.

That’s All For Today
Have a great Monday everybody! I know I say that every Monday, but that’s better than wishing you a lousy Monday right?

I was expecting a great weekend, and it was exactly as planned. In the span of about two days, I had a nice, 24-hour vacation with my wife, a great marathon and a day off with plenty of time with the kids and my relatives. What more could I ask for?

First things first, the reason I’m here and blogging is Operation Jack, my attempt to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for Train 4 Autism. This weekend was marathon No. 13 so far this year, the Catalina Marathon. The scenery was amazing and I was pretty happy with how I ran. You can read my recap here and see a pretty sweet photo of me wearing a medal with a pink ribbon that I won for taking third in my age group. My first pink medal. Probably my last.

Stuck On An Island Without The Kids!
Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids. But since this weekend’s race was on Catalina, an island 26 miles off the coast of Southern California, I dragged Tiff along with me and we had a nice little getaway. We got to eat our meals while they were warm and have grown-up conversations! It was awesome! I just had to run 26.2 miles up and down mountains to hold up my end of the bargain. One of the best parts is that we were still home by 6 p.m. Saturday night, so I also had plenty of extra time to spend with the kids.

Not The Greatest Hotel Experience
One condition I had when I booked my hotel was that I needed to check out no earlier than noon. A lot of hotels had an 11 a.m. checkout time, but with the race starting at 7, and my expected finish time somewhere in the 3:45 neighborhood, I needed it to be at least noon.

I checked with at least a dozen places and had a few that were OK with noon. I ended up going with a place called Hotel Macrae based on cost, although it was only a $6 difference over two other hotels — nothing significant. They told me their checkout time was 11 a.m., but late checkout at noon wouldn’t be a problem. They also told me they’d hold our luggage for us while we waited for our boat back.

Much to my displeasure when I checked in (after I had paid), they told me noon would be a problem and I’d have to be out by 11. They wouldn’t even let me stretch it until 11:30, although they told me they had a room I could use to shower and change in after the race.

The race started late due to a boat docking problem, so we were a few minutes late getting out. They weren’t very pleased, so I guess the feeling was mutual. I came to find out the “room” I was supposed to shower in was a public restroom on the hotel grounds. Not awesome.

I was going to ask about the luggage, but I saw an open space with cubby holes and somebody being directed to leave their bags there. I also saw a sign that said something like, “At your own risk, hotel not responsible for stolen belongings.” So yeah, we dragged our bags around Catalina for 3 1/2 hours. Again, not awesome.

As for the room, it was small and old. Nothing special. Not even a phone. Maybe we didn’t have the best room, because apparently, the one next to ours was the honeymoon suite. Definitely not awesome.

Sunday — Off!
No work, no travel, no running on Sunday. I truly had the day off. I haven’t had one of those in I-don’t-know-how-long. Even with the time change, I got eight hours of sleep. I went to church with the family and got my favorite donuts (maple old-fashioned). I went to Home Depot and then Advanced Hyperbarics with Jack.

I went to a family function celebrating my Uncle Marty’s 50th birthday and got to see a bunch of relatives, which was nice. I played soccer with Benjamin and Ava in the backyard, then ate dinner with them. I gave Ava a bath, worked on her with her reading then lost to her at Candyland. I got a chance to lick a bowl when my wife made some banana nut bread. I had some peanut butter fudge swirl ice cream, stretching my streak to 43 days in a row now.

In other words, I had a perfect Sunday. Or, maybe I just had a normal Sunday and I’m not used to this. How long until 2011? I could do this every week!

I’m Human! I Really Am!
I get a lot of comments like, “I don’t know how you do it” and “I don’t know how you’re still walking around” and all that kind of fun stuff. Well, I’m really just a guy, and for those of you who think I’m superhuman, I’d like you to know that my quads were KILLING ME yesterday! It hurt to walk downstairs, it hurt to get up when I was sitting down … I was pretty beat up.

This morning, I tried to run, but it hurt too much so I quit after 3/10 of a mile. I didn’t want to overcompensate for quad pain and injure something else with an altered stride. I know nobody wants me to feel pain, but I am human! Be glad to know I’m just like you!

A Restaurant We Just Couldn’t Pass Up
We saw a place called “Jack’s Country Kitchen” and there was no way we could go without eating there. So, we went there to eat after the race on Sunday.

The meal was great, and really, I only wrote that because I’m dying to post these pictures I put up on Facebook and Twitter on Saturday.

OK, That’s All For Today
I write these the night before and I’m pretty tired right now (Sunday night). So, I’m calling it quits for now. I’m pretty sure I know who won the contest to pick my race time, but I’ll confirm that Monday, notify that person and put it in the blog on Wednesday.

Have a great Monday, everybody!

What a weekend! It started with the kids and ended with the kids, included visits with old friends and meet-ups with new friends, and all-in-all, I was only away for 29 hours. If not for running my race poorly, I’d call it a pretty-close-to-perfect weekend!

Operation Jack Race 12
First things first — I ran the Napa Valley Marathon yesterday. It was marathon No. 12 so far for 2010, my third-fastest of the year. I went 3:11:47, but I was pretty disappointed with how I ran. I posted a recap here. I’m still sorting out the winner of the “pick Sam’s time” contest. I’ll update this later today with that info.

Science Fair!
Somehow, my wife and I helped our oldest son Benjamin get through the science fair on Friday. Last year, we totally messed it up. We were going to take him, but Tiff showed up fashionably late with him, because I spent a little too much time at the gym that day, and he missed it. The year before, I showed up fashionably late with him but everything was fine. Ben was really upset last year when he missed it, so Tiff vowed to him that he’d be able to actually be in the science fair this year.

The science fair was this past Friday night, so we guided him through his project. The big problem with that, though, is that I failed five science classes in high school and Tiff isn’t that much better with science than I am. She might actually be worse. But we helped him anyways. Seriously, it’s third-grade science.

His project was “Investigating Alternate Uses For Coca-Cola” and we did a bunch of experiments. I helped him write up the reports, but we asked the questions and made him come up with the answers. We could have come up with the answers for him, but I’m not the kind of parent to get into a competition with another parent to see which parent can do grade-school homework better. His project turned out fine, and it wasn’t necessarily world-changing, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s a third-grade project. He had a blast and got a medal and got to participate in the science fair.

I wanted to take a picture with him with both of us wearing the medals we earned this weekend, but he misplaced his. Typical Benjamin, but I love him anyways.

Trip To Napa
We had originally planned to make this a family trip up to Napa, but because of the science fair, we couldn’t leave Friday (we would have had to drive) so I flew solo on Saturday. It was nice — I slept in at home on Saturday, had a nice, big pancake breakfast with the family and then hung out at home for a little bit. But eventually, I had to go take care of business and fly to Oakland. I had a sweet flight up on Southwest — the flight was about 2/3 empty!

Catching Up With New Friends
At the expo in Napa, I went to meet somebody I’ve talked to a bunch but never met in person. Unfortunately, she got sick and I missed her. I got to meet her husband, though. She had a booth selling running skirts at the expo, and he came down to man it. He’s a firefighter, so I asked him if it would be a bad thing if the guys back at the station knew he was selling running skirts at an expo. Yes, he said, they’d give him plenty of grief. I should have taken a picture and collected some ransom. But then again, who wants to get beat up by a firefighter?

Later, I met a man I’ve talked to a lot named Ron. He’s super nice and super friendly, and I’ve had a ton of respect for his positive attitude and outlook on things. I’ve always wanted to meet him in person, and finally, I did! He was as friendly as I expected. We chatted for a while, then hung out at the pasta dinner for a few hours. He’s crazy fast (2:54:15 last year in Napa at age 45!) and crazy smart (graduated from MIT!). Even better, though — he’s crazy nice. We also hung out for a bit after the race on Sunday. He “only” went 2:56!

Catching Up With Old Friends
On my way to the airport, I caught up with an old friend from high school named Bobby. I say “old friend” because we were talking about how old we’re getting. We graduated high school in 1992, which seems like yesterday, but we realized that this year’s high school seniors were born in the year we graduated. So we’ve decided we’re old.

Anyways, we had a good time catching up for a little while and I now have a place to stay when I run San Francisco in July. I’m running myself into the ground, but I feel pretty fortunate that I’m able to meet up with people like Ron and Bobby when I go out of town.

Sunday’s Post-Race Dinner
Last night I went out with the family and my parents to Souplantation (it’s Sweet Tomatoes, depending on what part of the country you live in). Nothing beats an all-you-can-eat buffet on race day, especially when you can make the food healthy. One of the highlights of the meal came when Jack didn’t like the looks of one of the pieces of focaccia bread he was eating. He raised it in his hand like he was going to throw it, but he didn’t. We panicked for a split second.

We should have panicked for about 15 seconds, though, because that’s how long it took for him to chuck it. It bounced off a booth that another family was at. I guess he thinks he can get away with stuff like that just because he has his own website, his own line of t-shirts, tech shirts and sweatshirts, plus close to 1,300 fans on Facebook. Silly guy.

Later, that family left and the next family to sit there was that of one of Tiff’s trainers from the gym named Dee. I’d never met her, but Tiff told me that was her, and she hid her bowl of ice cream. “Oh my goodness, it’s Dee! She can’t see I’m eating ice cream!” So I turned over towards her and said, “Are you Dee?” She said yes. So I pointed over at my wife and said, “Yeah, she doesn’t want you to know she’s eating ice cream.” I’ve got Tiff’s back like that.

That’s Enough For Today
I’m crazy tired (writing this on Sunday night). It’s bed time. Have a great Monday!

Monday is always a weekend recap for me, and once again, it was pretty memorable. Scarface, stale Twinkies and a solid marathon. What more could I ask for?

First real quick, I ran some races this weekend. Yesterday, I ran the Tampa Gasparilla Marathon and was really happy with my race. On Saturday, I ran the Gasparilla 15K and the Gasparilla 5K. I was OK with the 15K, but pretty disappointed with the 5K.

I Think Tiff Might Kill Me For This
My flight was early (6:45 a.m.) on Friday morning, so I wouldn’t be around to help with the kids getting ready for school. Tiff normally sets her alarm for 5:30 a.m. and has everything rolling when I get in from my run at 6:30 a.m. I leave with Jack at 7:25 and she takes Benjamin and Ava to school. Since she was getting all three kids ready and leaving early with them to get Jack to school, I didn’t know what time she needed to set her alarm for, so I asked.

She said she only needed an hour to get everybody and out the door, which struck me as odd. She sets her alarm for an hour before anybody other than me even gets out of bed every day! She’s working hard every day at 5:30, or so I thought. Apparently, she likes to hit the snooze button for 45 minutes! For reals? I set my alarm, it’s a 10-minute snooze and I get out of bed a minute after it goes off. If I spend more than six minutes, I might not have time for my run. Is 45 minutes normal?

I was shocked and cracking up. She was laughing too, telling me that not everybody has as much energy as me. Maybe I just steal some of hers? Don’t sell her short, though — she works extremely hard and is an amazing mother and wife. I won’t put up with anybody stereotyping her as a lazy housewife, because she works way harder than me. But she snoozes for 45 minutes every day!

While we were laughing, she told me, “Don’t you DARE put this on Facebook!”

Don’t worry, babe … I didn’t!

Good Luck/Bad Luck Flying, Pt. 1
I went to Tampa with a runner friend of mine named Rachel. I booked seats 15A and 15C with the hope that nobody would take 15B and we’d get some space. On the first leg of our flight, we lucked out! Yeah! I was bummed, though, because we were on Frontier Airlines — they advertise that they have DirecTV on their flights, so we chose them and risked a shorter layover to have the TV. But they charge $6 per segment, which the other airlines with TV that I’ve been on (Delta, Jet Blue) don’t do. So I wasn’t very happy.

On the second leg, a large man who didn’t smell very good sat between us. And the people in front of us had some food that really stank. And somebody had gas with about 30 minutes left on the flight. And they made me check my carry-on bag because I couldn’t jam it into the metal sizer at the gate. Never mind that It fit in the overhead on the first leg. Or that I was squeezing it down and might have made it before she told me to quit. I got to check it. And of course, it got torn up a little bit.

Between that and DirecTV and the fact that they don’t even give you peanuts, I’m not a big Frontier fan. I don’t intend to fly them again.

Say Hello To My Little Friend!
I am no longer in the “I’ve Never Seen Scarface” club. I watched Scarface on DVD on my laptop on the flight from Denver to Tampa. I can’t believe I had never seen that. What a great movie!

Say Hello To My Little Friend!
I got to meet my biggest supporter, Jen Morgan, on Friday night at a dinner at Macaroni Grill with a bunch of other runners. Well, she’s figuratively my biggest supporter. Literally, she’s probably my smallest supporter. She’s been a great help, though, and I went over that last week, but a weekend recap wouldn’t be complete with mentioning that I got to meet her!

Ultimate Bachelor Pad
We stayed at Rachel’s brother’s house in suburban Tampa. It was an absolute bachelor pad. Nice leather couch in the front room when you walk in. Old leather couch with cracked cushions downstairs by the TV. Weight bench partially blocking the TV. Master bathroom is torn up and out of service, but the guest bathroom is OK. Well, aside from the toilet handle you have to jiggle so the water doesn’t run forever. No soap or body wash in the shower, though. Good thing I brought my own!

Stale Twinkies in the cabinet (don’t how Twinkies get stale, but they did). Pop and liquor in the fridge. Porch light doesn’t work. Lights aren’t hooked up to switches. There’s a motorcycle in the garage getting fixed up. The rain gutter above the garage door needs to be repaired. But there are two things that are working perfectly fine … the pool and hot tub in the back yard.

It was amazing.

Would I Trade In-N-Out For Cracker Barrel? Tough Call
Y’all know how much I love In-N-Out, but I also really love Cracker Barrel. And I think the closest one is about 400 miles from my house. I don’t get the opportunity to eat there very often, so when I get the chance, I take it. I always get Momma’s Pancake Breakfast. Always. I’ve had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I was in Wichita one time — I’d run the Kansas City Marathon that day and I was running the Wichita Marathon in the morning. I ordered Mama’s Pancake Breakfast for dinner, and when the waiter brought it out, he asked in his Southern drawl, “Ya ready ta get yer belly full?” As if! Did he know who he was talking to?

Anyways, here’s the pancakes from Saturday:

Quick Zensah Shout-Out
In a blog in early January, I wrote about how my legs were really bugging me on the flight back from Houston on race day. Well, one thing led to another and Zensah sent me a pair of compression pants to help, and they’re definitely one of my new best friends.

I wear them after marathons regardless of whether or not I’m flying and I really love them. The compression almost works like a massage and I haven’t cramped at all since I started wearing them. A triathlete friend of mine told me they help prevent blood clots from forming when I wear them after marathons. I failed seven science classes in high school, so I’ll have to take her at her word, but it sounds good to me.

Whatever the case, I love them and I definitely recommend them.

Good Luck/Bad Luck Flying, Pt. 2
On the way back, they asked me to try to squeeze my carry-on bag in the metal cage to see if it would fit in the overhead compartment. I’ve only flown with it on 18 flights this year (before Sunday). I’m pretty sure it fits and if it doesn’t, it’s the cage that’s the problem, but whatever. I understand. Sure enough, it fit. Take that, mean Frontier lady.

Of course, on my second flight, they ran out of space in the overhead compartments right as I was getting on the plane and they had to check it. I was the first person out of luck. Lucky me. But on the bright side, they had DirecTV with NBC on the flight, so I got to watch the hockey game! Oh wait, out of all the channels on the TV, NBC was the only one that wasn’t coming in. So we watched the ticker on ESPNEWS. And apparently, the Canadians won in overtime. I saw the score switch to 3-2 while I was writing this blog. Thrilling.

On that five-hour flight, I had a kid sitting directly me who wouldn’t stop kicking the seat. Yay me.

OK, That’s Way Too Much From This Weekend
If you got all the way to the bottom of this, you’d better get back to work before you get in trouble with your boss. Have a great Monday!

I got to stay at home for the third time this year, but for the first time, I didn’t have any extra-curricular functions on the schedule. My first home weekend, for the Carlsbad Marathon, I had a dinner on Friday night and a lunch on Sunday. Two weeks ago for the Diamond Valley/Surf City double, I had to put on a pasta dinner as a fundraiser, which totally consumed me. This weekend? The Pasadena Marathon and plenty of time with my family. Oh, and Jack did something really cool yesterday. Not a bad weekend!

Real quick first, I ran the Pasadena Marathon yesterday. Kind of a so-so performance.

Weekend Kickoff: Hyperbaric Chamber, a 100K Race and the Pasadena Marathon Expo
I kicked off the weekend with a visit to Advanced Hyperbarics with Jack for a session in the hyperbaric chamber. Lucky for me, we watched Monsters, Inc. instead of the Sesame Street counting video he normally picks. Tiff teased me on Twitter about the Sesame Street video, but too bad — I lucked out!

After that, Jack and I went to visit my friend Rachel, who was busy running winning a 100K race (yes, that’s 62 miles!). She was sporting her Operation Jack shirt. Yeah! She was pleasantly surprised to see us and I was pleasantly surprised that I only had to wait about 30 seconds after I got there to see her! We chatted for a minute, then Jack and I headed off to the Pasadena Marathon expo to get my stuff — his first “appearance” at anything Operation Jack-related this year. So, we got a picture.

I Got To Do Some Dad Stuff Saturday
Yeah, that means eating my lunch on the couch in front of the TV, dozing for about 20 minutes, then going out to work in the garage. The mission this weekend was to go through a bunch of old storage boxes I had out there and get rid of old junk. I found some stuff I’ll probably sell on eBay, I got rid of a ton of junk, and I also found some cool memories from my childhood.

The project is far from finished, but I made good progress, which made Tiff happy. And when Tiff’s happy, I’m happy! Here’s the coolest of the cool stuff I found:

Ultimate Post-Race Meal
Yesterday afternoon, I went with the wife and kids to eat at Souplantation (Sweet Tomatoes in other parts of the country) with my grandparents. If you’ve been following along, you know I beat my grandma in our 22nd-annual Super Bowl bet this year. And you also know that she woke me up with a hilarious phone call last week in Austin inquiring about this lunch.

Well, post-race, I can’t think of anything better to eat than an all-you-can-eat buffet of food that can actually be pretty healthy if you want it to be. ESPECIALLY with good company! We had a blast, I got full (which says a lot) and all three kids were very well behaved. We really had a great time.

After lunch, we went over to my grandparents’ house for a little bit. My grandma picked out some outfits for the kids that she wanted to give us. For 85 55, she does a pretty good job picking things out!

Anyways, she LOVES penguins. At my first race of Operation Jack, the Texas Marathon in Kingwood, Texas on January 1, they gave us a stuffed penguin with a number around the neck. The number indicated what your overall finishing place was. I was seventh overall, so mine had a “7”. Actually, I shouldn’t say “mine” … I should say “my grandma’s,” because I knew I was going to give it to her before I even got it. She was totally thrilled and of course, we took a picture together.

Jack Did Something Super Cool!
I’m hoping I can explain this in less than 1,000 words. OK, Jack was in his therapy session last night, and he was drawing on a piece of paper and then running to look at it in the bathroom mirror. He’d get over there and shout what it was with big-time enthusiasm. The first time, it was “TWO!” and then it was “FIVE!”. Me and his therapist noticed the numbers were written backwards, so we watched to him, because we thought he was intentionally writing the numbers in reverse so they would show up correctly in the mirror.

Sure enough, he drew a “10” on a doodle pad and ran over to look at it in the mirror and shout “TEN!” Wow … I was shocked! I had a camera nearby, so I snapped a quick picture. I love the expression on his face … he’s so overwhelmed with excitement!

The 1 wasn’t just a straight line — he made the little whatever you call it at the top go in the right direction. And if you look at the words above the number, they say “Doodle Time” and you can tell they go in reverse. There’s no question he knew what he was doing, and that actually takes some pretty good thinking to make that happen. Beneath it all, he’s a sharp kid. We’re going to keep working our butts off to chip off that outer layer!

That’s All For Today!
Have a great Monday (if possible). It’s been fun writing about my nice weekend, but tomorrow I’ll be talking about why a nice weekend is so difficult for me.