University of California at Santa Barbara

Well, it is finally official, but Kira has decided on UCSB as her university of choice.  It was a tough choice between San Diego, Santa Cruz and San Jose.  I think the location and weather were big factors, but I also like to hope the fact that it is the top 13th ranked public school in the country had something do do with it, but I doubt it :)

We did a weekend tour and drove the 4 hours or so down from the Bay Area.  The weekend included a self guided campus tour, hanging out at the beach, and shopping the downtown area. A fun and productive weekend for the Danville Glynns, Bew, and Kirk - Kira's boyfriend of two years and local Santa Barbara guide (He's attending the local community college).

More news from Kira later.

Check out the school if you like:  UCSB

Conner's Lego Ships

Conner's latest creations:

The Republic Fighter Tank

Rebel Alliance Scout Speeder

The Complete Collection

The Republic Fighter Tank

The Ultimate Lego Ship

New High Standards in Cake Decorating

Tonight Kira, Bew, Conner and Parker set the bar a little higher when it comes to baking a decorating cakes. The new super ingredient, as learned from the Food Network's show "Ace of Cakes," is fondant.

This super cool icing - like covering, makes the cake look incredibly professional. It was kneaded, rolled, colored and then spread out over a freshly made cake.

Very cool. Tasty? Hopefully we find out tomorrow!

Kira's goal? Have the skill set to make her own wedding cake!

Tom's Dublin CA Shamrock 5K Run Results

I had a great run.

The Dublin 5K was a local race with about 1200 people or so entered. There were about 25-30 runners from our local race club, Forward Motion, pictured here.

Confident as always, I started right near the front. About 15 seconds before the start, some 10 year old steps in front of me all decked out in a fancy race singlet, shorts and what appear to be racing flats. My first thoughts were to tell him to look at the pacing signs and move a little further back to the appropriate spot. Then I think to myself, it's a family race, not the world championships, cool it and step around him when the gun goes off.

At the first mile mark the 10 year old was about 10 seconds ahead of me. I am humbled.

At the end of the race, I grab a cup of water and strike up a conversation with someone just in front of me. I let them know that they had a great race, as did I, but just couldn't catch the group in front of me, including him. The nice young guy said to me, "don't worry about that, you look pretty old and probably did well in your age group". Thanks, I guess....

I get home and Parker asks if I won. Nope.

Did I get a medal? Nope.

Did you win anything? Well, I did get this lunch box cooler kind of thing.

Can I have it? Sure.

Bye, I'm going to watch TV again.

All results here:
Chip Time: 18:25 (5:56 min/mile)

15th Overall

4th Age Group 40-49

New Vdot score of 54.9!

College Prep Part I - Done!

Finally, all the results of Kira's college applications to college have been received.

San Diego State University's acceptance came in first and was great news just before Christmas.

San Jose State also came in positive a few weeks ago.

Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo came in last week and was the first rejection. Not a happy day in the Glynn house :(

This weekend we were back to good news as UC Santa Cruz came back with an acceptance at midnight on Saturday (Yes, she waited up for it!).

The big one, UC Santa Barbara came in today at exactly 3:00. Good news, another acceptance!!

Now the hard part; where to go?????

Santa Cruz Glynns Check In

Well.... I haven't sent out a Glynn family update in a long time and thought today might be a nice time to do it--I'm a very proud mama with two amazing kids to blame! I'd like to take this time to bragg! Humor me? It's has been a crazy year full of changes, successes and major stressors!

We are keeping our cool, but it hasn't been easy! Maverick Mailing is doing well beyond our expectations but it's still a 2-(wo)man operation with the occasional help of the boys--if we offer to pay them enough! We hope to keep the business growing despite hard economic times and we hope we don't fall over dead at 3 in the morning stuffing envelopes!

Gymnastics has been fabulous this year! The boys began training at the local gym with no more commuting to Morgan Hill. We had no idea when we made this decision that they'd be blessed with an amazing coach! Coach Breeze (who we might lose at the end of the season) was one of those people in life you hope teaches your kids! He's energetic, positive, kind, and a total expert in the sport. He has been training the boys hard but they are having a lot of fun. Max went "optional" this year, meaning he is now a high-level gymnast training very tough skills. He has learned a great deal of tough skills and continues to work his butt off. He is developing muscles where I didn't know they existed! Earlier in the year he went to his first National competition at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and he just finished his State Competitions qualifying for Regionals held next month in Arizona. He has developed a very strong work ethic and is becoming an amazing athlete. Everett trained level 5 compulsory this year--and had an amazing season of success! His pommel and h-bar routines continued throughout the year to earn him many 1st place titles and put him in the top 5 at every meet. To wrap it up, he just competed at State Championships and not only did he make Regionals held next month in Arizona, he.... drum roll, please.... MADE THE STATE ALL-STAR TEAM! Huge success beyond our wildest dreams! wait.... does this mean I have to purchase ANOTHER uniform? Yes, it does....

Beside the hectic world of gymnastics, the boys are doing great is so many other areas of their lives! We are just so proud of them! They keep us busy--sometimes too busy, but it's all part of the method, right? It seems like there is always a meet, a performance, a recital, a field trip, a math lesson .... you get the picture! We have felt a little disconnected with many of you and we send our deepest apologies. We have forgotten too many birthdays, special occasions, etc. Hopefully we will get the hang of home business down so we can concentrate on the finer things in life--like family! Thank you for listening! And we hope to hear back-- we wanna hear what you have been up to and hope you are all well!

Love, Shawna

Tom's Cycling Progress

Last week I got a special mention on the Endurance Nation Blog for the continued improvement in my biking power. Read all about it here: EN Blog

Of course, a couple of days later I had an awesome ride and rack up a bunch more gains with my power output on the bike. I write back a response to the blog and get published again: EN Blog

Today I rode my bike up Mount Diablo, just over 11 miles and around a 6 percent grade that tips to an 18 percent grade for the last couple hundred yards. The gold standard time from bottom to top is one hour, platinum status is 50 minutes. My best time was 1:00:30. Today's time, 1:00:09. Getting closer, but not quite there yet!

Gate River 15K Results

Good Morning! Well, Gerry ran his second Gate River Run 15k last Saturday. The Gate River Run is the largest race in Jax with more than 15,000 runners. It is also the U.S. 15k Championships, so the elite men and women were all present. Gerry signed up late and didn't get one of the seeded positions like last year, so he started the race pretty far back in the pack. The weather, however, was perfect for the runners: overcast and cool (meaning it was cold and damp to us spectators). The winner came in only one second ahead of the second place finisher; a real treat to see two runners deciding the race just before the finish line!

Gerry had to weave through the slower runners for about the first 5k. He figures he lost maybe a minute doing this. So, Gerry's results are as follows: Chip time: 1:01:10, exactly 0:01:01 slower than last year, so when you think of his unseeded starting position, he ran the same as last year's pace, which is pretty terrific considering Gerry hasn't been seriously training since his marathon in December. He got another Top 10% Finisher Hat, so he's still a fastee! Oh, and the guy (Metzgar) in Gerry's age category who always beats him? Status Quo.

We're not sure what races are next. There are only short (5-8k) distance ones until the fall, as the warmer weather has started already. We'll keep you posted.

Oh, here are some photos of Gerry in action. The first is Gerry just before the finish line. Check out the length of that stride! The second one is of Gerry on the jumbo screen. If you look to the bottom left of the photo, you can actually see the back of Gerry.

cheers, Lois

It's Time for Cupcakes!

Saturday evening Kira and Conner decided that it had been a long time since we last made cupcakes. A quick check of ingredients determined that the house was indeed bare again and so Kira and Conner put together a road trip to Safeway and the crew went into action. They quickly added Parker and Bew to the baking team. Kailah also asked to join, but her request was denied. She became an audience member.

In the end several dozen were made. Bew and Parker were in charge of the chocolate frosting and sprinkles, Kira and Conner handled the vanilla and sprinkles.

Tom was taste tester and all around big eater. Yummy!

Bew Gets a Haircut and Coloring

Saturday morning was beauty shop time for the Danville
Glynn girls. Dianne, Kira and Bew were off for a makeover. Bew was a little nervous about getting her hair cut and colored (or was that highlighted)?

Did it turn out well? I guess you'll have to ask Bew.

I Beat Gerry!

Well, the Marathon Girl (me) has successfully run (and finished) her first marathon. Boy, that was a long, long distance! The odds were in favo(u)r of rain, but thankfully, we had just overcast skies and perfect temperatures. Three of us in our Sole Mates running group couldn't find the meeting spot (don't you just hate when people say 'you can't miss it', 'cause it usually means it's possible to miss it). We were on our own. Then, just as we were lining up, we found the 5:30 pace group. That's the time we were pretty sure we could run, so we decided to follow Charlie, the pace leader. Charlie bolted from the start and was running a really fast pace (as you know, I pretty much only run one speed, and Charlie was running faster than that). Pretty soon, I lost my two Sole Mates. I figured if I could just glue on to Charlie, I'd be OK (I really didn't have a choice since I couldn't get my watch to work). After the first six miles, he announced that we were now on schedule for a 5:30 finish...clock time! For the rest of the race, Charlie and I ran a pace that was more to my liking. The crowds were terrific, handing out gels, oranges, ice, fig newtons, and my personal favo(u)rite...paper towels (you can do everything with a paper towel!).

It was like a big party for most of the way. The last 2-3 miles were on a road ramp and bridge (felt like a mountain), so there weren't many spectators. At the top of the bridge, Charlie said that there was no rule saying people HAD to stick with him if they wanted to sprint to the finish. I knew that, but by the end of the race I was having trouble doing even simple math (....let's see, we just passed the 23 mile marker...there are 26.2 miles in a marathon....is that 2 or 3 miles left....hmmmm.....and I was pondering this conundrum for at least one mile). I did sprint to the end and saw Gerry and Dad and Irene. They gave me a bouquet of flowers at the finish. What a wonderful day! I say 'day' 'cause it took the better part of it to finish (5:23:59). In this sense, I BEAT GERRY! Yes, the poor man has never in his life run for 5 hours 23 minutes 59 seconds. Needless to say I will not see Boston in the near future!

It was an extra special day to see Gerry, Dad and Irene waiting (and waiting and waiting) for me at so many stops along the way. I'll never forget that day!

Here are some photos of the race. Enjoy.Lois