The Latest Happenings of the Bennett's!

It's so hard going back to work after you've been off for two weeks! Last Tuesday, my Christmas break ended :( What's even worse is that as soon as the kids came back, I once again caught the flu and am now in bed trying to recover. I think this is like my third instance of this. Welcome to the life of teaching!

Luke and I had a fabalous Christmas and New Year's. We were invited to attend our friends wedding-Jessica and Jason on December 31st and spend the last of 2006 with them and friends from church. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was held at a Cuban restaurant that Luke and I had no idea existed! It's located in Winter Park and oh my gosh, the food was the real thing!

Another exciting event that took place was the Disney Marathon festivities this past weekend. Our friends Michelle and Jonathan from Jacksonville came up and on Friday, Michelle and I took part in the 5K. We also got to meet up with my sister-in-law and her sister who were there too for the festivities! Then on Saturday Jonathan and Luke ran the 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) and then get this, on Sunday, Luke and Jonathan and some other friends, ran the full marathon (26.1 miles)! Both Luke and Jonathan made it through both races! It was amazing! It was absolutely amazing to see the people coming through the finish line. After running the full marathon, many people immediately were put in wheelchairs once they crossed the finish line-their legs could no longer handle the run. It was also amazing to see just what incredible shape these people were in. Michelle and I had the awesome privilege of going from spot to spot to take pictures of the boys throughout the race! We also had the privilege of sitting on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom at 6:30 a.m. waiting for two hours to see the boys pass us by for one second. What was cool was that we got to see the lead runner who I must say was running very fast and didn't have anyone behind him for like 15 minutes. He finished the 26.1 mile run in 2 hours and 19 minutes. I think his pace was like 5-minute miles. AMAZING!

All in all, it was a great weekend. We even stayed the night one night at the Dolphin hotel which I must admit, was beautiful and come Sunday, I had no desire to leave. As of now, Luke and I along with Michelle and Jonathan are going to look at running the 5K in March at Disney. Should be another fun filled weekend.

Classes have once again started up for Luke and I. We are now in our second year of our doctoral studies. Hard to believe. I am in the process of trying to get the first part of my dissertation completed. Not such an easy task. Trying to really motivate myself to do it. I'm hoping to get some of it done this weekend. We will see.

Well, I must go take a shower and after that, I must continue the task of grading essays from my English classes. Found a couple today that were plagerized. So discouraing.

Talk with you soon!