Three for Sunday

1. Nights at Menchie's  Somehow Kate convinced me that if she got 100% on her review spelling test that I owed her Menchie's frozen yogurt.  I'm all for encouraging her for doing well in school but that fact that I OWED her for words she already knew made me laugh!

 

 

Then it was Sara's turn.  She was a little jealous. I gave her an easy chapter book for her birthday which she had started and I told her when she finished that, I'd take her.  She finished it 24 hours later!   I love spending time one on one with my kids.  They can talk me into it pretty easily.

 

 

2. Thanksgiving  Last year I swore I would not stay here by ourselves for another Thanksgiving.  But after just traveling to Boise, some people weren't thrilled about getting in the car for another long drive.  I was bummed, but luckily some of our friends weren't too busy so we went to their house for breakfast.  Then after we put the turkey in we headed over to the park and played football and played at the park.  The most fun was the game Matt taught us.  It was a typical sixth grade boy game.  While the rest of the family was swinging, one person would try to run through the swings.  We laughed and laughed!

 

When it was time for dinner, everyone had something to help with.  Kate helped me make the salad.  Matt made the stuffing and Sara helped make the mashed potatoes.  She had a ton of fun mixing them!

 

 Jerry carved the turkey.  It was fantastic!

The finished meal!  Any time I need to use more than 2 plates, it's a good meal.  I was the only one who ate my candied sweet potatoes.  They missed out!  I was proud of my rolls.  Last year they didn't turn out so well, but this year they were great!  It was an awesome meal and a really fun day.  It didn't feel too lonely this year!  Next year though, we are definitely going somewhere!

 Abby loved trying olives for the first time.  She mostly loved putting them on her fingers and just had to try it when she saw Sara and Kate do that.  When she tasted it though, she wasn't such a fan!

 Another plus of being here was getting to see our niece Macey after her second open heart surgery.  She was looking so good when we saw her.  She is truly an example of a miracle!

 

3. Thanksgiving B.A.G.  During our dinner I asked all the kids the questions from the Thanksgiving BAG. (Blessing, accomplishment, goal)  I was really impressed with all the answers and we all had fun thinking of our answers.  So first, I'll give my report from last year's goal.  It was to get some good quality 72 hour kits ready and a good 3 month supply of food or at least a menu.  It went about like I thought it would which was not so well.  I did get some really good food items in the 72 hour kits.  At general conference in October I put them together and I'll rotate them each conference.  I felt pretty good about that, but they need more things in the kits, like hygiene things, first aid things and that kind of stuff.  And the 3 month menu, well, I'll keep working on that!  I feel like it's really important and I think I need to really focus on it, I just... didn't.

 

So for this year:  my Blessing: good health and being happy.  Our stake challenge this year is to be happy and find ways to share happiness with others.  I feel like being happy comes naturally to me and is a blessing that God has given me.  My accomplishment: I've worked really hard in running this year and feel like I've accomplished some cool things.  That was awesome.  I always feel good for surviving 4 kids so that's an accomplishment, but the one I am the most excited about is this:  our stake also had a challenge to find a name and take it to the temple.  We showed Matt a website called puzilla.org.  It's a great one for people who already have a lot of family history work done and you can investigate more down lines of cousins and whatnot.  Anyway, Matt has found a bunch of names on Jerry's side.  He has kept us very busy this fall.  Yesterday, Jerry and I went to the temple and I finished the work for the first person that he found!  That was really cool.  I've also found a couple of names on my side and that feels like an accomplishment as well!  My goal:  I try really hard to say my personal prayers every night but I tend to go in phases.  So my goal this year is to say my prayers every night.  So far so good!

Three for Sunday

1. Sleeping attire  I love sleeping in the fall and not too cold winter... I love when it's just the right temperature to open the windows and have it be chilly in the room but perfectly warm under the covers.  Mmm... makes me want to go to bed right now!  Well this post actually has nothing to do with comfortable sleeping like that.  I've been dealing with this stupid plantar fasciitis stuff in my foot.  I'm really good at running through pain and really bad and taking a break when I have said pain.  That does not bode so well for my body.  But I am really trying to be better about that and took some time off of running after this last half marathon.  I didn't run for 11 days and I tried I was really good about using all the myriad of PF rememdies that I've bought.  The one thing I hadn't bought was this awesome looking night splint.  Thanks to my podiatrist brother (who I didn't ask while I was running because I knew he would say stop running) I broke down and bought one.  He said it was the best aid in healing PF.  I'd seen them but thought they didn't look very comfortable to sleep in so I never bought one.  It was actually not as uncomfortable as I thought and the difference it made after just one night was amazing.  I was totally kicking myself for not buying one sooner.  I started running again this week.  I'm trying to keep it slow and just enjoy it, which I really have done.  I love running when it's cold outside.  Yesterday I had one of my favorite kinds of runs... it was cloudy and misty but not raining and the air was cool from the storm.  LOVE!  My PF issues are feeling better but I've still got some other problems with my foot, probably from compensating for the PF.  So frustrating, but it is what it is!

 

 

2. Birthday Parties  I'm a little burned out on birthday parties so I managed to make it past Matt's and Kate's without them bugging me too much for one, but Sara kept asking.  And since she's only 7 and it was her golden birthday and she is my favorite (haha just kidding) I let her have one.  It was a lot of fun.  I was tempted to throw down the big bucks and just pay for her to go somewhere, but she actually wanted a home party and even planned it all out with just a little help.  I'm so glad we did that.  It was so much fun.  There was a lot of jumping and screaming, more than I expected, but we all survived.  One of the girl's mom's told me at church today that her daughter said it was the most fun party she'd ever been to.  Loved that!



Sara, Gabby, Elizabeth, Ruby, Ellie and Morgan.  Fun times!

 

3. Asking for help   So over the weekend last weekend, I got a call from a lady in our ward.  She starts out explaining that her grandkids are living with her and they need rides home from school and she's just telling me because, "I'm in the know and well, do you know anyone?"  I knew exactly what she was getting at, but I just wanted to yell out, "If you want me to bring your grandkids home, just ask me!!"  This has happened several times in the past couple of months where people tell me a need and then wait for me to offer to do it myself or tell them who can do it.  I have to admit, it drives me a little bit bonkers.  I was more than happy to bring her kids home, it's not like anyone in our school boundaries lives very far away, I just wish she would have asked me straight up.  In the end, of course, I offered and the funny thing is, this lady lives in our old home.  It was really strange pulling up in front our house.  It's not like that's the first time we've been back there.  We hung out with the Rasmussens over the summer at their house, but it was weird to pull up in front of our old garage and just sit there. 



Four for Sunday

1. Running Awareness Month  Ok, now first, I realize there is an awareness month for everything under the moon.  I think it's a little overdone.  However, I do like my running and I do have a few things to point out...  I have never been hit by a car while running, but I have had to jump up on the curb a few times because a car hasn't seen me and is drifting towards me.  It hasn't happened that often, luckily.  What happens much more often occurs at stop signs.  I remember in grade school learning about street safety and learning the mantra, "look left.  Then right.  Then left again."  before crossing streets.  The same holds true for drivers stopped at stop signs who are turning right.  I can't tell you how many times I would have been hit by a car who was turning right if I didn't know that cars never look right until they are starting to drive.  So please, when driving and turning right, look left, then right, then left again before driving!  If you don't, when you start driving and actually look right, you might happen to see a runner standing at the corner with a very dirty look on her face!

 My favorite running store always does a night mustache bash.  Everyone has to be wearing some sort of light and we all run in a group to the nearby high school and have hot chocolate and scones.  It's fun.  The kids really wanted to do it this year.  Since I was barely walking normally, I chose to take Abby with me and drive to the high school so that they wouldn't have to run back to the store.

 2. Twinners  After Abby and I were both dressed one day this week, I noticed we were dressed in the same colors.  If I hadn't dressed both of us, I would have totally been making fun of me.  I actually was not going to dress her in the shirt she's wearing since it's now cold outside, but she saw it in the drawer and insisted on it.  She's so cute!  I love and am grateful that I get to be home with this girl.

3. Cleaning rooms Matt had the daunting task of cleaning out his bedroom yesterday.  He has a bit of trouble throwing things away.  But he had some big things just on his floor that weren't things he ever did anything with, they just had some sort of sentimental value.  So I told him I'd take a picture of him and whatever it was and put it on the blog so he'd have it forever.  I think the only thing I didn't already have a picture of was this castle he built for school.  It took him a few hours to get it how he wanted it.  I think he did a great job!

 

4. My Thoughts It has been a while since my blog has been caught up!  I thought I'd celebrate by writing some things down that I've been thinking about lately.  I flip through facebook a few times during the day.  I'll do it while I'm in Abby's room waiting for her to go to sleep or if I have a few minutes of quiet.  I'm sure there are better things I could be doing with my time, but I'm not even going to get into that here.  I actually think there are some good things on facebook.  I'm friends with cousins that I've barely met and have had conversations with them and feel like I actually know a little bit about them.  Anyway, I ramble.  I follow a lot of running pages and I enjoy reading various articles about running.  I also follow a mom page.  I don't click on their links as frequently, but I happened to click on one that talked about stay at home moms and loneliness.  It struck a chord in me that I didn't realize it would.  I never imagined I would feel lonely.  I've always been independent.  I've never been a crowd seeker, and except for some of those rough teenage years, I've always been happy on my own by myself.  But lately, I have felt lonely.  I think really maybe since soon after Abby was born was when I started to feel it more.  I thought it was because none of my close friends were having babies anymore, but actually my two closest friends have now had babies after large gaps and it has been something we've bonded over.  Sometimes, I look around at people especially in my ward and wish that I had more in common with them.  No one runs, no one even jogs, or walks on a regular basis, or does zumba, or yoga or karate or something fitness related, despite what their pins on pinterest are.  I wear running shoes a lot of days and t-shirts and hoodies and I feel like I'm wearing a lot of makeup if I use eyeliner with my mascara and then compare that to boots and heels and dressy clothes.  Of course, there's nothing wrong with all that, but I feel like our differences stand out a lot when you line us up together.  I wish there were more people around who wanted to go on a hike, or even just a walk with the kids, or hang out outside and not worry about what we have or don't have and not complain about kids or husbands, but just be happy.  I'm sure these feelings are not exclusive to stay at home moms, but I know when I was working I had a lot more people to talk with and it felt different.  It was validating, it was social, it wasn't just me.  I'm so grateful to be home with my kids.  It's all I ever wanted and I'm so happy to be doing it, I just didn't realize I would be lonely as much as I'd be tired, or trying to be patient, or doing laundry.

Saltair Half Marathon

So late this summer I started getting a little bored with my normal running routes and doing the same runs over and over so I decided I should pick a race to train for to keep things exciting.  I first was going to run the South Jordan half marathon but then we were going to be out of town that weekend so I found this one out at the Saltair pavilion by the Great Salt Lake.  I decided that would give me something to run for so I signed up for it.  I decided I also wanted to try following an actual training schedule instead of just doing whatever.  The last time I followed a training schedule was when I was training for a 10K and suffered my worst running injury ever.  Before that the last time I'd followed a schedule was when I was in college.  I had kind of banished training schedules thinking that I've done enough mandatory workouts to last me a lifetime.  What I was reminded of though is that I am really good at doing whatever my rice krispies tell me to do.  I mean, if my coach or schedule tells me to run 30 laps at race pace I do it or die trying.  I'd probably jump off a cliff if it was scheduled into my running plan!  It was nice though to not have to think about what I was doing.  And this program worked in a lot of easy warm up and cool down miles and long runs at slow paces so in the end, I liked it and I think it was good for my running.

 

This week before the race was interesting.  Sunday night Sara woke me up in the night by throwing up all over me.  It was awesome!  All I could think about while I was cleaning myself, the carpet, the tile and finally the toilet up was, if I get sick after all this hard work and many hours of running, I will cry good and long!  But I also told myself I am a mother first and I'm proud to be that!  Jerry also got really sick but with a cough and cold.  Usually I get those sicknesses quickly and get really bad coughs from them, but I managed to avoid his germs as well!  I was feeling really lucky!  Matt and Abby had had it the week before and Kate had a muted down version of, but I didn't get anything!

 

Then I just had to deal with my nerves.  I get so nervous before races.  It always makes me race better, and Jerry laughs at my crazy energy, but it's exhausting too.  I was nervous I wouldn't be able to run my goal and I was nervous it would hurt way too much and other crazy things.  Sometimes I feel like all my self esteem comes from whether I run fast or not.  Maybe I need to look into a new hobby!  I spent a lot of time reminding myself why I run and trying to let go of the highest level of competitiveness and just enjoying my body, the outdoors and my love of pushing myself physically.

 

Once we got to Saltair I started just getting excited and I was feeling really confident in my ability and my training and I was excited to get going!

 

Kate and Sara jogged around with me and stretched with me and told me all about how they are faster than me... I love their perspective!  It was fun to warm up with them.

 Then I handed my phone over to Matt to take pictures and I found this gem.  Love it!

 

The race started and I immediately fell into my groove.  I'd done some research on the course.  It was pancake flat and an out and back course.  I had decided I wanted to see how fast I could push myself, but also tried to be realistic so I set a goal on faster than 1:45 which would have to be a bit faster than 8:00/mile.  But with an out and back, flat course, I thought it would be a perfect race to run a negative split, the first half slower than the second half.  So I made my plan and I reminded myself many times, it's not the first three miles that matter, it's the next ten.  So even though people started fast, in fact I was running with the 1:50 pacer (who was running way too fast and bragging about all his fast times way too much) for a while, I ran the pace and the race I wanted to.  I ran slower the first three miles but that was the plan.  When I hit mile 3 I picked up my pace and started in for the long haul.  There was a group of girls right ahead of me so I caught up to them and started running with them.  Their pace was perfect and we got to talking and I was having a great time.  We hit the halfway turn around point and another girl was trying to run a negative split too so we decided to try to keep a 7:45 pace for a bit.  We ran perfectly together.  We talked a bit, we admired the scenery except for the freeway we were running next to.  I kept my headphones on low so it just barely drowned out the car noise.  I had trained just right to run that pace, but running with her made it fun, not work.

 

Another goal I had was to not hit mile 11 and bonk.  As we approached mile 11, I joked about it with her, but I was feeling really good.  Definitely tired, but I didn't bonk!  At the end it was go for broke and she did beat me, but I really didn't care.  I knew I'd run a great race and reached every single one of my goals and I was super excited!  They handed out cash and prizes to the top ten.  She was number ten.  Had I known that maybe I would have tried harder to beat her, but really, I was tanked!

 Lauren, my new running friend!  I can't believe how perfectly matched our paces were!  It was so easy and natural to run with her.  A running soulmate!

 We walked out onto the salt flats for a bit.  It really was a pretty run and I'll always have good thoughts about it now!

 

Jerry had a ton of fun making this video and he set the music to be my current favorite song!  Jerry is actually so good about my running!  I get up early for my runs but when they are a minimum of 90 minutes long he is good to help get the kids up for school.  It is really nice to have his support and encouragement.  And the kids didn't complain about getting up early on a Saturday and I know it wasn't super fun for them, but they cheered me on and I loved it!

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 



Sara's Golden Birthday

Sara has been SO excited for her birthday.  She thought it was extra cool to get to celebrate her golden birthday.  We had a great time opening presents and eating donuts before school.  It was a bit hard to think of a good gift to get her.  She doesn't have one certain toy that she loves to play with and she spends most of her time doing handstands and cartwheels all over the house.  So Jerry decided we should get her a balance beam.  He took care of all of it even when he was sick.  He is a great dad.  She loved the balance beam.   



It was an extra lucky day because it was also the birthday table at school for the month.  So Abby and I picked up McDonald's for her and met her at school.  Since it was her actual birthday, the principal led the entire cafeteria in an extra song, restaurant style, so the entire cafeteria was looking at her and clapping along.  She loved it!  It was a fun lunch.  The rest of the day was also fun.  She got to go to her gymnastics make up class and then her cousin Derek came over for cake and ice cream and let her climb all over him.  We haven't seen him since he left on his 2 year LDS church mission so it was fun for all of his to see him!  Yesterday, Sara told me that she is really bummed that she has to wait the longest for her birthday.

 

We love Sara in our family.  Abby loves to play with her and Sara is very kind to her.  I love how competitive she is and I love watching her work hard in gymnastics.  She has a very tender heart and is very touched by all the things that go on around her.  She still loves to snuggle and is the happiest when everyone is home together and safe.  I love her tender heart, sweet spirit and competitive nature!

The obligatory Halloween Post

I'm never sad when Halloween is over.  The kids love it though so here's a post for the memory books.

 Abby was surprisingly cooperative with her costume.  I didn't know what to expect with her, she's so stubborn, but she liked wearing it and as soon as she connected the costume with candy... she was excited to put it on.  We borrowed this costume from Kayce.  Kate also wore it when she was little.  I really should look for a picture of her...

 She got to wear her costume to storytime at the library, the ward trunk or treat party and Halloween night for trick or treating.  This girl loves candy.  I think that's an understatement.

 Sara was very excited to be a penguin.  Kate was excited to be Hermione, her third Harry Potter character and Abby rocked the ladybug.  Matt didn't want to dress up or go trick or treating.  Even the thought of free candy didn't entice him.  He said he felt silly taking candy from people.  His teacher made everyone in the class dress up for the parade and class party or else they would have had to do work all day.  The horrors.  Matt was annoyed, but I was kind of glad.  No need to be too cool too early.  He dressed up as a Rockies fan.

 We carved pumpkins and that was actually a lot of fun.  Matt did his all by himself, he even gutted it.  Sara did a lot of hers as did Kate.  I carved the N.

Kate's ghost pumpkin was our favorite.  And that was our Halloween.

Off track activities

After a less than stellar day at Wheeler Farm we thought cornbellys corn maze would be fun.  It was totally fun.  However, I must remind myself not to do corn mazes without Jerry.  We started off and I knew what direction we were walking in but pretty soon all the corn rows started looking the same and in fact, a lot of them were as I realized we were walking in circles.  All of a sudden I started getting a little anxious and I had to start talking myself down from a panic attack.  I DO NOT like being stuck in places where I can't get out of.  So, I knew I had to start really paying attention to get us out of there.  We were making progress, but we'd been walking for at least an hour.  Ok it felt like an hour, but it was probably only a half.  Anyway, I took comfort in the fact that we had a lot of water and snacks and I tried to keep everyone's spirits up.  We found one of the climbing towers that we could climb up and see the maze and we were heading in the right direction.  We continued on and ran into a corn cop who in the end led us out of the maze.  I was feeling more confident by then and kind of wanted to find our own way out, but actually he saved us probably another hour of walking so it was all good!

 

Here we are at the finishers tower!  We made it!

We had a lot of fun playing in all the fun activities there.  In fact we had so much fun I completely spaced the fact that Kate had dance that day.  Oops!  Oh well!

We also spent a day at the zoo.  It was a lot of fun.  I expected huge crowds on a Saturday with fantastically warm but not too hot weather, but it was not crowded at all.  It was a fantastic day.  Abby loved the animals a lot.  I think the elephants were her favorite.

We also spent a weekend in Boise and had a lot of fun with cousins.  On the way home we stopped at Shoshone Falls.  They were really cool.  It was a nice detour/stretch your legs stop.

We spent an afternoon playing in the leaves.  Always a fall favorite!

Abby had fun crunching them.

We also took a bike ride to a park on one of the days that we had Beckett over.  These two are so cute together.

And we went to a pumpkin patch and picked out pumpkins for carving. 

 

We had a ton of fun during these three weeks. In fact, we still have things we wanted to do that we just ran out of time to do.  It was really fun and we stayed really busy.  I love this break in October, it's the break that makes year round school worth it.  We tried to do a lot because next year Matt will be on a traditional schedule and we won't have a break all together like this.  I am really dreading that!  They went back this past Monday and it was really hard to send them back.  I was sad about it.  Dropping off at the school was really hard and Abby and I missed them all day.  It's so hard with year round school to get on a schedule, have a break and then have to get back on a schedule.  It's not my favorite.  I'm glad we had so much fun together.

Wheeler Farm

When Matt was little, we went to Wheeler Farm a lot and he really loved it.  We haven't been for a while though; in fact, Abby had never been.  So we decided to head up there one day while they were off track.  I thought it would be great fun for Abby because she is really into animals and what sounds they make and things like that.  It was beautiful weather, but I have to say, it wasn't as fun as I remember it being with Matt.  Still, I'm glad we went.

 

 Abby did like looking at all the animals, but they were all just laying around.

 We had fun on the tractor ride.

 Matt was much cuter when we came 7 & 8 years go.

 We did laugh at this sign.

 And we took some pictures.

Abby loved looking at the ducks the most.

 

I'm glad we went.  It was a nice day together if nothing else.

Wagon rides

So before I had Matt I nannied these two girls.  The mom of the house I was at had a wagon and every day I would put the two girls into the wagon and we would take a ride to the park and play.  I loved it and I always wanted to have one for my kids.  It seems like Abby is getting all those things I've always wanted but for whatever reason haven't gotten.  I think I was more excited about the wagon than Abby was!  We've had some fun rides in it already this fall.

 

 We took a long ride to playgroup one day.  Abby almost fell asleep in it so I had to make her get out and help me pull it. That was fun!

It's also perfect on the days that we watch Beckett because Abby doesn't like to let him sit in her stroller.  We also take her baby for lots of walks in it!  It has been fun on these nice fall days.

 

The most fun we've had with it is with the older kids.  I told them about how my friends and I used to take my little brother's radio flyer wagon and ride it down my driveway.  We'd get going pretty fast and there was no steering... it was SO fun!  So, I strongly encouraged them to do some things like and then told them if they broke their arms it wasn't my fault.  We had a few wrecks, but we had a ton of fun and no lasting injuries!