Laughter is inner jogging......

I mustache you a question?

2012-02-16T21:55:00.001-07:00

We caught onto the mustache craze. We have been laughing about the kids wearing them.
Phoenix passed out Valentine's this year to his class with mustaches. Quite cute. I hope we take a family photo of all us wearing them.

Light the fire within

2012-02-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

10 years ago.... I was in my second semester at the University of Utah, something was going on where classes were cancelled for a few weeks.

The Olympics were in town. We had an amazing time. Mike and I got to see events and concerts. We went to the women's final bobsleds race. Where we saw the USA, win! Brilliant! We also went downtown several times to see the booths, and concerts. We saw Smashmouth. Not a great band but it was the experience of seeing the Olympians get their medals before the show that was awesome.

I have always loved the Olympics and now getting to share those memories with my children has been a treat. We went to the University of Utah stadium to seeing the relighting of the Olympic cauldron. It didn't light up at first but when it did, tears rushed to my eyes.

I remembered those good times of the 2002 Olympics!

New specs

2012-02-08T21:31:00.001-07:00

After three years I got new frames. I love them.
They remind me of ones I had when I got married. Claire's specials, as I like to call them. Sadly they got crushed. I never found a pair to replace them, until now.
Where did I get them? Not a fancy eye glass shop. Wal-mart! A new line of hip glass just arrived the day I was there.
These days I want to wear my glasses more than ever. I feel so smart.

Should have listen...maybe next time

2012-02-02T21:21:00.002-07:00

Last night was a a very weird night. I went to bed earlier than normal even though I wasn't super tired. I had to work this morning early because I was going to the dentist. Well around 2am I was woken up by a feeling I was having. It was disturbing. I felt like something was wrong with the garage. I couldn't remember if we had closed it. I then I remember we had because I went out to my car to get my new pillow. I thought about it again and thought maybe the garage door to the house was open. That has happened from time again, when we don't shut the door tight. We wake up freezing. The feeling kept pushing me to get up or to wake up Mike so he could go check the garage. I didn't want to do that. I didn't want him to have to wake up. I tried to pray to make the feeling go away. That didn't help, it made the feeling stronger I felt paralyzed. Something was wrong and it was in my garage.

Around 4am Mike woke up and he went to check on the garage. I was half awake, half asleep, still restless. I asked him what he was doing. He said that he couldn't sleep and that he needed to go check the garage. He did and nothing was out there that was scary or disturbing.

When I finally woke up to get ready for work I was still a little unnerved. I could hear the wind howling. It made me shake. Before I left for work I was talking to Mike. He found it strange that he needed to get up in the night to check the garage. I told him how I had a feeling earlier that he needed to do that and that I was suppose to wake him up.

I'm glad that at least one of us listens to promptings. I hear but I don't listen very well.

Junk, Junk and more JUNK!

2012-01-28T21:16:00.001-07:00

Running Log #15

This new year I thought I would be better to stay off the soda, chocolate and candy.

I had dreams of working out everyday. Suffering through the tiredness from waking up in the morning. The cold, the bitter COLD to get up and run outside.

Funny thing about dreams they don't always happen. My dreams were shattered in the middle of the month when the weather was bitter. The candy, coke and chocolate were to good to resist.

I wanted to change that habit this morning. I went for a run. I was hoping to go longer than a mile or two. I went FOUR MILES!!!! Along those 4 miles, I felt the pain of not running after three weeks. The cold air burned my lungs and my feet were like ice blocks, screaming at me to stop. I didn't give up, yes I walked a bit but I wasn't upset that I did. I was moving more than I had before.

Finally when I was all done I looked at my watch, 4 miles, 58min.

Hard, yes! Worth it? TOTALLY!

Maybe this new found energy, that I haven't felt in weeks, will help me make better junk food choices.

Snow comes and go.

2012-01-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

We have had a oddity of a winter. I haven't seen anything like it in the 11 winters that I have lived in Utah. Sometimes it has been a slow go for the snow to come but nothing like this. December we didn't have nearly enough as we usually get and January has been keeping the same trend.
This trend isn't exciting when you depend on the snow for income. After many years of living in Utah, I have finally learned that the snow provides for my family. Not just for my drinking water but paychecks!

We have had some small storms but nothing big. This weekend are suppose to get a doozy of a storm. Mike is giddy as a school boy for all the new snow. With this trend with the snow coming now. We will probably have snow into the summer.

Cruises

2012-01-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

The thought of going on a cruise has always been a dream of mine. Sitting in the sun, sipping exotic drinks (virgin of course), getting the perfect tan, exotic places. What is there not to love.

With all the news about the cruise ship in the Mediterranean sea. Tipped over and people freaking out. As soon as I saw that the news story, I knew my husband would veto any idea of a cruise now even more than before.
We were laughing about his aversions to cruises when I found an article in the news paper talking about a cruise that wanted to dock at the Falkland Islands because people had the stomach flu. But couldn't because the country didn't want the sick people to come on land.
Yep, I will have to go with my sisters on a girls only trip or when I'm a widower but then I don't think I will be so cute in my swimsuit. :)

What we did for New Year's Eve!

2012-01-02T21:11:00.000-07:00

Mike had to work at night and then in the morning. The kids and I decided to stay home and chill out. We played Legos and then got some junk food and waited for the ball to drop. The kids were excited to talk about how the old year was being over and how the new was going to be great. We talked about how all the fun things that we did over the year.
I am excited for a new year and new challenges. I hope we laugh more and cry less.

New year, a new you

2012-01-02T20:53:00.001-07:00

I laugh every year when all the diet commercials are played and celebrities talk about all the weight they have lost on those diet plans that are being advertised.

Well I hope this year is a new year for a new me. So far I have plans to do many races. My one major goal in the fitness area is to run a MARATHON! I hope to see that through.

Here is to many running entries. Today I started that training, I am running a half marathon in March 31st. I ran two miles and swam 500 meters.

I am feeling good.

Temple Lights

2011-12-31T22:43:00.001-07:00

I love this family tradition. This year we went with my parents and sister, Megan , and her family. It was freezing! It was like 29 degrees. If you stood to long in one place you could feel your clothes freezing up.
I know it is torture for the kids sometimes and I am not a fan of large crowds but I hope my children will enjoy this tradition and talk about when they are older about how their mom dragged them to downtown every year.

Mike finished a project

2011-12-31T22:42:00.001-07:00

It has taken Mike (my husband) two years to finish the mantel for our fireplace.

I have to admit it was fun to decorate the mantel but now that Christmas decor is put away what am I going to put on it now?

Christmas time is here.

2011-12-08T10:38:00.001-07:00

I can't believe another year is ending so soon. Before it ends I'm so glad we can celebrate Jesus birth.

As soon as we got home from Snowbird the kids were ready to put up the tree. I wasn't of course but Mike was willing to do all the decorating for Christmas this year.

We talk about it every year that we are going to get a new tree because we are out growing the one that we have. When we were first married we didn't have any ornaments. So I made some with the help of my sister in law. They are cute wood ornaments with buttons on them. I can't imagine our tree with out them. We also get a Hallmark ornament every year. Since TEN YEARS has past we have alot of ornaments. I have to put all of them on the tree.

I love those Hallmark commercials this time of year they make me cry. I love pulling out the ornaments and the kids getting excited to see their past ornaments and talk about how that year they did something special or that they liked a special character ie batman. Many of Mike's ornaments are from the Christmas Story because he loves that movie. The kids had never seen the movie until last week. They were so happy to know why their dad got those ornaments.

Since I can't do the decorating I have lifted the control and given it to Mike. It was hard at first because I still have a box of stuff we didn't put up because I have a special way of decorating. I am happy with the results of Mike's decorating skills.

With only a few weeks left I am as anxious as the kids to see what is under the tree. I hope to get all my shopping done soon. I have a few things left.

Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

2011-12-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

I want to do this for one of my New Year's Resolutions.

We are home!

2011-11-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

Well we have been home since Saturday. What a nice break from life when you go on vacation. But I was really excited to come home. I missed my bed.
I have one more week of being off work and then it's really back to reality. We are getting ready for Christmas and as always stressing to find the perfect gift.
Mike has been awesome in putting up Christmas decorations. Not his favorite thing to do but I can't.
Here are a few pics of us leaving Snowbird.....

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T12:27:00.001-07:00

I just love Thanksgiving. The break that you get to have to spend with your family.

Every year we have a fun time with my husband's family. We go to Snowbird a local ski resort in Utah. I love coming to Snowbird. We stay at a condo and have lots of family time. We swim, ski, eat all the food we can. This year has been a little bit less with the swimming, skiing and eating. The first few days my son Phoenix got some sort of bug. He was puking all over in the middle the night. Next was my nephew, then my daughter Jersey. This bug has worked it's way all through the family.

All 16 of us have been have problems.

Now on the day of Thanksgiving we are all worried about our stomachs. There is a bright side....when we leave Snowbird every year I feel like I have gained 15 pounds. This year I think I have lost 15 pounds.

I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving.

Ten Years of Snowbird

2011-11-20T22:38:00.001-07:00

Mike received his ten year award from his job on Friday night.
He works at Snowbird ski resort. He got his job at Snowbird a few weeks after we got married and moved to Utah. Mike has a strong connection to this place. His family has been coming to Snowbird every thanksgiving week since he was three. So he basically got a dream job.
Snowbird has been good to our family. There have been times were we thought maybe he should find somewhere else, but he loves it to much to give up on it now. The CEO of Snowbird said some nice things about him when he was receiving his award so his hard work doesn't go unnoticed.
So happy for Michael!

Creative bug

2011-11-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

Jersey loves to create things, just like her mama. She constantly asking to sew something. She has done some cross-stitch work. She hand stitch this dress for her American girl doll.
I think she did a swell job. I love my children want to make things and use there talents.

Hysterectomy!

2011-11-10T12:37:00.001-07:00

The day has finally come. My feeling that this would happen has been full circle.

I saw my DR. on Friday Oct. 21st to have some unanswered questions answered. I felt that this was the right thing to do. I knew that this would change my life for the better. There were still uneasy feelings but I think those always stay around when you are making HUGE life changing decisions. My boss at work was getting concern for me. She wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing and suggested that I should read up on it. Of course when you read about these things online most of the time you see extreme cases were everything that can goes wrong.

I didn't want to be one of those cases nor did I feel like I would be.

On November 7th I took the day in stride. I made sure that the house was picked up to my liking. That the laundry was all done. Clothes put away and all. I made sure that all bills and groceries were paid for. I wanted to make recovery time the easiest it has ever been to recover from a surgery. I got to one point in the day that I needed to call my friend to do my hair. She said she could fit me in that night. I was so excited. I was going to go out with other friends for yogurt but decided that I needed my hair to be done. It felt good. I felt relaxed and ready for the morning. I still hadn't packed or made sure my dear husband knew the finally itinerary for the morning time.

At 6:30am, we walked into the hospital and registered. They took us back to wait and then to the prepping of the OR. Mike was nervous, he wasn't a huge fan of this happening but he knew that it would make me feel better. After answering several nurses and Dr's about my medical history I was wheeled away into the OR. I also made sure that I told my DR that I wanted a picture of my uterus before they cut it all up. Not to wake up again until I was in the recovery room.

I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I was really groggy and it was hard to stay awake. I got to see Mike and talk to him for a bit but the pain medicine made me really sleepy. So closed my eyes. I didn't wake up until 5pm. Mike had left. He need to get home for scouts. I was so happy that my in laws brought my kids to see me. Phoenix and Jersey were weirded out that I was strapped to so many wires. Phoenix thought it was funny that I had an oxygen tube on my nose because to him only old people have those. They all left after an hour of visiting. Then my sister-in-law came to visit. We chatted and had a fun time. The male nurse thought we were funny because we were talking about clothes and how we want to continue to shop at our favorite stores even when we are old. Yes, Heather and I laugh so much when we are in hospital rooms and I have had a lot of morphine.

Through that first night I couldn't sleep very well. Monitors kept beeping and there was someone coming in to take my vitals. By the time the DR came in I was exhausted. She checked me out and said that everything looked good that I could eat something. I wanted scrambled eggs, I wanted to get out of bed and I wanted to shower. Mike came to visit and we took a walk around the floor. That took the life out of me. I was hoping that I would get to be released. I did! On Wednesday about 5pm they released me to my family and said that I could go home. I really wanted to be in my own bed. I know that my family wanted me home too.

This hysterectomy stuff hasn't been to bad other than I really don't have an appetite and I am tired. I want to rest really well so that in two weeks for Thanksgiving I will be feeling good. I thought I would be really depressed about having a hysterectomy but I think with my tubes being tied first and that failing that this was the last step in something that has been giving my problems for 17 years. I am ready for a healthy new life.

Favorite time of year!

2011-11-05T08:32:00.001-06:00

I love that the magic is still alive in these two children. I wish I could. Bottle it up and not let them grow up.
We had a great Halloween! I can't wait for the rest of the year for all the holiday fun!

It is Halloween it is Halloween!

2011-11-05T08:28:00.000-06:00

We have been counting down the day for this magical night to happen.
We went a bit budget with our costumes this year. I didn't want to spend $40 on a costume that they wouldn't wear again. Phoenix wanted to be a ghost and Jersey a fairy. I had the halloween makeup from last year when it was on clearance so I believe I spent $20 total. So much better.
I took the day off. So I could go to the kids activities at the school. I love that there is a Halloween parade, I remember doing that as kid. After school I put their face paint on and we went out trick or treating up through the neighborhood. Most families were out. We had to hurry because we needed to get to my sister in laws house for some more fun. When we got there all the cousins went out, the kids came back with so much candy. At our house we put all the candy in a jar and I let the kids have few pieces at a time. We try to save for when we go on vacation. I think it is a bit funny I have trained my kids so well because they were telling their cousins about what we do. I don't let them trade or sort. It is a family jar of candy. I tend to find less candy wrappers around the house when I regulate it. Sometimes we get sick of it and it sits in the jar until Easter. We throw it out then.

It's my birthday!

2011-11-05T08:12:00.001-06:00

Turning 33, wow that just sounds old. It really isn't. I am so happy that I have had 33 years of a good life.
I had to work on my birthday for the first time. My day started out great. I treated myself to McDonald's breakfast. When I to work I had balloons on my desk. Many well wishes from co-workers saying Happy Birthday!
When I got home Mike had prepared a great dinner, finished the homework with the kids, rented a movie and made me birthday cake. We dinner as a family and hung out eating cake and watching Captain America.
I truly blessed with awesome people in my life I am so grateful for all of you.
My friends wanted to do something special as well. We went out to for ice cream at Culver's we chatted just hanging out. They were awesome give me a crown and balloons for my birthday. Thanks ladies for a great night out.

Halloween Half

2011-11-01T22:40:00.001-06:00

Saturday, I ran my last race for the year. I was stoked, pumped, excited, freezing and feeling good. This was my second half marathon. I was looking forward to beating my time. Last year, I just wanted to finish the race but this year was different. I knew the race course, I was in better shape and was hoping to beat my time.

I did all of that. I am 20 pounds lighter than I was last year. I am in better shape and my time was 2:31:06.

My sister in law ran the race with me this year as well. Some of the ladies from her neighborhood did the race as well. We all carpooled down to Provo in the wee hours of the morning. When we got there we stood in line for over an hour in the cold, windy weather. When we finally got on the bus our bodies were tense from standing in the cold for so long. There were 3600 people running in this race this year. Many people were dressed up in various costumes. That is the best part of this race, checking out every one's awesome costumes.

The race started at 9:00am, 3600 people headed down the winding Provo Canyon road. Of the girls that rode with us to the race, her name is Mae, it was her first race and half marathon. We stayed by each other the whole time. It was great motivation to run next to someone. I liked that it pushed me to keep going instead of trying to walk. I didn't want to let her down. Two and half hours later we finished.

I love what racing does to me. I love that I can say I ran a half marathon, I'm a runner, an athlete. I feel accomplished.

At the finish line my children, sister, sister in law and husband were all waiting for me and cheering me on. The sight of seeing them brought tears to my eyes. I could see how they were happy for me. I can't wait to run this race again next year. I know I will do even better!

Styleoutsidethebox.com: Blog Event Winner!

2011-10-30T17:04:00.000-06:00

Styleoutsidethebox.com: Blog Event Winner!

My two favorite people

2011-10-30T17:00:00.001-06:00

We love being cheesy. These two have the best smiles and it makes my day when see them.

(see full image)

Rhiannon Nielsen

Family Photos

2011-10-22T20:17:00.000-06:00

We love them or hate them. Sometimes you don't even get one you can send out on a Christmas card.

I love these two kids

We haven't had our photos taken for a while. At least two years. Where we have been colored coordinated and hair done perfect.
It wasn't easy to find anything either. Well it was easy for me to find something for myself, it is just the rest of family I struggled with. I wanted the picture to look a certain way. I wanted bright colors on everyone. For little boys and their clothes selection it's all the same at every store. Random graphics on every tee. Lame polo shirts and to many uniform clothes. Nothing stylish. I found cute things for Jersey as well. I was going for a different look for Mike. He wanted a pair of skinny or slim jeans. I was hoping to find an orange shirt or turquoise shirt but I couldn't find anything that was also a graphic tee or cowboy shirt. ACKKK! No wonder this time of year drives me crazy and we don't get family photos that often.

This one is my favorite!

Next was time to pick a location. I wanted something urban without having to go all the way downtown. I had heard of a place in Lehi but I also didn't want to drive that far. We went to SODA row in the Daybreak community. It was the perfect location for our family. Mike's Dad is a photog so we had him shoot the photos but we told him how we wanted a casual photo.

Principal's Pride

2011-10-17T00:15:00.000-06:00

As a mom I get nervous, anxious and sad that my little lovelies go often to school and are taught by people I don't really know but I am suppose to trust because they have a college degree. I use to want to be one of those people that taught other people's children. I am okay with just teaching my own children.
This year so far in school has been tough and rough not really on the kids but on Mike and I. We want to understand but struggle to help Jersey excel. She comes home telling me that she doesn't have a lot of friends, that she has to make up work during recess and that she does get what is going on in her class. I have always worried about Jersey when it comes to learning. She shares many similarities to the things I use to do in school and how I would be when it came time to do homework.
Much to our surprise she was receiving an award from her teacher through the Principal called Principal's Pride. The teacher nominates the student to get the award and we get to come and have lunch with her. I was so happy for her. She was excited as well she couldn't believe that she has got this three years now. The reason for getting it was because she comes into the classroom and starts on her work without being asked. That she is good worker. That warmed my heart. That though she might struggle her teacher still thinks she is a good student.

Running Log #40

2011-10-16T22:42:00.000-06:00

I am now in the last two weeks of training for my last race of the year. I can't believe it! The time has gone by so fast. I love having a race to look forward to.
This last week was a struggle to get out and run. The weather was perfect but my heart wasn't into it. I kept thinking tomorrow I will run, tonight I will run. But by the time it would come and I wouldn't want to. Running makes me feel strong, happy, and better about myself. Other exercise does that too but there is something about running that you walk away saying wow my body just did that and I didn't die. Biking and swimming aren't that hard for me. But when it comes to the running I just want to give up.
This is how I felt on Monday. My husband been had been gone all weekend. I felt couped up with the children, the weather didn't help either. After I picked up the children from swimming lessons, I told them that I was going to go run and that they needed to get ready for bed. I wanted to go 3 miles but as I started to run my calf started to hurt, the wind started to blow and for some reason there were a lot of teenagers walking the streets, which were making me nervous. I wish I could say that through all the adversity I kept going. But I didn't. I was hurting and scared. This run made me feel even worse than if I hadn't even gone in the first place. I didn't know when I would have the chance to run again.
As luck would have it, the opportunity came on Wednesday. Jersey was getting an award at school and I wanted to be there for her so I went to work later in the day. I was so excited. I couldn't handle it. I was going to get some ME time. I was going to get to run when the sun was shining and most scary teenagers were at school. Mike said to me run as far as you can in one hour. I did and it felt great. I went 5.76 miles in one hour. Probably the fastest I have ever gone. I loved that I could feel the sun. I know I said that already but there aren't to many of those days left. As I was running the pain in my calf was hurting but not as bad as on Monday. After 3 miles it felt better. I wanted to go longer than 5 miles but if I had I wouldn't have made Jersey thing in time.
I don't know why but when I run my head seems to clear. Thoughts come that I have been looking and waiting for, anxieties melt away and my favorite part is that I can feel love and peace from my Heavenly Father. I think that is why when I don't get to run I get a bit crazy. I need it now more than I ever thought I would. Which makes me nervous for the winter and for the 6 weeks of recovery time that I will soon be needing. I know that I will be fine and better than ever. Let's hope for a fast recovery.

Triathamom

2011-10-15T08:39:00.001-06:00

Three weeks ago I finished my last triathlon of the season.
It was all women's race. Focusing on finishing the race not winning. But when you get a bunch of ladies together you are going to get some competition gong on.
I wanted to this race because it was a pool swim and I had not done a pool star before. It was easier than an open water swim and I did like how I could see the bottom of the pool. The weaving through the lanes was a bit difficult to understand.
My cousin's wife had posted on Facebook that she was doing her first tri that same day. I offered my house to her and my cousin and her sister. They all love in Provo. I know how it feels to wake up early for a race and feel nervous that you are traveling so far. I was happy to have the company since my family was not going to be at the race.
Mike was at a scout outing and the kids were having an over night at Grandma's house.
I improved my time and I wasn't last two goals I have for every race. Now on to the last and final race I have this racing season. I am so excited for the Halloween half. It is going to be awesome. I love racing. I don't like the training and practice but doing something cool like these races makes me happy!

Cleaning the Conference Center

2011-10-13T21:45:00.000-06:00

At the beginning on the year a welfare sheet was passed around so that we could do service at various church places.

At the time I was working late so I thought I work the. Conference center because the shift worked with my schedule. When it got closer to work there I wasn't to excited about working. I even wanted to say I couldn't anymore because I had to wake early. Rude right?

I did go I go and I washed windows and vacuumed. Even while cleaning there I felt that this is where I needed to be. I could feel my Savior's love for me.

ME

2011-10-04T12:08:00.001-06:00

This weekend we took some family photos. It is fun and dreaded by all the members of the family. I want my family to look like models and we don't. I want our photos to be wall worthy. I haven't seen them yet so I really hope they do. I will definitely post some more when I get them.
(see full image)

Rhiannon Nielsen

The calendar said fall began

2011-09-30T15:08:00.000-06:00

Last week the calendar said it was fall. I don't think the weather got the memo. It's still summer. I am not complaining, I am glad the colder temps, are staying away for now. It nice to feel the warm air and get some vitamin D before the yucky weather comes.
One thing I find interesting is the though the weather isn't cooling down that much the leaves are changing just like clock work. That is my favorite part of fall watching the mountains go from green to spotty colors of red,yellow and orange. Can you see the bright aspens on the mountains?

Bad days can have happy endings

2011-09-29T23:01:00.001-06:00

This morning I woke up when the alarm went off, hit the snooze and cozied back into bed. The cool air blowing through the windows. I needed to get up and run this morning I have been putting it off for three days. The outside was black and cold and I wasn't in the mood. The next time the alarm went off it was Mike's turn to push the snooze. He didn't want to get up either.

Finally it was time for us to wake the children and start the morning madness. Showers, getting dressed, breakfast, teeth brushing, some chores, fixing hair, last minute homework, lunch being made, hugs and kisses.

Today was a special day. The is looked forward by many but for this mom, it's a bit torturous. I stress how the pictures will turn out. I don't want silly overpriced photos that have bad lighting and one pose. I want great smiles, to make my children look like angels. These photos will last with them for a lifetime, like when someone thinks it's funny to post their class photo on Facebook, later in life. With the stress I feel I want the perfect photo. I even was nice and bought a new shirt or two for my children so they would look awesome.

This is where our drama begins. I went to wake up Phoenix showed him his new shirt that I carefully picked out. Showed him the jeans he would be wearing and he started to throw a fit. Saying he didn't want to wear this nice new shirt to school. That he was tired of mom always buying him clothes to wear and nothing that he likes. Yes, I could have been nice and let him wear a graphic shirt but I didn't want to be nice. I wanted difficulty. He proceed to lay in bed until I got him dressed. He was still telling me he didn't want to wear those clothes. I gave options but not a graphic tee.

Mike even told him that he doesn't get to pick out what he wants to wear because everything he has I bought for him.

I was not happy with Phoenix so I told him that I was going to ground him from video games. He smarted off and said that he didn't care, that made my blood boil a little bit more so I added no friends for a week. He was still laughing that he didn't care. Well I guess he did care a little because he was crying to his sister about how I was the meanest mom in the world.

Well, sometimes you just have to be.

I hug and kissed that little monster and sent him off to school looking dapper. Then it was off to work myself. With all of Phoenix's drama I didn't have time to get ready. Off to work and every road I take to work has construction on it, hindering my way. I think that I should get paid for all the time I sit in my car commuting. I would like to see that on ballot somewhere. Anyways late for work.

At work I get to have my blood pressure, weight, cholesterol, blood sugar and BMI checked out, not good. Overweight! I already knew that my Wii fit told me that. Because of my overweight status I drowned my feelings in cheesecake and cookies. Work was slow and slow. It was hard to stay but I did. I thought I would be sneaky and leave a bit early to get a head start on the commute home. Boy was I wrong it was worse than the car ride into work.

Then there was the picking up of the children, finding out that someone forgot their dance stuff running errands and coming home. Finally, I felt like I could breathe. My friend Sarah and I went swimming and Mike took care of the kids for the night. Freedom! Something I have longed for since moving to day shift. A moment for me that I wasn't thinking about bills, work, housework or a schedule. Getting in the pool was washing all of those feelings away. Swimming hard and thinking only about my stroke and pace. Freed my mind. I felt energized. I came home a happy mom to a dirty house that someday the floors will be mopped, bathrooms will sparkle once more and laundry will have a home. But Thursday nights are for me, to swim and only think about how cool it would have been to be a mermaid.

You've had a birthday

2011-09-18T22:36:00.001-06:00

Shout hooray!!!!!!! We are so glad we could spoil our Mike on his birthday!

We are Utah Utes!

2011-09-18T22:32:00.000-06:00

Growing up I had never heard of these Utes. Only cougars and so we loved BYU but after living here for some time and attending the U of U myself. I am happy to say I am a Ute. We were proud Ute fans last night watching the game.
In the past the "biggest" game of year has been at the end of season but I am glad it was earlier. Now my holiday season will be less stressful.

We got tagged

2011-09-18T22:22:00.001-06:00

There are some crazy BYU fans in our neighborhood. I guess they don't like our gusto for the Utes. I suppose this is just part of rivalry week.

A bunch of firsts

2011-09-05T12:04:00.000-06:00

This last week was a bunch of FIRSTS in the Nielsen household.

First, first, Jersey's started school on Monday becoming a big 3rd grader. Is it weird that I remember 3rd grade and the things I did in 3rd grade? She has a great teacher who is actually my neighbor's SIL. So I'm excited about she will do.

Jersey on the first day of school

walking to school with friends

Jersey and her BFF Krystal

A other first was that Phoenix got to meet his teacher on Monday for first grade! Weird that my baby is in first grade. He was a bit shy but I know that he will be fine once he gets into a routine with the whole school thing.

There is my happy boy!

Another first Phoenix was that on Tuesday he started school. When we got to the playground and waiting for which his line he should be in, he hung onto my legs for awhile. I started to worry that he was going to start crying, but he didn't I did though. No tears but my heart was starting to hurt that he getting so big. That he is in school all day.

Phoenix on his first day of school

Something else that was a major first for our family was that I changed my schedule. For 10 years Mike and I have worked oppisite shifts. When we were first married, he worked at night and I worked during the day because of our school schedule. Then when we had children we switched and Mike worked in the day and I worked at night. 9 YEARS!!! I haven't been home for homework, bedtime, or dinner time. Since Phoenix was going to be at school all day I didn't see the point to be home all day and miss the kids at night. Luckly I work for a good company where all my supervisors have played this game while they had little children at home so that they could also be a mother.

I know that Mike and I will have some adjustment to deal with since we haven't ever been home at the same time and a new routine will have to be set up. So far so good. I have been happy to have our schedules be the same. Jersey has been begging for Family Home Evening so it will be nice that we can start that as a family.

He is mad that I want another picture

Here is to a new and happy school year!

Bear Lake Brawl

2011-09-05T11:37:00.001-06:00

Mike and I did the biggest Triathlon we have ever done. We did the Bear Lake Brawl, Olympic size. So that is a one mile swim in open water, 26 miles on a bike and a 10k run(6.2 miles). This was our moment the race we had been training for all summer.

The first day we were at Bear Lake we woke up early not by choice but by the crazy lightening and rain storm. After the storm passed we went for a run. Mike and I have never run before nor have I ever kept a 11 min. mile pace. It was fun though to run with Mike. He likes to talk while he is running and since I sound like I'm in labor while I run, I just listened to him talk about how cool it is that we were running. We ran 3.5 miles in 43 minutes. I wanted to run part of the course so that I was familiar with it and could know when to push myself and when it was okay to slow down. After we got back from our run we decided to go on a short bike ride into Laketown to stretch our legs on our bikes. We rode around looking at property that was for sale. Someday I will live up there.

When were all done we took a rest out on the beach. Enjoying the sun. The water felt good on the warm skin. Mike's parents and sisters all came to Bear Lake. We enjoyed our time together laughing and eating and playing games. The kids really enjoyed digging in the sand.

On the morning of the race I couldn't sleep. We were up early. We wanted to get a good spot for our bikes on the bike racks but little did we know there were numbers already placed on the bars of the racks that coordinated with our bib numbers. So we racked our bikes and tried to go back to our tent to get some sleep. The race was taking place at the same camp ground that we were staying at. So we didn't have to travel very far for the race. After going back to the transition area again, this time with the rest of our stuff, shoes, towels, helmets, gloves, glasses and water buckets. We got our wetsuits on and went out towards the lake to watch our neighbor who was competing in the half iron man part of the race. Just watching those competitors started to make me nervous and my stomach start to squirm. Then it was Mike's turn to get in the water for the men's Olympic. I could see he was nervous but he was trying to remain calm. He did a great job on his swim and he was on his way to the transition when the gun started the women's Olympic part. I started to get nervous that I was going to not get around the buoys fast enough. While I was swimming, I was feeling good that I could do this, I could finish this race. Then it was time to get out of the water. I was a bit slow on doing that. I didn't want to get all wobbly as I was walking on the sand to transition area. In transition area people were moving so fast. I wanted to move fast but at the same time I wanted to make sure I was set up for my run after the bike. So I made sure my feet were sand free and I had some band aids on my feet for my blisters that I continue to get. Then I was out for the bike ride. I was feeling good until I came to the turn around point for the sprint riders. I still have 21 left. I didn't want to go further. I did of course. I saw Mike at one point on the ride and he was finishing, I also saw my neighbor and he was finishing also. I felt better and knew I could finish. Then came the run. It felt like the longest run of my life but it was also the fastest run too. My SIL was a volunteer at an aid station where she was handing out water. Her encouragement about my time and that I was doing a good job help keep me going.

I wanted to finish this race in under 4 hours and I didn't want to be last with the safety vehicle behind me. I accomplished all those goals but finishing in 3 hrs and 43 min. I wasn't LAST!!! Mike did good as well in finishing in 3:03. I felt really good afterwards. Now onto the next race.

Summer don't leave

2011-09-05T11:10:00.000-06:00

We went to Bear Lake to celebrate the end of summer. I can't believe it's ending. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was wearing winter clothes and the short summer months are now fading into the sunset.

a view from our campsite onto Bear Lake.

My sweet girl loves the beach

We have had a great summer with swimming, training for races, playing and having a long school break. I'm happy that I got to spend a lot of time with kids. They are growing up so fast and it's just not fair. I love the sun and the warmth that this summer has given. I am not looking forward to my tan fading by mid-September. Oh why must it get cold. I can already feel that autumn nip in the air.

Running Log #161

2011-08-22T10:54:00.000-06:00

I don't really think I have blogged about running 161 times but I have felt that I have been running for a while and today I started to get discouraged with my results. I don't run often that is a fact but in my head I feel like I am running all the time. When I envision my self running for reals, I have this nice long stride, my posture is good, my breathing is regulated, my feet aren't burning with the start of blisters and I look fabulous. No sweat, perfect hair and my face isn't crazy red like a tomato.

But none the of the above is what I look like when I actually run. I look beat up, my knees are creaking, my breathing is awful, my hair is a mess, along with my sweat that is crystallizing into salt.

It's pathetic really.

Something made me smile in the moments I started to get down on myself. I was watching my shadow. My shadow has changed over the years. It use to be thin, to say that I was thin. It use to be big and pregnant when that was my stage in life. After pregnancy it looked a bit round around the edges. Flabby and large. I didn't like looking at my shadow then, at any time. But slowly I have seen that shadow muffin top fade away. I am not saying that it isn't gone but it has been reduced. My arms in my shadow, you can see the definition of them. My legs are looking skinnier not elephant legs pounding the pavement.Yep, this made me smile to think about the times that I have wanted a smaller, thinner shadow. I know that it's going to take more time to get that shadow down to where I want it.

I will keep on pounding the pavement. .

Happy moment, the other day I was in the car with my children and they were discussing my size, nice right? Well they both told me that they have liked the way I look. That I am looking a lot skinnier. I will keep on running for more compliments like that.

We Tri

2011-08-16T11:19:00.000-06:00

Mike during his swim.

Getting his bike.

Rhi's swimming.

Getting ready to ride.

Taking off for the run.

Mike finishing his run.

Rhi coming around the corner to finish.

We did it!

Last year I did my ever first triathlon. I couldn't believe that I would do such a thing. Since last year I got my very own road bike, I don't think I have had a bike since I was 10, new running shoes, a triathlon outfit, a bike helmet, biking gloves, sweet goggles and a fancy GPS watch. Just looking at me you could tell I was a veteran of the sport. No not really but I did know what to expect this year alot more than I did the prior year.
Last year, my husband was jealous and nervous for me all at the same time. When I wanted to sign up again for the race he was excited to sign up too. We are both competitive and with each other as well. I knew that he would beat me in the race. He would also be really nervous, so I tried not be annoying about how I've done this before I'm the expert on the subject.
This year the race was on the last weekend in July. Our months of swimming, running and biking were now going to be put to the test. The night before the race my sister-in-law had our children over to spend the night so that would be one less thing to worry about. I wanted to go get a pasta dinner but Mike thought it would be fun to Harry Potter again, don't get me wrong it was fun but it made for a long night afterwards. Just gathering the things we needed making sure we knew where our stuff was.
Sleeping was the worst. It was like Christmas waiting for that alarm clock to go off to say "TODAY IS THE DAY!!!" Because we were both so restless we got up to get ready. I hurried and made some peanut butter bagels and we loaded up the car. Getting to the starting line seeing the hundreds of bikes lined up gave you chills, there was a little breeze as well.
After lining up our bikes it was only 6am and we still had an hour and a half to go until the start. I could tell Mike was getting more nervous. I reminded myself that I could do this and do it well. I had trained better than last year and I was going to see the results today!

Diving runs in the family

2011-08-16T10:16:00.000-06:00

Jersey loves going off the diving board. She was so excited that she could turn 8 for more reasons than one. She would be able to go off the 3 meter diving board. Last year I was trying to teach her an approach off the board with a dive. She got it down really good.

I thought it was time for Phoenix to try going off the diving board too. He is a good swimmer so I knew once he went off he could swim to the side without help.

On Saturday we were at the pool and when I was walking back from the bathroom with Phoenix,

I said "do want to try jumping off the diving board?" he looked at me a bit funny but really wanted too just like Jersey. To my surprise he did it!

I was at the side telling him to swim and I helped him out of the pool.

He definitely shock Grandma who didn't know what he was doing until we went back to our chairs.

He jumped a few more times and I got it on video to show Mike since he wasn't there with us.

(I wish the diving programs here were as good as the ones I worked with growing up.

Or that I could coach again.)

PHX gots some moves

2011-08-16T09:58:00.000-06:00

We have known for a long time that Phoenix loves to dance. Well his moves have been improving. When we went to a wedding reception this last weekend he went a bit nuts. I love it!

How lucky am I?

2011-08-03T08:21:00.001-06:00

On Mike's days off he has an agenda most of the time. It consists of working out, either biking, running or swimming, sleeping in, making some sort of delicious breakfast and torturing the kids with tickle fights.
For the last two weeks his agenda has been work on the cars, mow the grass in the front and back of the house and wash my car.

I am feeling really grateful that he is making our house look nice and keeping my car up to date on the oil change and tires rotated. He even gets the kitchen cleaned. It is a nice feeling to come home to a clean kitchen, for some reason it helps make the next day easier to deal with.

I can't say thank you enough for
the many things he does for me.

Parties are my favorite

2011-07-29T09:38:00.000-06:00

I try to do parties for my children every other year on their even birthdays.

Since Phoenix turned 6 we had a party. I asked him what kind of party that he wanted.

He is obsessed with Harry Potter not only Harry Potter but Lego Harry Potter.

I was able to find some awesome deals on Ebay for Legos that are Harry Potter.

I also found some great websites that talked about Harry Potter parties. We of course couldn't go as big as the ones online, but we went pretty big. I got out some of Halloween costumes and decor. I found a Hogwarts banner, a Hedwig, a Harry Potter costume, that came with a wand and glasses. We got a tie and scarf. We also made some chocolate frogs, found some gross gummy bugs, worms and rats. Along with some Bertie Botts every flavor bean. We made dragon eggs and had broom relay races. The boys had a lot of fun. On Sunday some still had their Harry Potter scars on their forehead at church.

It's a good thing that we will only do parties ever other year since it all starts to add up. We (Mike and I) had a fun time putting together all the Legos together. Mike glued them together so that they could stay intact. The kids haven't stopped playing with them.

The boy who lived

2011-07-29T09:13:00.001-06:00

I can't believe that you turned 6 years old on the 23rd. The story of your birth is still talked about.

How you made your entrance into the world on a stormy night.

You have grown up to be a curious, smart, funny, and handsome. You make my day everyday with your talk about Star Wars or Harry Potter. You are a great friend for your sister and you two play so well together, I never have to worry about you two playing together.

I love you and thank you for being my son.

Love Mom

Just can't get enough!

2011-07-22T08:47:00.000-06:00

I just can't enough of Bear Lake and the Bear Lake Valley. Or the wonderful food that I eat there.

On July 16th we went to Bear Lake for the day. We did this last year and it was quite fun so we did a repeat. Mike's parents went with us.

My Grandma was born in Paris, ID. It's a short distance from Garden City and Laketown, where we like to go. I have been reading more about our family history and how my Pioneer ancestors help establish the Bear Lake area. From the very first time I went there I felt that this place meant more to me than anyone else. I felt like belonged to Valley and had strong roots there. Come to find out I do.

If Mike told me that he got a job there and that we would have to leave our life in West Jordan. I wouldn't hesitate to move there. I love it that much. Someday we will get property there.

Since reading up on my Family heritage, I wanted to go to the Bloomington Cemetery and see the headstones of these famed relatives. WOW! the experience again was over whelming. I have never been there so to search for the headstones and to walk around and think I came from these great people was an awesome feeling. On Isaac Dunford (one of my relatives) headstones, it has a "Faith in Every Footstep" plaque on it because he did cross the plains, coming from England with his family. So many people that made it possible for me, Rhiannon, to have a great life that I have.

I hope I don't forget their past.

This weekend there is a whole reunion of people from all over that come for a Dunford Reunion. I can't go this year but maybe next year.

Bike rides are fun

2011-07-22T08:24:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday I took a bike ride with my SIL Jen & BIL Ryan. We have this little route that goes to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple along U111 and then onto our house.

I went 21 miles on Saturday and did it in 1:32min. Pretty impressive.

There were lots of hills, plenty of time I was thinking what the H am I doing?

There are other moments, when I think this is nice to have ME time! Time to think about the weeks goals, life challenges and how I can be better mom, wife and all around gal. Also enjoying the beautiful surroundings. The best part of the ride is getting up to the Temple. Riding around it and just being outside of it feeling the peace and joy that it brings to me. I regret we haven't been as much as I would like these last few months. Knowing that the Temple is there and that I will try harder to get there.

After having the peaceful fun ride, it's hard to come back to the reality of life. (insert kids screaming) Bike rides are fun!

To celebrate!

2011-07-17T14:30:00.000-06:00

On July14th, it was our anniversary, but since both of us had to work we decided to celebrate on Friday and Saturday.
Friday, we took the kids to my SIL house and she watch them while we went to see Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows, part 2. (more on that later)
After the movie, I wanted to do things that Mike enjoys doing, so we went bowling. We don't bowl very often. I had bought a Groupon for bowling. 2 hours for 2 people. We were the only people in the bowling alley for an hour, other than employees. It was awkward and funny all at the same time. Mike was getting a bit frustrated that he wasn't bowling his best. I believe the last time we actually did bowl was when I was pregnant with Phoenix. Mike tried to help me with my game. Giving me pointers, telling me how to stand, explaining how the scoring works. I didn't really care but I tried to. I know he was happy to go even if his score was bad. Mike has a real competitive side to him. Anytime I was even a bit ahead of him in the game he would come back with a strike or a spare putting him in the lead. He tried to show that he was happy for me when I was winning but it didn't last long.
Movies and bowling can really take a lot out a person, we wanted to go and get something to eat. I threw out Cheesecake Factory, hoping that because of the special nature of this date that we would get to go. It was thrown out as fast as I said it. Good thing I bought a little cheesecake at work the other night. We headed back to my SIL's house and we thought Chili's would work. Just as they seated us the power went out and didn't come back on. We ate our chips and salsa, drank our water and went to get our kids. We are so romantic. We needed to go to the grocery store so we picked up our stuff. It was now 8pm and we still hadn't ate a real meal. We did get some take out from a different Chili's, got a redbox and headed for home. The kids really wanted our food. We kept telling them that they had already had dinner, which was true.
It makes me laugh how our anniversaries tend to be so low key but fun. Someday we will get to Hawaii or I will get that diamond anniversary band. But for right now, I'm pretty content with what I have.

The Tenth Year

2011-07-14T09:58:00.000-06:00

In Ten years,

I have never

laughed so much,

cried so much,

yelled so much,

kissed so much,

hugged so much,

said I'm sorry so much,

been right so much,

cared so much.

On this day Ten years ago. I walked out of the Mesa Arizona Temple a married lady for time and all eternity with man I chose. We still didn't know each other very much but we knew that we wanted to be together. To work out our problems, to see each other succeed,

to encourage one another to be the best that they could be and most importantly love each other.

I don't think we know everything there is to know about each other, now but I do know is that I love my husband and that he is the best man for me.

I am excited that we can spend this day remembering that.

I came home last night from work to find a dozen red roses,

a fantastic love note and an enlarge photo of our wedding day.

Before we were sealed we took our pictures outside the Temple. I was late and Mike had been waiting with the video guy for 20 min. (right as I was getting ready to meet him I walked between to dirty cars and my dress got dirty, it took a moment to get it cleaned up.) He told me later he thought I was bailing on him. He looked so relieved when I showed up.

We took photos at 6am (well, at 7am) and it was hot. 90 degrees already.

The Temple was closing after that day for cleaning,

there were 48 couples that day getting married.

I remember being in the sealing room and looking at my soon to be sisters-in-law and they were crying. I didn't want to cry but when I saw them, the tears just started to come. My dress was so tight that it was hard to breath. When the sealer said that we could kiss. I didn't think about what he had said and I just shook my head. I wanted my first kiss with my husband to be special not in front of everyone. ( I have tried to redeem myself, asking Mike to kiss me over the alter, when we have done sealings later. But it is now a missed opportunity)

When we left the Temple it was 105 degrees with 15% humidity. The Utah family, was melting away. The Arizona family, was saying "oh it's not that bad"

Mike was melting in his tuxedo and I was melting under all the tulle I was wearing.

All the magical memories of getting married on

the beautiful, summer morning in July will always be with us.

What's an aquarium?

2011-07-14T09:08:00.000-06:00

After going with Jersey, on her field trip to the Aquarium. She kept talking about how she wanted to go back and show Phoenix all the things that she thought was cool. While the children are out of school I have been thinking of things that we can do that we don't normally do. Like going to the Aquarium.

Jersey's real motivation for going there was for me to get suckered into buying her something from the gift shop. I would rather go to Seaworld and buy something there than buy something at that shop. Alas our Aquarium in the desert, proved that it was really expensive for the hour that we were there. I was surprised that Phoenix didn't show much interest after all the talk his sister gave to him. He was actually afraid of the animals. I thought he would like to see the penguins or even want to touch the sting rays but nope he didn't care. He even asked why there were only fish there. We took our souvenir photo booth pictures and left. The kids did think that the anaconda was cool. But that is about it.

To much fun it should be illegal

2011-07-14T08:39:00.000-06:00

Next to Christmas, Halloween, my Birthday and Thanksgiving. I love the Fourth of July!

Rodeos, parades, patroitic songs, flags waving everywhere and fireworks. Love those fireworks.

We had a eventful day, we met up with Mike's sisters and parents to watch the West Jordan parade in the morning. We enjoyed that it was short and sweet. There were many other cultures that we represented in the parade. It makes you laugh to think about another culture in a Independence Day Parade but isn't that what America is all about? The diversity that we share. I'm so glad that we have the diversity because I would be really sad if there was not Chinese food or Mexican food.

They are staples in my household.

Great swing, watch the ball.

Our Fireworks show

We thought about going to the pool but cranky kids at the pool, make for an unhappy mama. We hung out at home until it was time to go to Auntie's for some delicious BBQ and family fun. My brother-in-law made a wiffle ball diamond in the grass in his yard so we broke up into teams to play wiffle ball but my MIL kept calling it waffle ball so it's waffle ball to the Nielsen clan. Our hosts live on a hill overlooking the valley. With the new fireworks laws, that anyone can shoot off fireworks that are aerial, it made for a good time to see the many, many, firework shows. We had our own firework show but it wasn't as grand as others. The kids still enjoyed it. Of course we couldn't forget sparklers.

That glowing building is the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.

We had our own Lady Liberty

Thanks America for having a birthday and for the freedom that you give to all.

Two hours of fun!

2011-07-08T13:38:00.000-06:00

This morning I woke up saying STOP!, with my arm out stretched, No one was in my room but apparently the stop was from my dream that I was having. I looked at the time and saw that it was 8am or so I thought. I guess I woke up Jersey because she came in and asked me a question. I looked at the time again and it was really 6:50am. Oh no, I thought, I lost sleep. I wanted to run this morning and since I was up I got ready to run. 6 miles of fun. In the warm muggy outside world.

Once I got home I was sipping my protein shake looking at my garden and the delicious looking lettuce and spinach that was growing. Maybe after swimming lessons, I thought, I would make an awesome salad.

At swimming lessons, I swam 1200m in 30min. I am a maniac all of a sudden with this training stuff. When we got home I was famished. I needed food. I just kept thinking about the homegrown lettuce and spinach. It couldn't be that hard to make a salad out it?

I had some raspberries and blueberries in the fridge. I have never made a vinaigrette but I thought I could do this. I did. I found a piece of chicken that I could grill up. Mix it all together and you get on delicious salad that could give Wendy's Berry Chicken salad a run for it's money.

We have 22 days until the Herriman Triathlon! There are going to be many more 2 hours of fun!

p.s. I have cut my chocolate and candy intake to one per day.

There might be something wrong with me.

Cowboy Up!

2011-07-04T16:28:00.000-06:00

The rodeo never seems to disappoint for family fun. Cheering for the cowboys and cowgirls, listening to the corny jokes the announcer says along with the rodeo clowns. And my all time favorite, the crazy people that come and get really mad when they get touched or bumped accidentally. I'm amazed at the reaction people give when something like that happens. We are all sitting on bleacher and trying to maintain our inches of personal space.

I also love that my nephew has great moves and was bustin' a move every time the music was playing. There was a section of the Rodeo where one of the clowns did some Michael Jackson moves and while he was working with a lasso. He had moves but I will say Miles's were better. We laughed so hard our sides ached with pain.

Sing the Star Spangled Banner, always gets me too. The love I have for my country is great and that song expresses exactly how I feel. I have to say that it is said that we don't sing more than one verse in public arenas. The rest of the song has such a good message about standing for the right! (We sang the whole song on Sunday and I cried like a baby)

Snowbird summer fun!

2011-07-04T16:13:00.000-06:00

Snow still at Snowbird. Longest season on record.

I teach a jewelry making class on Tuesdays up at Snowbird. Since the kids are out of school I try to bribe them that if they are good, we will do some fun summer activities. Last Tuesday, Mike was off of work, we took advantage of our Snowbird benefits and did some of the summer activities.

Jersey on the ropes course

First we did the ropes course. The ropes course from the ground looks silly and childish. Not when you are dangling up there do you realize that isn't the case. Jersey did a good job walking on the all the obstacles. Mike took Phoenix and I went by myself. I am scared of heights. I was so nervous. I had to do it ,since there were a bunch of teenage boys pushing you along on the course. My heart was racing. All I kept thinking about, was that I wore the wrong shoes.

Look at my little monkey, she is in pink.

Gearing up for the rock wall

Looking up at the task at hand.

Jump jump around

After the ropes course we moved onto the rock wall. I wanted to do that but again the wrong shoes. Jersey was the only brave enough to do the rock wall. She made it close the top. She tried a few times but we had to tell she was done since there was a long line waiting for her to finish.

reliving the glory days

what are my parents doing to me?

Next, we went on the Euro trampolines. I don't know why they are called "Euro" but basically you are strapped to a belt with ropes on it and they pulled to you up some and let you go to bounce really high. I did a few backflips, Jersey did a few front flips and Phoenix just bounced. I haven't jumped on a trampoline like that in a long time. Last time was when I was in diving and we practice certain tricks on the tramp. After awhile I was very winded. I forget that the high mountain air can throw me into a asthma attack if I'm not careful.

Can I hang on for 8 seconds?

While I was recovering from my asthma attack, Jersey took some spins on the mechanical bull. We headed home for some lunch. We stopped at Pei Wei for some delicious Chinese. A great way to finish the day together as a family.

Etsy Goodness

2011-06-28T17:45:00.000-06:00

For a while now I have contemplated on getting a Etsy shop. I thought my google check out would be great direct from seller type of thing. But alas, since I'm not the most savvy when it comes to computers,

I really should be, I decided to take my wares to the Etsy market.

Test the waters and see if people really do like my stuff.

I suppose I was hoping for overnight fame but it's been slow and steady.

I also put my shop in the mix with Facebook.

If you would like to purchase an item from me you can now do it at my Etsy shop.

Rhi's Designs

Check it out, make me your favorite on Etsy and become a fan on Facebook.

Right now you can be entered to win a necklace just by being a fan on Facebook.

Also you can receive 10% off one item.

Thanks for loving me and my jewelry.

{P.S. I'm trying to get 50 fans on Facebook for my drawing so sign up today}

8 weeks Baby!

2011-06-27T09:46:00.000-06:00

Today begins the start of our 8 week training. Mike and I are training for two triathlons this summer. We have one at the end of July, which is the Herriman Black Ridge, it's the same one I did last year. Then we are also doing a race at Bear Lake at the end of August. I can't wait. The Bear Lake race is an Olympic distance which means it's a, mile swim, 25 mile bike and a 10k run.

I feel bit crazy doing it but I think I will be all right.

Today for training is strength training. Push ups and sit ups. Both of which I'm not good at. I will also be doing some swimming.

After running Ragnar I feel I can do anything in the race category.

To my husband

2011-06-19T22:24:00.001-06:00

I wanted to say thank you to you for all the many things you do and put up with. You sacrifice many things for this family so we can have what we want. You're an awesome provider, a fantastic role model to our children, you take care of them and spend quality time, which they love. I love that you are handy and that you can pretty much make anything. You help me be a better person everyday. I'm glad that you lift me up when I am down. Especially being my favorite friend.

Oh my Father

2011-06-19T22:13:00.001-06:00

My dad, is adventurous, awesome, spiritual, happy, a good grandpa, husband and great at cleaning the kitchen. He is a great example to me and to my family. Though he is thousands of miles away. I still feel his love and kindness. I know that he prays for me everyday.

are you Ragnar ready?

2011-06-19T21:48:00.003-06:00

Ragnar? What is that you say? It's an insane race with 12 team members that run for two days. Why? No one knows why you really you do it other than you want to get really close with friends

(or strangers in my case) they will know more about you after a few hours.

(fact 14,000 people ran in this race this weekend)

How did this happen?
Well, let me tell you a story.

Mike has been signed up for Ragnar for a while since he did it last year. He hurt his knee a few weeks before the race. He didn't think he would be able to run. I started to do a bit more training. In a few weeks he was feeling better, he told me that he wouldn't need me to take his place. I was happy that he was better but sad that I wasn't going to get to run.

My friend and former neighbor posted on Facebook that her team was needing a runner. (Wednesday)

I was crazy and said that I would do it. I got all the information and we were planning to leave Thursday night to go to Logan because our start time was 5 am. Mike had said that he was cool with me doing the race. Now that we were both racing we needed to find a babysitter. I'm so grateful my sister was able to stay at my house with my kids. (THANK YOU)

Our Van signing in at the beginning.

Starting line at 5am Friday morning.

I left for Logan, Thursday night.

We got to our hotel at 9pm. We were all excited that we couldn't sleep. 3am came really fast. We needed to get up and get signed in before 5am. Our first runner started we drove along the race to help her. I got to be the first driver. Around 9 am it was my turn to run.

I couldn't believe that was doing this race.

This is what we did this weekend.

Check this of the bucket list

Giddy with joy

Last year I volunteered and now I was actually running it. My first leg of the race was all up hill. I had a 1200ft elevation change. Oh did I mention that it was in dirt with cars following me up so they kicked up even more? And there were lots of rocks! One I wanted to be really good. I did that leg in 1 hour and 48 minutes. I ran the whole thing and was proud of my run.

Getting ready before my first run

After our first major exchange with van 2.

My second leg of the race was I feel was my best leg. I was feeling good, then I started to get a cramp on my side. I was steady and did it 52 min. Still a 12 min mile.

My last leg was good too. I started crying before my last exchange, I was happy that did the race, I have been wanting to do this race since the first time I saw Heather (my SIL) run the race 2 years ago.

I did it.

By Jordanelle

the hand off at my last exchange

For the love of chafing

We met up with our van 2 and once we past off to them we have some time until we would see them at the finish line. We spent $20 to get a room at the Swiss Alps inn in Heber City. We could shower, clean out our car or take a dip in the pool and hot tub. I jumped in the pool. I really did a cannon ball. It felt so good. We got ready and went to eat some lunch and do some shopping at the outlets. I wasn't really in the mood for shopping (shocking, I know) We made to the finish line to meet the rest of our team.
Our official total time for 192 miles was 35(hours):49 (min).

I got the sticker and an awesome medal

MikenRhi together to again after running our first legs of the race

Snowbasin with Michael aka Gingy

The only time I got to see Mike was at Snowbasin. I was so happy to see him. Maybe next year we will do this together. Many people say that this is worse than child birth. I don't think child birth was all that bad and Ragnar wasn't that bad either.
Any where you go you see these little Ragnar stickers on cars.
I have wanted one and GUESS WHAT? I got it. My car will be awesome.

R for radical, Ragnar and Rhiannon

I have to give a shout out to Datamark for sponsoring our Ragnar team.

(most of the people on the team were workers for Datamark)

Yes, my body is sore. I was surprised that I feel better than I expected.

Freckles

2011-06-13T08:36:00.001-06:00

My sister was really generous and gave Mike and I a great anniversary gift. (It's 10 years in one month) Our camera died a few months ago. I have been sad about it since I was unable to take pics of my cute kids. When I got the new camera. I had to test it out. Something I wanted to do was to take pictures of the kids that were close to catch the freckles that my children have on their nose.

I was able to grab a few pics of Phoenix while he was eating breakfast one morning. I love those "sparkles" as Jersey use to call them. This new camera, a Nixon S9100, is also fun because it does shoot like a great big camera but it small like a POS (point and shoot).
Another note, this kid, has graduated from kindergarten. I can't believe it we have a 1st grader. I think that is going to be my line for a long time. He had a great report card and he has improved in his reading and social skills this year. Phoenix is so smart. I am really proud of him.

{Family Fun}

2011-06-13T08:23:00.000-06:00

Since we had a family event of course we had lots of family come to visit. My sister and her husband came from Fargo, ND. My brother and his son came to visit as well, from AZ. I had lots of fun hanging out with them all. My parents also came to visit from the Marshall Islands. My kids have been enjoying the attention they have been getting from Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins.

Patterson children

All the grandchildren

Angel Moroni

Hiking Ensign Peak

Church History Museum, speaking at a podium

After Jersey's baptism we went downtown to visit. We went to Ensign Peak. Mike, Dallin, my dad and the kids hiked to the top. They had a fun time. Then we went to the Gateway and hung out around the fountain. We also went the Church History museum. The kids loved it. They have some great exhibits for kids. We followed up our day by going to Cafe Rio for dinner. Delicious!

{Baptism}

2011-06-13T07:57:00.003-06:00


Family photo afterwards Jersey made a life changing decision by getting baptism. I can't really speak on how she felt, I know that I felt so good. The spirit was there in the room. I was a bit stressed out about the whole production since we were having people over to eat with us to celebrate the day with us. When I walked into the chapel all that seemed to matter was Jersey and the moment that I was sharing with her. She was so happy and her smile lit up the room. I so proud of her and of her choice. I'm also happy that my sisters and brother could attend as well as Mike's family. I still can't believe it.

Revelation

2011-05-17T12:53:00.001-06:00

Do believe that you can know something for a long time and it is unclear when it will happen?

I'm not talking ESPN or ESP, I guess like a gut instinct.

When I was 18 or so I went to the OB for a check up. For some reason he told me that I was going to have a hard time having children and that I might never have kids. I don't remember anything else about the conversation but those few words. I remember writing those words down and thinking that is an awful thing to tell a young women, who wanted to have a family, who wanted to love children of her own. I remember years later when I was serious about a few guys and we were talking about marriage, that there was a possibility of this being a problem in our relationship if we were to get married. I don't know if that was the cause of those break ups or was a factor but I felt diseased when the break up would happen shortly after this truth was revealed. Thinking why then did Heavenly Father put me on this earth if I couldn't do the one job that I was sent here to do? Why would I have to struggle with knowledge that children weren't going to happen?

Looking back I knew that those pro-creating powers were going to be taken faster than I wanted. I knew that after turning 30 years old things were going to be harder and that if I was to have children it needed to be before than. That gut feeling never left.

When I met Mike I was nervous to tell him this fact about me that I might not or could not have children. He told me that if that was the case that we would work at it together and that it was going to be okay no matter what the outcome. I felt peace with this knowledge that he supported me, that he didn't think I was diseased or a mutant that couldn't have children. We know that I was able to have children two beautiful children That were sent to us. They are truly miracles.

When I hit 30, the problems started to begin again. Just like I knew they would. I have fought this knowledge for so long, knowing that one day I was going to have a hysterectomy. It's even harder to say out loud or on a blog. I feel I have tried everything to make the pain go away. Pills, shots, IUD, surgical options with having an ablation. But the ablation hasn't taken and then next road is the hysterectomy. Now that it will be happening (not until next year), I feel a little more peace. I feel like I have been preparing for this transition my whole life. Heavenly Father really does know me and knows that I have to be told something long before it could happen so that I can prepare myself for that feeling. It makes me feel foolish, when I don't listen.

Knowing that once that pain is gone it will not define me as a person, woman or mother.

I will be free. I can't wait for that to happen.

So Taboo!

2011-05-17T12:27:00.000-06:00

LICE! those little itch things that get into your hair.

I have only read about them in story books and non-fiction work about people struggling to survive some concentration camp. I have never been in either of those sorts of books or stories. But some how my child got it. We don't share brush with others, we do shower on a daily basis, we don't share hats, hair bows or coats with hoods. We do clean our house regularly and use a lot of bleach in the process, sometimes to the point of the swimming pool levels. But some how my child got it. I hear that children with clean hair are the ones that get it the most. I'm not going to tell my children that they don't have to shower every day but we will be more cautious.

I have to admit when I discover this ugly truth that my child had lice. I froze my motherly insides wanted to run away from this problem. I didn't want to touch her hair but I didn't want to let on that I was scared as much or more than she was. The flashes of school movies that I watch as a grade-schooler kept coming back in my head. How they made them menacing and cartoonish. They are gross and not cartoons at all. I never had lice as child. So this is a whole new experience for all of us.

Before I ran out and bought over the counter lice killer, I wanted to be sure that it was, what I thought it was. So we went to the Dr. I love my pediatrician. He tells me I'm right every time. Which makes me think I should have been a DR. This all happened on Friday the 13th no less. What a great day to get lice. So after reading the information on how to remove it and painstakingly combing through Jers is hair. I'm grateful for her fine thin hair. I felt some relief though my head was itchy as well. I did get my head check and it was lice free. All the stuffed animals and dolls are in quarantine until further notice

and the house hasn't sparkled so much.

The one thing that can be said about this is how I haven't liked the reaction, when I have said my child has lice. I know that this isn't a reflection on my family and I but I sure feel that way. I have been told that anyone can get it and that it could have not just come from school but the park, Wal-mart, church, movie theater.

It's gross but what can I do other than get it out of my house

and hope that it doesn't come back.

RID, lice killer has done just that, I haven't seen any in Jersey's hair for two days.

(now does your head itch?)

Beautiful Baby

2011-05-02T12:13:00.000-06:00

I know she isn't a baby anymore and is growing older every year. But she is still my baby girl. With Jersey turning 8, she will also get to be baptized. We are doing that at the beginning of June so that my parents can be here to be part of Jersey's special day.

I wanted some pretty pictures of Jersey in her baptism outfit. We first went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to shoot some pictures but the grounds we closed. So we went downtown to Temple Square. The tulips were blooming and the sun was shining even though it was a bit windy.

We also captured a few of Phe and Jers together that were funny.

Baseball season

2011-05-02T12:02:00.000-06:00

We decided that we would sign Phe up for baseball this year. We want our children to experience all sorts of sports and activities. We had tried soccer, swimming and dance. Baseball was next on the list.
JT, Mike's nephew, plays baseball and when we told Phe that he was going to play baseball. He was so excited. He looks up to JT a lot. Phe still has a lot to learn but he is showing great progress just in a few weeks.

The weather hasn't been great for baseball. We have had two games cancelled. (I wonder when they will be rescheduled?) On Friday there was bad weather mostly clouds and a cold wind. Since it wasn't to wet Phe played his first game. He was so excited and he did a good job. He also played a game on Saturday afternoon. I got to see him play, it was really fun to watch him play. He told me that he got a home run but really it was because he was the last player to bat and everyone runs around the bases.
Phe wants to focus on baseball a lot and we will get to spend more time at the ball park.

big words

2011-04-30T00:51:00.001-06:00

I wish I could take a picture of the funniest thing that Phe did this last week.

He took all of his pennies out of his bank and laid them in a several rows on his pillow on his bed.
He asked me to come take a look.
I came to see what he had done.

He said "Mom look at the extraordinary thing I did."
Yes, he is pretty extraordinary!

Can't believe it!

2011-04-30T00:43:00.002-06:00

Jersey has been waiting for this moment for 2 years. The moment in turning 8 years old.

Jersey with her birthday presents.

What a beautiful girl you are shaping to be miss Jean.

Your smile is contagious, your laughter makes me smile.

You are always thinking of others especially your family.

I know I can count on you when I need you.

I love watching you grow and learn.

You have been my fascination for 8 years.

From that very moment I met you until now.

You are creative and you don't worry about what people think of you.

You are good friend and everyone wants to be your friend.

I'm so proud to be your mom and friend.

Love ya

Jersey

Mom

a bit of a rant

2011-04-29T22:12:00.000-06:00

Today is the Royal Wedding day and like my last post I'm a bit excited for this day.

Well on my way to work, I heard on the radio, a trivia question about the Royal Family.

Since I like to know all about the Royals I knew I could answer the question.

The prize was some fancy sunglasses and a chance to win a Fiat.

The question was "How many sons does Queen Elizabeth II have?"

I called the number. The phone rang and rang.

I was getting excited because normally when I call a radio station it's a busy signal.

The DJ answers "107.9, what is the answer? I say Queen Elizabeth II has three sons,

His reply no she doesn't she has 4.

Then I ask because I'm little irritated, What are there names then?

He replies, how I'm suppose to know that?

(thinking) aren't you the one asking the question and shouldn't you know that answer?

So I say Queen Elizabeth has four children, Anne, Charles, Andrew, and Edward.

He says I didn't ask for all children just the boys. Then I say Charles, Andrew and Edward.

Finally he says well I already have my winner. But now you are making confused.

(thinking) well you should be confused you gave someone a prize that was wrong. I hang up.

I decided to google this information just to be sure.

Guess what I was right!

Anwer!

Son: Prince Charles (Prince of Wales,)

Daughter: Princess Anne (Princess Royal,)

Son: Prince Andrew (Duke of York,)

Son: Prince Edward (Earl of Wessex,)

Don't weddings make you cry?

2011-04-29T21:48:00.001-06:00

I don't know what it is but when I see a wedding whither it's on TV or in real life, the waters works begin. Same goes for graduations. I'm sure some of you that are crazy enough stayed up all night or woke up really early to catch a glimpse of the Wedding of the Century. I'm of course crazy enough to get two hours of sleep, which was restless because of my excitement, and wake up in time to watch Prince William and Harry arrive at the Abbey. Then watching Kate Middleton. She looked amazing, I don't care what the ladies on the View. I would like to avoid making it a habit to get up at 3am. It's pretty brutal

The pagentery of the Royals is amazing as well. I love when they were those hats. We Americans need to take some fashion advice from the British, in wearing hats and facinators. I always have grand ideas of the way I want things to turn out but then something comes up, like sleep, those plans don't happen. I really wanted to make my own facinator for the big day. I found some easy steps on how to make own off of Family Fun magazine. Don't worry I'm trying to think how I could pull one off at church. What do think the reaction would be if I showed up wearing a peacock feather on my head? We shall see.

I hope for the best for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge!

{I'm glad that some people DVR the wedding so they could pick out the quotes that were given. I really like these two,

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."

"It is possible to transform so long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner..."}

{Spring is here}

2011-04-20T08:43:00.000-06:00

Even though it's been snowy, rainy and sometimes warm. I love that the snow doesn't stick very long and the sun will shine even it is raining.

But my most favorite thing is when my bulbs start to bloom. I can tell that winter will be over when the daffoils spring up. They look great! I can't wait for tulips to come as well.

getting my craft on

2011-04-07T14:10:00.002-06:00

I'm not the greatest at sewing. Last month, I saw this fabulous skirt on the blog Sew Much Ado. I showed my friend Kristy and my SIL Heather and we wanted to make it. It was a long Maxi Skirt perfect for summer and also for the Sundays were you are to lazy to put an outfit together. We all went to Joann's to look for our material. I made mine a dark purple. The selection of knit was slim. I love my skirt though. I even had enough to make Jersey a matching skirt. After I made it I wore it to Church and Jersey wore hers. We were totally matching. Jersey was embarrassed to be by me.

Jersey and I twins

Jersey's skirt

The blanket I made

With this new sewing skill I thought I would do more. Currently I'm working on dress that is super cute. My handy dandy SIL, that is fantastic at sewing, is doing the finishing parts like sleeves. I started to think of other things I had to finish. I once bought a bunch of material to make a Amy Butler purse. Well, I never made it but I had some fabric left over. I wanted to make a pretty blanket for my boss, who is having her baby today. I bought that minky fabric, that is really soft. I used the fabric I had and the minky fabric and made a cozy blanket. Jersey wanted me to make her one.

New Year, New Do!

2011-04-07T13:50:00.000-06:00

I love changing out my hair color and a few months ago I did. I went brunette. Thoughts?

I am getting my hair done again and I don't know if I should stay brunette or go back to blonde. I did have more fun as a Blondie. But I also like the natural looking hair.

Decisions.... Decisions.

And if you are my friend on facebook. That photo for my profile pic is a year old.

Sorry for the confusion.

St. Patrick's Day

2011-04-07T13:44:00.000-06:00

That Crazy Leprechaun came to our house. He left oodles of chocolate and rainbow candy.

He also turned the milk green.

Jersey and Phoenix was so surprised that there was chocolate gold coins everywhere. Mike even thought that (I) painted all the gold coins. Silly! I didn't do any of it, it was the leprechaun. I saw this idea on a blog that I don't remember they made rainbows out of twistlers. That is some good licorice.

Phoenix was freaking out when I poured his cereal in the bowl and milk and the milk turned green. He was like "MOM he is still in the house!" We need to find him. He spent some time looking for him. Phoenix also ate all of his candy before 8:30am he was bouncing off the walls. He wanted me to take him to school right then. Unfortunately the 4 hours until was painful for me.

The kids are such a great age to still believe things and let me do fun things for them.

Conference Weekend

2011-04-07T13:32:00.001-06:00

We enjoyed Conference just like everyone else I'm sure. I found some great activities for my children to keep themselves busy during the talks. They finished their packets during the first session. Luckily there was more to the packet. It came with these cut outs of the First Presidency that you attach to toilet paper rolls. Jers and Phe colored them and I helped attach them to the toilet paper rolls. There was also a suit of armor for the Armor of God. So they cut out that as well and we attached it to a balloon. For the face the kids wanted me to put glass on the balloon for Harry Potter. I don't know how that correlation works but it was still funny.

I was really happy that they did sit and listen. Then they were talking about what they learned later. Just random thoughts that I didn't write down. We like to have the radio and the TV on at the same time during conference. Jersey was surprised that downstairs was fast than the upstairs.

I am truly grateful for my children!

BTW.... we got our conference handouts from Sugardoodle.net

The Proposal {not the movie}

2011-04-03T22:03:00.000-06:00

First comes love, then comes marriage. But wait you need to get in engage. In the spirit of celebrating my ten years of marriage to Mike, I must document the proposal.
Like any girl in love, she dreams of the perfect guy and of course the perfect ring. After Mike and I met we both felt this thing that we wanted was the right. Now to find the perfect ring. I wanted something simple but big and pretty. I also wanted a platinum band. At first I wanted white gold but was told that it wouldn't look white forever so I changed my mind and said platinum. If this was a ring I was going to wear for the rest of my life I wanted it to be AWESOME.
During Spring Break, Mike was able to come to Arizona to me the whole famdamily. I mean the whole family. We are like the mafia. Aunts, Uncles, cousins, Grandparents, sisters and parents. He also had to meet all my close friends. I sure it was pretty overwhelming but Mike took it in stride. Everyone wanted to met this man of mine. Well, at least I wanted them all to meet him so that they could have a chance to say something. It's a funny thing in my family. I'm the oldest grandchild and I have always brought any boy I had interest in to meet the family. I think that is why some of my relationships were not every long. I also showed him some sites of Arizona. Downtown Scottsdale and Mesa, Natural bridge, the Zoo, the Temple and Matta's.
We also went to look at rings. I hadn't seen any I liked. Mike had been sending me pictures of rings via Internet but none that I really liked. Plus I didn't know my ring size. So we went to Fiesta Mall to a jewelry store. There is was a little ring that was platinum and had a very simple design. The diamond was a circle and I really wanted a princess cut diamond. I left with hope that might be the ring but didn't think it would be since Mike was leaving soon and he hadn't asked my parents yet.
Wow talk about awkward. My parents knew why Mike was coming to visit but it made it none the less awkward to say it. Again Mike handle the situation great.
After we talked to my parents. I remember we took a walk around my neighborhood to discuss what we were going to do next. We both had school and I didn't know when were going to be able to see each other again. We talked about how I was going to come up to General Conference and see him again. My parents like this idea. My dad was going to Michigan for a job interview and so with my sisters, my mom and I we drove to Utah. I actually drove half away with a friend and my mom was with my sisters. We met up at Glen Canyon dam where my sisters and mom and spent the night. We finished driving and made it to Provo. While we were in Utah, we were also going to search for the perfect wedding dress. I couldn't find something modest in Arizona. Everything I found, was something I was going to have to add sleeves to. After trying on six dresses. I found the perfect one. We bought it and I was so excited. I called Mike to find out when he wanted to meet. He was working so we agreed to met there and then we would go to where my family was staying. When I met him at work he was really nervous. I tried to give him a hug and I remember it was a really awkward hug. I couldn't figure out why, he wasn't hugging like that before. He was dressed up in his nice Sunday clothes. The plan for the evening was to get ready, Go to dinner and head down to Provo for a Mission reunion
When I was done getting ready we headed off to what I thought was dinner. We drove up past the Capital Building. We went to this church that he had taken me to before. This Chapel sits high on the hill over looking the Valley. I was curious as to why were here. But just went with it. Mike wanted to open the door of the car for me so as I was waiting to get out of the car. This little old lady came driving in the parking lot. She was asking Mike are you proposing? Mike was a bit embarrassed. He told her to shut up and leave. He looked deflated since I did hear that. He walked me up to the stairs of the Chapel and said "Rhiannon Marie Patterson, will you marry me?" He showed me the ring and I couldn't believe it. It was the ring that we both liked from Arizona. But how did he get it to Utah with everything I wanted? I was shocked and I kept him guessing for moment. Actually, I wanted to try it on first but he said "you have to respond to get it." I said "yes" I put on the ring. It was a perfect fit. We drove back to the hotel because I wanted to show my mom and sisters. I later found out that while I was getting ready he had already show the ring to my sisters.
Then we went to his parents house to tell them. It was quick because we didn't want to be late for the mission reunion. Mike was excited to go because he had planned to meet up with some old buddies. But they didn't show. During the reunion, which felt more like a fireside, we had to stand up and introduce ourselves. Mike stood up and said that I was his fiance and we just got engage. After the reunion we went back up to Salt Lake. I think we stayed up way to late. I just remember General Conference was really hard to pay attention to the next day. We went to the morning session together with my family.
I was happy I had the man, the dress and the perfect ring. This time leaving Mike was really hard. Knowing that I wasn't going to see him for a few more weeks. Driving back to Mesa was really hard.

New Mantra

2011-03-21T14:11:00.001-06:00

I was feeling a bit low today. As I was reading a Glamour magazine at the DR's office, I saw this quote from the great Dr. Seuss. I need to memorize this so when I do have those low moments

that I think of this and know that I'm great.

"Today you are YOU, that is truer than true, There is no one alive that is YOUer than YOU!

Here is one more that I thought was pretty fun.

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."

a poem by jers

2011-03-16T08:02:00.002-06:00

kite 

tug the string kite.

pull it please 

sail above

the tallest tree

climb to where

toward the sun. 

float and fly kite 

tug the string

show the world 

you're glad it's 

Spring.

Back to the running

2011-03-07T09:04:00.000-07:00

Run, Bike, Swim...repeat. That is our goal this summer. Mike and I are signed up for two Triathlons and a few running races. (yes we run for fun and have fun)

The weather was really nice on Friday after I dropped Phoenix off at school. I had planned on swimming but the lanes were a bit crowd for my liking. Got home feeling bad that I didn't workout so I thought I would venture out onto the pavement. I haven't ran in 5 months. 5 months is a really long time not to run. I thought because I was swimming so much more that it wouldn't be that difficult.

Oh my lungs felt the burn. Yes, it was sun shiny but there was also a wicked wind. (why is there always so much wind?) But once I got past my lungs hurting and my legs wobbling I was feeling good. Then I looked down at my time. I felt awful for the time I was getting. I had to keep telling myself. "Self it's been awhile. You will get better." My time was actually the same that it had always been 14 min miles. I went 2.5 miles that day. I paid for it all weekend. It's a good thing we have some good IB lying around the house. I'm just happy with myself that I got out there and did it. I have some time before I need to up my miles but you know it was a good start.

Yeah SELF!

Becoming a good reader

2011-03-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

It's funny when your child is learning to read. To actually see the wheels working in their head. Putting sounds together. Reading small words. Memorizing the words that are against the rule. I have to remember that the English language with all it's rules and pronunciation is really difficult. And we can't forget the slang that we all use.

Jersey is a very good speller but when it comes to reading it has been a struggle for her and for us. I found out that spelling is in a different part of the brain and reading is in another part. Reading takes more practice than anything Jersey has had to do. She is good with all things that are memorizing but when it comes to focusing on a word she struggles. We struggle with her because it's hard to watch her read and I hate admit but listening, takes a lot of effort for me to stay focused on the story.

Since Jersey has been a late bloomer, from the beginning I have believed that one day with enough practice, patience, and time that it would click in her head. She has been in reading program at school and I have seen how this program has helped her with not only reading but with comprehension. (something I still struggle with myself)

With her new found empowerment through reading. We have also realized that not everything she reads is good. The other day she told Mike a funny anecdote. She told him how on her bus there were some words on the seat and they went as follows, "this bus smells like shit" Mike was taken back, He said what? Then Jersey said it again. He couldn't stop laughing but in all serious also explained that we don't say that word.

I'm proud that Jersey has developed in how she can sound out words and is reading better.

Now, how do I shield her from all the crappy words and phrases?

a new journey is about to be embarked

2011-03-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

Last week, Mike and I took Jersey to the orthodontist. what a fun trip? (sarcasm enter here) I have know for a long time that Jersey's mouth would be a financial burden just by watching her baby teeth come in. They were bunching, tight, and sort of crooked. But they were baby teeth so we had to wait until the day her teeth decided to come out. At the beginning of the school year she lost two teeth on the bottom. Then recently one of her top teeth. The other top tooth is just dangling there and so snaggled. After taking the kids to the dentist, the dentist suggested that we go to the orthodontist for an evaluation on her teeth to see if pulling more teeth would be a good option.

We went to the same orthodontist that I went to because I liked them there. After having our free consultation we found out that Jersey's new teeth can't not come in until the dentist pulls some teeth (5) and the orthodontist needs to put a space maintainer on the bottom of her mouth. Because your bottom teeth are more shifty than the top teeth. (The full mouth x-ray confirmed my suspensions that she had a small mouth and big teeth.)

There are more phases to come with all those jumbled teeth. She of course thinks she is so cool to go to the orthodontist. Poor kid doesn't understand the pain that she is going to be in, in the years to come. She was blessed with a small mouth and big teeth.

I feel as though Mike and I are truly out of the baby stage of life. I was holding on hope that stage wouldn't go away, but trips to the orthodontist help you snap back to reality that you are a parent of school age child, that will soon be a tween, teenager, young adult and than an adult.

Oh heaven help me!

{the first spark}

2011-02-19T12:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend has a lot of memories attached to it.

This weekend is the exact scenario of how the meeting all began.

I took a plane to from Sunny Arizona to wintery Utah to meet a ~~boy,~~ a guy, that I had met on the Internet ( I know, weird) We had been chatting for a month and found out that we actually knew someone in common.

We were both extremely nervous to meet each other. I was even more nervous when he had arranged for his mom and sister with her children to pick me up from the airport, since he was working. I remember his sister getting a call from him asking if I was cute and she trying to be coy about it. We went to Chili's, the same Chili's that I worked at later in life. We went Shopping at Jordan Landing, when there was just an Old Navy. I was so excited to go there since they hadn't built one in AZ. I went back to his house with his sister, her children, and his mom waiting for him to get off work. I'm pretty sure he broke ever speed limit to get home as fast as he could.

Finally he came to his house, me waiting, not even knowing if I would like the kid or not. Because you see both of us didn't really know what the other looked like. His profile picture was small and of him sitting on a seal lion statue. Mine was a picture taken in bad lighting that was a side view of my face. I was also wearing a heavy coat. That added some bulk to me.

We went to a photo booth at Crossroads mall.

We left his house to meet all of his friends with their wives. The weekend became a bit of blur but we did go to Temple Square holding hands and under a light post in front of the Conference Center. He told me he loved me. I was nervous so I said "thanks" (who does that? Oh me), Monday was President's Day. He worked at Brighton Ski resort at the time and that was the real reason I was there. To go snowboarding. Unfortunately I had let on that I was better than I was. So not really familiar with Brighton I was not happy, that there was a foot of new snow, ungroomed and lots of trees.( I was use to Sunrise and Snowbowl, in AZ) I wasn't on my best behavior. It was really good that I was really skinny and hot. Or we might have ended it right there. After a full day of snowboarding, he had to go to work and I was left hanging out. I took his car and drove to the mall. (so trusting) The next day was the departure. I was really sad to have to go home. I really liked him.
My dad was right when he dropped me off at the airport at the beginning of the weekend. That this weekend would change my life. It certainly did.

missing teeth

2011-02-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

The day has finally arrived where Jersey's teeth have decided they would like to shake it up and bit. She lost two teeth last year just after school pictures were taken. But it's been forever since anything else has wanted to come out.

Jersey's two front teeth on top have been looking quite snarly as of late and I was just waiting and wondering if they would come out soon. Sure enough on Tuesday night she pulled the first one out. Leaving a gaping hole in her mouth. It's funny to see, she does look cute though. With her last two teeth, the new ones were right behind the baby teeth so we didn't get to see any holes in her mouth.

Jersey is starting to talk a bit funny and eat her on a different side of her mouth. I really can't wait until the other one is gone. She asked me on Wednesday if she was still cute? I said of course. She is a bit self conscience thanks to some kids at school.

Also since her baby teeth are already crowded and the new ones are coming in crazy we are going to be making a trip to the orthodontist. I see braces in the future for this child. Sooner than I was expecting.

Warmth

2011-02-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

The forecast is calling for the weather to be fantastic the next few days. I was so happy yesterday. The weather was perfect. Yes, it was still windy and there is still snow on the ground but the sun shone and was warm. Standing in it just gave me a feeling that winter wasn't going to last much longer. Then no more blues around here. I know 56 degrees isn't a huge thing to proclaim.

Now today on Valentine's day I still feel warm when I go outside. I can wear a light cardigan and shoes without socks or leg warmers.

Other things that are making me feel warm inside. Waking up and cleaning up my house, making cookies, swimming and being able to eat a little bit more.

My gross scabs are going away. But food still taste weird. I know that tonsils don't have taste buds but a diet coke sure doesn't taste good at all. Which makes me sad a little bit. I think it's a good thing that my diet coke habit has been non-existence for two weeks because before the surgery I was getting one everyday. I couldn't pass the McDonald's $1 coke.

Another thing that has been a happy benefit of getting my tonsils out. I have lost 14 pounds. I know it's amazing. I haven't been this weight since before the Phoenix. I just have to remember that I can't just stuff my face full of food that is bad because I will gain it all back. It's a good thing I have been swimming. Triathlon training has begun. Mike and I are both doing Tris this year. We are doing the same one I did last year and then we are doing one at our favorite vacation spot. BEAR LAKE!!!! It's going to be awesome.

Yep, there are a lot of crappy things too that I feel, but you know with sun shining things don't seem to bad. I really wish we could bottle sunshine and the warmth that comes with it.

Back at the Ranch

2011-02-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

Being home this last week.

Phoenix came up with a new catch phrase. "AH JETS"

I don't know where he learned this from.

He told me it came from a movie but I don't remember seeing a movie with this catch phrase.

And he just doesn't say it when he is surprised like "OMG" (gosh) but just randomly in conversation.

It's quite cute.

I'm really grateful for my children. They are great kids. They have taken care of me. I would be laying on the couch and they would get drinks of water for me or blankets to keep warm.

They would also snuggle and make a mommy feel good about herself.

Feeling fine

2011-01-30T22:49:00.000-07:00

Well despite thinking that having my tonsils removed would be great. I would like to rethink that thought. I know they are trying to heal because it has become increasingly harder to open my mouth to talk or to even sallow water.

I went to church today because I felt like it was the right thing to do when I was feeling sick. {you know added blessings} Phoenix was giving a talk in Primary and I wanted to see him talk. I felt sad that I couldn't sit with my Primary class. Those kids are amazing and make me smile.

We have been very blessed to receive meals from so many people and many people want to help out with my kids after school. I might just have to take people up on that. We shall see.

Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts.

Google Checkout

2011-01-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

If you have ever seen the Google cart I have on my sidebar?

Well if you have and been thinking that you would like to

buy one of my amazing necklaces or picture frames?

Now you can. 

I will make your item and send it to you. {Ah amazing}

Happy shopping!

(more designs to come, also I make custom orders.)

I love surgery

2011-01-27T10:06:00.002-07:00

I don't really love surgery but it seems since 2006 I have had one every other year. Oh wait, I have had a surgery every other year. I know that some other people deal with surgery all the time.

Luckily this surgery is an out patient procedure that I can come out and go home.

This surgery is this time is my tonsils. I my throat has been really annoying for a long time. I knew something was up when I was getting strep throat more than once a month. Last year I went to an ENT that said that my tonsils looked bad but before I had surgery that they wanted me to do a sleep study that my insurance wasn't going to pay for. I had didn't think I needed a sleep study, just the surgery. Then I thought about the DR that took Phoenix's tonsils out and called there office to see what he thought. I had a feeling that he was going to be straight forward and say if I need them out then let's do it. So I went on Monday and Dr. Tagge looked at my tonsils saying they were enormous and that I had all classic signs of tonsillitis. He said that I should have had this done when I was a kid.

I wanted to schedule the surgery as soon as possible so that I could recover and get out and start training for this year race season. Friday is the big day. Mike is happy to take a day off to help me. I see some positives of getting me tonsils out.

Pampering

Weight loss

can't talk

eating pudding, jello and jamba juice.

A week off of work to relax.

(they did say more time off work but I can't do it, plus I just sit at work and don't talk)

So wish me luck, I hear this is worse than child birth, I didn't think child birth was all that bad.

You never know.

2011-01-23T14:32:00.002-07:00

So after Christmas I start to feel sad because for months I have been out searching a shopping for the coolest gifts for my family and friends. I'm busy with making jewelry ( which I'm taking orders for V-day) and work can be crazy as well along with just keeping up with all other daily things.
Then comes January. Boring January. I mean really the New Year's Day is fun and then 30 days of cold and feeling like I don't want to do anything because I'm still recovering from Christmas. That is when the depression sets in. The guilt of the holiday shopping, lack of motivation to put Christmas away and put the regular decorations up and the lack of self worth since I put on more weight. Most days I have just wanted to sit around until I absolutely have to get ready for work. Go to work, come home and go to sleep.
Though this month has felt like every other January, there was a shining moment for me. I received an email from someone I didn't know inviting me to a baby shower of a dear friend of mine. I accepted the invite and have been looking forward to seeing this friend. It has been a long time since I have been seen this friend. Let me tell you a story about her.
We first met when I was 15 and she was 17. We were from to different worlds. My world was warm and sunny. Lazy summer days hanging by the pool. Having some of the best friends hanging at the mall. My family a big part of my life. Her world was an old place with a castle in the city. Stories of princes and princess. Being Catholic meant everything. It wasn't just a religion it was the culture. Her language being so different. Her wanting to learn everything about English. We happen to meet in a class in this every old city. Me moving to a foreign land and hating it for the majority time I was there. Longing for the sun, sunshine and my friends.
One day during many of the English classes I attended, we were talking about the creation of the earth and how it was a big bang and we just appeared. Growing up in the world I did, I didn't believe it. There was nothing about how Jesus took the time to make the world how it was a seven day period. I didn't know what to say. But I stood up in this class of students that didn't know anything that I believed and bore my testimony about Jesus Christ about how the earth was really created. How that one day I would be Queen in heaven. That I would see my family and that I knew Jesus and Heavenly Father loved me.
The class was in shocked, some laughed and the teacher tried to change the subject super fast. This testimony struck someone that wasn't well liked in the class. In fact I have to say I found her a bit annoying. An over achiever in ever since of the word. She started to ask me questions. Since I wasn't a great scripture person I didn't feel I was qualified for it all. We happen to go to a language camp together. While we were there she and others brought up religion again asking me what I believed. I got out my Book of Mormon and read the articles of faith. The really annoying girl kept asking questions so I told here that there were missionaries that would answer her questions. The missionaries wanted my mom and I to come to the discussions. They were all in Polish so I didn't know what was being said. But I went and told her that the church was amazing. She didn't know if she wanted this religion, since after the first discussion the missionary changed her to get baptized. But she kept coming to the discussions, church and to family home evening.
I started to see her change she really wasn't annoying but she liked to learn. I started to see a change in myself too. I started to like the forgein land that I was living in. I watched her get baptized and see how she was so happy.

After a year I moved home to the sun and sunshine. I had changed and so had everything I had left behind. We kept in touch with my friend. She eventually moved to the US and went to school at UNLV. On year around conference time we went to get her and take her to conference. It was a long time after that, that I saw her. We would get emails and letters. After I got married I found out that she was living in Utah too. She was going to school at BYU. Then she got married as well. My mom and I went to her wedding reception. It was get to see this special friend and her happiness was so great.

My mom's cousin Gary visiting us in Krakow.

Yesterday when I attended her baby shower I have never felt so much love for her and to see the happiness that was in her life and the joy she was feeling. So many of her friends were saying how brave I was to state what I believed those many years ago. How I changed her life so much. Again she changed me. I felt such love from my Heavenly Father for the blessing he has giving me for my life and the many challenges that I have that those things are for a moment. That I did something good. I couldn't help but think about that day that I stood up for what I believe and how my attitude of that foreign place changed after that. Though it is still cold outside and January only has a week left. The warmth in my heart feels like it's the middle of summer and I'm soaking it all up by the pool.
Thank you Liliana for all the things you have taught me.

anthropologie knock off

2011-01-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I walked into anthropologie for the first time. Well I have walked in there before but I have never actually looked around. I realized as I walked around that I would never be able to afford anything here.

I received a gift for Christmas that came broken(sorry Lauren) I returned it and they gave me a whomping 4 dollars for the broken item. I looked around and saw some fun things but I didn't see anything for 4 dollars. Well, I found two necklaces. As I looked at them I saw and thought which one could I make like? I couldn't make the one that I bought that was $10. The one that I thought I could make was $29. So because I had my credit I only spent $6.00. (I was pretty proud of myself since I have been trying could about spending money.)

So the one necklace that I thought I could make looked pretty simple. It had a weird pom-pom thing dangling down. It had multiple lockets dangling down with some vintage looking baubles and ribbon.

On my version I added 4 lockets a funky clasp and some flowers and pearls.

You will have to tell me which one you like the most.

ski day

2011-01-20T12:16:00.000-07:00

yesterday we took the kids out for some skiing. We have had 5 weeks off of school since Christmas for off track time. We told ourselves that we would go every Wednesday. But there were a few Wednesdays that we didn't make it up the mountain.
One last Wednesday we went on the real mountain. It had been 2 years since I had been on the mountain not the bunny hill. I was so spooked but as the day progressed on got over it. We had to leave early because someone (won't name who) had a potty accident. So yesterday we tried it again to go skiing. We stayed on the Bunny hill or Chickadee. I felt so good. There was some fresh powder and it wasn't to cold or I finally learned how to dress for the weather.
With the kids going back to school on Monday I wish we took more time to ski more since the kids love it. But we have Saturday mornings that we can take advantage of.

Christmas Christmas time for Cheer.

2010-12-21T09:54:00.001-07:00

I love Christmas. I love it because of the following reasons, shopping, madness of finding the perfect gift, children's excitement, Christmas music, delicious treats, serving others, reading the Christmas story, watching classic Christmas movies, quoting Buddy Elf and using Elf speak in daily use, crazy Christmas sweaters, Believing in Santa Claus, feeling my Savior's love, my favorite thing,

bundling up and walking around Temple Square with all the thousands of people to look at the beautiful Christmas lights.

As a kid I loved walking around the Temple in Arizona with all those thousands of people too. I loved looking at the lights, even though they were them same every year. I loved the feeling I had being there. That is the same way I feel today when we go to Temple Square.

We don't have many nights that we are home together. Last Sunday, the forecast looked great for some good times to make down at Temple Square. We hurried and ate our dinner and put on lots of layers and headed downtown. We got a perfect spot.

I love that Mike can parallel park.

I never learned in Driver's Ed. Ay Que rumba car number 7,

We were on a mission to take to some splendid photos of ourselves to use as Christmas cards and to put in our family video. There were so many people with the same idea. Of course our camera couldn't capture the splendour and beauty of everything that our eyes could behold. It was a magical time.

I especially like it when we passed a statue of Joseph Smith and his wife Emma. Jersey said to us, "Dad you stand like Joseph and mom you stand like Emma and I will take a picture." Mike was embarrassed and that I was teaching our children about how to pose with statues.

(the kids and I did that this summer, they thought it was funny.)

After walking around and feeling the nip in the air we headed home.

Until next year when we make the trek downtown to see the Christmas lights.

Funny little boy

2010-12-21T09:22:00.001-07:00

On Thursday Mike and Jersey both stayed home from work and school. It was really nice for all of us to be home together. I had a list of things that we didn't get done the day before so Thursday morning we were up and moving early to get those things done.
One thing on the list was to move our furniture in our bedroom around. Then we wanted to move the children's furniture around as well. Plus it was a good excuse to do some deep cleaning in their rooms.
Let me back up a bit before I go any further with this. A few weeks ago I was cleaning said children's rooms and in Phe's I found a bottle of black acrylic paint. I was curious to know what he had painted since I found no object or paint brush. I scolded him and told him that he can't use mom's paint.
Back to present or Thursday. We are cleaning up Phe's room and Mike is getting ready to move the bed and I'm ready to wipe down walls when we discover a dried up paint brush with paint all over it. Then we find the object that got the new paint job.
The object was a box that my Dad had given me when he came home from Qatar. I did at one point have box displayed but the children found better uses for it, as a laptop, treasure chest and Lego's holder. The box is now covered with black sparkle paint and a rhinestone.

When we asked Phe why did he paint the box? He said, " Because I wanted to make it AWESOME!" Mike and I busted up laughing. What do you say to that? How can you get made at that sort of response? After the laughter we told him that if he wanted to paint he needed to ask for help before doing that again and not paint things that weren't his.

soccer

2010-12-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

Phoenix finished up fall soccer in October. He really loved playing. He had a great coach. Mike coach him again. Though Phoenix was handful at practice he did listen (sometimes) at the games. Mike was very patient with the 4 and 5 yrs old kids. When I would go to the games the parents on the sidelines would say. I could never coach because I don't have the patience enough to help the kids. Mike was a little disappointed to have lost their last game but there is always next year. I got to coach one game because Mike was running in a race. It was really hard to keep the kids focused and trying to lead them were to go. The team that we played took advantage of the fact that I didn't know what I was doing. But the kids had a good time and that is what matters.

Family Photos

2010-12-11T07:57:00.001-07:00

I have been wanting a family photo for quite some time now. Since having my braces off, for some reason I just like to smile more and want it in a family photo. But since no else in my family shares this same passion for family photos as I do we haven't had a really one. You know the ones that are every one's blog of them looking so fabulous and holding hands. Where they look like the perfect family and you want to be them? I know I shouldn't compare myself to them. I'm sure they do have perfect families with perfect hair and smiles. Well I wanted to join the crowd and have a photo like that.

We had to go downtown to get our laptop fixed. I thought that would be a perfect time to get our family photo. We got all dressed up and went downtown but forgot the tripod to take a family photo. So we took the photo in pairs. Posing ourselves with Jersey taking the photo of Mike and I. We didn't get our hold hands photo or get one of our feet but the smiles are definitely good and the hair looks perfectly coiffed as well.

I do love my family and realized that we don't need some fancy shots when we take good photos with spontaneity.

Halloween Half Marathon

2010-12-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

What an experience! I could have never imagined running let alone do a half marathon (before I was 32). We arrived at the University Mall parking lot super early. Then sun wasn't even up. We wanted to get there early so we could get on a good bus and have time to stretch and get comfortable. I couldn't sleep the night before of course. I was so excited, nervous and just happy that I was seeing a goal come to fruition.
I was wanted to dress up but at the same time I didn't really want to run 13.1 miles in a costume. I made a big bow and had on my new pink running shirt and I put my rainbow running socks on with of course my new running shoes. I don't know if I had a specific costume but I was looking funky with my crazy hair and get up.

My neighbor Stephanie ran in the race with me. Along with my co-worker Becky. We were having a great time leading up to the race sitting in the "heated" tent and watching all the people participating in the race that were dressed up. Once the sun came up I don't know if I was still really excited for the whole thing. But I was up in the mountains and the only way down was in an ambulance or running down.
We took our last potty break until the end of the race and lined up at the starting line. That is the last time I saw Becky and some other friends of mine. The race had begun. I was so excited I was crying tears as Jay-Z was singing "Run this Town" I couldn't help it the emotions wouldn't stop. I felt like I was doing good and keeping a good pace. I was excited for the first water stop since I wasn't packing water. I got there and my heart sunk the water was all gone. I popped another piece of gum in my mouth to help with being thirsty. It seemed to work. There was a video guy along the route so I tried not to look so dorky. When the Canyon trail met up with the road I saw Stephanie. I could barely hear her but I was happy to see her. We crossed the road and then we were on the Provo River Trail. It was beautiful with all the leaves changing and seeing all the things that people were striping off. Tutus, gloves, hats, even a Captain America costume.
By mile 5 something didn't seem right with my foot. It was hurting way to bad. I was starting to feel tired, worn out and discouraged because of my foot. Pearl Jam lead the charge to keep going with "Just Breathe". That song helped me get through the next few miles when I saw my kids running along side the trail and Mike was filming me run. Just the sight of them helped me so much. They were at mile 8 and ran until the water stop. I felt like I could actually do this marathon and make it. My time wasn't what I really wanted at the moment but my family gave me the boost I needed. They were saying we will see you at the finish line.
Oh the finish line I couldn't wait. It was taking to long to get there. Now with a hurt foot and body just yelling at me for the punishment I was putting it through. I did make it to the finish line. I made it there in 2 hours and 56 minutes. My high goal was 2:30 and my low goal was 3 hours. It looks like I did it. There were also people after me so I felt good I wasn't last.
After stretching and taking off my socks to see what was causing all the pain. It was revealed that I had a 5 inch blister on the bottom of my foot. Mike thinks I got it from wearing two pairs of socks. No wonder my foot was screaming at me. It felt good to finish the race to see my husband and children at the end. To get a medal saying I was a half marathoner. Mike asked me "Do you want to do it again?" I said "YES!!!" I hope that by next Halloween I will be in better shape and that I will have trained alot to have a better time. This race is definitely something I want to do every Halloween.

Running log

2010-10-25T10:22:00.000-06:00

On October 9th, I ran in a race with my bff Sarah and my two SIL's. We ran the Love your body race at Thanksgiving Point.
It was a great race my PR was broken and it was fun to cheer on my SIL Jen as she finished her first ever 10k. The weather was cool and the place was packed with Women and their families to support them. 1800 women ran the race. It was crazy because the miles weren't marked, the water stops were to far apart and at one point the 6k people met up with the 10k people on a small path that got all jammed up.
After the race I was sore. I rubbed my legs with some biofreeze. Took some pain reliever and just laid around. The pain got worse. My leg and hip hurt so bad. I stopped running. I went swimming and that didn't seem to help at all.
I had to make the decision to go to the chiropractor or suffer more. I made the choice to go. Mike didn't think that it was worth it. I mean if you think about my body has been through a lot in six months with all the races and training I have done. But I knew if couldn't run in my last race if I didn't get some help.
It's amazing how I feel from a week ago. My body still hurts in the morning but I can walk without limping and my back feels good.
I still haven't ran. I wanted to this morning but mother nature {bless her heart} has dumped snow on the ground and continues to right now. I need to hit the gym ASAP.
6 more days until the Half Marathon. It's going to be awesome.

We have a VIP in the family

2010-10-25T09:54:00.000-06:00

While Jersey was off track from School. She kept telling me that when she got back to school that she was the VIP {Very Important Person} I asked if there was a note sent home to explain what being a VIP meant. Did it mean that I had to rent a limo and have her show up walking out of it? Or dress her in diamonds and furs? I was clueless on what it all meant. So last Monday morning she says "mom aren't you going to come to my school to help with my VIP?" {I'm still in my jams} Oh yes right. I hurried and grabbed some baby photos. Jersey had already gathered items of importance to her and we went to school.

The pictures were to be placed on a bulletin board in the classroom. I didn't have time to do this since Phoenix was a sleep at home. I didn't want to be gone to long and then have him wake up scared. I asked the teacher that instead of Tuesday, when were suppose to come and talk about Jersey, that we could come on Wednesday when her dad was home. Jersey wanted us to bring treats for the class. We brought marshmallow squares. We took in her giant Mutton bustin' championship trophy and some notes on what we wanted to say about our little gal.

The teacher had set up the class facing the bulletin board. With chairs for Mike and I and Jersey. So told a little bit about Jersey. How she is always smiling, she is an active kid, loves her brother and her bike and the monkey bars. We talked about her love for animals and how she wishes we could have a horse for her backyard. Then we let the class some questions to us about her and to Jersey about her favorite vacation and her favorite food. Afterwards the children went around the room saying what they liked best about Jersey. The majority said that they liked how she was a friend to everyone and she was funny and they loved being around her. I think that is Very Important.

Jersey use to get upset that she didn't have that ONE best friend. I would tell her before she would leave school that she should be a friend to everyone no matter what. I suppose my advice has rubbed off because that is what everyone loves about her. {one point for mom} She really is a good daughter. She is happy {except for when it's time to clean her room} I could have asked for anyone else.

I am pretty proud of my little VIP.

Halloween is killing us!

2010-10-25T09:13:00.000-06:00

Halloween is my favorite holiday of all time. I sure I have expressed this many times. But now that the kids are getting into it, the holiday is much more fun!
The only problem is they are going crazy. Saturday, Phoenix had a birthday party that he went to. After coming home he was eating a jaw-breaker. He was trying to bite on it and I told him that you can't do that. Well next thing I know he is turning white and an gagging. I reach around him and start to do the Heimlich. I do that twice and then swipe his mouth for the jaw breaker. The thing finally comes out and he is yelling at us telling us he almost died.
We threw away all the jaw breakers.
Then last night I was making bread to warm our house {which was 62 degrees} and talking on the phone to my mom. All of the sudden Jersey is screaming at me because she got something on her mouth and something green in her eye. I give her something to drink but that doesn't help so I stick her head in the sink and start spraying her eye and mouth to flush what was in there out.
We realized what is was. It was a glow necklace that the kids had got from a Halloween party. She had been biting on the glow stick and so she got all over. Lucky it all came out and she said " I think my eye is a little red" Yes it was.
I hope my children make it to the 31st of October. The way this is going I'm not so sure?

Running log

2010-10-04T10:31:00.001-06:00

I have 25 days! 25 days! until my half marathon. I'm excited and nervous all at once. I have a long time to have those feeling inside of me. That makes me want to train harder.
Saturday (25th) My schedule said that I needed to go 7 miles. So I went 7 miles. It felt great. I was so happy that I went that far. That was the most I had ever gone 6.5. When I was telling my SIL about running 7 miles and that the next week I was going to run 8 miles, she said well you have only three weeks until the race you need to up your mileage more than a mile. She said you should try going 10 miles.
Since we have a bunch of hills around here. I didn't want to run 10 miles and have to run part of it up hill back home. I planned out my route that had some hills but that part home would be downhill. Plus Mike wouldn't have to pick me up. Well when I told Mike my plan he didn't like that one of the roads I was planning to run on had no sidewalk. So I had to re-think my plan.
My other SIL wanted to go running on Saturday so I made a plan that we could met up and then finish my run together. Mike would pick us up at the end. We made plans to met at the library. I told her I would be there at 7:45pm well, I was a bit slower than I had planned. I was carrying a water belt on me so I think that slowed me down a bit. While she waited she ran up and down the road. We met up and finished our run. Her five miles really turned into 8 miles and I did 10.2 miles. Mike was waiting for us with water and towels. I felt good after the run but after showering my body was hurting.
My SIL's and I are running in a race next week. It's an all Women's race. We are doing a 10k. I think it will be really fun. It's suppose to rain and be really cold. Yeah Fall is finally here.
I sure wish though with all this running, I could lose some weight. I keep hearing I have to give up the chocolate. I don't think I can do that. I have limited myself to two bars and just handfuls of M&M's, not a bag. That is improvement right?
Though I hate starting the run the feeling after wards is nice. (Well not the sore legs.)