I'm Addicted!!

Im addicted. At least that is what some people are saying. To running that is. I just love to run. Holly and I ran another race on Saturday. It was called the Freedom Run. It was a 10k which is 6.1 miles. Actually, they had their mileage marked wrong and it ended up being 7.3 miles. But hey, it was all good. This was their first time doing this run, so there are some kinks that need to be worked out. There weren't a lot of people, maybe 50. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and Holly and I did pretty well. I came in 2nd in women's, Holly came in 3rd. I came in 3rd overall, Holly came in 4th. A female came in 1st and she was dang fast. She passed me at about mile 4 and I tried for a while to keep up with her but just couldn't do it. Then the guy who came in 2nd was pretty fast also. I was able to run like mile 6 and 7 at his pace but then at the end he left me. My time was 56 min. 42 seconds. Like I said in my last post I need to practice being stronger at the end of the race. This race once again proved that. Anyway, we had a great time. And luckily the weather held off. Shortly after we got home the wind started to blow really hard and it was raining. That is one of the things I love about living here. Generally the weather is great and you can find a race close by at least every other weekend. And I love how friendly the other runners are. We are always cheering the others on and the winners are never pompous about it. Like the girl that won told me what a good job I had done and I gave her a run for her money. :) Anyway, I love it and look forward to keep on running.

Lake to Lake

On Saturday I had the opportunity, thanks to Lacey, to run the Lake to Lake relay race. This race started at Gunlock Reservoir and went 50 miles to end at Sand Hollow Reservoir. We had a team of 5 of us. Lacey and myself, Joy who lives in our neighborhood, Angie who works with Joy and my friend Holly who I work with. The race is broken into 10 legs, so we each ran two legs. Each leg is rated from 1 to 10, 10 being the most difficult. I ran legs 5 and 10. They were both rated at a 7.

In this first picture Lacey is literally running to the starting line. We pulled into the parking lot with only 3 minutes till start time. Poor Lacey didn't get to stretch or anything before she took off running. And it was in the morning so it was pretty chilly. And we were kind of in the mountains. This is Angie just finishing up her first leg. Her first leg had two pretty good hills in it. The second one is pretty hard. Lacey and I know because we ran it when we ran the River Run Half Marathon.

Looks like Lacey is giving some good instructions here. :)

This is Holly finishing up her first leg.

Off I go to run my first leg. By now the weather was starting to warm up. Lucky me.

Holly's second leg had a really steep hill at the very end. And it was dirt road. Luckily she likes running on dirt roads. She was awesome on the hill. This is her coming down the hill. And the wind had started to blow a little at this time and she was running into the wind.

This is Holly switching legs off to Lacey. This was Lacey's second leg which was rated a 9. Wow, you go girl. She had dirt road and some really big hills to climb. Not to mention the wind was really starting to blow hard now. So she also had to fight the dust in her eyes.
Here I am starting out on my second leg. Being out in the open with the wind was not fun. I was running to Sand Hollow. As I got closer to the lake there is a lot of sand and the wind was blowing it so hard the sand was pelting my legs. And getting down into my socks. Yuck!!
What an awesome team. They came and ran the last little bit with me and we all crossed the finish line together.

We had such a great time. Running just gives me such a high. You can see the lake behind us. It really is beautiful out there. We really lucked out with the weather also. It had been cloudy all day with the sun peeking out here and there. Not long after we got home it started to pour rain. Thanks Lacey for asking us to run this race with you.

We ran the race in 7 hours 27 minutes. When you average that out our average mile per minute was 8 min 56 seconds. We came in 11th out of 25 in the all women's division. We were only 45 seconds from being in the top 10. If only I would have picked it up the last little bit and passed the girl that was in front up me. Ugh!! Sorry girls. Guess I need to practice on pushing harder at the end. And overall we came in 47th out of 93. Not bad for 4 of us never having run a relay race before. We would like to do it again next year and beat our time.

"It's About Love"

This is a picture of my friend Lacey and her family. Her husband Sam, their daughter Ali who is almost 5, their son Nic who is one and not pictured are their angels Ella and Ava who are two. After having difficult pregnancies and losing their girls they were able to adopt Nic. At this time they are ready to adopt again, which is the reason for this post. Sam and Lacey are the most adorable parents and feel the need to bring another child into their eternal family. If you know of anyone who is looking for a family for a baby please let us know. You can see their blog at http://www.laceyandsam.blogspot.com/ and their adoption blog is http://torgersonadoption.blogspot.com/.

"Little Girl"

Well, my Little Girl moved out. :( (I call Ambrea my Little Girl) I can't believe it. Ambrea decided to move out with a friend. When your kids are little you always talk about when they will move out, get married, all that stuff. Then they get older and it becomes a reality and its not such an easy thing. Ambrea asked me why it is so hard for me to have her move out. I mean, she's not far away. It's just that it is another step for her towards growing up. It's hard to see the kids grow up. I know she will learn a lot and it should be a good thing, but this mom is kinda struggling with it. I'm proud of her though. She is a really good girl and helps me a lot. Especially given our situation with Ray's job. In fact, all three of the kids have been great about it. They have really stepped it up and help out a lot. Dang I love them!!

13.1

Last Saturday we ran another 1/2 marathon. This is the fourth one for me. (I know, I've been horrible at keeping the blog up-to-date.) It was here in town. I must say though, Lacey now kicks my butt. I can no longer keep up with her. Let me remind you, she is 18 years younger than me. (I'm just trying to justify why I can't keep up with her. :) ) It had been raining all week long. We were lucky it didn't rain on us that day. It was cloudy and very humid, but the rain held off. Lacey did awesome. She ran it in 1 hour 44 minutes. My goal was to do it in 1 hour 55 minutes and I beat it. 1 hour 53 minutes. Woo hoo. My first run was 2 hours 1 minute. Second run was 1 hour 59 minutes, and my third was 1 hour 58 minutes. So hey, I keep improving. Also, I ran with an injury. I have tendanitis. A chiropractor taped my ankle for me and I couldn't believe how it helped. Well, that and 3 advil. But seriously, what a difference it made. Anyway, it was fun and we are looking forward to running some more. Thanks Lacey, for sticking with my slow butt.

Everyone Off the Sidewalk!!

Hey everyone, watch out. Keanna has her permit. Wow, she's how old?? No way, stop. Quite growing girl. Anyway, she loves to drive every opportunity she can get. And she's doing very well.

Our CrAZy life!!

I'm so bad not to keep my blog updated. So much has happened. I'm so busy I hardly find time to even get on the computer. So in a nutshell here are a few things that have happened:

We took Ashton for a cardiology appt. and were informed his results from the blood test are not good. He needs to have surgery. No rush, but we do need to decide what surgery and get a date set. Ugh!! Not the news we wanted to hear.

The kids and I had a New Moon party. There were about 20 people who came. We had a light dinner, played games and then went to the movie. We had fun, enjoyed the movie and Keanna, Ashton and I will be standing in line with Sara again at midnight when the movie comes out on dvd. :)

We had a wonderful, but quick Thanksgiving. We had it with my family this year. We went to my parents on Wed. night, had a wonderful dinner the next day, then hurried home to catch our traditional movie on Thanksgiving night. Ambrea and I had to work the dreaded Black Friday. It actually was not that bad, at our store at least.

Last weekend we went to mom and dads again for my neice-in-laws baby shower. She is having a girl and we are so excited for them. They have waited a long time for a baby. Nate and Hazel met us there. It was so good to see them. Especially because we didn't get to see them on Thanksgiving because they all had a stomach bug. The kids are growing fast and are as cute as ever.

So that is a few of the things going on in our lives. Other than the normal everyday stuff. And getting ready for the holidays. Which are approaching way too fast.

JoBS

Ray got a job. If you are interested in the details please email me personally at raycarehardy@q.com.

We have had a lot going on, but I just can't seem to find the time to post. Hopefully one day I can get caught up.

You Say What???!

Well, this post is a not so happy post. :( We have had kind of a hard week. Earlier in the week Ray was layed off from his job. Kind of devestating news. We are trying to keep our faith strong and know that things will work out. Some moments are easier than others. For me, I tend to hold anger. I know it hurts me more than anyone else, so I'm trying to let it go so it doesn't pull me down. Ray is a lot better at just letting it go. He says he left with his head held high knowing he had worked very hard and given his all. It's just very scary, and I had just made some changes in my work schedule also this week. About a month ago I had started working at the rec center from 5-11 am. I was very excited for this schedule because then I would be home more at night. I was still at Michael's three nights a week. And I didn't have to work any saturdays. We were kind of having a feeling something wasn't right with Ray's job and wondered what was going to come of it. Anyway, my wonderful manager at Michael's offered me the same amount of hours at the rec center, and working "normal" hours. Also, Monday thru Friday, no Saturdays. After discussing it we decided it would be the best thing to do so I could be home in the mornings and then get home just shortly after the kids get home. I would be taking a cut in pay but Ray said it would be worth it because I had not been myself. Part of the reason for that is because I had not been able to run hardly at all since working the early morning shift and mentally I was struggling. I'm a much nicer person when I get my morning run in.:)

Anyway, I'm loving my hours, but we are now on a job search. Oh boy!!!

Watch (es)

If anyone is interested I have watches and the bands available to buy. These pictures are just a sample of what I have available. If you are interested please personally email me at raycarehardy@q.com.