Catching Up...

Well, I haven't posted for forever, so I have some catching up to do. This post might be a little boring because I'm not including pictures right now. Ashton needs to put them on the computer for me. :)

A couple weeks ago Ray ran his first half marathon with me. Holly also ran it with us. It was in Gunnison so it was fun because mom was at the finish line waiting for us. It was foggy, windy and freezing cold at the starting line. But we soon ran out of the fog into the sunshine. Holly and I were pretty much keeping together for quite some time. Then she needed to make a stop at a water station so I was able to get ahead of her. (Whew) I was able to get a new personal record which is 1 hour 49 minutes. Holly came in right after me and Ray wasn't far behind. He was dissappointed he didn't finish in the time he wanted to but I'm still proud of him for doing it. He has a hard time getting as much training in as I do.

It was good to go visit with mom, dad, rick and everyone else. A few weeks before this we had gotten some not so good news. We found out dad has cancer. They diagnosed it at Hodgkins Lymphoma. He started chemo on the 6th. He will have a treatment every other week. I talked to him yesterday (mother's day) and he is feeling pretty good. It is so scarey but he has a good attitude and is being taken good care of (by mom).

Let's see, then Ashton, Ambrea and I had the opportunity to go see Kurt Bestor in concert with the South West Symphony. Natalee came with us. Our friend Bryce plays with the symphony so they were able to hook us up with tickets. They played at Tuachan. It is so much fun there. It was fun, but different to have Kurt conducting pretty much the whole time. He only played the piano twice. It was still fun.

The next day Ashton Keanna and I volunteered at the Iron Man. Keanna and I were there most of the day. Ashton got tired so Ambrea took him home. Anyway, it was so cool. In an Iron Man they swim 2.6 miles, ride a bike for 112 miles, then run a marathon, 26.2 miles. I can't believe people can do it. There were a handful of people that we know who did it. It was fun to be able to be there and cheer them on. We plan on volunteering again next year. It was a great experience.

Then yesterday was mother's day. For me it started on Saturday. Ambrea and Josh took me on a hike in Zion's. It is so beautiful there. Ashton and Jeremey (Joshs brother) also came. We packed in stuff to make sandwhiches. It was a lot of fun. Thanks guys for taking me. Hope to do it again soon.

Then on Sunday I got to take a nap and Keanna made dinner, chicken enchiladas. Then the kids all gave me a scrapbook organizer thing. It's really cool. Now to just figure out where to put it and get organized.

Anyway, we have been very busy but are having a lot of really fun, neat experiences.

Is it a Full Moon???

Some of us at work are wondering if it's a full moon this week, because people are on a rampage this week. As you know, Ambrea and I both work retail together. And I'll tell you what, people have been rude all week long. I've been yelled at twice this week. And I'm not sure that I did anything to deserve to be yelled at. The lady who was the worst I had even given her a better price on what she was buying. And she was still rude. Just a reminder to everyone out there that just because we work retail doesn't mean we are dumb and don't know what we are doing. We have feelings too and try to make peoples shopping experience pleasant. Please be nice to the people who are helping you.

Happy Birthday Ray!!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart. I hope you have a great day. I'm just so sad you had to be out of town so we can't celebrate together. How blessed we are to have such a wonderful husband and dad. Love you!!

Want to Visit??

This is Ambrea. :)
This is where Ambrea now lives.

This is her roomate Megan.

This is their other roomate.

Want to visit?? :)

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.