The Reason Why

So, if you have been a reader of my blog in the past, you probably noticed a decrease in the frequency of my blog posts since March. I figured I would let you in on the reason why.

It's because I have been doing a lot of this...

....No, not looking like a pregnant squirrel. It was cold, so I had 2 shirts on. Plus, it was 7am, & I was still puffy. At least that's my excuse. I've been RUNNING!!! YES, FOR FUN!!! WHY you say??? Let me explain.

After the holidays, I was the heaviest I have ever been. My "muffin top" was not appetizing or attractive. I was very down about myself and my appearance and decided I needed to take control and do something. Our ward has an annual 5K every year in September, that I have never participated in. I decided to change that this year. I decided I was gonna run that 3.1 miles if it killed me! So I had my goal & something to work towards.

But where to start. I couldn't run to save my life! I hated to run in high school. Honestly, I think it took me 16 minutes to do a mile in gym class and I haven't attempted to run since then. But in my neighborhood I am surrounded by runners and 2 of my sister-in-laws run, so I figured if they can do it, so can I.

Luckily, I ran across a schedule in my Family Circle magazine that was tailored to someone just starting by alternating walking and running. It worked well. I wasn't overwhelmed, and little by little, built up my minutes and miles, until I could run without having to walk.

My great neighbor and friend, Carrilyne, in all her wisdom, suggested that maybe I should run a race before September. I'm sure she knew I would need motivation to keep going and September was still a long ways away. She told me about the Utah Valley 5K and since it goes right past our neighborhood and it wasn't until June, so I still had plenty of time to get ready, I thought that maybe I could do it. I checked it out, talked to Richard, and my sister in-law Shaleece said she would come from Pocatello to run it with me.

I signed up. I was committed.

My sis-in-law,Shaleece, my heroine, stretching.

So I ran. On the treadmill when the weather was bad, which it was a lot of the time. Then finally outside on real pavement. Then the call came. Shaleece was going to run the Ogden 5K on May 16th and wondered if I wanted to give it a try. I still had not ran the whole 3.1 miles and the Ogden race was only 2 weeks away, but I figured what the heck and did it anyway!

I loved it! It was a great feeling! It was a wonderful running day!

We figured that if we could do it within 31-32 minutes that would be good. We did it in 30:21! And if we hadn't been stuck in the middle of the pack, I'm sure we would've shaved of those 21 seconds and then some.


Yeah! We did it!

I didn't think I really liked running until I ran that race. It was just something I endured to reach a goal. But that adrenaline rush of beating a time and running it the whole way, just spurred this little competitive part of me. Now I looked forward to getting the kids to school so I could go run. And I'm sure Ben's pre-school teacher got tired of seeing, & probably smelling, me in my running clothes, but I didn't care. I had a mission, and that mission was to run.


Now, I wish I could report a ton of weight loss, but I can't. I've only lost about 7-8 lbs since Christmas. But I can tell the difference in how things fit and how I feel. I can also run 4 miles (if I push it), where in the beginning I had trouble running for 1 minute. Plus, and maybe this is the best part, my "muffin top" has gone from "jumbo size" to just "regular" and that is good enough for me!

Easter 2009

The Easter Bunny usually visits us on the Saturday morning before, so we can get the candy/ Easter Bunny thing out of the way before Sunday. That way on Easter Sunday we can focus on the true meaning of Easter and celebrate the resurrection. Well, we did things a little different this year, since Ashton had a cub scout hike on Saturday morning. We colored eggs on Saturday evening and did our egg hunt and baskets on Easter morning.

Dallin's favorite egg. A "Y" for BYU.

Ashton finding all the high hidden eggs.

Ben with some of his haul!

The poor Easter Bunny(ies) had to wait until really late to visit our house (12:30), because Ashton and Dallin stayed up watching "The Ten Commandments" with mom and dad. The boys really enjoyed it and thought it was as good as movies they come out with today. I guess that's why they had a hard time falling asleep when the movie was done! Too much excitement.

Since this is Emma 1st year of understanding that something special was going on and being able to participate, we all enjoyed watching her color eggs and basically, stuff as much chocolate in her mouth as she could fit! She must take after her mom and Grandma!

Emma coloring eggs and everything else!

Ashton showing off his egg finding skills.

Dallin & Ben's favorite basket surprise.

We also enjoyed a yummy Easter dinner complete with Ham, cheesy potatoes, homemade rolls, veggies, and strawberry shortcake. We even had a table cloth. And if you come from my family, you know it is an important dinner if you use a tablecloth!

Ben is going to get me with his scary, blue, monster fingers!

Emma checking out her new doll clothes the Easter Bunny left in her basket.

OPEN THE CHOCOLATE, PLEASE!!!

Benjamin pretending he's eating the egg, shell and all!

All in all, Easter was a"EGG"citing success!

Richard's New Ride

So, I have been guilty of blog neglect so this post is belated (as will be the next few). But I figure, better late than never.

So when Richard came home from a business trip in February, he told me that the day we had been putting off, he was afraid, had finally come....time to get him a new car. His little 1994 Mazda Protege was on it's last leg and would most definitely cost more to fix than what it is worth. We bought it off my brother almost 3 years ago, who had purchased it from my parents. So it had been well driven and its 175,000+ miles showed it.

Richard does not have to drive very far too work and 2 out of 5 days a week he tries to work from home to off set the time when he has to be out of town, so we decided that a car for him was not worth going into debt for. So we set our budget and the hunt began.

We really wanted to get a truck, because as Richard's older brother once said "You can do S@*T with a truck." Well, that's not the only reason. We are constantly needing to haul or transport something where a minivan just won't do. So as to not bother our poor neighbors (Thanks! Ritchie's) anymore, we focused on models of trucks. And when this little truck showed up on KSL's classifieds we got excited and 2 days later took it for a test drive (a long with a couple others) and decided this was the one.

Richard talked the guy down $250, which was good since upon registering it we had to spend that much to fix a tie rod. Anyways it's not new, but it is new to us, and we are enjoying doing "Stuff" with it!

Happiness Is...

Happiness is... a sweet husband who recognizes "Mommy Burnout" when he sees it and tells me "Why don't you go away for a few days and just have a break?"

(Maybe I was really ornery and he needed the break!)

Happiness is... good parents who let you crash at their house, unload your bags, watch your baby girl, fix your meals, and make apple strudel muffins for you for breakfast.

Emma & Grandma Jeanne

Emma & Pop Marlin

Happiness is... having dinner with friends you haven't seen in a long time.

Trisha Norman (Green shirt) made dinner for the rest of us, Heather Price, Malinda Twede (long blonde), Tresa Crabtree (grey hoodie), me at Cande Booker's (blue shirt) house.

Happiness is... sleeping in your childhood bedroom and sharing the daybed you worked so hard to buy, with your own baby girl. And feeling satisfaction in knowing, that all too soon, that bed will be hers.

Sleeping Beauty & Me

Happiness is... not having to get up at the crack of dawn on a school day to get my walk/run in before getting kids to school. The sun was actually shining!


Happiness is... get pampered with a scalp massage and much needed haircut while chatting with a good friend.

Happiness is... being able to see my niece Jenna perform in Layton High School's amazing production of "Showboat" without having to take anyone out for potty breaks except myself!(Thanks to Susie & girls for watching Emma!)

Me & Jenna in one of her fabulous costumes!


But TRUE Happiness is....

...Coming home to these guys!!!

(And the fabulous surprise bathroom remodel they did while I was gone!)

A Bear Scout

Last month at pack meeting Ashton earned his Bear. Not only did he earn his Bear, but also his whittling chip, 1 gold and 7 silver arrows. If you are familiar with cub scouts at all, you know that to earn a Gold arrow you need to have 10 of the elective projects completed and then for every 10 additional electives you receive a silver arrow. That is 70 electives completed! So this was quite an accomplishment for Ashton. We are proud of him and the hard work he put into earning this rank.

Ashton receiving his Bear from Bro. Giles our Cubmaster and me receiving my mother's pin.


Now here is the funny part. In November, Richard and I realized that Ashton only had 2 months left to earn his Bear Rank. So we set to work making plans each Sunday of what electives or requirements we could help him pass off that week. We continued this way throughout December and most of January.
Ashton receiving all his awards!

Two Sundays before Ashton's birthday, we were looking at his book trying to figure out how we were going to complete everything before his birthday. I was dismayed. There was too much to do and not enough time with everything else going on. I figured we would just do our best and I went to bed.

Sometime in the middle of the night when I was up with one of the kids, Richard informed me that Ashton had earned his Bear. I was skeptical and asked how. He told me that after I went to bed, he got to looking at the requirements a little more closely, and found he did not have to complete every section of his book like we had been working toward! He only needed to complete 12 of the 24 sections! Ashton had completed that and then some! Stupid Parents!!! It always helps to look at the directions! Needless to say, I went to bed and slept a lot better.

So this is proof, that just because you have a lot of boys, it does not mean you know everything about Cub Scouts or the Scouting Program!!! Thank heavens that we have awesome scout leaders in our ward who love the boys, love scouting, and keep things simple and fun, thus keeping the boys interested. Being the primary counselor over scouts I thank the good Lord for the privilege of working with these amazing people and for their making up for me, when sometimes I fall short.

The Power of Preschool

Last night I was awakened a little after 3 am to whispering. Benjamin had come in wanting me, and since I didn't wake up right away, Richard was trying to take care of him. Ben kept saying he just needed to whisper in my ear. So he whispered in my ear and since Ben is really hard to understand sometimes, especially at 3 in the morning when you are woke from a dead sleep, I needed a translator. Luckily, Richard knew what he was saying and told me," He wants to know if he has stinky breath." My first thought was "Why am I smelling breath at 3 in the morning?" then it changed to "Why does a 4 year old care about his breath especially at 3 am?" I told him I couldn't smell his breath so it wasn't stinky and he went back to bed.

I sat there laughing and asked Richard what that was all about. He said that earlier Ben had told him something about his Preschool teacher and brushing his tongue so he wouldn't have stinky breath. They have been studying oral health this week and evidently he had some anxiety about his breath or wanted to know if he did a good job brushing his tongue. Why we couldn't do this during normal waking hours is beyond me.

I think it is funny what will catch a kids attention. Ben may not know all his letters, but he'll have the best smelling breath in school. Silly boy.

So add that to the list of mommy duties at night- drinks, nightmares, occasional wet bed change, & breath smelling!

My silly Mr. Ben

It's a Love/Hate Thing

Since living in Canada for 3 years there are certain things that I miss. So when Richard has to go there for business I have mixed emotions.


I hate having him gone, but I love when he brings me these....

I used to be able to get these in the states, but Pepsi quit distributing them here. They are delicious and low calorie. Forget flowers and chocolate for Valentines day, he brought me back 48 of these babies.

I hate that he gets to go back to my 2nd home & eat at my favorite restaurants (all on the company's tab) without me, but love that he brings me these......

Chocolate and coconut- need I say anymore!

I hate having to deal with the kids by myself, but love that he brings me this....

I love Salon Selectives hairspray, but can't find it in the states anymore!

The drinks won't last, the candy bars are almost gone & 4 bottles of hairspray should last me until his next trip, which hopefully, will be in the summer and I can go with him!