My Morning Journey

Almost every morning for the past several years I have been up on Bountiful Boulevard either running, biking, or walking when I have no energy. I go when it rains or snows, when it is dark in the morning or light. I love getting up and getting my exercising done for the day before I get the kids off to school. The other morning as I was running I started thinking about all of the people I meet. I tell my kids things about people I have never met, but have observed them or their house for so long I feel like I do know them. One lady and I became friends from passing each other so often. She moved to NSL and we don't see each other running anymore, but I see her other places and we still stop to say hi. I ran into an older couple, who are my very favorite that I see, at a store once and we looked at each other for a bit before we realized how we knew each other. In fact I haven't seen them in awhile and wonder what has happened. I pass by neighbors that I know, several groups of ladies chatting away on their walks, the man with the two dogs and his wife three strides ahead of him, the other guy with his dog that stops to stretch in the condos, the couple who ONLY wear University of Utah gear while walking, the super friendly couple, the man who walks with his arm in the air, the couple that no matter how many times I have smiled and said hi they just look at me funny. The list could go on and on the point is so many friendly people and people that I count on seeing and who I miss (and wonder if they miss me) when I take a different path or sleep in. What a great place to live.

Random Cuteness

Here are a few cute things the boys have done this past week.  No one cares about these, but I don’t want to forget them.

Last week while helping Jacob with his homework he got distracted and couldn’t remember what we were doing.  After me telling him that he needed to pay attention he said, “it is kind of like during the sacrament when you are supposed to be thinking about Jesus and you try really hard and then all of a sudden you are thinking about something else.”

Jonah has started “comforting” people.  If someone coughs (whether fake or real) he comes up to them and pats them and says, “you O.K.?”  Tonight we were playing flag football with some other families and Jonah and I went to sit in the car to warm up.  Jacob soon came to the car crying because no one would pass him the ball.  I had Jacob on my lap and Jonah got a kleenex and came and held it up to Jacob’s nose and said “here, Asha, you o.k.?”  So darling!

Brandon doesn’t do cute things like these anymore, but he used to.  He is still very tenderhearted and gets worried if Jonah or Jacob get hurt.

And here is the classic picture.  Jonah breaking two rules, but what I could I do more than take a picture?

His binkie in his mouth, which he is only supposed to have at bedtime.  And playing a video game which Brandon left on.  I rarely let them play video games, but while I was helping at a friend’s house he played and then left the TV on.  O.K. not like Jonah isn’t supposed to play video games, but I got a kick out of Jonah trying to play the football game!

Lessons learned

I learned two valuable lessons today.

The first is one that we have all known for most of our lives and yet sometimes we forget. Words can be very harmful, even when they are said in the best of intentions. Confidences shattered, for no reason at all. I am nowhere near perfect in this area, but hope to be a little bit more careful about what I say and who it is said to.

Second lesson learned, if you cry every Sunday at church then no one even glances at you to wonder what is wrong. Now on the other hand if you never cry, EVERYONE notices and makes it even worse!

Oh wait and a third thing, the RS teacher really should have focused more on that food comment!

A new calling

So about a week and a half ago a member of the bishopric came to ask me to speak in sacrament meeting and also to give me a new calling. For about 10 seconds I was so thrilled to know that I was being released from my cub scouts calling and then he said he wasn't releasing me. So I knew it was going to be something that didn't require a lot of time. Well when he said we would like you to be the Relief Society chorister, I about burst out laughing. I am not really very musical and have never led music before. I called Tiffany once he had left and she burst out laughing. She has been known to say she would rather conduct a meeting naked than lead the music at anything. At Brandon's baptism my sister in law was supposed to lead the music and was late so I turned around to ask Tiffany to do it and she said No way.

Anyways back to my story, today I spoke in sacrament meeting, no big deal. Then it came time for Relief Society and my leading debut. I was feeling confident with myself and that I would know what to do. Boy was I wrong! I was a joke, I couldn't keep up with the piano and I kept laughing. At one point I put the book in front of my face and then realized I had to keep leading. Thankfully it was a short song and I sat down in shame. Some people have said that they hate to lead because everyone just stares at you, well I really don't care if everyone just stares at me, but I have got to learn what I am doing. My nice very musical friend gave me a piece of advice so hopefully I can figure this thing out. The last song wasn't bad although I wanted to just bust up laughing. I came home and declared, I would rather speak in church every Sunday rather than lead the music. I hope next week goes better!

Seat Belt Police

A few weeks ago Jonah started

monitoring the seat belts in our

car.  As soon as we would start

driving he would yell

out, “Momma buckled, Daddy

buckled” or to whoever he

thought needed it (which I

always already had on my seat

belt).  Well today it became

more intense, “Daddy buckled

NOW, Asha (Jacob) buckled

NOW”!  We are in good hands

with our little Jonah.

Giving it a second TRI

Wasn’t it just a mere month ago that I was writing about my first triathlon?  Didn’t I say I was hooked and would be doing more?  Have I learned not to do them so close together? YES!

I got talked into doing the SDRC Labor Day Triathlon by my brother Chris.  He really wanted us to do one together and after putting him off for weeks I finally gave in and said, “O.K. I will do it with you”!!!  I didn’t train like I should have, I was beat from training from the last one.  So I didn’t do as good as my first, but I still enjoyed most of it and can look back and be proud of myself.

I was SUPER proud of Brandon who decided to do the novice division of the Tri.  He swam 150 yards, biked 3 miles, and ran 1.5 miles.  He said it was hard, but he liked doing it.  I got to see him swim before I did and could barely hold back the tears, I wish I could have seen him do the rest.  A few of my nieces and a nephew also did it and Jacob was so mad at me for not letting him do it (because I was already into this $70 with me and Brandon).  I promised him the next 5K I do he can do it with me.

This tri was the traditional swim, bike, run and boy was that harder than the run first.  I swam great, even though it was soooo crowded and then biked fairly decent.  Then I realized I still had to run 3 miles and wanted to cry.  I was all alone, but kept my feet moving.  I felt like I was at the end of a half marathon, barely moving.  Brandon and Jacob met me at the last 2 blocks or so and ran with me which made me happy.

I instructed my photographer (Bryan) to try to get some decent pictures of me this time, I think he did O.K.  I am now looking forward to a season of not training for anything!

Brandon and Nathan celebrating their finish

I can see me, but you probably can’t

Here I come at the end of the 12 mile ride

And ending!!!!

The Julian winners!

Salsa time

I went out to my garden on Tuesday to see if I had enough tomatoes to make salsa.

Yep, I think so.  Yesterday was spent turning those tomatoes, 2 home grown bell peppers, 1 home grown jalapeno (and some store bought produce) into this.

The result!  Yummy salsa and a very happy husband.

Jonah Baby today

I realized I haven’t blogged about Jonah in awhile and since this is my only source of journaling I better get something going!

He finally started walking in early June and I can’t believe he ever crawled.  You know how when they are crawling you never think they will really walk, well now I can’t believe he crawled until he was 2!!!  He isn’t quite up to running, but is getting there.

Jonah has always been a good communicator and he cracks me up all the time with what he says.  His favorites currently are:

When you ask him if he wants something and he doesn’t want it he says, “ummmmmmmmmm nope”!

If he does want it he says, “uh-huh” apparently in the same tone that I say it.  (that is what Bryan says)

If you call his name he replies, “ya”, and will do this over and over if you keep calling his name. (Lauren’s personal favorite)

If he wants a toy or something that comes apart put back together he says, “Mama break it”.

He puts lots of words together and it is so funny to hear his high little voice saying things like,  “Costco closed?”

His big downfall right now is waking up in the night.  Once he quit waking up 15 times a night and started sleeping through the night he has had no problem until this summer.   Currently he wants to be in Mama’s bed which I let him for awhile and then realized I had to stop that quick!  So now I let him sleep on my floor when he wakes up, which means he gets stuck under the bed.  Oh what a treat it is to be woken up all night long again!

He is a little bored at home with me now that “the boys” are back in school.  If we are going to go somewhere I can’t say anything until right before we leave, otherwise he cries and cries “bah bye” until we leave.  He loves to go to other people’s houses (must have gotten that from me)!

He will forever get away with whatever he wants because who really can look at his tiny little body and think of what he has gone through and say no?  O.K. I am sure I will be able to say no to him when he is older.  But really he is just so stinkin cute!

(P.S. The picture is my current favorite.  He goes outside to play with Nate’s dog Marley when Marley comes to visit.  Marley is very calm with him and lets Jonah do whatever he wants.)