Happy Halloween

Halloween really is one of my favorite holidays.  I love to dress up and I love seeing other people dressed up.  The problem is that I don’t start thinking about it early enough and so I never end up doing anything really cool.  Yesterday we worked in the yard, started carving pumpkins, raced out to Sandy to Brandon’s game, came back finished the pumpkins and it was time to get ready for trick-or-treating.  No time to be creative, not that I have a creative bone (or cell) in my body!  Anyways we ended up having a great night, in spite of the rain and cold weather.  Have I ever told you my plan for when I rule the world?  Halloween will be on September 30th and Thanksgiving will be on the 4th Thursday of October.  The weather will be nice for Halloween and there will be plenty of time to enjoy Thanksgiving before Christmas hits.

O.K. so here we are.

Me- I dressed up as Brandon (couldn’t quite get the football pants on )

Brandon- You tube Antoine Dodson if you don’t know who he is.

Jacob- A Vampire, not Edward

Jonah- A Dinosaur and a Giraffe.  Really just a giraffe but it made him happy to say he was both.

I am always torn on Halloween night.  Go trick-or-treating with the kids and get to see everyone and their reaction to the costumes.  Or stay home to pass out candy and see everyone else's costumes.  I usually try to do both, but this year Jonah did not want to stop, so I missed everyone coming to my house.  Lots of fun and lots of candy to show for it!

Awesome

Yes, I loved it.  Really was there any question that I wouldn’t?  Well maybe because of the part about me not getting much sleep.

So here is a run down of my amazing Ragnar experience.  Thursday afternoon we left Bountiful and it’s wonderful warm fall weather.  We drove to St. George, ate at the Pizza Factory and then headed to one of our team members parents house to sleep.  I quickly made my way to a bed and went to sleep.  5:00 a.m. came all to soon, it had rained all night and we hoped we were not going to encounter that for our run.  We then drove to the Valley of Fire State Park, somewhere near Lake Mead.  We had a bit of a delay getting into the park, they were not sufficiently ready for the 400 plus teams arriving.  We missed our 7:15 a.m. start time, but quickly got set and made the 7:30 start.  It was very exciting to be part of the start line.  People all around decorating their cars and getting ready for the 195 miles!  It was nice to see how it worked, I had wondered and soon learned how you support your team along and then how you exchange with the next runner.  I was runner 4 and soon enough it was my turn.

Here I am, waiting to cross the street for my exchange.

And you can’t really tell but I have just been slapped with the bracelet and am ready to go.

Here I am barreling down the mountain.  This 6.4 mile run had two pretty big hills.  I kept on running though and finished pretty strong.  When you pass someone it is referred to as “road kill”.  Some teams are pretty intense about this and mark the side of their cars with the number of people they have “killed”.  I am pleased to say that I “killed” 3 people on this leg, very unusual for me who usually comes in last.

Running in to exchange with Steve.

I then had a nice long break as I cheered my team members on and saw what happens once our van was done with the first leg.  The big exchange was at a resort on Lake Las Vegas.  I laid in a lounge chair next to the pool and was in heaven.  Definitely my kind of vacay!

And here everyone thought I was only running!

Our vans next leg started that night.  Here is got exciting again because we had to wear reflective vest, headlamps and tail lights.  My run started around 9:00 p.m.  I ran on the road for a bit and then turned on a trail behind some apartment buildings.  The car had to be separated from me at this point.  I had a walkie talkie so I could stay in touch with them.  I got passed a few times and then ran my heart out so I could keep their lights in my sight.  I was not scared as long as I knew they were up there where I could see them.  I was running 81/2 minute miles at one point, not my usual pace!  I ended feeling great. (No pictures of me in the dark)

We finished our second leg around 11:00, met up with van 2 and sent them on their way.  We then drove to our next exchange.  I fell asleep during the ride and woke up when we got to the park where we would start our next leg.  Most people said they were sleeping in the car, but I knew I needed to stretch out.  I went and slept at the park with about 200 other runners.  I wish I had a picture of that sight.  Sleeping bags lined up all over the place.  It was freezing cold, but I buried into my bag, put in ear plugs and didn’t know what was happening until my team mate woke me up at 4:00 to get ready to go.  I was thrilled with my 4 hours of good sleep.

My next run started around 6:30 a.m.  I was diddle daddling in the car and Jenny had to wait for me at the exchange point.

You can’t tell, but that is me starting out. 7 miles on a dirt road.  It got light and warm really fast.  It was a good run.  I could tell I was a bit run down, but not too bad.  I think I “killed” 2 people on this leg.

Ahhhh I am done.  Pretty good running for not training for the race.

Nice feeling.  I actually wanted to run another 3-4 later in the day, but our car was done.  We met up with the other van for awhile and then drove to the resort which was the finish line.  Every time I got out of the car it was an ordeal, stiff legs!  I got to go take a shower in one of the rooms since I was getting on a plane in a few hours.  Boy did that feel good!

Our whole team crossed the finish line together once van 2 got there.  32 hours and 11 minutes, we came in 104 out of over 400 teams.  Pretty good if you ask me.

Here we all are.

My van. Me, Harrison, Steve, Jenny, Janet and David.  Good times with people I didn’t know before it started.

I then went to the airport and flew home, kind of nice.  Loved the race, can’t wait to do another one!

CRAZY

In a nutshell. 2 1/2 weeks ago a friend asked me if I would fill in for someone on their Las Vegas Ragnar team.  Ahhhh I have always wanted to do a Ragnar, well not always, just in the last 2 years.  So I spent a week debating it back and forth.  Yes, I really want to.  No, I should stay home and fulfill my Mom responsibilities.  Yes, I can go.  No, I shouldn’t.  Back and forth until I set a deadline and at the appointed hour called Jenny and Said, YES.  No turning back.  Crash trained for running my 3 back to back legs.  A few nights ago they changed my leg of the race and I am running 6.4 miles, 3.1 (in the middle of the night) and 7.0.  I am not very confident about that last run, but I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!

Several people have commented that I am getting a reputation as a runner.  Actually it is a reputation that I will do any crazy, unthinkable race!

So off I am headed in a few hours to St. George for some sleep and then up very early tomorrow to get to the start line.  Running for hours on end, eating whatever we have packed in the car, NO real sleep (this part makes me cry, I can’t think about it).  Finishing the race at Red Rock casino in Vegas.  Maybe I will get lucky and win a million dollars at the end!

*Side note.  I came home from the team meeting Monday night and told Bryan a few people were flying home from the race.  In my mind I was thinking, lucky people, but who would pay that last minute price?  Bryan would.  He said it was worth any price to get me home safer.  Ahhh isn’t that nice.  So I will be flying home Saturday night.

**Extra side note.  This is the 2nd year in a row that I will be in Vegas on my BFF’s birthday.  One of the reason’s I was debating not going.  So I am soooooooo sorry Tiffany.  Have a fabulous day and we will celebrate next week, even though you don’t like celebrating after the date.  Well for your birthday I think you are O.K. with it.

Wish me luck and I will report next week!

I know, I know

I talk about Jonah A LOT.  Almost as much as the weather.  I just have to record these cute things.  I was debating which errands to run the other day and he said, “I prolly wanna go to Woss (Ross) today”. 

I LOVE jammies like these.  They are so stinkin cute.  We went to the Children’s Place last week (love that store and their cheap cheap prices), he picked out some car jammies like these.  He carried them around the whole store and after the girl rang them up he wanted to carry them out.

He likes music a lot.  He loves going to nursery at church and singing.  He loves listening to the radio in the car.  His favorite songs right now are, “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz.  He loves this song.  Anytime is comes on the radio in the car, which is about every time we get in the car, he gets the biggest grin.  He can sing along to the whole song.  “Misery” by Maroon 5 is also big on the list.  He can sing it, but his favorite thing to do is hum it around the house.  The newest song is “Magic” by B.o.B. he had to teach me which song it was that he liked so much.  Every morning Brandon and Jacob play these 3 songs over and over and I go around singing them all day.

He is pretty much super cute.

No more naps

I have waited a few weeks to see if it is true, and it is.  Jonah is no longer taking consistent naps.  It is not a good thing for me, kind of like the worst thing ever.  Two weeks ago I put him down for his nap, no different than any other day.  He started crying and soon was throwing up (from crying).  O.K. no nap that day.  Then it was the weekend and he fell asleep in the car, wherever we were.  Next regular day, I put him down and after about a half an hour he cries for a minute and then throws up.  OK I am done cleaning up throw up.  So now he falls asleep if we get in the car after 4:00 and on days like today where he is so so so tired he fell asleep in the car at noon, thank goodness, he had cried and whined all morning.

I say it is such a bad thing, but it does have it’s perks.  I can now go somewhere at lunch without worrying about his nap.  I can run errands at 1:00 in the afternoon.  I don’t have to do everything I want to do outside of my home before noon. 

I know I know, he is almost 3 1/2, it is time. 

Last week he was really tired one day so I tried to have him take a nap.  Everything went well for a little while and then he came downstairs to me crying.  I picked him up and a tear fell on my shoulder.  He looked at it and said, “Sorry I spilled my cry on you”.  Is that not the cutest thing?  Needless to say, he did not have to go back up to bed.

Dear Lauren

I miss you.  It is like I moved to another state or something.  I still stalk you and know when you are home, but that is not very often.  Why are you working two jobs now?????  How is school going?  I CANNOT believe it has been 2 years.  We need to fix this problem.

Love you.

Fall

Some people LOVE this time of year.  I do like some aspects of fall.  Once I have accepted the fact that summer is really over, I can always hope it will be back next week though, I can appreciate certain parts of it.  The leaves are very pretty.  The cooler weather is O.K. I guess if you are working outside.

Other than that I don’t really care for it.  Days like today put me in a blah mood.  I can’t bare the thought of putting on long pants, long sleeve shirts and socks.  Kind of makes me claustrophobic.   The dark mornings and dark early evenings make me want to scream.

I do love the changing seasons though.  I wouldn’t want it any other way.  You know me, unless it is 95+ degrees, I am probably complaining about the weather.  Even though I don’t do that anymore.