She is Famous

I refer to my BFF often, but I probably have never spotlighted her enough.  When we were in high school she would talk about how she would one day write a book and be on Oprah.  She is well on her way with this dream, except for the part about Oprah….I guess she better pick another talk show to be on.

Tiffany is a board member, author, trainer, planner and I don’t know what else for

http://powerofmoms.com/ (I wish I knew how to make their little symbol here instead of this link, that would be way more impressive)

She has a wonderful blog that gets a lot of attention

http://ourmostofthetimehappyfamily.blogspot.com/ (I must ask her how to do the little HERE mark that links to a site)

Her half birthday tradition was featured on a very popular blog this past weekend

http://blogs.babble.com/kid-scoop/2012/02/04/half-birthdays/

She has had several articles published in print for the Deseret News.  She has been published on sites that I don’t even know what they are.

And of course she is often published on ksl.com, but the home FRONT PAGE??????

 http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=18011902&nid=1010&title=my-story-after-tragedy-you-really-can-laugh-again

Just in case there is anyone in the world who knows me and I didn’t already tell you to read the article about me!  We laughed and laughed and are still laughing about us being on the home page of the most visited website in Utah. 

I take it for granted that I have such an amazing BFF.  For the past 21 1/2 years we have been right by each others side (I am sure many people got sick of seeing us together in college), we see each other about 2 times a week on average and talk at least every other day (except for on weekends, only if it is a special occasion), we are VERY different and VERY the same at the same time.  We have 3 children who are the same age and best friends themselves. 

Yes, I am blessed in many ways.  She is one of my greatest.

Stop Drop and Roll, Meet me at ZCMI, ROR always!

Beating January

Ways to make January go by faster:

Go to lots of Jazz games….went to 5, done.

Spend many hours either on the phone or sitting on the couch talking to Tiffany…..done.

Pretend like I am as good of a cook as My Foster and assist her at a cooking class…..done.

Go to St. George and run a half marathon…..already know that is done.

Go to wedding receptions, dinner at Nana’s, have friends over for dinner…..done.

Watch Brandon and Jacob play in several Jr. Jazz and deacons ball games…..done.

Remember my baby James on his day and try to explain to Jonah that he has another brother……done, and of course he doesn’t understand.

Spend a week taking care of sick Jonah, a day of sick Brandon, a day of sick Jacob and now a sick me…..done.

And even though we have had a very mild winter and the sun has been shining I still need a warm vacation!

St. George Half Marathon

Call me crazy, but I love to race.  And by race I mean run at my slow pace and finish.  I decided in about September that this half would be a perfect event to be working towards during the winter.  I was right, it was great to work towards.  My brother Chris was going to run it with me, but he partially tore his ACL so he was out.  No big deal to me, I like running alone.  I can run whatever pace I want at any time and not have to keep up with someone or slow down for them.

I hadn’t run a half in over 2 years so I didn’t know how I would do.  I set a goal to finish in 2 hours and 24 minutes.  I knew that was realistic.  I had been running a lot, but only officially started to train 5 weeks before the race.  I really like going on long races and getting ready for something like this.

So the weekend arrived.  Bryan, the boys and I headed to sunny St. George.  We stayed with our favorite Bingham’s.  They are so fabulous and have a great place to stay.   They have a few dogs with them and the boys LOVED following them around.  They tried to bring one of them home with us.  All Jacob wanted to do while we were there was sit at the bar and talk to Heidi, I don’t blame him.  It was really cute.  We love and miss them.

Well the morning of the race I woke up to see that it was raining pretty hard.  I layered up (even though I was looking forward to running without layers!) and Bryan took me to the race.  I debated back and forth about whether to wear my rain jacket or not.  I finally kept it on and was glad I did.

It drizzled for the first 3 miles or so and then pretty much stopped.  There were several rolling hills and I just kept trudging up them and tried to take advantage of the down hills.  Luckily I learned from Whitney to lengthen my stride while running down and just let my body follow.  I use to tense up on down hills, anyways that helped.  When I hit the 6 mile mark I was right at 1 hour, which meant I was running 10 min. miles.  Feeling good!  There was one semi difficult hill, but I just kept at it.  I hit the 10 mile mark at 1 hour 41 min.  Still staying  on track.  About this point I started to lose steam and the rain started back up (I actually think we ran out of the rain system and then back into it).  I didn’t look at my watch to see how I was doing because I didn’t want to get discouraged.  I just kept on going and going.  At one mile to go I cheered and the rain got harder and harder.  As I neared the finish line I had so much water in my eyes I worried I would trip.

There is something about nearing the finish line of a half for me.  I can’t breathe, not from exhaustion, but from emotion.  My throat swells up, this mingled with rain pouring off my face made quite the sight.  As soon as I saw Bryan and the boys I could breathe again and cheer.  I crossed the line at 2 hours 14 minutes!  I was so happy and proud of myself.  That was a 10:15 min mile average.  I was glad I hadn’t lost too much ground on those last few miles when I was run down.

Ah I get excited just thinking about it.  Such a great time.  I didn’t get to enjoy the finish line events because I was so wet and cold, and so was my family.  I guess I better do another one soon!

The rest of the day was cool and rainy, but we still enjoyed our little get away.  I made up for all the calories burned by eating lots of really good Mexican food and anything else I could get my hands on!  We got to visit with James, Kristin and Annie on Sunday which was so fun. 

Who would have ever though I would be a “runner”?

I can sew?!!!

I learned how to sew, in a very basic sense, when I was younger.  I took Home Ec. class and I think made a skirt.  I probably sewed a thing or two in 4-H club.  My Mom really knew how to sew and so I watched her a bit, but really I don’t know how to sew.  I would like to know how, which is why I wanted a new sewing machine (my Mom’s very old one that I inherited quit working this year).  I was very excited when Bryan got me one for Christmas.

A few days after Christmas I had the opportunity to volunteer to sew some book bags for a service project.  I was very excited to volunteer for this and get my new machine up and running.  Someone dropped off 3 bags for me to sew with the instructions to sew a “french seam” along the edges and that it should take me about 30-40 minutes to do each bag.  I suddenly wasn’t so confident in my sewing abilities, I had never heard the term “french seam”.  Thank goodness for the internet, I googled it and soon was watching a YouTube video on how to sew one.  I would watch the step on the video, press pause and do it myself.  Not too hard at all.

The first bag I completed in 2 1/2 hours, yes you read that right, 2 1/2 hours!  Now I knew what I was doing so the next should go much quicker, oh it did, it only took 2 hours!  I could barely stand the thought of starting the third yesterday, but I did.  That last one only took 1 hour 15 minutes!!, but if you add in the hour of sewing both sides on the wrong side and then having to un pick them, it equals more like 2 hours and 15 minutes.  So a project that could have taken me under 2 hours ended up taking 7-8 hours.  I am no longer confident in my abilities to sew anything I want to, but I won’t give up.

3 beautiful bags

It only added to my discouragement when my BFF’s 13 year old daughter texted me a picture of a skirt she had just made out of an old pair of levis!  Maybe I can learn from her.

And Christmas 2011

What a day!  It was wonderful, a little disjointed, but great.  We woke up to Jacob’s air horn sounding.  We had to wake up Jonah as usual, everyone was so excited!!!!

Anxiously awaiting….

Looks like Santa came……

All he wanted……

A compound bow and things…..

Shoes and every sports ball made……

Very cool, homemade race track Brandon made for Jonah…I don’t know which of them was more excited about it.

Break from opening to get ready and go to church.  I LOVED going to church on Christmas.  I wish we did every year, just not at 9:00 a.m.  We had a wonderful meeting and it was so fun to get to wish so many that I love a Merry Christmas.

Back home to pajamas and unwrapping.

His always gift to me….

Sewing machine, Cuisinart ice cream maker, new pans, several shirts, dance central 2!!!!!, and a laptop…..I was completely shocked.

Super fun day for everyone.  Some of my family members came over during the course of the day….not every could be here at the same time.  We don’t do anything formal, eat whatever we find, do puzzles, watch movies and just relax.  I loved it.

And now I am enjoying the best week of the year with no schedule, no places to be and no reason to ever get dressed!

Christmas Eve 2011

Fantastic, of course.  Christmas Eve was a little different this year, Jen wanted to host it at her house and I gladly obliged.  There are pros and cons to doing it at my house and away.  I still had to work like crazy all day…OK mainly because I was not ready for Christmas (I never am) and I had to run 9 miles.   Christmas Eve day was so fun for Brandon and Jacob because they spent the day with Ryan and Brandon Beck.  They washed and vacuumed their cars with them and seriously could not stop talking about how much fun they had. 

The night was great.  We missed having Judi with us, she was with her Dad who died that night.  The rest of us had such a great time together, we always do!

Blurry action shot that Brandon took.

Maybe someone will send me the pictures they took and so people can actually be seen!

I can’t find where Picasa went on my computer so I am not going to be able to collage these pics!

I love being with my family on Christmas Eve. 

Pre Christmas

I started a new tradition, on December 22 I told everyone we were having a family sleepover around the Christmas tree.  It had to be the one in the living room because the family room is WAY too cold to sleep in.  The boys were all very excited.  They decided to set up a TV and playstation in there and play is all night long.  I let them do whatever they wanted.  They started playing at about 9:00 and by 9:30 they were all asleep, that is why I can let them do whatever they want at night!

Even Bryan joined us,  he usually doesn’t want to sleep anywhere except his bed.

The 23rd we had the Sowby family over for breakfast.  We try to have dinner or breakfast with them each year before Christmas, it sometimes happens and sometimes doesn’t.  We enjoyed waffles and being able to spend time together.  The kids exchanged gifts and the adults exchanged laughs (oh that just sounds magical).

Fun, pre Christmas events.