Pull weeds.

Pull weeds.

It made a very big pile.

So

Now what do I do with it?

Anyone filming a Western next month? I will have plenty of tumbleweed for the set.

Fill in my running resume.

Fill in my running resume.

I've completed dozens of 5Ks and one marathon in my lifetime but never any distances in-between so I thought this year it was finally time to change that.

Now let's stop right here and so that I don't give the wrong impression that I am a super-good runner who really has a resume, let's point out here I'm saying "completed" and not "competed in" because I am embarassingly-slow long-distance runner, am not competition to anyone, and have plans to apply for no actual running job. Just so that's clear. Don't make me any offers.

So before I was a Mom, I used to be motivated to run races by a bunch of petty things like t-shirts and medals and ambition and pride but I no longer collect any of that, so I'm pretty sure the motivation now is just the weekend getaways that running races more than two hours from home require. Luckily, some of my friends are also willing to run a 1/2 marathon as payment for a night away too so that's what we did.

So here is the run down of our slumber party, er, I mean half marathon!

Four of us cruised in high-class style up to Logan in Amy's natural gas Civic. Here we are filling up at the specialty gas station. Well, Amy is trying to fill up while I mock and take pictures. (This could have been a separate post because Jake is thinking of buying one of these status symbols too):

How does this work again? Hmm. Hmm? Hmm. Hmm!

It's working!

Oh wait, it's not, I have to pay first.


How do you pay?

Ok, NOW it's working! No, it really is! This is not another premature thumbs up! No, really, look, it's filled up $3!


Ericka was very scared while she watched in the car.

Sure it took us 20 minutes to figure out how the pump worked but what's a little pride when you can drive 8 hours on $6 of gas?

We then met up with more friends for the all-important carbo-load dinner. This is another major selling point to the whole race charade.

We then took over the basement of Amy's super-cute grandparents. I was a little surprised that a slumber party can turn you instantly into a bunch of 13-year old giggling girls but that it did. I think it was also a coping mechanism for awkwardly sharing a full-sized bed with your 30-year old neighbor. So is taking a picture of it:

We then woke up super-early the next morning and met up with two other bras from our "6 Bras and 6 Supporters" team and rode the bus for like 4 hours from the finish line to the starting line. OK maybe it was like 20 minutes but it felt like 4 hours when you know you're going to run it back. 13 miles is a long way!

Riding the bus:

Here are the four bras at the start. This run is soooo pretty! And mostly downhill. So awesome:

And here we are at the end!

My friend Liz ran it too and I saw her and her cute baby Hank at the finish line to cheer her on! OK well she finished it way before me so technically they weren't at the finish line any more they were like on their way out to their car but same thing.

There is a full marathon on the same course that runs down the same canyon and through the cutest little mountain towns next month. It's going to be fall foilage! So many of my favorite things--so tempting! Any takers?

Finish the Twilight Series.

Finish the Twilight Series.

Me and my friends went down to der Wal-Mart last week . . .

And waited at midnight with hundreds of other crazies for the fourth and (hopefully) final book in the Twilight series. We did not wear our prom dresses with the overly-obsessive high school girls. That's not to say I wouldn't have if I hadn't planned more carefully...

800 pages in 2 days. Darn you Stephenie Meyer and your literary cocaine!

Get into a routine.

Get into a routine.

The last 6 years have been glorious.

Sadly, those days are now over. That's right, people, I have to set my alarm clock again.

I stretched it out as long as I could by putting Taylor in afternoon kindergarten last year but first grade started last month and I'm afraid for the next 14 years--there's no going back.

We said goodbye to our days of luxurious lazy mornings with a "Mermaid and Pirate Treasure Party" to celebrate the kids' birthdays on our last weekend of freedom. I wish I had thought to take pictures of the kids sifting through a sand-filled plastic pool for buried treasure but here is a photo of some of Chase's booty.

I did get this photo of the pirates after the party:

After a treasure map hunt, a seaweed wrap relay, dress-up, presents and cake, the summer was officially over. And it was sitll July. Cruel, this year-round school, isn't it?

Also ending after 6 years is Taylor's tolerance of my obsessive picture-taking. She refused to pose for a first day of first grade photo so I had to be tricky and tell her I was taking Chase's picture. Then I placed Chase right in front of her so I could get her in the background. Sneaky, Sneaky!

Making it even harder to get out of bed in the morning, I hurt my back helping move a playset into our yard that we bought from the neighbors. The monster took ten people to relocate. Here is a picture of Jake's family moving the little piece:

Here is a picture of the whole thing. I couldn't even get it all in the picture but it is very big. And very, very heavy.

Because of a lingering guilt over the kids' stolen summer, I let them have a taste of those carefree months tonight. Literally. The ice cream man came into the circle and I couldn't say no.

This is Chase's before picture:

Aaaaaaand the after picture:

Taylor was still opposed to photographs so this was the best I could get from her (lucky for me the ice cream had an uncanny resemblence) :

But ice cream can do a lot of things for one's spirit and it wasn't long before she was smiling for the camera along with all the other neighbor kids:

Goodbye sweet summer and sleepy mornings. It was a good ride my friends.

Visit Tennessee.

Visit Tennessee.

After four years away from the homeland since my last visit, I was due for a trip back. So, last week I took the kids out to visit the grandparents for ten days in Tennessee. Jake stayed home. He was amazingly still alive when I returned, only slightly skinnier (if you can imagine) from almost two weeks of not eating.

After so much time away and so many new roots being planted here in Utah, I wondered if it would feel the same as it used to when I returned to the south--that feeling of returning "home". And even though so much has changed since I lived there--my parents live in a new house, the school district tore down my high school and rebuilt a new fancy one in its place, there's new subdivisions and shopping centers everywhere you turn--it was an unmistakable of feeling returning to and rediscovering--well, a part of me.

Ok enough for the serious stuff. It was also hilarious to remember the great quirkiness of The South (yes it needs to be capatilized). Within 24 hours I had seen a sign in the front yard of a small backwoods home advertising the "Paternity Testing" business they conducted there, the back of a minivan decorated with car paint the phrase "Jesus Saves" with a Bible verse quoted beneath it, and a grown man with a t-shirt from his "Rebel Cockfighting" tournament. Awesome. Oh, and let's not forget the Nathan Bedford Forest giant (seriously giant) gold statue monument some guy put up on his property which conveniently is on the only tree-cleared patch on the side of the I-65. Nice.

I was able to meet up with my good friend from high school, Kristin, who has since moved back to Franklin with her husband (no fair). We snuck into an open door of the new high school one evening and reminisced, despite the fact the only remaining part of the original school we attended was one of the gyms and the track and football field. We did find two old track trophies I helped win. It was good to see there was at least SOME evidence I went there. I was surprised I didn't have my own giant gold monument outside the school but, whatever. The two of us then went downtown and had dinner and cruised the square. Only once because it's now against the law.

The rest of the week was spent entertaining the kids and hangin' out in the country with my parents and I wouldn't have had it any other way. It was beautiful, relaxing, and --especially out on the patio watching the sunset and listening to the incredible late-night thunderstorms--incredibly cathartic.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of photos I took from the week. And I still need to get the hundreds of photos my Mom took of the week.

Taylor walking the two family bassett hounds up the long driveway. The kids and the dogs were best buds before the end of day one.

Water gun fights in the backyard.

Such pretty scenery!

Craft time at Nana's Day Camp.

Washing the berries after a berry-picking expedition!

A visit to the Nashville Zoo.
The zoo was fun but in the end, Nana's house had just as many new animals to watch than the zoo did!

Entertaining the dogs.

A bird nest at kid-eye level being built on the patio. Each morning there was a new egg inside!

Toads in the garage.

Lizards on the porch.

Catching butterflies in jars.

And bunnies everywhere! (Pops spared us witnessing what the reason for the pellet gun in his office). We didn't even get photos of the wild turkey, deer, horses, cows, or fireflies!

Taylor's 6th birthday was our last day there and we celebrated by dinner at Chuck E Cheese and cake and presents at home. The kids also had a few great nights with Pops while Nana and I went shopping.

We had a great time and the kids keep telling me how much they liked Tennessee. But---the tell-tale sign they really did enjoy themselves? Chase cried all the way from waving good bye at security until we got on the plane because he missed Nana and Pops already.

Run the Wasatch Back.

Our team. Minus one who was running.


Run the Wasatch Back.

This past weekend me and my awesome team of 11 other friends from the 'hood ran this 180.2-mile, 30-hour relay from Logan to Park City. Everyone runs about 6 miles-- three times--in the dead heat of day and deep freeze of night--without sleep. Sounds crazy so you can only imagine how fun it was because 7000 other runners took on this bad boy! And our team already signed on again for next year!

Team Name: 6 Bras and 6 Supporters
Team Slogan: "Holdin' nothing--and everything--back"

Here are some pics of our team running:

7 miles on a dusty dirt road. I have never seen such scenic places as we ran through!


Waiting--worried-- for our runner to cheer him on. He was running 8.5 miles down a knee-jarring hill on a sprained ankle!


Go Amy! Headlamps and reflective vests required for runs through the middle of nowhere in the mountains in the middle of the night. Cougar repellant optional.

I'll post the video when it's done. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Back up Photos.

Back up Photos.

It has been a super-busy month but in a good way--lots of fun trips around town with the kids and such. Here are some of the 1000+ photos from the month I need to transfer from my camera and then back up along with thousands of others waiting to disappear when my computer crashes.

The Zoo

Chase with his head in the gator's mouth and Taylor's cute feet on the snout.


I love this sequence of events:



(And what you can't see is he is holding a napkin in the other hand).


The kids reading the map of the zoo and showing me the way. I loved it. I loved even more that I conveniently forgot the wagon and they walked the whole way--shockingly with minimal complaint.


Taylor up close and personal with the white alligator.


Oh yeah, this is the second of the two trips to the zoo last month and its intended purpose was to research her animal for a school report: the penguin. Here is a photo of her drawing she did for it, which she cut out and I hung on the fridge. I was super-impressed with her talent. She did it completely by herself:


Field Day

Tug-of--War: Girls vs Boys


Look at that long jump form. She's gonna be a track star!


We found the cutest pair of Nike running shoes at Ross and she broke them in at field day. She loves them so much she asks me every day to go on a run with her. She's faster than me so it's a little embarassing when we pass by neighbors but I love it nonetheless.

And here are a couple more left over on my camera:

Easter excitement.


The story of our Spring 2008:

Hot one day, cold the next.

Which reminds me:

Taylor learned to ride her bike!


Oh and here is a picture of the cute neighbor boy running a lemonade scam, I mean stand, where he tried to charge $1.55 for a half-cup of lemonade. While it was practically snowing. Chase was on cup number 4 and lost half his life savings before I caught on and stopped the charade.


Today was Taylor's last day of Kindergarten and they had the sweetest little end-of-the year program. She's no longer a Kindergartener! I only almost-cried.





That's it! Lots of cold weather and rain getting us through the first week of June. Global warming? I don't buy it.