You snooze you lose!

I went for a long time not writing in my blog and now the posts I have no one sees evidently because no one has commented. Sorry family, been so busy even my mom hadn't heard from me in several weeks! Nothing personal.

MA Convention in Miami FL

Some of you know I went to the Market America Convention in Miami last week. It was a blast, met lots of great people in our group. Melanie Nelson made a video of all of us in the group on various days, thought I'd share. http://sharing.theflip.com/session/f6c3b4a565ddc09e9cc73d73dd01dffd/video/10343985

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Christmas in Colorado

OK don't die of shock, I'm actually writing in my blog! Not to be entirely outdone by my sisters, of course I always am ha ha... here are a few of the lovely family pictures that Robin took of our family at Christmas time- Thanks Rob!

I love the winter pictures! Although it was pretty cold-pictures went much faster and the kids cooperated much better because they wanted to go back inside.

Wasatch Back Ragnar Veteran!

Just before my 3rd run wearing my very own official Ragnar "Runner" shirt

What an amazing experience! You honestly don't really understand what it is like until you experience it. Our team ran the 188 miles in 28 hours 43 minutes. I personally ran 3 hours of that and 13 of the miles... on 3 hours of sleep. I ran 3 legs each between 4 and 5 miles. The first leg was in the heat through the gorgeous farmland of Eden (seriously that was what the town is called). My next leg was between 1:30am and 2:30am up Hogback Summit from East Canyon State Park. It was a fabulous run with clear starry skies and a cool breeze, quiet and almost peaceful except for the cars driving by and the fact that the uphill seemed to stretch on forever! My last leg was 4.6 miles and was completed in the driving rain with lots of friendly runners with a smile and a wave of encouragement as they passed me by.

This is Creighton on his first run at dusk (all runners have to wear the reflector vest and blinking red light on their back and a headlamp between 8pm and 7am). This was the same run he did last year -only I got to be there to see him come in :)

Everyone had to run up some form of a mountain, summit etc. Some had long runs 7 to 9.6 miles for instance, or short 3.6 miles (straight up a mountain)This is our friend Doug Phillips who ran the 3.6 mile precurser to the actual "Ragnar" leg. It is hard to tell from the picture but his entire leg was a steep 7.6% grade. It was very physically challeging even for a good runner like Doug! Aaron ran the "Ragnar" leg and did it with 10min miles, and 24 kills! Incredible!

The elements conspired to give us the ultimate experience and extremes-- it was perfect! Just before Craig began his/our team's final leg he was saying to himself... please let the rain stop,please please please. So the rain stopped, the sun came out; however, the minute we all crossed the finish line together it began to pour again. So we hurried and got our picture taken and ran to our cars. I don't have a finish line picture yet except the official one which I assume will post in a couple of days.

This is an example of what a relay exchange looked like. Runners standing around waiting to take off on their run. Spectators, teammates waiting to cheer their runner in... orange tape and orange cones to designate the exchange area. Cars driving by on their way to the next exchange or following their runners Exchanges could be just as fun as the time in the vehicles there was always an air of excitement, people bragging about their "kills" (the number of runners they had passed on their runs), looking for teams that our van was keeping pace with to see if we'd gained any time on them. Looking at all the crazy decorating on the vehicles! Ours was pretty tame compared to some- sorry no pictures.

This is Natanya Nielsen, my neighbor and wife of our team captain Aaron, she was our secret weapon! She did sports massage for everyone in both vans for the entire 24 hours. She was also the only other female in the van with me so I was so glad she was along. She got even less sleep than the rest of us.

This is Doug and Aaron chatting about Doug's 9 miler. Time in the vans was spent talking about the highlights of the just finished run, joking about kills, laughing at the funny slogans and decorating on the other vehicles and cheering any and all runners on as we passed, sleeping (although never very well), snacking and listening to the sage advise of more experienced runners ahem... Aaron.

This is Ryan he was the youngest member of our team at 14. He did great!

This gorgeous view was from the car on the leg for which the Ragnar is famous... it is a view of the valley of Midway from the dirt road that goes over the mountain and drops down into Deer Valley. Notice how green everything is this year thanks to all the rain!

Well here's to all the insane people who took part in this amazing race! I now know why it is so addicting, why everyone can't wait to do it again! It is, as I said, an experience to be experienced!

Warp 9 Woman- first 5k of many!

I have been hibernating from my blog because I have been so busy working on my 90 day goal that I started on Dec. 15. So for the past 90 days I've been working toward my goal of running a 5k and on Saturday I finally ran that 5k! This is my official race number on a slimmer me :) I've actually lost 30 lbs in the process of preparing for my race. It was verrrry cold, so I wore my sweatshirt the entire time I ran. I really thought I'd be taking it off so I had my number pinned to my shirt. Oh well, next time I'll know- before April 1 you will be wearing the sweatshirt the entire time!My 90 day goal was part of a great program Craig and I have participated in the last 90 days called Outlook. As part of the program I had 2 buddies who I talked to daily and those great ladies were there to cheer me on the day of the race. Love ya Jules and Sally you rock! Doug who is one of the facilitators is in the back left corner and he and my running mentor Ashli Roberts actually ran the race with me. About a week before my race I got my first official runner's injury and so I ran my race with a knee brace. But even with the brace on I still improved my time by 4 minutes!Of course Craig and the kids were there to cheer me on. I love that my little girls race around the house now until they are breathing hard saying they are 'exercising'. And Emmalee's favorite game on the Wii fit is the running- she runs around the couch and kitchen breathing hard- it is so cute. Guess its rubbed off a bit on them also! Mom and Dad were in town for my race and made it just in time to see me cross the finish line. Dad was behind the camera and somehow I didn't get a single picture with them in it. Thanks for the support and love mom and dad!

Jules gave me a trophy with my super hero name on it- Warp 9 Woman.

It has been a wonderful 90 day adventure and I'm already planning my next 90 days with monthly 5ks and the Wasatch Back Ragnar June 19-20, not to mention more 'incredible shrinking woman'. More to come!

Holiday Blues!

The holidays are over and I didn't take a single picture! I'm going to have to kidnap Marilyn's camera because she took tons! Does anyone else get the blues when the holidays are over? I love all the decorations and the pretty lights, I hate having to put it all away in Jan. Last year the Christmas village was out until March... He he he. One advantage of having lots and lots of snow, the yard lights won't be coming down very soon, they look so pretty in the snow and under the snow. The extra lights on the houses help to light our very dark cul de sac also. I'm definately going to petition for a street light to be put in, it is a little worrisome. Sorry this is a boring, pictureless post. I'll make that my new years resolution to take more pictures!

The Living Planet Aquarium

Friday, the kids and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. The building is a supermaket or something of that size that has been converted for the aquarium. I was extremely impressed that they repurposed the building so ingeniously. Anyway, its about the price of a movie and your ticket is good the entire day $6 kids, $8 adultsThey have a hands on area that the kids can touch a manta ray (sp?), They also have starfish, and other various creatures that the kids can touch and experience different textures.Emily calls these the"freaking jellyfish" (because she was freaking out watching them! and her brothers thought it was hilarious) I personally thought they were kind of creepy myself, you watch them too long and anyone would get a little squeamish!Notice the 12 year old controlling the computer game, the 6 and 3 year old's rapt attention and the teenager making faces!This display made it seem like the kids were actually piloting a boat out onto the Great Salt Lake.This was part of the man made coral reef that the kids could climb on and under. The kids had fun, we laughed alot at the funny antics of the tropical fish etc. They all said they'd like to go back, that usually means they had a good time.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful day, Craig and Birdie came to our house for the Thanksgiving feast and we sat down at the table by 2:10 (I had everything scheduled to be done by 2:00) I was excited that my schedule worked- Birdie has a finite amount of time that her strength/endurance to be up and about lasts so it worked out perfectly. The turkey came out perfect, it was so tender the leg bones came out as we were moving it to the platter. Creighton made a quick run to the grocery store and brought me back some Thanksgiving flowers (he knows I live for flowers). We had 3 different kinds of pie for dessert, but the lemon cream cheese was the hitWe still don't have any diningroom chairs, so we used the kitchen chairs again this year

Creighton put some Big Band music on as we were sitting together after dinner-Birdie and Erie used to dance with us at their house to many of the songs that he had on his MP3 player. Birdie was doing a little quick step as she and Craig were leaving and so the kids got the idea to dance . Anyway, we have this funny tradition as a family to dance after movies (the closing credit music) so the kids started dancing together in the livingroom, it was darling. Creighton grabbed me and was dancing in the entryway, until I had to get pictures of the kids because they were so cute.Paris read her "Thanksgiving books" to me after dinner, that she had made at school for just such an occasion. After the girls were in bed, Creighton, Connor, Zachary and I all watched Hancock on the diningroom wall (you can see the huge blank wall behind Creighton in the first picture) with the projector. I love it that I have my own personal big screen for movies! Who care if we have to wait for full dark to watch. (too much light in the livingroom). That's the projector above my head -you can just barely see it. The dresser has taken up permanent residence behind this couch until we get the tv room downstairs finished, so we can have movie nights!

My little cheerleaders

Emma and Paris were cheerleaders for Halloween, sorry I am so behind, but today these pictures reminded me that they are my cheerleaders. They always greet me at the door with a cheer and a smile. I love yous always follow. So here's to My Cheerleaders because every mom needs a good cheersquad to remind them to stay in the game.

I can hardly wait!

I once again visited the Twilight site to see if any new pictures had been posted, here's a new one I found as well as the newest trailer. http://www.comcast.net/data/fan/html/popup.html?launchpoint=Search&repeat_search_query=twilight%20movie&v=898304730

The Harry Potter sites are still showing the old trailer;however, I found this new trailer, check it out:
http://www.comcast.net/movies/reelnews/1433/firstlooknewharrypottertrailer/ The Britains have an awesome trailer out right now for Harry Potter, much better than the teaser they've had out before. Twilight's new trailer is also verrry yummy! If you are a fan and haven't seen the trailers out check out the addresses above.

Playoff Update

The boys played their hearts out but we lost, 41 to 7. The season is over for the Spartans. I have to say that for a first year team who had never played together before, who was expected to be bottom of the barrel in performance this year-the Spartans really showed them! They lost only 3 games out of 10 and only to the hardest teams. Good job boys, and thank you coaches. Because we have no high school yet, we had no high school coach so all of our coaches were volunteers coaching against regular hs coaches. They did an exceptional job with the boys and their dedication is to be commended. They coached in their free time after work, on weekends and in the early morning so that these boys could have the best experience possible and prepare them for next year. It is because of their dedication that we will have a good Varsity team next year in a brand new high school. Hats off to the coaches: Coach Parker, Coach Bates, Coach Martin, Coach Canfield and (the one whose name I can never remember:? the Coach with one artificial leg (seriously, he only has one leg).
So the football saga comes to an end.
Phew, I'm not going to miss all the time involved! But I will miss the fun and camraderie.

Playoffs begin

We woke up this morning to the poster and balloons on our front porch. I guess the cheerleaders were pretty busy this morning. I immediately woke Connor up, he is soo funny, you could tell he was pleased but he was trying to stay cool. Ha ha Today is the first playoff game at 4:00pm in Pleasant Grove.

Basement Bathroom #1 Progress

We've been slowly working on the 3/4 of our basement that remain unfinished. The electrician came two weeks ago and basicly rewired the unfinished rooms with separate switches and plugs, night lights in the hallway (which he left for me to install), and the washer and dryer plugs for the laundry room downstairs, etc. Anyway, this past weekend Dad and Mom came for Zach's birthday and ordination and Dad helped us get a cast iron tub in and put up the green board for the walls. We have a room! Thanks Dad, you were just the push we needed to keep going. Today, which is also Emmalee's birthday, I had the plumber here to finish the toliet, sink and shower valve. The travertine tile went in last night, and he came back this evening to finish the grout. I was working on the wainscot for the wall behind the toliet and sink, it isn't quite finished because we need to finish the mudding and taping this weekend before I put the top molding on. Progressss! We have a working toilet in the basement!