5K Race

Today started way to early for me. I raced a 5K today on 4 1/2 hrs of sleep no less.. And i am exhausted... To hear more about the race go here.

The weather at least held out for the race so I was grateull for that. Austin wasnt so fortunate today. We got to his game this afternoon and just as he was getting on the field to play his championship tournament game it started to pour and thunder and lightning. Needless to say the game was cancelled. We even had a tornado warning come across the radio so alot of excitement today. Fortunalty we saw no signs of tornado... I had several orders to do for my diecut store so I got to working on them when we got home I was hoping to get them done, blog about my exciting day running and have time tonight to relax and veg after the day but most of the night has already flown by and I am so pooped. It will be an early retire tonight.

At least I can now officially say I have ran a certified 5k race.. And hopefully this fall maybe a half marathon. 6 months ago I never would have thought I would ever say that. Coming to New Jersey I have found a new love that maybe I would have never found had we not came here. but I still cant wait to come home... LOL

Well thats all I can muster up to say. What a day.....

Memorial Weekend

It was a great weekend. Saturday we all went in and got our hair done. Jessie chopped hers off a bit. Allie added a couple strips of red to her bangs that they were adding into my hair so they let her have a couple for free, Austin and steve got theirs cut as well.

I didnt get my long run that i was planning on doing since we spent 3 1/2 hrs at the salon. I did get to go get me some running shoes though so that was fun..

Sunday after church we left for Hershey PA where were were meeting up with some good friends of ours from santaquin UT, They have a son who served a mission in PA and was having a reunion so they decided to come up for that and go see some sites so we hooked up with them on monday and went to the Hershey Amusement park. It was really fun. It's like a disneyland but better. We only got to see about 1/4th of the park though because there is so much to do. You really need at least 2 days if not 3 to get it all in. But we enjoyed the day. We got to go over to the chocolate factory where they make all the hersheys chocolate bars and hersheys choc syrup and do the tour there and see how they make chocolate. It was pretty interesting. And it smelled so yuuummmmyyy!!!! The Kids got to take part in a little make your own chocolate thing so they had fun and of course we couldnt leave without buying up half the store. We walked out with $50.00 worth of chocolate. Just what I need!!! But it is sooooo goood....

I couldn't find my camera until the very end so I didnt get any good picts but i did get a couple of the hill side and one group one.. It was a great weekend.. I wish we could have spent some more time with the green family. It was hard to say goodbye to them again. It made us miss home terribly... The kids dont go back to school until thursday which is so crazy i wish they could go back sooner and get out of school earlier. They dont get out until the 20th of june.. So crazy here... Anyways That was our weekend.

No Fridays Feast today Chef is on vacation... Man I am worn out today...went to bed to late well i should say too early this morning and then my kids dont understand the whole concept of sleeping in on no school days.. So i was up at 700... I got my run in and then spent most of the rest of my day mowing our huge 1 acre + yard. It was fun though to be the first one to try out our new toy... Its almost like being at an amusement park. Took a little getting used to. The picture is something similar to what we bought... But there was still quite a bit of this going on too where the riding mower couldnt go.. There is just no way you could mow our lawn without a riding mower and not have it take all day long to get done...

I think the no sleep and running and being out in the sun all day has just wiped me out.. I am glad it is the weekend though. It looks like its going to be a nice one...

I am so excited we have some good friends of ours from utah staying in PA this weekend and we are going to meet up with them on monday and go to a place called Hershey Park. It's a big amusement park like something similar to lagoon and disneyland. They have the big factory there where they make the hershey's chocolate and a zoo and a huge water park all inside this place so it sounds like it will be alot of fun.. We are going to go stay in a hotel sunday night then come back monday after we are done.. It's about a 2 1/2 - 3 hr drive I think from where we live. It will be great to see them again. They have a son who served his mission in PA and they are going back for a reunion. well lots to do between now and then so I'm off...

Staying Young

WE all need to read this one over and over until it becomes part of who we are! I need to be reminded often.

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Try everything twice. On Madams tombstone (of Whelan's and Madam) she said she wanted this epitaph: Tried everything twice...loved it both times!

2. Keep only cheerful friends.
The grouches pull you down. (keep this in mind if you are one of those grouches;)

3. Keep learning : Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain get idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's!

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. And if you have a friend who makes you laugh, spend lots and lots of time with HIM/HER.

6. The tears happen: Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. LIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love: Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity. I love you!!
11. Forgive now those who made you cry. You might not get a second time.

Lost time can never be found.

Oh what a day..

Wow what a day.. Most of it I have blogged on my other site check it here..

I had a great run today. I'm feeling great except for a couple rashes on my arms and some sore feet. 2 of my kids allie the oldest who is 11 and jessie who is 6 rode their bikes along side of me today while I ran and I cant believe how aesome they were. They rode the whole 10.25 miles with me... I think they will sleep like logs tonight... Allie is already complaining about her butt being sore. I told her wait until tomorrow. LOL They were troopers.

My son didnt fare so well today. While I was out on my run he was using a saw to cut some branches (why did he have a saw when he is only 9?? Good question!! I asked my husband the same thing..) Anyways the saw slipped and went right through his thumb and through his nail. It was pretty deep and the one end probably could have used stitches but the rest was through his nail so they probably couldnt have done anything with that so we just tried to bandage it up tight to keep it closed and hopefully it will heal ok. Then he had a baseball game tonight and he tried playing the best he could with his thumb but ended up opening it up again so we had to re bandage it. It was pretty gross. then he got hit with the ball right in the back of his knee. He cried and steve kept saying your ok walk it off. take one for the team.. Aaarrggghh he is not a teenager he is still my little boy and if he wants to cry because he is in pain then by all means!!!!!!!!!!!!!! who cares..... LOL Poor little guy.. But he walked it off just in time to jab his other knee into something sharp and hard Im not sure what it was but it cut him across his other knee and left a good size black bruise across it and because it was right across the knee cap it was really tender and probably hurts the worst then any of his other injurys today.. I just felt bad for him.. We loaded him up with advil tonight to help with all the aches and pains and sent him to bed.. I dont think Ill hear a sound out of any of my kids tonight... And I probably wouldnt hear them if they did because i am pretty exhausted myself after running the 10.25 miles today.

Steve attempted to clean up some of our jungle outside. We have weeds that are like trees in our back yard. They stand taller then we are. The people who own this house planted just tons of bushes and tree's and flowers and groundcover all over this yard and because of all the rain it gets here they are just growing like mad. Its hard to tell the diffrence between all the ground cover foilage and the weeds. It's crazy. I dont think we will ever get caught up with it.. Plus our grass is 3 feet tall right now and we tried buying a riding lawn mower because there is no way we can do it with our little push mower we have at least an acre if not more of grass. We had a yard landscaping group mowing it every week but then they stopped because they found out they were not supposed to be doing it anymore since we moved in. So now its up to us. But we have had bad luck in getting our new riding lawn mower here so I attempted to go do it with our mower the other day and all I had was 1 1/2 hr before I had to go somewhere and I got 2 strips around the edge of the front lawn and the strips between the sidewalk and road that run along the front and side of our property.. Thats it for 1 1/2 hrs... Pathetic.. Then it rained all day yesterday so i couldnt finish it and then steve was going to do it with the new mower today but found out it had some damage to the front of it so we had to rearrange for the 3rd time for Sears to deliver us a new one. So maybe come monday we will finally finish mowing our lawn. By then it will be 3 ft tall.

Thats about all we accomplished today. Im dead so i'm off to bed...

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
What is the nearest big city to your home?

New York

Soup
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how well do you keep secrets?

Oh I would say 8-9. my husband is such a great example for me, when he served in the bishopric at times I would try and get him to tell me things and he wouldnt budge..

Salad
Describe your hair (color, texture, length).

Brown with blonde and burgandy highlights in it. Straight and down to the middle of my chest.

Main Course
What kind of driver are you? Courteous? Aggressive? Slow?

Most of the time I am curteous but I dont have alot of patients with idiot drivers and I yell out things to my self and anyone in my car. Things that are not the best for my kids to hear. No swearing but calling people dumb idiots or morons is probably not to great..

Dessert
When was the last time you had a really bad week?

Oh I would say it had to be back in October. I really cant say why other then I was under the most stress i have ever been in, and we also found out we were going to be moving out here to NJ. It was a time when I really felt like why am I being punished and why can we not seem to get a break from what was happening. and what was the purpose to why we had to go through this.

Well today is a rainy gray dreary day, but I plan to make it more fun tonight with my girls.. Going to go get a movie and pop popcorn and have a fun time while the boys are out to go see a movie. This weekend was supposed to be the father and sons campout but because of the weather it has been cancelled. Austin is so depressed and upset. He didnt get to go with steve last year either because steve was traveling all the time, so he was really looking forward to going this year bless his little heart... But steve is going to take him out for a movie tonight and I think they are going to go see Ironman... They need some good father to son bonding..

Happy Friday to everyone........

Time is Flying

Wow here it is Tuesday already... My life is so busy lately that it just seems to be flying by at times... Well it's official i finally got our vacation scheduled. For valentine's day steve gave me a week timeshare stay that a co worker was not using so she gave it to him to use. however we can only get the time off in june to go so by the time we got things rolled over so we could book it alot of the places were not available. We were thinking we were going to go to hawaii but there wasnt much left in hawaii to choose from that looked decent so we found one at Grand Cayman Island that we booked. It looks pretty nice and we are going to go learn to scuba dive while we are there. There is a place called sting ray bay that they take divers out to and let them dive down and swim with the sting rays and touch and hold them. Also there is supposed to be a sunken ship they let you go explore so sounds like it should be fun..... Just to get away from my kids for a week will be heaven.... Is that horrible of me to say? It has just been so crazy here with all the fighting and bickering and the crazy schedules that my life is like a whirl wind and I just never have enough time in the day to get everything done and my kids just are driving me up the wall... I am just in need of some serious sleep and relaxation. A little R&R... Cant wait!!!

My parents are also coming in June the week before and we are going to go to upstate New york and see some of the historical sites and run into the city and see the statue of liberty and the empire state building and ground zero. Then try to head to philly and see some of the things over there like the liberty bell.. And if we can manage to fit washington in we would like to go see the smithsonian and some of the monuments over there as well, however I dont think with the cayman island trip that second week we will have enough time to fit it all in... I think I will need a vacation after my vacation with all the going we are going to be doing... LOL But i am excited it will be a fun month....

I got some exciting news today from a doctor i went to follow up with on my knee.. He said I could still run as long as I can do it without hurting.. That I need to build up slowly and take it easy and with some physical therapy to get my muscle stimulated and working again that it should help alot with the pain and I should be able to get back into running. So that made my day.. It's funny how there can be such a diffrence of opinion between diffrent doctors. But as long as one told me I could I am going for it.. Of course i already was... LOL for more details check out my running blog..

Well guess I better go still have things to do and its already 10:00 pm.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
When someone smiles at you, do you smile back?

Always!!

Soup
Describe the flooring in your home. Do you have carpet, hardwood, vinyl, a mix?

Well in the current home we are renting it has carpet and tile.

Salad
Write a sentence with only 5 words, but all of the words have to start with the first letter of your first name.

Roger Rabbit rarely reads roadmaps
Main Course
Do you know anyone whose life has been touched by adoption?

Yes our good friends from utah who just came and visited a couple weeks ago that was steve's counter partner in this company..

Dessert
Name 2 blue things.

The sky and the ocean.
- - -

Busy Week

It has been a crazy week. We have just been running from one thing to another and i just havn't had the time to get on here. Last night we went to Austin's baseball game and they played a really good game. So far they have won all but the first game. Austin got to play catcher and Sat he will try pitching so he is excited.

Well we finally convinced Allie to cut her hair short. She has really fine thin hair that just doesnt grow and she got a perm in it at christmas time to help give it some body while she tried to grow it out but the perm was just about out and not looking good so we knew we would either need to straighten it re perm it or cut it. She has such a long face with her long thin body so we really thought she would look alot better if she went short. We have been trying to convince her of this for a couple years now but you know how girls exspecially at the age of 11 and 12 are really getting into appearance and changes and having long hair. I just think that she will never be able to have long pretty hair like she would like. She just doesnt have the hair.. So I found a web site that allows you to upload a picture of yourself and try on diffrent hair styles so i picked several short cuts on her and showed her the picts and it kinda got her excited so we went in and cut it all off on monday. I think it really shows her face and eyes off alot. Made her face look fuller and not so drawn out. They cut a little too much off on the top and her bangs. It didnt quite look like the picture but hopefully in a month or so it will be about right. And at least this way its easy to do and she doesnt have to comb out the snarles and cry.. my girls have extremely tender heads so they just hate to have me comb their hair. Jessie wants to cutt off all hers as well just for that sole purpose but there is no way we will let her. She has such beautiful thick long hair. Well it used to be long until she kept playing barber shop with the scissors and cut off all her hair and logans. It was down to her butt and now it is just past the shoulders after a year of growing it back out. This was her at age 2

And after her haircut attept.. I cant imaging how long it would have been if we didnt have to cut it.

Austin had a 3rd grade choir concert on tues we went to and he did a great job. They sang some pretty difficult songs for being 3rd graders. They sang one song that was all in swahili... It has been fun hearing him practice at home. He has always liked singing. I will never forget when he was 3 or 4 and we went to temple square at christmas time to see the lights and as we were walking around he was singing at the top of his lungs the spirit of god like a fire is burning. He knew all the words to the first verse and he was just singing away. We had some senior missionarys stop us and say how cute that was and told him to keep singing and that he would make a great missionary some day. It was cute....

Anyways I am glad that tomorrow is friday however it's probably going to be the most busiest of days for us. I have a mothers tea party to go to in the morning with jessie at her school and she is so excited. She has to wear a dress and look neat she says and has to have her hair look nice and neat. Then go pick up logan. Just to get home in time for the air and heating guys come do some repair work on our heater. Then i have to run to the store to get food for a dinner that I am taking to a family in our ward who just had a cecerean birth. Then its get Austin to karate at 5 and pick up the babysitter at 6:30. Then its off on a dinner date with my husband while the kids get their first babysitter since moving here.. Yeah i am so excited.. Finally a date night.......We have only been here 5 months its about time we go out!!! LOL Another crazy run day...

Have a wonderful Mother's day weekend to all the mothers out there.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
What was your favorite cartoon when you were a child?

I think I would have to say Tom and Jerry

Soup
Pretend you are about to get a new pet. Which animal would you pick, and what would you name it?

Oh my kids would probably talk me into another kitten. We had to give ours away when we moved so they are really missing her. we would probably name her Tinkerbell.

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy getting all dressed up for a special occasion?

I love to get dressed up for special occasions, because that means I am actually going out somewhere!!!!!!!! LOL. It rarely happens.......
Main Course
What kind of music do you listen to while you drive?

oh variety. It depends on the mood I am in. Usually its pop but now and then I like country or easy light music.

Dessert
When was the last time you bought a clock? And in which room did you put it?

I just bought a clock last saturday to go in my computer room..