Change

It seems like just a few months ago I was having these nightmares dreams about getting a new calling in the Relief Society Homemaking. I would wake up and tell myself that it was not going to happen. Our Relief Society President knew that I had a job that would only let me attend "homemaking" meetings for one more year.

Well I have officially been sustained as the Relief Society Meeting Committee Chairman...or whatever they call it.

Now stay with me here.
I am also serving as:
*Stake Women's Sports Director (gearing up for our busy season)
*Valiant 8 Primary Teacher (teaching every week)

And I work full-time.

Doran and I decided that there was no way I could do it all. I accepted the new calling if they released me from something else. So they will be releasing me in a couple of weeks after our Primary Sacrament Program. With the next week being the Brigham City Temple Dedication and the week after that is the Sacrament Program, I taught my last primary lesson yesterday.

Now for the fun part!

HELP!! Send me all your ideas!!
I would really like to make this fun!

When I was teaching the primary there were only a few children I had to please and entertain.
Now I will have MANY women with MANY different personalities and needs. We all know I will not be able to please them all but I can't wait to get to meet more sisters in the ward!!

Now where did I put my multi-tasking hat??

(Will someone please let me know why I have advertisments above my blog and why job and work is linked to something? I did not put them there.)

2012 Top of Utah Half Marathon

Here we go again!!!

I can't believe we are actually going to run another half.

Back to back.

This is SO not us.

But since last week's race was a spontaneous one and this one is a planned one, well....

I decided the night before that this is a

FUN RUN!

not a RACE

The wheels on the bus go round and round.

Dawn (my gym buddy) rode over to Logan with us and we caught the bus at O'dark-thirty.

I have crazy, wonderful, supporting, helpful friends!!

Susette (the running fool) was going to run this and I was hoping to run with her but knew that she has more stamina than me so we would see what happened.

Dawn was still uncertain a few days before the race whether she was going to do it or not.

She has been on the injured list and was just getting back to training. She hasn't even hit her double digits yet. Well she DID decide to run AND she said she would run with me.

Jen and I decided that we would run together also. She is faster than I am but she was going to help pace me because she has a FULL-trail Marathon the next week.

See....CRAZY friends but I am so grateful for them!!

Potty breaks all done and freezing before the RUN starts...wait...Susette is off "inspecting bushes".

We have now made it to the cattle corral starting line.

Ready...Set....GO!!

If you look real close between the pacer and the pink girl on the left you can see Doran in red.

Susette got was smart enough to be on the correct side of the road to get her mug shot.

I really don't know what I would have done without Jen and Dawn right by my side the WHOLE way!!!

They stayed with me, encouraged me and coached me.

Neighbor hood trouble friends

(Cheryl, Josh, Heather, Heather, Jen, Robert, Jody, Doran, Dawn, Jodi)

At the end we talked to my idol, Julia McCabe.  She's 81.  They had to create an age category just for her last year.  She started running at the age of 40, ran her first marathon at the age of 49, and has run over 140 marathons.  As she says, "it's never too late to start."  Seriously cool lady.  I want to be like her someday.

Doran 1:54:25

Jody 2:13:35

I LOVE this time together!!

Have a Lovely Day!

What kind of friend are you?

I sometimes always complain that I don't have friends.

Let me rephrase that. I DO have friends just not many that I can call and say let's go do something.

I used to feel like I was the one doing the calling.

Then I would see my friends out with their other friends but I wouldn't get invited.

What is wrong with this picture?

I would think to myself....If I wanted to have a friend, I would want to have me as a friend.

I'm genuine, I'm honest, I love people. I try really hard to see the good in others (of course I am not perfect). So what is wrong with me that I am not included?

Well no matter. I have the very most special BEST FRIEND in the whole wide world and I am lucky enough to be married to him.

But a girl DOES need friends.

Over the years I can say that I have few special friends. I will share a few with you today.

No we might not go to lunch or the movies and all that stuff but we do click
(not in the clicky sort of way).

Long time friend:

Audrey and I would mourn with one another.

We would share our heart breaks over our children.

We would rejoice in their accomplishments.

We would cheer each other on in our own lives.

We wouldn't see each other for awhile but pick right back up to where we left off.

Sister friend:

Joni is my most "soul" friend.

She is the sister I never had.

She so understands me before I even speak.

She is such a great confidant and dependable.

She makes me laugh with her quick wit.

We now live miles apart but she is closest to my heart!

She sends me cards like this and asks "Which one do you want to be?"

Laugh my guts out!

Pre-existence friend:

Susette and I knew each other in the pre-existence.

The moment we met we became fast friends.

Since I lost my dad she has been the one to laugh at my jokes.

She accepts me the way I am.

She even speaks the same "lango" that I speak.

Look-up-to-friend:

Jenny lives across the country from me.

I have never met her but she is such an inspiration to me.

She is so talented and creative.

She is so caring and I hope to meet her someday.

She sends me cards and she hasn't even MET me!

                                                                                   

So what kind of friend am I?

What can I do to let others know that I care about them?

Well, I will work on it this week because when you don't have sisters....

A girl NEEDS friends!!

Porter's Half Marathon

Friday night Doran and I drove to Draper to pick up our race packets and see if we could find the route we would be running on. We found most of it before we headed down to Susette's.

She had a yummy pasketti dinner for us and then we changed and went to a wedding reception in Provo. Doran's cousin Gordon had his son James Marble got married that day so we had a nice visit with some of his cousins at the reception. We didn't make it back to Susette's until late and she was already in bed so I hopped on her bed and visited like we were in high school.

Thanks for the visit Wart!

We got up at the crack of o'dark thirty and headed to Draper. Susette left a few minutes before us because she is crazy wanted to get FOUR miles in before the race so she could stay up on her marathon training.

Susette had made a cute sign that she wore on her back. It had a picture of HER Porter and a note to say she was running in behalf of him. Wish I would have thunk of that, I could have wore one too!

That is really why she signed up for this race....the name Porter's Half.

Anyway...

We did it!

The Porter Half Marathon began at Little Cottonwood Canyon.

It had some major downhills close to the first (almost too steep for our liking) but they made the few uphills seem not bad at all.

I forgot my watch therefore I could not pace myself. Great! My biggest fear was to get caught up in the race and not keep my turtle pace so I could make it. So I just tried to go with what felt good and not worry about people passing me.

Dad left us in uh...less than 30 seconds so Susette and I ran together for awhile.

When we got to the downhills she went screaming down them (literally scream) while I tried to focus on not landing on my heels and taking it easy on the quads.

Then when we get to an uphill I go on ahead.

I am not even sure when we got separated.

I am pretty sure I went too fast because when I got to mile 9 I was tired. I started walking way too much and I couldn't get motivated for anything!!

It wasn't long after this that I heard

"MOMMA!!! MOMMA!!!"

That's when I knew Susette was behind me.

I was so hoping I could hook on to her belt and she would drag me the rest of the way.

Nope, she left me in her dust!

However daddy did come back for me when I had one more mile to go.
Thanks daddy and Susette!
And thanks for all the text messages!!

I wish I didn't always look like such a drown rat afterwards.
Maybe if I quit dumping water on my head eh?

I didn't finish as good as I wanted but I did beat my "worst case scenario".

Doran got 5th in his age at 1:53:44

Jody 2:16:19

Susette 2:14:39

And these are our FREE shirts!!

Oh and because we stayed for the awards (by then lots of people had left) we got some gifts!

Each of us got a jacket. Susette got a pen. I got some glasses and Doran got some cleaning stuff. Yep, it was worth it to hang around a bit. Besides the treats were WONDERFUL!!

Now...where were we when we got interrupted by the Porter Half Marathon?

Oh ya, training for the Top of Utah Half Marathon coming up THIS Saturday.

Do dreams affect your ATTITUDE?

They do mine. I have been getting a little worried instead of excited to run the Porter's Half Marathon on Saturday.  Mainly because my knee and hip have been giving me fits for the last couple of days. Then my foot on my other side started tweaking. Is it all in my head?

We have no clue where it is. We don't know what the route is like other than the first part is down hill.

I was up all night tossing and turning and dreaming about all that would and could go wrong. Therefore, I was up all night with a negative attitude. I woke up with a negative attitude and sore body. This should be happening the night before a race not TWO nights before.

Well I'm gonna DO IT!

My attitude for all day Friday will be positive and I will try to vision myself running gliding down the shady road with wind in my hair (behind me of course to give me that little push) and a smile on my face and a bounce in my step run with JUST Doran and not with 299 other people.

Who cares if they pass me...ok I might.

Who cares if I am last...ok I might.

But by golly I want to do my best and if I don't win the GOLD medal at least I want to finish standing up with NO pain in my legs and feet (because I have get to do it again next Saturday with the Top of Utah Half) all while running in my new shoes. Is that too much to hope for?

I have been icing knee and hip.
Stretching legs and feet.
Eating junk.
Staying hydrated.
Training except for 3 miles on Wednesday.

Just remember to focus on my OWN pace!

Please say some extra prayers for us.
Doran I don't worry about, he is a stud. I kind of wish he would run right with me but I want him to do his best so I am sending him on his way at the crack of the gun.

Ready...

Set...

Don't Speak

Don't speak...in this case, don't type.

I got online yesterday to see when the online registration closed for Porter's Half Marathon.

Well shuckie darn it closed Sunday night at midnight.

But I opened my mouth....

I told Susette it was closed but if there was a way that we could still sign up....we would.

DON'T SPEAK!!

After an email I found out that they were going to open the registration ONE. MORE. DAY.

You guessed it, I signed us up.

What have I DONE???

Doran didn't find out until he got home from work last night.

He was wondering what I was thinking and to be honest....I was too.

So we were sticking to our training schedule and yesterday was THREE miles.

So we went up and tried a new route which was pretty good however Doran was staying with my pace and I went a little too fast in the beginning. My quads were still sore from Saturday's run. I wore myself out before I even hit 2 miles but we finished our 3 miles in 28 minutes.

I now have sore quads, and my right knee hurts.

I went walking this morning with my mom. We made it almost 3 miles but I am SORE.

I need to get some stretching and rolling on the foam roller and somehow refresh my legs.

Oh and I tried my new shoes out yesterday. Worked like a charm! No sore toes! Well at least on my left foot.