Party Central

We have had a party-ful Christmas week. It has been really fun.

Wyatt in Playmobile heaven




Yeah, these are some of Coopers legos that Cade put together for him. It was actually pretty complicated, Cade did a good job.



Of course we had the Christmas eve and Day get togethers, then Saturday we had a DeRusha mexican food lunch party. It was really fun. Bri and I cooked all the enchiladas and rice, I think we did a fabulous job! My sisters and I sang a cool arrangement of Silent Night for everybody, and my Aunt Del and my 2 cute cousins came over for a little while which was fun to catch up with them.

2 of my Cute sisters

Grandmas always bring the coolest presents!

This hook board is what my dad made me for Christmas. It is a real pieceof distressed barn siding. Mark put it up in the hallway by the laundry room for the kids to put their backpacks and jackets on after school. I covered the magnet board with fabric and will use it to help us be more organized on school days. YAY! Soon hopefully it will have a bench underneath it with cubbies for shoes.

My sister Bri was so sweet to set up her massage table and give all the kids real massages. It was a real treat for them. Then after we opened our awesome presents and ate dessert some of us adults went to see Valkyrie. Then my dad was so nice to take Cade and Dayton to Thatcher with him for the week. It Dayton was so excited to be a big kid and go without mommy on a trip. He really insisted that he would be fine and not miss me too much or cry. It has been so wierd without the little DeetDog around here. It has been cool to see Wyatt and Cooper spend some nice peaceful time together too.

Dayton all packed up and ready to hit the road with Grandpa. Fun times!

Sunday night we had Marks cousin Scottie and his wife over with their 2 cute little guys, Jones and Maine. I got to give Jones his first hair cut. We are so excited for them to move to AZ in the spring.

I've been working a lot too on top of it all, thank goodness. I will be really looking forward to New Years Eve and the rest of the week up at my parents where I don't have to do very many chores :D


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Movie Review-Despereaux,7 pounds and Valkyrie

Tis the season for great movies!! We have started a new tradition of taking the kids to a show on Christmas eve. It gives us something to look forward to, and it gives the kids a welcome distraction on the looooongest day of the year! And I get a chance to relax on a day that would be easy for me to work way too hard. This years choice was the Tale of Despereaux. It was really cute. I loved the little mouse faces. The humans reminded me of the people from the Last Unicorn movie. It was good. Cade said is was completely different from the book. He's read it 4 times so he should know. He thought it was good though.

At some point we went and saw 7 pounds. I seriously cannot remember what day that was. But either way, it was really good too. It was one of those where the first 20 minutes or so I was thinking "OK, this all better make sense later on because I am totally lost right now". Luckily, it certainly does all come together in the end. It was a very quiet movie, Mark thought it had some boring parts, but it was certainbly worth getting through. Bring Kleenex. Lots of Kleenex. I kept crying after the movie. I guess I was really invested in it.


Tonight my parents and 2 of my sisters and BIL and I went to Valkyrie. I liked it, it was kind of depressing though. It was also very suspenseful, especially for a story that we already know the ultimate outcome. I'd heard poor reviews for Tom Cruise but I thought he was fine. I wish they hadn't used the f word, seriously, did they even say that in those days in Germany?? I don't think so. There was nothing else in it, although a little violent. Sad. But still good and engrossing.

Movies coming up that I am looking forward to, Defiance and Wolverine. I will be looking forward to droooooling over Hugh Jackman. He so yummy and MANly. Leiv Shreiber is no slouch either and he is in both of them.

And I am watching Sleepless in Seattle right now, how great is that movie?? I just love it. LOVE it.

More Christmas posts coming soon :D We still are not done partying!

Awwwwww, its over :(

Another Christmas come and gone. We had such a fun time. Everybody loved thier presents, the food turned out good (except my rolls, dang it. stupid yeast) and it was pretty peaceful. Of course the kids were totally wired and spazzy but I got through it. Mark did have to work all evening, which was terrible but we survived it. He was home before midnight and spent all of Christmas day at home so it was good. We all got nerf guns and had a big nerf war Christmas morning and then since it was raining Cade had some of his friends over (who had nerf guns) and had another nerf war. My house was totally demolished!! It was fun though. My MIL put together one of Coopers Lego star wars ships and the little boys were busy all day making martians with Martian Matter. Sadie got bedding for her room and a cell phone so she was busy and played at the neighbors house for most of the day. I got the biggest present of all, a LAPTOP! This is my first laptop post!! Itwill be so nice now I won't have to go upstairs to the office to log on, I can just have it here downstairs and with me. The best part is that it has a DVD burner which our desktop did not have, so now I can download all the video I've been filming on little disks all year. And I love that I can transfer over everything that I want and have it all organized and backed up. Oh boy I am going to be busy on this thing. Now I can ignore my kids while I watch TV and play on the computer, instead of just ignoring them up in the office. There are all sorts of bad habits to start up now!! LOL just kidding.

Cooper taking a break from Lego making

Making Martians with the neighbors

Daytons Jungle playset from Santa

Christmas Eve Jammies. The Robes were a huge hit!

We still have one more big Christmas party to do here on Saturday, all my side of the family with an aunt and some cousins I haven't seen in a long time so that will be really fun. Plus my sister is here from HI who I haven't seen yet so it will be a fun party. Luckily my parents are having that catered so I'm off the hook there! :D I have to add that the kids were SO sweet and conciencious about always remembering Jesus and his birthday all the time we were celebrating the last few days. It was really cute and I was so proud of them!

I hope everyone had as wonderful a Christmas as we had! I'll post more pictures soon.

Merry Christmas!

It's Vacation!

We have been so busy doing fun things. The kids had fun the last 2 days of school. and I am so glad to have a break from the early morning wake-up calls.










Wyatt made a silly sock for his class. This is what a silly sock looks like when mom forgets about it until 8 pm the night before. Whoops! He loved it anyway. It had lots of glitter.




There is more candy on the plate that on the house, but hey. I don't even want to think about how much candy my children have consumed this week.

Daytons Kindergarten concert was really cute. And I was bummed to realize that this gym is just as bad as any other gym for picture lighting. I did the best I could with it. :D He was so cute but he got sick of singing the last song. I dont blame him, it kind of went on and on. So cute though. Don't you just love that worried look where they come out and are searching the crowd for mom or dad and then they finally see us (in the front row!) and the look of relief and the cute smile? Its so precious!

Friday afternoon I took all the kids shopping for Marks presents. They were so excited and it really wore me out. I very rarely take them all anywhere with me by myself. All together they are very draining. I needed a nap by the time we got home, desperately. So I took one and geared up for shopping phase II where Mark and I took them all to Walmart to get little gifts for the ones they drew names for. As Wyatt and I were walking to the car to put his present in he informed me that he loves Christmas so much and this is his favorite part (buying a secret gift for Sadie)Awwwww.

Friday night we went to the ultimate Christmas light house. The guy and his wife know my MIL through work. We even got to go inside and see the Santa collection they have. Holy cow it was amazing. So many big and small gorgeous Santas. I've never seen any house that crazy decked out. He sits out in front of his house giving out candy canes and taking toy requests. That was fun.

Then we drove around my MIL's neighborhood because it has 3 streets of really good lights. One person even had a movie projector in their yard playing the Grinch. Its a really good light neighborhood.



We were totally exhausted so we all went home and crashed. Then this morning Cade and Mark went to play flag football with the Elders quorum. They had so much fun.......until I get the call that Cade broke his arm. Bummer, dude! He was tough about it and its not too bad of a break but it will still need a cast. I really feel for him because it puts all of his awesome plans to play guitar and violin all break up in Thatcher on the backburner. He might be able to play a little by next week some time, it will just be a small cast, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.






I think his new nickname will be X-ray boy. :D So after all of this put me behind a few extra hours, I had to bag out on the Ward Christmas Party, which looked super fun but I didn't want to leave X-ray boy home alone, I didn't feel like showering and getting all ready and I got nothing done around the house today so I'm behind schedule for next week now. Gotta get crackin now!

Weekend festivites wrapup

I had such a fun weekend! Thursday I had a progressive dinner for enrichment and it was really fun. I met a lot of new people and ate some yummy mexican food. Then when I got home I was surprised to see Mark there, he had gotten the night off! (he had already worked a lot of hours for the week, so they sent him home. That is both good and bad. ) so since we had a good nights rest, Friday we were able to go finish up the Christmas shopping for the kids. I feel so lucky and blessed that we were able to do that! Friday night ended up being a little crazier ( well a lot crazier) I let Cade have a sleepover and ended up with the brother and the sister as well! It was a lot of kids and they stayed up pretty late, but I think they all had fun. Cade misses his friend Cole. Since all of the TV's were in use I used the time to clean up the house and then I got to wrapping. I ran out of boxes and tags but I managed to finish. It took me until almost 2am to get everything done and cleaned up and decide what to put out and what to keep back. The kids are loving having presents under the tree, I hate it. Mark insists on puting some out though. I'm sure they've guessed what half of them are by now.

Saturday morning I killed everybody with chores and then Sadie had her last Sunshine Generation performance. My MIL came to that, and I took Sadie out for some Panda Express. I need Chinese food like I need another hole in the head but it sure was YUMMY. We ran errands and then I got to go to a FABulous ugly sweater /white elephant Christmas party. I wore a borrowed classic beaded sweater, but some people came in some truly hideous get ups. There was tons of great food and we had a blast. I was the only single person there, but it turned out OK and the kids didn't kill each other while I was gone. I really had a lot of fun, thanks you guys!!!

Sunday was just really typical, our choir sang and I think we did pretty good. We might of fallen apart in a place or 2 (unless that was just me....LOL)but the songs were really really hard and for the most part we sounded great. The primary was awesome! They did us proud. After church Cade and I had a practice for playing prelude with a little group for next week, I am so grateful for the opportunity for him. And I think I may have found him some direction with his violin playing. I'm so excited!!

So thats it. Now its a new week, new things to get done, and I'm hoping to just bust it all out in the first couple days and the coast through the holiday. We still need to make the rounds with the kids to all of the different lights and do the baking, mailing cards, that sort of thing. Calm, low key and peaceful is the theme for the week. I hope it is the same for you too!

I'll put it all on my to do list, OK?

I've seen people do this, but I never knew how they did it! Too funny!!... What Janel Needs (according to Google, to do this for yourself type in "your name needs" )

Janel needs to be coached a different way than other kids need to be coached.

Janel needs to be a bella. (does this mean I get Edward??)

Janel needs the ID numbers of those who helped at the Badger Game

Janel needs a nap!!!!!

Janel needs a better left hand, or at least a better one than she's shown in the games I've seen

Janel needs to go and eat some pie. it might calm her crazy mind down.

Janel needs to lighten up.

Janel needs an attitude adjustment-- MAJORLY!!!!

JANEL NEEDS to GET a LiFE!

Janel needs a good cockpunching (I hope they are referring to roosters.....! LOL)

And last but not least….. Janel needs to be a hell of a lot More fit to compete In the WNBA.

Gee, how did google know all of this?? LOL

Post #500!!!

I've been in a real blogging slump lately, I'm not sure why. I realized the other day that I had 499 posts, and I guess I felt like # 500 should be something really special, but nothing comes to mind, So it gets to be a regular old catch up post. :D

We had a fun weekend. Mark had a wierd schedule so he was hanging with us all day saturday and that was fun. Friday night Sadie performed at Rockin R Ranch and then Saturday at the Queen creek park festival (I don't even know what it was for) but she did SO good! I was so proud of her!!!! I finally figured out why I can't put the videos on the computer, it records onto disks and we don't have a dvd burner! So dumb. She has one more performance on Saturday at the new library and I will try to get her solo with my regular camera.

Saturday night was our middle aged mommies (Over 30, OK???LOL) party and ornament exchange. It was so fun to get to know more of the ladies, we really do have some fun people. The ornament exchange was fun, I really liked what I ended up with (although I was going for the one I had brought, but it got passed 3 times really quick!) Anyway I had a chance to visit with some new friends and new hair clients!

Sunday we made cinnamon popcorn, boy was it good. I don't remember liking it as much last year, holy smokes it was yummy. I will be making more more more of that. If anyone wants some let me know I will bring/send you some. We ate that and my newfound homemade hot chocolate and watched the Christmas devotional with my MIL. It was a pretty nice evening.

Yesterday was pretty low key, and we got to go over to Chandler for miss Bailey's 5th birthday party. The kids had so much fun hanging with all the peeps from the old neighborhood and so did we! It is nice to get together with people you love. So many things are changing though, it is kinda wierd. I guess that is life, right, always changes. HUGE congrats to all the new preggos!!! I'm glad its you and not me!! LOL I'm trying to dig up an ugly sweater for Saturday :D


Today, hmmmmmm. I'm thinking today will be a good day to try making chocolate truffles. Mabye the big yummy sugar cookies too. Delish!!! I'm even toying with the idea of putting up my other tree in the family room, it just seems a bit unfestive in there at night while watching TV. We'll see how the baking goes first.

Edit: To make this post even LONGer! LOL

I had a little Christmas fun today.....Love these kind of days!



Tree lights fixed (a little jiggling, replacing 1 strand, and dispersing of plugs and some ribbon did the trick. I'm lovin it!


The stockings were hung on the staircase with care ~ wow that seems like a LOT of stockings!




MY first ever attempt at Truffles went a little bit TOO well! LOL Ohhhhh heaven!!!

16 more days!

The magic is taking a hiatus

Well after I thought I had everything under control......I don't. Cade pointed out last night the the tree lights were half out. GAH!! Only the bottom strand is working. Those are all new lights this year!! Am I seriously going to have to redo the tree and buy all MORE new lights?? Please NO!! I really hope I can get it working without a complete redo! Second blow, everyone is sick. Not terribly severe, but we are never sick so when it happpens, it stinks. Colds and sore throats. I have a bit of the throat thing but otherwise fine (not enough to get me out of working out, dang it!) but I let Sadie stay home yesterday and they are all home today. I'm going to try to take advantage of them being here and make them do lots of chores and get their hair cut. The trick is to not make it very fun to be home so that they only want to stay home from school when they are truly ill. I know, I'm diabolical. I never got any sick days or sympathy as a kid and I have now turned it onto my own children. Hey, it prepared me for being a mom! you don't get to be sick! Thats what they make DayQuil for!!!! Muahahahaha! I even making Cade go for a couple hours becuse he has 2 big tests and a whole bunch of stuff due today and Monday.

We have a pretty laid back weekend, Sadie has performances tonight and Saturday, but that is it. I'm bummed that I can't run the iron girl because Sadie is performing at noon Saturday, and theres no way I can do both. She would be so hurt if I didn't go, she sings her solo! I'd feel so guilty. :( I did run over 4 miles on wednsday, so I think I could have done all 10 miles! Boo! I will keep training for Londons Run, that one sounds fun too. On my holiday schedule today is Christmas cards/letters, so I am going to stick to that even though everything else is kind of messed up schedule wise. How many stinkin hours is it going to take to redo my tree?? Waaaaa!

Wheels are in motion!

Those big Christmas wheels have begun turning around here. I love it. I am about 75% done with Christmas shopping, which is nice. I even found that 1 really difficult gift for one of the kids on the cyber Tuesday deals, so I am really happy. Last night I got the decorating done and the tree up. The kids always want to help with the tree and it always ends bad. From now on, I am going to put it up and light it while they are gone, then they can help decorate it. They just could not be patient while I set it up and put the lights on. By the time I was half done there were ornaments from one side of the room to the other. I realize they are just SO excited, but after a few hours of begging them to leave stuff alone I had to kick them out and send them to bed. Oh well, it feels good to have it done. The tree is the same old tree I do every year, but I think this year I will add lots of ribbon or something. It needs something more.




Now I have to get the outside done with Mr. Christmas light scrooge. I usually have to promise some sort of "special favors" or bribes to get the lights on the house. All I have been hearing lately every time I casually bring it up are things like "I don't think lights go on our type of house" and "They don't make ladders big enough to get up on our house" and "someone told me we weren't supposed to do lights this year" and "call Brian Macnamara, he'll put them up for you" those kind of responses. H i l a r i o u s. Wish me luck.

EDIT: Mark went out to lunch with his cousin and when he came back he just dug right in and started putting the lights up. I think it helped that I was out cleaning out the garage. :D He even did the top layer on the 2nd floor! And he was so cheerful the whole time!! I wanted to ask what he had done with my christmas light-hating husband but I didn't even dare joke and accidentally break the spell! LOL THEN to top it off he came in the house after and hung my beautiful new station clock that my mom got me for my birthday. (I'ts been waiting so patiently since september!)


Can you see it in the background?? It looks like a Santa Clock, I LOVE it!




Thanks for offering up all the help but luckily the body snatchers came over for the morning and took care of business! LOL






He even made sure all the bulbs were pointed the right way! Now I still need to do around the doorway, but I think it looks pretty good, not too much but still festive. Its a Festivus miracle!!

Turkey day leftovers

I hope everyone had a fab Thanksgiving!! We really did. Nice stormy cool weather (instead of cranking down the AC so we can use the oven like last year). I didn't get my tree up, boo hoo but thats OK. My mom and grandma came over wed night and helped me get things ready. I helped the kids make these cute little candy/cookie turkeys:





and we had a great time just hanging out and baking pie and cinnamon rolls. I was up so stinking late that I slept right through my 5 am alarm but luckily my dad came over and made the stuffing and got the turkey in the oven on time. He really played a prank on all of us and stuffed the turkey with a game hen and then when he was carving it (I thought it was wierd that he wanted me to videotape him carving....) he was like "what's this?? Is this a baby turkey or something....what the heck....." and he's all freaking out and everyone was shrieking and out pops this little "baby turkey" it was so bizarre! So it was a crazy practical joke. For some reason he thinks I really freaked out and he just thinks its so funny and that he "got me good", but really I was just laughing, I was just so confused there for a minute like everyone else. Its like wait, no somethings not right....baby tukeys grow from eggs, they don't give birth!! LOL ANYWAY for whatever reason, the joke was targeted at me and I will never hear the end of it, but for the record, other people were way more freaked out than I was. HA!



The food was Yummo! Everyone's contributions were great. Yummy everything! I brought all the leftovers up here to Thatcher, so I won't be tempted to eat Thanksgving dinner every day for the next 4 days!!


Then as soon as we were done eating my awesome MIL took ALL the kids (even the cousins...8 kids all together) to the movie Bolt. So we had nice peace and quiet after dinner. They said the movie was really good. Then after they got back the kids all went with my sister and brother up to Thatcher. After everyone cleared out it was just Mark and I for the night. Cha-ching!! We went out to see a late show (4 Christmases-funny, but mostly the funny stuff that is on the preview) and yadda yadda yadda and we slept in till 10 am!!! ;D We spent the rest of the morning doing some Christmas shopping for the kids (we're almost done, YAY!) and then I headed up here to Thatcher. It was a nice calm drive alllllll by myself. Before I got here the kids told my mom "Its OK if my mom dosen't come, she just tells us what to do!" LOL Nice to know that I am missed! :p Tomorrow I will be helping my mom put up her Christmas stuff and hanging out. Great times!!

So.......

What are everybody's plans for this week?? We are doing the usual thing over here. I'm excited to have Thanksgiving in my new house and bigger kitchen. I didn't get any painting done though :( I got really sick and was in bed for 2 days last week! I think we will have about 23 people for dinner on Thursday. My dad is coming over to make his awesome stuffing and my mom is making her unbelievable apple pie. I love it when we are all hanging out the night before getting the stuff made ahead of time, it is my favorite 2 days of the year. It is going to be so YUMMY! I splurged this year and ordered a super fresh turkey from a meat market (that has the BEST ever steaks and meat!) so we will see if it is worth the extra money and effort. The other stuff we have had from that market has blown our minds so I have high hopes for our turkey. I am a litle nervous though because it won't have one of the pop out thermometers to say when its ready, I will have to actually use a meat thermometer. Yikes! I'm going traditional this year, no fancy stuff with the food. Last year we brined the turkey, which was really yummy but it ended up a little salty and the gravy was super salty. This year no tricks, just the basics. We eat around 12 noon, if anyone wants to join us! :D


I don't think I will be running anything this week, it will just depend. (I am still doing Iron Girl and Londons Run though!) There is the Turkey Waddle that starts at the school 2 blocks from my house that would be ideal, but I'm havng a bit of a health issue and I might need to take a week off running to fix it, plus I'm not sure what cooking stage I will be in during that time. I might still do it though if I can get everything in line early enough. On friday I am pretty sure we will be going to Thatcher to hang with my parents for the weekend. My dad built a sauna in his backyard that he wants us all to try out. Thatcher is always a good time for some R&R for me and the kids have fun so that will be cool. I LOVE this week!!!

Oh, the drama!!!

Today is a regrouping day. Yesterday I had it all going on, got my workout done, got my chores done, got all cuted up to go do some fun errands and get out of the house (I haven't really left the house this week and I was feeling a little antsy). As soon as Dayton was off to school I go out and the garage door chain was broken. So I open the door manually and go to start the car....dead battery. So another day stuck at home, this time, with no plans. I just talked myself out of being upset about it by realizing that mabye I was being watched over, and had I gone out I would have gotten in a wreck or something. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. So I shopped for fabric online and caught up on DWTS but I think all the TV and computer gave me a BAD headache. Borderline migraine, light sensitivity, nausea, the works. So from about 2:30 to 5 I was on the couch, immoble, eyeballs immoble, while the kids and the the entire neighborhood literally RAN through the house. So much for the chores being done, huh??

I finally came to and felt better around 5:30 and for some stupid reason decided it was a good night to try making a chicken pot pie, which is really easy except for the pie crust, which I obviously have yet to master. I am very hit and miss with pie crust. It took me almost an hour to get dinner in the oven. It looked really terrible, I finally gave up and literally layed the broken pieces on the top as best as I could and threw it in the over. It tasted pretty good, the crust was a little thick. Wyatt and Dayton were watching me struggle with this crust and they were calling it a cooking show. After I was about to ball it all up and reroll the 2nd crust for the 4th time Wyatt says "Oh no, we don't want to watch this show AGAIN! I'm like, neither do I, guys!!! It did actually make me laugh. And I needed every ounce of comedy I could muster to get me through the next few hours of breaking the news to poor Mark about the garage door and the car, after the week and a half of hell he's had. (he's going to "special" school for work and they have been pushing them past every mental and physical barrier they thought they had...eeek! Sorry, honey!) He got things fixed up and I was able to pamper him back to his usual self. Although my hedache flared back up a little. I haven't had a truly disastrous night like that in a loooong time, but I guess my time had come.

Today we ran 3.5 miles in 45 minutes, I feel really good about that and I'm glad I get to start a new, different day today!!!

Thanksgiving Plans

I've only mentioned on here about 500 times that Thanksgiving is my favorite. I'm so happy that I can start getting ready now. I know I don't HAVE to do all these silly projects to be ready, but I like to. I think I'm even ready to do some painting! I got my house together this morning so there are NO more excuses! If I get crackin I can be done by Thursday night, which still leaves me a week before the big day. I may even get my tree up(no other decorations though, that would be crazy) and mabye it will feel more festive this year. I think oneo f the main reasons I am ready so much faster this year is that since we just moved, I don't have the heavy cleaning I normally do. Everything just got set up a couple months ago. And I have NO yard to worry about so that isn't even on my radar. Hopefully I can get Mark to do some trimming this weekend on our pathetic bushes.

3 more sleeps until TWILIGHT!!!

Hey, you missed my pity party!

Well, my poor excercise partner Lisanne didn't miss it, I went out to run yesterday and kinda fell apart. I think I cried for the first mile. I have been super frustrated with this whole running/excercise and losing weight thing I have (not) going on. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, but like she reminded me (and I have told other people SO many times) that it IS hard to lose weight, that is why so many people don't do it. And I know I have lost some, but so slow you'd never really know it. Boo hoo! So we ran our 3 miles and I ate good all day and cleaned my house from top to bottom and took a nap and I felt better. Then today we did a Biggest Loser DVD workout that was good and fun. I'm not quitting!!! I am making myself do this, and I will like it!!! I'm going to step it up on all levels. I guess what frustrates me is that I can't just "eat better" or "exercise more", I have to be all in, killing my workouts 6 days a week and eating PERFECTLY to see even the smallest results. It is very time consuming and mind-consuming and just......HARD. But, I'm just not happy when I'm out of shape. Tomorrow will be lifting and then a big run on Saturday.

OK anyway, Sadie did perform on the Channel 3 morning news and was so cute!! She also sang her solo that they will broadcast on Christmas day sometime, I hope we can see it. She did a really good job, she is such a cutie! It was really fun going to the station, and we got some cute pictures. One of the other moms has them and will get them to me hopefully soon!


Today on the agenda, winter clothes for the kids! I think it is officially jeans and log sleeves weather, especially since they walk to school. Sadie got hers before science camp and I have some stuff from last year, but I need to fill in some gaps. Shopping is always fun times!

Its the Holidays!!!

Can you believe it?? Christmas music on the intercom in Walmart and Frys, displays everywhere, Yikes!! I really don't mind, even though this will certainly be a scaled back Christmas this year. Aw, who am I kidding, it is scaled back EVERY year!! LOL I really need to start trickling in the shopping so it won't hurt so bad. I found the movie White Christmas at Sams club the other day, I was so excited! Its my favorite and really gets me in the holiday spirit. Every year I have to try to find when it is on TV, and even then it is usually some scaled down version (they cut out the best dance scenes!) and with commercials. Now I have my own copy!! Yes, I already watched it!! :D Tomorrow is the last day of calm before I start getting things together for Thanksgiving. I have a LOT of projects to work on. A LOT.

Tomorrow (veterans day) Sadie will on TV with her Sunshine Generation singing group. Channel 3 's morning show is having the kids sing a couple of patriotic songs and then they are going to tape them singing some Christmas songs to play on Christmas day. I think Sadie will be singing a little solo for one of the Christmas songs, so that is super fun. It will be an EARLY day tomorrow. If I can find out what time they will be on I will post it. I'm excited to go to the studio and see it all happen.

This weekend Mark and I went out to watch the Rage In The Cage fights. I was actually only going so that Mark didn't have to drive over there and go all by himself. Someone we know was fighting, that was the reason we even went. We were able to meet up with Chandler and Casey and hang out with them too which was fun (Chandlers brother was fighting) and it was fun to just get out. I'm really sad that he will be back working weekends for a long time again. Dang. Bummer.

So now what??

Heres my recap.....

What does it boil down to?? Not much. I truly don't think that things are going to change THAT much. Especially not for a couple years. Like when it was the Clinton Era. Everyone knows that they are really bad as far as power hungry, immoral, and they probably did murder their way to the top.(I know Maddy is cracking up right now) OK but really the only harm they did that people can really remember is the fact that a lot of kids were exposed to some sexually graphic shenanigans going on in the White house because it was all so public and scandalous. I was a teenager then, but if I was a parent of kids my kids ages at the time I would have been freaking out. We all just thought it was funny. Yes, the economy was strong and everybody got richer, but in general our society took a big step down morally. Hmmmmm, interesting. That can't be good. ANYWAY my point is, Obama may have all these beliefs about aggressive abortion and wanting to tweak the constitution and redistribute wealth to lean us even more towards socialism, and all of this other horsecrap, but most presidents have all these high ideas, making them actually work is another story. Of course, now that the house and Senate are majority Democrat, he has more of a shot, but I don't think he can come in and just reform the country in a fowl swoop. He will have to compromise a lot. I realize that people think they are going to get a handout, and things will be more "fair" but we have an example of that. Its the Indian reservations. Yikes. If people don't work for what they get, they don't appreciate it. Easy come, easy go. I just have to have hope that there can be a happy medium, because things are obviously not working as they are. I am totally disgusted with how the Republicans have conducted themselves the last 8 years. It is all such a mess. Unfortunately this country's moral compass is shifting, and there is nothing we can do about it besides try to teach our kids and be prepared. If Obama wants to teach his daughter that if she makes a "mistake, she won't be 'punished' with a baby". Thats his perogative. I'm just glad he won't be teaching my kids. That gets to be my job. It just makes my job harder when the current I am trying to swim against gets stronger, but that dosen't mean I'm going to fail. Things are going to continue to go downhill, because these are the last days. No election is going to change that.

On the positive side, I am happy that so many people are enthusiastic about this election. It always really bothered me in the past when people just felt like "so what, I'm not even going to bother with it". That definetly hurts our country. We are Americans, if we don't care, who will? It was nice to see some energy in the whole process. I'm glad that people are happy, because just the positive energy alone will help all of us. We need some confidence back. And 102 passed, which is great news! We do still have a lot of say at the local levels, which is reassuring. Honestly, I would be a lot more bummed out had McCain won and 102 not passed, so I'm trying to see it as a positive election. I just have to keep doing my part.



THE END

Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging

Halloween and Politics

Well I think I'm over my bit of Halloween scrooginess. I'm usually way more into it than I was this year, I'm not sure what the heck happened. I was pretty bummed that I had to miss BOTH grownup costume parties, so mabye that was it. We had a really fun time while my mom was here, so that helped and Mark was able to come out with us on Halloween, which he never does so that was good too. The kids had a blast, so thats what counts.

Now on to the Political scrooginess: Warning: soapbox rant ahead!

The election and voting on the propositions have my guts in a knot today (and for the past couple weeks). I don't want to write a novel about it, but lets just say I m not thrilled with McCain at ALL, but Obama is truly scary. I'm so ticked off that McCain was so wimpy as far as not bringing up some issues about his opponent that are SO important and SO wrong. People are so concerned with little things and not looking at the big picture as far as our constitution and what this country's purpose is. People have rights and priveleges so screwed up and backwards. Everything has to be politically correct and fair all the time for everyone, and its ruining our country. Bottom line is that this country is going to hell in a handbasket, whichever candidate wins will determine how fast we get there. If 102 dosen't pass and our state takes the same road as Massachusets has with it, I'm going to have to home school or something which will be really annoying. OK I can't think about it any more its making me sick. ARG! I voted on friday. I got there at 6 am, and was 7th in line. The office opened at 8 and by the time I left at 8:15, there were about 300 people behind me. Crazy.

Mark is gone for the week(basically) and I am so bored, I'm gonna go do some errands today which will hopefully help my mood. Right now its time go get a good workout in and work off some stress. I vow to not watch ANY more news or TV until at least 5 pm tonight. I need Election Detox.

The Latest

Running Update:

So-so. Lisanne and I have been doing it, but our milage is not increasing like it should be. On Saturday I did manage to run an entire 3 mile stretch, so that was promising. I need to know WHY WHY WHY everytime I need to do a distance run it decides to kick up some 20 mph winds directly into my face?? It really makes it a lot harder. Bleh! Today we ran some intervals and we will be doing that 2 of the 3 days, and I think that will really help. Ive started cross-training (lifting, core work, lunges, etc) on the off days too and some of my bloat is leaving since I've tightened up my diet a lot. I predict we will be making big improvements soon if we just stick with it. SOOOO lets hear everyone else's progress reports??


Kid Update: Cade got the priesthood on Sunday, and we had a nice little dinner afterwards with the grandparents and some aunts and uncle. Even Emily came down, YAY!. I can really tell a difference in him, he is feeling much more grown up. I love it! And, if you were following the saga of him in the school, he had a breakthrough day today and came home happy, besides finding some friends (good friends!!) in the neighborhood. Hopefully this stays on the upswing! Prayers are being answered, folks!! :D

Sadie is beside herself with excitement to go to science camp this week. She can't sleep and its all she talks about. I have to go find her a winter coat tomorrow. She is packed 2 days early. Did I mention she is excited?? It's better than Christmas!!

Cooper is coming home lately telling me that a lot of kids in his class drink beer. Niiiice. I'm sure its all a lot of talk trying to impress each other, but I'm gonna have to get to the bottom of this one. Crap.

Wyatt is reading like nobody's business. I love when the whole world suddenly opens up and they can read all the signs, posters, words on the TV, and pretty much any book they choose out of our home kid library. And it is really motivating Dayton to get on board and want to read too. YAY for smartypants's. :D

I'm doing a carpool with some of the little kids in Daytons class for PM kinder now. He loves getting to ride in his friends cars, and loves it even more when they all ride in his. He ADORES school and his teacher.

On the other hand, the have all been driving me a little batty lately with the chattering. Its good, pleasant chatter, but 5 small excited people trying to get your attention all at once is tiring!! I make then wait their turn to talk, but then just knowing that when you are done listening to one, there are 3 or 4 more waiting in line to tell you what they want to be for the next 3 halloweens or what their friend did at school or how they want to buy a mannequin to put their Halloween costume on for a room decoration etc etc I swear my brain wants to short circuit! I realize that this is just a warm-up for the teenage years, and believe me, I don't want them to ever stop sharing all the little tidbits, especially for the jr high and HS years. But seriously, sheesh!! Cade and Wyatt have all the big ideas, Cooper is a little quieter, and Dayton is really starting to chime in with his 2 cents quite often. Sadie is just all girl with the friend drama and wanting me to take her to "get" things all the time. I just love them all to death, how did I get so lucky??

My little guy is not so little anymore...:(

You really think its never going to happen and then one day.......

8 months old.....

15 months old(this was one of those Kiddie Kandids nightmares where he was throwing a tantrum at the mall because he wanted to go in the sports store across the way instead....this was the one and only shot we got





Age 5....



And then you blink and then.....

He turns TWELVE!!!!!!

Steak and Broccoli with Mtn Dew on the side...as per requested

Posing with the new Patriots beanie and TapouT shirt

Rocking out on the new (used but awesome) electric guitar and amp while watching his Pats (finally) win!

Giant Cookie and ice cream .......

And in addition, Mark passed down his grandpa's Ruger 10-22 rifle to Cade when they were out shooting this weekend. Could this kid be more spoiled?????? I guess we just love him a LOT and we can't believe he's so grown up!! He gets the priesthood Sunday, it will be an awesome experience. It does make me feel sort of old, but then again, its exciting to be doing something new besides changing diapers and filling sippy cups. I have a feeling this is the start of another crazy section of the rollercoaster ride of having kids!!!

Love ya Cade, You ROCK!!!!

So AWESOME!! And pics to prove it!!!!!

Can I just have a 15 year old moment here??

It's a good thing that blogging dosen't require hearing, because I think mine is gone! LOL I just got back from the NKOTB concert and it was so incredible!! And Mark is busy at work and I'm all revved up now so I'll just blog about it all. He's probably actually not busy, he's probably just like "Hey, um, actually I'm busy, I can't hear all about it right now" LOL just kidding.

First, I have to update the SYTYCD concert. LOVED IT! It was so fun to take Sadie to her first "concert" and have a GNO. She loved it too. The only dance I wished they had done was Joshua and Katee's Bollywood, but I realize that that they had tons of the good dances and they couldn't do them all. I also could have seen much more of Will, but at least he did the Pas De Deux with Katee(?) wich was one of the best ever. I lOVED Gev, he was hilarious!It really makes me wanting next season to start NOW! Can't we have 2 seasons a year of SYTYCD??

OK next off, it was just really fun to go have so much fun with the girls tonight, I have no clue how we laugh so much, but we do, it's always a scream. I love it so much. But we went to Pei Wei and then headed out. We even splurged on valet parking, that was my first time ever! Our seats were on the floor but pretty far back, but it ended up being better anyway. I LOVED the concert. I thought they didn't seem old or like washed up wannabe's at ALL. They all looked good and sang really good. I'm not just saying that :D About halfway thru the show there was this little round stage thing that looked like it had a covered piano on it and we were hoping for something to happen with that, and wow it sure did. We noticed that they had uncovered it and security had hand picked some hot chicks to go stand by it, so of course we got ourselves over there all sly. We were RIGHT THERE and they came out to the little stage in the middle and did 3 songs, 2 of my favorites from the new CD and the classic Tonight. We were within aout 3-5 feet away that whole time. I was juuuuust out of hand reach but Marcie grabbed Joes hand, I was so excited for her. Marce and Jaimee got some seriously amazing pictures, I can't wait to post them. It was interesting, we got to witness the sneaky exchange of backstage passes from Donnie to an extremely hot girl in her early 20's and he gave her his water bottle. Dang it, I was really thirsty, too! LOL Definite after show hookup going on there. You always hear about it but to see it in action, yeah, "scummy". Jaimee also thought she was seeing Jordan giving the nod and passing something to a different girl, too. I'm sure he did. Icky, but somehow also hot. :D It would be very hard not to be a man slut living that lifestyle, I'm sure. ANYway, the rest of the concert totally rocked, I loved every bit! I have no hearing left and my throat hurts, that means it was AMAZING!!! Here are some of hte awesome pictures. Can you believe how close we were?? I'm going to do a flikr of all of the ones I took and the girls took so if you are a fan (or a closet fan) you can see everything!! :D


I'd say we were pretty darn close!!!

View from our seats........ on our tiptoes

Anyhoo......

All stress aside......


I wish I had something interesting to blog about. Day to day gets really boring. I do have some fun things to look forward to coming up. Mark will have weekends off starting after next week after over 2 years of working graves/weekends. I would be a little more excited if I didn't know that he will surely work every single day off he has anyway, so I may be in the lonely friday/saturday nights club still anyway. Oh well, what can I say. He's a workaholic. His schedule rocks for the holidays anyway! Yay for the new schedule.

Next week is the So You Think You Can Dance concert. YAAAAAAAAY!! I am VERY VERY excited!! Sadie dosen't know I am taking her yet. We got the tickets at the original price at the last minute. THANKS Casey!!

The week after that is the NKOTB concert. I'll be hanging tough till then. :D I'm sure Mark would like to tell me Please, Don't Go Girl, because he thinks is so painfully lame, but guess what, NKOTB have the Right Stuff and I'll be loving them Forever so all the haters can just step off. Step By Step. :D I kind of want to make an awesome poster so that they know we have been waiting 20 years for this concert. Yeah, thats right. Did you know that NKOTB came to my house the night after one of their concerts and sang me the birthday song?? Yep, thats right. There is video of it somewhere. Can we get that put on DVD so we can post it on YouTube? How funny would that be. Marcie, please tell me you still have it!

Well, all of that is actually quite a lot and it looks like October is shaping up to be a fun time.

Anxiety!

WARNING!!! THIS POST WILL PROBABLY STRESS YOU OUT! IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO ADD TO YOUR STRESS LEVEL TODAY, I WOULD PASS ON READING HERE TODAY. I'LL PUT SOMETHING ELSE UP THATS MORE FUN TOMORROW!

***************************************************************************

Anyone else feeling anxious these days?? Seriously. I usually like to keep my blog silly and fun and kind of....lalala but honestly, I am somewheat freaked out about the economy. I just heard that the congress didn't pass the bailout. Which is so funny that hearing that made my stomach sink, because I really didn't want them to pass it. Just the other day, I had listened to Ron Paul (who I trust as a businessman at least,) on Glenn Beck (who I normally do not listen to, although I probably should)and I was all gung ho not to bail out Wall street. If their main argument is that the banks won't lend any more credit for houses and cars, credit cards, etc, I'm thinking, GREAT! I think America could use a good dose of reality and everyone can make do with our 3 year old cars and be happy where we are in our living situations. And we CERTAINLY don't need to be handing out any more credit cards to ANY one, I don't care who you are. I agree with him that it will make it a really rough year or so, but in the long run we will be better off. So yes, I was (am) still against the bailout. I also felt like it was one of those old boys clubs, just like in the Iraq war. "Lets get this project passed through based on what MIGHT happen, because everyone is so freaked out they will go along with anything. Then we can make some serious money in the process".

On the flip side, we have a friend in Argentina who has seen the money there devalue so bad its just unreal. Something like the import taxes were so jacked up the farmers couldn't import anything into the city, so produce, chicken, milk, etc were just getting literally dumped on the side of the road and not even getting to the people. If we think something like that can't happen here, we are crazy. Mabye not to that extreme, but I don't think we will be too thrilled to pay 20 bucks for a gallon of milk or whatever. I'm truly hoping that when gov't officials say things will get "really really bad" if we don't pass the bailout, they are just exaggerating because it's part of their agenda. Yikes.

And on another hand, I feel slightly hypocritical because I just took advantage of the fallout that caused all of this, the housing market. We just paid less than half of what this house was worth at one point. So really, we were helping the situation, right??

So what is the bottom line?? Can I do anything about this situation?? Yes and no. I'm trying to look at what we as a family have working for us. A recession proof job, firstly. And life insurance. OK. We have worked hard to stay away from debt, although we do have a little, and we live below our means. I think my focus over the next couple weeks is going to be getting our 3 month supply of food and stuff. I already had been doing it, but I mean, like, be done getting it. Right now, my stomach is in a big clump and I'm thinking mabye not turn on the news today. As soon as Mark gets up I think its time for a family strategy session. Hope I didn't freak anyone out. I warned ya! And if you think I am totally out to lunch or a totally idiot, you could be right. It dosent' help that I watched the movie the Day After Tomorrow and Chicken Little all within 2 days of each other. :D

So anyway....

Nothing going on, yet I'm pretty busy. Pretty typical for a mom I guess. Heres a recap:

Running is going well. I'm not losing weight or anything, but I'm running farther easier and I think I'm picking up the pace a little. It's time to step it up a bunch with the eating and cross training though.

Anniversary was good. Ya know, 14 years. kind of a lame number. Mark worked overtime all day and I went to a funeral. I know, super exciting. Like I said, 14 years :D We did go out to dinner for almost an hour though. On the upside, I LOVE this guy more and more all the time if thats possible. Good times. In honor of our big day, I'm putting up my favorite picture of us.




Speaking of the funeral, we had a lovely time celebrating the life of Marks grandpa's 2nd wife, Connie. She was such a sweet little lady and very simple and good hearted. She will be missed by so many people. It was fun to catch up with extended family. The kids knew her well and will miss her, so they got to miss school and go to her funeral. Kids and funerals certainly bring up some interesting conversations, especially so close to Halloween....:D If you get a chance check out my kids blog, I have a few to add to it. LOL

Thats all I have for now.

Its the MOST wonderful time of the year!!!

Usually Christmas is that time. But I actually like fall better because it is all about the anticipation, and the dreamy ideal of how AWESOME I will make the upcoming favorite season, without actually have to DO anything yet- or screw anything up yet. Its all about the fantasy.....

And it starts every year with my birthday! Its the date that kicks off the holidays for me. (the "holidays" include halloween around here:)

BIRTHDAY RECAP:

Awesome awesome birthday this year. WOOT! I got money in the mail, a pedicure, a Target card, a new MP3 that totally rocks, I love it. Mark always makes an effort for me, which I really appreciate. Thanks, baby!! :D Today I got up ...and a mystery friend had put up tons of streamers and balloons outside my house and garage. I was SO surprised and I loved it!! I don't know who it was, although I have an idea....:D I did my run, then we went to a movie (Dayton went to a friends house before school, fun!) and had a yummy club wrap for lunch. After the kids got home I went and got a massage at the Chiropracter and while I was gone Mark and Sadie went and got me a birthday cake. I made an easy dinner, Then the kids and Mark sang to me and we ate cake. It was such a great birthday, and thank you SO much to everyone who called me today (and yesterday!!) and sent me birthday posts, I feel so loved. MWAH!

Other reasons why its the most wonderful time......

*Our anniversary is next week
*School is in and I have a little me time and a SCHEDULE
*It is FINALLY cooling off and my electric bill is getting smaller for a change
*The fall TV season is starting!
*I can start my fall cleaning and preparing schedule. Why I enjoy this, I have no clue, but I do

Im feeling like I will be incorporating the painting of upstairs walls into my fall cleaning schedule. The paint is just sitting there, waiting for me to get serious. FUN!

Dogsitters Inc.

Tonight for FHE we went out to the park to play some wiffle ball and there was this little white poodl-ey dog, lost, tail so far between her legs she was scraping the ground with her butt. She was just running around, sniffing anybody and scared to death. She let me pick her up and we walked around the neighborhood to try to find her owner (no collar). It was getting dark and after an hour no one was claiming her so we took her home. Now, if you know me at ALL you know that I am a non pet person. Sorry to all the PETA people, I believe animals are great and have spirits and personalities and deserve respect, but they are animals and therefore a step below people. Just a small step. ANYWAY I could no way leave this little dog out in the park in the dark, so we took her home. All the while I'm telling the kids, just till we find the owners, don't get too attatched, blah blah blah. So we carry this dog home (SO cute, let me hold her like a baby over mmy shoulder, perfectly happy) and we gave her some water and some chicken and she chilled at the house with us for about an hour. The kids were having so much fun with her. We even gave her a temporary name, "Scuffy". So the owner calls, they'd been out knocking doors looking for her, and one of the houses we had been by to search out the owner was one of Sadies friends so they gave them our number. Sad. They came over and picked her up. It was their moms dog, so they were worried about her. Oh well, it looks like she has a good home and is very well spoiled. The kids handled it well, they understood that is was a grandma's dog and she would miss it. The saddest one was Wyatt, before bed tonight he has been a little upset, he misses the dog. When we had her he kept saying "oh, I just love this cute dog. She's so cute!! I LOVE her!" So, yeah, sad. Tonight when we said prayers they all said thank you that "baby" (that was her name) had a good home with a grandma and that she would be safe. Awwwww. Sadie had the cute idea to take a picture with her so that we'd always remember her. Awwwwwww!!!!





I had been calling Mark at work all night giving him the play by play and now even he's dissapointed that he won't get to see "Scuffy" tonight when he gets home.

And no, we won't be going to the local shelter to find a replacement. Sorry! But I'll miss little Scuffy.

Plans for this week

Alrighty, I am planning a fun and productive week starting today.

Weekend recap: We got to go to Sunsplash on Saturday, it was really fun. It was through Marks work, for Employee Appreciation. Full use of the waterpark, golfing (which we didn't do...too crowded) and BBQ dinner. FREE! We had a blast. Even little Dayton was going on all the big slides. We all went on the big one that looks like a taco shell with the red trim....HOLY COW it was SO scary! I definetly got my workout lugging those stupid double tubes 4 flights to the top....TWICE. They must weigh 50 pounds each! Golfland brings back so many memories of back in the day. I love it that all my kids like to be daring and have fun at that kind of stuff.

Sadie did so good singing for the Primary Program. I am SO SO proud of her for being brave and doing such a good job. I know it was way out of her comfort zone, and she is really getting up some nerves lately to try new things. YAY for Sadie!!


On to this week......

Today was the official start of training for the Irongirl. Woo hoo! L and I ran 2 miles, and way easier than last week. Go us!! We should be right on target to get to 10 miles by December 6.

TRAINING SCHEDULE...Week 1
Mon: 2 miles
Tuesday: Xtrain(for me will be lunges and core work)
Wednsday: 2 miles
Thursday: Xtrain (upper body and stretch)
Friday: rest
Saturday: 3 miles
Sunday: rest

Anyone who wants to join in, call me! :D

On the calendar this week:

Monday (today): clean house, finish laundry
Tuesday: Mani-pedi (thanks, grandma!) and Massage at Chiropracter
Wednsday: MY BIRTHDAY-early movie, lunch w/my lover, and chillin with the kiddos :D
Thursday: well I haven't actually planned this far ahead. Just get me to wednsday :D

Update--Its FALL!

Well at least at my house it is. Yes, it is still really hot outside but I saw pumpkins for sale at Walmart, so guess what....It's FALL to me. I went ahead and decorated anyway. I'm not as bad as my neighbor, they put out full-on Halloween decor last weeknd. Thats even too much for me. But don't hink I wasn't tempted!! :D

For anyone who missed our Housewarming.....it was great. I was so touched that so many people made the journey out. The kids had fun, and so did we. How could we not?? :D

My other big project besides decorating was puting my hair salon together. I'm still mssing a shampoo bowl, but I'm hoping to have it really soon. I am So lucky to have a bedroom downstairs that was perfect to convert. Of course I was doing a TON of hair in my kitchen, and now that I have the space I haven't really been that busy, but I go in cycles, so it will come back around in a couple weeks. Heres the before and after:

Mark stained the concrete and sealed it, it looks really cool. Then I just painted and put everythig in there the next day. I LOVE it. I have been doing hair in my kitchen for 12 years, and I am so thrilled to have a place to work finally. YAY!!!!!

My training update: I have finally gotten up to running almost 2 miles straight. I will be starting my official training on Monday. I had to build up to that first. Mabye i'll start posting my weekly training schedule here so everyone can keep tabs on me. I HAVE to start eating better as well, mbye if I fueled up properly, I'd perform a little better. And by that I mean, not totally SUCK.

OK time to run kids around, I better scoot.

Calling all Runners (or wannabe runners!) EDITED!

I just posted this on our Relief society blog....Yeah I'm totally crazy!!

In an effort to peel off the 30+ pounds I have found over the last year or so, I am starting a new project and wanted to see if anyone wanted to join me. Strength in numbers, right? :D


I will be training for the "Irongirl" at Tempe Town Lake on Saturday, December 6th. That is 14 weeks away. There is a 5K and a 10 miler. I will be training for the 10 miler. It will be a great way to work toward a goal and get in shape at the same time. If you have ever run in an organized event such as the Turkey Trot, Tillmans race or the Turkey Waddle you know that it can be very exciting and a rewarding experience. It is not a competition of any sort! Just something big to work towards. And the weather is getting nice, we should be outside more anyway, right?


http://www.irongirl.com/Events/Tempe.htm

TRAINING: Edited!!!! I found an awesome online training guide, that takes you from basicaly square 1 (that would be ME!!) to running 10 miles in 12 weeks. It tells you how much to run every day, and when to rest, and how to train so that you will be ready, but not overdo it. My bud Courtney (who is also in..WOOHOO!) Reminded me about runners world.com, which has FREE online training plans to get you ready. I was all over it reading this morning and I was encouraged by this article:

The training plan that follows is designed to get you to the point where you can run 30 minutes (about 2 miles) at a slow, relaxed pace. It's a simple, progressive program that begins with more walking than running, and gradually evolves into more running than walking. Each week's plan also includes a motivational quote and a training tip. Once you are able to run 2 miles nonstop, you can decide on your next goal. You might simply want to continue running 2 miles at a time, three or four days per week. Research has shown that this is enough to help you lose or maintain weight, and improve many other important health markers, ie, your cholesterol, blood pressure, and insulin response. Or you might decide that you want to do more, in which case you can consult the many training programs offered by the Runner's World SmartCoach. Don't be intimidated by these programs. The first 2 miles is the hardest 2 miles you will ever run. Once you have reached this level of fitness, it's relatively easy to do more. You simply have to budget the time, and be patient and disciplined in your training.

There is so much great info on this site, including what to eat and when, form, everything.

I think I am going to do the Asics training schedule, it seemed to fit most with where I am now. Its longer, I will have to cut out 2 weeks of it, but thats OK. So go to Runnersworld.com and lets get excited!! I can't even tell you how thrilled I am that people want to do this. YAY!!

FYI: I ran this morning, new shoes and all. I made it exactly 1 mile, and I was PUKING my guts out. Literally. Probably got some on my new shoes. So if I can do it, you can do it!!!!

If it sounds like something you like to do, let me know!! And now you know what I'll be up to!!

Great reasons to run the Irongirl:
*Lose the pounds!!
*acheive a goal
*time for myself
*get to know new people in my ward
*did I mention lose some pounds?? :D
*have a focus to get me through the fall eating holiday without gaining another 30 pounds
*feel better, not sick and tired every day!!


Who else is IN????

Yearbook Yourself :D

Hee Hee The website is www.yearbookyourself.com/ I've had way too much fun with it!



Here I am as a June Cleaver wannabe, 1952




OK OK I'll stop. It's just too funny seeing Mark in all the different hairstyles. :D

Soooooo funny!!!

1980 Rocks!!



Looking hot in 1970!!


The kids and I were laughing SO hard, even Mark thought these were funny!!

I couldn't resist yearbooking myself. I practically wear my hair like this now!! LOL