We DO Hard Things

The four of us left mid-Saturday morning leaving our spouses in charge. No kids. No husbands. Just girls wanting to have fun. And fun we did have.

Amber, Tishia, Tiffany and Jenny

It was so nice to leave behind the 100 degree/brown scenery for something more refreshing.

Yes, we did eat fresh, but this wasn't the fresh I was really meaning. It was especially hard for me to try and eat good on vacation, but when it comes to running. That is just what you do.

We got to Cabazon about 3:30pm and literally shopped until we dropped. By the end of the day they were kicking us out of the store. I am kicking myself for not capturing the ginormous line we stood in for Amber and Tiffany to get their Coach purses. But, they scored some awesome deals. I walked away with my favorite True Religion jeans. I was a happy girl!

Sometimes a little happy (ha) Those who know me can attest I get a weird sort of burst of energy when I am overly tired. I couldn't help jumping on the beds and if you look close enough Amber couldn't either. (her legs are behind me)

Sunday we headed down the road for sacrament meeting at 9am. Becca was sweet enough to give me all the information for church times/etc. The church building was absolutely gorgeous. We took a ton of photos and I think most of the members thought we were a tad strange over all of our ooooing and awing. I have never seen a chapel so unique.

Aside from the beautiful weather and lovely scenery we some how managed to drive on several toll roads. The GPS (aka Gwen) always gave us the fastest route which ended up being a toll road! And me being the cheap skate I am got a little tired of paying 2.75 to drive on a freeway. My friends found it humerous how upset I got over the whole thing.

After church we headed down to Crystal Cove near Newport Beach to soak up the sun. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. Talk about a perfect relaxing day just before a race.

We couldn't resist doing a little Karate Kidd meditating, along with some cheer jumps in the sand.

Minnie flew in late Sunday night, just in time to eat a great pasta dinner from CPK.

Monday was race day. The weather was just right, over cast and most of the course was downhill. I think we all had the race jitters. We had our energy beans, FRS chews, and gu's all prepared to give us the boost we needed. I stayed with Amber until about mile 10.5 and my knee started giving me some agony not to mention I threw up one of the gu's I hadn't tried. At that point my body just couldn't keep up the great pace I was holding for so long. I was so bummed. I told Amber to run ahead and kept her in my sight as long as possible. She ended up leading the pack, but I still was able to improve my time by about 20 minutes. My average pace ended up being 8:28. Yay for me!

My time according to my garmin

Becca and Laurie ended up meeting me at the finish line. It was so fun to finally put faces with voices. I wish I had more time (and not so stinky) to talk to them. Perhaps next time we can do lunch.

Becca, Laurie and Jenny

Once we all ran into the finish line we were ready to head back to the hotel. The bummer part was the shuttles took a tad longer than I would have liked.

The line wrapped around Laguna Hills, HS

We were all pretty beat after such an intense race. I think we all pushed ourselves to our best ability. It was nice to ooze the muscles in the hot tub.

Last but not least, we ended up at In and Out Burger. After trying to eat semi-healthy for the first day, my body was seriously having some major withdrawals. Nothing like a double/double after burning close to 1600 calories! And it was really tasty!

It was such a great weekend. I hope to do it again next year, who knows which race we will do. St. George??? (Minnie, Tiffany, Tishia) At any rate it looks like I am being forced to stay off the road. (which may make me a little crazy) My knee caused me some major grief about 10 miles in to the race. But, with exercise there is bound to be an injury now and again. We all decided after running the Ragnar and putting ourselves through such a challenge we all may be a little crazy. But, soon after the race we began to train again for a half. I have to say even though I sit here with my knee throbbing it was worth every ounce of pain. Because in life, we do hard things, that is what we do!

Green Head To Toe

I just noticed how aged my feet are looking.

Yikes! Is this what over 400 miles of training does to you?

Ever since I was a young girl I thrived on spirit. My middle school colors were orange and brown. Go ahead and gag (I know I wasn't thrilled about them either) They were probably the worst combination any school could have. But, because I was apart of that school you bet I owned an obnoxious orange shirt AND wore it proudly for each assembly. As I have said in several previous posts our crusading color is green. Several people actually have asked me if I chose green due to the upcoming St. Patricks Day holiday. It would seem legit, but these toes have another reason to be green and that is for kidney cancer. It's not an accident that this lucky color will also carry us through our 202 miles.

Front View

We are less than 24 hours before the actual party begins. Today a few of us met up to decorate the cars to get in the spirit of the whole thing. I have heard there are some pretty fancy decked out vans. I thought ours turned out fabulous. Of course I musn't take credit. Michelle was the brains behind all of the creativeness.

Michelle

Side View

Don't you love the antenna? So cute!

These signs are made out of wood with felt letters. She drilled them on so they would stay on to the top of the luggage racks. Genius if you ask me. Look out Mardi Gras floats!

Minnie and Tishia

We weren't able to have all of our team members to help, but we had at least half. The first van (runners 1-6) is driving up tonight since our official start time is 7am. The rest of us will meet them up around noon when our van begins to run.

April (Carson and Braden), Paula, Tiffany, Minnie, Tishia
Martha and Michelle

Aside from my friends running the race I had three of my other sweet friends drop off a good luck bag. Thanks Carol, Denise and Natalie! Next up pasta for dinner and hopefully a GREAT night sleep. Next time I write I'll have close to 20 miles under my belt. Wish me (US) luck!

Five For Friday

Anna, Jenny
Amy, Lisa, Janae and Kelly

(not too bad for a self timer!)

1. Thursday night I was invited to the Sista's favorite things party. I haven't seen Anna in years and finally got to meet Lisa for the first time. A special thanks to Janae for being a fabulous host. It was a fun night of chatting and laughter not to mention the yummy desserts!


2. Monday Amber and I did a practice race run for the Ragnar Relay. We ran 8 miles at noon, 7 miles at 9pm and had intentions on waking up and doing the final 4 in the morning. Due to weather (pouring rain of all things) I had to run the remainder on the treadmill. Talk about painful! But, we survived and at least know we are prepared for the race. And speaking of running , I have been so fortunate to not have any injuries during my training minus a couple of missing toenails. Thursday morning we ran a quick 4 miles and I tripped and fell on the sidewalk. I felt like a complete idiot !!(like that Seinfield episode) I jumped back up and luckily wasn't hurt, you all know you wish you would have seen a video of that--ha.

Carol, Angela, Tiffany and me

3. A few weeks ago I was reassigned to a new visiting teaching companion and visiting new people. I set up the appointments at none other than Chick Fila. It couldn't have worked out more perfectly. I was able to get my Diet Coke, and the kids could play while we chatted. Definitely a win.win for all.

4. The trek is less than three weeks away. Saturday is our last training meeting. I know it will be a great experience, but I have some major anxiety about it. Period.

5. I am tired just thinking about tomorrow, updates coming soon.......

Momnesia

Yes, this is a REAL term and I suffer from it horribly. (even my daily photo documenting is suffering!) I am not sure why it took my kids to be older before I actually saw the symptoms, but it is what it is. Despite my disorder I seem to be able to function on most occasions. Thumbing back through photos gives me the proof. I do, do something worth while (most of the time) here is just a taste of my life in the past 5 days.....

Thursday I received a photo traffic ticket in the mail. Ouch. I learned they are NOT cheap. I've had such a clean record in the past six years (okay we won't include the car accident a year ago), but seriously no speeding tickets!! The worst part is, there is no way out of it. I couldn't believe how clear the photo of me was driving and how sly the camera was. I still have no idea where I was going at the the time. Between Doug's parking ticket last month and now this it's enough to make us both sick! We have definitely supported our police departments this year. Ha.

This is what you do when you don't have any form of entertainment
digital cameras seem to work out pretty well!

Friday I survived Luke's well check up which included not one, but two shots. He was amazingly a tough cookie. He didn't even budge or complain after being poked. I was also informed my children are extremely short, he currently falls into the 25% for height.

Saturday was our third trek training meeting. While the men learned to butcher chickens, the women were instructed how to make the "perfect" dutch oven bread. Surprisingly, it didn't taste too bad. I'm sure it tastes even better if you are starving (which we will be by day 2!) And for the main course..........Yes we DO have to kill and eat our own chickens!! Beware below post is graphic.

I stepped over to take a peek at the men doing their manly thing. You can't really tell due to all of the hands. But this rooster was alive just an hour before they chopped of it's head, skinned and gutted it (sorry for the graphics) This was to prepare us for what we will be making for dinner on the trek along with stewed vegetables.

Two thumbs up for a successful kill. I am just glad Doug is the one doing this part and not me! 4 trek training meetings down 1 more to go!!

Changing gears, after a dance competition (in the morning and NO photo--sorry Tay!) and a basketball game. Doug headed over to Erik's house aka tool heaven to work on Jared's pinewood derby car. Once again I am not sure who cares more about the car, dad or Jared.

Tiffany, Heather, and me

And because we wanted to add just one more thing to Saturday's agenda.... The Brown's graciously invited us in on their date night with the Hunters. I was pretty hammered, but I don't usually pass up on a good movie. It was pretty intense, but I am an action movie girl. Definitely worth seeing in my book.

Our running pack

Minnie, Tiffany, Amber and I-- (looking scary!)

Today we headed East for the third week in a row to tackle more hills and add a few miles. (11.5 to be exact) Tiffany and Minnie ended up doing their longest run yet. Way to go girls!! We've come along ways since last August where none of us had ran over 6 miles ever (except Amber). I officially lost my first toe nail today (gross I know), but from what I read it comes with the sport. As our race is approaching I am getting excited and anxious. Tomorrow I will be revealing our team, our cause and new shirts.

Beyond The Shadow Of Doubt

Our shadows running along Arizona Ave.
Mile 8

Each Monday our little running clan (which has turned into mostly a duo) tries to get in a LONG distance run for the week. I woke up feeling good, but still a tad weary that I wouldn't be able to accomplish the goal I set for myself..... especially, since we had babes in tow with us. Anyone who has ever pushed a jogger while running knows it isn't the easiest task compared to running without it.

December Hill Running
Tisha and Tiffany

We started out with the four of us Amber, me, Tisha and Tiffany. Around mile 7 we parted ways. It actually worked out perfect because they took Chloe home in the jogger which meant we only had Weston. We traded off each mile the rest of the way. What a HUGE difference that made!

As you can see the running around Chandler isn't the most scenic. It is ugly, let alone quite flat. I thought it was funny seeing this sign on the route. It definitely made us feel like we ran far! And hey we even stopped at the post office to mail a package. Who knew we would be multitasking?

Weston, Jenny and Amber
Marking our miles with fingers
Lucky 15!

We started around 9am and finished up a little after 11:30am. The weather was absolutely perfect it was in the upper 50's. We did stop a few times to drink water and eat some orange slices for energy. Weston was an angel and we honestly never heard a peep out of him. Thank goodness for Nintendo DS's!! I never really thought I could accomplish running this far, it's AMAZING what you set your mind to do. We both ran our furthest distance ever today. 15 miles! Woo hoo for us!


good deed Sunday: was on time to church (a miracle!)
good deed: worked on Jared's science project with him.

Rainbow Connection

Last Saturday the youth in our stake put on a "Play in A Day" and literally they spent the entire day learning parts to perform later on that evening. They had about 7 musicals they took several familiar musicals (Little Mermaid, etc) and mormonfied them (is that a word??). Some of them were quite cleaver which wre mostly all written by the leaders. Unfortunately, there were also some we couldn't hear a word due to the youth not speaking loud and clear. There was about 200 that participated. Too me, that is an impressive number coming from Doug's Sunday school class of 6 active youth. I was most amazed with not only little time, but the costumes and props they had. This particular skit that discussed food storage cracked me up. Check out the cans of green beans--those boys were wearing green swim caps. Too funny!

Je--l-ll--0 Song

Monday I invited a few friends over for lunch. Kelly just recently moved here from Oregon (such a small world eh?) It's always fun to meet up with imaginary friends after communicating via blogging for nearly 3 years. We all seem to have a connection of some sort, the most common one all being graduates from Mountain View. Go Toros!

Apparently Gavin was the villian whom they were running from.

Miss PQ, Davyn, and Gavin

My Weston wasn't so sure at first about these "new" little people coming over to play, but after a while he seemed to warm up some. I officially met Davyn and Miss PQ (whom are both darling). I think the highlight of the day for them was running back and forth chasing one another. Hey when you have the room why not?

Our self timer shot (courtesy of the ledge in kitchen)
Sam, Courtney, Bella, Jennifer, Amy, Kelly and Jenny
(left to right)

Since moving into our new house I am constantly looking for cheap decorating ideas. (using the old and turning it into new). You can see by my bare walls I have a lot to do. My dad came over today to hang a few more shelves that were formerly in our living room in San Antonio. The beauty of cheap is taking what you have to create a new look. I took a simple can of spray paint to Taylor's purple pig and turned him green. I did the same with these plain white letters (which I bought for super cheap at Hobby Lobby--months ago).

Doug has recently taken our old dining room table and sanded it completely down to the natural wood color. He then took and stained it to be a dark espresso. I am LOVING the way it has turned out. Even better it only cost $8 for a new look! He is going to paint our old chairs black and I am considering putting a cushion on them to "dress" it up for a more formal appearance.

When I went to check on the boys one last time I found them all gathered in the same room. It cracks me up that Luke was using his pillow for his feet and a blanket for his head. I love that my boys all look out for one another (it seems mostly at night). Don't get me wrong there are definite days they fight, but for the most part they really do love each other. It dawned on me last night that we have been in our new home for almost two months. So much has gone on and changed. My kids now each have their own room (can you tell they still like close quarters). We have been lucky to have so many connections moving back. Meeting up with old friends and discovering new ones. I do miss my Texas friends, but most of them will be moving on at some point and no longer call that place home. It made me realize how much we truly live a colorful life. The best part is no matter where we are, that connection remains the same.