I did it!

Today I ran 20 miles.

Rainy Days

So this morning we got up, and it looked all cloudy, cold, and looked like it was about to rain. So we tried to decide what we should do with ourselves indoors and we decided to make Sugar cookies in the shape of Umbrellas. It was really fun. I got frosting for each of the boys and let them frost their own cookies, okay so really they just ate the frosting. but they had a good time doing it at least. Harrison downed three whole cookies and had green frosting from head to toe, then held out his hands and said "mess", yeah, mess was right! Then we printed off pictures of little Einsteins and colored them. Harrison has become quite the colorer. He loves to color. Especially the walls. The other day Ben and I were eating breakfast, the boys had already finished and were upstairs playing, when we heard scratching noises and Harrison laughing and saying "OH! OH!" We went upstairs to find him with a red crayon and a newly red crayoned hallway. Thank heavens for magic erasers! 2 Hours later he found a blue crayon and crayoned THAT wall. Naughty little boy. Needless to say I have searched the house and put all writing things out of his reach unless I am there to supervise his coloring.
Anyways, after those fun activities it was time for some healthy lunch besides cookies and naps. So I put the kids to bed and I went running. 10 miles baby. Oh man, this week is going to kick my butt. Literally. I have a 40 mile week right now. I have 20 miles to run on Sat, and I am still sore and tired from the race last Sat. Like I said, I am in big trouble. During my entire run today I just felt tired. My legs were tired, I was tired, and then I suddenly had to pee like none other and had to run to a house and ask to use their bathroom. I am no good at the squatting in the bushes thing. Fortunately, it was nice lady who is also a runner and was very understanding. Anyways, I finished the 10 miles, came home, showered, and then we went off to the park with our neighbor. James and Harrison had fun playing and she and I had fun visiting. It was nice. Then it was back home, quick dinner, visiting teachers and then off to Costco to buy a new Camera. We got our state tax refunds today and we have needed to get a camera for forever, so we did. The camera we wanted came with a photo all in one printer as well, so that was cool. We didn't even know that we were getting a printer though, that was a surprise until they brought out thi huge box and I thought " I thought this camera was supposed to be small...." Anyways, the camera is great, the printer is cool too. I like most that it is a scanner because I have wanted one of those for a long time.
Now the kiddos are in bed, asleep, I just got down from rocking James. I went in their room to put something away and James was still awake in bed and so I rocked the little guy. I love rocking my little boys at night. When they are all calm and will let me just hold them. Oh yeah, I totally forgot. When I was putting the kids down for naps James was being REALLY whiny. And I told him how we had done all these fun things today and how if he wasn't going to be happy about doing fun things then we weren't going to do them. So then tonight when they were going to bed James came up to me and said "THanks mom for making the umbrella cookies with me, and printing off the einstein pictures and going to the park. I like it when we do fun things, we should do it again sometime and put lots of frosting on the cookies" I thought that was cute of him. He really is a sweet boy, both my kiddos are. But now, I am tired and must go ice my knees, shins, and feet...an ice bath is probably easier but that takes about 3 hours for me to warm up from so, I will just go take my time. Good Night.

Salt Lake Half Marathon

Wow. So today I ran the Salt Lake City Half Marathon. I felt really good about my time. My total time was 1:57:12 which put me in 1025th place overall out of 3819 participants. And I was in 403rd place in the womens division out of 2341 other women. Check that out. SO I felt pretty darn good about all that. The race was great. We got to the start line with over an hour to spare, but I spent that entire hour waiting in line for the bathrooms and barely made it out in time to get in line for the race to start. It was really cool to see all the elite runners take off at the very front. It took us several minutes to actually cross the start line and run, but once we did we didn't stop. Well, only for a minute at one of the rest stops along the way. But I kept around a 9 min mile the whole way. My actual average was 8:57 min/mile. Actually, from miles 6-10 I was keeping an 8 min mile, but then I made the huge mistake of stopping at a rest stop for a water, and I took me 2 miles to get back to doing a 9 min mile, and then I booked the last mile at a 7:20 min/mile. Running the end chute was really fun. I was just running as fast as I could and so many people were cheering me on and I loved it! Ben and Jay were on a bridge and waved at me, that was fun to see a familiar face in the crowd. Anyways, it was so fun to run with so many people. I loved seeing the sea of people ahead of me, it was so inspiring. It was fun to see people of all ages, sizes, fitness levels, running. There was one lady running that was wearing a shirt with a picture of a baby boy and on her shirt it said "Running for you Buddy James" then underneath it said "James Apr 2004-2006" I seriously had tears at that, because my james was born in apr of 2004. It made me so sad for her I wanted to just give her a hug and cry with her. But obviously, I kept running as did she. I followed a "santa man" for quite a while. He had on red shorts and shirt and a white beard, he looked like santa. Oh yeah, and there was this old guy pluggin along who wore a shirt that said "83 and still running" and when I ran past him he said "don't you feel bad passin me up like that?" I laughed. I love seeing so many people run. This is why I run, to do races like this, and meet and see all the different people running. Oh, so I have a video clip I was going to post, but I can't get it to work and Ben is sick and in Bed, so I don't want to bother the guy with my technical retardedness. Anyways, it was a great run and I am just that much more excited for the Marathon next month. YAY!

Oh, today after the race we picked up the boys and then came home for naps, and thankfully the boys slept for quite a while, and when they woke up I was tempted to turn on a show for them so I could get the house cleaned, laundry done, all that jazz. But I figured they needed some mom time, and the chores could definitely wait until after their bedtime. So we went to the store, got lunchables. James is always asking to get those and I never get them, so we got them this time. Then we got some drinks and went for a picnic... in our car! It was so windy, so we went to the temple, put the seats down in the back, put out a blanket and ate out dinners. The boys definitely had the greatest time ever. It was fun talking to them and playing around back there. Then we came home, had baths, stories, all that jazz, they helped me clean up their rooms and then they went right to bed and right to sleep. Now, it is late, but the house is nice and clean I just finished a nice bowl of oatmeal, and my feet have finished being iced, so it is off to bed for me. ahh. The end of a good day.

The Night Before

So tonight is the night before my Salt Lake Half Marathon. I have to leave here at 5 am which means I will be getting up at 4 am..shower..make sure I have everything I will need, eat a banana and a cliff bar. But I wanted to write about how I am feeling tonight. Surprisingly, mostly to myself, I am really nervous. I don't know why though, I have run 13 miles and more on several occasions. I have been running distances longer than that since last fall....So why am I nervous? Why is my stomach full of butterflies? Why do I feel like I am going to be sick? And why do I feel like I am going to break down and cry if I think about the race? This isn't even the full marathon...that is in one month!!! :) I expect to be nervous for that. Today when I went to the runner's expo in SLC and picked up my number and packet. They took my timing chip and held it up to a computer and then there was my name on the screen with my numer 5225. To my immense surprise I suddenly got emotional. I had to hide myself for a second so that no one would notice because I was so embarrassed. I mean, it was just my name on a stupid computer. But as I sit here and think about it all, I think about how running a marathon was one my dreams and how I have never been a great runner. In elementary school I was always one of the last to finish running the lap around the gym, I usually walked a lot of it. I think about how in High School I couldn't even run around the school once without having to walk. I think about how running has always been a weakness for me. And then I think about how last year I dreampt about running and I was weightless and could run forever. So I started running. And now, after how many mornings of getting up before the sun even thought about coming up, and running through the freezing, freezing cold. Running even when my legs wanted to fall off. Running when I thought the wind was going to blow me off the road, running when it was snowing so hard I couldn't keep my eyes open. Running when I only had 2 hours of sleep. Running no matter what. No matter what it took, I ran. No matter how painful, cold, hard, steep, slippery, miserable, tired, exhausted, or how far, I ran. And now I am here. THe Half Marathon is tomorrow. My first big race. In one month I will run the Ogden Full Marathon. I am excited to see what the morning will bring.

A Few Fun Things

So my kids always do something that I think, Oh man I need to write that down so I don't forget it, and so that is what I am doing now, writing a bunch of things that I have been meaning to wrote so that one day when my little boys are all grown up and I am old and gray, I can read these blogs and remember it all.

James' Mail
James loves mail. He loves to get the mail, he loves it even more when there is something for him, which only happens on holidays and birthdays, so I give him the usual junk mail to open and look at and that makes him pretty happy. He also loves to play mail. He gets about 5 envelopes, about 20 3x5 cards, writes on all the cards, puts them in the envelopes and then tapes them all shut with lots and lots of tape. Then he mails them, by putting them into my desk drawer. Then a while later he goes and checks the mail, my desk drawer, and then opens all his mail and he gets excited about each and every letter. It is cute. I really need to have him send letters to Gmas, Cousins and have them write back because he would love it. However, I am out of 3x5 cards and almost out of envelopes, oh well, he loves it.

Lets play Birthday!
James loves birthdays, he gets it from me. So we play birthday a lot. HE will get a shoe box put whatever items in it, and then sing happy birthday and have me open my present. He also puts toys in there sometime and gives them to himself and acts so excited and exclaims "this is what I always wanted!" it makes me laugh. This morning he gave me a shoe box with a small pan in it filled with Teddy Grams. We ate the teddy grams, made for a good breakfast.

Prayers
I love James' prayers. They are always so thoughtful and very sincere. He really has been thinking about what he should say lately and I love it! The other night before my 18 mile run he prayed for me. He said "please bless mommy to be able to run good on her run tomorrow" and let me tell you what. I definitely felt that prayer. That was easily the best run I have ever done. I felt great the whole way and today I am really not that sore so thanks James. I love the simple yet powerful faith kids have.

Harrison
Harrison is definitely turning 2 soon and that makes me sad. He has always been my angel baby. And now he gets very fussy....a lot. His tantrums consist of just crying a lot and laying on the floor with his face in his hands, but they are still tantrums. So here are the cute things that he has been doing lately. Whenever I tell him that it is time to change his diaper he runs as fast he can away from me and hides. He hides behind doors most of the time but often he goes to the stairs or behind the couch. But wherever he hides he buries his face so we can't see him. funny kid. Also, Harrison loves books. He has a bunch of books that he looks at every night and I read several books to him each night. He would have me sit there all day and read to him. He will bring me a book, say "boook" and then turn around and back up into my lap and plop himself down for some good story time. One more little thing he has been doing. When I tell him it is time for bed, he gets his blanket and goes upstairs and gets all snuggled up in James' bed. I just tucked hin right in and James said "mom, are you serious? or are you just pretending? this is not Harrison's bed. ARe you serious?" It made me laugh. After they jumped on the bed for a minute I put Harrison in his crib.

The Worst Day
The worst day in the world for Harrison is the day that I wash his blanket. Also known as "Dee Dee". Harrison is obsessed with that thing and carries around the house all day and will not go to sleep without it. So the other morning his bed was soaked, he had taken his diaper off...grrrr, so all his bedding including dee dee went to the washer. Harrison followed me all the way to the washer, crying after me "deedee deedee deedee!" then once it was in the washer he sat by the washer crying, sniffing, and saying "uh oh...dee dee!" It was a long morning for that kid. Once it was clean though he about went crazy when I gave it to him. He snuggled right up in it and was happy as could be.

James' B-Day!

Okay, So yesterday was James' 4th birthday. I can't believe that he is 4!!! This last year flew by. Before I know it he will be off to school and then I will be a nervous wreck I tell you what. Anyways, I love birthdays, holidays, weddings, all sorts of celebrations. I love to throw parties and decorate and all that. I have been really excited for James' birthday. I love to see how excited my kids get about every little thing. It is all just so much fun. We had the b-day party in the morning because we had a sealing to attend that afternoon. Which was very special too and made the day a great one. My little sister, her husband and their baby girl were all sealed in the Mt. Timp Temple. I love going to weddings in that temple because that is where Ben and I were married and it always makes me think of our wedding day. Anyways, back to James' b-day party. So I knew the day was going to be packed between the sealing, b-day party and somewhere in there I was supposed to run 9 miles. So the night before I tried to get everything done. Ben helped me get the house cleaned decorate, presents wrapped, Cake decorated. We colored pictures of all the cars from the movie Cars and hung them around the house. We were up very very late. And I was so anxious about the following day that I couldn't go to sleep. Finally around 4 am I went to sleep only to be awoken form the smoke alarm...no apparrant reason. Yeah they kept going off, so I decided to skip my early morning run so I could enjoy the day and not be dead tired. Turned out to be a good choice. When James got up he excitedly said "it's my birthday!" He was rally excited and we went downstairs to see the decorated downstairs. He was really excited about his cake. And he really wanted to open all his presents right then. We let him open a few, the boring ones, clothes, sunglasses, flip flops, and then a fishing game. After a good breakfast of sausages and some toast we played the fishing game for a while. The boys really liked it. I was surprised how tricky it was to actually catch a fish but Jaems got really good at it. We had a fun time. Then his firends came and we had the party. We first made our own party hats and then sat them out to dry. Most of them were smothered with glue! Then we went for a treasure hunt. I had had James help me hide all of the things that morning and he in turn helped the kids find the treats as well. They found the stuff for the ri lunch, cheetos, fruit snacks, juice boxes etc. They had fun. Then it was the presents, James got tons including legos, a bike, a learning gaming thing (one of those leap frog things) , and talking Lightning Mcqueen shirt and other fun things. when he opened the Leapster thing he said "that is what I always wanted!!!" He was excited about the bike. We just put it on the front porch and had him go find it out there. HE rode it around the street and loved it. Today Ben and him went for a good long bike ride. Anyways, then there was lunch and cake and ice cream. AFter James blew out the candle he pulled them out of the cake, and then pulled the toys off the cake, licked them off and played with them. He really liked the leapster thing. Ben showed him how to use it and everything. I really love the picture of those two, where ben is showing him what to do. I love seeing them do things together. Wow, this blog is mighty long. Anyways, after the party James and I played legos, and Stars Wars legos vs Lightning McQueen. That was fun. Then it was off to the temple and James and Harrison went to Gma Morrises where they had a party for him as well. When we got back we took him to chili's with the rest of my family and apparently he had had a pretty great time at Morrise's because he really just wanted to go back there. Oh well, he got a big milkshake and he and I enjoyed that. It was yummy. Then it was time to get Harrison and go home. Once we were home and the kids in bed it was off to the Gym for me and 8 miles of running. And that is what I did. I slept very well last night.

Pictures!

Okay so here are a bunch of pictures that I have been meaning to blog for forever but haven't until now. I have no idea what order these pictures are in or anything, I am having technical difficulties. OKay so in the pictures of Harrison laying down in the white shirt, he is really sad. Whenever Harrison gets upset he just finds a spot on the floor and buries his face and just sits there. It always makes me laugh so hard because it is pretty much the cutest thing ever.  He will often go hide somewhere, bottom step of the stairs, under the coffee table, behind the couch any place that he thinks we can't see him. Funny boy.

In the pictures of James in a suit....that is him on his first day of Sunbeams. I got him this suit for christmas, it was super cheap and I later found out why. It is already completely falling apart. Oh well, that is what I get for getting cheap stuff. Anyways, he looked like a little missionary and I had to take a picture. Later that night we went over to Gma's and James had quite the good time. That is the picture of him with the hat and water gun. He and his cousin Henry were playing dress up and bad guys. Obviously, they had a great time.

The pictures of Harrison with the cute curly Hair..well, Harrison's hair always curls when it is wet, and when he first wakes up it is usually curly. But within an hour it will be straight. I love his curly hair and wish that it was always curly because he is so darn cute with it. So I got it wet and took pictures before it dried. He is a heartbreaker, that is for sure.

The picture of Harrison with the blue nose, yeah he found a blue marker. He liked it.

The picture of Harrison with the boots....um I got the boys boots this winter and Harrison absolutely loved his. When he woke up in the morning he would say"boot...boot...boot" And then he would go get his boots for us to put on him. He wore them all the time, even in his PJ's. As you can see. 

Then there are the easter pictures, Harrison just found himself a nice cozy spot on the kitchen floor and ate most of his candy right there, James jumped in for the picture too. What cute boys I have.

Oh yeah, one last picture. Harrison has recently become obsessed with Little Einstein's.  When he gets up in the morning he says "I tine...I tine" But yesterday we were watching conference and he could not watch "I tine" so ben got his iphone and let Harrison watch einstein's on that. he was really cute sitting there watching it. It is so funny to me though because he has never watched anything for more than a couple minutes until this week when he suddenly fell in love with that show. I have to limit the amount of time he spend watching it now. But I do have to admit that I love the way he says "I tine" It is really cute.

Okay, hope you enjoy the pictures, and yes I agree my boys are adorable. 

The Smelly Bathroom

As I was doing dishes last night I realized that all of our sippy cups are missing. We have several, and I had just cleaned the house and hadn't seen any of them. So it was a mystery to me as to where these cups had gone. So the next morning I asked James if he had hidden any, or if he knew where any were. He didn't, but said he would look for them. Many hours later as I was making dinner James brought down a sippy cup declaring that he had found one, he threw it in the sink and I asked where the lid had gone. He said that it was in the bathroom, he'd had to dump it out first. He then brought the lid down and put it in the sink while saying "whew, my bathroom smells awful!" I then asked "uh, what was in that cup?" he said "there was oil in it!" I was pretty sure that he had found an old cup with milk that had separated. I then told Ben to go make sure he hadn't dumped it out all over the bathroom. Ben came down saying that he didn't see any mess up there but that it was incredibly stinky. Well I think I got busy with dinner and forgot about the smelly bathroom upstairs until I finally went up there to put the kids to bed. our entire upstairs stank. It was the worst smell in the whole world. I seriously almost vomited. I ran away because it was so bad. I told ben to go dump some bleach down the drain and wipe it out and then we put some serious air freshener in there and turned on the fan. I knew though, that once the kiddos were in bed I would have to go in there and face the smell. And that is what I did. I put a towel over my nose and mouth and went on in there. Oh my heck..it had grown! The smell was worse than ever. I started scrubbing the place and quickly as I could. I wiped the entire bathroom down 3 times and still there was that horrible smell. I had to leave the bathroom several times to keep myself from puking. I also kept some aroma therapy bath salts by me and took a big wiff whenever the bad smell got too strong. Anyways, I cleaned that bathroom like crazy, did nothing for the smell. It just kept getting worse. So then I went to James. I asked him to tell me about the cup he had found he said "I found it in my play ktichen, and so I dumped it out in the sink, but there was like eggs in it so I picked up the eggs and put them in the garbage.." I have to admit at this point I just ran out of his room grabbed the garbage and threw it into the outside garbage, can and all. I then went back to James and tried to get more details, but no luck. So I have once again gone and wiped the place down, put air fresheners in there and all that. I am hoping that tomorrow I will be able to go past that bathroom without having to keep myself from puking. I so wish that I would have just found that cup in the first place because when I find an old cup of whatever...it is into the garbage with it. I guess that that is what James did, just not the whole thing. Ugh. oh yeah I scrubbed his hands for forever too.