If you like Coldplay.....

Last week my sister Jenny sent me this link for a free Coldplay album download. It is a live concert--and IMO live isn't usually as good. But hey, its free and I enjoyed listening to it.
http://lrlrl.coldplay.com/leftright.html

Also, there is a new YouTube video by Jon Schmidt called Love Story meets Vive la Vida.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3d6SFcDys

I really enjoyed this music video. Probably because I like musical instruments and Coldplay. I've never really listened to Taylor Swift, so I don't know the song Love Story. I would love to play the piano this well.

Alex says...

Alex is 19 months now. He says some words that are kind of funny.
Here's some of them:
Foofs (shoes)
Nandy (candy)
Bippy (sippy cup)
Nanna (Anna and Banana)
Bee (Caleb. I call Caleb "Caleby" and he just picked up on the bee part of the name)

He also says a lot of things correctly, like "bath, stuck, mom, dad, cookie, dog".

He keeps me very, very busy. I only hope he hasn't gotten into something while I've been on the computer for a couple of minutes. I put locks on the cabinets this week. He got into the flour bucket and made a huge mess. I thought I would be smart and vacuum it up with the shop vac. I forgot that we hadn't cleaned out the filter since the kitchen remodel, so sheetrock dust went everywhere. What a mess.
Alex is convinced that we have a "Nandy" cupboard. Don't we all have a candy cupboard? Its really the medicine cupboard. And it is locked. I've always kept the cleaners locked up. We just needed new locks on the new cabinets. Thankfully, I could get the kind that just go through the handles, so we didn't have to drill any holes.
Alex climbed on top of the piano this morning, and threw or knocked off a tile that I had on the piano with a saying on it. It didn't break. But it caused some floor damage to the laminate wood floor.
Dan did some paint touch-ups in the kitchen on Friday. About the time it dried, Alex got a pen out of the drawer, and did a nice mural on the freshly painted wall.
Alex also has incredibly strong little arms. When I am putting laundry in the wash, he pulls up to look in the washing machine. He loves to put the downy ball in for me. Caleb used to like to do this.
I hope I can keep up with this boy.........he's the busiest toddler I've had.

The Ogden Half Marathon

On Friday night, my mom, Leslie, Becca, Ralphie (Ang) and I drove up to Odgen. We met up with Bridget since she lives in Odgen, and Jenny, who drove from Idaho for the race. We picked up our race packets and went to the Olive Garden for dinner.

We woke up rather early on Saturday morning to ride the bus up the canyon. Or in my case, I didn't have to wake up since I was already awake. I don't sleep well at hotels. After an uneventful bus ride, we got dropped off at Eden park, where the race starts. We huddled around the campfires for over an hour while we waited.

I hadn't trained much for the half-marathon because I have been having knee issues. I had only gotten in one ten mile run, and a couple of runs shorter than ten. I started wearing a knee band recently and taking anti-inflammatories again, and that seems to have helped the knee issue a lot. I felt unprepared for the race.

I actually felt well for almost the entire race. I listed to my ipod, enjoyed the mountains (especially the waterfall) and ran along without anybody I knew. About mile 11, I started to feel quite tired, but I made it to the end just fine.

I ran a time of 1:44. I haven't run many half-marathons, and this is now my fastest time. Overall, I placed 49th out of 1295 women. I'm happy with how I did.

Jenny and Leslie came in a few minutes behind me. I only saw Leslie finish. I don't know how I missed seeing Jenny since she was a few feet in front of Leslie. They did well, and I was proud of them.

Mom didn't have her best race. She came in about 20 minutes behind Leslie and Jenny. She looked like she didn't feel good. Immediately after crossing the finish line, she started to pass out. She was carried to the medical tent. We were all really worried. Its not like Mom is 40 anymore. She'll be 60 pretty soon. They didn't let people into the gate to the medical tent. However, I climbed through the barricade bars and into the medical tent to make sure she was okay. She was actually kind of funny. She was concerned about getting out of the tent ASAP because she wanted the free hotel breakfast before it ended in half an hour. After a little while, they let her leave. We walked slowly back to the hotel for breakfast. I am proud of Mom for running. It may not have been a PR for her, but she is awesome for running.

All of us runners, and non-runners had a fun time together.

Tomorrow it's been 9 Years

Since Rachel was born. Rachel was due May 5, but was born May 13. (Yeah, I was such a happy camper when I was overdue).

Rachel was born very early on a Saturday morning, the day before Mother's Day

When Rachel was born, the cord was wrapped around her neck 3 times. She came out blue and was not breathing. Since she was my first, I had no idea what a newborn was supposed to look like. And I didn't know that it was unusual that they wisked her away to the corner of the room to work on her. Looking back, I realize how blessed we were that she came out perfectly fine.

Rachel is quite a joy to have around. She is always writing little notes and doing nice things for people. She tries hard to choose the right. She is a great helper with all of her younger siblings. Her school teachers and church teachers have only good things to say about her.

On Friday we went to the library. When we got home, she took a book to the backyard and sat under the apple tree. She read the entire book in one sitting---under the apple tree. At night, I have to make her put her book down and go to sleep, or she will read until it is very late.

Rachel also loves to cook. I have started letting her cook simple things all by herself. (Except I help her get it out of the oven). She thinks it is fun to look at cookbooks. I've always loved to look at cookbooks.

Rachel loves every creature on earth. She has kept and named spiders, butterflies, potato bugs, snails, caterpillars, and ladybugs. She loves cats, and especially dogs.

I couldn't ask for a better daughter.

The Race in the Rain

Several weeks ago, we signed up for the West Jordan Red Run. Dan and I signed up to do the 5K, and Rachel, Caleb and Anna signed up for the kids fun run.
When I woke up, I called my mom and Jenny (who was visiting my parents) to see how the weather was on their run. Jenny said she got hot and had to take off her sweatshirt during the first mile of their run. So, I decided that I shouldn't overdress for the 5K. I put on some shorts, shirt and sweatshirt. I would probably take my sweatshirt off before the start.
On the way to Jordan Landing, it started raining quite hard. I mentioned it to Dan, who said it just looked like it was raining hard since we were driving. When we got there, it was a decent rain storm. Since I had already paid money for this and the kids were excited, I decided we would stick with it.
My mom was coming to watch the kids while Dan and I ran the 5K. At about 8:45, I called her to see where she was. Well, we had a little misunderstanding about the race start time. She hopped in the car and came as fast as she could. Dan decided that if she didn't make it, he would stay behind with the kids while I ran. Right as the gun went off, my mom ran up and took the kids from Dan. So, he started about 10 seconds late.
It rained hard. There were puddles everywhere. And for most of the race, we were running on the side of the road, which was where all the water was draining to. My shoes got soggy within the first minute or two. I kept my sweatshirt on, which acted like a sponge. When we ran a certain direction, the water was pelting my face and eyes and getting in my contacts. It reminded me a region, my sophmore year of high school. I was really glad when I got to the finish because I was really cold and wet. I came in second overall in the women. I was happy enough with my time, because the conditions weren't so good. Dan finished about 11 minutes behind me. I am proud of him for trying to get back in shape.
After my soggy race, came the kids' run. Rachel and Caleb were excited. Anna wanted to run too. I was a bit unsure of letting her run, because this race was a whole mile. But she ran the teddy bear 1K last fall, and ran almost the entire way and almost beat Caleb to the finish. So I decided to let her run it too. A few hundred meters into the race, she didn't want to run it anymore. It was raining and she didn't like it. So, we walked, and I carried her some until we finished. I should have had better judgement and told her that she couldn't run it. She just wanted to be big like Rachel and Caleb. Rachel ran almost the whole way. She stopped just once the whole mile. She was the second child to finish the mile.
I wanted to go home and skip the awards ceremony. The rain was coming down even harder. Our kids insisted that I could not skip getting my award. So we stuck around. It took forever for the awards.
Guess what they served after the race? Ice cream sandwiches. Normally, this would have been delightful after a race. I still ate one, since I love ice cream. But I shivered while I ate it.
I planned on taking pictures of the kids at the race, but due to the weather, there are no pics of this one.

Some random thoughts

Today as we were coming out of the grocery store, Anna excitedly announced, "Look its snowing". Now, I am really sick of the snow. So I was happy to see that it wasn't really snowing. The wind was blowing the white blossoms off the trees.

Alex and Anna have about done me in. I hope I can keep up with them, and I try hard to. Alex decided to go on a tour of the neighborhood by himself. I was sweeping the driveway on the side of the house. Alex was playing in the fenced back yard. Most of the time, I could see him playing while I swept. For a minute, I couldn't see him. I just figured he was by the swingset where I couldn't see him. A minute later, Anna called me from the front door. After she yelled "MOM" three times, I went to see what the problem was. She said, "Look, there's Alex". He had run across the street and was running down the sidewalk on an adventure. Of course I was upset and ran after him and brought him back home. I yelled at Anna for letting him out the front door. Later I apologized, and I realized that someone bigger than her must not have shut the front door tight. Our front door is rather hard to open. The screen door (or whatever you call it since it doesn't have a screen) is simple to open. Alex had gone in the back door and out the front. In the news recently there was a story about a toddler the same age as Alex that got out the door and tragically was run over. I feel so bad for that family. I realized that it could have happened to Alex. I really do try to keep track of him.

I thought this was funny. About a week ago someone asked me if my older two children were from a different marriage. She said, "They sit so perfectly at church and your younger two are such a handful." I assured her that they all came from the same parents, and that I'm sure our younger two will mellow out someday. After all, Rachel and Caleb used to be difficult during church. Dan and I get a workout in sacrament meeting. I literally am sweating by the time the meeting is over, from trying to keep Alex under control. It doesn't help that church is at 1:00 and both Anna and Alex are extremely tired and grumpy.

Did you know that you aren't supposed to bring toy guns to school? I'm certain that you and I both know that you shouldn't. I thought my kids knew that. I guess Caleb didn't. Caleb, being a boy, likes to play fighting/battle games at recess. Not real fighting. Just pretend. Usually they find sticks on the playground to use as their toy guns. One day, he snuck and brought his toy cap gun (that my mom bought him) to school. He didn't take it out until recess. You can probably guess how this ended. He had to sit at the principal's office for over an hour with his head down while he waited for her to get out of a meeting. He was also suspended(but given the option of in-school suspension). He remained very stoic at school. But when I tucked him in that night, he sat on my lap and cried for a long time. He felt so bad. I am thankful that the principal was not too hard on him, since he is only 6 years old and he didn't know any better. Now he knows.

It is hard being a parent. But it is so worth it. I love my children so much. They mean the world to me.

The Kitchen Remodel

We are mostly finished with the kitchen remodel. We have some finishing touches to do, like baseboards and outlets. It has been a long, hard week. We've all worked really hard.