Provo River 1/2 Marathon

Today I ran the Provo River 1/2 Marathon. I was a bit nervous, since I haven't been able to train as much as I was hoping. For about the last month, my knee has bothered me a lot. I went to the regular dr, since the Sports Medicine Dr, couldn't get me in until late Aug. Thankfully, my knee didn't hurt. But I was only able to run 3 times in the last 3 weeks. (On a side note, it has been years since I have been injured from running).
Everything started out well. My mom ran it also. My mom is the greatest. It was fun getting up early and hanging out with her till the race started.
I felt pretty good. About mile 5, I got a side stitch. I had to walk for a minute to get it to go away. After that, went away, it was pretty much smooth sailing until mile 11. About mile 11, I felt really crappy and tired. I didn't walk. But I slowed down a lot. Usually at the end of races, I like to be the one to pick off the tired runners one at a time, and see how many people I could pass. Well, today it was the other way around. I finished with a time of about 1:47 (one hour, forty-seven minutes). That's the fastest half-marathon I've run. I haven't run many half-marathons though. I made it to the half-way point of the TOU Marathon a few years ago faster than that though.
Mom finished in about 2:08. I am proud of her. She hates that she is getting older and slower, but I hope I can run as fast as her when I am nearly a senior citizen.
At the end, there were lots of people and kids with "Go Mom" signs. But there was nobody there for me. I didn't expect Dan to come with the kids. It is really hard to take our little clan places, especially alone. But I did wish there was someone there to see me finish. I should have arranged a babysitter for our little ones, so he could have brought our 2 oldest kids to the finish. Oh well, maybe next time.
On the way home, Mom was telling me what she was going to have for breakfast: a hot fudge sundae with nuts on top. I was amused. But that much sugar sounded gross, so I didn't stick around at her house to eat one.
I was glad that I ran it. And I was glad it was only a half-marathon, not a full marathon.

Before and After

It has been nearly one year since we bought this house. It is slowly transforming. Our yard used to look like a dump. Now it is looking much better. We planted a garden. It is the tallest corn we have ever grown.

Some people might think we are crazy for buying trashed houses and fixing them. But we have had a lot of adventures together, and we've been able to build equity. I work with Dan as much as possible on the projects. We still laugh about tearing out the ceiling on our old house a few years ago. We only laughed and sang, while we worked because it was so horrible. The kitchen had a drop ceiling. The ceiling was tiled with ugly tiles, like the kind our schools had when we were in school. I don't know how long the drop ceiling had been in, or if it was original with the house. The house was over 50 years old. When we would pull out the ceiling tiles, dirt, gravel insulation, and mouse poop would start raining down in the kitchen. It seems like we yelled when it first started falling all over. Then we got to where we were singing, instead of "Raindrops keep falling on my head" we were singing about all the crap falling on our heads. The kitchen looked a lot better after we tore out the hideous ceiling.

Now at our current house, Dan started tearing apart the downstairs bathroom (aka the disgusting bathroom) on Saturday. I don't know what the former owners wer thinking, but the put sheet-rock up over the window in the bathroom. And they made the bathroom smaller, with just a shower. The bedroom next to it has an oversized closet. So, we are taking part of the closet from the bedroom, and make a regular, full-sized bathroom. I can't wait to get the whole house finished. That's gonna take a few more years though. We were hoping to add on a garage. But a few weeks ago, the transmission went out on our van. So, we used part of the garage money and bought another minivan instead.

A few years ago, back before I had this many kids, I swore that I would never drive a mini-van. But here I am, driving a mini-van, just like a typical soccer mom.

Caleb and Rachel started school last week. They are on year-round school. Caleb is in first grade, and Rachel is in third grade. Caleb gave himself a haircut on the second day of school. Now he has a buzz.

July 24th, Pioneer Day

We went to Dan's parent's house for fireworks and a bbq. We had a good time. Dan did not have the day off of work, so we were all kind of bummed. I was experimenting with my camera, and here's a picture I took. All of the pictures with the kids in them ended up too blurry.

Caleb Turned 6 Years Old

Yesterday was Caleb's birthday. He got a new bike for his birthday. He had certainly outgrown his old bike.

He is such a sweet boy. I sure do love my Calebee.

In the evening, he had friends over for a swimming party. We just got out the slip n slide, and filled up the kiddie pool. I think everyone had fun. My mom even fed Alex a piece of cake. He is not quite 9 months old. I think by the time you have 4 kids, you realize that they don't die from eating real food before they turn a year old.

The 4th of July 2008

I started the 4th of July quite early. I went and helped with the Riverton 10K before it started, and then I ran the Riverton 10K. My goal was to run it in 48 minutes, and I ran it in 47:32. I was pleased with my time. Leslie and mom also ran it. Leslie didn't feel well, but Mom did well. Mom is always disappointed that she is getting slower each year. But I think it is great that she is still running. She will be 60 years old next year.

We ate lunch with my family. Then, in the evening we had Dan's family over for a bbq. It was fun to have them over. Dan wanted to show them what he had done with the yard.

Tonight we have been watching a movie called "Gettysburg". Actually, just me and Dan and Rachel. Caleb and Anna were up in my room watching "Land Before Time the 20th". I don't think there is a 20th.....but its a library movie and they made tons of "Land Before Time" movies. Anyhow, we were talking to Rachel a little bit about American History. She knows some since she is now a 3rd grader. She said, "If Abraham Lincoln was so important, why is his picture on such a worthless piece of money". Good question. A penny didn't used to be worthless.

When I went in to Smith's to get a few groceries, I noticed the price of gas was 4 cents higher when I came out. And I was only in the store a few minutes. Maybe we need to buy a horse and buggy. Of course, we couldn't afford to feed a horse with the way the price of everything is going up.

Anna told us that she wants to plant marshmallows in the garden. I thought that was funny. She loves marshmallows.

Alex has a tooth, and Caleb has one less

Alex got his first tooth. So far he only has one. Most of my kids had more teeth by now. He looks pretty cute with his one little tooth.

Caleb lost his first tooth. He thought it was great and is now wiggling lots of teeth.

I've been working part-time from home lately, so I have a lot less time to spend online. Everything is good here at home though. :)

This boy can sure push buttons......

And turn knobs, switches, and everything else too. I'm talking about Caleb. He is so mechanically inclined. I bit too much. Lately I am feeling a little crazy. He turns the water off in the bathroom (I'm not talking about the faucets), he has flipped breakers, turns the sprinkler system on, turns the fridge temperature up, turns on the headlights, puts on the parking break, locks doors just so he can pick the locks, puts toys behind the van tires so I will run them over and changes the kitchen timer when I am not looking. And probably some other things that I haven't listed yet. Caleb isn't really an adventurer. He just does little things here and there. I go to get the milk out of the fridge, and half the stuff in the fridge is frozen. I go to wash my hands in the bathroom and the water doesn't work.
What really has made me feel nuts lately has been the kitchen timer. I trade teaching piano lessons. Kathryn teaches Rachel, and I teach Kathryn's daughter. When I am teaching, I set the kitchen timer for the lesson time, so I know about when to end the lesson. I don't have a clock in the living room. This week when I was teaching, the lesson, seemed to last a really long time. When I finally went to see how much time was left, there was still about 2 hours left on the time. Kathryn had been waiting outside for quite a long time for the lesson to end. About 2 weeks ago, Alex had the stomach flu. I only had about half an hour until I needed to take Rachel to piano lessons. I was so tired from being up in the night, so I set the time for a few minutes so I could rest, and then wake up to take Rachel on time. Well, when the timer beeped, it was far too late for piano lessons. Believe me, I have learned my lesson about using the kitchen timer for things. Yesterday when I made cookies, I threatened him that he wouldn't get any if he got near the timer.
Caleb is such a cute boy though. He just got his first tooth out. Now he is excitedly wiggling the next tooth. He can work all the electronics in the house far better than Rachel. And probably some of them better than me. Right now he is watching the washing machine.
I never knew how hard having 4 kids could be. Alex is starting to get into things. Anna is always trying to go on an adventure by herself. And Caleb is always messing with everything. At least Rachel is at an easy stage. I wouldn't trade my kids for anything. I love them so much. I just feel really tired by the end of the day. As our lives change, we just get different challenges.