Some Catching Up To Do

Boy has it been a while! Let's do a quick update:

 

I ran Ogden's half marathon last May, I believe it took me about 2 hours
and 49 minutes,so a minute or two less than my last marathon. Of
the 3816 registered, I finished as the 1990th across the finish line. 
But finish I did, and in the pouring rain no less.  It had rained all
night and continued on throughout the day, but I managed to stay

mostly dry with a poncho, with the exception of my feet, hands, and
face. I threw the poncho off at the very end so I would be recognizable.
Here's the pic!

 

It's a HORRID picture, I know, I took a picture of it pulled up on
the computer because I just can't afford to pay $38 for ONE picture,
but I needed proof of a very important event. I have volunteered
for the Ogden marathon six times and at each one, I've promised
myself  that I would BE IN IT one day. And that day came and it was
as amazing as I thought it would be. I loved the race atmosphere,

the volunteers, and of course, my whole family being there at the
finish line. This race was a lot bigger and more crowded than the
Hunstville half marathon, so it was fun to experience another race.
I finally got the "trinket" that I had  seen others get and wear proudly,
and I hung it right next to my other medal, and I love glancing at
hem every now and again in my bedroom, it helps me realize that I am
capable of doing hard things, things that take awhile to accomplish,
that in no way cater to my need for instant gratification that I have
struggled with all my life.

 

And guess what? I'M DOING IT AGAIN THIS YEAR!

Yep, Justin and I are signed up for the May 17th event, so I will be
reporting on that in a couple of months. I wasn't going to do another
one, but that leads me to my next update...

 

We still aren't pregnant. We've been trying since summer, but it
just hasn't been in the cards for us yet. It is suspected that I don't
make enough of the hormone Progesterone on my own,
which can mean I can't "hold onto" an egg once it has been released.

I've been tracking all sorts of things and I've been on clomid at times,
but in February I decided to stop fixating on all of it so much and
just let it be for awhile. And that is when I decided I needed
something else positive to concentrate on and I thought another

half marathon would be just the thing. And I've always wanted to do
something big like that with my husband, and he was totally game, so
we started training last week, and its going to be an amazing thing
that we work on and complete together.

 

Over the past year we have gone on a few amazing trips. We went to
Chicago in July and then California in August. I will do some separate
posts of each in a little bit so I can get the entire experience
(complete with pictures) documented.

 

My mom moved up to Oregon in August, it has been very weird not
having her around. We never saw each other a TON because we are
both introvert homebodies, but it was still different knowing she was
just a 20 minute drive away if I needed her or she needed me. That's
not there now and it is something to get used to for sure. My whole
family that I am close to is within an hours driving distance. Parents,
grandparents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles... they are all
right here.  When I married Justin I got my first sense of what is
was like to have family living in a different state. I will say that it
sure makes the times when you finally DO see them a whole lot
sweeter. We went to Tahoe for Christmas to stay with Justin's
family, but at the end I flew up to Oregon to stay with my mom
for a couple of days, and it was so nice. It was relaxing and we got
to spend time just the two of us, like all those years it was just us.
We shopped and watched movies and ate good food, it was just the
best.  I missed Justin of course, but distance makes the heart grow
fonder, and it made coming home that much sweeter too.
I think we will get back up to my mom's for mother's day.

 

While we are on that subject, something else crazy happened...
Justin's sister's boyfriend of several years got offered a job in
Medford Oregon, right there where my mom is! Because it was
such  an  amazing offer, they accepted and bee-bopped right up
there in January and have loved it. My mom and Shannon hang out
and do  things, and that fills me with such happiness because I
don't want my mom OR my sister-in-law to be without family around,  
so it has worked out absolutely perfectly. I take care of Shannon's
mom and she takes care of mine! Heavenly Father sure had a
hand in that one.

 

Last update... I've started working with my grandpa on his Tire
Crafting business. Long ago he invented/created the pattern for
the tire horse swing, which launched all kinds of other projects
having to do with old used tires. He put all his ideas in a book and
has  successfully sold it for over 20 years, and because he is getting 
a little older now, he needs to pass the torch to someone else, so I
created a new, modern website that we will sell the books on,
and in order to protect all the assets I actually started an LLC
that we will do business under. I hope to do all kinds of amazing
things for the  environment, and publish other works that promote
recycling and gardening, so we named the business Green Arts Publishing.
I'm so excited for this new  chapter in my life, and I have great hopes
that it will lead to positive things. I will probably start another
blog for that, but I will have to work up to that, I still love my
job with Intermountain Healthcare, and don't want to stop doing it

any time soon,so I just have to use my time wisely.

 

Well, that's it for now, I will try to post again soon!

 

Loves,
L

 



 

Graduation!

Yes... Yes I Did

This might be hard to believe... even months later I find myself still a little skeptical, but I finally graduated from college. College, people. Granted, it wasn't anything cool, like my doctorate in like Aeronautical  Engineering or gene splicing or something. I will never find a cure for cancer or invent the next iPod, but in my book just have a bachelors degree in sales technology is like up there with having air-conditioned seats in my car and suddenly being able to buy e-books without going to the store. i.e. it's awesome. Proof you say?

Here it is!

(Cute husband, right? I know :)



Bam! There it is, with my name all over it. What do I do with it now? Who knows. But the point right now is, I finished it. I finished something spectacularly challenging (if school was a piece of cake to you, shut it, you are a freak of nature). I worked full time the entire time, met and courted my husband, got married, AND switched majors THREE times. I have almost enough credits for two degrees, but you know what? I can't really regret it when it just took me awhile to find what interested me. I was pre-med, then I was a psych major (wow, fun stuff in THERE) and then a business major. I'm a very well-rounded graduate :)  

I wanted to quite a lot when I didn't want to write one more paper, or go to one more class, or take one more test, but I stuck with it, and as is the case with all things challenging, it was WORTH IT. Much like the half marathon I completed late last year that I never thought I could do!

Man, I am just finishing things all over the place!! Go me.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a great big THANK YOU to everyone that helped me, put up with me, inspired me, and paid for me (Dad and Intermountain Healthcare) during this huge process. My family put up with me not helping them with various things, my friends put up with me being a hermit and not seeing them for months at a time. My boss and co-workers put up with me leaving early or not coming in at all to complete projects. And my poor husband put up with me being too stressed, grumpy, busy, and tired to cook because "I'm in school gosh darnet and I can't do homework AND cook dinner tonight!!" The poor dear. He was a trooper though, so now I guess I better go make the big bucks :-)

Both of my parents are college graduates, and I can't say enough for having educated parents in the home. While I would NEVER degrade or judge anyone or think myself better or smarter that either couldn't go to college or just plain didn't want or need to, I do think that I personally having a deeper understanding of the world and it's history and the ways that various seemingly-unrelated things really work together and influence the outcome of an endless amount of things, and this is extremely priceless to me.  I have learned so much about things that I didn't appreciate before I was (*cough*) FORCED to learn about them. From economics to women's rights, to negotiating contracts to understanding the way the brain works, I went from one end of the spectrum to other, and had a blast. I'm done though, thanks. Much like a buffet, I ate too much, I've had my fill and I never want to eat... I mean go to school... ever again!

Half-Marathon

Ok, so I know I am waaaay late posting about thiss (try a month!) but I'm in school so cut me a break :)

I FINISHED MY GOAL OF COMPLETING A HALF MARATHON!!!

That's right folks. On September 29, 2012 I crossed the finish line after running for two hours and fifty minutes. I was the 434th finisher out of 540. Did I run fast? Nope! Was I going to set any records? NOPE! But did I finish?

YOU BET YOUR A$$ I DID!!!!!

I was super nervous to do the whole thing because I felt like I could have trained a lot harder, but I also knew I was going to see this through. To prepare for the race a few days before, I drank a TON of water, I'm not kidding, I had to pee about every 30 mintues for a few days. The night before the race my husband and I went out with some other runners and had dinner at Roosters. Carb load! I had pasta with alfredo sauce. Yum!!! The morning of the race I ate brown sugar oatmeal, a banana, and a goo packet. I had another goo packet about two hours before the race, and another packet about 40 mintues before the race.

Here is a picture of me that my mom took right when I got up to Huntsville park. Haha I look as nervous as I felt!

My mom and mother-in-law met me at the park got this picture. (BTW, it was really cold, and I was trying to keep my muscles warm, vanity ceased to be a priority at this point! )

And then I went to the bathroom and then my mom snapped this pic real quick of me and my mother-in-law. You can still tell I am a bundle of nerves. I can't even make a decent smile face!

And then, the buses were loaded. 

Wow, I look like I'm being dragged to a prison or something ;) About 20 minutes later we arrived at the start line, where I used the bathroom again and ate a goo pack. Then all my gear went in a bag, and the race began!

Sometimes I ran...

And sometimes I walked...

And I felt SUPER great...

... until about mile 11 or so, and then everything started to catch up with me, so the last two miles I walked more than I would have liked, but then, ahead of me, in the distance like a mirrage, was the finish line, and I was such a happy girl to be crossing it!!!

The funny thing about being done was that it seemed like it had gone by so fast. It really was a great race. I felt good, I didn't feel like I had killed myself. My knees felt great, my feet felt pretty good besides my left big toe ( Sadly, I eventually lost that toenail, it's trying to grow back now :(

Yes, I finally got my "trinket" as my friend John Morrow would say (the medal). I've wanted one forever, and I wanted to do something that I never in a million years thought I could do. I can't describe the amazing feeling of finishing this race. I learned a lot about myself and that my will power can do amazing things. There are still a lot of things I need to work on, self-motivation being one of them, but this was definitly a step in the right direction, and I don't feel bad or conceited at all when I say that I AM AMAZING :)



Lifelong Challenge

Well, a few quick notes about my running and then I'm going to move onto something I need to get off my chest. The half marathon is coming up in a couple of weeks and honestly I am more scared than excited. Is it too late to back out? No? Alright, I'll do it then :) The 10k I did a few weeks ago at Fort Buenaventura was soooo hard. Granted, it was a trail run with natural terrain obstacles and a crap-load of stairs, not to mention a river to wade through, so by the time I was done I felt like my legs were going to give out underneath me. I had to walk a lot more than I would have liked, but as I like to say, I am still passing the people on the couch! My time was horribly slow, I think it took me and hour and thirty three minutes, but whatever. AND I got to do it with one of my best friends, Jordan. She's an animal, she finished in a little over an hour. We've been through so much together, through thick and thin, and this experience was just one more fun experience to add to the mix.

Okay, so moving onto a heavier topic. I've had this issue I've struggled with my entire life, and I can sum it up in one word: FAIRNESS. This one word has many facets though. Maybe I can straighten it out in my head by straightening it out via blog.

I would say the word first came to mean something to me in elementary school when I got my first taste of bullying. It just wasn't fair that I got bullied and teased and lied to. After all, I was a good person and a good friend. Why didn't my friends realize that and stop teasing me? Why did I care so much and let them hurt me so bad? Why did I have to find new friends to finally stop the torment? It isn't fair that any child should be bullied, especially when they didn't do anything to bring it upon themselves.

As I got a little older I realized that it wasn't just me that got hurt, that everyone gets hurt, I began to get angry that the sorts of people that bring others down so they can feel better just never seem to reap what they sow. Karma is so slow! It just wasn't fair that these people get away with being mean to others, and nobody calls them out on it. Nobody yells at them and nobody leaves them. They just get to keep on with their feelings of superiority and they even keep their "friends" that suck up to them and play the game as well to earn the attention and affection of this mean person. Is that messed up or what?

And as I have grown into an adult and started to ponder on more important things, like my relationship with my Heavenly Father and the things I need to do during this short life on earth, my feelings about the word fairness have gotten both more and less complicated. Less complicated in that I know that there is a plan for all of us, and it isn't up to me to decide who gets punished for their wrongdoings, He must have meant for a lesson to be learned in there somewhere. But more complicated because now it seems like the people that should GET IT, that should truly understand why you should be a good person, are some of the meanest people I've ever had the misfortune of coming into contact with. They are people who CLAIM to be Christians, who CLAIM to understand what Jesus's life on this earth was all about and who count themselves as members of a religion that are supposed to always do what Jesus would do: love without prejudice, accept apologies and forgive and forget, pray for those that have hurt you, and always, ALWAYS, leave judgement for our Heavenly Father. I've known people like this my whole life, even been related to some of them, and I find it interesting that some of the most genuine, kind, sincere people I know are not members of any organized religion. Is it the pressure of seeming more worthy than everyone else?  Fear of standing up to someone because you don't want to become their target? The pressure of fitting into the mold? If that is the mold, I don't want to fit into it.

My struggle now, and probably will be for the rest of my life, is to understand how people can act so completely against what Jesus lived his life to show us to do. But you know what? I pray for them. I love them. It's not fair, and I don't like it, but they need help in the most profound of ways, for these kinds of people probably don't even realize how truly hurtful they are, so it's going to take awhile before they fix it. They hide behind self-rightousness and pride. And one day, when they do realize the damage that they have done, they are going to be really sad, and in those moments, they are going to need love and support and forgiveness. I pray that I will be more accepting of this lesson that I obviously need to learn. It just isn't in my hands, and feeling bad because the world isn't fair is only poison to my heart because HE didn't promise that it would be. He only promised that he would be here for us.

And in that vein, I want to say how much I love the people who have dealt with this kind of adversity, have been on the receiving end of such struggles, and come through it with grace and more importantly, nothing bad to say about their tormenters.  I say thank you for setting an example for me of how to not only survive it, but to grow from it and be some of the most beautiful people I get to spend my time with. My mother is the most amazing person I know, inside and out, and without her tormenters and her struggles, she would not be the shining diamond of an example she is to me today. My husband has every reason in the world to hold onto hate and grief for many reasons, but he has the most amazing sense of humor, and such a love for his fellow man that he is willing to put his life on the line for strangers. My sisters have had so many experiences with adversity, but they aren't bitter or self-pitying, they are loving and intelligent, with beautiful children and loving husbands. I'm glad they got married first and had children first, for they have set such an example for me. My sister-in-law has the worst luck in the world! But she keeps picking herself up and carrying on, all the while laughing and giggling. She has the most infectious personality, she just draws your happiness to the surface. What a gift! With people like this around me, I can only be a better person. So I guess what I need to do is always focus on the positive, not on the negative. Count my blessings, as the saying goes, and in my case, the blessings are people. I love you all, and I hope you are reading this in case I haven't told you lately :)

Oops

Wow, have I really  not blogged since June? My bad :) I wish I could say it was because I was off on so many adventures.... but it's not. I'm just a procrastinator. So anywho.... the running has been going OK. I say OK because when I actually go, I am so freaking happy with myself. The problem is that I have been slacking. I am usually only doing a Tuesday and Saturday run now, although my distances have been going up so hopefully I will still be okay when the half marathon comes around.

The Kiss Me Dirty race was so fun! All of the girls in our group dressed up in black and pink and declared ourselves the Mud Bunnies, complete with pink bunny ears and a white bunny tail, although by the end that bunny tail was anything but white. Here's some pictures from the event:

So as you can see, we had a TON of fun in the mud! Despite the fact that I have been running some, I'm still kind of disappointed in myself for not keeping up with as strict of schedule as I could. I'm working on this, but it has been hard to get out of bed in the mornings, it just feels so good to sleep! I know that if I continue down this path though, it's going to be one difficult day on September 29th :-/  And to add to that, I start school next Monday, and I have a feeling that after work and school, I'm not going to have a lot left in me. I'll try though! I'll DIE trying >:-I

Mistake

Alright, so right off the bat I'll just get it off my chest... I made a big mistake Saturday. It's been pretty nice in the mornings here in Utah so far this year, so when I decided to wake up at 7:30 on Saturday to do my big five mile run, I figured I was going to be able to do it in the nice coolness of the morning. Um... no. I didn't get out the door until close to eight, and by the time I walked the two blocks to the track, I was already feeling the sun on my shoulders. Exactly 2.7 miles later, I felt like I was going to die. My head was pounding, I felt like I couldn't breath, and I was sweating everywhere. I got light-headed and I was moving as slow as a snail. I sat down in the shade and cooled down, then walked home. I felt horrible. This was the end of my week three, and that dang five-miler was supposed to be getting easier to do, not harder. Alright, there it is. I'm not proud, and I'm certainly down, but I'm not out yet. In fact.... now here's the upside and the reason I'm still going strong, my first 5K is this Saturday the 30th, and I picked up my race packet on Saturdayn a few hours after my run. My friend Melanie invited me onto her team with the other ladies from her boot camp class. We all met and picked up our packets and then had lunch to discuss our outfits. We are Team Mud Bunnies hahaha. This race is called "Kiss Me Dirty" and it's a 5K with all sorts of muddy obstacles at the Weber County Fairgrounds. The proceeds to go cervical and ovarian cancer research, which is pretty important to me since both my mom's (mom and step-mom) had to have hysterectomies due to cervical cancer. I am so excited to compete in a race, even if I'm not in it to win it, just to have fun and finish it. I think these fun little 5k's will keep me interested and excited until the big day on September 29th.
As for the 3 miles runs I do Monday and Wednesday, those have been really great. I can complete those now without stopping to walk, and definitly don't feel in danger of passing out when I am done. I'm still not fast, I complete them in about 32 mintues or so, but I don't care. I complete them, and I feel great when I am done. I KNOW this is working, a month ago I wouldn't have dreamed I could run about 10 miles per week. No way!!! So I'm pretty excited about that.
Next week, I don't get to run little 3-milers anymore, my "easy" run is now 4 miles on Mondays and Wednesdays, with SIX miles to do on Saturday. I'm not sure how I'll work that in on Saturday since I have the KMD 5k, but maybe I'll do another 3 miles that night. I guess it's not exactly what the training schedule had in mind, but I'm still out there, off my butt and off the couch, right?! Right. Oh, and here's a little sarcasm to lighten the day :-P

Progress

Week two of running went really well, I must say. It didn't go easy, but it went well as in I finished everything I was supposed to. Two more 3-milers on Monday and Wednesday, and a big ol' 5-miler on Saturday. Monday was pretty average, but on Wednesday I decided to push myself, so I ran the whole first 1.67 miles, then I walked for two minutes, and then I ran the rest of the way, for a total time of just over 30 minutes. I don't know how I did it, and maybe I won't do it again for awhile, but it was pretty good for me, and I'm not ashamed to say I'm proud of myself. Then came Saturday, and that 5 miles took me an hour to complete. I'm refusing the be down about it because the fact is, I did it. And that's means a lot to me. I've never even attempted something like that in my life, and although it took me awhile, I didn't feel like I was going to die when I was done, and I felt great the rest of the day. In fact, one day later, I'm really not even sore. Now that might be an indication that I'm not pushing it hard enough, but man, just starting this whole process is definitly pushing me outside my box, so I refuse to view myself as anything else but a success :)
Another thing I love is that my husband has been so supportive. When he looks at me with pride in his eyes every time I finish my run, I feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. I can't wait to run across that finish line in September with him by side, knowing we did this fabulous, challenging thing together, much like the feeling we will both have the day our first child is born. This marathon is a major step to us being ready to take up the huge challenge called "Parenthood" next year. First things first though... and week three in next!