RAGNAR 2011

Another RAGNAR has come and gone. What an experience!! You can tell people it's so "fun" and they ask exactly what about it is fun? Is it the sore muscles that make it so you walk funny? How about the sleep deprivation, the freezing cold...maybe the stinkin' hot?? I bet it's the really big hill! Strange really how none of those really fit into the category of fun, but the package deal is actually "fun"! Maybe it's just the bonding and the satisfaction of accomplishing something hard and different. I don't know, but I love it!!

We started at 7 am and it was really cold! Kristine started us out and I was next. My first run was 5.5 miles and mostly downhill. By downhill, I really mean not uphill. I was looking to blow through this run but I had a minor technical difficulty that threw me right before I started. Somehow my iPod got turned on and was completely dead. I have never, and I mean NEVER, run with NO music, NO time, NO speed or NO distance. I was running completely blind. I really didn't like it. I finished in 53 minutes. Next was Falkon, Glade, Dave and then Rhett. Have I mentioned that we took Rhett? I'm so glad we did!! I think that was the highlight of my race. His first run was 4.6 miles and he blew it out of the water!! He ran 7.5 minute miles. He was passing everyone. There's just something about watching your kid do something hard and then to do it so well on top of that. When he finished, he was in tears. He felt like puking, something he really never felt before after a run. I assured him it was because he worked so hard and he would be ok. Oh yeah, he ate a lot of licorice right before he ran. Anyway, it really shook him and he was not thinking he wanted to do another leg. He held up like a champ for the long time in the car and did very little whining. I was so proud of him.

I forgot to mention that at the start line was Sione Fa from the biggest loser. I told him I thought about punching him in the arm for not picking me for his RAGNAR team but decided against it. It was fun to meet him.



We decked out the van this year. It got better as time went on and we added things to it. Most people keep track of "kills" (how many people you pass) on their vehicles. But, being the nice little elves that we are, we kept track of "friends we've passed along the way". We ended up with 64. Most gotten by Dave, Falkon and Rhett.



I don't have a lot of great pictures right now because I still have no photo editor and so many of them need to be cropped and stuff to be any good so I will just post a few today. This is after my first run. It got hot really fast!


Falkon handing off to Glade. Glade didn't train as much as he would have like to but he did really well considering. He was really sore after his first one but managed to get through all his others pretty well.


This is Rhett's first run. You can see the effort on his face. Seriously, so proud of him.



I include this picture because it's the start of my very crappiest run. The fact that I'm standing in front of the "crappers" is fitting. It started really when I went in to the potty and forgot to lock it so I got walked in on. Not only did they open the door, but then I screamed so everyone looked. Nice. This run was only 4.7 and I was going to kill it. Not. For some reason I just didn't have it in me. I got a mile or so in and needed to take my jacket off. You can see that I have the reflective vest over my jacket and my team number pinned to it so it took some doing to get this accomplished while still running. Once I got all settled, I realized I had the baton (slap bracelet) over the sleeve of my jacket. Not any more. It was gone. I debated on going back to find it but decided I would just keep going and have my team go look while I finished the run. No luck. Anyway, I felt like I was running fast, but I ended the run at 10 minute miles. For me, that is not good. Especially on a small run that was completely flat. It was all I could do to not cry.

We didn't let Rhett do the night run for safety reasons and for his own comfort. After our second runs were done, we went to a hotel in Anthem to shower and rest. For some reason I couldn't stay asleep and kept worrying that we were going to over sleep. I didn't have a clock so I decided to get up and do my hair and get ready. Once I was done, I found my phone and realized we still had over an hour to sleep. I went back to bed and tried to sleep but Janice texted to tell us they were getting close. My team couldn't understand why I would straighten my hair before a run. Hello?? Anyway, we loaded up and headed to our final runs.

This was my Goliath for this event.

A lovely 8.8 miles mostly uphill. No one else on the team wanted to take this so it got left to me. I'm certainly not qualified to run a leg like this, but I had determined that I was going to DO this. It's so much in your head. I knew that if I kept myself positive and determined I could do this, even if it was slow...I was doing it. This ended up being my best run. Slowest, 11:20 minute miles, but I killed it! I felt so good!! My legs were tired, my chest was starting to hurt...my whole back and neck hurt from hunching over chugging up those hills, but I kept going. Glade kept pulling over every couple miles to give me water. At one point, I saw them but they hadn't gotten out to bring me water. I opened the side door to get it myself and scared the crud out of my team. That was kind of fun. Ü What a serious rush to finish this one!

This was Rhett's last run. We told him not to push quite so hard so he wouldn't puke after. This was a 5.5 mile run. He was excited and feeling really good about it. He flew! It was so fun to watch him passing people and having people cheer for him and compliment him along the way. He had some pretty good hills on this one as well. We pulled over every mile or so to give him a drink and check on him. He said he was doing great so we kept going.

This was our last stop checking on him. There was a turn coming up so we wanted to make sure he didn't miss it and get lost. The final stretch for his run was downhill. He passed 9 people along the way. When we got to the exchange, he was coming in so fast!! There was a large group there and everyone was screaming for him. It honestly brought tears to my eyes to see him coming down that hill and to hear the cheers for him. He finished and came right over and hugged me. My boy!! He had a great time and has already asked if he could run again next year. I think I might just let him!! It was really rewarding for both of us.


Finished!! After our last runs, our van went home to shower before we went to the finish line to meet our team. I showered and started to blow dry my hair ( I was at my mom's house) but she had taken the blow drier with her to my house. What??? I had no blow dryer and needed to leave in 30 minutes. This was bad. After searching for an extra one, I went over to the neighbors, who I've never met, and asked to borrow theirs. That's what desperation will do for you! Anyway, we headed back to watch them finish. Everyone did really well and we all had a great time. When asked if he was ready for next year, Dave says "you can't ask me that, I just gave birth to this RAGNAR!" I say we're in!!


Celebratory dinner at Texas Roadhouse. They made us wait about 15 minutes to get our tables ready so we asked if we could have rolls while we waited. They said we could have as many as we wanted. We had a lot!! Glade was asleep by 5:50, me by 6:30. Both of us slept 12 straight hours. Walking was a bit of a challenge all day, but not too bad. Even Rhett was a little sore. That made me happy! Thanks for a great weekend Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins!

Storm before the Calm

I feel like so much is going on, but nothing to write about! Monday, Nick, Stephen and I went shopping for their Trek clothes, not cheap. Glad to have it done though. Now I just need to get Whitley's and mine done. Then I had dance practice for 2 hours which I really enjoyed. (enter youtube video) After, I went home to get a few things done...got tired of hearing kids playing video games so I made them all load their bikes up in the van and we headed out to the path I like to run on. They rode while I ran. Didn't last long. They were done about 10 minutes in. Luckily there was a park so they just played there till I was done running. Now it was dinner time so we drove through Taco Bell and headed home. Got everyone showered and cleaned up and had FHE. It really was a nice day off school, got lots accomplished.

The last few days I have spent shopping and doing laundry. I have no idea where Bo's jeans have gone. He has 2 pair that I can find and one has a huge rip. So I went to get him some. Where have all the $10 jeans gone? I couldn't find them for less than $14 in the two places I always get them for ten. So I didn't buy any. Later I went to Ross and found 3 pair for $9 each. Cha Ching! I love Ross. While shopping, Rhett and I were talking about when he would be able to have his birthday party. Our Saturdays are totally full until the play is over. I am so bad. I offered up the "cash for party" deal. I would give him the money I would have spent on his party if he wouldn't have one. He wasn't totally in for it until he saw some sunglasses he wanted. I seriously felt bad for manipulating him, but .....I did it anyway.

Today I shopped for Ragnar stuff and did tons of laundry. I'm packed and mostly ready to go (we leave tomorrow) but not sure how ready I am to actually run it. Guess it's too late to do much about it now! I just need to get my nails done and get the van cleaned and ready. Crossing my fingers that the next day goes well. I have been sneezing like crazy all day so tomorrow my sinuses could be really bad! I have bunko tonight so I'm hoping I can just enjoy that and not stress about the following 24 hours. C'mon girls....it needs to be a good one!

Sometimes....

CAUTION - WHINING AND MOANING AHEAD


Sometimes you just have to wonder...What the heck?? I'm really fine with turning 40 next week..I can't say I love the number but it IS just a number. However, the varicose vein on the back of my leg?? Not OK with that. I run a lot, I try to stay active...I've been dancing lately.... It's very discouraging to not be able to fight aging. I'm even OK with wrinkles and stuff like that, but the big fat age spot on my cheek and now varicose veins...kind of bugging me. Not only that, but it totally sucks to be seeing yourself in one light and then get a glimpse of yourself in another not so flattering light. I know I'm not skinny, but I feel like I have done OK....look mostly "normal" but today when I saw myself dancing on a video on YouTube.....blech!!! Holy crap. I know I'm being irrational here, but it kind of seems like if you are going to look fat, why not look all the way fat? Why work at it? I know...good health, longer life, blah blah blah. I just want it to be easy. It's not. It sucks. But, I do know it's worth it and good and all that other stuff so I guess I'll keep running and try to stop eating cookies and most definitely NOT let myself be put on YouTube!! Please, no comments necessary.....

Go-Go

My computer is working but still has no programs on it. Chelsey has the "office" disk with her so I have nothing to open any attachments with. So frustrating. Anyway, I'll be grateful for what I do have! I feel like my brain is on overdrive lately. So many things going on with so many little things to get done. I actually like being busy like that, but it's a little stressful in the moment of things. This weekend flew by. Friday Glade had a basketball game so I stayed home and snuggled in bed and watched Hannah Montana: the movie, pathetic...I know. I like a wholesome feelgood movie every now and then! Saturday was just play practice, taxiing, church meetings, Whitley's regional choir concert and dinner with friends. I was very ready for bed.

Today we had Stake Conference at 9 am. We awoke at 8:15. Not good. We flew getting around and managed to get there on time. We didn't get good seats, but the meeting was really great. Took a little snooze with my Katy girl and then cleaned up for Sunday dinner. It's been raining off and on for the past few days with a little cooler temps which has been very refreshing. Tomorrow is no school so we planned on going to Flagstaff to play in the snow but now I think we will wait a week. It's supposed to snow next weekend as well. I miss Chelsey so it will be good to go see her. Very busy week ahead with stuff every night and leaving for Ragnar Thursday night. It will be here before I know it. I'm excited but nervous. I have no idea how I'm going to run my last 8.8 mile run with 5 of it being uphill. All I know is that I will. Looks like Rhett is going to be our substitute runner. I hope I don't regret that decision!

a whole lot of nothing

A whole lot of nothing going on right now. Katy has had a fever since Sunday so we mostly have just been hanging out all week. The sales for groceries have been nothing to bother with and the kids haven't had much going on either. This is all good since next week is going to get a little busier. We leave for the Ragnar in one week. I'm excited and yet not at the same time. My little 4 mile run made my quads sore, what the heck? My total distance for the race is just over 18 miles, hopefully it will all go well. Glade isn't feeling really strong about the whole thing either. It's more fun when you are totally prepared.

I got most of my programs up and running on the new computer. That was a long grueling process. I still don't have any of my music, pictures, email stuff back yet but I'm hoping that will be done soon as well. At least I'm out of prison!

Stephen and Whitley are doing track. Stephen is a thrower and loves it! I'm glad he found something to do. He also said the best one there is a really nice LDS kid who he enjoys being with. That could not be said about the baseball team. Anyway, they seem to enjoy it and are doing fairly well.

Still have play practice once a week and our Stake Trek is in about 3 weeks. Lots coming up and lots to get done first. We are hoping for a snow day next week and it looks like we may get it. AND it's almost my birthday when I will turn the big 4-0. I'm feeling pretty low key about the whole thing, which is weird for me. I want to just slide by it and not let it stick it's tongue out at me!

Gone like a freight train

One night you check your email before going to bed and the next morning you wake up to a completely dead computer. Hard drive has checked out. This is soooo not good to happen on a day when you were supposed to download the playlist you had worked so hard on to make just right for the ward dance that night. Now you have nothing, not a single song. The weekend was a little stressful. I was able to rebuild a playlist using some music I had on my iPod, but I don't keep all my music on there so I lost most of it. Hopefully my BIL will be able to save some of it, including all my pictures. Luckily I blog so I at least have a little of everything if it turns out badly. In the meantime, I've had no computer for 5 days. Five days!!! It's awful. I sit blogging on Glade's laptop at the moment, of which he has not been that "sharing" during my imprisonment from the outside world. You just don't realize how many things you use it for till it's not available. But enough of that, new one today!



The dance Friday was fun, for me at least. I was surprised at how many people never left their chairs. I always have so much self doubt after things like that. Glade and I danced to almost everything, that's what we went there for! But later I start wondering if people were "judging" me. I get weird like that. I decided I can't do anything about it if they were. I like to dance. I could mellow out and just sit there and watch others, but that's really no fun for me, so I will just do my thing and know that my friends will still love me.



Saturday I ran hills with Jenny. Man I hate hills. It makes me so tired. That same day I had a church meeting in the afternoon and then games night Valentine's dinner at my house. It was a long day. I made stroganoff for dinner and made the table all pretty. Then we played games and giggled till we squeaked, well Tiffany did anyway! It was a really good night.



Sunday started out good, then I was lately informed I had a meeting in less than an hour so I had to rush around for that. Glade had to get all the kids ready for church as well. Sacrament meeting was wonderful! After, I picked Katy up and realized she was so hot. I took her home and the two of us "practiced sleeping" for a couple of hours. No Sunday dinner because everyone has had such sickies. I made Rhett's favorite for dinner since it was his birthday on Saturday but we didn't get to do much. We had cupcakes and ice cream and watched a movie together before bed.



Monday started with Katy and Rhett both having fevers. It was Valentine's day so I had left little boxes of chocolate out for the kids. I had been laying in bed thinking about it the night before when it occurred to me that Whitley hates chocolate. I got up and replaced her chocolates with CheezIts. She was very happy! The day was long, I had done some cute things for Glade but since I was so grouchy all weekend and we weren't really being "on the same page", Valentine's gestures just don't mean much if your heart isn't really in it. Afternoon came and Stephen called to tell me he didn't make the baseball team. That's always hard as a parent. He has decided to practice with the track team just so he can be doing something. We had a nice dinner and went to bed early. I had placed a card and big sucker under Glade's pillow as a final show of love on this day. He went to bed and didn't even notice. I told him he was definitely NOT a princess. It only took him about 15 minutes of laying there to realize what that meant. Anyway, I love him even if he's not a princess and even if he doesn't always get me. Happy Valentine's Day to us!

Perfect Timing

There are just days when a woman needs chocolate. There are also days when 4 year olds just need something to do. It's perfect when these two things happen on the same day. COOKIES!! Katy and I donned our aprons (she got one for her birthday, thanks Rebecca!) and decided to whip up some chocolate chip cookies. I think it's just what we both needed!

Don't Burst My Bubble

Man, the sickness and sorrow that surrounds me lately makes me really sad. Not only sad, but a little guilty and very grateful. So many people are sick right now, it's crazy. Bo has had a fever, snotty nose and cough for a few days, but that's it. Hopefully we can keep it at that. On Monday, 15 kids were absent from his class and 7 went home from Brooklyn's class that same day. Friends around me are suffering through their own trials and sorrows and it's so hard to not really be able to do anything to help. I'm hoping this little bubble that seems to be around my family will continue to be strong. Get better everyone!!

Royalty

It's no secret that a princess lives here. Well, a princess wouldn't be a true princess without a crown. So...she made one. The determination and dedication that went into it was very fun to watch. Once she had finished hers, she decided Bo needed one as well. So she made him one. A black one, for a boy. With hearts and flowers on it. He didn't mind at first, but when we decided to run to the store and they both wanted to wear them, he disassembled the hearts and flowers and went with straight black. They were very excited to be "queen and king of the whole world". That is....until they started to itch and they both got tossed to the bottom of the cart. Then Bo says "now we are just people of the world". Whatever they decided to be at the moment, they will always be MINE!

Superbowl MONDAY

In trying to observe the Sabbath, we DVRd the Superbowl and had a party on Monday. I was very proud of my kids because the game was on on Sunday while we were at family dinner, but they didn't watch. We played a game in the kitchen instead. Glade was actually able to go the whole day without finding out the outcome of the game. We invited anyone we came in contact with that weekend to come party with us. We had a nice "house full" with tons of yummy, totally bad for you food. I was even able to fashion my own BLT pizza (aka mayonnaise pizza) that turned out really yummy and got the thumbs up from everyone who tried it. The kids played and actually even watched some of the game. We were able to watch the whole game in just over an hour. Of course I only wanted to see the half time, which I liked, contrary to critic reviews. I'm glad we did it, it turned out to be a fun night.



Whitley was really the pusher for this event, she was dying for some sausage and cheese dip.

Thanks for coming!!!

Dalin's 10th Birthday

Dalin turned 10 on January 20th. For his birthday he really wanted to go play laser tag with some friends. These are my favorite types of parties. He invited four friends who came over beforehand and played a little football, opened gifts and had cake. Then we set off to play laser tag. I didn't go in with them but they all seemed to have a really great time.

Because Nick's birthday is 2 days before Christmas we have always agreed to have his birthday celebration either before of after December. He wanted to do laser tag as well. He had had a campout the night before and wasn't sure he would be back in time to go with us. Well, he was, but none of his friends were available. He decided he just wanted to go anyway and would take Stephen and Rhett as his friends. I thought that was really sweet. Anyway, they all went and it was a fun time together. After, we went for ice cream and I took them all home.

Katy is 4!

February 1st, 2007 was a crazy day at the TPC golf tournament, ending in the birth of our little princess Katy. Since not many of our family would be around on her actual birthday, we had a little party for her Monday night and gave her her new bike from her grandparents. She loved it! It only took a short while for her to figure out pedaling.

The next morning, we all gave her 4 "sweet" spankings before going our separate ways for the day. She and I headed to the grocery store first thing to pick up balloons for her party. She invited all the little girls in her Sunbeam class. Mom's were welcome to stay with their siblings as well so I think we ended up having 15 or 16 little ones 4 or under. They all behaved so well! Mostly they just played. We opened gifts, made pretty papers and had cake and ice cream. It was a really fun time and we are so lucky to have so many good little girls to be friends with.

That night, Katy decided she wasn't wearing pull-ups to bed anymore. We got out the water proof crib sheet and put it on her bed along with a change of PJ's right next to her for when she needed them. She woke me up at 4 am so I told her to get her dry clothes on and she very emphatically told me "I'm not peein' in them!" She was dry! She went potty and then crawled into bed with me. I'm not naive enough to think this will be a permanent thing, but a good start. What an awesome little girl. Happy Birthday Princess Katy!!