The Importance of Good Friends

I was looking for a picture of Danny and found this one- *perfect* for this post (just needs Ryan Nielsen!). This is a picture of my mom's younger brother (caveman track tank) and his friends, left-Chris Tenney, middle?, right- Chris' twin, Brad. And funny enough, I spent half my kid life madly in love with Brad. HAHAHAHA! Anyway. I went to the post office today to drop off a package (web order) and remembered I had seen Chris a while back, so I asked the lady if he still worked there. She grabbed him and we chatted for a few minutes. 

On my drive home, I got to thinking-- growing up, I pretty much worshiped Danny and his friends. I loved when I was hanging out at my grandma's and I could hang around with them. I am quite a bit younger, so I was probably just the annoying niece, but they never made me feel that way. I had crushes on a couple of them, mostly Brad & Ryan (which totally makes me crack up now!), but I really just liked their company. Theses guys were all friends for so many years (still are), so I really saw them enough through the years (into their adulthood, though I was still in high school, etc), still have occasional interactions, to know them a little bit, some more than others. My point is this- what if Danny hung out with dirt bags? What if I worshiped him and his friends and they were out doing drugs, being promiscuous (which I guess I might not know that necessarily?) or whatever.  You really do not know what kind of impression you have on people! I am sure Danny had no idea I worshiped him, and I noticed all his friends. I am sure he had no idea that the fact he chose to hang out with these good guys would affect his niece. But it did and I am so grateful he is a good guy who makes good choices, and he was (is) a good example to me :)

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger!

I had a pretty good (emotional?) breakthrough today. I had a bad run a week and half ago and I have struggled since. It was the farthest I had gone, more than 7 miles, but I was really hot, thirsty, and after 5 miles, my feet were killing me (I walked a lot, especially the last two miles). I have really been pretty down ever since.  This morning,  I was running to some Whitney Houston dance mixes (HAHA!) and One Moment in Time came on, which happened to not have the dance beat. I usually would change the song, but I kept it on and something really happened to me! The words, the inspiration of the song (didn't it get played during the Olympics one year? LOL) really hit me. I actually had to fight back the tears at the gym. It was just exactly what I needed to give me back my confidence and the courage that I just might be able to survive my race this weekend-- the whole reason I have been running so much. I ran a 5k a few weeks ago, but I was not training for that, I am training for this. And now it is almost here. I am nervous, worried I will pee my pants and such. Today, when I heard that song, it was right about the half hour mark, which is the longest I have run without breaks at the gym. It made me commit to ten more minutes, then when those were up, I was feeling good, so I committed to ten more. So I ran 50 minutes in a row, no breaks, which is UM yeah, my personal best ever. I have never ran that long EVER! I went to the bathroom and then ran for another 20 minutes. Outside, I wear Jody's Garmin 305 and it would take me about 80 minutes (I am *not* fast!) to run 6 miles, according to my typical stats on there. So inside, I barely cleared 4.5 miles, but in that same amount of time, I will do the race this Saturday.

It has been a fun experience, I feel a little better, I have some good fitness goals, etc. If I survive and "catch the bug" this weekend, I will continue training with the goal of running the SoJo Half Marathon in September. I have absolutely no desire to do anything more than a half, so I will just continue to do 5k-halves after that. Improve myself, I guess.

I would lose weight if I actually stopped eating like a horse. I will try to work on that one, I just really have no self control whatsoever when food I love is around. Surround me with cake, I would not eat it. Caramel popcorn, ice cream, and that is a whole other story! 

On a different note, something else I am trying to do this summer, is hangout with friends more. I have already seen Kelli more than I do in a year (woohoooo) LOL! I am trying to hang out with all my friends, but understand it may not be feasible, but it is really nice to get out and do stuff, which I normally don't do. I am lazy when it comes to taking my kids swimming and such, so besides having my friends to chat with, it is good for the kids in turn. I hope to keep this up this summer, and one of these days (Crystal!) I am actually going to make it to the lake too!

Kelli 

Katie, Kelli and I at SoDa Row (YUMMMY gelato place there)

Jackson (Kelli) Sydney (me) and {Oh shoot! Which one?!} I think Jace (Katie, she has twins) at Katie's new   place. They get a long really well!

No Words

Honestly I am going to bed, just feel like I have so much to say that I never sit down to take the time to say.  One thing that has happened recently, short version, is my grandpa has colon cancer, though they removed a foot and a half of his colon, he had 12 lymph nodes taken out to check it had spread to them, and 3 of them did contain cancer cells. I have 3/4 of my grandparents, and I am not really ready in any way to lose one of the 3 remaining, so.... I am praying and fasting hard. I have many feelings on this that I simply don't have the time to share right now (I need to wake up early tomorrow), but bottom line is, I really am a "faith"ful person and I believe what is going to happen is going to happen. I know the Plan of Salvation and I have faith in God that if its my grandpa's time, then he will depart. I will not be bitter or anything like that, I will just be sad cause I do not want that to happen. That all said, I am still praying like crazy and hoping this will be treated and he will live for years to come. Those papers he is holding are cards that Ethan and Sydney colored for him. This pic was taken May 29th, a few days after his surgery. We also went to visit him at home Monday the 7th, which also happened to be the day he received the news about his lymph nodes. I am pretty close to much of my large family, and my grandparents definitely mean a lot to me. I have many fond memories. We are actually celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this Saturday (June 19th). Anyway I need to be in bed like 45 min ago, so more deets later. On everything!

Plug #2

Okay this picture is making me crazy. Don't have the time to fix, supposed to be at the end! Just a sneak peek of a future post, about my Seattle trip :)

I promise a real update and pics soon. And I will change my very outdated background too! Today I just want to talk about a site I really like. I use Deals to Meals to help me with my grocery shopping and meal planning. The founder of the company goes through the sales for the week and comes up with a meal plan, then posts the meals in two ways. One is a menu and the other is a grocery list of things you will need to make the meals, along with where to buy them for the least amount of money. You can take this list to Wal Mart and price match, so you don't need to actually go to all the different stores. Another feature is a list of all the best sales, you can choose one or more stores, or all of them, to view. The red is stock up, the blue is okay if you need, and anything else she just leaves off the list cause it is not worth getting. I really like this service and have been using it for several months now. It is $4.95 a month, which I easily save when I use the site. If I need to run to WM for something, I will just go on and see if its in the list so I can price match it. I often get lemons 5/$1 or red peppers for less than a dollar each, etc. Info I would not know if I did not check there first. Sometimes I don't love the meals that are on there, and I do my own thing that week, but most of the time they are ones we (as in me!) would like.

Plug

This is a really lame post, unless you are interested in gardening and chickens, then you will thank me. My lameness is cause I am not saying anything about me, no pics, etc. Sorry. So anyway. There is this site I like,http://www.backyardfarming.blogspot.com/ , and they are giving away something I really want, so that is why I am plugging them. Of course, you might like their site, so that is why I am too. Another thing I like about them, is they are in Utah, so they give local advice too. Anyways, go check them out and I hope you like their site!

Little Leprechaun

This is the leprechaun trap my Grandma Kenney made. The cloud has a plastic cup behind it, and they are strung up with a string. Leprechauns are trixy little things, so they see a pot of gold, a rainbow, and a sign that says Do Not Touch, and they just can not resist!

Side view-- As you can see, the leprechaun got away, with the pot of gold, but he lost a few pieces on the way out. He left candy, as well (gold candy! he was trying to trick us to thinking it was real gold!), but the kids ate that quick. Much faster than mom and the camera could be there ;)
We had a fun day. We had burritos for dinner, haha, but the day before was green pancakes, and incredible hulk pasta (white shells and cheddar pasta roni with pureed broccoli mixed in), then St Patty's breakfast was green eggs. As well as a bunch of other green food days (more eggs, pancakes, etc). On Friday, I made corned beef, potatoes, carrots, steamed cabbage (YUCK, and cleaning the pan almost made me vomit), and for dessert, Irish Potato Pie. It was fun, must say that Irish food is not all that exciting. Plus meat that says on the package that it is good till June.... you know something is wrong with that (it had sodium nitrites or nitrates, can't remember which...). But it was good for a day.  Maybe we should adopt some Italian holiday. I guess we can celebrate Cinco De Mayo, which is so funny to me, since why does any one in the US care when Mexico gained their Independence? Do they celebrate Quatro De Julio??? BUT alas, just another day to celebrate something and throw a party. So I may have to come up with something for that, if I have the energy for it.

A Long While Coming

Wow. I just can not believe it has been over a month since I have posted. I think life is so crazy busy in November and December (but mostly November with all our boutiques and my two older kids' birthdays), I think I am going to get a chance to relax after January. Really, it is not so! Valentine's Day is just right around the corner, so if anything is going to be sold, it needs to be made right away. So I maybe relaxed for a week. Darn.
So the last while has been busy! I did manage a short getaway, but it was not much of a vacay. We arrived at like 7 am, then my darling husband decided he deserved sleep more than I, so he went to bed. Well, the part you missed is that we left about 2:30 am, and I DROVE THE WHOLE WAY. I seriously wanted to bash his head in. It was such a tough drive emotionally, for some weird reason. It was long and boring. I had been nauseated for the whole day or two before and had only a little popcorn and a few saltines. On the drive, we I listened to some books on CD. I started with a Clive Cussler. Bad news for the middle of the night with an ADD driver. I had the hardest time getting into the book. I came to the conclusion it is because he presents like 5 different plots at the beginning and eventually they all intersect and make sense. For some reason, it was just not happening. So mid-drive, I switched to a Richard Paul Evans book. It is easy to get into and pay attention to something where your feelings are tangled! Anyway I really wanted a munchie yummy to keep me alert as well (I was not tired, just BORED. I drank like 500 mg of caffeine via crystal light, and had to stop like 4 times to pee. DERRRR. Pills next time.) but I was sick. So the next day, I waited till 10 then kicked Jody out. I sometimes wonder where guys are from. DUH. Sick, tired wife. Let the lady sleep. Nothing new, I guess.  Anyway, so I decided to try some more saltines. They made me sick. I did not throw up and spent a few hours wishing I had.  I spent all night very close to the bathroom. The next few days, little food was eaten and I was very tired, so I did not do much. We came home. Fun fun, eh?
So exciting. Well now I am getting St Patrick's decor made. We have sold a bunch already- who knew? I love the holiday, just a fun, useless holiday, with a fun parade (as in long and kind of boring, with lots of lame fliers, some drunk peeps, but LOADS of candy. Not too long, and it is fun for the kids!) I will be missing the parade for the 2nd year in a row.  Last year, Aid was brand spankin' new, so I stayed home for that part and met up with the crew after. This year, Erica is having her Junior Recital (Flute; She is a music major at BYU) that afternoon and she asked me to "cater" the refreshments. I will most likely be baking all morning, unless I make the stuff the day before (most likely). I am doing sugar cookies and cupcakes- with a  surprise in the center :)
I am also in charge of the Activities Committee, and we have an activity coming up -- Rosecrest 2nd Ward's So You Think You've Got Talent.  I hope it turns out great and I don't flop! EEEEK. I have been nervous since only a few people signed up, but praise the Young Women, their sign up sheet is the most full.  I think the AC is going to provide a thank you for everyone who participates!!!
Well, I need to go to bed. I am going to try to sleep early, wake early before the hoodlums and EXERCISE. I hope I did not just jinx myself, but this FAT has got to come OFFFFFF. I weigh what I did before I was pregnant with Ethan (oops) but I can not fit into ANYTHING from then. Shirts are too short, belly is too fat for my pants. GRRRRR. I might start documenting my losses, so I am accountable to someone, but. .... ... I am not sure.
OOOOHHH!!!! So a year ago this weekend, as in the Sunday a year ago, I taught Primary for a girl in my ward who was out of town. They were not too bad, actually, but I was UNCOMFORTABLE. I was having contractions, albeit random ones. Then later in the day, they turned regular and we headed to the hospital!  As in around right now. So, I have a day before that is really a year ago, but it was Sunday last year, so that is what got me thinking. I remember chatting with people about when I think I will go, etc! Funny. My baby is almost a year old!!!!!! CRAZY how time flies. This year has been ROUGH. Here is hoping to a better year!