~~~FRIDAY MEMES~~~

Food 4 Thought Friday

A little feast without the calories!!!

Feel free to play along for some yummy fun! I will post a new one each Thursday night for those that are on a different time zone. JOIN IN!!!

Food 4 Thought Friday ~ This week's questions:

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Breakfast What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

Lunch What is something that you are disappointed about right now.

Dinner What is in your fridge right now?


Midnight Snack What are you really anticipating right now?

Recipe of the Week (instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week?)

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MY ANSWERS

Breakfast What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? I love steel cut oatmeal! So yummy! Or if I am in a hurry I will sometimes grab a Yoplait or some toast. I don't eat much for breakfast. I hate to admit I often will eat a cookie or brownie or cake or something evil like that for breakfast.

Lunch What is something that you are disappointed about right now. That I had an opportunity to go to China with some friends and I'm not going. It was a great deal and a great trip, but Dave isn't real keen on the idea and I'm not sure I could stand to be away from my family for 2 weeks. I have always wanted to say I ran on the Great Wall of China, so I am feeling pretty bummed. And I know me and my friends would have created memories that would last a lifetime. Dinner What is in your fridge right now? Many leftovers like spaghetti, taco meat, pork roast, fajita fixings, garlic mashed potatoes, stroganoff, rice, chicken, and leftover restaurant Chinese food . A strawberry cake, bagels, tons of yogurt, and all the regulars like milk, OJ, sour cream, butter, jam, etc. It is full!


Midnight Snack What are you really anticipating right now? The Ragnar Race in June. I am training hard for it. Oh and SPRING! Where is it this year? It's almost May and it's only in the 40's! Sick of snow! I want heat! Recipe of the Week (instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week?) Don't always say what you are feeling. Some feelings are best left unsaid.

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1. I was excited for my plans, but they got squashed.

2. I got sidetracked by something and I left my book who knows where.

3. Why is Mother Nature being so moody!

4. My son Bryce who just turned 19 yesterday was in my thoughts today.

5. One of my favorite sayings was "Right on - Leon!" (long story!)

6. Just wanna run away sometimes -- I know that feeling.

7. As for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to Women's Conference at BYU and eating dinner at Carabba's (the best Italian place ever with the best chocolate cake on the planet!) and tomorrow my plans include a long run (ugh!), taking McKay to his Hunter's Safety shooting test, organizing, attending a stake meeting and Sunday I want to enjoy our Stake Conference and finally take a nap!

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Pennies AND Twenties From Heaven!

If you haven't read my post "Pennies From Heaven" you can read it HERE. This one won't make much sense if you haven't read that one.
I am currently training for the Ragnar Relay Race in June and so I have been trying to squeeze in my running when I can. Today I had a nail appointment and so I decided to run to it and home. As I was walking out of the salon onto the sidewalks of our town's Main Street to continue my run home, I was doing my usual looking for pennies that I always do. I thought I had a pretty good chance of finding at least one coin in that area. The last couple of weeks, I thought I would find a lot more than normal mainly because I have been getting in some long runs (10 milers) and thought my odds would go up covering so much more ground. But it didn't seem to be. I found a few, but not what I had hoped. I just figured Tyson must be pretty busy with much more important things to do right now.
As I started walking down the sidewalk, I hadn't taken more than 20 steps when I looked down and saw THIS ↓



















Yep, a TWENTY DOLLAR BILL!!! I immediately picked it up and started to look around for someone who may have dropped it. There wasn't a soul in sight. I stood there waiting for a while in case someone came back to look for it, but no one did and so I put it in my pocket with a huge smile on my face as I uttered the words, "Thanks Tyson. Guess this is your way of making up for the drought the last couple of weeks. Good move buddy!"
Pennies AND TWENTIES from heaven now?
Oh dear, I am afraid my expectations have just gone way up!

SIDENOTE: My brother-in-law called a few hours after I posted this. He said HE just found a 20 dollar bill in Albertson's by the Chinese food section laying on the floor. Chinese just happened to be Tyson's favorite food. I totally did NOT believe him at first....what are the odds? But it's true! How crazy is that? Heaven is obviously not having a recession right now!!! ☺

Wordless Wednesday

Lips, Hips, and Asphalt

10 miles. Today. Running. Now barely walking. Seriously feeling it.9 toes hurting. One was numb.
8 muscles (at least) asking me WHY I'm torturing them.
7 thoughts of "Why do I enjoy inflicting pain on myself?"
6 thoughts of "Buck up! It's ONLY 10 miles!"
5 thoughts of "Do I really want to a run a marathon? That's 16 MORE miles!"
4 hours to re-coop.
3 Ibuprofen immediately administered upon arriving home.
2 hip flexors screaming.
1 IPOD dead battery. (Definitely a blessing in disguise or I might have kept going,)



I am in training for the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay that is in June. I also ran 10 miles last Saturday. And 9 miles the previous Monday. Those are my long runs. I try to run 4 to 6 miles three times a week as well. I haven't been running more than 8 miles at a time since my injury last year. And, my body is letting me know. I have run two half marathons (13.1 miles -emphasis on the point 1 - that little point 1 is huge!) but once you stop the training, you lose it. Use it or lose it kind of thing.

Last Saturday when I got back from my run, I felt just like I did the very first time I ran 10 miles three years ago. I remember I came home and laid down to just rest for a bit and woke up three hours later. I just wanted to sleep. I was also hurting so bad that I wasn't walking too well. After a while I got used to it and was fine after a long run. I thought I had passed that point of total exhaustion for good with my running, but then I quit running long distances last year due to an injury and so now I guess my body is letting me know that I have to get used to it all over again.

Last Saturday, I ran early and felt like I was worthless the rest of the day. I didn't sleep for three hours, but wasn't super productive either. Today I went out later hoping to get stuff done BEFORE in case it had the same effect on me. Good thing, because I am worthless today as well. Maybe next week I'll go at night so I will be worthless when it's time for bed instead! That would also help my training since the Ragnar requires runs at night in the dark.

The Ragnar Relay is a 188 mile course that is ran in about 24 hours non-stop by a team of 12. Each member has three legs to run. Everyone's legs are different as far as mileage and elevation. They are rated from Easy to Very Hard. The longest total distance for one runner is 20 miles and the shortest is 12. My total running distance is 13.1 miles (yes a half marathon in distance!) The legs are split up over the course and so you may be running at midnight or 3 a.m. depending on your legs. I haven't found out my times yet, but I know I have at least one in the dark. I most excited for that one!

It may sound crazy, but it is a PARTY! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! I was registered with the team ENERGIZER RUNNIES last year, but had to drop out because of my injury. I was so bummed. I heard they have over 1000 teams this year. WOW! Major party! That's 1000 x 12 people! It is SOLD OUT! It's going to be one serious party. There is no sleep involved for at least 24 hours unless you are lucky to catch a cat nap here and there when you aren't running your legs. Each team has two vehicles that the non runners travel in and follow their runner. For more info go
HERE.




















Our team name this year is LIPS, HIPS, and ASPHALT. Each team decorates their vehicles and wears crazy costumes. They give away prizes for the best in each category.



















The part I am most excited about is my awesome friends Jen, Heather, Mel, and Jen D. are on my team. I love each one of them so much and I know it will be SO MUCH FUN!!! It will also be fun making new friends with the others that are on the team as well. We have nine women and three men. The men are being good sports about the name and what we are planning for costumes.

One thing for sure is I need to get back to the gym to my strength training classes to help me be a stronger runner as well. Those 5:45 a.m. classes are killers, but I can tell a huge difference in my running when I'm not faithful at attending. I am just grateful Mother Nature has decided to give us at least a few days each week of sunshine. I have put away my winter running clothes FOUR times already this spring, only to get them back out when the temps drop again. We will have a few days in the 60's and then the next day it is back in the 30's. Here's hoping her mood swings have finally stabilized!


I'll end on a quote that made me chuckle this week...

"Life is short. Running makes it seem longer." ~ Baron Hansen

~~~Friday Memes~~~

Yes it's back ...FINALLY...by popluar demand! Let's hope it stays a while this time! lol
Spread the word please....

Food 4 Thought Friday

A little feast without the calories!!!

Feel free to play along for some yummy fun! I will post a new one each Thursday night for those that are on a different time zone. JOIN IN!!!

Food 4 Thought Friday ~ This week's questions:

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥Breakfast What is your favorite cereal?

Lunch Have you ever experienced an earthquake?


Dinner What is something or someone you are missing right now?


Midnight Snack When is the last time you cried?

Recipe of the Week (instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week?)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

MY ANSWERS

Breakfast What is your favorite cereal? Special K or Wheaties. I do confess I love to indulge in Captain Crunch once in a while too.

Lunch Have you ever experienced an earthquake? Yes just last week, we had a 5.0 and I felt it. I was on the computer and could feel my chair and see the desk shaking. It lasted about 20 minutes and I sat there wondering if I had just felt an earthquake. I got on Facebook to see if anyone had posted anything and couldn't see anything. I asked in my status if anyone had felt it and sure enough they had and it was on the news right after. One of my sons was in our backyard playing football with his friends and none of them felt it. Another one was on his way home from track and didn't feel it and another was in the college library and didn't feel it. My husband was at work and he didn't either. Just me. They were all jealous they missed it. haha


Dinner What is something or someone you are missing right now? ~~~I miss my Tyson.~~~

Midnight Snack When is the last time you cried? That would be this afternoon. I attended the funeral of my son Bryce's good friend Josh. He took his own life on Sunday. It was very tough to understand why such an amazing kid could get to a point to end his life. This is the 4th teen in our community this year. I wish there was some way to help them realize that suicide is a permanent solution for a temporary problem. How can we better teach that when they are feeling there is no other way out of their problems, no other escape from emotional pain, or no other way to communicate desperate unhappiness, that dying is NOT the only way out? It WILL get better. Such a sad and senseless loss. Many tears...Recipe of the Week (instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week?) "Beginning today treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight.Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again." ~ Og Mandino

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1. Where are my priorities? I need to get spring cleaning!

2. If wishes were horses then my stable would be full.

3. I'd like to see SPRING and warmth already!

4. When I was a teen, I thought my parents were old and now I am the age they were, I'm NOT old!

5. One of my mother's favorite sayings was lift your knees! I took baton and drill and we had to march a lot and she was always saying that to me.

6. I'd have a hard time doing without my ♥running time♥.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going out with friends, tomorrow my plans include running a 5K at 7 a.m., attending EFY with my youth, and then catching up on all the stuff I am behind in! and Sunday, I want to be warm!

~A Little of THIS and a lot of THAT~

Here is an assortment of very random photos of things I didn't get around to blogging about (beginning with most current). But since a picture is worth a thousand words I am looking on the bright side AND thinking of all the time it saved me in writing!
☺ Bloggy Friends ☺












Jody, Kelli, Moi, Jen, Chelsea

Kelli came to Utah to visit and wanted to get together with us! How sweet she is. I have always wanted to meet this Cupcake Queen. She makes the most amazing cupcakes. She has now turned into the Zumba Queen too. I wish she would have taught us a Zumba class while here.













Charlie's Angels plus two.... I think we need some remedial help in the pose area.


We were supposed to be making strange faces in this one. ↓ Obviously Chelsea and Kelli didn't get the memo!

This is me and my friend Colleen. ↓ We were at a Utah Homemaker's home tour and at our friend's home we saw all these cool Barbies! We immediately sat down and had to have some fun. I have to say as a mother of all boys, THIS part of the tour was by far my favorite! Do you have any idea how long it's been since I played Barbies? Once in a great while I have with my nieces here and there, but not enough! I couldn't believe the cool food and stuff they have now! I didn't want to leave. It was so much fun that I think I am going to go out and buy some Barbies for ME my future grand-daughters.




















Remember the post I did on April Fool's and the RAINBOW pancakes that my boys refused to eat because they just knew I had done something to them? Well, here is McKay and his buddy Justin actually eating some. The only difference is it wasn't April Fool's day and so they "assumed" they were safe. Guess the joke's on them ... heehee

EASTER! And General Conference weekend.
















Let's see who can pull the best face...















I should have taken a picture of our German Puff Pancakes! Those have become a tradition on General Conference weekend. And they are the best things on the planet. So great to have all the boys home! It went too fast...

Dave and I were invited to go to Heber to our friend's cabin for the weekend. We had gone before and had such a great time that we were excited to go again. They are a lot of fun as well as great cooks. They make the best waffles and syrup. We had fun playing games and staying up late. Last time we had more people so we did Karoke, but with less people, no one was quite that brave this time. Dave and I spent the next day shopping the outlets in Park City. FUN!



















Tyson had a LOT of friends and one of my favorite's has always been Brooke. She is all grown up now and married (AND a mom) but she still comes and visits me frequently. I just love her. And her darling little Taylr is the cutest and happiest little girl I think I've ever seen. She is all smiles all the time. She does have this little look in her eye and gets this smile that reminds me so much of Tyson. We decided he must have trained her before she came down in order to pass on his legacy. ☺

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Curly or Wild? Or just boring straight like I usually wear it? What's your vote? I am serious, I would like to know. I personally like it curly via the flat iron, but it is very time consuming and I seem to be flat iron retarded. Wild is fast. Straight is in between. My wish is to have someone come to my house each day and do my hair and makeup! Wouldn't that be great!

Speaking of hair... One morning Taylor came down with his hair all .... well all... well... just... all... WEIRD!
I immediately grabbed the camera so I could put it on here for the entire world to view. It will serve me well someday as blackmail I'm certain.

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY SUPER SANDWICH

Having a good time with some friends. I think Rob must be dyslexic.....

McKay was really excited to get braces... not sure WHY, but he was. Here are his before and after photos. He got blue and black bands to represent the Carolina Panthers.

Our backyard neighbors...




























My new pets. Yes, they are frogs. No, they are not fluffy and cute and cuddly and soft. Yes, "I" bought them. No, I am not sure why I did this. Yes, they will probably live forever. No, I will not give them a proper funeral and burial someday (unless the toilet is considered proper). And no, they don't even have names. Well, not real names. I have been known to call them many things, but nothing you could really put on their birth certificate.




















This is me and Bryce eating at an Indian restaurant in Logan. It was very good food! When I go to Logan we usually go food shopping and I try and take him out to lunch. We've been to some really good places so far, but this was one of my favorites.













Random:
*Feeding SIX teenage boys one night. I still am trying to figure out where boys of this age put all those calories.
*Skyler and Jeremy getting ready to go another Survivorman in the snow.
*Three of my boys sharing one couch.



















Jeremy and Sky leaving on a Survivorman adventure in the dead of winter! I took this photo knowing it might be the last one of them. But they "survived" and came home alive.

Some of our Family Home Evenings with Dave's family.

Our yearly traditional ice-skating (and lunch out) with cousins.

My boys LOVE their cousins....especially this one ↓ but saying goodbye never gets easier. Arizona is just too far away...

I have the most amazing friends... I really do. On the anniversary of Tyson's death, I received so many nice cards, letters, emails, phone calls, and gifts.

Here are a few of the wonderful things that really helped make a very hard day much easier. Thank you my friends. I ♥ U!

















This is the wreath I made to put on his grave. I always try and make something tropical since he LOVED Hawaii and the beach.















Baby shower for Tori at her and Kev's new home. The little one is no longer in the oven and I am an Aunt again! Yippee!

McKay and Sky hunting. Probably bunnies! :(















Playing a little ONE on ONE ↓
Bryce



















Who says white men can't jump?
Taylor












































I wanted to play too. Holy cow, that kid is impossible to beat!

Lunch with my boys....


















New Year's Eve (yeah, I'm going WAY back!)



















We had a big party at Dave's parents because so many of his sibs were home for the holidays.
We played lots of games and ate LOTS of yummy food!
We also celebrated my niece's birthday. She was born right after midnight on New Year's Eve. She was the city's New Year's Baby!















Bryce and Weston after a "Dew Contest"... (no I don't approve!)
They drank all those cans you see. They also were hugging the toilet for a while after.





















Me with Koda. He loves me, what can I say? ☺

The little always love to tease and play with Bryce.

That's all. Until further random-ness...