*Monday Memos*

*Monday Memos*

 

(If pictures are too small, just click to enlarge)

dear running, what a gorgeous view I had today around the Mantua Dam!  Sometimes I just need a different view when I go running and today was one of them.  I didn't want to just run my same old routes in the hood and so I drove a ways to enjoy some amazing scenery.   I love running close to nature and I need to start doing more trail running.  I consider a run around the dam in some ways like a trail run because for the most part it is pretty secluded and you are alone with the exception of a few bikers or walkers and a handful of fishermen around the dam.  Luckily, no snakes this time around. 

I had to do a jumping for joy picture because I was wearing my new purple lululemon skirt that I L O V E and I was actually feeling it (joy) on this run.  Most of my runs since the full marathon have not felt too great.  I really love to run near water and nature and so maybe that helped.  It was hot though! 

dear new recipe, I am trying to make one new recipe each week. Tonight I tried out a new one called John Wayne Casserole.  I was happily surprised how much we all liked it.  It had a little kick to it even with me leaving out the green chilies.  I'll post the recipe below the photo.  Try it!  You'll like it!  Anything with "the Duke's" name on it can't be bad!

dear taylor (aka elder wilding), I know YOU would have loved that dinner.  I think about you all the time when we eat something you loved or do certain things and think how much you would be enjoying them too.  Someone posted this ADORABLE picture of you on Facebook with the caption, "Thank you!".  It's enough to make a proud mama's heart burst!  You and your comp taught and baptized this little guy and so his sister posted this all the way from Brazil.  It's the first time I've seen your new haircut (aka butch) but I think you look very handsome with it!  I love that you can see the rain in the background.  Only FOUR more months until I can give you a HUG!  I'm so proud of you and what an amazing missionary you are!

 

dear sky (aka fisherman in paradise), I absolutely LOVE this picture of you!  You look so happy and so joyful...and I don't think it's just because you caught this monster fish!  His head is almost as big as yours!  I am glad to see you enjoying life so much.  But then again, who wouldn't if they lived in paradise 24-7?! 

The one of the fish alone was taken underwater when he was caught.  Cool.  Other than I do feel sorry for the poor thing getting speared right in the head!  Ouch....

dear hill running, Jen and I have set a goal this summer to embrace you.  Oh my!  I have to laugh at that!  I am not sure that will ever happen, but we took a good shot at it this week.  And you kicked our butts!  We ran the killer golf course hills and set a goal to do four (maybe five) repeats.  I thought that sounded pretty easy peasy since I do 15 hill repeats at Kotter Canyon on some days.  What I wasn't expecting was the full blown head wind that was ridiculous!  Or the fact that golf course hill is NEVER ending!  SHEESH!  Holy hill, it was tough!  This photo of me below depicts it perfectly!

We made it five times up and back!  I felt so accomplished AFTER.  But DURING, I felt like a total weakling!  We had to stop and walk every time, but on the fifth one up, I said if we can do this part of the hill without stopping then we don't have to do another repeat.  If we can't, then we have to do one more.  That was tough, but motivation enough to keep us running.  We did it!  Hardest hill repeats I've ever done!  And we are going to try and do them every week.  Luckily, we will rotate this one with Kotter Canyon. 

After eating hills for breakfast...with a side of planks and hip strengtheners.

As if that wasn't enough, we ran to the park and did some planks and hip strengthening exercises.  We got in a total of 4.5 miles worth of hills.  This quote was posted on a big rock at the park and I loved it. 

When I got home (dead tired), I had a "Message from God" on my Facebook and it said:  "You are you not meant for crawling, so don't. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly. You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with greatness. You were born with wings."   Oh, the timing!  Couldn't have been better!  Other than if I had seen it BEFORE I ran.  ☺

dear krispy kreme, I EARNED YOU!  After those killer hill repeats, I went and splurged on one of your HOT glazed donuts!  It was worth the drive!  Well, I actually was already in Layton and so I decided when I saw your HOT DONUT light on that I could NOT resist a stop!  Glad I did!  I didn't even feel one bit of guilt while indulging in you!  Mmm.......

dear shopping, sometimes I have too much fun with you.  I found this cool little tree branch thing at Gordman's last week and after thinking about it, I decided to go back and get it and re-do the window in my nook.  I wanted more of a clean look in there, rather than the old dried flowers that I had there before.  Now that I did this part of it, I am ready to re-do the entire room.  I am currently in search of a white china hutch to put in there as well.  I should have known that once I started the ball rolling, it would snowball!  That's a good thing though, my home is in need of some changes and updating!

dear youth conference, I have to say I was secretly glad I didn't have to go this year.  Not because I don't love every second of my time while there, but I was just feeling too tired to even think of it. That's so not like me!   I usually jump at the chance to do these kind of things!  Does that mean I am getting old?  NO!  I will never admit that!  haha  Actually I am just feeling so behind in every aspect of my life that I wasn't sure how I could squeeze out three days to go.  And, I was not supposed to go anyway since I don't have a calling in YW currently.  I would have had to ask special permission from the Bishop and you know how hard that is to get.  hah  We all take our turns and this time it wasn't mine.  But Dave did go for two of the days and so that made me happy because McKay was also going. 

The first day was the spiritual day and they went to SLC and toured the tabernacle and got to sit in the choir seats and sing a song or two!  THAT would have been amazing!  They also went to the conference center and listened to the Mo-tab practice and then toured This Is The Place park (among many other things).  It sounded fun!

The next day was a day of FUN and they went to USU to the ropes course and then to Bear Bottoms to the water slide.  They came home and changed and then went back to the stake center for a square dance.  The next day they did service up in Mantua, but McKay got really sick and Dave had to bring him home after they were done.  The poor kid didn't feel well at all. 

I felt really bad he got sick because I was invited (as the Bishop's wife) to go listen to the speaker that night and have dinner with the group and join them for the testimony meeting.  The speaker was one of the best I have ever heard (and I have heard a lot!).  His name was Darrol Young and he was a former USU quarterback and also served as an officer in Qatar during the war with Iraq.  He was amazing!  He was funny AND inspirational!   The theme was Keep Calm and Come Unto Christ and he talked about how life is full of things that challenge us but we are never alone in any situation.  I loved it! 

Darrol Young

dear spontaneous fun! I was home alone on Thursday and Karen and her girls just showed up and invited me to go to lunch with them.  Aubrey had just got her permit and they had come here to do it since the lines in Davis County were too long.  I was MORE than happy to join them!  We went to Idle Isle and it was yummy!  Then we walked across the street to the other Idle Isle (the candy store) and got some candy as well!

We also decided to hit the clothing store on Main Street called Great Lengths and we had some fun trying on their clothes and modeling for each other.  Aubrey and Mickey really had fun with all the formal dresses.  We always have so much fun together.  Sadly, I had to go to a baby shower and so we had to cut it shorter than I would have liked.  Always so much fun with these girlies!

dear mr. cat, well, I was not very happy with you this week because you weren't doing your job.  I was sitting in the kitchen one day and I heard some noise under the kitchen sink.  I wondered if it was you, but it wasn't.  It kept getting louder and louder and wouldn't stop even if I made noise.  I was getting a little scared.  My first thought was a mouse, but it sounded much bigger (like a raccoon) because it was so noisy!  It sounded like something was crunching up a plastic bag like a potato chip bag.  I really was freaking out and since I was alone, I called Dave who had just run over to the church to tell him he needed to get home and come and save me.  I tried to stay calm...not easy when you are hearing that noise ALONE and have no idea what is causing it.  I kept waiting for an oversize raccoon or giant mouse to jump out and chase me to my death.  Dave came home and calmly picked up the garbage can and took it out and emptied it and then came back in and said that there was nothing there.  WHAT!!!!?  Trust me there WAS something there!  I asked him to take everything out from under the sink because I was too freaked to but he refused and said that would just scare it off and then if it's a mouse we will never catch it.  So he set a trap and sure enough....the next day "I" am the one (WHY AM I ALWAYS THE ONE!) that saw it in the trap all dead.  It was one large mouse!   Bryce took care of it for me and then I went and found you and gave you a lecture about not doing your job even though you get free room and board and told you that you better start to pull your weight!  I mean I have a cat INSIDE my house half the time and yet I still get a big juicy mouse under my sink!?  Something's wrong with that picture.  Apparently you listened....  (stay tuned for next week's Monday Memos to see why!) ☺

The picture of you above ↑ is one on a cold and rainy day this week when I was cuddled up in a blanket and watching an old Doris Day movie.  You came and jumped on me and started to make biscuits on the blanket.  It was so much fun to have you just lay there and let me pet you for so long.  I think you were trying to tell me you were sorry for not being a good mouser.

dear visit to the vet...poor Mr. Cat had to go get his yearly shots at the vet this week.  He really hates the vet!  I took him from a blissful peaceful sleep (first picture on the top left), into the cold cruel world to get pain inflicted on him.  I put him in the car and immediately he started the DEEP LOUD meows.  He hid under the seat and meowed loudly and deeply all the way there.  It took me 10 min to get him out from under the seat.  I carried him in and he was not happy.  He kept meowing loudly.  I didn't blame him at this point because there were some dogs in there and I would have been scared too!  He tried to hide behind my back a few times and eventually just buried his head under my arm. I felt so bad for him!  He was not having a good day!  His heart was just pounding and to make matters worse, we had to wait a good 45 minutes until we were seen! 

Once in the room, he was still a fraidy cat!  The nurse weighed him and took his temp and surprisingly he didn't even flinch.  When the vet FINALLY came in and gave him his shots, he didn't seem to notice he had just been given one.  I was happy about that.  After that a nurse came in and gave him a worm pill and he did well with that too.  I was proud of him.  That is until the vet asked me if he was a good mouser.  I told him the story of the mouse we caught in my house this week and it wasn't by him.  Like I said, stay tuned for next week's Monday Memos for the rest of the story... ☺

Poor little scaredy cat!

dear date night, we got to spend you at the Elder's Quorum party.  I snapped this picture real fast as we were leaving and I didn't get a good one.  Oh well, at least I have proof of our romantic date night this week.  Dave had to hurry off and go to the dance for Youth Conference, so we basically ate and ran.

dear hood, here is this week's manic manican.  Why does this crack me up so much?

dear long run, this week it was a 15 miler.  I had debated whether to run you on Friday or Saturday and my decision was made for me when I woke up Friday and it was raining.  I actually prefer to run in the rain than in the sun.  I absolutely love running in the rain.  So off I went.  I decided to head west this time.  My long runs out west are usually pretty boring, but I saw a few interesting things today.  Yes, like another fork in the road.  Always a hard choice when you see a fork in the road. ☺  AND...I saw some more chickens crossing the road.  Why they did that I do not know.  But always amusing when you are only on mile 6 and have 7 more to go! 

Dave hid some water for me about mile six as well.  I was so grateful to find that!  I usually carry my water with me, but sometimes the thought of carrying it for 15 miles is a little tough....so I asked him if he would drop a bottle off on his way to work.  He's always so nice and accommodating when I need something like that.  I really got poured on the last four or so miles...and I loved it!  It was coming down hard. 

Running out west is definitely pretty.  In the river (bottom right) there was a boat and two men who had been fishing.  It was so pretty with the rain and overcast skies. 

I am not sure why so many people hate the rain.  It is one of my greatest joys of life.

This isn't a photo from my long run, but from another run this week.  

There is only one place in my city that has swings now.  Happily it is only half a mile from my house!  I frequent this place on my way home from my runs because I LOVE to swing!  I seriously could spend hours out on a swing.  Maybe it's good we don't have our own because I would go out there and swing rain or shine, snow or hail.  I just love the relaxing and free feeling you get when you swing.  It would probably become my daily meditation place.

dear sunset, I wish I would have had my real camera when I saw you.  Sadly, this photo does not do you justice at all.  Wow!  You were one of the most spectacular sunsets I've ever seen.  Just breathtaking.

dear 5 alarm fire in my city on Sunday night, you were less than a mile away from my house.  A friend text me on Sunday night asking me if I knew anything about a fire because he could see a lot of smoke and it looked like it was down by where we own an rental house.  I text Dave's dad because he lives right by there as well, but he said it wasn't by them.  I got on Facebook knowing that if anything big was happening, there would be info there. Sure enough!   There were many posts and photos of the fire.  It was right across the street from the middle school at the Baron Woolen Mills.  It is a very old building but a historical one for our town. 

Definitely one of the, if not thee biggest fire I have ever seen!  The smoke plume was so huge, it was seen in Logan.  They suspect it was arson.  This is the third historic building to catch fire in our town recently.  The planing mill which is just around the corner from this one and Bott Memorial also burned down. Both the others were arson as well.  It makes me sad because these are the kind of buildings that make our city unique from all other cities and when they are destroyed a part of our history and our uniqueness is also destroyed.  Very sad...  It was an amazing effort by five fire departments and they somehow kept the nearby homes from also catching fire. I am not sure HOW they did that because they were so near.  Our fire department did an outstanding job in getting this under control.

You can see the B on the mountain in this one.  I had to really talk Dave into driving over to see it.  He is not an ambulance chaser, but I am big time!  I want to be right in on the action.  There were an estimated 600 people watching.  It was like Peach Days with wall to wall cars for blocks and blocks and people everywhere.  Most of them were standing back farther than the ones you can see in the photos because the heat was so intense from the fire!

 It was pretty dark by the time we arrived.  But still unreal how huge that fire was.  My photos did not work and so I got these online.

They worked all night and into the morning to put it out.  It started around 9 pm and they had it mostly contained by 10:30 pm but had to stay and keep putting out hot spots all night.  I know this because I ran past it on my run the next day and there was one lonely firetruck and fireman still there just getting ready to leave around 6:45 am.  He told us he had been there all night and that he had some investigators coming in that day, but he was sure it was arson.  This cute little old lady came over to talk to him to and she said that if she found out who did this she would whack them with her cane.  She was a character.

The ruins...

dear awesome thought of the week, I read you and wanted to post it on here so I don't forget it.  It's about Christ being our advocate by Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “It is of great significance to me, that I may at any moment and in any circumstance approach through prayer the throne of grace, that my Heavenly Father will hear my petition, that my Advocate, him who did no sin, whose blood was shed, will plead my cause."

*Thoughtful Thursday*

Some thoughts for your Thursday...