*Monday Memos*

*MONDAY MEMOS*

 (If pictures are too small, click to enlarge) 

dear things you see on a run, I have seen a lot of snakes already this summer, but the one I saw this week was unlike any other I've ever seen.  At first I thought this guy was alive and so I ran past him with a bit of fear until I noticed that he wasn't moving and the back of him looked stiff.  I got closer, and realized he was DEAD.  I have NO idea how he could have died in that un-relaxed position. He was all coiled up and ready to strike, but he was dead.  Hmm...how do you explain that?  I really wish I knew.  The only thing I can think of is the concrete was so hot, it fried him instantly. 

I love it when I find a fork in the road.  It always makes me laugh!

dear elder mckay, we got several letters from this cute mish this week.  He has been a bit homesick still and so he has sent us a lot of letters.  I know it won't last and so I am enjoying every single one.

He also sent us more pix....

The bottom left is his companion trying to freak him out with a cat paw.  Apparently it is a REAL cat paw!  Wow!  Kind of makes me a little ill!  The picture of all the luggage by the missionary bike statue reminds me of the picture we have of all our boys the day Sky left.  

Back then we were able to walk around a bit before the program started.  It was our very last picture of all the boys together.

Taken in 2004 the day Skyler entered the MTC for his mission to Indiana.

I think he is enjoying it a bit more each day.

One of the mish moms posted this on our Vlad Facebook page.  YIKES! 

The small print reads:  The Russia Vladivostok Mission includes much of Siberia and some of the harshest weather on the planet, including Yakutsk, the coldest city on earth.  Their average daily temperature is the winter months is -37 F!

dear summer rainstorm!  Oh man, I truly am a sucker for a summer downpour complete with thunder and lightning.  It instantly makes me so full of joy!  We got a couple real huge downpours this week!  The raindrops were huge!  When they hit, they were as big as a golfball!  SO fun!

Mr. Cat came and was snuggly during the rainstorm.  I have been combing him with this comb thing and he loves it so much.  It makes him more loveable.  In this picture he was laying on my stomach but only because he was in search of a treat.

Love this of Taylor...

dear race results in the paper, even though it has been at least six weeks, the paper published the results of the Running of the Bulls race this week.  I am SO glad Taylor was in it!  This photo is going to become a huge treasure for me!  How cool is that?  I seriously never thought this would happen.  First that he would run races with me.  Second that he would win.  Third that we would be in the paper together for running!  It is seriously a blessing to me!

dear death of a dear friend...there are just some things that happen in this life that you cannot be prepared for.  I discovered on Wednesday morning that my dear friend Davaleen had passed away.  This was very unexpected and very hard to wrap my head around.  I knew her health wasn't too great, but I had no idea it was as serious as it apparently was.  She died of a heart attack on Tuesday evening.  She was my age.  Much too young. 

She was such an amazing person and such a good example to me.  I am truly still in shock about it all.  I am going to miss her dearly.  Our lunches just won't be the same without her.  I was told by another friend that I told her that very sentence one time when she couldn't make it to one of our lunches and that is the reason she kept coming back.  I wish I could make that happen again now.  But I know this time she won't be coming back.  Only as an angel to help and bless those she left behind.  

She is standing next to me in this photo in the white.  That makes two in this picture that are no longer with us.  Gina also passed away two years ago.  She is the one in gray and black (2nd from end).

I wrote a separate blog post about this HERE.

None of us were really friends with her in high school.  Most of us knew who she was, but no one really knew her.  She saw the pictures we would post on Facebook and asked if she could join us even though she had another friend tell her that we wouldn't let her join us.  What?  We were very sad that friend would think that of us. The more the merrier for us!  I am so glad she was brave enough to ask because she later told me our group literally saved her.  More details on that on the separate post I wrote HERE.

We had some good times....

Dave was a very kind and sweet person. She never said a bad word about anyone.  She was always so happy and grateful to us.  She became a Grandma just three weeks before she passed to a sweet little girl named Sunshine.

It is all just so very sad...  
Life is short.
Cherish each moment! 

dear friends, I needed to chat with my pals after hearing about Davaleen.  I think we all did.  We needed each other to help each other try and come to terms with this and to wrap our heads around it.  I invited them to meet on Thursday.  It was last minute and so only Kathy and Dawn were able to come.  Robin was going to but ended up sleeping in.  We met at Criddles for breakfast.  It was a much needed visit.  There is always strength in numbers and I think we strengthened each other.

These women are amazing and just being around them strengthens me.  We talked about Dave and shared our thoughts and just were able to get out those hard feelings we all were having. 

And of course, we had to take photos.

This quote was in the restaurant and when I saw it, it reminded me of our group as well as Davaleen and how she thought.  She loved being a part of our crazy outings and events. 

Being absolutely ridiculous!

That place has the biggest cinnamon rolls on the planet!  That is a penny next to it so you can see how big it is!

I felt much better after having being with them.

dear mona, after our breakfast, I ran over to visit with Mona.  I was happy that she looked so much better than before. So much better that I had to take a photo...but now when I look at it, I see that she doesn't look too great!  I guess compared to what she had looked like the week before, I thought it was such a difference that I thought she actually looked good.  Poor thing!  She has been through a lot! 

Thursday was just a hard day all around.  I shed a lot of tears.  I was glad when that day was over. :(

dear long run, Robin and I (and Grant but he wouldn't be in the photo) did our long run on Friday this week.  We ended up going 14.5 miles.  We started at the Sherwood Hills golf course and ran down Sardine and home.  It wasn't too bad. I felt much better than last week's long run.  We killed it on Dry Lake hill!  I was happy about that because I know Veyo Hill is going to be a butt kicker if I don't master Dry Lake.  We were doing a 10 something minute pace on it.  We started at 5:45 a.m. and so we were able to beat some of the heat.

dear mom and dad anniversary!  My parents are celebrating 57 years this week!  WOW!  That is quite an accomplishment!  They just celebrated by going to Maddox but with my Dad in a boot, it was a little hard for them.  

 July 3, 1958

 Before they married....

On their 50th...

I have been blessed with great parents. I am so grateful for them!  Not sure what I did to deserve them, but it must have been something awesome!

dear honeyville freedom run,  I was SO excited that Taylor, Karen and her girls, Weston, and Natalie, and Weston's girlfriend Mary all came to join me for the 5K this year!  They were too!  I usually run this one alone. 

A selfie before the race...

 Getting ready... 
I was talking to Colleen (another runner that I have run with before) before the race about how we thought we would do. Taylor told me that she told him she was now in my age division and she was worried I was going to win. I told him that she always beats me and so I knew she was going to win.  He laughed and said, "You both think the other is going to win!"  So silly that we even care. haha  We were both telling each other how slow we were going to be.  I told her I was running on tired legs because I just ran 14 miles the day before and she told me she had a water ski competition the day before and so she had tired legs too.  It was funny listening to us!  We talked about just running together, but we are both very competitive and I knew that wasn't going to work.  haha

There were a ton of runners this year.  I know there were almost 90 women and not sure how many men.

 We were off!  Taylor is in the white shirt. I'm behind him in bright coral.

 The course is rather interesting.  Not hard as far as elevation, but hard as far as you run on gravel, dirt, uneven grass, uneven dirt, hay, some asphalt....you have to be vigilant with each step or you are liable to twist an ankle.  One year we had to leap across hay bales that were in the middle of the road.  And we go across railroad tracks and last year a train came in the middle of the race and some of the runners had to stop and wait for it to pass!  Taylor was ahead of me and hard as I tried, I couldn't catch up to him.  I kept pushing.  I had no idea how I was doing or where Colleen was.  I kept hearing a woman's voice right behind me and I figured it was her.  I thought she was going to pass me right up...or that we would tie. I would have been okay with that.  haha  

I finished with a 24:52.  Not quite a PR for my 5K but possibly a PR for this course.  I was happy that I took 1st place in my age division out of 11! But I was even HAPPIER that I took 4th OVERALL WOMAN!  Okay, I was actually shocked!  The top three were in their 20's and 30's.  I was only 45 seconds behind the 3rd Overall woman.  I was very excited about how I did. More surprised than anything.  This old GEEZER took 4th overall woman out of almost 90 women! 

Dave didn't get a picture of Taylor crossing the finish line.  Dang it!  I feel bad.  Taylor did great!  That boy NEVER trains, NEVER runs and ran a 7:13 pace!  He took 7th in his age division.  I was very proud of him!  He also doesn't even have real running shoes.  I can't even imagine how fast he would be if he would train and take it a little more seriously.  

 The others ended up walking it, but they had fun!

 We stayed for the delicious breakfast after!  Mmm.....

 I won me some Honeyville Honey for my 1st place.  But I didn't win a door prize again this year even though I turned in my ticket stub.  

Dave is always there to support me!

It was so much more fun having everyone there to run it too!  Hopefully they will do it again with me next year!  We all came back to our house and showered and somehow we didn't even run out of hot water!   

dear 4th of July FUN! We decided to get out of the intense heat (it has been in the upper 90's!) and head for the hills.  We ended up high in the mountains at Camp Mantua.  We had a great time cooking Hobo dinners, playing games, listening to the kids play guitar, digging up the Golden Plates (long story), and just having fun being together.  We arrived to a rock band amplifying their music pretty loud.  Once we arrived they took off and went up higher so as to not disturb us. 

 The boys gathered lots of firewood and we set up camp for the day. 

 Taylor and Aubrey entertained us on the guitar.

Karen and I just had fun being silly together.  We never have a hard time doing that!

 We found some perfect photo shoots...

And we also found a couch! ↓

 Being together with family is always time well spent.  I wish we could do it more often!

 The golden plates... I found McKay's from two years ago!

We headed back into town and everyone came to our house to chill for a bit before it was time to go to the fireworks.  We got there and me and the girls walked around. I am glad we did because we ran into a few of McKay's buds.  They all asked how he was doing and told me how much they missed him.  I told them I was taking a picture of them for McKay.  They are so funny.  

 The firework show was amazing for a small town, as it always is. 

We were going to go home and do our own fireworks but we are not allowed on our street because we are too close to the mountain and everyone was pretty tired from getting up so early to run the race and so we decided to wait until the 24th.  I love holidays!

dear random facebook quizzes, once again they got the best of me. 

 These really are so silly, but FUN!

dear quotes:

This week (and last), was definitely a reminder of this ↑

Amen to that...

I can testify to this from experience this week.

As well as this...

CHOOSE WELL!

Just BEGIN!  Harder than it sounds sometimes!

dear timely weekly messages:

Today, Jodi, we believe God wants you to know that ...everything will be alright.
It may seem dark at the moment, but don't lose hope. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, keep moving and you'll get there. God won't abandon you; let God be your light. It may take some time, but in the end, everything will be alright.

Today, Jodi, we believe God wants you to know that ...

sometimes there are storms, and sometimes there is sunshine. But through all of the seasons of life, God is with you. Whether you are rejoicing or fighting back tears, God wants to share the moment with you. Allow that to happen, give thanks in the good times, ask for help in the difficult times. Take a minute right now and tell God what's on your mind.

Today, Jodi, we believe God wants you to know that ...worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. Worrying, you get stuck going over the same things over and over again without making any progress. Instead, spend some time with nature to calm your mind and feed your soul.

Wow, these were right on this week!