Goings On

I am happy to report I did indeed survive JC being gone for half the month and that I actually got quite a bit done while he was away. That fact may or may not be related.

I am also happy to report that I did complete the half marathon on the 16th. The week leading up to it had beautiful, warm sunny weather and then Friday a huge storm rolled in and Saturday was terrible. Especially for running long distances outside. I am grateful it still wasn't raining, but it was butt. cold. When I got there, the temperature was 34 and the wind chill was 23. Even in and of itself that would be bearable, but not when the freezing wind is blowing 20 - 30 mph, which is what we had. Any of you who live out this direction knows how bitter the wind is. It is not a dry cold and the wind chills you to the bone. It was horrible. I got out of my car at the race and immediately got back in, ready to drive home. I sat in there for a good 20 minutes debating whether or not I really wanted to do it. I am just not that hardcore. Not like the guy that was running by me later in a sleeveless shirt, shorts, and no socks or shoes. What finally made me decide to suck it up was that I didn't want to go home and tell my kids I wimped out.

So I got out about 15 minutes before the start time and tried to get warmed up and stretch to no avail. I pretty much just jumped into the pile of runners right at the last minute and decided to just get on with it and get it over with.  By around mile 2 or 3 I started to be able to feel my face. I was so glad I had gotten a windbreaker type jacket the night before because I think I would have frozen otherwise. I was actually keeping a really good pace for me throughout the race, but what set me back was that my left calf kept tightening up and I had to stop and stretch it 4 different times! But despite that, and despite the cold, I actually finished about a minute better than my previous best time. I was really hoping to finish by 2:05, which I would have, but I ended up finishing at 2:07:50. I was 29/89 in females 35 - 39, 184/516 in all females, and 405/836 overall. 
 

The bummer was that after not wanting to wimp out because of my kids, we all missed each other at the finish line. I didn't see them and they didn't see me. I didn't know they were there until I got a text 30 minutes later from JC saying, "We are at the finish line...." By that time I had already walked around at the post race things and was back at my car. So I ran back up so we could get a picture made.

We've had a lot of things going on, which always seems the case towards the end of the school year. May looks crazy! But the best thing that has happened was that Little J was baptized this past weekend. My parents were able to come up for it, so I was glad they were able to be here. I thought Little J's baptism was beautiful and I am really proud of him for making that decision.

 Do you see a pattern here with Little Man and taking group pictures? 

 SO Handsome!

We had enough Easter desserts to last until next Easter thanks to the Young Women camp fundraiser dessert auction that was on Friday night. Or I guess I should say thanks to my parents' generous spirits that bought a plethora of desserts to support the cause. On Saturday, we did our neighborhood Easter egg hunt and also hid eggs in the backyard. Then Little J took over as entertainment guide and hid eggs and directed activities for the younger ones.

On Easter, I dropped a glass measuring cup and it broke. A piece of it jumped up and cut my ankle about an inch across. It didn't even hurt or bleed at first, so I just started cleaning up the glass and thinking about making mashed potatoes. Then it started to bleed so I stuck a band aid on it. Shortly thereafter the band aid was saturated. Long story short - it was a pretty significant cut, but Super Glue and athletic tape work well when you are in a pinch and need to keep making your Easter dinner. Three days later and it is healing up quite nicely.

 Our traditional Easter pancake breakfast.

 My dad hid some money eggs so the boys were all over that. 

 Saturday night I told Little Man that he needed to put out his Easter basket for the Easter bunny to leave treats and he looked at me funny and goes, "The Easter Bunny doesn't come to our house!" I said, "Sure it does." He says, "I've never put out my basket before and it has never come before." I corrected that statement, to his utter disbelief. So there you have it - they don't remember any of it anyway! At least not before they are four.

Hodge Podge

I sat down to write about what I've been up to and basically it is the hustle and bustle of daily life. Is it just me, or does April and May just turn into crazy busy months? JC left town on Thursday for work and won't be back until the 15th, so that adds an entirely new aspect of adventure to the daily happenings. I may be certifiable by the time he comes back. The weather has been schitzophrenic and can't decide to be warm (like the 87 degrees it was on Friday) or thunderstorm and hail or be cold (like the current 33 degrees). I am so ready for it to be nice and warm!!

I didn't think I had done that many things out of the normally scheduled things since I posted last, but then I realized that I've: planned and executed a ward activity that the youth were in charge of, gone to my Mary Kay Career Conference, helped with a teacher appreciation spa day up at the kids' school, entered into the world of pet owners with some dwarf hamsters, and ran in my first 10k of the year (my first 10k since I got pregnant with Little Miss, actually, so it's been a LONG time).

The activity turned out well from all accounts, even though I wasn't able to be there at the actual event because I was at career conference.  We did a dessert potluck with Minute-to-Win-It challenges. Everyone had a punch card with numbers and when they completed a challenge they either got a circle around it if they did it within a minute or an "x" through it if they didn't win it. At the end we determined who the top winners were and had the final challenges for the championship. It was a pretty simple idea, but I think it had good results and created an atmosphere for good interaction.

Career Conference took place over a Friday afternoon through Saturday evening. Among other highlights, a homeless-looking guy with dreads down to the floor sent his friend over to me while I was eating lunch to tell me he wanted to hook up. Oh yeah, I've still got it! I politely declined while stating that I was married with four kids which produced plenty of ribbing from all his pals. Besides added bonuses like this, I like to go to those events because there are not many places you can surround yourself with so much positivity. I am so impressed with the resiliency, work ethic, faith, and attitude of the powerful women we are able to learn from.

We have been pet-free since our short foray into having a kitten about 6 years ago. The kids have wanted to have a pet so bad for so long, but I just couldn't bring myself to have something else to take care of or more poop to have to worry about. I would satiate their appetite for wanting a pet by pet-sitting Little J's class guinea pig every once in a while. We had it most recently over Spring Break, and Little J did such a good job of taking care of it and it brought them so much entertainment, I started to think that maybe I could handle having a small animal confined to a cage. Just about that time, some people we know had some baby dwarf hamsters they were wanting to find homes for. So, now we have the very fluffy and active Buddy and the albino and pretty lazy Fluffy (both girls, despite what the names may indicate). You would be surprised at how much entertainment they have provided. I think it was a good choice for us.

I ran my first 10k (6.2 miles) of the season on Saturday. I had never done this race before, but am so glad I did because I really loved the course. It was in a beautiful area and although there were hills, the last bit had a nice downhill push. It was nice weather, even though it was chilly in the low 30s when we started. The last time I did a 10k, I did it in a little over an hour, so my goal was to do this race in an hour or less. I set a new personal best at 56.03 minutes, so I was happy with that. For my female 35 - 39 division I placed 27/187 and overall 379/1391. My next race is a half marathon on the 16th, so we will see how that goes. I have to admit that I really enjoy the 10k distance much more than the half, and I always wonder why I sign up for half marathons when I don't like to do the long runs to train. Why is that??? I guess I like the challenge.So we shall see how it goes.

Until then, I will leave you with a great ant-killing remedy. We always get ants in our kitchen every spring. This year they started moving in again and I was spraying them and stinking up the place like usual. So I found a recipe for a natural mixture that kills them. You mix an equal amount of powdered sugar with baking soda, and then add about a 1/3 of that amount of active dry yeast. Then you sprinkle it around where they come in. The sugar masks the other stuff and they take it back to the nest and it kills them. I did that 3 days ago and have only seen one ant since. Just add "exterminator" to my resume.