Living the Rich Life

5th Anniversary!

2011-10-07T23:40:00.000-07:00

Chris and I celebrated our five year anniversary today! I had a quiet day while Chris was at work. When I got home from the dog park he was home and all dressed up for our date night. He jumped up and gave me a beautiful bouquet of red roses. I wasn't expecting them and it was such a nice surprise. I definitely wasn't expecting the next gift he gave me either. He got down on his knee, just like when he asked me to marry him, and just like the first time I was thinking, "What is he doing?" He pulled out a jewelry box and a huge smile. He opened the box and, BLING! Diamond earrings!

I was so giddy just putting them on. It was such a special gift and it was so fun to see how proud Chris was to give them to me. Chris said he asked the sales person for the sparkliest pair. Oh, they sparkle. I'm going to develop a twitch just so I can watch them sparkle.

We had been debating about how to celebrate and had decided to keep it simple. At least that's what I thought we had decided :) We did want to step it up a bit from our usual Red Robin and and went to The Melting Pot. This was our first time there and it was a great experience. They told us happy anniversary when we checked in and were very attentive. I love good customer service.

When our waiter started making our cheese fondue I was asking what was going in it. The base was beer, not broth like we thought it would be. Chris immediately got on his phone, I thought he was using horrible manners for a date, but he was actually looking up how long it takes alcohol to burn off. Not long enough. The waiter was very understanding and made us a different pot with the broth.

Our booth was near the kitchen and there was a lot of foot traffic. They had a nice curtain that we could draw and just snuggle and enjoy our time there. I now strongly believe that every booth should have a curtain.

So in love. So ready for another 5 million years together.

General Conference

2011-10-07T22:39:00.000-07:00

I always look forward to General Conference, especially in the fall. Chris and I had work/school on Saturday so we still need to catch up on those sessions. Saturday night we pulled our bed out to the front room so we could snuggle and enjoy Conference. It was the best idea we've ever had. This was before Conference, I swear we did wake up and listen.

Once we were up and moving I started making some easy cinnamon rolls with my own twist.

I layered them in the bunt pan and then added caramel.

I made another batch of caramel and drizzled/smothered this divine creation in it. Yum.

What I've been up to.

2011-09-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning Chris left early to go ridding with a friend. It gave me time to take a nice walk with Stark before I rode to work. It was so beautiful and quiet. Plus the grasshoppers weren't awake yet.

After breakfast a few days ago I took the heals of by bread down to the pond to share with the ducks. It wasn't till the next day that I saw the sign that said not to feed the wildlife. This duck wasn't so wild. It waddled right up to me and ate out of my hand. Even with Stark on the leash a few feet away who was busy peeing on things.

Even though we do little walks in the morning Stark gets board quickly. He tries to be good.

So we spend a lot of time at the dog park.

And he gets a lot of baths when he comes home covered in other dog's slime. So as you can tell, I am board out of my mind waiting for school to start. I'm sure I wont be complaining once the homework hits so I'm trying to spend lots of time with Stark and enjoy the down time.

Cheese!

2011-09-04T23:33:00.000-07:00

Chris and I are both working over Labor Day weekend but still wanted to "get away". After church we ate a quick lunch and headed to the coast. It was 90 degrees in Beaverton but Tillamook was a different story. It was 50 degrees there. Good thing we grabbed our jackets.

No, I did not edit these photos. It was that foggy. For a change Chris was cold and we didn't stay long.

Arrg. Pirate weather.

Cheese sample line. So happy!

Chris was amused by my excitement. This pretty much sums it up.

Disneyland? Cheeseland: Happiest place on earth.

Christmas Videos

2011-04-10T23:58:00.000-07:00

Good heavens. Uploading a video the right way takes forever! This is going to be a one at a time deal.

Again, it's not so much about the quality of the film as it is the memories.

Christmas

2011-04-10T23:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we take a lot of landscape, Stark, and self portrait pictures. We need a lot more practice with those wiggly kids.

We were really lucky this year to get Christmas with both families. First with the Rich's then on to the England's.

I found the pickle this year! I got to open the first present.

Olivia took this picture along with A LOT of others.

*Olivia

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

2011-04-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome Thanksgiving this year. We were planning on meeting in L.A. Chris was going to fly while I drove down with his family. Kener and Kaye left earlier in the day and got a hotel room to get some extra sleep. Lindsey and I left after we got off work and started the long drive where we were going to meet Kener and Kaye at the hotel in Medford (I needed to leave a car for Chris there). It was a fun drive with Lindsey, we froze the whole 8 hours because the car wouldn't warm up ( Chris later figured out that it was out of antifreeze, oops) so we wrapped up in coats, hats, and blankets. I'm sure Lindsey was miserable but it was the fastest drive to Medford for me, Lindsey's company totally beats out my audio books. I did think it was a little funny when about 15 minutes after stopping for our first pee break Lindsey asked to stop again, I was afraid I was going to be getting the Karma of frequent stops that Chris deserves from a long ago drive to Idaho with Lindsey. So, we stopped at the next exit and she said that "Lovers Truck Stop" looked like a good place to stop. I figured I would let her go by herself since we had just stopped not to long before but then she got out of the car and there was a guy standing next to her. I thought, "Crap, gotta go protect Lindsey from the thugs". Then I noticed that that guy had a sweatshirt just like one of Chris's that he doesn't wear very often. Then that guy was looking at me, and smiling at me. I thought it could be Chris but didn't want to get excited then really disappointed, so I got out of the car to check things out. Well, it was my very lucky day. The creepy smiling man was Chris, who had convinced his roommate to go home a night early so he could surprise me, and unbenounced to me had been texting Lindsey. Chris was able to drive down to L.A. with us and it totally made my trip.
Nana was already at Allen and Kim's and all of the Kener Rich family was able to surprise her to celebrate her 70th birthday. We had a great time with family. Thanksgiving morning we played some very competitive flag football and then enjoyed a beautiful and delicious Thanksgiving meal. With our day between Thanksgiving and the birthday party some of us enjoyed city.

I really don't have any good pictures of the party but we had a wonderful time.

(Last) Summer Camping

2011-04-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

Last summer, oh maybe Labor Day weekend, we went camping at Lake Shasta. I "sunbathed" with my toes in the water while Chris cooled off and threw the ball in the water for Stark. This is also when a bug got a big juicy dinner out of my butt. I'd love to avoid having that happen again. This was a quick trip squeezed between school and work but it was a great get away. We were able to get a few overnight camping trips in last summer but this is the only one we have pictures of. We'll just have to do more of it this summer.

Dang, I'm a lucky girl.

I think this is from a different hike we did around K Falls.

Spring 2010

2011-04-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

As I've looked through our pictures I've realized there is a lot that I have not blogged. Not that everyone else needs to see what we have done, but it helps me remember how blessed we are. So, for my enjoyment, not yours, I am posting the old stuff in no apparent order with minimal comments.

Our friend Adam was "in town" for work. Since there isn't much to see around Klamath Falls and really because we are always looking for an excuse to go, we made the afternoon drive to Brookings.

Winter Landscape

2011-03-01T21:07:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to get better at taking pictures. I haven't taken any classes or read any books, I've just tried to capture things I like. I don't aspire to be a photographer I just want to have pictures worth looking at.

I played with the settings in the beginning and didn't realize I was washing everything out but it's kind of artistic at the same time.

Nutcracker Balett

2011-02-28T23:02:00.000-08:00

Chris took me on a special date to the Nutcracker! This is one of my FAVORITE Christmas traditions. While growing up I was very lucky to get to go with my Mom and sisters on many occasions. The Nutcracker means Christmas Time!

This is the picture I texted the girls while waiting for the production to start. Both sisters texted back, Janae was just getting back from a kid version with Emily and Juliana was planning her trip with Lydia.

Wolf Lodge with Nana in November

2011-02-28T22:43:00.000-08:00

Chris and I love Nana. We also love Wolf Lodge in Coeur d'Alene ID.

Whenever we visit Nana in Spokane we make sure to drive the rest of the way and enjoy all of this. It's an old barn with smoky fireplaces and redneck decor, and somehow it makes the food taste even better.

Nana and I shared the Filet Mignon. Yum!

Chris enjoyed the "Cowboy".

And Josh demolished the "Cowgirl".

New Tradition

2011-02-28T22:05:00.000-08:00

Last General Conference (yeah, almost 6 months ago) we made fondue! It was so good we've already decided to make it a tradition and do it again. Though it was hard to take notes with chocolate all over my fingers : )

Botanical Gardens

2011-02-28T21:56:00.001-08:00

We've had so much fun this winter! I'm currently missing Chris and need to post my pictures to remember that we have had a great time.

We fit tons of fun dates in around Christmas. We went to the botanical gardens in Bellevue and enjoyed the sights. I'm sure we had just enjoyed some Butter Chicken at our favorite Indian restaurant. We did our best to fit it into every date he had ; )

Ok, you get the idea. It's a must do for the Seattle area during the Christmas season.

2010-10-31T22:53:00.000-07:00

I've always loved Fall because Fall means harvest. We didn't have much of a garden to work with because of moving across town and Chris spending 5 weeks in Seattle in the summer. Though we did get one roma tomato which was delicious. Anyway, back to the pictures. Chris had been feeling sick all last week but we still took the time to enjoy a walk along the lake and a sunny day. I tried practicing taking better pictures but they still don't show how beautiful the day was. ...I'll just have to keep practicing. : )

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2010-10-31T22:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! While I was at home last week Chris and I decorated pumpkins! We just colored them so they wouldn't be rotten by the time Halloween was here. I have to say, I love our design choices.

Cake! One of our roommates made two cakes and left to go trick-or-treating. She asked me to frost them for her and she wasn't expecting this. Everyone was worried when they saw the leaves were real but I assured them I had washed them and they didn't have to eat them.

Chocolate on top, spice on bottom. Yum.

There was no dressing up for us this year. Though we did have some fun with the headrest after Chris got a massage : ) I love how he looks like Benjamin Franklin. And me, just crazy.

Back to School

2010-09-27T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today is Chris's first day of the Fall quarter. While it isn't fun "commuting" again it is great knowing that Chris is moving forward with his education. He is starting his Junior year and excited to continue learning. He will most likely be in Seattle next summer for an internship so once next summer is over we'll both head back down to Klamath Falls. It's nice to see the end in sight and know the sacrifices we are making now are getting us closer to our goal. I'm so proud of Chris and all of the hard work that he has already put in.

Glass Mountain

2010-08-13T00:07:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Chris, and I went back to the lava caves. This time Chris's friends Casey and Mike came along. They had heard about Glass Mt. from a professor and wanted to check it out. We got everything ready for caving but made this our first stop. We ended up doing so much exploring here we ran out of sunlight. We found the most obsidian near the entrance but we still took the very hard way up a ridge to get a better view. There were a few trails through the area, which we found on the way out, but we spent most of our time climbing over loose rock, mostly pumice. It was a fun adventure and a great workout!

Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon

2010-08-04T23:09:00.000-07:00

13.1 Miles! Finished in 2hrs 8mins.

I'm distracted at the moment so at least this is something.

I just ran 13.1 miles!

2010-04-25T21:35:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit discouraged with my training for the 1/2 Marathon and I needed to see if I could even run 13.1 miles.
Things I learned:
     I'm glad I took the time to find my good socks before leaving. No blisters today! : )
     I really should take water with me, even if it is heavy.
     I think I need to find a supplement to support my joints.
     I CAN DO IT!!!

Spring Break... Yeah, it was a while ago.

2010-04-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

I like Ivar's clam chowder, I love Chris!

Chris came up to Washington for spring break a few weeks ago. I had a great time doing mini dates, lunch dates, dinner dates, any date we could think of. We had a very busy week seeing a lot of family. We went to Spokane and spent a few nights with Grandma Nana. We were a little distracted while we were there because we were also able to sell our truck on the same trip. We were still able to go to the Wolf Lodge and eat lots of great food.

Then we headed over to my parents home in Lake Chelan. These pictures are actually from when we took Stark into the vet. We blew off some time and steam in the toy section of Wal-Mart while we waited for them to stitch Stark up. As you can see we had a lot of fun!

Stark

2010-04-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

Long story short: Stark got bit by a pit-bull that was tied up at my parent’s neighbors. Luckily the dog was tied up so Stark could get away. A few stitches, pain meds, antibiotics, and another vet bill later he is doing well. I was proud of myself because I removed the stitches! It wasn't as bad as putting Neosporin on the cuts the first few days. Anyway, Animal Control can't do anything about it because the dog was tied up. This is the same dog that has attacked another neighbor’s dog three times now. Such is life.

He's been milking it and getting alot of time on the couch. We are such suckers.

Home Again

2010-03-07T22:52:00.000-08:00

It snowed a few times while we were in K Falls but Stark doesn't care what the weather is like outside, he still needs to run.

Chris and I are working at eating better, including homemade vs store bought. So we made a bunch of meals and froze them so he can have an easy dinner after school. We made veggie lasagna, my first lasagna and it was great! I "beefed" up some spaghetti sauce with some ground turkey and lots of veggies. And we made a pot roast too!

It felt great to leave and feel like I was still making sure Chris had a good meal to eat. By the way, anyone have advice for cooking a Turkey? Just looking at what I was going to have to do to it was making me sick.

When I drive back to Seattle I leave EARLY on Thursdays. This is one of my favorite places along the drive and I get there just after sun rise. I had to stop to take a picture.

Portland

2010-03-07T22:35:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Chris' cousin was baptized in Portland. He took the train up and we were able to meet there on Saturday night. It was nice to not do the full 8 hour drive. It was even better to spend time with all our family. We ate good food, visited and hot tubed that night. The next day we spent the morning at a park with Erik and Sarah with our dogs. It was so fun to see them swim in the river and race each other.

Don't worry Chris' eyes are on the road!

Don't forget about Stark!

Valentines Day

2010-03-07T22:24:00.000-08:00

Chris lives down in Oregon while he is going to OIT and I am working up in Seattle. Last year he gave me a teddy bear that I sleep with. I thought I would make him a fun pillow for him to sleep with until we are together again.

Me proving that I really did make the pillow. Please excuse the hair and lack of makeup. I had just gotten back from a run.

I had to go to work before I could sew up the hole that I put the stuffing into. The next morning I woke up to Stark throwing up because he was eating the batting. I had to resew it because he did put a few holes in it.

Chris made us a really nice steak dinner with mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. Yum.

2010-01-30T23:09:00.000-08:00

Chris and I had a few days together last week and enjoyed every minute. I got in about 10pm on Saturday and we woke up to snow on Sunday morning. It kept snowing all day. It finally stopped late that night so we went for a walk!

Chris has a roommate named Joe. Joe had a girlfriend Desiree. She dumped him and we all had a party. I made this cake and was very proud of myself. I didn't think Chris understood just how great it was that it didn't break so I took pictures to brag and boost my confidence.

Christmas Spirit

2009-11-14T22:11:00.000-08:00

I have been feeling the Christmas spirit early this year and I'm going to enjoy it. I can't decorate my home in all my favorite decorations so I'm decorating my blog. Yes, my Mother will disown me for "putting up" Christmas decor before Thanksgiving but I'm willing to risk it. Plus it has been snowing in Klamth Falls all week so I can say this is for Chris. : )

update

2009-11-11T21:39:00.000-08:00

We're not dead, we're just not any fun. Chris is studying and or working EVERY minute he is awake. I'm back up in Washington to work for the next few months. I couldn't stay busy enough with just massage and couldn't find other work either and considering that we still have bills/tuition to pay we figured that I better follow the money. I've been busy working at Massage Envy in Issaquah and I'm bringing in the dough. As much as I miss Chris everyday I try to appreciate the extra time with family. He's already been able to visit once last weekend and will be back up for Thanksgiving. So although our situation sucks I do still have a lot I am greatful for.

Birds!!!!!!!

2009-10-08T22:56:00.000-07:00

There once as a flock of pigieons who liked to poop on my house.

But I am not one to get pooped on so to fight this injustice I became the Pigeon slayer.

and by night I hunt the pigeons with great determination. Using the most powerful of weapons the Silent and deadly sling shot known to only the mightest of warriors to ward off would be grand daughter theives.

One night I "the pigeon hunter" had slain one of the unholy pigeons with my mighty wrist rocket.

But little did I know pigeons are able to ressurect from the dead. Because the next afternoon the unholy pigeon was gone.

so behold the unholy pegion lives again and I the pigeon hunter must do all that is his power with his mighty sling shot to prevent my house from be pooped on.

And this is a picture of stark doing his new trick the Nose treat balance

Pumpkins!

2009-10-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

I counted down the days till it was officially October so I could by a pumpkin and not be a wierdo. Well, Chris still thought I was wierd for buying pumpkins so early but then he saw my awesome design.

I saw this idea in a magazine and loved it. They had
black gems glued on but I just did glitter paint.

**********

2009-10-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

... Uh, it's snowing outside. Not sticking yet, but still snowing. I guess I better get used to this "cold front".

Cold Front

2009-10-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

I am excited about Fall, I am not ready for Winter.

The Belated Post of Labor Day Camping

2009-09-25T01:27:00.000-07:00

Our first... and last ... evening at Brooking.

Stark LOVES camping and the beach. This trip was just as much for him as it was for us.

We had foil dinners on the first night, so good. You may notice the "cocoa" pot, my favorite camping supply.

So lots of long stories short: we got rained out of our Brookings campsite. We new it was going to rain but didn't quite expect this. It was great, it added to the fun memories and we explored a lot more because of it.

One of the days it was rainy and stormy. I was thinking our trip was ruined, Chris was thinking this was the perfect day.... to fly a kite of course. Chris had a lot of fun learning to fly his new kite and loved every windy moment. We have even flown it on a few evenings here at the park.

We moved on and camped along the Smith river about 15 miles inland. We had lots of trees, dry weather, and lots of room for Stark to run around but we still didn't want to miss out on our planned activites. We drove back to the coast and had a fun day at the aquariem and the Trees of Mystery.

While everyone else was surfing I found these guys.

Oh yeah.

Back the the aquariem. Chris pet a shark, but never really would take his eye off it.

And she was there too, at the family friendly aquariem. On to the Trees of Mystery.

We stopped at this beach along hwy 101 then went back for lunch later. This one's for you Juliana. Chris wasn't wild about the idea of eatting random weeds from the forest but Nic and Ali liked them.

Smith River

It was a great trip.

Trick or Treat?

2009-09-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

So as usual I'm very excited about Halloween but I have a problem. I really want to go trick or treating and I have no kids to dress up. I've offered to steal other people's kids but no one will go for it and I think following random children around a neighborhood is just creepy. My other option would be dressing up Stark but I still don't think I would get any candy for it. So I think my last hope will be to decorate the outside of my house to try to lure the children here. I don't think I'll have any luck convincing Chris to dress up just so we can sit around our house and eat candy and watch a "scary" movie. Uh, what to do.

Laptop Down

2009-09-15T17:44:00.000-07:00

Our laptop is currently out of commission. I've been anxious to blog about our exciting life of camping and the fair but it is really boring without pictures so you'll have to wait.

Lava Beds National Park

2009-08-22T23:55:00.000-07:00

This is the Lava Beds National Park in Tulelake CA. Chris and I learned a lot of cool stuff about the area and it's history that I have already forgotten. We had a ton of fun exploring and it was a great workout. I know this was back in June because I remember still being sore from the relay.

Chris is sure that 200 years ago when these petroglifs were made it was just the village idiot doodling.

One of my favorite wild flowers, Indian Paint Brush.

Inside a cave with the flash on.

Hippie Ice Cave - or something like that.

Inside a cave with out flash :)

Looking down a chimney.Me looking down the chimney.

Nice Shirt

2009-08-21T00:04:00.001-07:00

At the end of the day Shaun posed for a nice candid shot in The Big Event shirt just for us.

Melony was disappointed that Grace Hospital was fictional but at least she found McDreamy.

2009-08-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

Josh and Lindsey Ryen

The Amazing cooks.

My AMAZING husband.

Denice did the flowers!

All the single ladies!

Yep, that's Grandma Deena.

The men.

Keri twirling Lindsey

We learned a lot about the Flaker women when they all danced to "Any Man of Mine".

The Hokie Pokie

Happily Ever After

Texting Jefe

2009-07-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

This is how our conversation went:
Jefe: I saw a patient this week who ran your downhill (in the Sawtooth Relay) and got bursitis!
Me: lol, what are the odds? I've been running since then and feel good.
Jefe: You're an animal!
Now I am definately laughing out loud. Jefe, you're the best!

Cougar Crush

2009-06-29T23:29:00.000-07:00

Chris says I'm not old enough to be a cougar but compared to this little hottie I am. I have developed a celebrity crush on Taylor Lautner. OMGsh.

The Big Event Shirt

2009-06-29T23:22:00.001-07:00

Chris and I have been noticing a pattern forming. Shaun wears this shirt for every big event that does not require a tie. Where will we see it next? :)

Love it!

2009-06-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

In my attempt to be healthy I bought some apples today. But if you are going to by apples, you have to buy caramel. I highly recommend Litehouse Caramel Dip - Low Fat. It is amazing!

FYI

2009-06-25T03:21:00.000-07:00

Brittany is in labor! I think we'll have a new nephew in the morning!

FAMILY

2009-06-25T01:10:00.000-07:00

So I'm very late with my posting but better late than never. Plus I have the excuse that I was exhausted after and I'm just now recovering:)

Chris finished his last final on Wednesday (the 10th) and we loaded up the car and left at 6am Thursday morning for Idaho. With a few stops along the way we drove to Boise and picked up Janae and her girls at the airport. We squeezed them into the Escape with us and we drove another 3 hrs to Stanley ID.

We had the next day to enjoy the family and watch the kids play. They all get along great and help each other out. We went to Redfish Lake and had a picnic and posed for pictures.

The girls, I wish I had a picture of all of us on my camera.

After lunch we explored some of the hot springs in the area.

Then we went back to the cabins and took a much needed nap. I slept, I'm guessing, from about 3pm til 7pm (Friday). I didn't sleep again until about 10pm on Saturday night. In the mean time I was running. I don't have any pictures of this part because I didn't have my camera and a lot of it was in the dark.

The relay race was "very challenging". I think I said this at least 8 times throughout the event. We started at 1:30am and took till about 2pm to make it the 61.9 miles from Stanley to Ketchum. This gives you an idea of the way the day went.

elevation loss/gain

Leg 1: 5.96 miles - 170ft/300ft -Jeffrey *fast

Leg 2: 5.83 miles - 20ft/190ft - Jocelyn *"challenging"

Leg 3: 5.03 miles - 30ft/240ft - Juliana *rocking it to Black Eyed Peas

Leg 4: 4.43 miles - 10ft/190ft - Mom *the sun came up... kind of

Leg 5: 5.83 miles - 0 ft/310ft - Jeffrey *run/ speed walk like Pat Beretta:)

Leg 6: 5.35 miles - 0 ft/1,331 ft UP - Janae * in a blizzard

Leg 7: 6.02 miles - 1,411 ft/0 ft - Jocelyn *wishing I hadn't given up on training for this

Leg 8: 5.09 miles - 360 ft/0 ft - Juliana *portapotty

Leg 9: 4.64 miles - 350 ft/10ft - Janae *didn't have much of a break

Leg 10: 6.13 miles - 410 ft/40ft - Jocelyn * a long "4 miles"

Leg 11: 4.97 miles - 290 ft/10ft - Mom *spilled gatorade on her white shirt

Leg 12: 2.63 miles - 150 ft/10 ft - Janae *wishing Joel were here

So, we started off by having a hard time finding where the race even began. We figured in a town with the population of 100 we'd just see it, eventually we found it. The packet we did get didn't have much information, like how long each leg was, luckily we remembered most of it pretty well. We weren't the very slowest runners but they did give us plenty of time to finish by 5pm considering they had us start at 1:30am. So, once Jeffrey got the right pair of running shoes on he started a few seconds after everyone else. It was a great ego booster because he got to pass almost all of them in his 5.96 miles that he ran in about 45 minutes. I haven't mentioned that he was injured to begin with, which is one of the reasons why we shuffled what legs we were running so much.

Leg 2: me! 5.83 miles. Humm, I remember thinking, "what am I learning?" "what am I going to blog about for this leg?". Well, this leg was "challenging" because we were in the dark. i had a head lamp on and felt like I had tunnel vision and a hard time pacing myself. Every step was challenging even though I felt like I couldn't push myself to move any faster. I missed Janae telling me I had a mile and a half left so when I got to the finish line I didn't realize my chance to shine was over for that leg. So I sprinted the last little bit to the exchange zone and Juliana wasn't there yet because they couldn't hear the announcement that I was coming. I ended up running a 10min mile which is ok for me but not great. Ug, didn't really like this leg but I got to hand off to Nana and I liked that. Once I stopped running I realized I was sweating, a lot, I stretched a little bit and hurried into the car so we could go cheer on Juliana. By the time we caught her at about a mile and a half in I was shivering because I was so cold. We didn't think to gas up before we left so we had to keep the car off at all stops and exchanges which equaled all of us freezing, then trying to run, then freezing again. I didn't like that part much either.

Anyway, Nana did great with her 5 miles and handed off to Mom.

Mom ran 4.43 miles and felt the hill more than usual. We started around 6,000ft elevation and we all felt it. The sun started to brighten the sky at the end of Mom's run but hid behind rain clouds all day. Mom handed off to Jeffrey.

This would have been Joel's leg but he chose to not come at the last minute. This brought on a whole new challenge trying to cover for him. So Jeffrey, who was already injured took this leg. He ended up running/ speed walking it because of his knees and thinking that he had another leg coming. I was really glad when he asked me to take the third leg. Nana kept laughing because when we would catch sight of him he was walking like Pat Beretta, apparently the only other person she has witnessed speed walking, and even while walking was faster than her jog.

Jeffrey handed off to Janae and she started running straight up the side of this mountain pass. It also started to rain. She gained 1,331 feet in 5.35 miles. She ran most of it with some walking. Even while she was walking she was passing people. One of the times we were driving by her and she was passing an older gentleman. I naturally yelled out, "YOUR AN ANIMAL!" and definitely caught the attention of the man too. :) She did great.

Janae handed off to me and I ran down the other side of the mountain pass. It was much more enjoyable to run in the daylight. The first part of this leg was pretty steep down hill but the last mile or so seemed pretty flat. At this point I knew I would be taking another leg so I was trying to pace myself but still felt slower than I wanted to be moving. I never could time myself on this leg because I could never remember the time I had read a mile ago, plus at this point I don't think any of us really cared, I think we just wanted to make it out alive. I finished strong on this leg and that's what mattered to me. I handed off to Juliana.

They didn't get a lot of time at the exchange before I got there so once I handed off to Nana she ran straight to the portapotty then back on to the route. She got a few laughs with that one. Once she got going she did great. She did mention that she didn't like being passed by a girl with a giggly butt and in my next leg I experienced the same thing, it's a bit degrading:) Nana passed off to Janae.

Janae hadn't had much of a break at this point because we had been switching who was running what legs. But she enjoys physical challenges and did very well. I believe I was hitting a wall at this point because I don't remember much of it. But I do know that she handed off to me.

Jeffrey had asked if I could speed walk this leg (would have been Joel's) and I was excited to do so. The only problem is I can't walk very fast so I started by jogging with the idea of it being ok to walk if I needed to. I liked this leg the best. It was my slowest leg but I had the attitude that I had done my legs of the race and this one was just for fun. I walked a good part of it (my legs/knees were shot at this point) and had a great time cheering on everyone who passed me. There were some really nice people who cheered me on too. When I began the leg we thought it was around 4 miles, as I kept going and going we found it was closer to 6miles. When I was about 1 mile out I saw Chris pass, he didn't see me, and it was a big motivator. He had slept at the cabin that night and was bringing Mason, Bailey and Olivia with him to cheer and was just catching up. At the very end (about 100 yards left) there was a lady who was going to pass me and I said something encouraging and she told me to just keep going, and I did. I ended up sprinting and finishing in front of her. That felt good. But Mom was the only one to see my amazing finish. Oh well, I still did it.

I handed off to Mom and went to ride in the car with Chris, Mason and Bailey. Mom ran a quick 4.97 miles and liked the added cheer squad. She handed off to Janae.

With this leg we were able to follow Janae for the first mile and a half on the road then the path she was on veered off and we tried to hurry to find the finish line. The rest of the runners were in the Explorer and doing the same. It ended up that Janae ran through the finish line while I was hobbling across the field to try to get there and the rest of the family hadn't caught up yet. Apparently we were all supposed to finish together but we didn't get that memo.

All of us were glad to be done. Most of us are glad we did it. None of us want to do this run again.

Considering it was the 18th annual run it was not well marked or organized. But it did provide an opportunity for almost all of our family to get together and have a great time.

We headed back to Boise, (I lied, I slept on the way there), got to the hotel and ate pizza and soaked in the hot tub. It was a good night.

I loved being with my family and I loved the experiences that we shared. I feel like I learned more about my siblings and can't wait to do a different run next year. :)

House Update

2009-06-19T23:07:00.000-07:00

It isn't that we haven't been doing anything interesting it's that we've been so busy being interesting that we haven't had time to blog. Here is a little update of what we've been up to.

Our land lord has been great and lets us do updates to the house and then take the difference of what the project costs off our rent. Our latest was putting gravel in the driveway. Chris worked on it all day while I was at work. When I got home I went out to help along with our friend Nic and our home teacher as well. Here are the guys working hard.

2009-06-02T22:13:00.000-07:00

Our friend Tim has a plane and is always looking for a reason to go flying. He took us up on Sunday we loved it. This was my first time flying in a small plane and Chris's first time since High School. We both had a fantastic time enjoying the view, company, and the food. We flew over to Medford, had breakfast at Sonic and flew back just in time to miss a thunderstorm. Chris can't stop talking about it and thinks he found his distraction from school work.

A little bit of Klamath Falls.

Klamath Lake

Mt. McLoughlin - The 4th year girls will be hiking this in a few months! (Girls Camp)

Mt. Shasta

Me! On the way back I sat in the front. It was a little bumpy but still tons of fun. The only thing that had me worried was thinking about having the mouth piece tuching my lips. The last time Demi flew she got pretty sick. I just hope she moved the mouth piece first ;)

Thank you for the ride! We had a great time.

The Not So Chocolate Chocolate Bar

2009-05-28T00:10:00.000-07:00

Last night I was all excited to try this fancy "chocolate bar" from Spain. I pulled by 1/2 of a chocolate bunny out of the fridge and I was going to compare Spanish chocolate to Rexburg chocolate. After a few bites of the Rexburg chocolate my Mom called. I let her sweat for a minute and think that I didn't know she had sent me Janae's package and that I loved all the things she had sent. Somewhere in our conversation she explained to me that she had not sent chocolate but that it was a bar of soap. In my defence the label is in Spanish and reads,
Jabon Natural
CHOCOLATE Y MENTA.
I assumed I was going to eat some all natural Chocolate and Mint bar. Apparently it isn't safe to just pick out a few words and go for it. So thanks again Mom! This time for keeping me from eatting soap. :)

Thanks Mom!

2009-05-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

I was very excited when I checked the mail today and saw that I had a package waiting for me at the post office from my parents. I had no idea what it could be. To say the least I wasn't expecting this.

Once I tried on the 'tank top' that Mom had knit it occured to me that it was a lot closer to Olivia's size than my own.

There was also a chocolate bar and a brightly painted plate from Spain. Thanks Mom!

Our Battered Puppy

2009-05-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

Chris has been doing lots of bike rides with Stark. There is a great trail going out of town that is long and flat so he can go for miles and miles. The other day I got a call from Chris saying he needed me to pick him and Stark up. He had ridden about 15 miles and Stark had fallen behind a little and was running slower than usual. He came to a street crossing and waited for Stark to catch up. Once Stark had caught up Chris noticed blood on Starks front paws. So he looked at the bottom of his paws and saw that Stark had been running with two split open paws. So Chris stopped and I picked Stark up and waited for me to come and pick them up. This is the second time since we have moved here that Starks paws have gotten torn up from running on pavement. I think we are going to have to find him some puppy running shoes.

The New Do

2009-05-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do something different with my hair and since I work at a salon I had many anxious hands ready to help me try something new. Chris took these pictures of me yesterday after I did my hair myself. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to style it very well but I think I did alright.

Crater Lake

2009-05-13T21:46:00.000-07:00

On Sunday Chris and I took a quick trip to Crater Lake. After a beautiful drive at sunset to get up there we got out of the car, climbed up on the bank of snow and looked at the lake. We snapped a few pics and were both ready to go after a few minutes. It was chilly and we could only go a few feet off the road with out snow shoes. While the trip was short it was beautiful. We are looking forword to going back in the summer when we can explore more.

This gives you an idea of how much snow is still up there.

One of the cute cows from the drive home ... There is a story but it isn't G rated.

Too Much Homework

2009-05-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

The other day Chris had been doing homework (writing code) at home for a few hours straight. I asked him if he wanted me to refill his glass of juice and his response was, "Yes, can you compute a refill please." Luckily for me he caught what he said, I'll know he's really lost it when he just starts speaking in code.

20 Laps

2009-05-10T13:20:00.001-07:00

On Friday I ran my first 5 miles in around 7 years. I had run on the track the day before to get my time for the relay race but only had time to run 3 miles. I kept an 11 minute mile pace and was proud of that. I wasn't sure if I could keep it up for 5 miles and didn't want to round up on my entry form because then I would run at the rounded up time. So though I was sore from my 3 mile run the day before I went back to the track motivated to run 5 miles in 55 minutes. I usually don't listen to an ipod when I run because as they say in Bride Wars I try to be comfortable with my own thoughts but today I was needing the extra umph. I turned on Fall Out Boy and ended up dance-running my way around the track. I kept the 11 minute mile pace with my 5th mile being the fastest. I was very proud of myself for making a goal and keeping it. It helped me realize I spend most of my day limiting myself because of fear and lowered expectations. It reminded me that I have been blessed with an able body and that I have many more miles to go.

Feeding the Ducks with Friends

2009-05-06T00:10:00.000-07:00

We got to hang out with our friends tonight and because we are both saving our pennies we did a cheap date night and fed the ducks at Veterans Park. It was so fun getting to spend time with Nic and Alli, it helped break up the monotony of doing dishes and watching Chris do homework.

This is Alli's favorite duck.

Nick the goose whisperer. Luring a goose in to eat him.

Alli feeding Stark bread.

And the boys wadding up pieces of bread and bombing the birds.

As you can tell we all had fun:)(it's called bird battleship)

Passed

2009-05-06T00:05:00.000-07:00

Proof that I passed and of coarse treated myself to some ice cream.

"Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?"

2009-05-03T22:32:00.000-07:00

So, lots of long stories short, I did pass my massage board test and have been able to find work at Avalon Salon. I had looked at the web site before moving down here and really wanted to work here. Everything has been working out perfect so I am doing massage and front desk/sales work also. I love working here. Everyone I work with is wonderful and it is a great environment. I feel like I will be able to learn and expand my skills a lot by working here. BTW there is a buy one service get the second one off special going on right now ;)

So, we have lived here for about 5 weeks and we have had the Cops at our door twice now. Yeah. The first was a week ago at 2:45am because we had some teen runaways hiding under our back deck because they were running from the Cops. Last night's episode (around midnight) was because our neighbors had some things stolen from their place. The situation was a little fishy but Chris saw a guy pull in between the houses that evening and the neighbor came over to ask Chris questions so the Officers came over as well. They looked through our very messy house to make sure we were not the thieves (they said this was "standard protocol") and then went on to search the neighbors place. So, paranoid, techie, Chris has priced out some security cameras ext. to install. Ugh, can't these criminals start working regular business hours so I can get my beauty sleep?

HAPPY B-DAY JULIANA!

2009-04-25T15:24:00.000-07:00

So sorry about the late post and the random pic. I couldn't figure out how to get a pic of balloons off the internet but I know you like California Poppies too. Anyway.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you so much and I'm glad you had a good time with the girls. Have another great year!

Happy B-Day Janae!

2009-04-20T00:36:00.000-07:00

So technically I am a little late.... But HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANAE! I decided to honor your B-Day by eating some ice cream myself. I hope you had a great day with your family and friends. Thanks for being such a great sister! Love you!

Moved to Klamath Falls

2009-04-18T21:50:00.000-07:00

I have been a little nervous about blogging because I feel that I'm not a very good writer and that I don't do anything interesting. But I figured I better start a blog so I will start doing "blogable" things. So here it goes.

In mid March Chris and I moved to Klamath Falls Oregon. Chris is going to OIT! We love it here. Lots of out door fun and the weather to go with it. We both got sunburns today and I couldn't be happier. Here is a picture of us on one of our first drives down here looking for housing and storage.