Max can swim

We have finally moved away from the level 1. After about $500 in swimming lessons and a year and a half later, we can now successfully dog paddle and hopefully avoid drowning. He is getting better everytime he has a lesson, but I just love the smile at the end of this. I have always loved the water. I really want my kids to love it and be confident swimmers. I remember at BYU going to a waterskiing activity with our ward. There were 28 year old weight lifter tough guys who were scared to death of drowning. I couldn't believe it. Max has really stuck it out and now loves it. I just need to start little dude Jackson when he turns three. I have put this video on our family website, but I just don't tire of it. Of course my favorite feature of the who thing is Max's goggles and scrunched up eyes. It's way cute in person.

Food Storage Conspiracy Theorist????

I think I have become one of those weird people who is obsesses with food storage. I am truly motivated. Eldon is good for me since he is very practical in these matters and he grew up with a years supply of food always stored in his home. I always thought there were two kinds of members, food storage mormons and progressive mormons. I really thought those who canned their own food and had their food storage were definitely not progressive. Well here I am consumed with food storage and what do you do? I guess I'm finally growing up. Or I guess I'm finally getting a testimony of food storage. I have the shelves. I'm getting the food at the cannery, and we have our 72 hour kits. Last night I went to Kroger for an ice cream run and came home with a case of chicken noodle and tomato soup and about 40 cans of tomatoes??? I've got it bad!!!

THE BIG RACE

So April 12th has been in the back of my mind for months now as one of the scariest days I had to look forward to. For some crazy reason I decided I could just do a twelve week training program and then go walk a half marathon. I have never even walked a 5k or really walked more than in the grocery store for about seven years. Actually it has been almost seven years to the day. On March 19, 2001 I tore my achilles tendon and was pretty active prior to that. I would say my active days came to a screeching halt. Since then, as my activity went down, my weight flew up and I have found myself in a quandry. How do I reverse the trend? I needed this race. It has caused me to exercise regularly with milestones that were amazing to achieve and they just kept getting higher and higher. Even when I was a varsity basketball player I would never have imagined that I could walk 13.1 miles. I was so excited to see my body respond to the training. I was scared to death to do the race. I have never been a quitter, NEVER. I didn't want this to be the first time I HAD to quit because I couldn't do it. I was so glad to have two friends with me to keep me going.

I was so mean to Eldon the night before that I stayed downstairs downloading songs onto my new iPod for the race while he watched TV upstairs. I was so scared. He bought me the iPod because deep down he really didn't think I would do it. That morning I woke up and showered, stretched, had some eggs and a protein shake. I drove over to Emilia's house and then stretched some more. We went downtown and I made Emilia park illegally so we would be closer. I didn't realize it was illegal until we went out to pay and there was no place for us to put in our money because we had made up a spot. I remember seeing all these people running before the race started and I was totally confused. Why would you run before the run? I was nervous that I had to walk to get to the race. I knew there were only so many steps in me and I of course was analyzing how much more difficult this would be for me with the added steps from the car to the race. I was pleased when we got there to see that I wasn't the fattest person walking and in fact there were many large ladies doing it.

I got really pumped when it got started and off we went. It was nice to chat with the girls for the first few miles. We in fact walked a really fast first mile, but got progressively slower by the time we reached 8 miles. We went from fun downtown to crappy downtown and the wind picked up and it just about kicked my rear end at this point. We all started talking about how we were hurting and I knew it was going to be a beast from this point on. Once we got to ten miles, I realized I was in unchartered territory. I had only walked ten miles in training and I still had three to go. I was really starting to notice every joint and muscle pain. I decided I needed a change and put on my ipod. It was amazing! Just having the music took my mind off of my body and how far I had to go and allowed me to focus on the crazy words of Aerosmith. I was so glad that they came up first in the file. I started walking to the beat rather than to where I had been and wow, I started flying. I then realized that if I kept going faster, I would be done faster.

There was one major hill at the end that I slowed down on, but then I started passing people right and left. We came flying in at the end at 3 hours and 41 minutes. I had never thought I could come in under 4:20. So the moral of the story is JUST DO IT!! Nike has it right. You can do anything you put your mind to it. Even someone like me can walk a half marathon. It has truly inspired me to push my body. I can do it. The truly unfair thing about all this is I gained a pound after the race. RUDE!!

TAGGED

10 Years Ago:
Ten years ago I was still in school at BYU, 24 years old, very single, but writing a missionary who came home in 1999. He was younger than me, but somehow we had hit it off one summer before he left. I was selling security systems door to door for my friend Nicole’s husband’s company. It was straight commission and I was living more on credit cards than making money, but sales had become my passion. I was in love with waterskiing, my brother’s band, and hanging with my extended family in Salt Lake City. I think I was the Relief Society President of my BYU ward at the time too. I would deem this time as confusing as I had no idea where my life was going to go. I hadn’t really gotten to know Eldon yet, and my job was obviously not working out very well and I was going to be a history major? Yes I was a little concerned for my future at that point in my life.

5 Things On my To Do List Today:
1. Get warm jacket for half marathon tomorrow
2. Eat pasta tonight for carb overload before half marathon tomorrow
3. Wash some clothes for my family. Putting them away would be a little over the top
4. Finalize my massage appointment for tomorrow after I die doing the half marathon
5. Sleep please!

If I Had a Billion Dollars:-
-If I had a billion dollars, hands down the first thing I would do is get plastic surgery, ie sucked, lifted, and made much smaller in all areas.
-I would also pay for my sister to have multiple more in-vitro treatments to get her family here
-Of course I would have to pay off the obligatory debt.
-I would put my family on a plane and travel the world.
-I wouldn’t sell IT
-I would consider fixing the problems in my house, but really I would probably buy a new one.
-I would pay for any friend or family member to have plastic surgery. (who says that? You know we all want it.)
-I would love to buy the best camera that is out there, take a photography class and travel to the most beautiful places on the earth and try to capture it.

5 Jobs I've Had:
1. Courtesy Clerk (glorified name for a bagger at the grocery store)
2. Microfilm processor
3. Dominoes Delivery Driver
4. Door to door sales person
5. Executive Account Manager (My crazy title now)

5 Places I Have Lived:
1. UT
2. OH
3. CO
4. NH
5. OR

5 Things People May Not Know About Me:
1. I am addicted to American Idol.
2. I hate dressing girly. I love lazy athletic clothes and flip flops.
3. I have been to over 70 concerts in my life
4. I am a geek for gadgets. I love the latest techie things ie IPODS, TV’s, Surround Sound, HD anything even though I don’t have it at home. High end computing power.
5. I love talk radio. I know that makes me old, but I do like it.

MOM, DAD, and HUN

So Jackson has finally started talking. We ask him to say mom and dad which he does very well. Then we ask him to say "Max." He then instead of repeating Max, says HUN. I guess I have called Max Hon or Honey and he picked that up. I don't know, but I think it's hysterical.

BARK VADER

Max was riding to school with Eldon the other day and said, "Dad, when are getting a puppy?" Eldon responded that he wasn't sure and then asked him what kind of puppy he wanted. Max said, "a black one. We wouldn't call him Darth Vader Dad, we would call him BARK VADER!" Wow that is funny and very cute. I am an anti puppy mommy. But just that comment alone had me thinking about it for about a half a second.