Ragnar 2012

It has been a good long time since I participated in Ragnar.  I thought it would be till hell froze over before I did it again, but somehow, I was convinced to join a team which needed some extra runners. And honestly- it was a blast!  But let’s be real- I’m too old for this crap.  I got a total of 2 hours of sleep and it took me a good three weeks to recover.  THIS time, I really mean it when I say I will not participate in another multi-day relay, unless it comes with concierge service.

But for now, I have my memories.   And they are great!

Here is a photo re-cap of the entire 30 ish hours: (beware, I took lots of pictures!)

Pre-race.  I convinced Sethy to come run one leg with all us ladies.  It was fun to have him along & he was a great sport!

Ha Ha!  This one still makes me laugh!  We were late for our start time so everyone else had already left.  We sent Seth flying through the start gate all by himself.  Our team was a hot mess pretty much the entire way through. :)

The ladies!  (Our car minus seth at the starting line). If your wondering why I’m wearing an 80’s leotard its just because I’m a bit of a nut job.  A guy on our team dared me to dress up and I couldn’t resist.  Don’t worry, there are more unique outfits to come……

I call this one “Would you like some gatorade from a crazy lady in a unitard?????”

Doesn’t he look so happy after 9 miles?  I think he’s just mad that he didn’t have very many “burns” because we started so late!

This is me bright and chipper as I started my first leg, and then about 5 miles in when I was considering throwing myself in front of oncoming traffic because it was so hot!!!

Huge nerd alert

Has anyone seen the bathrooms? I need to go really bad!

Liz rocking her run down Avon Pass

Our M.G. fan club.  Awwwwwww!

Post 1st leg.  All showered & throwing back some massive plates of pasta at Shannon’s house.  These are my two new cute running friends Kelsie & Abby.  They are like 12.  Ok, I think they are 18.  They were so much fun!  (But I feel really old sitting next to them!)

Time for leg 2!  This time Jason is filling in as Seth.  He ran the 9 mile leg down snowbasin road and he rocked it!

My second leg and second super hot outfit.  Those tiny shorts belonged to my FATHER.  I found them in his raquetball bag and nearly died laughing.  Then somehow they became part of my ragnar costume, along with his circa 1968 Pi-Kap shirt.  This one’s for you Dad!

I took this picture of Liz at 4:00 a.m. just before we crashed on the floor of the high school gymnasium in our mummy bags.  In case you can’t read the expression on her face, it says “Why the hell are we doing this??????”

This is just a funny team we saw the next morning in the parking lot of the high school.  We loved their costumes, and yes, that 1992 boom box was fully cranked and jammin some beastie boys tunes.  They were a crack up!

My third and final run (and costume). I call this one “get in shape, girl!” (remember that catchy little ditty????)

Liz’s first ever blister :)

Almost our whole team.  Thank goodness its over!  I really needed to sleep! Ok, now no more running posts for awhile.  I need a vacation!

Move Day……again!

We’re baaaaaaaa-aaaack!

I mentioned in a previous post that the wonderful family who was renting our home got a job transfer to Arizona.  Which left us at a crossroads.  Do we rent out the house again?  Try to sell the house?  Stay in Price and wait it out?  In the end we decided we better head home and get things solved once and for all.  Which meant MOVING for the second time in one year.  Blech.

Now I consider myself to be a reasonable person. I knew in advance that moving is always a giant pain, and I thought I was prepared to go through it again, but I was wrong on all accounts. Move Day was beyond awful, and if it wasn’t for the help of some wonderful friends and family who came down and rescued us, we seriously would not have survived it! 

Here is a delightful recap of our day  (just for my own posterity. Continue on to the next post if you find this information dull or uninspiring :)

We discovered the night before that the truck we had reserved from Uhaul weeks earlier was not in fact awaiting us at the Price location.  There was a computer error, and our truck was waiting for us in Ephraim.  For those not familiar with these parts, Ephraim is a TWO hour drive from Price.  We tried calling several other companies, but none had a full-size truck available on such short notice, so we had no choice but to drive to Ephraim and get the truck.  This put us at least five hours behind schedule.  So far, move day was off to a swimming start. 

Seth and Andy left at 7:00 a.m. to get to Ephraim by 9:00 which is when the store opened.  No one informed them, however that they would be driving into this tiny town on the day of its Centennial celebration.  The main street was closed down for the parade, so they had to literally enter the parade as one of the floats to get to the Uhaul store. When they arrived, the store’s computer was down, so they waited there for around an hour while old Jim Bob tried to figure out how to work a computer.  (side note: weeks later I discovered that they charged us for the Uhaul THREE times due to their computer issues.  That was fun getting straightened out!) Anyway- finally they had the truck in hand and were on their way back to Price.

Meanwhile back at the house, my sisters Janna & Stephanie had made the long drive down to help me, as well as my brothers Kevin & Marty, and Seth’s brother Dan.  We had hoped some people from the ward could come help as well, but as our luck would have it, we had chosen to move on the same morning as a huge funeral in our ward, and everyone was there.  So, it was just going to have to be us.

Seth and Andy finally made it to the house with the truck around noon, just in time for lunch.  My sisters ran down the street to pick up some pizzas for us and came back laughing “You’ll never believe what just happened!”  With the way our luck had been going, actually I DID believe what they told me next.  When they arrived at little Caesars they were told that there was no more pizza.  The store was closing due to contamination in one of their mixers.  They couldn’t re-open until the Health Dept. gave them the ok.  There were two pizza’s left in the store that they were able to finagle and we all had to just make do with that and hope we didn’t die of food poisoning :)

Seriously????  OH, it gets better.  We spend the long, hot day hauling stuff out to the trucks in the midst of a REDICULOUS wind/rain storm which pelted everything I own with a fun dirt/rain combo.   When the truck was finally loaded we got word that the wind had gotten so bad that they weren’t allowing big trucks to drive up and over the pass (the way we needed to drive). Oh PERFECT!  Jeez, can we catch a freaking break?  No, we cannot.  At this moment, the homeowners we had been renting from showed up, about two hours ahead of schedule.  The house looked like crap and I felt terrible because they are such wonderful people and I really wanted to leave it perfect for them! Given a few more hours it might have been the case, but at that moment they walked in to all the odds and ends/garbage/junk/crap laying all over the place, a new red stain on their carpet, a broken garage door, and my random family members milling about, using some of their finest move-day language (sorry, we tend to be a crass bunch, and moving brings out the best in most people).

Long story long……somehow, some way, we rolled into Mountain Green around 10:00 that night sweaty, filthy, and carrying everything we own in two trucks and the back of our car.  The first thing I did was go check on our house, even though we weren’t officially moving in until later that week.  I walked in and seriously just started to cry.  It was so good to be home!  Don’t get me wrong- I am actually really going to miss that bass-ackwards place called Price (it really grew on me :), but M.G. is my home.

We are still feeling very transient, and aren’t sure where life will take us next, but for now, we are relishing the time we have to spend here with you all!  WELCOME HOME WALLACES!  ITS GREAT TO BE BACK!

Ogden Marathon

I ran the Ogden marathon on May 19th.  The weather was absolutely perfect and I was just sure I could hit my goal time of 4 hours and 30 minutes. 

Things went well, really well, until somewhere in the 23rd mile.  I’m not entirely sure what happened to me, but we’ll condense it and just say I basically fell apart.  I had a meltdown of sorts.  I tend to be a bit of a headcase, and I was letting my brain win this one.  It was telling me “Stop this nonsense!  No more running!  Its stupid!”  Why oh why?????”  I was able to keep running, but I slowed down a bit and even reduced myself to a few walk breaks.  By this time my trusty running girls and I had all separated so it was just me and the road- eek!  But luckily I ran into my little brother Kevin and his wife Michelle.  They basically saved me and dragged my bum through the last 2 1/2 miles.  I was just beginning to think I was out of the woods when suddenly I wasn’t.  I couldn’t have been more than 20 yards from the finish line. I had just seen some of my family cheerily waving from the sidelines (bringing me a huge amount of joy!)  Suddenly, my legs literally collapsed.  I could feel myself going down like it was slow motion.  I so badly didn’t want to hit the pavement!  At that very moment, Kevin and Michelle grabbed onto my arms and saved me from utter humiliation.  They carried me a little while until I felt like I could safely let go, and crossed the finish line barely on my feet in four hours, thirty six minutes.  Ooooohhh……so close!

After crossing I immediately realized things were not good.  I had to go lay on the grass for quite some time and I thought I might die.  ( I know to all you non-runners out there, this is just fuel to add to your “why do you do that crap!” fire, but I gotta lay it all out there just the same).  Anyway- suffice it to say it wasn’t my best after-race experience.  However, I still get to walk away with a PR and now I think I can call myself a “marathoner”, with two marathons under my belt. 

It was so fun once again training with my friends, and so great to see Amberlee complete her first marathon! She rocked it!

Ok, well sorry for all the info, but I had to journal it for my own memory if for nothing else.

Jason, Liz, Marty, Lisa, Michelle, me, Kev, Amberlee

This was when I was still in my dark place……

my runnin brotha’s

My s.i.l. Meg & momma Nancy who ran the 1/2.  Thanks for all the great pics Meg & for sticking around to cheer for me!

School’s Out (almost)

The last week of school…..how I love to hate it!  So much to do!   Here’s the skinny:

Smurfy graduated from Preschool.  He went to Munchkin manor in Price and I will be forever grateful to Mrs. Tanya for sneaking him in at the last minute so the two of us weren’t home staring at each other all year.  He really loved it there and we will miss it!

I love this boy and that goofy smile he makes when he is embarrassed!   Mrs. Tanya was reading his “all about me” page and when he was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up he said “A dad just like my Dad” and the audience all gave a collective “awwwww……”.  It was so cute!

This is Smurf’s besty from Price.  We lovingly call her “Peanut” and since this is a blog for nicknames we’ll just go with that.  I can’t believe how much taller she is than my boy.  Her mom is always asking me “are you sure he is going to kindergarten next year?  He’s so small!”  I know it!  Its going to be hard to let him go!

 

Next up: Noodle’s Field Day.  It was right after the graduation.  Busy day!

Followed the next day by Noodle’s Kindergarten graduation program at the elementary school.

This is Noodles genuinely adorable Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Spillman. She is a gem. Noodle was lucky enough to go to all-day kindergarten this year and he did so well!

Ok last event for the week, Kenni’s county report.  She begged her teacher to be allowed to report on Morgan county, since it is so near and dear to her heart, and she was granted the request.

She did a great job and did the entire thing completely on her own without ever even bringing it home from school so I could see it!

 

I didn’t get any pictures from the older kids field day or the actual last day of school because by that point I had begun my frantic last minute packing up of the house for the big move (again….)  But they had a great time and they are really going to miss all the fun friends they made at school in Price this summer!

Post coming soon about the dreaded move day.  It took me a few weeks to be able to write about it because it was just so AWFUL!  For now, let me just say, Welcome Summer! We’ve been waiting for you!

Mothers Day

I had a great Mothers day this year and was able to spend it with all the mothers in my life thanks to a decent enough family wagon to get us back and forth between our homes on a  bi-weekly basis. Before we left, my kids gave me some really cute gifts they had made for me:

 

After we made the delightful drive up North for the weekend, I was able to meet my sisters & mom at Roosters for a Mothers Day brunch.  It was awesome- the food was so good!  We decided to exchange “favorite things” baskets and I thought it turned out really fun.  We should make it into a tradition!

Here are some of our baskets:

This was the basket I made.  My sis B ended up with it.  It contained 1) my favorite chick flick- “The Story of Us”, 2) Some fabulous blip blom, 3) a recipe I bummed off Pinterest for some ridiculous salted caramel bars, complete with a bag of said bars, cooked by moi! 4) My fav. new accessory- a broach which I made (but didn’t do near as good a job as my friend that makes them, and who made mine for me!), 5) A delicious smelling soap for your kitchen sink  6) A mixed tape (ok, it was really a cd of some of my fav. tunes from my playlist, but I just love saying “mixed tape”)  and 7) a bag of swedish fish because life isn’t complete without them!

This is the basket I received. Isn’t it gorgeous!? It was from my sil Heather and it had fab.u.lous stuff in it! Perfume, candy, lip gloss, nail polish, car fresheners, more candy- just really fun stuff.  This was the first time in a long time I did something fun for myself on Mothers Day and I really think all moms should do it!  Just run away from those kids for a few hours and go grab a bite with all the special moms in your life.  You’ll be so glad you did!

(Janna & Lisa with their baskets)

 

Ok, moving on.  Sunday we had a fun barbeque at the park with Seth's side of the family.

 

Seth & his momma

Then we headed over to my parents home for another family get-together. So many parties, so little time!

I should mention quickly that Seth and I also celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary this weekend. (Why oh why did we think it was a good idea to get married over Mothers day weekend?????) It is always hard for us to find time to celebrate, but we did manage to sneak away to SLC for a night and go walk around the new City Creek shopping center which I’ve been dying to do.  We also finally used some gift certificates that Seth won a year ago to a shmancy restaurant called Spencers.  It was fantastic.

All in all a great weekend!