Glad that one's over...

We're in Utah right now for my brother's wedding and since I didn't get a chance to run yesterday due to traveling, and I won't be able to run Saturday morning I thought I would get an early run in today.  I knew I had to run by myself since my sister's knee isn't doing well so I brought my shuffle and was ready with angry music.  I haven't run by myself in a long time and the most I've ever done alone is about 5 miles.  I thought maybe a 6-7 mile run would be okay... well I got a little lost on my planned route, but found my way back fine.  I just mapped out my run and guess how many miles I did... by myself!  9.6 miles baby!!!  I was so glad it was that long because I kept thinking, "Man, this has got to be more than 6 miles."  I'm glad that run is over and that I have someone to run with back at home.  Wahoo for running buddies!!!

Also, we ran the Famous Idaho Potato Half Marathon on Saturday and cut 9 minutes off our time from the last race.  There will be more to come on that, soon.

One down...

As most of you know I ran a half marathon last month. It was such a great experience and accomplishment that my running buddy and I decided we're going to try and run a race every month at least till October. Tomorrow is our second half marathon and I'm totally pumped! Along the way we recruited Amy to run with us. She does great and I think she is totally insane!!! We decided two weeks ago that we were going to do the half marathon rather than the 10K and the most Amy had run was 6 miles... that's right... 6 miles!!! She registered to run the half marathon with us! (Amy might need a hip replacement after the race.) I'm really excited to run with Amy and Angie. They're seriously wonderful ladies whom I enjoy running with every day!

Thanks to those of you who commented on my carb post. I'll take your advice and we'll see how this race goes. (I really didn't want to eat my arm.) And thanks for all your support! If there's anybody out there that wants to run with us, let me know. I promise we're slow, and fun! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! We tried emailing this but we were unsuccessful with that route. The second and third videos were our attempts, but they were funny so we stuck them in here anyway. We hope you enjoy this as much as we did. We love you!

In case you didn't catch the lyrics...

You give me a kiss. You give me a hug. You smile when you see me, too. I wish every child in the whole wide world had a grandmother just like you.

You read me a book. You sing me a song. You whisper you love me, too. I wish every child in the whole wide world had a grandmother just like you.

I'll try to be good. I'll do as I should. I'll whisper I love you, too. I wish every child in the whole wide world had a grandmother just like you.

A Little Give & Take...

I'm sitting here listening to the pouring rain (if you're in Nampa right now you know what I'm talking about) and catching up on my blogging. Last week I was talking to Christina Arnold about my kids getting into the fridge and pantry just to make a huge mess. For the 3rd time Katie and Ashley took a brand new box of cereal and dumped it all over the kitchen, dining room, and both living rooms!!! I was only upstairs for literally 10 minutes and before I could reach the bottom step Sammy said, "Mom! Katie and Ashley made a big mess. I didn't help, but Ashley did!" She's always quick to blame Ashley, but in this case I wasn't surprised. It was a HUGE mess!!! I was so upset I sent all three girls upstairs and told them not to come out of their rooms until I told them to and if I saw their faces even once I would spank their bare bottoms. (Katie was in Sammy's room with her.) I spent the next half hour or so cleaning up the tornado of cereal and then jumped on the treadmill to calm myself down. As I talked to Christina about my frustration she suggested I get locks on my pantry... I've tried finding a child lock for my pantry and have come home empty handed. The knobs are too far apart for the locks that loop around them... does that make sense? This is what I mean...My doors are the kind that pull out and make sort of a W shape... I'm sure that doesn't make sense... Like this... Anyway, Christina came up with a brilliant idea!!! She thought maybe a shower curtain rod would work. I was off to Walmart to find a cheap shower curtain rod in hopes that it would work. Guess what? It works wonderfully!!! Plus, it only cost me $10 and will save me lots more in the long run. Now my kids are staying out of the pantry and fridge thanks to another child lock (above). Wahoo for Christina's creative thinking!!! I just wanted to pass along that little bit of advice if your needing a child lock for your weird pantry doors.

Now for the take... Angela and I have decided to try and run a half marathon every month this summer. Our next race is in two weeks and I'm in a bit of frustration. I know that you are supposed to carb load the night before your race, but I would rather eat my own arm than to eat pasta. The night before our last race I sucked it up and ate some pasta, but it really wasn't much. I still hated it and sent most of it home with Angela. So my question is, "What can I eat that is a good carb before a race that is NOT pasta?" We've been talking about this a lot and have not come up with answers. We thought maybe breads or potatoes, but those are so full of starch. Any ideas at this point would be greatly appreciated. Please help!!!

Just for laughs!

I've had a hard week and needed some laughs. If there are any of you out there needing a laugh... this is for you! Enjoy!

It's Alive!!!

Tonight I decided to attempt reprogramming the garage door opener. From the day we moved into this house we have not known the code for the garage door panel. It drives me crazy that I have to walk through the house and out the garage just to open the dumb door. Well, it was a success... It only took seven months but we can now open our garage door from outside without the remote!!! Yippee! The really dumb thing is it literally only takes 30 seconds. I wished I had taken the time back in December to figure this out.

Do you have a flat chest?

Yes, it's what you think I'm talking about! You know it's time for the boob job when your sports bra is now baggy on you and even an "A" cup is too big!!! How freakin' frustrating is that? I love that inches are shedding from my body due to running... but I don't like where they decide to shed first! I think 11 year old girls have bigger boobs than me now. Where do I find the training bras? Hmmm, someday when we're rich... (Just venting!)

Welcome Baby Sinjin!

Andy and I received a phone call from Nate letting us know that Gwendolyn had their baby. He was 9 lbs. 6 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long! Gwendolyn was such a trooper and went through 22 hours of labor without the epidural and then the next 4 with the drugs. (Andy asks when I can get the epidural the minute they admit me to the hospital.) Sinjin Nathanael is the 40th grandchild for the Wyne's. Andy and I now have 48 nieces and nephews, total, and at least one more on the way! Congratulations Nate and Gwendolyn, he's a keeper!

Half Marathon!

If you haven't noticed the countdown to the right... it says hooray! I ran the Provo City Half Marathon race on Saturday! The drive down to Utah was scary and frustrating. Our portable DVD player died on us and if any of you have traveled with kids you know what a life saver that can be. We also hit a blizzard near Snowville... our favorite place! We made it to Utah finally and the fun began.

The whole week before the race I was dealing with shin splints again. I was worried that I would even be able to run at all. So the night before I asked Andy to give me a blessing. After my blessing I felt a little more calm, but not restless. During the night I had several dreams that something would go wrong... mostly being late and forgetting to pick up Shiloam and Angela. In the morning I still was debating on what to wear because we heard there was a 40% chance it would snow. I decided to wear pretty much everything I brought and I would take off layers if I needed to. Uh, yeah, it was snowing a lot when we got outside! We picked up the girls and were early for the race.

My group included my sister, Shiloam, my girlfriend, Angela, and myself. Along the way we picked up two other girls. One girl, Liz, was actually neighbors with Shiloam about 6 years ago and they hadn't seen each other since. Another girl, Morilla, was right in front of us most of the way and we started chatting with her. This was my first race ever and it turned out to be really fun! Even with the snow, wind, and 30 degree weather! I was very bundled and stayed warm for most of it. (2 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, a jacket, gloves, visor, and 2 headbands!)

Some of the best things about the race:

-Andy, John, and Cindy were at the water stations every two miles to cheer us on!
-Angela traveled all the way from Idaho to run with me!
-Our hubbies totally supported us in our training, and race!
-Shiloam didn't bail on us and stuck with us the whole way!
-We RAN the whole race!
-No shin splint pain whatsoever! At least not on race day!
-I didn't have to use any kind of energy gels! They are so gross!
-We finished before Mohawk dude! He was the guy that Andy, John, and Cindy would look for to see when we were coming up. We were behind him by about a minute until the last leg and then we passed him.
-Passing a lot of people at the end!
-We finished in about 20 minutes shorter than we expected!
-Shiloam, Angela, and I crossed the finish line holding hands!
-Andy, John, Bryce (and Brenton), Cindy, and Emily were cheering us on at the finish line with roses for all of us!
-I can now say I've run a half marathon, and I have a shirt to prove it!!!


Some of the bad things about the race:
-Seeing girls pull their pants down and take a dump because they don't want to wait for an available potty.
-A ton of people passing us!
-Feeling out of energy and not finding stuff to talk about (off the top of our heads) to get our minds off the kill.
-My legs are super sore!
-Now Angela and I have to get back to normal life! Maybe we'll train for something else so we can keep running together without getting flack from our hubbies... hmm!


Thanks to all of my supporters! It was fun to talk to you and take your encouraging energy with us to the race. Thanks to our hubbies who supported us and watched the kids many days and nights so that we could run. Thanks to our groupies who cheered us on every two miles! That was seriously one of the best things about the race! They missed the 12 mile water station to go and get the roses and we were totally bummed... until we saw the roses. Thanks to the girls that stuck with me on the race and didn't leave me in the dust. And most of all, thanks to Angela! She stuck with me through the training and has become such a great friend. She helped me learn to love running! When I run with her I find my troubles disappear and I am a much happier person all together. I totally love that fabulous girl!!! I think she and I will be friends for eternity! I love you tons, Angela!

Our official time was 2:27:04! Our overall place was 482 out of 561! I know we are slow for some people but we didn't really care about that. We just wanted to finish in under 3 hours and actually run the whole thing. We did it!!! Another really cool thing... In our training we ran over 200 miles! How awesome is that!?!

If you want to see other perspectives go to Cindy's blog or if you've been invited to Shiloam's blog you can check out her thoughts, too... as soon as she posts.

April Fools Day!

Late last night we heard something scratching and banging against our window in the living room. I went downstairs and asked Andy what it was. He didn't know, so we opened the front door to see what was going on... This was my reaction. (Can you guess what it was?)

I bet you couldn't guess! Well...

This is what we found!

There was a live chicken tied to our doorknob! That's right! A live chicken!!! There was also a note attached that read, "April Fools! Eat me!" We knew right away that it was Brandon and Brigetta that put it there. A friend of theirs put a chicken on their doorstep a few years back while we were visiting... plus, we saw them drive past our house. So I called her and said, "Ha, ha! Very funny!" Well, we got the idea to go and put it on someone else's door... so Andy and Brandon walked down to another friend's house and tied the feathered devil to their door. They thought it was teenagers knocking on doors and running. So they ran to the back door in hopes of catching the "teenagers" and when they didn't catch anyone they went to the front door and found the chicken! Ha, ha! They laughed about it and then turned around and put it on someone else's door. How funny is that? Needless to say, this psycho chicken has been passed around the ward and lots of people don't even know who started it all! Ha, ha! One girl didn't know what to do with it so she started calling people asking if it was them and if they wanted a chicken. While at mutual tonight she even got clucked at... so funny! I think this April Fools Day joke tops the charts! Andy made sure I posted this one... especially me screaming at a chicken flying into our window that separated us. Happy April Fools Day, everyone!!!

Fun-Funny-Filled-Weekend!

This weekend we were lucky enough to have my brother and his family come stay with us. Saturday was a fun, and funny, day. It started off with running 9+ miles with Angela and my sister-in-law, Emily. About 4 or 5 miles into the run Emily said, "Okay, where's a business? I really need a bathroom." We run in the country so there are no businesses around, but my cousin's house was just around the corner. So Emily ran ahead and knocked on the door. My cousin had no idea who she was and was in his bathrobe! She said, "Uh, hi... I really need to use your potty." He was totally confused and said he was about to get in the shower. I love Emily! She said, "You're going to have to wait, because I really need to pee!" The poor confused guy let her in and then she was on her way...

After showering and getting ready for the day Sammy came up the stairs crying her eyes out. I asked her what was wrong and she said someone peed on the floor. I asked her if it was her and she snapped at me that it was most certainly not! So then I asked her why she was so upset. Her response was, "Because I fell in it!!!" So I headed downstairs with a towel in hand and asked where the pee was. Emily told me they thought the half bathroom flooded. I walked to the bathroom and found the most revolting mess!!! The toilet not only flooded pee... but poop, too! Disgusting!!! I cleaned up the gagging accident and meanwhile Andy was getting out of the shower taking care of Sammy. He asked her what happened and she said, "I fell in cigarette pee!!!!" Where that came from I don't know... but it was pretty funny.

Later that evening Nate was laying on the couch while Noah, his 2 year old son, punched his hand. Nate said, "You punch like a girl... you punch like a girl." Noah started to punch as hard as he could and as Nate turned for a split second Noah socked him right in the eye! Nate said, "Okay, that was a good one." It's rare that I see Andy laugh as hard as he did after the "girl" punch to the eye.

We had a great weekend with the Koenig's and are glad they came. We miss them so much we made Nate stay with us all week and then we're driving down to Utah tomorrow to see the rest of the family... :) (My race is on Saturday... and Nate had to work in Boise this week.)

What do you think it is?

The girls had finished eating and this is what I found. Sammy had drenched her own hair with water so I assumed that's what was in Katie's hair... NOPE! Want to take a guess as to what it is?

Syrup!!!

I had to wash her hair about 4 times before it all came out. Yuck!

6 Years Ago Today!

Then...

and now!

We went to one of our favorite restaurants, Tucanos, and stuffed ourselves sick. We thought we were pretty lame, though. We were finished with dinner by 6:30 and didn't know what to do after that... so we did what most married couples do to finish their date. We went to Target! After that we borrowed a movie from my mom and headed home. I know, kind of lame. We had a good time looking back on our 6 years of marriage. We did end the night by playing a little bit of Dance, Dance Revolution 2 and went to bed early. We didn't actually fall asleep till a wee hour in the morning. :)

The Trouble With Angels

The other day while at Walmart I saw this movie on sale for $4! My sister, Brigetta, and I used to love to watch this at my Aunts house when we were little. When Andy saw it he was, of course, not as thrilled as I was. When I told Brigetta about it she was so excited and I laughed and told Andy, "I told you Brigetta would be happy!" So Wednesday we had a girls/movie night! I let Sammy and Ashley stay up to watch it, which I paid for the next day, and Brigetta stayed as well. It was fun to see the girls get excited. After it was over we asked Sammy and Ashley what they thought of the movie. Sammy's response was, "It was so funny!" Brigetta and I really enjoyed it as well. We both hadn't seen it since we were little girls and it really brought back memories!

What Funny Girls!

These are some random funny pictures of my girls... Katie was putting her face in the bubbles and thought it was pretty cute.

Sorry this picture is really fuzzy. I only had my phone and she turned right as I took the picture. Those are Sammy's boots she decided to put on herself.

I think she wanted to go to Utah with me... she's small enough for a carry on piece right?Ashley was making faces at me and I couldn't resist getting out the camera.What a cute girl!All smiles!This is how I found Sammy sleeping last night... Yes, she was really asleep!She grew her boobs early! Not really. She stuffed a towel in her shirt and came to show us her uni boob. She made herself well endowed don't you think? Uh, hate to break it to you toots, but that's not going to happen with your genes.And of course you can't forget the ginormous shoes! All my girls love wearing my shoes around the house... Heck, they would wear them out if I would let them!