Monday, March 29, 2010

someone's HERO

My sister was in town last weekend to run a half marathon (she's crazy).  She has signed up for a marathon in May... because the half marathon was full (SEE!!...CRAZY!!)  I thought of her as her race started... while I was warm in my bed, and the temperature at her starting line was 20 degrees... (crazy!!!.)   Yeah, so I may be a runner... but I'm a wussy runner.

She bested her first (and only other) half marathon by 5 minutes, and this race had lots of hills, her first was downhill.  I ran with them in that first downhill marathon through Provo Canyon.  They hadn't trained.  They beat me by 25 minutes and 5 minutes (Liz, my sister in law & Kara, my sister, respectively).  Thus the reason you won't find me racing with them in the future.  They improve... I get fatter slower.

The highlight of the day was being able to hang afterwards.  A visit to the candle/scrapbook shop, lunch at Zupas, and a trip to Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient life.  Aspen LOVED it.  She was a kid in a candy shop.  I was ready for a nap.


My sister's daughter rode with me while driving around from one stop to another.  We had the windows down, sun-roof open, and tunes jammin.  She made a comment to me that she had missed a birthday party to come, but she was glad she did... and that she was having tons of fun.  Later, when she returned home, she commented to her mom that when she gets a car someday she wants to have a car like mine.

YEAH... It's nice to be someone's hero.  Just gotta keep my MOJO.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

frustration, nerves & anxiety

Sometimes I wish my competitive gene was a little less of a dominant characteristic.  Thursday was a perfect example.  Every year the student faculty basketball game happens in the spring.  I've learned over the past couple years to talk a little less smack talk with my students prior to the game because the older I get, the less I am able to "represent" as a key player on our team.  By the end of the first half (vs. the 7th graders) we were up by 15 points.  The 8th graders played the second half, and we knew we were in trouble.  They had a couple boys that were 6'4"+ and not skinny little fellers either.  The end score of the game was 58-58.  Tie score.  Not according to the students. Somehow they figured they had an extra point that hadn't been counted. I had to deal with "teachers are cheaters" comments via email that evening, and all during the next day at school.  Really?  Cheaters?  Why?  Because you didn't WIN?  Because we didn't have 2 entirely separate games?  Or because you had a student ref who called 26 calls in your favor (including a 3 SECONDS CALL??) and we got a total of 2 calls (this includes the technical foul called against the students that began the game).  Yeah... that's cheating I guess.
I don't deal well with sore losers.
At all.

This past week I was thinking about the game, and planning for the game so often that I was able to keep my upcoming surgery out of my mind.  Now that it is Sunday... the nerves have set in.  I have to have some fibroid tumors removed.  Even though it is a one day procedure, and I should be home that same night, I am nervous.  Hayden has planned a little R&R for a couple days the following week for the 2 of us without Aspen, but I have been so anxious about this procedure, I haven't been able to let myself look forward to the event.  I'll be glad to have this done, and be able to relax and enjoy my spring break.

Chicago... here we come!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Best source of time travel... by far!

I decided to make myself a play list off of the 3,389 songs on my ipod.  I needed an "unwind" set of tunes because sometimes driving home NEEDS an unwind button.  I was going through my list one song at a time and moving songs over if they met my listening need.  Amazing what you find when you aren't looking.  Over the course of the 3 days I was taken through a good 25 year period of my life in an instant.  It amazes me how quickly I am transported to, not just a year, or a time frame... but an exact location, complete with people around me, smells, and a very distinct feeling of being that age again.  I started making a list, as I was going through my 3000+ songs, of only the ones that took me to a specific place and time.  Best source of time travel... by far!

Listed as:
SONG: Artist: year: Person there at the time: story behind the moment

Ghost Riders In the Sky: Marty Robbins/Michael Martin Murphy: 1982: My Mom: Heber rodeo grounds watching my mom compete in the drill portion of "Riding Club"
Come Sail Away: Styx: 1982: Jo Gardner: Sitting in Uncle Jo's room going through his records and feeling totally lucky that he let me play them on his stereo system. 
Round and Round: Ratt: 1985: Susan Condie: Susan's party at her house with a bunch of people.  I even remember what I was wearing at the time.
Livin on a prayer: Bon Jovi: 1986: Melody Pittman/Union Bball team: After our Park City basketball game, we stopped by a store and I purchased this album and a sweet (at the time, it was) cassette player to listen to it on.
In the air tonight: Phil Collins: 1986: Tina Harrison/Roland McCook: Sitting in the hall at Wasatch high school waiting for the next round of matches at a wrestling tournament.
Lessons in Love: Level 42: 1987: Suzi Nelson:  New tape I purchased to play in Suzi's new car for our rides to school.
The Flame: Cheap Trick: 1987-summer:  Suzi Nelson:  driving around good old Roosevelt with the windows rolled down... jamming.
Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For: U2: 1987: Jeff Limburg: On the Limburg's couch watching the music video to this song.  Still one of my favorites.
Groovy Kind of Love: Phil Collins: 1988: Vicki Staker:  Driving to Price for a basketball game in the big ole van, and listening to this song, sitting next to Vicki.
Wild wild west: Escape Club: 1988: Snow Basketball Team: Dancing on the tables in the cafeteria at CNCC to this video.  Our coach left us because we were slow to come to the van (thankfully she came back for us).
I'll be over you: Toto: 1988: Gary Johnson: Snow College.  Had a crush on him, and this song was playing once when I went over to his dorm.
Bop: Dan Seals: 1989: Marlyn Harmer, Cori Lyman, Karleah Allen (Snow teammates): Learning how to do this line dance to the song at coach's house in Ephraim.
Finding Me: Vertical Horizon: 2000: Kellie Miller: so many songs remind me of her/this part of my life... but in this one I find myself sitting in her futon couch in the cute condo in Logan she bought.
Oops I did it again: Britney Spears: 2001: June's place... Hanging with my kids during the spring.
Wild Child: Enya: 2001: Brenden:  Basement apartment of June's house.  This song about my "wild child" Brenden... wild, meaning, he was such a spit-fire at the time.
All-Star: Smash-mouth: 2002: My kids: Sitting on the curb at the Box Elder County Fair parade with my kids, watching the drill team march by to this song. 
I Drove All Night: Celine Dion: 2003: Brenden:  Chasing Brenden around the kitchen in Brigham City, singing this song to him... as he tries to run away.
Yeah: Usher: New Year's Eve 2003: Lynette Turner &; Michael: Dance in SLC w/ friends.
New Song: Howard Jones: 2004: David Pabst: Howard Jones concert in Springville... (hey, Dave... I had to pick ONE, sorry) good times.
Runaway: Live: 2004: Hayden: Basement of student center at the U, playing ping pong and browsing the internet
Into the Ocean: Blue October 2008: myself: running on the frontage road listening to this song... many weeks before it was popular!


Some songs/artists just remind me of people in my life... such as:
Brenden: Miss You: Blink 182
Wade: You are my Sunshine
My dad: anything Marty Robbins, Cattle Call: Eddy Arnold
HaydenLightning Crashes: Live,    Crashed Into You: Daughtry,    The Reason: Hoobastank

Monday, March 22, 2010

Faking it

There is a difference between a HAVING/FINDING a great idea, and IMPLEMENTING a great idea.  I learn this often... sometimes the hard way.  I've made a few things this past month... and I've thrown in the towel on my most recent attempt.  My first try was a skirt made out of scraps of pieces of fabric.  I had to play with the width of each tier of the skirt, but overall it turned out GREAT!  I had seen the picture here.  
 
My most recent has been making a dress/shirt from old T-shirts.  I had seen incredible pictures of this idea here and here.  My attempt fell horribly short of the desired result.  Not being able to figure it out got the best of me, and I ended up spending $12 on the pattern for the dress.  Now to collect a ton of cool T-shirts from family and friends that would have ended up at D.I. or the trash.  
Other items I "faked" recently turned out much better than the t-shirt dress.  I made a skirt out of 2 tea-towels that I picked up at the dollar store.  It was still missing something, so I took a spare piece of ribbon in my stash, sewed a gather stitch down the edge of it, gathered it, and sewed on the little flower to the side of the skirt.  BOO-YA!  Adorable skirt for a total of $2.
While at the dollar store, I thought I'd buy one of the little blankets in the baby section, and turn it into a pair of pants.  I used another pair of Aspens bottoms as a stencil for the pattern.  There was almost not enough material in the $1 blanket, but these are some of Aspen's favorites... and she always wants to wear them.  Sometimes I have to hide them.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

spring

Sure could tell it was SPRING in full bloom today: 

3 rows tilled in my garden and planted a row of spring veggies (yeah yeah... I will probably have to replant, but it was worth walking through the fresh dirt with Aspen.  Her first jaunt through tilled soil).

First run of laundry hanging on the clothesline.

Dinner on the BBQ grill.

I could use many MANY more days like this.

Monday, March 15, 2010

I don't remember growing older... when did they?

We had a little shin-dig this weekend for the boys' birthday.  I doctored up a few pictures to post, and when I went to upload them (by the file name) look what I found... several years' worth of birthday celebrations.  It floors me how much my little men have turned into fine young men.  Mr Joe Cool (Brenden) at the age of 9 is still playing it "cool" 8 years later.  Sometimes too much.
My little ball of SUNSHINE (Wade) is still bringing light into my days, and makes me learn things about myself that I didn't know that I didn't know.
I love these boys.  I love having had the time with them that I've had... and have to not think about all the time that I have missed out on.  My little boys are men... and I'm blessed to be part of their life.


WHEN DID HE GET TO BE A BEAUTY?
WHEN DID HE GROW TO BE SO TALL?
WASN`T IT YESTERDAY WHEN THEY WERE SMALL.
SUNRISE, SUNSET,
SUNRISE, SUNSET,
SWIFTLY FLOW THE DAYS;
SEEDLINGS TURN OVERNIGHT TO SUNFLOW`RS,
BLOSSOMING EVEN AS WE GAZE.

Give the girl a pool

This past week has been one of many adventures with Aspen.  Yesterday I put her down for a nap, and after 45 minutes I heard her crying, so I went in to see what was the problem.  OH BABY!!!  There was a problem.  There was water (from a sippy cup of water I had left with her) and Lysol spray over EVERYTHING in her room: Tv, floor, dishes, books, dresser, EVERYTHING. I am sure that she was up and moving around for her little adventure as soon as I had shut the door on her.

She found her lifejacket this week, too.  I shouldn't say FOUND because it has been hanging in her room since Lake Powell last year.  DISCOVERED is more like it.  At that point... she and the lifejacket were inseparable.  She had to take it with her to the sitter's house.  When I picked her up and we were driving home we had an interesting conversation:

"where going mama?"
"home"
"no... no go home.... go swimmin mama"
as we pulled into the driveway
"MAMA... NOOO home... SWIMMIN!!"

This was the daily dialogue for three of the days last week.  I even went to the extreme of hiding her lifejacket on the back of her door under her winter coat.  She was not deterred.  A few hours later, the laundry basket was emptied, tipped on its side, moved over to the door, the coat was removed and the lifejacket was once again her constant companion.

Thursday night I had such a headache that Hayden decided to take her to the pool while I took a nap.  This girl was so excited when she came home.  She had many adventures to tell me.

Monday, March 8, 2010

a dose of humility

Occasionally I am able to drop by Hayden's job site and see what he is working on.  He had informed me before I came this time that the project was a floor in a little subdivision for mostly low income families.  The man who had lived in the place had passed away and the owners needed to have the floor sanded before renting the place out again. 
I am so grateful for my little humble home, our 1 bathroom, our leaky fall apart "garage", and our faulty electrical work.  
SO, SO GRATEFUL.  
It breaks my heart to see a little family come through to look at the place.  A mother and a little girl.  The mother was ecstatic at the prospects of moving into the place.  I was nervous having Aspen walk through the house.  I definitely wouldn't let her touch anything.  I can't imagine having to live in those conditions.
So, here is to little things in life that make us remember to be grateful for what we have.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Oreos are my friend

It's amazing.  Exercise, eating right, and weight loss are interlinked.   So I started wondering:  how about exercising a LITTLE bit, ALMOST eating right (except for the box of girl scout Samoas that I downed in one sitting)... that should count for something, RIGHT??  Apparently my pants don't think so... nor do my thighs... and my butt???  Don't even ask him.  I tell my friend Becky that it is her fault.  Her weight loss lately has been incredible.  I think she is secretly leaving those extra pounds in my classroom, and they end up following me home.

I have a disadvantage to begin with, I realize.  The past 5 years I began struggling with monthly  emotional chaos and depression (yes THAT kind of monthly), and ended up on medication to regulate it.  Two years ago, when I  started running, my body for some reason began thinking that running was now the medication to regulate this imbalance.  Because of this, NOT running is a double whammy for me.   A TRIPLE whammy, actually.  1) It makes my daily caloric intake remain higher than my output (thus resulting in unhappy pants).  2) When I don't run... my craving for all things sugary increases as well, and I don't mean a little bit.   That craving has been screaming lately for a package of double stuffed OREOS.  5 of them would do... with a nice glass of cold milk (because milk is HEALTHY, right?  And as long as you have "stuff" with something healthy it's all good).  And last, but definitely the most important: 3) Not running leaves me a blubbering emotional mess.  I am not a nice person as a basket-case. My 6th & 7th period classes can attest to this.

So... Hayden has been out of town on work for a few days, which leaves morning runs not possible.   I had to go shopping yesterday for a few essentials, and lo-and-behold... there were the Oreos calling my name.  Thank heavens the almost $4 price tag convinced me otherwise, but I did find these cookies that were TOTALLY calling my name.  $1.  Look... they even say that they love me on them.  I loved them too.  A calorie counting person could tell me how many miles I would have to run in order to burn off all of those calories... which is why I don't have any calorie counting friends.  So luckily for Hayden, he has missed out on the non-running, cookie eating, crazy woman the past 3 days.  He might be planning a job out of town again soon if I don't get in my running shoes again ASAP.

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