St. George 1/2 Marathon

Well, I did it. Fifteen weeks of training all culminated this last weekend in 13.1 long miles. I will spare the details of nerves and anxiety hampering my running abilities, but they did and I still finished. I think there were a number of factors in play that morning. Simply put, it wasn't one of my better runs which makes the victory well earned. It was hard and I conquered!

The whole weekend was so fun. There were about 30 women in our group (between 2 wards and various friends). It was really cool to be part of such a big group of cool women...I loved seeing the mass of purple shirts at the race. We had a so much fun training and planning. Our ring leaders, Lisa and Becky did so much work; from accommodations to t-shirts it was a great success.We even had a catered luau after the race!

It was awesome to have my dear friend Alison join me on the race. She is an incredible runner and graciously agreed to be support during the race. I gave her fair warning that all social chatting would have to be

saved for lunch after the race....running and talking don't work for me. We had a fabulous time after talking as much as we could while eating delicious Thai food.

Fast....slow....run or walk, we all pushed ourselves to new levels this weekend and that was really exciting.

A new addition to the family

Meet JEWEL

Isn't she cute?? We sure think so! 

As you may or may not recall, our cat, Max died a couple months ago. We knew we would bring another pet into our home, but wanted to take our time. I kept my eye open on the classifieds, the humane society website and the local pet store. There were so many cute ones available. I even called on a few. Nothing really clicked. Then, when I saw Jewel feature on the humane society's website in December, I knew she was the one. I called immediately and set up an appointment to meet her. (Who knew it needed to be so official? They were serious about questioning us and our pet care abilities. We passed.) The next day, we all headed down to the shelter to meet her and see if she was a "match." There were a few that caught our eye, but it was pretty clear she was the one. She is just over a year old and has already had a litter of kittens although you wouldn't know that by her size, she is pretty petite.She has met all our hopes in a new pet. She is very good natured and allows the kids to play with her and carrying her. Best of all, she actually likes being around us. She doesn't hide for hours on end...she is really part of the family. While we loved Max dearly, he wasn't as fond of the kids. On the other hand, the kids can't get enough of her. Even after several weeks, the kids still greet her as soon as they walk in the door and play with her (Even a little too much...I've had to tell them to give her a break!). You know she is a good cat when Chad even expresses how much he loves her!

Friday night

We just spent our night sitting through an uncomfortable Kirby vacuum presentation. What did you do?

The kids said, "eeeww, we walk on that?! I'm washing my feet!"
I really want that vacuum. But I want a basement more.