The Fruits (and veggies) Of My Labor

Okay, well not my labor, really. The Elders Quorum came over Saturday morning as a service project and started this garden for us. We could have probably done it on our own, but having the Elders come and do it forced us in to it. Who knows if we ever would have done it if they hadn't come over and done it for us! They tilled the ground (only one sprinkler casualty) and added some nice soil. You have to add good soil out here because the dirt is so awful, nothing can grow in it. Except for weeds, of course. I couldn't let the EQ's service go to waste, so I went out that afternoon and got some plants. It's probably too late in the season for the plants to really get down to business but I thought I'd give it a shot. I got some bell peppers and cherry tomatoes (they taste like candy to me)! Tabby adores strawberries and I knew I wouldn't get away with having a garden with no strawberries in it. They are tough to grow, so we are crossing our fingers. Tabby checks on them every morning.

The Usual

So maybe it's just because I'm her mom, but I think my girl Tabby is pretty darn gorgeous! But good luck trying to get a beautiful picture of her. I don't know what it is, maybe is partly because she is super fidgety and partly because some people are just more photogenic than others. When I set out to get good pictures of her, this is usually the end result:
Funny, but not breathtaking.

So the wonderfully generous miss Kim lent me her camera to do a wedding and I thought I'd get a few practice shots off Tabby this afternoon. I was excited to get some fabulous beauties. I took over 100 pics and this is the best I got:
These ones are okay, but only 4 out of 100? Come on!!! Maybe it's just the photographer....

This is what I have to say to that:

We Are Survivors!

We lived to tell about it! We had an amazing time and we have a million stories to tell! The best part about it? We weren't last! Yeah! Check back for more pics soon!

Party Time!

Hey Sista! Sole Sista! The big day is tomorrow! Wish us luck! Here is our team roster a.k.a. 14 women who are out of their minds!
Cresta Topol
Jana Chapman
Karolee Fritz
Stacia Flaike
Brittany Whetten
Lindsey Brochinsky
Alys Morris
Wendy Fuller
Amelia Ortiz
Kathleen Burley
Sara Ehmke
Rachel Olsen
And of course our cut throat, hard core, crazy drivers:
Heather Darger
Becky Scott

And let me give a huge thanks to some people who have truly helped us:
Stacy Johnson - what did Stacy NOT do for us?
Tresure Goates and Katie Budge - the gift baskets are amazing!
Jake Fritz for creating our Sole Sista theme song - yes the song playing on my blog is OUR SONG!!!!
And to our volunteers:
Melissa Whetten
Tressa LeCheminant
I really had no idea this was going to be such a huge production. When I first heard about this race, I seriously thought we were just going to register and then show up and run. Little did I know what we were all in for! Nonetheless, we are all gonna have a great time and I'm ready for the adventure!

It's going to be an amazing trip ladies! Thank you for letting me sucker you in to doing this with me!

Moving Mountains

God says man has the power to move mountains if we have the faith to move them. This is my idea of moving mountains:

Have you ever heard of Team Hoyt? I learned about them a while ago and Karolee and I were talking about them during our last run. I thought it would be good to do a blog post about them and after you read about them you will know why this story is so special.

This is a father and son team that do the Ironman together. If you don't know what the Ironman is, its a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run. Just the running alone is a whole marathon. What's special about this team is that the son can't walk or talk and his father physically takes him through the whole race. He pulls him in a boat for the swim, he has a special 2 seat racing bike and he pushes him in a wheelchair for the run.

They learned his son loved sports when they got him a special computer that helps him spell out words by moving his head. One day he asked his dad to push him in a race. His dad wasn't much of an athlete but he saw how his son came alive and how he had a huge smile on his face the whole time. From then on, he has dedicated his life to taking his son to races.

Here is a video from you tube:


Here is another amazing one!


Here is the link to their website: http://www.teamhoyt.com/
I think this is one of the most inspiring stories I have ever heard. It's amazing what a dad will do for his boy.

Dealing with my problems...

I have gone though the five stages of grief and now I am ready to face my problem head on:

1.) Denial - This isn't happening! This is totally not my fault!

2.) Anger - How could anyone do this? This is the worst thing that could ever happen to me!

3.) Bargaining - If someone would just fix this for me, I will never make this mistake again, I promise!

4.) Depression - I am too overwhelmed to deal with it. It makes me so sad. It's hopeless.

5.) Acceptance - Okay fine! I will clean my dang garage!

Can I Get You Anything While I'm at the Store?

When we do our long runs on Saturday, we usually like to drive somewhere that's not so flat. Flat=Boring! When we don't have time to do that, we run around here. For some reason, the Wal-Mart in Johnson Ranch has become a great running destination. It's funny to say "I ran to Wal-Mart, literally." It's exactly 10 miles from here so yesterday Karolee and I ran there and back making it a nice 20. Stacia ran there with us last week. We actually ran up the hill that's right behind the store. Did you know there are a ton of houses behind Wal-Mart? I had no idea. We took pictures of us back there but for some reason, they didn't get saved on my camera phone. Hmm, maybe you have to be smarter than the phone. Anyway, when we finished with our run on Ocotillo, guess what we found?
Camels! Just chillin with a donkey in a pen. That's Karolee giving them some yummy weeds. Now if that's not totally awesome, I don't know what is!

I took a picture of my shoes when I was done running. I wish my camera phone wasn't so old skool because then you could see how beat up my shoes really are. And I got them about 3 weeks ago! I don't mind that they look worn, they represent all of my hard work that I've been doing. I started tracking my miles since the first week of December (when I got my GPS watch) and I'm just 3 miles away from 200 miles! Just a year and a half ago, that would have seemed impossible to me. It's amazing what a mom with 3 little kids can do if she sets her mind to it!

Happy Valentines Day to my beautiful wife!!

This is Dale. I have blog-jacked Alys' blog because I want to tell her in front of all her friends and family that I love her very much!

Alys, I thank Heavenly Father every day for sending me such a beautiful, talented, righteous, and loving wife. I am so blessed to be married to you for eternity. I couldn't ask for a better wife or mother to my kids. I am proud of you for the wonderful talents that you have, like running, scrapbooking, photography, card-making, playing the violin and bass, decorating...I could go on forever. And did I mention that you are super hot? I could write a novel (and if I did it would be way better then "Twilight") about all the reasons why I am so lucky to have you. But for now I just want to tell you that you are the best wife that a man could ever dream of, and I love you very much!

Did I Miss the Memo?

Isn't it supposedly still winter right now, people? Then why do I have these flowers growing on my tree?
Don't get me wrong, My flowering pear tree is one of my favorite trees in my yard (no, it doesn't grow pears, I wish it did) It's just that I was very surprised to see them when I went outside this morning. Isn't it kinda early for all this springtime business?

Valentine's Crafts

Why is it that Valentine's Day seems like the best holiday to do crafts for? Maybe it's just me and my desire to make everything pink and sparkly. Wendy came over the other day and we made these little cuties. I forgot to get a picture of hers before she left but it looked just like these. So easy and fun to make. A lot of the embellishments I used on these came from my Valentine Supplies Swap Partner.

Am I really that Weird?

I got tagged again. Not surprisingly, it wasn't that hard for me to come up with "7 Weird Things About Me."

1.) I have to smell a book before I read it. Odd, yes, I know.

2.) I won't eat it if it came out of the water. Even tuna. No to seafood!

3.) Although I never graduated, I went to school to be a firefighter/paramedic. I got pretty far in my training. Then, as with all of my "attempted" degrees, I didn't finish.

4.) I have to check on my kids at least 2 times before I go to bed. I know this is a little OCD. But I think everyone has a touch of the OCD in them.

5.) I can't be left alone in the dark. I start to freak out. Dale even has to turn out the house lights after I've gone into the bedroom.

6.) Okay this one's really odd, hopefully I can explain it well enough. I can't stand it if the microwave is not cooking anything and it's not showing the time. You know if you take something out and there was still time left and the timer stays on the screen until you hit the "clock" button? I will get up from across the room and change it so the clock shows.

7.) I love to watch the news. Nerdy, I know. Especially when something big has happened. I'm glued to it.

Thanks Lisa for tagging me!
Now I will tag Adele and Lauren

PJ Day!

Here is Tabby all ready for her PJ day at her preschool. She talked about it for days leading up to it and even told me about the kinds of PJ's all the other kids were going to wear. "McKay is going to wear Spongebob, Kenli is going to wear Hanna Montana..." The day before she made me make sure her favorite PJ's were all washed and ready to go. And FINALLY, the big moment arrived. Poor Rex. He wanted to go to the PJ party so bad that he went and got on his own PJ's.

I don't know what the big deal is, we wear PJ's all day long if we don't go anywhere.
I hate to admit it, but most of Rex's PJ's are pretty raggity ghetto looking. They were being so sweet to each other!

Amazing!

You have to watch this! This is one of the most amazing kids I have ever seen! He does something unbelieveable at the end. So inspiring!

The Countdown Begins!

Update! Breaking Dawn comes out at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 2, 2008!!!! I can't wait to be transported to Forks again!

Mark Your Calendars!

So I was just doing my ususal "I'm bored" sweep of all my favorite internet sites and I just read on Stephanie Meyer's site that they are going to announe the official release date of Breaking Dawn tomorrow. Now I can tell my family and warn them of the date that mom is going to check out for a few days!