Thanksgiving

We enjoyed a lovely, but quiet, Thanksgiving Dinner at our friends home this year. It was nice to hear what everyone was thankful for and reminisce about our favorite holiday memories. Evan mostly reminisced about many of the things we used to do during the holidays but for some reason have quit - like making a gingerbread house for example. (Keep posted, there may be one in our future!)'

(Sorry if this is a little dark ...)

Anyhow, it was very nice - but I sure missed my big boys Brendan and Tyler. It's always hard around the holidays when family isn't all there. It was nice to share dinner with friends who were also missing family and with the missionaries away from theirs.

Elder Dahle and Elder Emrich emailing their families. Does a missionary mom's heart good to see this!

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention ... on this very day, Mitch and I ran in a Turkey Day race - an 8k. I was pretty certain he would beat me being the fit, 16 year old young man that he is. He did beat me (barely) and I can't miss saying that he was darn sore the next day. He beat his mom, but paid for it later. Good job, Mitch - thanks for sticking with me for the first 7 k!

Alex and his Cello

It's always fun when your child chooses to play an instrument you know nothing about! So far, in our family we've had a french horn, baritone, flute, cello, recorder (X5), and piano. We're on round 2 with the cello, this time with Alex. Thankfully, he's getting a little help from Evan since I know nothing about how it works. He rarely practices and it's likely we won't continue a whole lot longer (it's been 4 months!), but in the meantime - he's darn cute.

Seussical, The Musical

Evan was very excited when he came home a few months ago and told us he got one of the leads in his High School play, Seussical - The Musical. He was to play the part of JoJo - the smallest Who of them all who saves Whoville from complete and utter destruction, simply by hollering "YOP".

He did an amazing job in this role. He sang his little heart out. The entire cast, in fact, were quite talented. Considering, this was a hodge podge cast of students from two seperate schools thrown together into one new school with no seniors to help out, no props to begin with, no set parts to draw from - it came together without a hitch.

Here we have a few pictures of Evan in this role.

Evan with that tricky Cat in the Hat - putting some more "thinks" in his head!
Mr. and Mrs. Mayor - Jo Jo's Dad and Mom One of our favorites - Evan signing autographs for his fans.
Evan with Horton

Ahhh ...

I like this picture of the two of us so I thought I'd save it here in my blog before my computer crashes again!

I won an award a few weeks ago and this was taken at the awards banquet.
The award ... "Minnesota Radiologic Technology Student of the Year".

Twin Cities Marathon - October 4, 2009

(The Touch Chicks at the marathon expo - in our dreams, that would be our time!)

Yesterday I ran my 6th marathon - Twin Cities Marathon. We couldn't have asked for better weather - it was sunny and cool. Here's how the day went:
Darrell dropped the "touch chicks" Kari, Laura and I off at the Metrodome at about 6:50. Race time 8:00 AM. We're looking a little sleepy still here! Then he went off to collect the boys and get stationed on the course.
First out were the wheelers. It's always amazing to see these wheelers triumph over their disabilities and go on to become extraordinary athletes.As Darrell was waiting for the runners to arrive, he took some time to take in the scenery of the beautiful Twin Cities in the fall.
This is around Lake Harriet.
Here comes the lead pack of men. Not to spoil the surprise, but just guess who won the race out of this pack? (Clue: It was not one of the Kenyans). Crazy, I know but an American won! That big, tall, blond guy right there!
Here comes the first woman. Again - an American woman wins the women's portion, but I have no idea if this was her!
Well on to the rest of the 11,000 of us running. We count too! This is the 3:40 pace group. Laura and I are right behind them.
Here we come - right around Lake Harriet.
Here we are now IN FRONT of the 3:40 pace group heading toward the Lake Street Bridge at about mile 18 (can you see the balloons?). We're actually pulling off to see Darrell because after we passed the 3:40 group we struggled with that pace for at least 6 miles and they kept right on our heels. So we let them go by. We lost Kari early on in the race - she was having knee problems and ended up dropping out at around mile 13 :(
Just a brief pause to comment on how AMAZING the fans are at the Twin Cities Marathon.

So the race continues ... I lose Laura at mile 21 - the top of the hill just before Summit. I know she's got way more left than I do and I really needed a little walk break. So I continued the rest of the race on my own. Yes - it was miserably painful but the bright spot came at mile 24 when the superfans Allison and Michelle were there to give me a boost of much needed encouragement. The pat on the back from Rod at mile 25 was a huge help too. He told me I was going to be done by 3:42.
Here's Laura finishing up the race - heading toward the capitol. See that chunky guy beside her? No doubt she totally passed him!

And here I am staggering into the finish at 3:42:08 - I'm very happy with that PR! (Oh, and I passed "tattoo guy too).
Rod was there to meet me at the finish.
It took a few minutes to find Laura since after leaving me she managed to get a good 6 minutes ahead of me in 5 miles. That girl knows how to finish a race!!
My superfans met us in the hospitality tent after to enjoy a little pizza with us. Thanks gals!
And my most super-duper-fans of them all - Darrell, Alex and Evan who stuck by me the entire race. You guys are the best!

Sorry, But I've Got to Run

It's Twin Cities Marathon time again - it's only two days away. Am I ready? That's the question people keep asking me. The answer is, I don't know. It will be my third marathon this year. It's a bit too much but I couldn't resist the lure of running with my running peeps - even if it is a marathon. I haven't had a personal best time in a marathon since last year's Twin Cities Marathon. I'd like to beat last year's time but realistically, it's not likely to happen. The excuses include sore feet that need time to heal and the sudden onset of a cold. As crazy as it sounds, I am getting excited to run on Sunday. I know I'll regret those words at mile 21 - but running is kind of like a drug. I just can't 'kick' the addiction.

This will be my last marathon for a year. There - I've said it. I've committed to giving my body and mind a chance to recover. Doesn't mean I won't run shorter races - just no marathons for a year. Sounds easy, right? Peer pressure always gets the best of me, but hopefully not this time.

Next marathon:
Why Nike Women's Marathon?:

This is what you get - and I want one!

Robot Wars

What more could a nine-year-old boy want than to spend a day building remote control robots with his dad and then use said robot to fight other robots? This day was like a dream come true for Alex! He actually said, "that was one of the best days of my life". Considering that he's had some pretty great days, that's saying a lot!

They went to a friends house who had been collecting robot "parts" for years. They got to choose parts (including a saw blade!), assemble them into some sort of robot, add some armor and a remote control transponder, then battle it out. There was even a battle corral (?) with trap doors, a falling teletubby, saw blade - the whole thing - just like on TV. So fun!Here's Alex taking on another robot. He lost that battle
All the boys with their robots.

This was definitely a "guys guy" kind of day!!