Quandary

Well, no Christmas decorating pictures to show off yet... we did get the lights up on the eaves of the house, but I still have more stuff to put up near the front door before it's finished, so I haven't taken any pictures yet. We got all the boxes down for the inside decorations and the tree, but I was too tired last night to start it as planned. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time. We have a desk now in the area I used to put the tree, so I'm already trying to figure out how to rearrange the family room furniture to accommodate the tree.

We did get a family photo for the Christmas card taken last weekend. (Thanks to Lynette and her awesome camera and soft focus filter .... love that!) It looks totally professional.... I'm super excited to put it up on my wall. The family photo we are currently displaying is like 2.5 years old or something... Brayden was a baby when we took it. We've attempted family photos since, but because of said "baby", they were never worthy to be posted on the wall.

I'm working on updating my addresses for the Christmas card mail out. I'm not into writing the "traditional" newsletter. I don't think very many people care about my kids grades or their after school activities. I like to put some of our funniest quotes or comments or stories over the last year in my newsletter. Here's the quandary... now that I've been blogging for almost a year and a half, I'm going to have a hard time coming up with good "material" that hasn't already been seen by anyone reading the blog. What do you think... should I hope for some really great material in the next two weeks to work with, or use some of the same stuff from the archives? Does it even matter? Am I worrying about something that nobody cares about anyway? Do I even need to write a Christmas letter? Cuz seriously, I've thought about having our blog address printed on the card when it's made and call it good. I could really save a tree or two by discontinuing the "Christmas letter" mail out tradition (which would really impress all my "green" friends and family).

What do you think??? Speak now or forever hold your peace....

I'm Back...

...in blogland... I hope! I really have missed my "bloggy" friends... especially those who I've never met in real life... or those who are faraway family... or those who are long lost friends from high school or past places we've lived..... or my friends who live in the next neighborhood over and I get more juice about their lives online than I do at church each Sunday....

I really have been having blog withdrawls... I miss reading your blogs and I miss spewing out all my weird antics, activities and opinions online. I hope to be back in blogland more often now.

I'm excited to get down all my Christmas decorations and torture my husband with my "outdoor light demands". I'll never get exactly what I want in the outdoor light department, but I think Eric has finally realized the more effort he puts out, the happier I am about it. The first year we lived here, Eric didn't have time to put up lights... he was taking double credits for his MBA courses and so I had to settle for lights in the windows, which just wasn't the same. There is something about christmas lights that just makes me feel happy. I'll blame that on my maternal grandma... I think it's probably her fault I have a Christmas light addiction. If all goes well in the decorating department, I'll post pictures tomorrow....

Turkey Day Tales

At 7:30 a.m. we arrived in Mesa for the 39th annual Turkey Trot. The kids all ran a 2 mile fun run and Eric and I did the 10K.

Trying to keep the little guy warm.... it rained heavily all night!

Megan with Halle and Marin...

Ian was hoping to let Brayden push him, but he did really well on his run! Taylor lining up at the start... he finished well... too bad the 2 mile run wasn't competitive!The 10k didn't go as well for Eric and I as we'd both hoped. Eric wanted to finish in 40 minutes, but it wasn't meant to be. He finished around the 45 minute mark. I was running slower than I wanted to, but feeling good until the 3.5 mile mark... my darn knees... the ITB pain flared up in my left knee and I was really stupid and kept running for another mile. Yep, not such a brilliant idea... now I'm paying for it. My knee is very sore and climbing up and down our stairs is absolutely brutal!

This afternoon we are getting ready to take the kids out for a movie... we are going to go see this:

And then we are going to have dinner here... that's right... no cooking for me! Yay!

A Heavy Heart

On Monday, our friend lost his battle with Leukemia. Last Thursday evening, we found out the doctors could no longer treat him or fight his illness. They just had to wait for him to pass on and keep him as comfortable as they could. It was a difficult weekend for those of us that know this family. He's a really sweet kid and he's only 14. It breaks my heart to think of the sorrow his family is feeling.

I wanted to share a couple lessons I have learned so far from this experience:

Bad things happen to good people. There is no "fairness" in all of this. Our purpose in life is to be tested for greater things and we don't always understand why bad things can happen to such good people. The bottom line is that no one is invincible to sorrow or tradegy.

I can do all things when supported with the power of the Priesthood. On Thursday last week we got the news of David's condition. By Friday I was falling apart emotionally. How would I be able to be helpful to the family if I couldn't keep it together myself? Eric gave me a blessing on Friday and that has made all the difference in the world. I've been able to feel peace and move forward with providing service to this family in their time of need. I've been able to work with the bishopric in planning the funeral service and luncheon afterwards and hold it together. I've been able to give comfort to the family and to others who are having a hard time coping with such a tragedy.

You never know when your time on earth will be over. It can happen over the course of a long and difficult illness or it can happen in an instant. I want to try to remember to make each moment count. I've noticed over the last week, I've been less short with my family. Even though I've been put under enormous stress, that would normally induce crankiness, it hasn't really come through like you would expect. I've learned from this experience that we have to cherish each moment we have with the people we love.

When no one else can understand our sorrow, God can. I've been trying to figure what to say that might give them comfort. I've never lost anyone this close and I don't think anyone out there can understand the pain of losing a child until it has happened to you. I'm not even going to try to pretend I understand the pain they are suffering. A friend of mine said something really profound yesterday... when no one else can understand, God can. He did send his son to earth to die for the rest of us. He could have stopped it and saved his son, but he didn't because he loves all of us. He knows how it feels to watch a child die.


And here we are the day before Thanksgiving, and I find myself with many emotions. I'm grateful for my family and for my beautiful children and for our good health. I'm grateful for my husband and for his compassion and his generosity. Over the last few days, I have been tethered to the phone and have spent a lot time away from home dealing with all this and he has never once complained. He has even cooked meals and washed dishes without being asked to just to make my life a little bit easier. He's been emotionally strong for our family and been incredibly supportive with all the difficult tasks I've been asked to do. My kids have been incredibly understanding too. More often than not, they turn to talk to me, and I have to hold up one finger and silently tell them "hold on" because I'm on the phone and can't be interrupted. I'm hoping to finish all the arrangements today so that there will be time to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family. I want to be able to cuddle on the couch with my kids and watch a movie with them. I want to be able to play RockBand with them and laugh with them and more than anything else, I want them to know how much I love them. That's my goal this weekend... to make sure my kids know that.

Trying to Be a Teenager Again

Last night a bunch of girlfriends and I went to the midnight showing of Twilight. We had NO IDEA the magnitude of this event. We decided to meet at a restaurant next to the theater at 8:00 p.m., have a late dinner and then scope out the line situation after we were done eating. As we pulled into the mall complex where the theater is, I gasped... there was a line of people snaked down the sidewalk to the very end of the movie theater building (at 8:00 p.m.!!!)

So, we decided to regroup and get in line immediately. A couple gals in our party had already had dinner, so they headed for the end of the line and the rest of us quickly grabbed some food in the mall's food court and carried it back to our spot in the line. I had a delicious stuffed baked potato and a huge diet coke while sitting on the sidewalk with some of my best friends! Here's a photo of the line in front of us....and this is the line behind us.......turns out our theater sold enough tickets to fill 8 auditoriums!!!! Crazy, huh??? Lucky for us, we were able to get into an auditorium and wait in comfy seats for the last 2 hours before the movie, which was nice to have unlimited access to the restrooms while I waited for above mentioned diet coke to filter through the bladder!

I've promised not to say a word about the movie itself for a few more days... I'll try to be good and keep that promise! But, if you want to see it, do it soon so we can all talk about it together!

"James Bond is Recession Proof"

James Bond movies are good for my marriage. We always get a quality date night out of watching a 007 movie. Eric gets to watch an action packed blockbuster and I get to watch a handsome James Bond in action. Everybody wins! We saw Quantum of Solace on Saturday afternoon. Warning - if you have not seen Casino Royale, don't go see this movie until you do. For the first time that I can remember, the two plots are connected. I haven't seen Casino Royale in a long time and I regretted not watching it again before we went. I found myself trying to remember who everyone was and how they were connected before.

I grew up watching 007. I don't remember too much about the Sean Connery days, but I've faithfully followed 4 James Bonds in my time. Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and now Daniel Craig. My parents owned a Laser Disc machine way back when I was a teenager. This was the predecessor to CD's and eventually DVD's. It was a record size CD that contained a movie on it... but the format was so large, that you had to "flip" the disc halfway through the movie and finish it on the reverse side. Here's a fun picture from wikipedia:

(Side Note: when I run into old friends from the growing up days, and we talk about the things we used to do as kids, they almost always mention the fact that my parents had that cool movie player!) Okay... back to Bond....

Here's the Roger Moore I remember... he was considered "hot" in the 80's right?

Timothy Dalton only did 2 Bond Films, but I liked them. I thought he did a good job, but Eric says he was the wimpiest Bond of the bunch. Probably true....

Then we had Pierce Brosnan who already had a reputation for Hotness growing up in my household.... (my mom was a faithful watcher of Remington Steele!) Can't remember how many Bond movies he did.... four... five??? (I could look it up, but I'm too lazy!) My favorite was Die Another Day.

Then, they decided to give Brosnan the shaft and bring in Daniel Craig. Good Call. At the time, I was skeptical, especially with his blond hair, but by the end of Casino Royal, I was converted! Eric loves Daniel Craig as Bond. (He thinks Brosnan is getting to old and is too soft.) A direct quote from Eric as we left the theater... "Daniel Craig is totally ripped!" I can't argue with that, can I? (I picked the above photo just so I could verify Eric's assessment!)

So, ladies, don't miss out on a great movie just because you think it's just for guys... James Bond is for you too! And I went to see this movie on opening weekend without even seeing a trailer or knowing anything about it.... that' s how much we like James Bond around here!

Treadmill or Street?

I have a question for all you runners out there... which do you prefer... running on the street or on a treadmill?

For the first time in about 4 years, I'm back into running. For the first time EVER last week, I went jogging with my dad and we logged almost 5 miles together in the neighborhood down the road. Yesterday I went to the treadmill with the hope to run 4 miles, and it seemed harder than my 5 mile run on the street. Is this normal?

I'm trying to train for a 10K on Thanksgiving Day. I want to finish in an hour. That means I have to run a 10 minute mile pace. I can't do that on the treadmill and keep it up for long, but on the street I can. Since treadmill running seems to take more out of me, I figure if I continue to train on the treadmill, then the actual race on the street will feel a bit easier... do you think this will work?

Input people... that's what I need... and I know a LOT Of you run out there... any last minute training tips? I've never in my life run over 3 miles before, so this is virgin territory for me!