Training

In case anyone wasn't aware I have been training for a marathon. And unless something incredibly life threatening happens to me between now and the middle of July, I will be running in the Deseret Morning News Marathon on July 24th. You are all invited to come watch. The funeral services will be held directly following . . . Just kidding. I am actually super excited. I am not going to finish it in any record time, but that's okay, I am planning on finishing and trying not to die in the process. It should be great.
I thought that I would share a picture of the end result of my 16 mile run last Saturday. It was quite the crazy run. I started up past the Timpanogos Temple and ran home. About 5 miles into the run my mp3 player died, and I was running with the wind and rain in my face which was not at all pleasant. I don't mind the rain, but the wind was pretty bad. Once I got to 800 North in Orem I realized that I still had 6 miles left to run, so I went to the gym and ran four miles and then ran home. It was quite the crazy run. But I'm guessing after a run like that, this weeks long run should be cake! :) And please pretend like you don't notice my deformed pinky toe. Hey . . . we all have our defects okay? . . . I have a sweet spirit . . .

Catch-up: Salem Tri

Lamon and Brock did the Salem Tri this year, andI actually got to go watch. It was a lot of fun. They both did awesome. Lamon didn't really train a lot for the swim, but he pretty much did better than he has ever done in the swim before. It was sweet. He came out of the water right behind Broc and finished the swim in 12 minutes. I think that he finished the triathalon with his best time yet, and he managed to look really hot doing it too. Way to go Lamon! And of course everytime I watch Lamon do a triathalon it makes me want to train for one! So after the next baby I'm going to do one! . . . I'll have to actually bite the bullet and learn how to swim though.

Catch-up: 6th Anniversary

Wow, it's been six years. Time goes by so fast! For our Anniversary this year we had quite a fun little outing. Since it was our anniversary we thought we would splurge and really fine dine it at . . . Hogi Yogi. It was quite yummy! We then decided to do a hike up Grove Creek Canyon. I had never been on that hike before and I loved it. It was a short two hour hike, and it was so beautiful! There were some beautiful waterfalls and you could hear the water the entire time! I love to hear water flowing in rivers when I hike. Anyways it was fun. And I realized that I am out of shape. I have been running so much and I am really out of hiking shape! Of course Lamon was walking pretty fast and I was carrying the backpack. I was wondering how that happened? I was like, "So why did you give me the backpack on the way up the hike?" He often has me carry kids up on hikes too. He then tried to convince me that he was trying to do me a favor because it's harder to carry a backpack on the way down after you've used so much energy climbing to the top. Now . . . I know I'm not all there some of the time . . . but carrying a backpack full of empty water bottles down the mountain does not seem like it would be harder than hefting a backpack full of waterbottles up the mountain . . .but Lamon was adamant. Please tell me that someone sees it my way! I think that he just secretly knows that I'm tougher than he is . . .just kidding. It was fun to go hiking just the two of us though. At one point in the hike Lamon did something that he does quite well . . . he let some wind loose . . . and I was behind him. At hearing my complaints he said, "Ah . . . six years of bliss eh?. . ." It was funny. I'd have to say that even with suffering with all of his gassiness for 6 years it has been quite blissful. I love Lamon!!

Catch-up: Drew's 5th B-day

One of the most eventful things to happen during my blogging slump period was Drew's 5th birthday. It was eventful because this is something quite monumental in Drew's world. At three he would claim to be 5 after completing every meal. He would say, "I ate my food all gone . . . I'm big . . . I'm 5 . . . " It took us awhile to convince him that eating food wouldn't make him older. He finally caught on though. For most of his fourth year when anyone asked him how old he was he would assure them that he was almost 5. So this was a big one. We decided that we had better make it a good one. So I took Drew to the party store and let him pick the theme for his party and he decided on batman. He is pretty much obsessed with batman right now. In fact he "is" batman most of the day dressed in costume and everything.
I asked Drew the Sunday before his birthday who he wanted to come to his party and he thought for a moment and then told me he wanted to invite: Bro. Backman (his primary teacher), Pres. Monson, Avery, Avery's mommy . . . this was really going to turn out to be quite the party!! It was pretty funny.
Liz who knew how important this day was made cute little invitations for Drew to hand out . . . heaven knows (and so does Liz) that I'm not the first one to think of doing things like that!
Anyhow, with the theme chosen Lamon got to work on the cake. Lamon is the cake decorator in our house. So he decided on the batmobile and it turned out pretty cool. We had a seperate party for friends that Saturday, and Lamon made another cake this time a "T-ball" theme. Drew has a pretty cool daddy.
All in all it was a wonderful week of celebration, and Drew likes to tell anybody and everybody at random moments that he is 5. When the dentist asked Drew if he was feeling weird after the laughing gas the other day Drew shook his head with a macho look on his face, he flexed his muscles and said, "No . . . I'm 5." Need he say anything more?

You must excuse my brain!!! (This one's long. You don't have to read, but watch the videos)

Wow, can I just say slacker? I haven't blogged in ages. So for all two of you family members who check out our blog . . . I am so sorry!! I guess that I will play a little catch up here, and the best place to start is with . . . my brain issues.
Yes, I have brain issues. Everyone who knows me knows that I can be a little spacey sometimes . . . okay well a lot spacey sometimes, and usually I just sort of chuckle at myself and move on . . . but every once in awhile my memory and my limited brain capacity kind of freaks me out!!
A few weeks ago the homeschool year was coming to an end and we were having a year end performance where the kids would perform songs that they learned throughout the year, recite quotes they had memorized, share reports they had written and artwork they had created etc. with family and friends. Drew and Hayden were given parts to memorize for the performance and they did such a great job memorizing them. I was so excited to watch them recite their parts in front of everyone. Well, the day of the performance came and it was quite the busy day. We went to school from 11:45 until 2:00 where we practiced for the performance that would be at 6:30 that evening. Right after school I had to take Drew and Hayden to the Dentist. So I had Jeanine take Ada and me and the boys went to the dentist. As soon as we got done with the dentist at about 4:00 I had to rush Drew to a primary activity . . . so I dropped him off at the church and went to go pick up Ada from Jeanine's house. After I got Ada I went back to pick up Drew from the activity and went home. It was about 5:00 and Lamon was home. I realized that I had committed to give blood that evening at the STake center so I asked Lamon if he could get the kids ready and make some cookies while I rushed over to give blood. I don't know what I was thinking at this point. I obviously thought that I would have enough time to do it. But anyhow, I got to the stake center and filled out the papers and got in line and was having fun chatting with a neighbor down the street while I waited to give blood. The whole process was taking a while, and I would glance up at the clock often to see what time it was . . . but the only thing that I was thinking about as I contemplated the time was that Lamon had scouts at 7:00 and he might be mad at me if I made him late. I finally got up on the chair ready for them to stick me and I looked at the clock. "Oh no, it's 6:45. They better hurry . . . Lamon might be late . . . " And then it hit me all of a sudden. "6:45 . . . the performance . . .! " I hadn't given a thought to the performance the entire time I was there. I had completely forgot about it like it wasn't even happening. My whole body started to shake . . . and a few minutes later Lamon walked in with a plate of cookies in his hand, a puzzled look on his face, with the boys following behind him dressed up looking so adorable. I tried my best not to break down balling in front of everyone there. The boys had practiced their parts for weeks and I ruined it! As soon as the bag was full of blood we went home and I started crying . . . a lot! . . . Spencer called me in the middle of my crying episode wondering where we were, and I assured him that I have brain issues and told him what happened. Everyone was still there and they were nice enough to listen to the boys perform their parts over the speakerphone, but I still hung up and had a good cry out. There's nothing like a good cry where you can really just feel sorry for yourself . . . okay so not really. But I was feeling sorry for myself for a moment there. It would be one thing if this was just and isolated event, things like this happen to me quite often. I had read about my brain tumor and similar stories plenty of times, and had read about how memory loss and memory related problems can happen with a colloid cyst . . . and I had never really felt sorry for myself too much until that night. It just sort of clicked suddenly in my head though that . . . this was something that really does stink . . . but it isn't going to go away. I needed to find a way to live with it, and make life work despite it. I knew that Heavenly Father would bless me in this too. And he has. I have since thought of a few ways to help me with my brain problems and so far they have been working quite well. Heavenly Father has also helped me to recall the feelings I had after my brain surgeries when I realized the great blessing of having a brain, and having the ability to think and study. I was grateful that I still had that ability. I feel like this experience was given to me to humble me and help me to renew that desire to take advantage of every opportunity to learn and use such a wonderful gift. And I feel that more than anything the cure to my brain problems is simply to use it more!!!
So since I missed the performance I thought I would post a video of the boys performing their parts. Hayden sort of is singing his though . . . funny kid.