Running the Edge of Hell

 The other weekend B and I ran the four mile, Edge of Hell, race.  I was feeling a little nervous for a couple reasons. The race was a trail run and neither of us had ever done a trail run. When we did cross country in the past, a couple races had a snippet of trail running, but never an entire race on a trail. In November we were running together and my knee started to bug me. I tried to ignore it, but over the next couple months the pain got pretty bad when I would run. I blew out both of my knees while running in high school. It hurt like the dickens. Welp, I was feeling that same pain again. I called and made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. When I went to see him he said the good news is that the inside of my knees were ok. The problem is that when I run, I hyper-extend my knees. Not gonna lie, I was a lot disappointed that I didn't need surgery. I think it would be so cool if B was able to put me to sleep for said surgery. Anyway, he said that six weeks of physical therapy should fix the problem and in the mean time, don't run. My appointment had been on a Tuesday and our four mile trail run was that Saturday. As you can imagine I was a little nervous to go run four miles on a trail with a gimpy knee. My love for running over shadowed the fear of pain, and to the race we went!

This is pre-race. Besides being cold, we were excited to give this trail run thing a go! We walked up the hill to the starting line and started to panic as we looked around and saw people doing intense stretches with their eyes closed, deep in concentration. We were hoping we would be running against people who didn't take a Saturday morning run so seriously. We were wrong, dead wrong. There were some pretty serious runners there. And then, there was us. We were just excited to run the race together without having the jogging stroller with little B in it. Our goal was to finish the four miles without dying.

This is post-race. Clearly we finished the race without dying. That's really good! There was some stiff competition! I don't know anyone's names so,  I took the liberty of handing out nick names. We'll start with a guy I named, Heavy Breather. B and I were running side by side, but then the trail got really narrow, so we had to go single file. I knew that B wasn't right behind me; Heavy breather was. I think he was the loudest breather I have ever heard. When I say he was right behind me, I mean that I was worried that he was going to step on my heels. I am thankful he was so loud as he inhaled and exhaled, because the sound was so annoying that it pushed me to run a little faster so that I could get away from the sound. Next we came to, Whoa, Buff Guy. His muscles were really big and he ran really funny. I knew that we could catch him and then pass him because of his non-aerodynamic shape. His muscles were so big that he couldn't put his arms all the way down. I knew that he would be experiencing a lot of drag. B had passed Heavy Breather and was next to me again. I told him that we should pass Whoa, Buff Guy. He agreed. We threw our imaginary lasso around him, and pulled ourselves towards him. We passed him at the bottom of a hill. Our next goal was Crazy Shorts. She looked like she had started the race out too fast and was getting pooped out. We set our eyes on the target on her back, caught her and passed her. Right after we passed her the trail went skinny again. B is crazy fast and he was like four or five runners ahead of me. I knew I could catch him if the trail would open up again. You might be asking why I didn't just go off the trail and pass the runners. The race was called, The Edge of Hell, because it's in a canyon and there were parts of the race that there were pretty steep drop offs right next to us. So the chance to run off the trail and pass the runners in front of me didn't present itself for awhile. The race was a four mile loop, so we knew we were getting close to the finish line when we saw the building were we had registered at, come into view. Thankfully the trail had opened up. I passed a few runners so the only person between me and B was Orange Socks. He looked like a strong runner, but my desire to finish with B was stronger. I lassoed him in and passed him. The finish line was at the bottom of a hill. I hate running down hill. It really hurts my knees. B was in front of me, we were at the top of the hill starting to run down it. We knew that we wanted to kick it in at the end. Ya know, finish strong. I was aware of my gimpy knee and that I needed to be nice to it. I slowed down a little on the hill and all the sudden Orange Socks came up from behind. He was running like he had rocket boosters on his shoes. He ran by me so fast that my hair blew forward. Ok, that's a mild exaggeration, but only a mild one. Orange Socks blew past me and then he passed B. He beat B by a second or two. Then B flew across the finish line and I came across one second behind him. The run had felt so good! We were so happy that we ran it. We got snacks and water. I love that races have snacks. Truth. Anyway, we were stretching and eating. They had given us tags when we started the race and they were hanging the tags up on a board so you could see your place. B went and looked at them and told me that he thought I was the second girl overall to finish. I told him I was sure that I wasn't and kept eating the fruit. We were stretching and overheard someone ask if there were prizes. The lady said yes and so B and I decided to stay for the prizes. We thought it would only take a little while for them to get all the tags and figure out people's places. Once again, we were wrong. It took them almost an hour. We debated about just going because we didn't even know if either of us would get anything. B said we should just go. I told him I just wanted one more orange and then we could make like a baby and head out. We were just about to walk away when the lady picked up the megaphone and said they were going to do door prizes. She said they would pick random registration forms and if your name was called you had your choice of gift cards. There were some from Subway,McDonald's or Itunes. I crossed my fingers and closed my eyes hoping that my name would be called. I already knew that if I won, I would pick the Subway gift card. I love that place! The last time I won something was in Jr. high when I won an Ace Of Base 8 track tape. Yes, an 8 track tape that I was so excited to listen to on my yellow Walkman. I felt like it was high time I won something else. The megaphone lady reached into the bag, she grabbed a registration form and pulled it out. She looked at the name and called it out. It was my name!!! I had a Price is Right moment as I started jumping up and down and screaming with excitement! I made a complete idiot of myself, but I was so excited I couldn't help it! They called a few more door prizes and moved right into the race prizes. I found out that I finished second overall for women and first in my age group. That was pretty exciting, but not near as exciting as my Subway gift card.

 B insisted on taking a picture. I felt really stupid standing there alone, but B said that I had to. Running a four mile trail  race was really fun, running it with B made it even better and being able to go out to lunch for free after because of a Subway gift card knocked it out of the park! We had a great time and are excited to run another race together next month.

Let's try our hand at skiing!

It doesn't snow much around these parts. The good news is that it doesn't take long to get to snowy-er locations. One weekend we loaded up the car with snow gear, offspring and dreams of playing in the snow and off we went. The drive was five hours and right as we were coming out of the canyon, little B started to cough. I turned around to asked if he was ok.  I looked back just in time to see him start throwing up. Catching vomit in your bare hands is one of those super unpleasant parenting moments that no one warns you might come. To say that I was calm the whole time would be a flat out lie. I was gagging and dry heaving. It was awful. We were still about 15 minutes away from a gas station. I thought the drive had been long before the vomiting episode but, the drive to the gas station post vomit felt a lot longer. We were going to stop in at a friend's house to say hello, but decided to go clean up little b and his car seat instead. Not gonna lie, I was really looking forward to a good hand scrub myself. It just must have been a bout of carsickness because he was totally fine right after it happened. Truthfully, he had been fine right before too. He didn't say that he ever felt yucky. Anyway, we got everything cleaned up and did a batch of laundry and went to bed. The next morning we went to the baptism of our friends little boy and then it was off to the skiing hill. M has been skiing once, when she was three. K has never been skiing but, both of them were excited to try it. Well, kind of.

They went night skiing . I don't know why M looks so mush bigger than K. Their height difference isn't that much. I didn't go because little B is too little to go so I stayed with him. Not to mention, I don't ski. I tried once in my life and after an entire day of trying, I still couldn't stop. After I took out a skiing instructor who was helping a very small child, I decided that skiing wasn't my sport. I happily bow out and stick to kid duty.

I love this picture! When I saw it I commented on how dark it was. B told me that it wasn't really that dark, the flash had just gone off. I love that they all look so happy! They all had so much fun.

 Aren't they so cute?! We have known these boys since we lived in Florida together. It was B's baptism that we had gone to. He's the one standing next to K. M and K were really excited about going skiing with C and B.

M picked it up really fast. Before they went she was really nervous. She kept asking questions about how high the mountain was and if there were a lot of cliffs that she was going to fall off of. B tried explaining the ski resort set up. That there were trials and as long as she stayed on the trails she would be fine. She was still really nervous. Skiing is something that B really wants our kids to learn to do. He loves skiing and he loves thinking about all the times that his family went to Snowbird when he was growing up and went skiing. He talks about putting snickers in his coat pocket, where they would freeze and then he would eat them on the chair lift. He loves to go to Utah and have as many siblings, and his mom, when she can, go skiing together. I think one of the hardest things for him when we lived in Florida and North Carolina was not being able to go to Snowbird and ski. Skiing for him is right up there with BYU football. If you know him at all, you know there's a whole lot of his heart with BYU on it. So, his love for skiing is deep. Anyhow, M caught on really fast. B said that K got it too, but was really nervous about doing it alone. B skied backwards so he could face K as they skied down holding onto the same pole. Once in awhile B said that he let go of the pole and K was going down by himself. But, if K noticed, he started to panic. B wanted to take K's picture, but K was too nervous to let B let go of the pole and take one. I would have loved to a picture of K skiing. Hopefully we'll get one next time.

I think this sign is so cool! It's on our way home and I've been trying for a long time to remember to stop and take a picture. Just in case you were wondering, the snow around this sign was a whole lot deeper than I thought it would be. I stepped on it and sunk to almost my knees. Truth. and I was wearing sandals. Not great. Anyway, the skiing weekend was a raging success and both M and K are excited to go skiing again! 

Monster truck madness!

Before I launch into Monster trucks, can I just talk about an injustice of life? Why do I have a huge zit on my face?! I don't get it. I was told when I was a younger lass that zits were a phase and I would grow out of them. Much like the phases of being scared of the dark and wetting my pants. Although, now that I think about it, I haven't grown out of either of those phases either! At least with wetting my pants it's usually only when I cough or sneeze or laugh too hard or run or jump or try to hold my abs in whilst working out. I digress,  When is this awful phase every going to end? The mammoth zit on my face isn't too bad in the dark, but once the lights are on or the sun is up, there is it staring back at me in the mirror. It wouldn't be so bad if the stupid thing would pop and then go away. Instead, it won't pop and even though I know that, I still continue to play with it so then it grows in size. We don't even need to talk about the humiliation that follows after picking at it and it's all swollen and looks like I got punched in the face. It's truly awful and I just don't think it's right or fair. That's all really. Now onto the main event! We found out that there was going to be a Monster Truck show in Spokane. Spokane is about two hours away from us and if you ask K and little B, well worth the drive if we're going to see Monster Trucks!

 Maybe it's because there are two little boy's in this house that love monster trucks. Maybe it's because we have read our monster truck book about two million times or maybe it's just because it's the way it is. Monster trucks are so cool! We thought that we would be in an arena chuck full of little kids, mostly little boys. How wrong we were. There are some die hard monster truck fans that are very well into adulthood. To see full grown men hoopin' and a hollerin' for their favorite truck was pretty wild. There were a lot of little boys but there was a whole heap of people there with no kids at all.

 It. Was. So. Loud! We knew that it would be and we brought ear plugs, but even with ear plugs it was so loud it hurt your ears. Little B had his ear plugs in and he wouldn't let me move my hands away from his ears. If I tried to clap he would grab my hands and say,"no mommy." Then he would put my hands back over his ears.

How sweet is that?! It was crazy to see them jump so high. Before we went, Grave Digger was K's favorite monster truck. But, Grave Digger didn't bring his  A-game to the arena. There are competition's that the trucks have. Grave Digger wasn't doing so hot. Monster Energy won almost every time. It didn't take too long before K leaned over to me and told me that he doesn't really like Grave Digger any more, that Monster energy is now his favorite. Talk about a fair weather fan!

We thought for sure that Scooby Doo was going to flip over, but she didn't. I know Scooby Doo is a boy, but the driver of this here Scooby Doo monster truck is indeed a lady. We were hopeful that she would do really well and she did, just not as well as Monster energy.

One of the competition's that they had was to see how high they could get doing a wheelie. We learned that the drivers have to go to Monster Jam University to learn how to do all the crazy things they do. I didn't think that they just set them loose and told them to have fun, but I didn't realize it was so training intensive. 

The car smashing was so awesome! Scooby Doo went over the cars and then she reversed and smashed them again going backwards. K loves that you can see the tire tracks on the top of the orange car. 

"OOOHHHHH!"

Zombie was trying to do a wheelie, and fell backwards. We thought that Zombie was kind of freaky and didn't like that when he drove around, the arms on the truck would go up and down in true zombie fashion. 

We know that it's not a great picture of little B, but it's the best we could do.  We had such a blast and both little B and K are already making big plans to go again.

OOH LALA!!

For those of you that don't know, I'm nuts. Truly. At least I own it. I feel like if more people would own their craziness, the world would be a better place. If you already know that you're insane, when you tell someone that you rotate your silverware after each wash and they look at you like you're crazy, you won't get offended because you already knew that, so no harm done. Now, we got this here new computer and it's lovely except, when you put pictures on it, it forms a new folder. Which is just dandy, but then at the end of the month when you want to gather all the pictures form the month and put them in one folder so that your picture file is nice and organized, it won't let you do that. I'm sure it's operational error, but thinking of the picture chaos inside the one February picture folder makes me convulse. I don't like chaos, it gives me unwelcome twitches. So, instead of putting pictures on the computer throughout the month, I do it on the first of the next month. So, today I will put February pictures on here. Who cares right? Well, I imagine no one, but it explains why I am still talking about January when it's March. Because I couldn't put January pictures on here until February and so February was dedicated to talking about January just like March will be spent talking about February. I don't really know why I felt the need to explain myself, I'm just crazy, that's all there is to it. Now, onto the last week in January. The last week of January brings with it our anniversary! So sweet I know.

   Boy oh boy! I truly felt like this day would never come. When he was on his mission I was so worried that he was going to come home and move on without me. I was so happy when I finally convinced him that he should marry me! Even though there were a few folks that tried to talk him out of taking the plunge with me, he didn't listen. Although, he did hesitate at the alter, he finally said yes! To this day he denies the hesitation, but it was there. He says that he didn't know the sealer was at the end of the long question. B's pause was long enough that people in the room started to fidget and I was terrified that he was going to bolt for the door.Thankfully, he said yes, I basically shouted yes and it's been 12 years of bliss since. Note- the following pictures will be blurry. I had to take pictures of the original pictures. When I tried to scan the originals into the computer and upload them, I was told I could only add pictures and video. Stupid computer.

 He was in school. Shocker I know! He also worked at a bank as a teller. I was a pee on dental assistant and worked full time. We talked about how sweet it would be for him to be done with school and to just have to work. We talked about him only having four years left. HA!

Pretty soon, M was on her way. Poor B had to take care of me, go to school and work. What a guy! Thankfully, the feeding tube was only part of our lives for about eight weeks. It did get us out of a speeding ticket! My sister and her husband were sealed in the temple. After the sealing and lunch we were going out to my parents house to visit with family. There is a speed trap on the way to my parents house. B forgot and of course he got pulled over. The cop came to the window and asked to see insurance and registration. I started to look in the jockey-box, not realizing that the hand I was using had an IV stuck in it. The cop leaned down and looked in. He took the papers I had handed to B and walked away. A few minutes later he walked back, handed B the papers and told him to be sure to slow down next time. The cops in Lehi, Ut never let anyone off the hook. We are sure the reason he let us go was because of the feeding tube and the IV! That my friends, is a tender mercy!

Time goes by so fast when you're not pregnant or have a new born. Now it was the three of us. This was taken when M was ten days old. The only reason I remember that is because she came ten days early, so we took a picture to celebrate that she was already here! B was still going to school full time and working full time. He had decided that he wanted to do nursing and then specialize, he just didn't know what specialty he wanted to do. 

 We bought a condo and moved to Provo. B had decided to become a Nurse Anesthetist. He had to work in ICU for two years before he could apply to any programs. He had gotten a job as an LPN at Utah Valley. He was working there full time and still going to school full time. Seeing him with his backpack was as common as running into a member of the church in the grocery store in Utah County. Pretty common. We truly wondered if he would ever be done with school.

Welp, time marches on and in a moment of pure insanity, K was on his way. This time the Dr didn't want to do a feeding tube. He felt that if we could stay on top of the dehydration problem, it would be better. He sent me to IV therapy every day for three weeks. When I was still losing weight, (my legs looked amazing!) he decided that a P.I.C.C line was the way to go. I had that for three days, getting TPN(fluid with tons of vitamins), until the site became infected. I was put in the hospital for a week because I was septic and couldn't keep anything down. B was working full time and going to school full time. We couldn't have made it without family being willing to take care of M for us.

I was released from the hospital, only to go back a few days later. We tried an NJ tube( a different kind of feeding tube) and IV therapy again. It was not great, but B is amazing and made sure that M had somewhere to go every day and still did everything he needed to do. 

We made it through and had gone from a family of three to four. I know this will be a surprise to all of you, but B was still working full time and going to school full time. Right before K was born, B had graduated with his RN. It's so stupid, but an RN is only an associates degree. It takes four years and it's not a Bachelor's. So dumb! He needed to get his Bachelor's in nursing. He did  BYU-I's online program to get his Bachelor's. All the while working as an RN in ICU. I don't know how he did it. All I know is that he's awesome and I am so thankful that I get to call him mine! 

Over the next two years he did his Bachelor's degree and found out that there were two classes he was missing before he could go to Grad school. He did UC Berkeley online for those last two classes. Still working full time on ICU. Soon enough it was time to apply for CRNA programs. He applied to several and did an interview with Michigan State and Wolford College. One Sunday after church, he checked the mall and pulled out a big ol' white envelope from Wolford College. As soon as we saw the size of the envelope, we knew we were moving to Florida. We were excited and nervous and scared and I cried a lot about moving that far away from family.

 We loaded up the contents of our condo and moved to Florida! 

This was taken the first Sunday that we were there. I was full of anxiety and wondered if we would see him for the next 2 1/2 years. But, Florida was full of

Advetures,

 scary animals

and a couple trips to the beach. Truly, a couple trips about sums it up. I really don't like the beach.

One of our adventures whilst living in Florida was getting ready for little B to arrive. We had friends in Florida that we will never be able to repay for all the help they gave us during the worst of it. Our dear friend M, came over everyday to flush my IV and hook me up. Then she would take K home with her. I feel like she basically raised our children while I was pregnant with little B. Thankfully this time around the P.I.C.C. line didn't get infected and there was no feeding tube. B was able to be my nurse at home and change the dressing for me. We are still amazed at the sacrifices people made for us, especially J and M. There's no way we could have done it without them.

Oh happy day! Little B came and the pregnancy came to an end. I really wanted B to do my epidural, but the hospital wouldn't let him. Lame! Look at our cute little family!

June brought graduation day with it. I was surprised that I cried when they called his name. Not because I was sad that he was finally done with school. After 9 1/2 years of marriage, he was finally done! I was sad because I knew that this phase of our lives was over. The amazing friends that we had made in Florida were moving on to bigger and better things. My heart broke knowing that we were going to have to say goodbye to them.

Here we are. We had gone from just two of us to, us with three littles.

Graduation day brought a lot of goodbye's including the one to our house in Florida. The truck was already loaded, the house was clean and locked up. Our next adventure was to North Carolina. B spent the first few weeks after graduation studying for his boards. When I say he studied, it was from like 8-5. It was his full time job. He hated it, I hated it, the kiddos hated it. 

But, all his hard work paid off when he passed his boards the first time! Oh man talk about a happy day! He took his test the beginning of July and didn't have to start work until August. Our summer was awesome! We spent it in Utah with family.

Then it was time to go to North Carolina to start our next chapter. To say that we loved our time in North Carolina is a gross understatement. If the hospital there would give B the same amount of vacation that he gets here, we would move back in a heartbeat!

Our time in North Carolina was full of adventures!

We made great friends and we miss them every day.

We didn't know that our time there would be so short and we were sad when the time came for us to move on.

Now we're here and we're writing a new chapter of our lives. We don't love it here and can't picture ourselves staying here long term.

There's no way to know what the future holds for us. What I do know is that I am so thankful that I know this guy will be a part of it. He makes me laugh everyday and is just as nerdy as I am. He doesn't care that I'm crazy and is kind enough to rotate the silverware when he puts it away. I love him more than I can put into words and feel so thankful that he's stuck with me forever!