Last Chance-Going Private!!

Hey guys, I just wanted to throw the friendly reminder out there that yes, I'm still planning on putting this blog private first-thing Monday morning! Thanks everyone who has sent me your email so you can stay in the know on our exciting lives! (L-O-L!)

If you care to keep reading make sure you send me your email. You can email it to me if you don't want to leave a comment, although as you can see I haven't published all the email addresses so I promise your secret's safe with me.

Thanks pals!

SEE YA! We're off to the game!!!

aww . . .

I love my job.

The new Patriots

This one's for you, Allison!!!

Incognito

hahahaha! Check out what we dressed up as for Chandra's fabulous Halloween party last weekend! I'm sure any girl above the age of 10 out there will recognize this!!!! By the way, we won best costume! Another shot of my undying infatuation. . . .
So I was super proud of these outfits! Mainly because it was almost free for a great costume! Collin wasn't really a fan of me putting makeup on him, but it worked great! He also wasn't a fan of having to wear my coat that is way too small for him, or of the general fact that he was dressing up as Edward in the first place! But it was a hit so he came around!
. . . and I decided I'm really not so sad that I don't have long hair. It was so annoying! It really bothered me having hair on my neck all the time! isn't that funny.
Well I was a tard and didn't take my camera to the party (hence the crappy phone pics). We had a lot of fun though. Thanks for the great party, Chandra and Cheryl! Cheryl had a t-shirt of Edward that she sleeps in.... (don't we all??) and it was pretty funny showing the comparison! Collin won't admit it, but I think he was more into this than he acted. :)

This was mainly for Cheryl.... ha ha! Happy Halloween!

The rest o the weekend

We did a lot of fun things last week. No pictures though!

Wednesday we went over to the Hodges and watched the last half of the BSU game with them (thanks guys!).

Friday was a CHS football game, which we actually got to sit and watch with the Blues! It was fun to not be stuck by the concessions grill the whole time and we never get sick of Allison and Jason's cute kids! :)

Saturday was busy! First was Barber to Boise, then I hurried over to meet Chaly for a Super Saturday thing her ward was doing. Well, Chaly left like 20 minutes after I got there so it was mostly me doing my crafts! I met some cute girls in her ward though and it was fun to sit and chat while we worked on our stuff. I didn't finish it all there either, but the next night I had some free time so that's when I got them done. I think they turned out pretty cute considering my lack of talent in craftiness!

I had to hurry straight from the Super Saturday to pick up Collin, and we headed out to Nampa to my friend Andrea's baby's viewing. Her little 10-week-old baby, Vanessa, passed away that Thursday night. It was a crazy shock to me and really sad. Andrea never ceases to amaze me, and stayed true to form as she was more put together than I was! :) It was good to get out there to see them.

Then we hurried back to Boise for our adult session of stake conference. I was in the musical number, so I had to be there early to practice. It was a beautiful string quartet, and I "accompanied" them. (don't get me started on the whole accompanying thing.... who came up with that label in the first place? I'm doing just as much as they are! :)

After stake conference we met up with Sara, Justin and Brinklee at Merritt's for some delicious scones! It was their first time there! Let's hope they weren't too appalled. ha ha! It was a fun and busy day!

Barber to Boise

I ran the 5K in Barber to Boise last weekend.... this was my 3rd 5K since I decided to try to do one back in June! Running has been going pretty well for me, I'm definitely not naturally talented at it or anything, but it's a good workout and it's been great to be able to work out in the beautiful outdoors rather than in a smelly gym. My only goal in this one was to beat my time in the 1st one I did, which was 33 min. I did, I finished in 31 min! I know you're thinking, "that's not very fast" and you're right! But it's as fast as I can go! I'm too chicken to rev up my speed the whole time because I get worried I'm going to run out of gas before I finish! But I did pass some people, so that was fun!

Nice pic huh. Our camera has some problems with action shots... Collin made it to watch by the last mile and then he ran along side the runners to get to the finish line shot!

Sorry for such a bad picture. If I wanted to pay $20 I could get the nice one they took but that's SO not worth it. you can check it out on their website though: www.barbertoboise.com and my bib number was 465. :)


... funny story about the whole finish line thing, I didn't realize we had to run most of the way around the track in Bronco Stadium, so I thought that when I got into the stadium it was sprint to the finish line time. Well, when I got around that first bend and realized I wasn't done yet, I about died! I had already pushed as hard as I could!! Thankfully when I got around the next bend the finish line was in sight. But still, I think next time I'll make sure I know exactly where the freaking race ends!

Here we are after I finished.... I did finish before more people than I finished after! (if that makes sense... it's an accomplishment to me!)

And here are a few of my thoughts about the whole race, in case you were dying to know:

It was fun to have the race end in Bronco Stadium, Buuut... they really need to work on some better crowd control!! I was so irritated at the end of the race because literally 2 steps after I crossed the finish line I was forced to come to a complete STOP and stand still in a huge crowd of people all waiting for.... who knows what. To turn in their chips I guess. But it was completely ridiculous to have something like that at the end of a race. I guess I was spoiled in the other 2 I've run that I actually got to move at a walking pace through the finish line! Then, when the race had started to wind down, they started kicking everyone off the blue! It was like we had barely finished and they were kicking us out. So we (and the Golds) headed over to where they were serving up a big pancake breakfast, and I'm not exaggerating when I say the line for breakfast was 1/2 mile long. Seriously. We were like, forget this! The Golds took off and we.. well, Collin cut in line and grabbed some pancakes and we took off! To top it off, when we got to our car we found out that we had been double parked, and the parking attendant didn't want to let us leave until the other car did. Collin was able to find a way to squeeze out anyway, thankfully, because we were running kind of late.

And that is my story of Barber to Boise. Don't think I'll do that one again. I just think to myself, "If you guys really want to have this many people come and participate in your event, you really need to have better logistics in dealing with huge amounts of people!" Maybe most 5Ks are like this and I have been spoiled up to this point???

It's Time

Well folks, it's time... the blog is going private. Please send me your email address if you're one of the 3 people out there who reads my blog! I moderate my comments, so I won't post any that have email addresses in them.
Thanks guys!

E.I.Fun

Last Friday I got up in the wee hours of the morning (to me) and met up with Heidi to drive over to Pocatello. Seriously, we left at 5:45! That's early!

We went to the IMTA (Idaho Music Teachers Assoc.) State Conference. It was really great. I was really happy to see so many of my piano-teacher pals from Boise over there! I think we made up half the crowd! There were a lot of piano students from BYU-I there as well, and also of course, other teachers from around the state, including my little sister's piano teacher! So that was fun. It is GREAT to be able to spend a couple of days with people in my same profession! I feel like I live in a piano-teaching vacuum a LOT! I sometimes wish I had co-workers. I got some great new ideas and learned about tons of new books coming out, and my favorite session was by a prof. from U of Montana about learning and personality styles, we took a test on what we were, and then he did a huge session on teaching to different styles. It was SO COOL! There is SO much to learn about being a music educator. I so have the perfect job for myself, seriously. Stay tuned for my rockin' Halloween recital, coming up soon!!
Collin drove over and picked me up later that evening... then we headed to THIS! The good old Emotion Bowl. I am not the type to drive across the state just for some football game my high school is playing, seriously. In fact, last year was the first year I went since I graduated back in 2002. But since we were over there, why not? Plus Collin had never been so I thought he would enjoy seeing the "small town rivalry", which he did. His new idea is to convince Centennial to shoot off a cannon each time they score a touchdown. I tried to explain that it's only for this one game, but he's convinced they should since they're "Patriots." whatever.

Of course you can expect some great pictures whenever Tara and I are together.

I can't decide which one I like best. ??

Probably this one! Dad, that is a GREAT look for you!

It was COLD! It snowed for like half the game! But we were bundled up good, and packed in pretty tight, so we were good!

I wish we could have stayed for a longer weekend, but it was fun to visit the family while we could! Thanks for taking us to the game mom and dad!

Well I had to do something really really hard today. I'm sure you remember my involvement in our first Take Steps for Crohn's and Colitis this past June, it was so, SO awesome. I felt like my dreams for more awareness and support for Crohn's and colitis were coming true, and it was unbelieveable to see the 400+ people at the walk, including my friends and family, all there for a cause that is so dear to me. I just talked with the walk manager last week, and we had already been making preliminary plans for next year's walk. Well, once I realized what day of the week the walk will be on (SUNDAY), I had a real dilemma on my hands. It's my personal belief to not participate in extra-rec stuff like this on Sundays. I thought at first that I would just participate in everything leading up to the walk but not on the actual day itself. But the more I thought about it, I just didn't feel good about promoting the event, recruiting for it, or even asking for donations, since I myself don't support it because of the day it's on.


Well to make a long story short, I just talked to the manager again and had to tell her how I feel about that, and I resigned from the committee. Wow, who knew I would resign from a committee for a walk for colitis??? Not me. But I've known all weekend it's what I need to do, even though it was a hard decision. And after I told her, she informed me she's already had a few others who participated last year do the same thing. So I guess what I can hope for is that they don't do it on Sunday again. Still, it is REALLY a bum deal.


So, if you're interested, Take Steps for Crohn's and colitis 2010 will be on Sun. June 6th at 4:00pm at Ann Morrison Park--the same place last year. But there will be no team of my friends and family and I won't be raising any money for it this year. You probably won't hear me talk about it again on here. But I know that I've done the right thing, and I wouldn't trade it.

Surprise!

We did something really really cool last weekend.
My whole family (excluding Cory, who's on his mission in California) flew down to Denver for a surprise party for my grandma for her 80th birthday. It was a little of a sacrifice for most of us--luckily there was no school, but it was a lot of traveling and money to go down for about 48 hours total. But it was MORE than worth it!

My dad planned the whole thing (what a surprise!), and basically what happened was that my grandma knew that my parents were coming for a couple of days, but she thought it was just for my dad to do some business meetings. So, while she thought he was at "business meetings," he was actually driving around picking kids up at the airport, taking us to our hotels and such. The day of the surprise party my mom took Grandma up to Ft. Collins for the day to do some serious shopping (a great tradition in our family--especially with grandma!) When they got back, all 7 of us kids, my dad, and my uncle's whole family (and Grandma's husband Charles) were hiding in the decorated basement! This is the best part--Charles thought the quickest way to get her downstairs would be to say there was a water leak and she needed to come look at it. So we were all dying of laughter as she was grumbling down the stairs saying "why don't you just call the plumber--it's not 5:00 yet so we won't get charged for after-hours..." and "why don't you just turn off the water??" When she got down there, just my dad was sitting in a chair in the middle of all the streamers and balloons. We all jumped out on cue and shouted "SURPRISE!" and then sang Happy Birthday.

Grandma's not really an emotion person, and this was the first time I can remember ever seeing her cry. She put her sunglasses back on to hide it! It was so cute. It was really really awesome. By the time she composed herself, all she could say was "HOW did you all get here???"

She opened some presents--Uncle Todd had made a great photo book of her kids and grandkids, and I had made up a little scrapbook from our family with all the grandkids telling of their favorite memories with her.

Then we headed out to dinner at a cute little Italian place (no small feat to get a reservation for 16 people!) Grandma seemed pretty shell-shocked for quite a while so it was pretty funny. I don't blame her--we came from Idaho and Utah so that is a pretty big surprise.

The girls waiting for our food

Everyone! It was the first time Collin had met my Aunt Kristin and Uncle Todd, Kendray and Karysa.
I don't even see them very much, so it was really fun to be together again.

Chatting with Gma (and that's Charles on the right--the mastermind of the "plumbing problem!!" ;)

After dinner we went back to Grandma's to take some family pictures, watch the Rockies game, and do more chatting. Dad found a pal that looks JUST like him! It's my mom's good friend's new husband--they were dressed the same, sat the same, and talked the same. I tried to get a picture and this is the best I got. It was pretty funny though.

Collin's favorite part of the whole trip was popping all 80 balloons! (Yes, exactly 80!) If you look close his shoes are covered with colored latex. He was pretty proud of this. :B

Us girls ended the night with a game of Yahtzee--my tradition with Grandma! It was great. The only thing I wish was different about the whole weekend was that we could have spent more time with Grandma, since we were all the way over there. She's a really neat lady and has been a fabulous Gma to all of us! I have a feeling we'll be doing the same thing for her 90th and 100th and maybe even 110th birthdays as well! She's not going any where any time soon! :)

We love you Grandma! Happy Birthday!

Guess-Who's-Side-Of-The-Closet???

Can you guess who's side of the closet is who's?

Look closely, for one is very neat and tidy, everything arranged neatly into folded piles (both the top and bottom shelves!), all the shoes sorted ( I wouldn't be surprised if they are color-coded), everything organized and sitting properly . . .

and one side has too many shoes to ever fit on that tiny rack, clothes on the hangers but not organized in any way, jeans and shorts thrown up on the top shelf because it's too much trouble to take the time to climb up and organize them neatly, and is that a sweatshirt hanging precariously close to the edge of the shelf awaiting someone's head to fall on?

Welcome to Holland

A friend of mine has been with her baby in the NICU for 62 days now, and she posted this on her blog and I thought it was wonderful. I don't even have any kids with disabilities, but I think it applies to anything in life, just substitute having a baby with pretty much anything you had planned on.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by Emily Perl Kingsley
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome To Holland".
"Holland?!?" you say, "What do you mean "Holland"??? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy"
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills...Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy...and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned".
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.
But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things...about Holland.

Girl Power!

Tara came over to our neck of the woods last weekend and we had a fun time playing! It was her first time driving from Logan so she was very brave to come. But we had a blast like usual.

We ran in the Womens Fitness Celebration. It is this huge 5K Walk/Run/Stroll here with something like 12 thousand women in it each year. This was my first time to actually participate, and it was really fun. We're hoping all the Whittier girls can come over for it next year. We did the competitive run, which was hilarious. Actually running has been going really well for me, so it wasn't bad at all. Tara was a little more dorky and didn't really get ready much, so we went slower. Plus she had pulled both her quads in soccer earlier that week. It was still really great though. Our pre-run meal the night before--MERRITT'S!
Before. . .

(our team name was THE TWHITS! see if you can figure it out. We were SO cool with our matching bandannas and even had matching pink socks! ROCK!)

Almost done! I don't know how they caught a pic of us smiling while we ran--we weren't like, laughing along the whole time! We did have a fun time running though. We didn't go too fast, we just jogged, but we never stopped, that was our goal. It was a good workout and fun!

After, showing off our fabulous form

And after a fun day of watching Friends, shopping, more shopping, and going to the Relief Society Broadcast, we had to stop by the Cheesecake FActory and reward ourselves for our hard work running the 5K! Plus it is tradition to buy way too much cheesecake there so we had to keep that up. Although we did have Collin along to help with the devouring this time. We had a grand time pigging out and watching Under the Tuscan Sun--one of my fave chick movies. Thanks for coming, Tara! Come back soon!