Moab Half "Dead-a-thon"

So, almost three weekends ago I participated in what was affectionately named, the Moab Half Deadathon... or in other words, the Moab half marathon. It was a delightful experience for myself, but my good friend Adrienne didn't think it was so great... maybe next time she'll run more than six miles before the day of the race.

All of the races I have run before this race started at 7:00 or earlier, so it was rather surprising to find out this one started at 10:00. I am not complaining, since that meant I could sleep in until almost 7:00 and still have plenty of time for breakfast! Which by the way, I ate too early. Over the past few years I have developed this metabolism that means I am hungry every few hours - usually. Sometimes its more frequent, and sometimes I hardly eat anything at all and I'm fine. It's rather unpredictable... like the rest of my life... but that's a whole other story! ANYWAY... so since I ate early, I was hungry before the race even began. BUT there was this life saving "GU" pack somewhere in the middle that helped me get through to the end. One of the cool thing about big races is that there's free "snacks" when you are all done running your guts out. So, I ate like 5 pieces of bread when I got done - it was awesome!

The race itself was pretty awesome. It started out being FREEZING... so it's a good thing it didn't start till 10! I almost didn't take off my top layer... but within 20 min. I was warm enough to make it the rest of the way down. It is a beautiful canyon and a nice corse, with a little up and a little down.

The trip was pretty much awesome, with some highlights at the amazing diner, the photo shoot at the yellow hummer, and then the modeling session in the hotel room... gotta love a weekend with the girls! And I surely did. The race was pretty cool too! - (I'll try to post pictures when my camera comes back from vacation in Cinnci.)

All I have to say friends, is that you really let me down... 2 comments! That's really pathetic! I am considering retiring from the blogging world. Jamie, I will hold out a little longer just for you, but the rest of you need to show some serious IMPROVEMENT!

Comment Academy

Welcome to my version of "COMMENT ACADEMY" (Yes, if you complete the course you will get a diploma!). This is where I teach all of you how to comment, and then YOU start adding your two sense to what I write so I feel like what I am writing is actually being read, and therefore I can feel like it's of value to someone other than myself. Okay, enough scolding, now it's time to teach :) I credit the following to my amusing older sister since she's the one who wrote this on her blog... it worked for HER friends - they post comments like crazy!

"I thought I would do a little tutorial for you on how to comment on the blog. I know it may seem a little intimidating to try something new, but you can do it. It is SO easy.

First, notice the bottom of this post there is something that says COMMENTS. Click on the comments section and it will bring up a new screen. Just type your comment in the "LEAVE A COMMENT" section. It doesn't have to be profound or funny. It doesn't even have to be nice--though I might cry a little if it is mean. What is most important is that you leave a comment! I love getting feedback.

Anyway, once you have typed your comment you have three ways of identifying yourself. First, if you have a Google email account or blog, you click on the circle next to GOOGLE/BLOGGER. Then you enter your email into the USER NAME space and your password in the PASSWORD space. Once that is done, just hit publish and your comment is on the way.

If you do not have a Google account, you can click on OTHER or ANONYMOUS. Use OTHER if you already have a web page that you are linked to. Enter your web page address and your name. If you do not have a web page, then include your name in the text of your comment and click on ANONYMOUS and the PUBLISH button when you are done."

Okay, now does that seem so hard? No, I don't think so. There are now more excuses! Lets start helping Tricia feel like her time on the computer is not a total waste of time otherwise I may stop all together!

Lookin'up

Over the past few months I know I haven't been very "enthusiastic" in my blog entries. BUT, this week I had a "glimmer of hope" come through when I was at the conference center. I didn't have any exciting tours, or anything like that, but I think I was finally able to 'find myself', as I lost myself in service. I serve with some of the coolest people there and I LOVE that I have like 5-10 extra sets of parents/grandparents who LOVE me and area always telling me how "great" I am. It's so nice to know that someone things you're okay every now and then... Anyways, it was the beginnings of me being able to finally let go of some thoughts that have been bothering me, and to share my life with someone else.
(This is a picture of us in the break room... it's where the food is, and therefore where the half the people on our shift are too:) )
Then, this weekend, Paige invited me to to attend some social events with her - they didn't sound super exciting at first, but to my surprise they turned out to be quite fun... I learned how to play poker (I don't know if I am very good at poker, because I laugh too much and am not a very good lier... people can see right through me! It's depressing) but I almost won a game of pool... it that stupid white ball wouldn't have gone in the pocket... stupid pocket!

In other exciting news, Paige and I (I know it's like we are a married couple... always together!) attended a Riverdance concert at Kingsbury Hall a few weeks ago. It was really really COOL. I didn't know the company was so varied in their talents. There were tons of different styles of dance, and singing, and instrumental playing... I thought it would all be the same style of dancing but they had singers, dancers, etc. We really enjoyed it... shows in our faces, doesn't it! I recommend that you all catch a show if they are ever in your area... its worth the bucks!


(OH, and thanks to those of you who have been leaving your comments... For those of you who are unaware of how to do this, I will be posting an online "comment tutorial" later this week... I will take most of the tutorial material from my sisters blog. It was very effective in helping her friends and family leave their feedback for her, so I am hoping the same will occur for my friends... we have the same family, so if they didn't get it the first time, there's just no hope for them... its rather tragic!) :)

Random Thoughts

I thought I'd write down some of the jumbled thoughts that have been running through my head over the past week or two...

Life isn't fair and it rarely makes sense. But that doesn't mean that it has to be bad or that it isn't what it is supposed to be. I have been able to enjoy additional "disappointments" in the past few weeks, and I have been REALLY sick for the past 8 days - even missed work! (it takes a lot for this teacher to actually get a sub when sick... its more work that going in on my own... but this week one of my kids actually told his mom that his teacher was too sick to be at school! Guess that's a sign that I should be at home.) I am finally starting to feel better (YES!!!)... so I'll be back to work on Monday (can't wait to get back to those wonderful children... did you hear the enthusiasm?) HOWEVER, despite the fact that nothing seems to be going my way over the past month or so (except yesterday the washer/dryer man came before I had to go to work & I got primo parking at the conference I went to for work...) I have had ample comfort from the Lord that everything is and will be fine and have found that I have had additional time to really think about my life and what I am doing with it... and to think about my faith - which I have decided is very weak! So, I've become better at trusting the Lord with my life - since in reality I don't have any control over it anyways - and have found that though the disappointments seem to still come, there is great comfort in knowing that the Lord knows what he is doing with my life. I really loved the scripture that I have heard from President Hinckley's bio's on TV where it says, that if you find your life you loose it, but if you loose your life in the Lord's work, you'll find it - OKAY so I know that's not exactly right, but you get the idea. I am really doing my best to try to LIVE that, though i have a lot of work to do.

To continue with some random thoughts, today I was able to attend Pres. Hinckley's funeral at the conference center. They gave tickets to all of the hosting department (from my service mission) and so I was able to attend it in person. This week it has really hit me that the Lord really prepares us for the missions we are to lead on the earth. Pres. Hinckley's whole life was full of experiences that were in preparation for him to be the leader of Christ's church on the earth. It has made me reflect on what the Lord is preparing me to become. Maybe I'm just supposed to be a school teacher, or maybe the best aunt that ever lived (...that would be awesome!) or perhaps something that I haven't even thought of before. But, I have to do my best to be DEDICATED, and really consecrate my life to the Lord in ways I don't think that I am doing right now if I am to fulfill my mission... I've definitely got some work to DO! But, I've still got time to do it - so I better get hoppin'! Guess I just thought I'd share that with the world... I promise to be less serious in the near future and will post some pictures soon. (I just found my camera! I lost it at Christmas time but found it this week!)

Back on Track

It's been a while since I have posted, and there are several excuses that I could use to try to explain myself, but really, I just haven't known what to write, and haven't really felt "up to it". Life's been very "unexpected" to say the least, and I have been experiencing what I can only call a streak of "bad luck"? It's not as if I lost my life savings in a gambling spree (I don't have a life savings... I spent it at the outlets last month! Retail therapy works wonders!), or even that I have lost anything of material value. But sometimes life deals us a disappointment here or there and I seem to have had a plate full...

HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that I don't have a ton of things to be grateful for, or that I really have anything to even complain about. Though I wish some things in my life were going in a different direction, the Lord has blessed me to be at peace and keeps reminding me that I am surrounded with a FANTASTIC family who loves me more than I think I really realize and friends who love me and are cheering for me - even if I can't hear it (because they don't live with me, and they can't yell quite that loud).

So, lets talk about what's been going on that has been wonderful... or should have been wonderful if I could only come to accept that each year you get older and there's nothing you can do about it. I mean really! GET A GRIP! This past month I turned 27. Okay I said it. I am 27! I hate that I am not in my mid-twenties any more and I hate that I have become one of those people who now has an issue with getting older. I KNOW I am still SO YOUNG! Yeah, I hear that a lot, but I don't know that I feel "young" anymore. Not like I am hunched over and have back aches or anything, but lets face it - When I was "young" and thought about being a single 27 year old (wait, I'm mormon, I didn't think about being Single when I was 27!... lets be honest here!), I just think that I thought that I should either be in this fantastic, "important" career with lots of money and a passport (period!) with lost of stamps in it OR own a nice house OR something that is a little more showy. I do have a career, but I don't even have a passport, let alone a stamp in it, and I don't have a house (or savings... remember how I teach school!). So, I guess that I just thought when I got this old, I would FEEL more like and adult, instead of this person who in reality doesn't know what to do with themselves MOST OF THE TIME.
Which leads me into another tangent... what to do with myself! I recently finished my masters (the one thing in my life that I feel like is a grown up thing to have accomplished... so I guess I am not hopeless!) so that is "done", I will be finishing up my last class for my gifted endorsement, which will be "done" and then I am going to be done with my service mission in May. I don't know what to do with all this new found "free time" - I like a little free time, so I don't get suffocate, but I generally don't do well without something to occupy my time and thoughts. A project of sorts! Please feel free to offer suggestions - otherwise I may be sent to the loony bin over the summer! 2 months with nothing just might do me in...

Okay, Sorry - no more tangents... another great moment this past month was that I got to go visit my sister and her family in "the Ohio". I missed out on the traditional Christmas day, but I certainly enjoyed the next 5. I got to make cookies with my favorite older sister, watch movies, enjoy trips to different stores, jog in a t-shirt (while everyone in Utah was enjoying 18 degree weather... yeah that was nice!), go to the library, read the "Jesus" book about 25 times (it was Allison's new favorite) and MY favorite... getting an early morning wake up call to the sound of, "Chisha (that's what my niece calls me) WAKE UP! WAKE UP, aunt Chisha." I do LOVE my little Alli and miss her a lot - so even though it was 5 a.m. to my body, I was happy to get up and do whatever she wanted... okay so I did ALMOST whatever she wanted... I'm not perfect! So, though it wasn't what I pictured my December to look like, it sure had some HIGH points! Hopefully my "luck" will be changing to include a lot more HIGH points in the near future!

Good Feeling...

Okay, so I need to go to bed, but I thought I'd announce that I officially finished my masters degree today. I emailed my final to my professor and 30min later he emailed me back and said that I got 100% on my paper (good thing I spent 10 hours to write it for him to spend 10 min to read it... I love Masters professors!) and he posted my grade. I am excited to finally be done and I graduate this Friday at 1:30... Wish you could all be there (but lets be honest, graduations are actually pretty boring... but I wanted the pictures to prove I did it!).

P.S. I was called a princess today...I think it was a first and I was told to write it in my journal - this is as close as I am getting to a journal tonight...