Best Race Ever!!

Mom, Tori, Pam and I decided to run a race the weekend after the half marathon. It was an 8 mile race in a park in Comfort, Texas. I was not sure about running a race right after a half marathon, but our running group was hosting it, so I thought I had better do it. I decided I was going to take it easy and not really race it, but use it as a training run. At the start it was really cold. My legs felt like ice. I thought I was running an easy pace. When I got to the first mile I was running an 8:54 pace. It felt slow so I picked up my pace. I thought I was doing alright. Then the turn around was coming and I saw the first runner- a man and then a saw some more men. Then I finally saw a woman. I kept watching for more women and there were not any I got to the turn around and realized I was the second female. I was so excited. I have never been the 2nd female out of the whole race, sometimes in my age group, but never out of all the women. Then I passed Tori and she yelled at me "Mom you are in 2nd Place!" I was already excited and then I got really nervous. I was not sure how close the next female runner was to me. All I could think for the next 3 miles was that I could not let anyone pace me, I thought Tori would be disappointed if someone passed me. I ran as hard as I could. I did end up finishing 2nd out of 140 female runners and I was 1st in my age group, which I have never done before either. There were 27 runners in my age group. So I was really proud. I will probally never be 2nd again in a race, but it sure felt good. I felt like I was really a runner!! Tori finished third in her age group and mom finished 3rd in her age group. Our family did really well at the race! Dad also came and watched us run and got some pictures at the finish line. He missed me coming in because he fell asleep in the car! He did get pictures of mom and Tori!! Only thing disappointing about this race it that are medals were a duffle bag. A really small duffle bag. Mine was blue and Tori and Mom's were black. Tori passing a big group!

Pam having too much fun!

Me at the Start. Was just going to take it easy!

Mom coming into the finish line!

Running up a hill, trying not to lose 2nd Place!

Mom and Tori at the start!

Tori's Marathon Hats :D

Tori made everyone who is running the San Francisco Marathon a hat. They are just to cute! Here is a picture of Tori and I wearing the hats.

Day 30 picture!

I have been working hard. I see a difference in my back fat! My stomach is a lot stronger. I am able to do pull-ups know. I can do push-ups that I thought I would never be able to do. I feel so much stronger when I am running also. Last weekend I was able to run an 8:46 pace for 11 miles! I was not even dead when I finished. I love this workout program. It is very hard, but I love it! I would recommend it to anyone, who wants to get strong and fit.

Sunrise 10K

Last weekend Mom and I got to do a 10k race with our running group. It was hot, humid, and hilly. In other words it was a miserable race. I hated every minute of it. It was my worst 10k race ever. I started to doubt my ability to do the half marathon in San Fransisco. Mom did fantastic! She walked a faster time than last year by quite a bit. She held a 15 minute pace! She finished second in her age group! Way to go Mom!! I found pictures on line of the race of myself, but there were none of mom. I need to start bringing my camera to these events.

P90X

I started the P90X fitness program. I had to take before pictures and then I work out everyday except Sunday for 30 days and then I take another picture. Then I take another at 60 days and then again at 90 days. I really want to stick with this program so I decided if I posted my pictures every thirty days I would have to. You guys will have to let me know if you see any improvement. I am hoping to look really tone by the time 90 days are up. Wish me luck!! Emily is going to be doing this program with me also. She is the one who took these pictures. I have ones of her also, but thought she may not appreciate me posting them. Good Luck Emily with the program. I hope you have already gotten to start. I have been doing it for 2 weeks. I dont know if I look different but I definately feel a little stronger!!

Tori is A Sophmore!

I cant believe Tori is in the 10th grade! She was really excited to go back to school and see her friends. She has a very busy schedule this year. She has Seminary at 6 am then she goes to swim practice at 7:15. Then off to school at 9:20. She does not get home until 5:15pm and then it is homework. She has quite a few difficult classes this year. She is taking pre calculus, chemistry, world history, multimedia 2, spanish 2 and English. She seems to like all her classes so far, but it has only been a week. Here is a picture of Tori on the first day of school. I forgot to take the picture in the morning, so I suprised her with the camera when she arrived home after school. That is why she looks so tired. She has to wear glasses now, because she has a stigmatism. I think she looks so grown up in the glasses!

Idaho Trip

Tori and I had a lot of fun on our trip to Idaho. We were glad to get a chance to hang out with Emily, Scott and the kids. We got to ride horses, go huckleberry picking, sanddunes, and went hiking in a park(I forgot the parks name) But here are some of our photos from the trip.

New Hobby

I decided to take a quilting class. Tori told me I needed to find more things to do, because she was worried I would be bored while she was at school. So I joined a quilting class. We make one block a month for a whole year and at the end of the year, we will have a twin sized quilt. This is the first block I did. I was excited that everything lined up so well. I only had to rip out one seam. I was told we should leave one mistake like the amish do, because nothing but God is perfect. I liked that so I left one very obvious mistake. Can you spot it? I am very proud of my first block. I hope the others go together just as well.

Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon

Our Seattle trip for the Rock and Roll marathon was alot of fun. Tori and I got to see a lot of neat things. We went to the Muesem of Flight, Woodland Park Zoo, Pacific Science Center, Pike Market Place, Tillicum Village, A habor cruise, Seattle Aquarium, Space Needle and I also ran the Half marathon. It was a short 5 days, but we got to see a lot of Seattle. We also saw Mount Rainer which is only visible 90 days of the year. It was beautiul weather the whole time. No rain! My half marathon went way better than expected! I ran a 1:59:43! I recommend this marahton to everyone. It was probally the prettiest run I have done so far. Tori's favorite part of the trip was the seattle aquarium. She loved the sea otters.

Tori also liked going to Pike Market to get Cherries. The Cherries were so good! We also got to eat some russian food. Tori thought it was just as good as her grandmothers! The first picture is of Tori and I on top of the Space Needle. If you look close enough you can see the medal from the marathon. I had run the marathon that morning. That explains why I do not look so good in the picture! I was really sad that we had to leave before Natalie and Dean got to Seattle, it would have been nice to see them. I also found out one of my friends had arrived in Seattle on the day I left, and I had not seen her in 2 years. Oh well what can you do?

Mom's New Hair Cut

This is mom's new haircut! I really like it. I think mom liked it too! My hairstylist told mom she had to get rid of the mullet and mudflap haircut. Mom was excited that she had grown her hair out enough to put it in bear ears. Then we cut it off, but not too short the top layer is longer so she can still grow it out and get a longer cut if she likes. Tori decided to put a bobby pin in to pull her bangs back and that looks really cute too! Tori made mom smile real big for her pictures and I think she looks great and should smile big in all her pictures!

Good Time with Tori

Tori And I went to see The Proposal yesterday. It was a very funny movie and we really enjoyed it. I was so happy Tori went with me. She is at that age where she is embarrassed to be seen with me at certain places and one of them is the Movies. She thinks she is to old to be going to the movies with her parents. Zig I can understand, but what is so embarrassing about me?(ha, ha) I had so much fun with her. Two Women who were much older (80's) were sitting in front of us and Tori kept saying that would be Pam and I in a couple of years. She teased me saying how I would think I was in style, even though I would have my hair short and white and wearing elastic banded pants. She was so funny I couldn't stop laughing. Thanks Tori for a wonderful afternoon! I miss doing those mom and daughter movie trips, I hope we get to do a few more this summer.

Mom's getting a tready hair-do today!

I am taking mom to my hair stylist today. I am excited to see what she does. I will post a picture later, so you can see what she looks like with her new trendy hair do!

Heart shaped Cheesecakes

Tori found out that for Youth Conference the girls had to bring dessert for two and the boys had to bring dinner for two. She asked me to make cheesecakes. I went to Target to get round mini springform pans, because they had them there during the Holidays. To my dismay Target only had heart shape mini spring form pans. They only had two left, so I went ahead and bought them. When I showed them to Tori, she was like I cant take heart shaped Cheesecakes It would be embarrassing! So we went on a hunt for mini round springform pans. We looked everywhere we could think of and could not find any. Tori was sure she was going to have to take heart shaped cheesecakes and was going to be humiliated.( I didnt think it would be that bad) Tori went to get her nails done and the Salon happened to be next to a micheals. She went in and looked and sure enough they had round mini springform pans! So if you ever need baking items that you can not find try Micheals! Tori was so thankful she got to take round cheesecakes instead of heart shaped ones, we enjoyed the heart shaped ones for breakfast and they where delicious!

Torn Ligaments

As most of you know I have been training to run the Seattle half marathon. I was so excited about this. I had been running 8-81/2 minute miles during training so I had high hopes for Seattle. I was hoping to run it in an hour and fifty minutes or better. While I ran a half marathon in Austin in April and during that run my ankle swelled up, but I still was able to hold a good pace (1:56:45). I did not want to go to the doctor so I stayed off my foot for 2 weeks and iced it, hoping it would get better. I ran and it swelled up again. I finally broke down and went to the doctor. He said I had torn ligaments and could not run for 6 weeks. I was devestated. He told me I could cycle and Swim. I was so depressed I did almost nothing. My six weeks were up about 2 weeks ago. It took me a year to get in great running shape and took me six weeks to get out of shape. That is so not fair. I am still running the Seattle half marathon this coming Saturday. I will have to just do the best I can, but 13.1 miles all of a sudden seems like a long ways to go! The moral to my story is to go to the doctor right away when you have an injury and still workout, even if it is not what you want to do. Hopefully all those running Nike Womens have started training. Cant wait to see you all there!!

Girls Camp

Tori and I got to go to girls camp together last week. We were so tired getting everything ready for camp, that I think we were so tired during camp to enjoy it. It was fun and we decieded to give all the girls a silly award that reminded us of them at camp. You guys know how Tori is with me. She is always teasing. So her award was You Know You Love Your Momma award, everyone got a good laugh at this. Tori had invited Lauren to camp and they were telling all the younger girls that Lauren was her twin sister and I could not handle twins so I gave Lauren away. It was a ridiculous story, but you would not believe how many of the girls believed the story. I had to set them straight before any rumors got started. Lauren recieved the Twin #2(but it aint true) Award. We won for best T-shirt and I was really happy because we tie tied the T-Shirts and Ironed on the Lettering. We made the whole shirt and every other ward had theirs printed and most of them had blue shirts. Ours stood out because they were tie dyed Orange, red and Fuscia. One great thing about girls camp is that me and Tori both got awesome tans. It was 1oo degrees or higher everyday. Emily we need some of your rain, can you send some are way!

Mom bought heels!!!!!!!!