Christmas and New Years

New Years resolutions are a joke because I tend to break them practically a week later but I am going to try it once again for what feels like the millionth time. This year I resolve to do better. I tend to set a million goals at the beginning of every year because there is always so much I would like to do better. This year I'm setting two goals. That's it. More can come later once I have these two down.

1. Exercise more. I have really slacked in this department. I was doing really well for most of 2013 and I was pretty darn proud of myself. But with lots of personal health and emotional challenges toward the end of the year, exercising was not my priority. This year it is. I am getting a pass to the rec center and am going to all the fun classes with my friends.

2. Journal writing. I don't know why I can never stick to this because I literally think about it every day. I have even set a reminder in my phone to write in my journal every day but I ignore that reminder until the next and then the next and the awful pattern continues. I want my kids to be able to read about my early years in life. Hopefully this means that I'll blog more and take more pictures.

My New Years was quite uneventful to be honest. I've been sick with strep all week long. Lovely. My Christmas, however, was awesome. Pictures and videos says it all:

Us delivering some gifts on Christmas Eve to some less fortunate families

The boys scored big time with nerf guns. 

I caught my Mother in Law playing with the nerf guns by herself. What do you expect...she had 4 boys. It's in her blood.

And Jared did REAL good with his gift this year. He got me a wedding band! I was shocked. 10 points for him.

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13.1

I never in this life time ever thought that I would run a half marathon. I was that girl that had absolutely NO desire to do it. And somehow I got suckered into doing and I am proud to say that I am so happy I did. And as sore as I am still even three days later, I would definitely do another one. Everything was smooth sailing up until mile 10. The last 3 miles of the race were BRUTAL. A big shout out is deserved to Eminem's "Till I Collapse" because I must have replayed that song probably 15 times during the last three miles of the race. That's the only way I was able to keep going. Seriously...it kicked my butt. My legs hurt so incredibly bad. I have never felt pain like that before in my life. So the next time I were to do one, I would definitely train differently. More squats, lunges, and leg presses. My legs were just not strong enough to go as fast as I wanted. The best part of the race was seeing my husband there waiting for me at the finish line with a big smile on his face. He was the first person I saw as I finished so it was a little tender moment for me.

Now we're headed off to a nice relaxing vacation in Mexico next week and we couldn't be more excited. Then it's back to real life. Jared is going to start training for a marathon and I might start training for a triathlon!

California

I don't visit California as much as a should but when I do, man do I love it. Jared and I went down this past weekend to go to Lori's farewell talk. As much as I love being with my whole family at once, it really was nice to have some alone time with just my sissy before she left. Lots of memories I'll always hold on to.

Our trip started out with Jared and I taking the front runner up to the airport. I seriously loved it. It reminded me so much of Italy. This is how I'll probably always go to the airport now. 

 We ate lunch at the airport cafe in Camarillo. Sounds weird but it is actually so yummy. You get to watch the airplanes fly in and out as you eat.

(I asked this kid to look at me and smile and instead he decided to flash me. Awesome.)

 After eating at the airport cafe, I took Lori to the DMV so that she could renew her license before she leaves to go to Boston. She had to take the drivers test again for some reason and she definitely failed it. This picture was taken as she was waiting in line after the second time of taking it. She was allowed three tries so she was a little worried she would fail the second time. Hilarious.

 I forgot how much I missed the beach until I was finally there. It was seriously the perfect day....80 degrees and no wind.

 

And then finally back up to Utah to take this cute girl to the MTC. I am so proud of her and already can't wait till she comes home! She is going to be one stellar missionary.

 

And as a side note, just to testify that God loves us....as Lori got out of the car at the MTC she saw one of her best friends from high school walking by. I'm sure she appreciated a familiar face as she was starting out her mission journey. That's one tender mercy in my book. Go get 'em sis. You're going to be awesome out there. Watch out Boston...she's coming for you.

Skirt Extenders

I'm really not understanding this whole skirt extender thing. At first, I didn't think anything of it and I thought, "Oh that's a great idea!" But now that I've thought more about it....Why don't you just make your dresses/skirts longer in the first place? And the way they try and sell it is by using a lace trim at the bottom of the skirt extender which lace is totally in right now so it makes it seem cute. But seriously....just add lace when you made the dress/skirt. It's kind of irritating. Now I can't by the dress/skirt without the extender because it's too short. I've decided they're all a bunch of money hoarders.

To the man who shook his head

Last night I went for a run outside since the weather has been gorgeous. I was at a stop light waiting to cross when I saw a man in a car staring at me and then he just shook his head and drove off. My immediate thought was, did I just offend him with the way I scratched my forehead? No that must not be it because that would be silly. For the remainder of my run I could not stop thinking about the possible explanations for why that man might have shaken his head at me. I was only in to my first mile out of my 3.5 mile run when this happened so I had quite a long time to think about it.

-Was it the fact that I looked like I was dying since I had just run up this massive hill? Well I'm proud of that because I have never been able to run up that hill without walking until yesterday. I finally did it. I was pretty proud.

OR....

-Was it my blinding white pasty arms and legs. I mean, IT IS the first time these babies have seen the sun in about 6 months so that could definitely be a possibility.

OR....

-Was it the awkward sweat marks on my pants? Well I'm proud of that too because I worked my butt off yesterday....literally. Because that's where the sweat marks were. (TMI? Yah....probably)

And then I thought....

-Oh my goodness could he tell what music I was listening to? I WAS at that moment being serenaded by Justin Beiber which I guess is something to shake your head at. UNLESS you're listening to "boyfriend" (which I was) and that is definitely never something to shake your head at. Love that song.

I finally realized at the very end of my run what it must have been. I remembered that as I stood at the cross walk I had spit into the bushes. Which I guess isn't a very lady-like thing to do but who cares? We all do it. When you have a brother who is a MASTER at spitting, who would stand in the door way by the side of our house, would spit over the fence and hit the crazy neighbors house right next door, well of course I would ask him to teach me how. And yesterday I did what I had learned many years ago from my brother and I'm not even ashamed. Apparently this guy was.

SO....to the man who shook his head at me, whatever your reasons may...I am going to continue to wear my sweaty pants, blind the public eye with my pasty skin, allow JB to speak to my soul, and spit my little heart out for everyone to see because that is just how little I care about your little head shake.

Half

Anytime anyone has every asked me if I would ever run a marathon or half marathon, my immediate response was NO WAY. And then people would say, "Come on. It will be so rewarding to say that you completed one." And my response was always, "No it won't. I couldn't care less about completing one." Jared, on the other hand, has always wanted to run at least a half marathon so anytime our Sister in Law talks about it, he always wants to do it. Last night when we were at the jazz game, Tamara asked Jared if he wanted to run the Utah valley half marathon with her and of course he said yes if he had enough time to train. Then he turned to me and asked if I wanted to train with him to do the half. He must have caught me at a really weak moment because all I said was, sure why not. WHAT???? And then my immediate thought was....oh no....word vomit. I realized what I had committed myself to and said, "if you buy me better running shoes, I will train with you." I said that thinking we couldn't afford new running shoes so I figured it was my automatic out. And of course Jared says, "Oh no problem. I need to get new running shoes too so this will be perfect." WHAT???? So not only did I think we couldn't afford one new pair of running shoes, now we are buying two new pairs? And now I'm running a half marathon. WHAT?? I never thought I would even agree to something like this. I always figured, sure maybe I would do a 10K sometime but I had no desire to do anything more than that. Look at me know. I guess my motivation is that two weeks after the race, Jared and I are going to Mexico for a week so I'm hoping I'll have a rockin' bod by that time. The training starts now...today. Here's to 13.1 miles...barf.