Spiritual Thought Sunday--Teaching Primary Outside the Box

I subbed in Primary today for some friends who are currently in Hawaii.

(I know!)

It's a new year, so new primary classes--which is good because their last class was a terror.  And when I arrived there were 7 eager five year olds looking at me like I was Medusa.

But I calmed them down enough to at least get some lesson about doing what Jesus would want us to do into them before setting them free on a container of crayons and paper.

(Funny story--when I asked Josh what he learned at church today, he said "Jesus wants us to color."  Wade piped in to say that's what he learned in Junior Primary and I said "well, that's what I'm teaching."  However, this isn't our spiritual thought for the day, so continuing right along...)

There's a little boy in the class, Cameron, who has Down Syndrome.  His family moved into the ward in Augustish.  He's adorable, but he can be  a little...challenging...at times.  His mom stayed with him through class.  But she left for a minute to go see what time class was over and he bolted after her.  Luckily, I've put in all these training miles, so I was able to catch him pretty fast and drag him back.

And I thought I was going to have a screaming kid on my hands, but he was actually pretty good and sat on my lap.  Which is a miracle in itself because most kids can sense that I'm not much of a kid person and they steer clear.  But not Cameron.

So off to sharing time we went.  And I felt comfortable enough to tell  his mom to go ahead and go to Sunday school and she was so visibly relieved that she finally got a free hour or so at church that I was instantly happy even though deep down I was a little scared.

But we did really well.  He slapped me a few times for not going to find his mom and dad, and that was a little strange, but overall he did good for only having been in primary for 2 weeks (he's been in the nursery, playing, for the last 3 years).

And in Sacrament meeting, he waved at me from across the chapel.  Ahhh...heart melt.

The moral of the story is this:  We are given opportunities to leave our comfort level and for good reason.  Take advantage because you may actually learn more from outside your box than inside.

Have a great Sunday everyone and tune in tomorrow for what horrible faux pas I made at Toastmaster's this last week.  You'll be sure to enjoy that story.

2010 Book Review #1

These probably won't be weekly like they have in the past.  Things are pretty hectic now that my chore time, computer time, reading time and nap miscellaneous time has been pared down to when Aunika is asleep.  That little monkey!  But, I'd like to review a book at least twice a month.  We'll see.

Book: Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
Author: Christopher McDougall
Pages: 304 pages

This book was SO interesting.  I first heard about it from my older brother, who thought it was about runners from Africa, so I was very surprised to find that it was about a hidden tribe of Indians in Mexico's Copper Canyon. 

However, the story was enthralling.  The author goes deep into this drug runner's lair to find this mysterious tribe and their one "gringo" follower, Caballo Blanco (White Horse).  His story is truly fascinating.  Check out his website for some cool pictures.  http://www.caballoblanco.com/

Interweaved in the story of this amazing supertribe of endurance athletes are tangents that spurt left and right.  It was a little hard to keep on track, especially when all I wanted to read about was this crazy ultramarathon the author was going to participate in with the Tarahumara Indians and a few crazy, elite ultramarathoners from the states.  But, naturally, the sidenotes were very informative.

However, there were a few things I took away from the book.  (a) I should stop paying $$$ for my shoes and be happy with what I have.  Maybe it will even help me in the long run.  (b) Eat less meat.  Buy chia seeds.  Or, as McDougall put in his book, eat like I'm poor and (c) Running doesn't have to be punishment for eating and once you strip away all the gadgets and the gear and truly get back to your four-year old self, you're just one step closer to being like the Tarahumaras. 

I probably won't become a barefoot, vegetarian ultramarathoner anytime soon, but if life could be anything like what the author experienced, it's tempting.

What's For Dinner Wednesday--Sweet Pork and Rice Tortilla Things

Shocker:  I love simplicity.  I don't want any recipe that has a thousand ingredients that I can only find at specialty shops.  Give me something fast, easy, and tastes good and I'm a happy girl.

Enter in this week's new recipe.  This is somewhat adapted from a friend (the pork), my sister-in-law (the rice), and my neighbor (the tortillas).

I took a frozen pork roast, plopped it in the crockpot, dumped a can of enchilada sauce on top (I used a big can, but I wonder if it was too much, though Wade liked it), put in about 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar, turned it on high (I never remember to start dinner at 8 am like I should when I'm using a crockpot.  It's usually 2 pm.) and went about the rest of my day. 

For the rice, I made rice in the rice cooker then stuck it in a fry pan with some olive oil (just enough to slick it up), fried it for a minute or two, added a can of chicken broth and about 2/3 cup sugar and cooked it until the rice wasn't runny anymore.  Maybe 10 minutes.  My sister-in-law cooks the rice in the sugar and chicken broth.

I fried some tortillas on the stove (I used precooked ones, though I know people swear by the uncooked ones), put some cheddar cheese on the tortillas until it melted and pulled them off when they were nice and toasty.

Layer the rice, pork and add some more cheddar cheese if you desire and there you have it.  Voila!

Makes great leftovers too.

Spirtual Thought Sunday: The Book of Lego

We had originally hedged our bets that a change to the 11:00 church schedule from the 9:00 church schedule would help Josh out with his...reluctance...to go to church.

We were sorely disappointed.

However, once we got to church and he realized he was the ONLY person in his underwear, he was more than willing to put on clothes.

2010:  Parents--1, Josh--0.

And so begins my Spritual Sunday Thoughts.  Which, in hindsight, might not always be that spiritual.  But I'll see what I can do.

Sometimes you wonder if you're teaching your kids right.  I know there's a lot of things that we need to buckle down and do regarding religion and church and spirituality, and I would like to start working on those things this year.  Like family scripture study and prayers and Family Home Evening. 

Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming though.

So I'm always happy when Josh picks things up at church and shares them with us.  Like his little song after church:

Jesus died.  Went to Hell.
Jesus died.  Went to Hell.

Clearly, we have some work to do.

But I LOVED this little thing he made during sacrament meeting:

John 3:6  "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit"

Josh(ua) 1:4  "From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast."

Lego 10:100  "No, I will not take his hands off. Put your Lego man back together. Where's his head?"

All things considered, I don't think we're doing so bad.

Train up a child in the way he should go;

even when he is old he will not depart from it.
—Proverbs 22:6

Beat the New Year

New Year's Eve was the 32nd Annual Beat the New Year 5k in Sugarhouse Park.  The idea is that you start at 11:30 and then "beat the New Year" by crossing the finish line before midnight.  However, this is no walk in the park (literally).  Sugarhouse Park is the location of the high school regional cross-country championships for a reason.  And mainly that reason is that it's hilly.  Very, very hilly.  Coupled with a late start smack dab in the middle of a holiday season centering around food and chocolate and you have a recipe for a very difficult run.

Since I started running about 3 1/2 years ago, I've wanted to do this race.  BUT I didn't want to do it if I couldn't guarantee that I would come in under 30 minutes.  If you come in under 30 minutes you get a plaque.  And initially, I figured, only the diehards run on New Year's Eve at 11:30 at night.  So if you were over 30 minutes, perhaps you'd be the ONLY one over 30 minutes. 

And you might possibly die from embarassment.

So this year was my year.  I'm consistently below a thirty minute 5k and I had coerced BOTH brothers this time to run it with me so I wasn't (a) alone or (b) last.

At first it was a joke.  I thought for sure that one or both brothers would drop out sometime in November.  If that didn't happen, I figured neither sister-in-law would allow their husbands to embark on such a stupid journey.

Yet, Thursday night found the three of us at my mom's house, laying low until it was time to leave. By laying low, I mean that we were jamming it up on Guitar Hero for the Wii

See what I mean?

Scott walked in and instantly blew us away.  It's the story of my life and I was praying that it wouldn't be the story of my race.

At 10 pm, we took a picture of the three of us and left for the park.

To be honest, I thought there'd be 50 people there.  I kept telling Eric (my older brother) that he wouldn't come in last place, but secretly inside, there was a little nagging voice that kept saying "but, he very well could..." 

When we arrived there were SWARMS of people.  Crazy, half-naked people.  Apparently, I was overdressed as I saw more than one person walking around in a bikini.

A bikini?  December 31st?  Utah?

Remember my post about the running skirts?  Well, I wrote that before having encountered runners in bikinis.  Because I will go on the record as saying that it doesn't matter how good you look in a bikini, you should NEVER run a race in one.  Bikinis are not running attire.  They don't even pretend to be running attire.  Your backside does not look good when it's flying at a 7:00 pace.  It doesn't look good when it's jogging at a 10:00 pace, and it most certainly does not look good when it's meandering at a 12:00 pace. 

I'm almost certain that had the girls taken the time to turn to the side when they doned their bikini for the race and practiced running in place and saw what I was seeing, they would most definitely not have chosen that particular outfit.

In addition to the bikinis, I saw a guy in a speedo, a turtle, Bill Clinton, a gorilla, and a banana split.  Three girls were a scoop of ice cream each and they all carried a banana made out of plywood.

That takes a lot of dedication since you can only run as fast as the slowest runner, and that plywood banana probably got pretty heavy around 1/2 mile (reminder: a 5k is 3.12 miles).

Wade saw someone in a speedo who was barefoot.

Barefoot?  December 31st? Utah?

I really liked the girl standing around the check-in building in shorts and a sports bra, hugging herself to stay warm, her teeth chattering like mad.  "You know, you don't have to run this race half naked, right?  You could put on clothes.  Even a shirt might help."  I wanted to say, but opted to keep my mouth shut.  I mean, it's Utah on December 31st.  If you don't know any better than you deserve to be cold.

These people are NUTS.  I just wish I would've had the foresight to bring the camera WITH me.

The course started about 1/3 mile from the finish line, and then looped twice around the park from the finish line.  Most of that 1/3 mile to the finish line was uphill and we had to run it three times.  However, the weather was perfect!  Almost a heat wave--at 32 degrees--from the 10 degrees I was use to.  I started off really good and felt confident that I smoked Scott up the hill.  As we rounded the bend to start downhill, I felt someone tap me on the shoulder.  I looked to my right and there he was. 

"How far have we gone?"  He asked.

Grrrr....

I followed behind him for a ways then overtook him on the next big hill.  We went around for another loop and then began our final ascent up the dreaded hill to the finish line.  It wasn't until Wade, who didn't see me pass, yelled out "Go Woody" that I realized how very close Scott was to beating me.  I crossed the finish line and then immediately felt a tap on my shoulder that felt vaguely familiar.  I turned around and there he was, a mere two seconds behind me.

But, I did cross before him.  And that's all that matters.

And while we technically didn't beat midnight--they were late starting and I saw the fireworks around the valley going off as I made my final trip up the hill--we beat 30 minutes and we got our plaques.

Eric finished his FIRST 5k really strong.  He didn't beat 30 minutes but he still did really well. 

Here's a picture of us at the finish: 

It was a really fun race with a lot of crazy people.  I overheard one guy say this was his 27th straight year.  And it was reassuring to know that there are a few (hundred) diehards out there who would rather run a 5k on New Year's Eve then stay home and watch a movie. 

January HII

Since we finished our basement, I've been less enthused about our upstairs.  We definitely need to make some repairs and update it. 

So for January, I'm starting in the living room.  There's a lot that needs to be done and it's not all going to get done in January.  We won't be painting it anytime soon.  Eventually, I want to put in all hardwood floors between the kitchen and living room, but that won't be until after we're done with babies and crawling because it hurts their little knees.  But there's still some I can do.  My plan is to:

--Repair window sills.  Eventually, when we get to painting, we're going to put in the same thing we did in the basement; an actual window sill.  But for now, we can recaulk to save some energy.

--Drapes.  It's probably time we look like we're not just college squatters, but actual adults.

--Change out the hardware.  We've never liked the gold, but we weren't going to pay extra for the brushed nickel, so we're just going to have to do it room by room.  Besides we need a new front door lock, so we might as well update now.

--Change out the light fixtures.  Hello, can we say UGLY lights?  It's time they went too. 

--Put up pictures.  It's so bare and unpersonal.  Time to put up the pictures of the kids I've been hiding away in drawers.  (The pictures, not the kids).  Maybe, I can convince Wade it's time to do a family portrait and we could even hang that. 

Well, that should be a tall enough order for January. 

#1 Goal for 2010

eat the New Year Update:  I achieved both goals last night.  And it was very, very close like I predicted.  In fact, had Wade not yelled out from the sidelines "Go Woody" (Woody is my brother Scott's nickname), Scott would've passed me at the finish line.  As it stands, I crossed about 2 seconds ahead at 27:46.  It was a KILLER run.  I'll post pictures and write more about it tomorrow because I have A LOT to get through today.

#1--Qualify for Boston

So Boston wasn't even on my life list of things to do before I ran my first marathon.  I had heard of Boston, but I couldn't have cared less.  Then I ran the St. George marathon and I thought, man, it'd be awesome to go to the granddaddy of all marathons, but the dream seemed so far-fetched.  I would have to cut off close to five minutes--per mile (about 2 hours)--from my finishing time and in 2007, I thought it'd be impossible.

Then I started back up running this year and researched training and nutrition and all sorts of stuff.  Then entered in two very motivated training buddies and we're slowly closing that gap.  Some of us faster than others.  But the three of us are getting there. 

To qualify for Boston, I have to run a marathon in under 3:40:00, which is about an 8:23/mile average.  This is no small feat for a female that is 5'8" and built like a soccer player, not a long distance runner. 

Which makes the goal that much sweeter.

And harder to attain.

But this goal--qualifying for Boston--might just be the one goal that I have wanted more than anything else I can think of.  I think about it ALL THE TIME. 

See what's hanging on my wall:

The blue line you see is the road from Salt Lake to Boston.  I came up with 26 goals to reach and so far I've met six of them.  I obviously have a long way to go.  But, this is a reminder of where I'm headed and what I'm trying to do. And right now, it waffles between impossible and nearly impossible.  But every once in a while, I have a glimpse of what it will feel like and I think "maybe I can do this."

I firmly believe that it's not fully about how fast you can run (though that certainly is a major player), but it's more about your attitude and your desire.

How bad do you want this?

And I'm here to tell you that I want it bad.  Bad enough to be out running at 5 in the morning in the winter.  Bad enough to let you all in on my goal.

Bad enough to push myself to the limit every. single. run. 

So, with that being said, I know this is a pipe dream.  And I know there are those out there who say this can't be done.  Please keep your (negative) opinions to yourself because I don't want to hear it.  Allow me to live in the haze that is this dream until I cross the finish line in St. George on October 2.  Then talk to me on October 3rd and we'll see who won. 

However, I'll take any positive comments you have. :)

2010 is my year baby!!