Thankful Runner Girl

I feel bad about hogging up all of Maria’s space in her comment area so I thought I’d use my own space to blather about what I thought about Chapter 16 of The Purpose Driven Life. 

What I learned from this Chapter was for me really revealing.  I learned that it is important to invest time in my church family, to invest time and energy in loving and caring and learning about people in my church family, which I don’t really tend to do very well.  I think, I could be wrong, but I think the point of this chapter was to remind us that we need to love our fellow Christians, especially those who attend our home church, the idea being if we can’t get along with the people in our own congregation why would any one in their right mind think it was a good idea to attend your church let alone become a member or even a Christian.  I think that was Mr. Warren’s point and I think it was a good reminder for me for several reasons.  If I am being honest, which I’m trying to be, I really don’t spend as much time with my church family as I should.  I don’t ask about people or after people like I should.  I’m part of a ladies group at church but I don’t “care” about these people or “love” these people as much as I should.  I think I need to do better at this because a church that promotes healthy relationships will be a church that thrives and that will speak louder to people than words ever could about the power and love of Jesus Christ, our savior.

Some things that I have started to do are pay more attention to the ladies in my ladies group.  Part of the reason I volunteered to head up the dessert booth was because I wanted to feel more a part of my church, more like a member and not just a lurker.  I have had the opportunity to learn about and fellowship with several new ladies and I find that enjoyable J  I took this chapter to heart the first night of the festival when the little old ladies in the group were complaining about almost everything, the size of the booth, the way the tables were arranged, how big to cut the slices of pie or cake, etc...etc…and the words of this chapter just came back to me and so instead of automatically assuming that they were just annoying old biddies I tried to really listen and understand what it was they were really upset about and well I learned a lot about patience and listening.

When I read this chapter the first time I underlined a sentence that struck me.  “Busyness is a great enemy of relationships.”  I’m not saying that I’m not a busy person, I can be just as busy as the next person if I want to be but the thing is I don’t want to be.  I don’t schedule every minute of my day.  I don’t plan every one of my weekends a month or two ahead of time.  This sometimes irritates people but this is how I operate the best.  I don’t like to feel like I have to be somewhere or do something.  I keep my schedule to a minimum so I can enjoy spur of the moment trips to the zoo or a visit with someone or a day trip/drive to the mountains or the sea.  Admittedly this isn’t the most efficient system in the world, I concede this to be true but it does allow for a great deal of room.  The only thing I really schedule are my runs, which I even try to be flexible with, and to a certain extent the classes I teach but even there I try to leave room for flexibility, room to try something new or interesting or to have an extended conversation if the opportunity arises.  I’m not perfect but I try very very hard to make sure that in my life “busyness” is not my enemy but my friend and that I spend time loving, sharing and caring about people.

Anyway back to the subject…sort of…Maria talked a little bit about how she, for lack of a better term prioritizes her relationships and I found that an interesting idea to mull over…

My relationship with my God isn’t a best friend kind of thing, my relationship with Him is one of deep respect and understanding of the sacrifice He made so I might live.  I wouldn’t categorize God as my friend; can your God be your friend?  In my opinion the disparity is too great for us to ever be equals.  I talk to God all the time, or try to; as I go through my day I may mumble this or that especially when my patience is being tried.  I enjoy feeling his presence, some days I feel it more than others, is this relationship always my priority, sadly the answer is no, sometimes I am too busy for my God, sometimes I am too lazy for Him, and sometimes I honestly don’t really think I need Him all that much in that particular moment of time, whatever it may be, this is something that I am constantly working on and hopefully before I die I’ll get there.  I’m getting better at this.  I do think God and I have a strong relationship.  My relationship with Him guides how I live my life, so in that regard I think I’m doing okay. 

The next relationship I regard as important is Jason.  Jason and I spend a lot of time together, actually my dentist just a few months ago said we seem to spend more time together than the average couple, weird observation I thought so it got me thinking and I think he’s right.  If Jason is sick I’ll stay home to take care of him, make him soup, run to the store for orange juice, etc…not every time but lots of times, even if I had something important to do at work I change it so I can be home.  If we find out about something cool we can do on the weekend and we need to travel to go there we will take time off so we can go.  Some days he will take a half a day so we can go see a movie or so we can just hang out together.  We eat lunch together 2 or 3 times a week and even though we may be working on different things we spend most of our evenings together.  We run together and we talk all the time.  I love him. I love being with him. I love listening to him laugh.  I love watching him. I love his arms and being held by him. I love kissing him.  I just love him.  I know not everyone likes or even agrees with Dr. Laura but I’ve read a few of her books here and there and frankly she’s right about a lot of things concerning husbands and I try to follow them and they work for me.  The first being they need to know you love them, so I tell him everyday that I love him. They need to know they are important to you, so I don’t just tell him he’s important to me I show him.  I don’t plan things in the evenings or on the weekends without checking with him first.  I ask him if he needs anything or wants anything.  I try to do nice things for him like baking his favorite brownies or cooking dinner’s for him even if I’m tired.  I buy his favorite cereals or protein bars. I ask about his day when he gets home and I listen when he tells me about what happened.  They need to know you are proud of them.  I tell Jason how much I appreciate him everyday.  If I hear him saying something negative about himself I immediately say something positive to him.  I tell him what a great husband he is and I acknowledge or try to when he’s done something really nice for me that he didn’t have to do or doesn’t usually do, like washing the dishes or actually picking his clothes up off of the floor.  I let him know that I think his is a great man with a good heart.  The heart of our relationship is God and that makes everything so much easier.  Of course there are times when I just want to strangle him but we usually end up laughing during those times too.  We are almost always laughing.  My biggest fear is losing him.

My daughter, not that she’s third, she’s not.  We had a father/priest come visit our church one day and he talked about families and he said the most important relationship in the family dynamic, after God, was the relationship between the husband and wife because everything in the family was rooted in that first relationship before there were any children involved.  That always struck me, he said some other things that day that I found revealing.  I myself notice that Laina loves it when Jason and I are dancing together or when we are just sitting together and watching her.  I remember watching my mom and dad dancing always made me so happy.  We love Laina but that love has to come from somewhere so we have to nurture our love for each other so we have more love to give Laina and I think that’s alright.  Jason and I probably spend more time with her than with anyone or anything else right now.  She has been so wonderful.  She makes me laugh everyday.  I love her so much.  She fills my heart with happiness.

My family also gets a lot of my time, in different ways, sometimes it’s time just spent worrying about them, most of the time it’s physical time, time spent with them.  I like that I live so close to them.  I like being able to drop by whenever I feel like it.  I suppose in a way maybe they are my security blanket.  I like to spend time with them and visit with them.  I like to go places with them and just be with them. My second biggest fear is losing members of my family and there are more ways than death that you can lose someone, aren’t there? Over the years I’ve learned many important life lessons one of the most important being the realization that my family is bigger than blood. God has used Laina to teach me many many lessons one of them being that the capacity to love someone beyond understanding is not limited to DNA, the capacity to love comes from God and love that comes from God is limitless.  For a long time I defined my family as my genetic family but truly my family is God’s family and that includes lots and lots of people some of them I know well and some of them I don’t.  God has used Laina to help me understand that He wants my heart to be open to any person He places in it, this has been very revealing to me. 

I may spend more time on occasion with my genetic family but my heart is full of love, concern and longing for all my family. My family is God’s family.   I think that this is a very important life lesson to learn and I am glad to have begun learning it. I must get better at some things but that’s what life is for isn’t it?

Anyway those are some of the things I thought about after reading this chapter. So today for Chapter 16…I Give Thanks! 

Well I finally have some time to update my thankfulness journal.  The beginning of the school year is always really busy but so far I’m enjoying!  My kids seem pretty good but they always seem good at the beginning, then you find out who they really are…Ha!  Anyway and I love my new schedule, so far so good.  I am in charge of the dessert booth for our annual church Harvest Festival and I’m enjoying that as well.  It’s a little bit of extra work but its okay because it doesn’t really feel like work.  Today I’m baking cookies and cream cupcakes for the booth and tomorrow I’ll probably make brownies or something similar.  I’m thinking about baking a Malted Milk Cake…Yummy we’ll see what I have time to do.

Lots of things to be thankful for but they are pretty simple things, like being able to run, even though it’s at 4:45 in the morning now and dark when I’m out and about.  I’ve recently discovered the yumminess of cheese less pizza.  My brother ordered one from Round Table and so we had a couple at Laina’s birthday party and it was yummy! I’m thankful that our tire went flat in our garage and not when we were out and about.  My mom seems to have recovered from her cough and we are hopeful the “lump” the doctor found won’t be there when she goes back for her re-check on Monday.  I’m thankful to have her to care for Laina.  She is a really good grandmother.  I’m thankful for my dad and his relative calm state of late and in general I’m just thankful that he’s still with us.  I really hope my kids have grandparents they can remember but I guess that’s not really up to me is it? I’m thankful for my “ninja cat”.  Starbucks are recent addition from Christmas follows me on my runs.  He will follow me for about a quarter of a mile, seriously and when I’m headed back home I will see him shadowing me through peoples yards around cars etc…so I’ve dubbed him my ninja cat.  I’m thankful our rabbit looks okay, seems he has recovered from whatever was ailing him.  I’m just really trying to be thankful for every minute I’ve been given.  I was talking to Jason this morning about how I thought we are all in our own Olympics of a sort. 

The athletes train and sacrifice for one moment every four years and some of them only ever get one shot at competing, most with no hope of a medal or any recognition.  I told Jason it’s like life, we only get one shot and most of us will fade out of memory when we are gone, really life/living is our Olympics.  I am thankful for the chance to compete.

So today for school, dessert booths, running, flat tires in convenient places, parents, ninja cats, live rabbits, and my Olympics…I Give Thanks!

Are You Down with the Street?

1.   Who lives in a trash can?_______________________________

2.  Who is Ernie’s Best Friend?______________________________

3.  Who is Elmo’s best friend? ____________________________

4.  Who always eats the letter of the day?____________________   

5.  Who loves his rubber ducky? __________________________

6.  Who is Big Bird’s best friend? _________________________

7.  Who discovers the number of the day?____________________

8.  Who is Elmo’s pet? ___________________________________

9.  Who flies through the air even though he’s not a bird? ________

10.  Name one human who lives on the street?___________________

11.  Who has his own world? ________________________________

12.  Who is Oscar’s best friend?_____________________________

13.  What color is Cookie Monsters nose?_____________________

14.  What’s the word on the street?__________________________

15.  Today’s party is brought to you by the letter? ____

and the number ______.

Bonus Question  (2pts)

What’s the name of Mr. Hooper’s Store?

______________________________________________________

How old is Elmo?

_________________________________________________________

The heart is a strange thing isn’t it?  I’ve been watching the Chapman’s this week.  If you don’t know who they are, they are a Christian family whose dad, Stephen Curtis Chapman is a pretty famous singer in the Christian circle.  Personally I love his music and have been to several of his concerts.  Anyway in May, they lost their 5 year old daughter, Maria Sue, to a terrible accident, in which their son, Will Franklin was involved.  The mother said something yesterday that has stuck with me and I woke up with those words in my head…She said, “The heart of a mother” and then something else and she was talking about how she didn’t really care if there tragedy helped anyone, she wanted Maria back.  I’d never really heard it explained so well…

You see I’m still sad about my baby, not all the time, but sometimes more than I think is okay but now I think it’s okay, it’s just my “mother’s heart”.  I don’t know if that makes sense but it feels alright now to feel that pang of sadness now and again.  I have a friend who said that not all miscarriages are as bad as mine, not everyone feels labor pains, vomits, is sweating, doubled over in pain.  She said some are just like really bad periods.  I said I wished mine was like that and she said “ well at least you know it was real” I think I have post-traumatic stress disorder or something, images pop into my head at the weirdest times.  I can see Jason helping me wipe dripping blood from my leg.  I can see the panicked look in his eyes.  I can see myself sitting on the toilet, sweating, crying, screaming, wondering really why no one told me it was going to hurt this much.  I can see Jason looking at me and I remember thinking, “I look terrible”, funny kind of makes me laugh now, but not really.  I can feel the doctor probing around and I can feel Jason’s hand holding mine and I remember thinking, “well guess we don’t need to finish the babies room” I can hear myself begging my mom to come to the hospital and I can hear her telling me not to cry.  I can see myself grabbing my rosary from the mantle and putting it on my belly and praying, begging really for the baby to be okay. I can hear myself telling Jason, “I don’t think it’s going to be okay” and him saying, “It will be okay, I promise” (the only promise he ever broke, so far) Blood everywhere, the morphine that numbed me to what was really happening, my family sitting in the emergency room, mom, dad, sister, brother and my aunt and as they rolled me out I remember thinking how much I had let them all down.  I was really hungry, my mom brought me some animal crackers, my sister and brother came over to our house and sat and watched a movie with me.  I knew I had to look okay so they wouldn’t worry. Anyway it helps to write about it, even though I’m pretty sure most people are tired of hearing about it but that’s what helped bring me back, it was my support group for ladies who have miscarried or had stillborn babies, here was a group of ladies who understood my heart exactly.  Every once in awhile someone would come along who had escaped our circumstances, gotten pregnant or adopted and who would tell us it would get better, most of us wanted these women to take their happiness and hit the road. I had a well meaning friend who told me I should talk to someone.  Little did she know I already was and they said I should talk about my feelings because it would help. The problem was after a certain point I got tired or grew weary of the support group and wanted my “regular” friends back but most of them didn’t understand the grieving process. So when I told them I couldn’t’ sleep at night or woke up for no reason, or when I told them I’d been sad for a couple of days or so, or even when I just wrote about how crappy I felt I got well-intentioned advice or really nothing at all. I mean when I finally was able to reach out, only a few people were their the rest were living their lives, doing their things and didn’t have time for my “stuff”

Anyway as I listened to Mrs. Chapman explain how she felt, as I listened to her talk about her “mother’s heart” I finally realized after all this time that that’s what it is, that’s what I have and it’s perfectly normal.  I have a “mother’s heart” and that heart wants it’s babies with it, it was like a light switch went on, blink, “It’s okay to miss your baby, it’s normal, you don’t need “help.”

It was normal to wake up in the middle of the night and to feel like there was darkness in your heart almost all the time, for awhile.  It was normal to be sad around pregnant ladies and to skip baby showers. It was normal to cry when movies about ladies having babies were on TV.  It was/is normal to miss my baby.  Mrs. Edwards said it best in her book, “Saving Graces” she said, to paraphrase, it never really goes away, it’s always there lurking in the background, but you must go on.  Mrs. Chapman said something similar when she said she didn’t really care if their appearances helped anyone, she wanted her daughter back, but if she wasn’t going to get her back then she was going to honor her in some way.  It was normal to not want to be around your friends for awhile or to just be sad.  It was and is normal to want to talk about it, once in awhile, usually for me, it’s when something triggers the memory, an anniversary, special event, someone like the Chapman’s, thus here I am again and as usual after writing my heart is a little lighter. Stephen Curtis knows he’s going to dance with his daughter once again, in heaven.  There aren’t many people I believe who will get straight into heaven but Stephen and his wife perhaps are two people who will and I believe they will dance with their daughter again just like I believe I will see my daughter and spin around with her just like I do with Laina J Her birthday is next Tuesday, her party is on Sunday, Sesame Street.  Jason says that we do everything just a little overboard.  I say I don’t care, most people don’t know what we know about kids, most people don’t understand how truly precious they are and if people think Laina is spoiled well that’s their prerogative I suppose but I prefer to think of her as loved and I don’t really think you can go wrong by spoiling someone with love, at least in my 12 years of teaching I’ve never seen a kid spoiled with love turn out rotten.  I’ve seen lots of un-spoiled with love kids who do rotten things and who sometimes turn into rotten people, but I guess that’s another blog….

So on Saturday I have to pick up 6 four foot tall balloon bouquets of Cookie Monster, Elmo, Bert and Ernie, Big Bird and Oscar, tomorrow I’m baking Elmo and Cookie Monster cup cakes, yesterday we built a sesame street sign and a pin the nose on Elmo game and packed gift bags and wrapped prize gifts and wrapped a couple of birthday gifts for the birthday girl who said, “Elmo, Elmo” when she saw the paper and I am excited to watch her enjoy herself, hoping she won’t be sick, Jason brought home some nasty cold the other day, so I’m going to do the only thing I can do. I’m going to pray to God to help keep Laina well so she can enjoy her party, to help me not get too much more sick so I can do what I need to do and I know He’ll hear me.  I know some people who think that God doesn’t get involved in everyday intricacies of life that he just kind of sits back and watches.  I know some people who think that there are so many other problems in the world why would God have time/or want to deal with my problems.  That’s not the God I know, the God I know told me, “You are never alone” and from his book the God I know promised He would always be with me and that he cares about every aspect of my life from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep, he has the hairs on my head counted and knows all the thoughts and prayers of my heart.  That’s how I know He hears my prayers and He performs acts and wonders even to this day, big and small.  I don’t know why he took Maria Sue or Baby P, well I kind of understand that a little better now, but I don’t understand the Chapman’s loss but someone else said life is like one of those photo mosaics where it’s one big picture made up of lots of different pictures, you know?  It’s not until you step back from it that you can see the image and I suppose Life is the same, it won’t be until we are able to look at the whole of our life that we’ll understand the image or impact of a life well led.

I have a worry box and I write my worries down and stick them in the box, it’s black and is labeled worry box and usually I feel better after I do it.  I have one particular worry I haven’t put in the box, it’s one of my biggest fears, losing Jason, having him die or get sick or something terrible.  I write my worries down or talk about them because sometimes it makes them seem less intimidating and other times it reminds me who really is in charge.  My worry box (on the outside) says, “Drop in your worries and God will take care of the rest.”

Well not sure anyone is still with me; this was a long blog even by my standards. Ha!  I feel better and you know despite the fact that I have a runny nose and despite the fact my poor baby girl may be sick at her own birthday party, we’re going to have a nice weekend, I’m going to run, as long as it stays a head cold, and decorate and give a birthday party for my beautiful 2 year old daughter and enjoy every minute of it…

So today for Mrs. Champman, who put into words what I couldn’t, for my “mother’s heart”, for a God who cares about every aspect of my life no matter how big or how small, for my worry box, for birthday parties, and for everyday I have my family, oh almost forgot today's the 8th(I have a day date to get ready for)…I Give Thanks!

Star Wars Saga...so far so good...I've been wary of the Star Wars books ever since the disaster of ....The New Jedi Order...you can't be anymore un Star Wars than that particular series set 25 years after Star Wars: A New Hope.... So now I am beginning Legacy of the Force, set 40 Years after Star Wars: A New Hope.  The first book in the series being Betrayal and so far so good...It occured to me that after the disaster of Anakin and Padme...it made sense that Luke would marry Mara Jade a.k.a The Emperor's Hand (okay I don't think I spelled emperor right?, oh well) Any hoo...Thee Zahn series...called The Thrawn Trilogy...was just barely passable and by all means stay away from The Courtship of Princess Leia, which I read based on the recommendation of a student who said it was the best Star Wars book ever and only finished it because I kept hoping it would get better...it never did get any better, it sucked beginning to end.....So I'm thankful for a new Star Wars series that hold is appearing to hold some promise....

I'm also thankful for the Farmer's Market tonight for two reasons.  #1 I get to go to the comic book store and buy Issue #2 of the Star Wars, Dark Legacy Comic Series, which so far I also really like, I can usually tell if I'm going to like the Star Wars stuff after the first issue, anyway...Reason #2..tonight is the Pole Vaulting Championships and there will be some actual olympians there tonight, kinda cool,  I'm thinking Laina will say...."ooooooooooo" several times tonight.  Actually they have it here every year and it is pretty awesome I think I blogged about it last year, perhaps...well I couldn't find a website or anything for it but it's pretty cool :-)

I'm also thankful that my second TB test came back clear :-) That's a load off my mind....so we both have our medical paperwork out of the way and now it's just a bunch of other stupid paperwork we have to do...so annoying but worth it...we'll see...

I'm also thankful that I had a little bit of time to bip by school today, got my computer set up and some copies made and Laina was pretty well behaved :-)  Now I don't have to worry about getting first day copies done since I got them done today, back to school on August 13th, part-time :-) Worked out after all, did I tell you the story of how that worked out? Hmm...I can't remember...anyway it did and it's kind of freaky to know I'm working part-time, strange, I'll be able to be home most days by 1:00pm, maybe a little bit earlier even and one day a week I have to stay for tutorial which is fine with me, well actually every other week I have to stay 2 days until 3:30 but most people don't get off work until 5:00 so it's still a blessing to have all that time with Laina and still collect 80% of my paycheck :-) I'm sure it'll work out fine, a little worried but really have no good reason to be so....

Hmmm...I guess that's it really well actually there was one little thing that was bugging at me but I can't really do anything to affect change in this area of society and I don't really understand it, mostly I guess I've been lucky? I don't know if it's lucky, I'm just not sure but anyway I saw this program on TV and it's one of those teen kiddie or something programs and the girl was upset that the guy didn't want to live with her, he loved her, wanted to be her boyfriend and still be with her but didn't want to live with her and she acted like it was the end of the world and I thought, "How odd and how sad " so strange to me, certainly not passing judgement on people who choose this route but it seems to me the girl should have been upset if he just wanted to live with her or that the girl should have had a little more self-esteem or not been afraid to be alone, I don't know guess I just don't really "get it" but I've been married since I was 23 and before that lived with my parents and only on my own for about 1 month and a half before I got married.  My Australian Daughter is living with a boy, which makes me sad for her but she seems happy, "seems" being the operative word, I don't think she really is, just another in a long line of young girls that I've known looking for what their dad never gave them.  I think about my own sister and I think my dad did treat her different,  I don't think he meant too but I think he did and that's why she makes the choices she makes.  Oprah, am I quoting Oprah?, hmmm.. anyway Oprah says there's no such thing as luck...Oh the whole thing makes me sad, even when it "works out" it makes me sad, I just wonder some days how much longer we have before our society completely falls apart or if like the Chinese believe it will swing back.  Well I have no power in this area of society and I can only pray for good things for people, I suppose, I just thought the show provided such a sad commentary on what is considered "normal" these days. And you know, it's not even that it's a sin, that really has nothing to do with it for me anyway, it's more about the failure to commit that's what scares me for my "daughter" in Australia, for my sister, for any children involved, it just reeks of , "well...I want to have sex with you but I'm not sure your the one...so let's "try" it out and if I find someone better I can always get rid of you..."  and it goes both ways, meaning sometimes its the girl that doesn't want to marry the guy as in the case of my cousin, although my "daughter" says it's a money thing but that doesn't go over so well as an excuse for me because Jason and I didn't have any money when we got married, only debt...hmmm....

I suppose I think that the girls are selling themselves short but I guess maybe they don't see it that way and I think they deserve so much more than just a "sex partner" but someone who will love them for always, unconditionally, who will hold their hand in a hospital room, hold them tight when they are lonely, do things they don't like doing because you like doing them, who will watch them grow and love them when they change, tell them they are beautiful even when they are clearly in the worst shape they've ever been (hooked up to an IV etc...etc..), who will look you in the eye and tell you, "you are enough" who aren't afraid to say i'm hers, she's mine forever and not just for now or until I find someone/thing better...well everyone's version of love is a bit different I suppose....for my version I'm thankful....

Are you still with me?  McCain's got a new Ad out, I saw it, I thought it was funny, Whoppi Goldberg, Joy and Cherri thought it was insulting to Obama, hmmm.....To be honest I don't know anything about Obama, except for his record on protecting life at all stages, especially what some pro-choicers would call "fetuses" I hate that word, maybe because they told me, "We're very sorry the fetus did not survive." Whatever...anyway he has no good record in this area so I won't vote for him, McCain has a more liberal record than I care for but he has always voted to protect life and maybe perhaps some people would call me naive or stupid to cast my vote this way but Jesus said to protect his children, to teach them and love them, he said anyone who causes one of my little ones to sin should have a millstone tied around their neck and be drowned, no, I don't think he meant that literally but maybe, but I think he meant above all else protect those that can't protect themselves in other words to love and I don't l think it's very loving to abort your own child, give it to me I'll love him or her for you , this goes for people, animals, the environment, etc...etc...In the United States of America with all our programs, welfare etc...there is no excuse to abort a baby, and I know there are people who would bring up things like incest and rape, which are horrible things and I don't have an answer for those things but I do know in my heart and I believe fiercely that we must protect the unborn.  I had one young lady tell me she did it because she didn't want to give up her baby for adoption and because she didn't want to walk down the graduation procession pregnant, so clearly killing it was a better choice, how twisted and selfish we have become, if she couldn't take care/didn't want to take care of her baby no one else could either?  I have watched a few women/girls that I love struggle with a decision that was made out of fear and they all regret it, not one of them would do it again, not a single one...and they live a life now of self-destruction because they are unable to forgive themselves...anyway...I think my friend StoneGirl said in a recent blog, something like There is No Reason when Emotion is involved, I think that was it....

Well for a great Star Wars Series (so far), the new comic I'm buying tonight, the pole vaulting championships and actually for being able to write and just get things out of my head and someplace else here in my blog, almost forgot for getting some school work done, for these things...I Give Thanks :-)

Well today I'm thankful for Smores....In my 36 years of life I've never had a Smore and while I can't say they are my favorite dessert of choice I can say I very much enjoyed making them.  We have an outdoor firepit, we actually bought it a couple of years ago so last night after Laina was asleep we put in a log, grabbed some smore ingredients and began making Smores...

Which to me was incredibly fun and exciting and Jason looked at me and said, "Haven't you ever made a Smore?"  and I said, "NO" and he said, "Are you serious?" and I said, "Yup" and he said, "No wonder" and I said I've only roasted marshmallows but I've never made a Smore, so he told me some stories about his grandpa and how he roasted the best marshmallows and then he proceeded to try and roast the best marshmallows and you know they were, they were beautifully golden on the outside and nice and melted on the inside and I think he suceeded.  

We also had fun with a rootbeer taste test.  We went to BEVMO because Jason wanted some TsingTao beer, ever since China, even though we drink like almost never, he's craved TsingTao Beer, anyway while we were there I picked out three different Root Beers and we taste tested them with our Smores...  Here are the results....

Dad's Root Beer- was my favorite and it goes well with chocolate but not with marshmallow, you can really taste the spices with chocolate, it taste kind of blach with the marshmallow.

Frostie Root Beer- was my least favorite, it didn't really taste like root beer at all, an old shoe maybe but not root beer, stay away from Frostie.

Berghoff Root Beer- was Jason's favorite Root Beer.  I liked it with marshmallows because it brought out the sweetness but alone I found it to be kind of bland.

I plan another Root Beer taste test for next weekend, trying to figure out if there is anything better than Henry Winehard's, which remains my ultimate favorite root beer, although IBC is a close second :-) 

OOOOOHHHH! Made the best homemade peach pie this weekend :-) with peaches from the farmers market, extremely yummy and fun to make I love making pies, also made a cobbler but that went to work with Jason and half of the pie went to my parents, good thing it was sugar free :-)

I'm also thankful for the nice run I had this morning 4 miles, gearing up for half marathon training.  We have two halves planned the Big Sur Half Marathon and the Carlsbad Half Marathon, both are spectacular races that run along an ocean view.  I don't have any marathon plans for this year, toyed with the idea but the marathon I wanted to do was sold out and the other marathon I thought about doing is on the same day as Big Sur and I have a streak going with Big Sur, as I believe I have mentioned before :-)  It's okay I'm going to enter the lottery for the Women's Nike Marathon in SF in '09, maybe I'll get lucky, we are also going to enter the lottery for the New York Marathon, if we both get in we'll go, if only one of us gets in then we'll postpone until the other gets in...it's a process....thought about the Disney Marathon but don't think it'll work out, who knows for now those are my running plans and I'm thankful to be healthy enough to have them :-)  Besides who woulda thought little 'ol me would ever have run 5 marathons?  I think I've proven to myself I'm a real runner even if I don't fit the "type" :-)

Well so today for Smores, Root Beer, Peach Pie and Running Plans :-) I Give Thanks!

This was one of the many songs they played last night at the local Farmer's Market.  It was a big band :-) Joe something's Big Band, one of my favorite types of outdoorsy groups for farmers market type things.  I love summer time outdoor farmer's markets and concerts.  We are lucky to live someplace where every week you can enjoy some type of outdoor concert and some weeks you can enjoy two!  The park where we run on occassion has outdoor concerts every other Monday during Summer and there is a little town that has Farmer's Market with a concert every Friday evening.  In fact when Jason and I were first dating most of our dates were trips to the local outdoor concerts.  I had/have a friend who, when we were in college, I think it was college, said she didn't like jazz music, I always found that to be on the weird side, as in my opinion you have to actually be able to play an instrument to be a jazz musician.  

In fact, the first non-date Jason and I ever had was to a concert in the park.  I had mentioned I would be there with a couple of friends of mine and low and behold he showed up.  I was surprised as I didn't really think he would and when I found out he blew off going to his Kung Fu class with a buddy I knew he was a keeper :-)  Ever since that first non-date we've enjoyed very much going to listen to concerts in the park.  Anyhooo...turns out little girls very much like to dance at concerts in the park/farmer's markets as well and I very much like watching them :-)

If you recall I once mentioned that Jason can't dance, well over the 15 years I've known him that hasn't changed, actually if he's a little what do you call it?  Tipsy, there's another more manly word I'm sure but anyway, oh, buzzed, then he can actually dance very well otherwise he spends too much time thinking about what step to do next and it's a disaster.  One of the things I love about him is that even though he can't really dance and he knows he can't really dance he ALWAYS asks me to dance at least one song whenever we go to these concerts, it's usually a slow song but I don't mind, yesterday it was to "Put your head on my shoulder" and Laina smiled and twirled about next to us as we danced.  It was one of those moments in life where for just a bit everything is absolutely perfect :-)

I'm also thankful for a nice run this morning and breakfast at our favorite bagel place afterwards.  I'm also thankful for veternarians as I've had to visit ours twice this week.  Starbucks, the new addition from Christmas decided to be a tough guy cat, despite the fact he's fixed, and lost the battle.  I'm not so thankful for the $300.00 I've had to pay to the vet and once again if any of you care to donate to our animal upkeep fund please feel free to do so, no I'm just kidding, not really, seriously we should be named a shelter and have some sort of tax exempt status, darn cute furry creatures, their doing me in....it's probably a really good thing that we dont' have any kind of land because I'm pretty positive we'd at least own a cow, a sheep, maybe a pig, some chickens and perhaps a horse....

Okay well fun filled day planned today cleaning out our spa!  Ha, and other misc. household duties and actually maybe a barbeque now that sounds like fun.

So hey try a farmer's market or concert in the park sometime, they are free and provide memories to last a lifetime. Oh, my other piece of advice, before you decide to open up your own animal rehabilition center for physically or abused animals make sure you have an extra source of income or a friend who is a vet !

So today for music, farmer's markets, veternarians, running, and just spending time at home with my family...I Give Thanks! 

First let me blog a bit about my running...I'm still running...

Okay now onto more important things...hmmm....did I actually say something was more important to me than running...I didn't mean that...I feel like a trader to my sport...ummmm...what I meant was...Christmas is here!

I love July for several reasons and these are in no particular order, okay well really they are but anyway...

Reason #1  I was married at the ripe old age of 23 to my one true love on July 8th :-), Yes that makes me 36, and yes we are still married, this year will make Year 13 :-) We are hopeful that it will be a lucky year as actually odd numbers are lucky in China and since we've come to love China we hope the luck extends to us :-)  Looking forward to a fabulous day by the sea...that is if it's not on fire...if not guess we'll head back to the mountains...hmmm...and if those are on fire too, we'll there's always dinner and a movie and it wouldn't really matter as long as we're together.  Jason has leave again. His promotion began today and so he took the 8th off so we could celebrate our 13 years of marriage! Would I do all again and the same way?  Absolutely! Except for maybe three things...I wouldn't freak out about the number of guest RSVP's, I would have picked my own wedding dress, don't get me wrong my dress was really beautiful if I had gotten married in winter, but my mom loved it, she really loved the train which was extremely long and hey mom and dad paid for the dress so...I wouldn't have adjusted my guest list due to hurt feelings...(in other words I didn't invite someone I should have :-(  Oh and maybe I would have stayed around to dance a little bit longer but we did have a honeymoon to get too :-)

Reason #2  My daughter Laina came to us on July 23 or should I say we went to her in China. This required me to get on a plane, strangely enough I was more scared to fly to Florida a few years ago than I was to fly to China.  It will be one year in 23 days that our lives were changed forever, for the better. Laina has taught me so many things, I hope I can return the favor.  She is a wonderful baby and daughter and a great light in our family, which very much helps to balance out the dark. 

Reason #3 Hallmark releases part of it's 2008 Hallmark Ornaments.  Do you have the Dream book yet?  Oh....so very exciting...I have my eye on a few ornaments already!  I will purchase those immidiately and then they will continue to release more every few months until November when the whole collection is finally released.  My favorites are anything Peanuts, Sleeping Beauty, Rudolph, Grinch, and some Disney ornaments, depending on the character...So July 12th...guess where you'll find me...at a Hallmark store someplace...celebrating Christmas in July!  

So July, what a great month,  just when the year is starting to move a little bit slowly, I get to celebrate my wedding day, the day I met my daughter, and Christmas, the reason for it all!  

So today for anniversaries and Christmas...I Give Thanks!  (IGT!)

mood: ecstatic

Well I guess I've been away for awhile.  I've been trying to spend more time with family and so as a consequence I have less time to blog...Alas...probably an okay thing :-) Today was the 8th of every month Jason and I have a date.  So this 8th we decided it would be a good time to do our annual hike to the Top of Nevada Falls via the Mist Trail and then back down to the valley via the Muir Trail.  We were also mapping out some things that we definitely want a couple of my students to see when we bring them up in a few weeks.  Neither of them have been to Yosemite so I'm looking forward to introducing them to one of my favorite places in California !  For our anniversary this year we are planning on doing the Four Mile trail up to Glacier Point and then back down to the valley via the Panorama Trail.  I really enjoy hiking, I believe it helps my running because it works different muscles that I would never use running.  There were actually a few runners out on the Mist Trail today.  The hike was beautiful as always and we came home via the Merced route 140 so we could take a look at the landslide, not too sure it was worth the extra 20 minutes.  Laina had fun at Nana's today, she went in the sprinkler, apparently had a fit over a popscicle or something like that but she looked happy when we got home.  It was a great 'versary gift from my Jason, considering he likes the hiking but despises the drive into and out of Yosemite via HWY 41.  You know though we are blessed to live a mere 2 hours from the valley floor and only about an hour away from the Mariposa Big Trees :-)
So today for a great 'versary day hike...I Give Thanks! 

Pictures below from out hike...

The Fens
The Trailhead
Just below Vernal Falls
Rainbow just below Vernal
On the way to Top of Nevada
Theif who stole my almond butter sandwhich.