KISS ME DIRTY

BEFORE the RACE, CLEAN and PRISTINE

I participated in a different kind of race this week...a MUD RUN.

My friends, Jennifer and Mikki, talked me into signing up for this cool race series named "KISS ME DIRTY".  HOLY COW!!!  This has every other race I have every done beat!!!  I was so afraid there would be a 12 foot wall we would have to scale and jump off of.  But quite the contrary, the obstacles were very manageable.  There were walls to climb and puddles to crawl through, but it was hilariously crazy.  I have to admit, having Jennifer and Mikki there to do it along with made it that much more fun.  We were chucking clumps of mud and pushing and pulling eachother into the puddles.  The little streams that we had to traverse were so cold, my feet were cramping up.  In the end there was mud all over our bodies, hair, in the shoes and even in places that were pretty well covered (that's what I discovered when I got home to take a shower). We found out there is another race in August and are planning to do it again.  Who knew physical activity could be so much FUN!!!

If you are curious how some of the course looked here are some pictures the local newspaper took yesterday.



AFTER 4 MESSY MILES of OBSTACLES on WHEELER FARM



DECEMBER DAILY: Day 6

Usually the thing I look forward to the most on Mondays is going bowling, but this Monday was double fun...after bowling I went home and freshen up, picked up my crockpot of Taco Soup, and the handmade ornaments and headed off to Alicia Bresock's house for an ornament exchange party. This was my 2nd year being invited and I was hoping that Alicia would be hosting this again.

First we started with the luncheon portion of the day. There were 4 yummy soups a delicious green salad, rolls and lot s of yummy goodies (which I hated not getting to sample). The conversation was fun. I have been so blessed to have really gotten to know these women very well in the last few years.

Then it was time to exchange out ornaments. This was definitely a gathering of extremely creative ladies. Some of the ornaments that were made was a glass mirror that was etched with the word BELIEVE, a wooden CANDY CANE, a cute triangular SNOWMAN, my paper PINECONE,another SNOWMAN whose hat was made with an old sweater, 2 ornaments that had beautiful,old KEYS and greenery on them. One of the most remarkable ones was of a shepherd boy. He was had painted: face, body, EVERYTHING...it was BEAUTIFUL!!!

After the exchange was over we gathered in the kitchen and visited a while longer then gathered up our stuff and headed out the door. This is where my day took a terrible turn. I was having so much fun. My friend Mikki is one of the funniest people I have ever come in contact with. We both got to the front door with our hand FULL and found it nearly impossible to open the door to get to the cars. I was laughing so hard. We finally got out the door. I made it down the stairs, carrying my crockpot with the soup, my camera hanging around my neck and my ornaments...I looked back at Mikki who was saying something funny (which I can't remember what it was now) and I stepped on an uneven piece of Alicia's sidewalk and down I went....TACO SOUP AND ALL!!!!


I landed right on my left knee and scraped my elbow. Everyone of my friends were also loading their stuff into their cars and got to witness my "graceful" exit. The rushed over to see if they could help. I was crying, but also laughing at the same time and couldn't quite stop. I had taco soup on my nice white sweater, in my hair and it covered Alicia front porch. I was not sure what hurt the most when I got home...my pride or body. I did realize what wonderful friends I have. The rest of the day I spent at home taking naproxen wearing my pjs and was fielding phone calls and emails from the ladies who wanted to make sure I was okay and if there was anything they could do.

My Old Friend

What a treat I had yesterday...my friend Michele was flying home to Maine after spending a week with her daughter and new grandbaby in Idaho.

She only had less than an hour, but Steve and I drove to the airport and hung out in the baggage claim area as we visited with her.

We were besties while I lived in Maine. Every summer we spent a week in a rental house on Cobbossee Lake. So many memories of trick-o-treating together, eating lobsters, laying out by the lake, Christmas shopping trips to Portland...Those were good times that I still cherish.

We are not as close as were in those days. Whose fault that is, I don't know. It does make me sad that our friendship has changed, but I guess that is how life is...relationship evolve and change. It is nice knowing she is still in my life and we share those special days in Maine.

GUERRETTES VISIT

Glen, Kim and family came from Maine and stayed a few days with us. The first day they arrived we drove down to Manti and watched the pageant.
Saturday was fun as well. Which ended with the Slaughs, who now live in Vernal, coming for a BBQ. So much fun to see all these kiddos grown up. It was also fun just to get together with these two couples who hold such a special place in my heart. (would have been even better if the McNaughtons and Stanleys had been there)
The kids played bocce and swung on the hammock.
It was fun to watch these 3 girls play and giggle together!!
The men also got into the bocce game play.


"Make new friends, but keep the old

One is silver, the other GOLD"

TIFFINY'S BREAST FRIENDS

Belle, Katie, Becky and I walked with some other friends from our wad in the Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure. We walk in support of my friend Tiffiny who is a survivor.

SCRAP & PLAY

Gotta love a weekend away with girlfriends. A few months ago Suzanne, Dayna, Tammie and I signed up for Scrap & Play that was being hosted by Creating Keepsakes Magazine at the Marriott in Provo. This was a whole new event. I had attended CKUs, but this promised to be a little more low key. There were a few projects that we would be working on and then we would have lots of cropping time. Teresa Collins came on Friday evening (shortly after her grandson was born) to instruct us in making a book about home. I love, love, love her style. She spent a little bit of the time with us sharing the 1st pictures of her beautiful grandson. We scrapped into the early morning and then retired to our room for a few hours of sleep. It was here at 2:30 am that Tammie decided this would be a great time to have a pillow fight or run out for ice cream. Unfortunately for Tammie, the rest of her roomies were too tired to indulge her. Saturday morning we dressed, grabbed a bagel or muffin and wet back to scrapping. The Scrap & Play staff hung around until about 5:00 pm. It was then that they left us all in the banquet room with no music, or games or anything until we were done at midnight. Although the projects and attention for the first half of the event were wonderful, CK once again lived up to my low expectations. I can't imagine inviting friends for a crop and then leaving them in my basement with no music and food. Truly the most important part of the weekend was spending time with friends.

SUPERBOWL XLIV

After 16 weeks of regular season and three weeks of play offs, SUPER BOWL Sunday arrived. Unfortunately the San Diego Chargers were not one of the teams playing. Instead the NFC Champion New Orleans Saints were facing the Indianapolis Colts. I guess if the Charger were no there my next favorite team would be the Colts (Peyton Manning and all his dorky cuteness)

Steve was off this week after having to work Super Bowl Sunday for the last 3. We decided it would be a great time for us to host. After attending our church meetings in the morning we came home and got into some comfortable, football watching clothes and finished prepping food. All 3 families would be bringing soups and I was providing hot wings, Stromboli, veggie tray, guacamole and other snacky food. We had soooooo much food, but with 12 children between the 3 couples much of it was eaten before the somewhat disappointing halftime show began.

Steve made a chart for us all to put our names in different boxes to predict what the winning score was. There was a silly prize for the person who chose the correct final score. It was a different way to get everyone involved, even the kids who were not much interested in the actual game, but had more interest in the food and foodies that were laying out waiting to be devoured by them.
The game was OK, commercials were mediocre, the halftime show I seriously did not enjoy. But the best part was spending a few hours with the Nighs and the Duves we have been doing this with them for 5 years. I feel so blessed to have such good friends that get our jokes and humor and I can just be myself around. It helps to make for a GREAT evening.
When the game was over...thee Colts(Peyton Manning the Cute Dorky QB) lost and the New Orleans Saints had the big WIN... we chose the winner of the game. Brecken won the good bag which consisted of a foam football (blue, good for either the Colts or Chargers), a pair of goofy novelty glasses and a whistle shaped like a football. Brecken was a good sport and donned the glasses and held the other gear for me to get my bog worthy picture..thanks Brecken.

It was a fabulous evening, can't believe we will have to wait 364 days to do it all over again. Maybe my wonderful Chargers won't choke in the play offs and will be the team I am cheering for next year.

FINALLY got to get some scrapbooking done. I registered a few months ago for a charity crop that would benefit the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation. I sometimes plan things months ahead and when the event arrives, I question my sanity for schedule one more thing in our busy life, but this was not one of those times. I so needed this time to get some of scrapbooking done.
Dayna and I cropped Friday night with our friend Annette (it is her niece that has organized this whole event). Chick-Fil-A and TGIFridays provided some yummy food that evening for us to munch on as we got our creativity on. They played the GLEE cd, which I totally enjoyed. There was some conversations goig one about books and tv shows. I love how a bunch of women, who don't really know eachother. can get together at an event like this and become great friends by the time it is over. I was excited for all the room we had on the tables. Plenty of room to spread out and really look at everything you are working on. Dayna and I got home about midnight after a very productive first day.
I didn't get much sleep that night. Zack had to get up early to go with his Deacon's Quorum to do temple baptisms. So of course I woke up and made sure he was ready to go at 5:30. It was pointless to try and fall back to sleep, so I thought about the pages I would be working on that day as I dressed and had breakfast. When I arrived at the crop, Einstein bagels and juice was waiting for us. We got our registration packets which included a cute beaded charm on a long necklace chain for each lady. We also had the chance to purchase raffle tickets.
There was free product handed about about every hour and there was also raffle drawings as often. There were donations from so many vendors. It was fun to see what would be handed out or won every hour...fun paper packs, flair, stickers, stamp sets, jewelry, wall vinyl, tools...

Lunch was also brought in from Olive Garden and for dinner we were treated to Pulled Pork from Texas Roadhouse. Definitely quite a treat. I tried the whole day to stay focused on my projects. My number one priority was getting our vacation album done from the California/Cruise that we did in December. The goal was to get as many pictures in my 10x10 album as possible and all my different pieces of memorabilia. I used my new Bind-It-All machine once all the pages were done.

With a couple hours of time left and the vacation album done, I decided to pull out an album I began in a Teresa Collins class in November. It was a gratitude album. So glad I brought it and was able to finish off one more project. It also gave me a little time to think about all that I have been blessed with in my life. Unfortunately, doing this made we want to get home and be with my family. So I actually left the event about an hour before it all came to an end.

This was a well put on event. I look forward to next winter and hopefully I will get to be there for their 4th annual crop.

SCRAPPING at HEARTFELT CREATIONS

Saturday November 7; Suzanne, Dayna, and I took a class at Heartfelt Creations. Marah Johnson had traveled from California to teach 3 classes. We were only signed up for the one which was titled: SONG BIRD. She taught a lot of technique, but also spent some time showing us cool ways to use left over embellishments. I feel pretty blessed to have some good friends to take these classes with.

COSTA RICA: day 1

My vacation began with a red eye flight from Denver to San Jose, Costa Rica. My traveling companion was my friend Emily from high school. We arrived at 5:30 am and was met by Shawna, who has been living in Costa Rica for the past year, and we began our journey to Jaco.
After driving for a little over an hour we stopped at a bridge. Shawna told us this is a great place to stop and see crocodiles. Sure enough we looked down and there were a few crocs laying in the mud, sunning themselves. After a few photos we got back in the car and continued on to Jaco. Before we did much site seeing we stopped off at a small restaurant and got some breakfast. We all enjoyed our meal with a yummy fruit smoothie. The owner of the restaurant, who was from Boston, Massachusetts, made small talk with us and informed us of some places we should check out while we were in the area. Once we paid our bill, our next stop with the Feria (farmer's market) There were many merchants selling fruits and veggies, baked good, chicken, herbs, flowers...fun place to walk around and just take it all in.
One of the first things Shawna found to share with us, she called a "monkey brain fruit". On the outside it looked kind of like an orange, but once you opened it I have to admit it did remind me of a brain. She then said we need to suck the fruit out. I gave it a try. It was pretty good, once you got past the weird look of it.

We also enjoyed the fresh herbs. I know this sounds silly, but I thought all the herbs smelt better and stronger than I have ever been exposed to. I'm not sure if it was actually a "better" herb or I was just so excited to be in Costa Rica smelling herbs.
So many pineapples, mangos, papayas, watermelon, bananas. We did make a few purchases to eat as we traveled during the up coming days.

Once we had purchased enough goodies to get us through the weekend, we dropped our bags off at the car and then did a little souvenir shopping.
There was a cute guy named Eric, who was quite the charmer to make a sale. We all purchased some baubles and nick knacks from Eric. I even bought a cute chess set for Zack.

Before hitting the road, we stopped by a man with a cart selling what looked like snow cones. He was making shaved ice, but in between two layers of the ice he would put powdered milk. Then he would add the flavoring (I got grape and Em had orange). It was not done at that point...he would then pour a little sweetened condensed milk on top of that. It was actually quite good, but SWEET!!!
We dropped our bags off at Shawna's sister in law, Rusti's , house and changed into bathing suit. Next stop was the lack sands of Playa Hermosa. It was beautiful. The waves were quite large, which seemed to be no surprise to the many surfers that were there catching as many of them as they could.

We spent some time just taking it all in. The birds flying over head, the sound of the crashing waves, the look of the jungle meeting the beach. It was all breathtaking.
Before the sun set, we made another wardrobe change at Rusti's before driving up the winding road to the highest point on the coast. It was there we order virgin pina coladas and appetizers as we watched the sunset into the ocean. We sat there for a hour or so listening to the music and trying to get caught up on the last 15 years. I did have a few moments of missing Steve. It seemed like such a romantic locale...it seemed a little sad to not be sharing it with him.
It was definitely an awesome ending to a wonderful 1st day in Costa Rica.