Next holiday

Merry Christmas to MEEEeEEEE! (Please excuse the food particles, I haven't brushed after lunch yet.)

Ogden has a cool Christmas Village where you could peek through the windows and see Santa's elves or snowmen or something cool like a train one of the houses had Santa himself, and Liz sat on his lap. Without crying or looking to me for help. The candy cane he gave her was neat too. It had a little bell and a candy reindeer attached to it. She was ringing it all weekend. After this we went and watched someones lights which were blinking in time to music. There was one song set to the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" only it was "Decorations". It was fun to get out and do something Christmas.

Just a reminder of the season.

Aghhh look out!

Thanksgiving 09' Blanding, Utah Abajo/Blue Mountains

The amazing thing to me was that Josh's foot was broken and his knee is still injured, yet he climbs up the wall like a gecko.

Grandma's lap was a pretty popular place.

Stuff-a-roni

"Mom, I think we should move to Vegas!"

"Bleep Bloop. You house does not have sufficient energy to sustain this robotic life form. I must seek out sugary substances so I can grow and conquer the world. Bleep Bloop."

Picture 1. We went to Walmart a couple of days after Halloween and bought some wigs for 20 and 30 cents. Liz loves them.
Picture 2. Inspired by other box creations, we built Liz a robot costume for Halloween.

Liz's car

Liz got a new car.
The door opens, the steering wheel moves and the car goes to grandma's house 4 times in half an hour.

House?

This grass took a long long time to mow the first time. Luckily our neighbor came by on his riding mower and gave us a hand.

Have I mentioned we moved? Yup, we did. To a place called Clinton. Our realtor's name was Bill. Coincidence? There are no coincidences.

Liz's birthday

"Check out my party duds!"
"I met some firemen at the safety fair, they gave me a new bowl."
"Cheers."
"One for all and all for one!"


For Liz's 2nd birthday, we went to an indoor swimming pool. It was awesome with a kids splash zone (really cool) and a large slide. It had a wave pool thingy that went around in a circle. We had a blast. We came home and had cake and ice cream and of course presents. Including Abby and Oscar from her Grandma and Grandpa Larson and big girl bed from Grandma and Grandpa Hirschi.

I'm proud of how smart Liz is getting. She has really grown in the past year. She loves nursery and is always talking about going to church.

Catch up

Ok, it's time to play catch up. We'll start with the marathon on September 19th.

It was a great race. Running a marathon is like labor. When it starts it is exciting and fun. You can laugh and talk and you feel confident in everything. The end of the marathon, however is when you really find out what you've got inside of you. You don't have conversations anymore except the occasional, "how are you doing?" "I'm feeling it, but I'm fine." The only difference is that it is much easier to train your muscles for a marathon.

We couldn't find our camera, so all I have are these pro photos that are copy written. I haven't found out how much they cost, but I'm seriously thinking about getting some of them... Ok, so I can't figure out how to imbed one in here, but the website is here. http://www.jolesch.com/csEventPhotoBrowse.aspx?EventID=5063&Group=0&Cat=0&PartID=3088

Good Message

Sometimes I like having a goal I can call my own, and sometimes I like to hear about others who are doing it too. This made my day.

I need a little ha ha

Wedding Photos

He wanted to go down the aisle too. Only not in the traditional sense.

You can see the pier and stuff in the background.

You gotta love babies.

This is a hold up.

Cute couple

Hyrum always looks good dressed up.

Madi kept Liz entertained during rehearsal.

Sorry these are out of order. I kept deleting them by accident and didn't want to mess with them anymore.

I have some good pictures of everybody's kids/family photos. I hope I got everybody. If you want them, I'll email them to you.

Beheaded Chicken July

Take me out to the ball game!

Laurie Berkner, eat your heart out. (This refers to the "boots" song.)

We are worn out from July.
Here are some things that went on.

4th and surrounding activities. We were going to go to Blanding, but had to make some hard decisions. We ended up celebrating here and doing the 5k run/walk.

Pope reunion 24th. We all had a grand time hearing stories from Grandma and Grandpa Pope. It was also good seeing mom and dad, and Edward and Krystal. It was also close to Midway, which just happened to have a 10k.

Michael's wedding in California. All stress aside, this was a very hormonal trip. Josh's best friend from high school who he had always relied upon was getting married that Friday while Michael's wedding was the Saturday. I drove down with Liz to Mesquite, which was kind of hard considering Liz can't stay still to watch morning cartoons, much less 5.5 hours in a car pretty much with herself for company. We ended up making many stops and singing "five little monkeys" the whole way.

Thankfully, a great heroine, my neice, rode with us the next day which saved my sanity and allowed Liz to take a nap too! That evening, we had a nice dinner with the wedding party.

The next day, my family graciously watched Liz while I went to pick up Josh from the LAX, it was good to see him. I hope Liz was good for the people who watched her, but she seemed happy. My sisters and mother had gotten manicures while I was gone and I guess they felt bad because they got me a new dress. (It really is great guys, thanks.) After the wedding, we got some ice cream and then went to Trader Joe's! Yee haw! We got some nuts, not as if we weren't already nutty. Then we went to the reception. They had a candy bar for the kids, I ate more than Liz did, though. Liz wanted to dance so badly that I'm afraid she went against custom and tried to be the first dance. I felt bad for Michael, because he was exhausted, just recently having knee surgery. We then drove to Whittier to a good friends house.

We went to church in the morning. I really miss morning church, Liz was good. She went into their nursary and didn't look back, didn't cry, loved it. We had dinner with our friends then went to a condo where my family was staying.

I ran on the boardwalk 13 miles. The last mile, I ran along the beach and then jumped into the ocean. I owe not being sore the next day to that. We went to Channel Islands visitor center and learned about the islands and vowed to come back sometime to visit the whales. We said goodbye to my family and then took a long route out of California. We stopped at some fruit stands and got some yummy oranges, strawberries, peaches, and grapefruit. Luckily, they didn't stop us for exporting anything. Hee hee. We were going to camp somewhere in St. George, but we didn't get far enough and we stopped in Mesquite for the night. It was great to have a bed. (We're still looking for one.)

I drove home. The theory was that Josh could get some work done. He ended up falling asleep with Liz in the back. To his credit, he did work for about 40 minutes and I made him drive the last bit.

The stressful part of this was that we are closing on a house right now and if any of you know how we make purchases, it takes alot of time and effort for anything above $50.

Pictures coming

Running Continued

So, I haven't written about running in a bit, I thought I'd do it some more. It's amazing how fast you go through shoes when your mileage gets higher. Right now I'm on 12 miles. I never thought I would say that running eight miles is a short run. It's crazy fun. My training goes something like this.

Monday is a easy mileage, hard hills day.
Tuesday I rest.
Wednesday is a easy mid-mileage day.
Thursday I rest.
Friday I rest.
Saturday is a very high mileage day.
Sunday I rest.

Repeat same mileage the next week, then push it up the week after that.

Anyway, I need new shoes. I went to a running specialty store where they scanned my feet with cool pressure sensors, measured my stride and foot length. I am a size 8 on my left and a size 8.5 on my right. I have high arches and need extra cushioning for the front of my foot. Well, I didn't buy a shoe at that time. (Nice shoes are expensive.) I would never consider buying any other type of shoe for that kind of price except for running shoes. Meanwhile, I'm hoping my current shoes will hold out until I can get new ones.

Mia ai hee

I know, I know... this is my first video on my blog and I just had to waste your time. However, I just can't help but crack up seeing the Ragu every single time. Maybe you feel the same.

Any cures?

I have a disease. I am chronically late to everything. I think it has something to do with the fact that we just moved and I can't find anything and I'm also an unorganized person to begin with.

So, does anyone have any helpful hints to help me get over this. What do you do to get to places on time?

Fiesta Breakfast

My mom makes this delicious breakfast that is like a cobbler only better for you. (I think.) Anyway, I hadn't made it in a while and decided that Saturday would be a great day to make it. So, I got out all of my ingredients. When I reached for the cinnamon, I had to pull the Taco Seasoning out of the way, which, by the way, looks exactly like the cinnamon bottle. Thinking nothing of it, I added two huge tablespoons of "cinnamon" to the breakfast cake. I thought it was odd that the kitchen smelled a little spicy. It didn't smell like cinnamon breakfast cake. Then, I noticed that the Taco Seasoning was still out. The cake looked wonderful, but tasted horrible. So we had cereal.

I'm going to try again on Tuesday. Pray for my family.

Last Week in Logan

The last drive through the canyon. (As a resident.)
The last walk to the library and back.
The last wonderfully cool evenings.
The last free bus ride.
The last cross country skiing expedition to Jardine Juniper.
The last jog to the water lab down the canal trail.
The last feeding the ducks at first dam.
The last free bread samples for me at Lee's Marketplace.
The last free sucker for Liz at Lee's Marketplace.
The last squeaky cheese from Gossners.
The last frisbee thrown on the Quad.
The last Sunday walk down 500 East.

The first step to a new life.
The first meeting with new friends.
The first exploration of a new world.
The first testing of new things.
The first building up of new communities.
The first camping in new canyons.
The first of living life where you are living.

Elmosizing

We got a video from the library called Elmosize. I haven't watched it yet, but it got me thinking. There are some websites out there with free exercising videos. I have a few favorites.

First there is beyoutv.com. I like a video called body groove, which you may find extremely embarrassing at first, but if you can allow yourself to get beyond that it is very fun. Plus, the kids love doing it too. There are other videos on there, and you can even buy some if you feel like it.

Another good resource is sparkpeople.com. This not only has exercise videos, but it has a nutrition program too.

I also like to frequent the biggest loser website for their tips.


Ciao

The New New New New... New Post

Hi,

I was on a blog vacation.


Liz has grown some more and we have had many good times. For example, this is what happened today after church.

Liz was doing her usual running around crazy and while we wait for dad routine and another little girl appeared and they played for a while. When the other little girl was about to leave, I said, "Liz, give her a hug." Liz turned around and pressed her back into her and then looked at me with a confused expression. I guess she thinks a hug involves being held in someone else's arms. We're going to work on that.

Liz liked a library book called, "Up, Up, Up". This book was about a hippo which climbed a ladder and then had to be helped back down by a weasel. Anyway, she was playing with her magnetic letters in the kitchen and then came up to me saying, "Up". I asked her, "Do you want up?" She held two of the letters to me and said, "Up". The letters were of course a U and a P.

Oh, and at her 18 month appointment we finally made it out of the 1st percentile club. Now we are in the 3 percentile club. (We are finally over 20 pounds!) Liz just likes to eat all of the non-fatty stuff on her plate. I can give her a bowl of ice cream and she'll eat the strawberries off the top and leave the ice cream. Oh well, as long as she eats what she needs.

Anybody have tips on what to do if their child likes to run away when you say "come here"?

Josh completed the grueling master's defense. I was proud of him. He impressed me and I had already heard his presentation. We are still searching for a job, but one is very very promising. I don't want to gossip about it any more than I already have, so I'll tell you more if we nab it.

Josh's knee had some trouble some months past and he hasn't been able to run on it. He really misses frisbee, but still plays on Saturdays with a group at the park. Only he walks across the field rather than running. I makes me sad for him. I keep encouraging him to do his PT.

He also just handed me two fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies, so allow me to pause in my narrative a moment...

Ahhh.


As for Myself, I'm still editing my story. I've been stymied by the fact that I haven't balanced my dishes doing time with my story writing time yet. I really only have about ten chapters left to edit though. I hope you hard core fantasy readers out there will like it. It is heavy on the fantasy, sorry Katie.

I've also been toying with the idea of becoming a personal trainer. I don't know enough yet, but it sounds appealing to me. I like to encourage people to work out and eat right. I also like watching, "The Biggest Loser" for tips. It's the only show I like right now. I watch it on Hulu.com, which plays it a week after the show airs, so don't give away anything that happens to me!

Well, if I'm going to have a nap today I'd best be off.

Allons-y

The rule of 10 and other adventures

When clutter in my house gets unbearable, I institute the rule of 10.
This rule is simply this, before I can leave a room, I have to pick up 10 things, or clean 10 things.
As easy as this seems, it can get kind of tedious. For example; if I went into the dinning room, I would have to put the cereal away in the cupboard in the kitchen, which would mean I had to do some dishes. Then, to leave the kitchen, I have to enter the dining room again and put away the few dishes left over from breakfast.
Obviously I would only be able to do this game during naptime, or when children are away. Also, exceptions would have to be made for emergencies such as visiting teachers.

Family News/Stuff you don't have to read(Actually, you don't have to read any of this stuff.)

Liz reached her 15 month mark and is still in the 1st percentile for weight. Her other charts are fine, though. Oh well, at least she's consistent.

At the neighbor's house the other day she learned her first toddler phrase, "no no no!!!" (I'd put more exclamation marks, but that might seem overly redundant to you.)

She really likes cookies, and will continue to eat more supper if her stuffed bear has pretended to masticate it first.

Josh is happy and looking for a job for us. He's being careful with who he applies with and makes sure to check that the city has an ultimate frisbee league before he applies. (Just kidding, but it is a bonus.)

I'm still writing Amastrade's Story. That and this blog is what my free time looks like.