The No Posting Debacle

So...

Hi again! I haven't posted since May. Summer happened and we did some things.
We went camping in strange places.
Ate corn on the cob.
We sort of tried gardening and got lots of tomatoes.

Eh, what am I kidding. For the most part I've been sitting on my duff wishing the heat away so that I could go skiing again.

Can anyone else sense ennui?

Mother's Day Hike to the Wind Caves

Liz didn't want to get out of the hiking backpack, because she was trying to sleep in it. (First picture of me on my blog by the way.)

The view from the top was spectacular. The trail ends on top of the caves, so you have to climb down the limestone to see them. I thought the view was much better than the caves. All in all, it was the best Mother's Day present of all because I got to spend time with the people I love, doing something I love.

Easter

Before

After

The animals didn't want to eat, but preferred to stare wildly at Liz.

(We had a dress up party using Great Grandma Larson's party plates. It was a big hit.)

Liz

"Where's the Green Sheep?" (Liz quoting her newest favorite book.)

Chocolate face

Can you spot the troublemaker?

Right there.

Messes are deliberately left in view of camera so you will know that I haven't changed one little bit.

Lint and wrinkles

So...
I've been doing an... experiment I guess you could say. When we lived in Logan we had a gas dryer. When we moved to Riverdale, there were no gas hookups anywhere. Only electric. So, about eight months later, we still didn't have a dryer. We saw one on Freecycle and went for it. A 20 dollar cord and an online repair manual was all it took. I've found out a lot about laundry. Here goes.

1. Lint is an awful enemy.
2. Cold days just tend to freeze wet underwear.
3. Planning ahead is vital if you want to wear that favorite shirt.
4. Letting a toddler help hang up wet socks is fine... if your floor is clean enough.
5. You can save tons on gas bills, but if you don't hang the clothes up fast enough, you'll have to waste energy ironing them anyway.
6. Don't overload the washer.
7. Softener doesn't really help that much with the lint problem.
8. Washing machines get dirty fast.
9. Walmart curtain rods don't hold as much laundry as Lowes curtain rods.
10. I'm grateful that I have a washer.

I'll still be hanging up most of my wash.


Sorry about the boring post. The next one will be thrilling and nail-biting and you won't get much sleep afterwards.

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.