My Star Quilt

This picture is for you Grandma Martin!!! I finally learned how to put pictures on my blog using this computer. I'm hand-quilting this using a large wooden hoop, so you can still see I have large safety pins all over it. I've finished a lot of the stars and a lot of the yellow blocks. I haven't decided how I want to quilt the stripped border. The white edge is temporary to protect the edge until I'm ready to bind it. I'll probably bind it in bright yellow, maybe dark blue.

When my mom and dad were here to visit in October, I showed the quilt to my dad and he asked me what I was going to do with it when I was done. I told him I was "giving it to myself". hee hee. I just love the colors and it makes me happy everytime I work on it.

Morning Surprise

I was working on a Christmas present in the dining room and decided I needed more light. I threw open the curtains and saw this beautiful buck behind the back fence. He was just looking over the fence next to the old tree house!!! I went out the back door and took his picture. That startled him and he ran away.

Later, Jared pointed at the window and yelled "DEER!" No. There wasn't another deer. Just great imagination. It was a fun way to start the day.

Chorus Concert

Hunter, Savannah (looking strangely dazed!), Tanner, and Mikayla on the stage after the performance!


Tanner is in the second row, 4th kid from the left. I know....we couldn't pick him out either! :)


Tonight we went to the elementary school for Tanner's 4th Grade Chorus Concert. It was really nice. They sang 4 Christmas songs and a Hannukah song. My favorite was "Christmas is Coming and WE are Getting Fat"!!! It was a funny commentary on the overeating some of us do during the holidays. I loved the line about waddling up the stairs after Thanksgiving dinner!

Yay! Yay! Yay! Kim's got a blog!

I'm so psyched! One of my favorite friends has joined the blogging world. Some of you know her as Kim Whiting. Here is a link to her brand new blog!!!!

http://whitinghouse.blogspot.com

go say hi!

I Was Tagged!

Adriennehttp://unklesbay.blogspot.com/ tagged me a few weeks ago, so I'm fianlly getting around to my assignment. Heather tagged me too, but I didn't realize it.... sorry Heather! Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell 6 unspectacular quirks about yourself.
4. Tag 6 unsuspecting fellow bloggers by linking to them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they have been tagged.

My Quirks

1. I dream of running, quite literally. Several years ago, I started trying to run. I couldn't even run a 10th of a mile at a time. But, after weeks and months of effort, I ran my first mile and then my first 3 miles. I also read everything I could get my hands on about running for exercise, running for weightloss, running marathons, etc. About that time, I began to dream I was running. In my dreams, I can run with very little effort. I'm strong, much thinner, my breathing is steady and my stride is smooth. My favorite running dream (okay, it's about the only one I can remember) is of running down a gravel road in the San Luis Valley in Colorado. There are fields of sunflowers on my left and on my right. That road really exists! When we went to visit our family in Colorado back in 2004, the sunflowers were in bloom and I can still see those fields just as vividly as if I were there this morning. So, one day, I hope to run in the San Luis Valley. (However, the altitude is outrageously high there, so I don't know if I could get my lungs to cooperate during a short visit. My aunt even told me Olympic runners train there!)

2. I have a VERY strong desire to learn to speak Spanish. This may be because of my adoration of Mexican food and I just want to order EVERYTHING on the menu at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Acapulco, but I think there may be more to it. Ever since I was a little girl, I heard my dad speaking Spanish to utter strangers. I guess that has always seemed kind of magical, super-hero-ish to me. When my parents came to visit last month, I got to introduce Dad to Jessica Martin who is from Chile. Off they went, talking a mile a minute. I was standing right there and only understood 2 phrases, but I LOVED it! My brother, Theo, served his mission in Chile and married my awesome sister-in-law who is originally from the Dominican Republic. So, now Theo knows "the secret" and speaks Spanish too. I've paid attention when he and Kirudys are talking to their kids, but I've only learned one word, "mira". I don't know if that is how you spell it. But, Theo told me it means "look". When my family was at the zoo last summer, we were behind a group of Hispanic people in line to ride the train and one woman said, "Mira!" I looked and on the ground was a 20$ bill. It was cool that I understood her! Unfortunately, I was too slow and they picked up their dropped money before I could make a dive for it!!!! I hope when the kids are a bit older I can learn Spanish, for now, I just pay attention to the waiters at Acapulco!!!!

3. I really like the large African mammals. When I go to the zoo, I love to watch the giraffes, elephants, zebras, and hippos! I'm not a real big fan of the lions and cheetahs. But, the others I could watch for hours. They are amazing to me. I love to read about them. I like to learn the different breeds, etc. I don't know why, but they are SO COOL!

4. I love to read cookbooks. I like to look at the pictures and read the recipes and try to figure out if they would taste good. I also like to buy cookbooks. A few years ago, Shane told me I couldn't buy anymore cookbooks until I had made a recipe from each cookbook I owned. (I don't take him that seriously...hee hee.) I don't have the time to do as much experimenting and cooking as I would like, but now and then I make some new dishes and love it. Along with that, I love kitchen tools, hand towels, kitchen catalogs, kitchen stores, spice racks, cookware, etc. Thank goodness my budget is small or my small kitchen would be stuffed to the brim with things I don't really need!

5. I like maps. When we travel, I always like to have the road atlas. Even though Shane could probably drive to his parents' mobile home in the mountains of Pennsylvania with his eyes closed, I am not satisfied. I must have a road map. It's not even that I don't believe he can get us there. It's just that I like to know where I am and I love to know the names of the rivers and lakes we pass. I like to read the names of the small towns and look for historical sites. And maps aren't just for travel time. Maps are just way cool anytime.

6. My last and final quirk is that I have a VERY long life list. I have so many things I want to do and learn in my life. I'm still planning on learning more piano. I want to learn to cook Chinese food, write calligraphy, pet a dolphin, cruise to Alaska, see Washington DC, learn to juggle, waste hours and hours doing jigsaw puzzles, figure out how to replicate my Grandma Schofield's banana bread, visit Cozemel, Mexico, learn to make my Grandma Martin's potato cakes (she's helping me on that one), join a gym, run a half-marathon (or maybe a full marathon), finish my degree from BYU, have a real vegetable garden, etc. Life may just be a bit too short. But, I figure I'm on the Camilla Kimball plan. She is one of my heroes. She kept learning her whole life long and I plan on doing the same.

I tag:

1. My cousin Constance- http://waverlybowen.blogspot.com/
2. My sister Jocelyn- http://jocelynsinanities.blogspot.com/
3. My friend Sylvia- http://smilensylli.blogspot.com/
4. My extra brother Eric- http://themanofsteelleg.blogspot.com/
5. My friend Julie- http://danieljuliepace.blogspot.com/
6. My friend Cassie- http://5inthebed.blogspot.com/

Unfortunately, I am not very blogger savvy and can't figure out how to "name" these links and make it look nicer. Oh well. Consider yourselves TAGGED!!!

A Walk at the Park

Tonight for part of our Family Home Evening we loaded up the kids, bikes, and the wagon and headed for Winton Woods. It was the first time in years that we have gone down to walk around the lake together. We had a wonderful time. We brought the wagon for Jared, but at around the third of a mile marker he was already out and ready to run. He stayed close to me the whole way around the lake and kept calling out, "Run Mom!" and then we would run together.

He ran a mile.

No wonder I can't get him to sit still first thing Sunday morning for sacrament meeting. The boy has TONS of energy!

It was exciting to me to run with him and not become the least bit winded. I felt like I was on The Biggest Loser tv show where at the end they show how much healthier the person is and the person says, "I always wanted to be able to keep up with my kids." I still have a long way to go to reach my weight loss goals, but I remember the first time we went to walk around the lake, I asked Shane to drop me off at the half mile mark so I could walk back to the beginning. At that time, I couldn't even WALK a mile. That was 3 kids ago. Now, I've run two 10K races and five 5K races. It is exciting to me that for now, growing older means I'm also growing stronger.

Savannah on the other hand chose to ride in the wagon pretty much the whole way......

The Black Squirrel 5K

On Saturday the 27th of September our Pink Princess Racing Team went to Glendale to run the Black Squirrel 5K. It was a blast!

Here is our team photo. Left to right: Sylvia, Courtney (Sylvia's niece), Me (Maura), and Mikayla.
This was the first time any of us have done to the Black Squirrel. It was MUCH harder than Sylvia or I were expecting. When we picked up our race packets the night before the race, we were told that the first part of the race was the hardest and that it got easier after that. WOW! Talk about an understatement!!! After only a few tenths of a mile the race went up a horrible hill. I will forever call it "heartbreak hill". It was a real struggle for me to keep my feet running all the way up. I felt like my feet weighed an extra 10 pounds a piece. Due to the hurricane earlier this month, there was a lot of debris still on the road: lots of twigs, leaves, etc. When I finally saw the one mile mark, I had already decided that they had neglected to put mile markers on the race!!! ONE MILE????? Are you KIDDING ME? I swear I thought I had already gone at least a mile and a half. What a disappointment! :)

My sport watch's battery died over a year ago and since I wasn't running much, I haven't replaced it yet. So, in place of a watch, I took my trusty cell phone with me so I could look down at the time and see what my pace was. Unfortunately, the print on my cell phone screen is kind of small and with how much my hand was bouncing I couldn't read the numbers at ALL!

I had been sick for several days with a sore throat and wasn't sure I would be able to run the whole race. I'm happy to say that not only was I able to run, but my finish time was surprisingly good! I finished in 31:44 minutes. (I had been hoping to finish in 36 minutes or less!) My legs felt like JELLO for 5 minutes afterwards, but it was so exciting to see Eric, Margret, and her kids, and Mikayla waiting for me at the finish line!

Here's Mikayla crossing the line! She did GREAT! I keep complaining about how hard the Black Squirrel course was. Mikayla says she liked it! What an awesome runner she is!

Okay, here's me. I'm huffing and puffing, but notice the girl behind me in the cute blue "running skirt". I had passed her about halfway through the race and as we were coming down the last couple tenths of a mile she passed me!!! This could not be! I poured it on the last hundred yards and beat her! Who says I'm competetive???

Courtney did wonderful! She too said the course wasn't that bad! I loved getting to know her better. She is a real sweetheart and I can't wait to run more races with her! Her finish time was super!

Last, but NOT LEAST! Here is my amazing friend Sylvia. She had a rough week too and the course was STRENUOUS! But, I am so proud of her. She did not give up! Sylvia finished really strong even though she wasn't feeling very good. Courtney, Mikayla, and I walked back along the course to find her and walk in with her. It was such a good feeling when she crossed the finish line and we got to cheer for her. She is an amazing woman!

Now this is my favorite picture of them all. Here is our team family. I and Mikayla are in back. Then we have Justin, Jessica with Heston, Sylvia, Margret, Courtney, and Eric. What a blast it was to have Margret and her kids with us at the race! The four of us runners came home with really cool participation medals and all of us came home with wonderful memories of a fun morning.

I can't wait for next year!

(okay, i could do without the hills! Sylvia is making me go back to train so we'll be ready for next year..... yuck!!!)