London's Run

Today was the 5th annual London's Run. Where do I even start? For the passed 3 years I have been in charge of all the food for the runners at the event. This year I kept my foot in the door even though I was in Utah for all of the planning. I helped via phone and email, and then a little this passed week and then today at the event. But instead of working the food station all day, I entrusted the responsibility to some lovely ladies and decided to run the 10k this year. This is the first year I have actually run in London's Run. I've always been too busy to participate. I am really glad that I had the opportunity to run. It was a beautiful day, not too cold (although there were some people dressed like it was snowing outside- I guess Utah toughened me up a bit) and the race course was just beautiful. Running through the farm land in Queen Creek was such a different feel than running the streets of Mesa for the Turkey Trot. It made me reflect on London and the times she probably spent running in those fields. I did get emotional a few times during the run, but then was snapped out of it by my burning legs and feet. I am proud to say that there was a mix up in the race course and I actually ran closer to 7 miles instead of 6! I didn't know I could run that far!

Here is the runners food station I was in charge of
Here's Jenny and Ellen, who I couldn't have done it without. Yesterday Jenny traveled all around the valley with me picking stuff up and then driving it out to Schnepf Farms. She even let me tell her to go the wrong way and got her truck stuck in the mud. I have to give a special shout out to Ellen for all of her help today. She drove out with me this morning at 5:45am, helped me get everything set up and was my "pack mule" for the day. She even ran the food tables while I was running.
This is Erin Strickland, a long time friend who faithfully gives up her Saturday every year to spend it under the State Farm canopy handing out bananas and oranges and providing the comic relief.

I have to give a special thank you to Ryan for all his support every year. He went to Sprouts first thing this morning, kids in tow, to get 4 more boxes of bananas for me. He was a trooper and took care of the kids all day and then wound up all the flags from the parking area. Love you Rye.

Every year it is a tradition that after it's all said and done, and we're all cleaned up- our family and some other faithfuls stay and we release the balloons from the finish line. My sister Heather ( London's Mom) always says a few words about London, thanks everyone for their help and then we all cry! At London's funeral we all wrote little messages to her tied to balloons and then let them go- so every year we do the same. This time Kate and Clark got to hold the balloon arch and let it go.

Here's what it looked like on the ground.

Here's what it looked like when we let it go.

I love to participate in London's Run for many reasons. 1) I get to feel London's Spirit and feel close to her again 2) it is a great cause that raises money for families just like ours that has a child with cancer and 3) it just feels good to be a part of something big that helps people in our communities regardless of age, race or religion. It's neat to see so many people come together, work so hard and as a result touch people's lives. Thank you London for you life and your example of doing hard things cheerfully. Thank you for helping us remember every year the importance of family and the reality of life after death. Thank you for not only touching lives while you were here on earth- but continuing to do so even after you are gone. Love you Londee!

Home

This post is a little late- but YES we are home! We got home Saturday afternoon without any problems, we went around the storm- not through it.
I have been busy unpacking, swimming, hanging out at my parents house and getting back into the swing of things.
Kate and Clark have LOVED being back in Mesa. When we got home, they were jumping and saying "We're in Mesa"! Then Sunday morning Clark kept telling me, "Mom, I'm so glad to be in Mesa". They play outside all day long and love it. They check on our chickens, play in the sandbox and are glad they don't have to wear coats! We bought them new beds before we left and then set them up for them, so that may be another reason they are so happy to be home.
I will do my best to keep blogging as often as I did when I was in Utah, but for some reason I don't feel the need to as much. I guess it's because most people who read this blog I see regularly anyways, and I feel like our life here is pretty boring, and not worth writting about!

Kate's Names

This post has been a long time coming. I actually forgot about it and then Ryan reminded me of it last night- so I decided I better put this up before too much time goes by.

Sometime this passed summer Kate started naming her poop. Yes. You heard me right. She would do her business on the toilet, then take a look at it, decide what she thought it looked like and then tell me.

I have to put a disclaimer that I have NEVER done this, nor ever encouraged her to do so. She came up with this all on her own. It is a joke in my family that we can't all be together for more that 10 minutes without the subject of poop coming up- so maybe it is my fault. All I know is that her Uncle Jeffy should be proud.

So here's the list of her poops from the last few months: (yes I wrote them down in my journal so I wouldn't forget)

Dolphin

Christmas Tree

Sea Horse

Grapes

Pogo Stick

Teddy Bear

Caterpillar

Snowman

Kangaroo

Hat

Fishy

Turtle

Seal

It still makes me laugh everytime I read this list and think about it!

One Week.

One more week until we move back to Arizona! I haven't been very excited about it, only because that means I have to pack everything up- but now that we're only a week away, I'm getting really excited. I started packing last week, and have quite a bit packed up already. (considering I only brought half of what we own up here!)
I will miss the mountains and the snow. I've realized that I'd much rather have the cold winters of Utah than battle the scorching heat of Arizona summers. As I drive around town, I'm trying to take it all in and enjoy it before we go.
Other than the weather, and the mountains, there's not a whole lot I'll miss about Utah. I won't miss the slower than slow drivers and the ONE freeway that services all of northern Utah. I won't miss the crappy radio stations or our tiny rental house. I won't miss our ward, since no one reached out to us and I only have a few friends anyways!
For those of you who care to know- my parents will be coming up Tuesday to help us drive back. We plan on leaving here Friday mid-day, spending the night in Kanab and then driving the rest of the way Saturday. So we should be back in Mesa by about 2pm Saturday afternoon.
For those of you are anxiously awaiting my return so that you can get your hair done again- THANKS! I'm looking forward to getting back into the business, 6 months was a long enough break. I'll start doing hair again the first week of February- so if you need to get your hair done- give me a call and we'll set up a time.
I can't wait to be HOME - see you soon!

Good-Bye

As our time in Utah draws to an end, we have to do the dreadful thing called 'saying goodbye'. I personally hate this, because 1. it makes me emotional and I feel stupid if I cry , 2. there really is no goodbye's in my book. I believe that everyone that I love and care about I'll see again eventually and you always carry a part of that person within your heart and 3. it's just the way life goes, you can't keep in touch or hang out with every person you ever met, so to me saying good-bye is like ending the friendship. If you don't say good-bye, it's like saying, I still love you and we're still friends even if I don't get to see you anymore. Anyways.

Saturday night we went over to our friends Merlin and Julie's house. Merlin works for Okland also and was the other lead Superintendent with Ryan on the Target job. He and Julie are staying for another year to do a new-build Target. They have 3 kids, Derek (6), Megan (4) and Ella (4months). Derek and Megan are some of the few friends Clark and Kate have here, and I know they are sad to not be able to play with them anymore.

Clark and Derek playing with Dereks race track.

Sunday Ryan's cousin, Morgan, had his mission farewell in Roosevelt, so we had the chance to see all of his Mom's family one more time. We have had the chance to spend alot of time with his aunts and uncles while we've been here and I've adopted them as my own. I don't have a very big extended family, and we aren't very close to them - so when I married into Ryan's family- I adopted them all. All of my grandparents have been deceased for many years, so I love Grandma and Grandpa Roberts. I am probably closer to them than I was my grandparents.

This is the house Ryan's mom grew up in, on their family farm. Ryan has alot of fun memories from his childhood there, so we went to visit. Grandma and Grandpa Roberts sold the farm about 8 years ago.

Here's Grandma Roberts with Kate and Clark

Here's all of ust with Grandpa Roberts and Grandpa and Grandpa together- arent' they so cute?!

Snow Day

This post is a little late and out of order- but oh well! New Years Day Ryan was getting bored since he had no project at home to work on, no 'honey-do' list and no brothers to play with- so I told him to take the kids outside to make a snowman. As you can see, Ryan doesn't 'half-do' anything- so this snowman is quite the sight and is still standing in our front yard.

This is Ryan rolling a snowball to make the body.

This is Ryan, the kids and neighbor Sarah making the head

Ryan and Sarah putting the final touches on our snowman

Snowman complete with arms from our Christmas tree! Yes Clark is wearing Kate's pink gloves. When I bought gloves at Walmart- the only blue ones they had were smaller, and that worked for a little while, but Clarks hands are bigger than Kates- so we just switched!

While we were making our snowman, Todd was busy across the street building this snow ramp in their front yard. This is Clark going for a ride and another neighbor Hannah.

Here's Kate!

Kate and Sarah

Here's Dee-Dee winded after pulling the 3 kids around the yard on the sled!

The three amigo's - Kate, Spencer and Clark

Mom and Martha

Every January, my Mom and her sister Martha meet in Salt Lake to do genealogy work, so we decided to take them out to dinner while they were here. I think I would be more demanding that my Mom spend more time with us, but since she's coming up in a week and half to help us move, and this is the only time she gets to see her sister- I decided dinner was enough. I have always been interested in doing Family History work, but feel that now is just not the time in my life for it. So I enjoyed listening to my Mom and Aunt tell me all the things they are doing and researching while they are here. I have never been to the Family History Library, but from what they told me- it is quite extensive and there is information there that would be very difficult to obtain if left to your own means. So I applaud my Mom and Aunt for all their hard work and hope to carry on their work some day!

New Years Eve

Every New Years Eve my family gets together and has a dance party. We missed out on the party this year- so I decided to have my own. Ryan doesn't dance, so I had to get Kate and Clark to dance with me. Kate's got some good moves, she takes after me, and Clark dances like Ryan.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com