Thanksgiving '09

The dashboard read 28 degrees. My hands, toes and daughters said it was too cold to run the 4 mile turkey trot in Orem--but I could taste revenge.

For a year now, I've had my brother Tim in my sights. Last year Tim ran the trot in 22 minutes. How dare he. Who does he think he is anyway? Doesn't he know that I am the best runner even though I haven't trained to be the best runner in like...18 years?

So Thanksgiving morning, it was showdown time.

Sure, I had only started running 3 times a week 4 weeks prior to the race, and sure I am female--almost 13 years Tim's senior, and I had just had a huge chunck of flesh carved out of my big toe by the dermatologist, but no little brother of mine is going to show me up.

So the race began with the traditional segregation of the men and women. Don't ask me why. And try as I might, when we merged I could not find Tim. But my dad found me and no matter what I did I could not shake him. I would sprint ahead of a small crowd thinking I ditched him and then I'd see him at my heels again like some lost dog. He was ruining my game.

The above paragraph is a joke dad, I appreciated running with you.



The race ended with my dad at my heels and Tim finishing 10 minutes faster than I. I suppose that's not so bad for only a months worth of work.

But I'm still running Tim, and I'm not stopping...it's only a matter of time.

In other Thanksgiving news:







We partied and took really fuzzy phone photos.



We ate, we laughed, we thanked.








And when it's all said and done, I am grateful. What a good family I have. There are no people I look forward to spending time with more than you--that includes you, Sarah Louise. And you too Tim.

We missed you Nate, Sarah, and Cathy.

Mastitis

Red, burning, aches and chills mastitis on top of, an achy, chilly, depleting cold on top of, 5 extra large aching holes that the dermatologist decided to carve out of my body.

And YW in excellence is tomorrow.

Rock on.

I don't want to brag or anything...

but we were ten minutes early to nine o'clock church for no good reason other than we are super righteous. Top that!

Guess What?!

I'm not pregnant! And as much as I would love to have another baby (someday), this is seriously a record for me. And, it feels strangely good. A perfect reason to celebrate, right? Who would like to join me?

Life is full at the moment and as soon as someone doesn't need me right this second, I will write more.

A little bit of afterglow

I just got done hosting a neighborhood luncheon--I made a clam chowder. It feels like it went well and I have resolved to have more neighbors over no matter how busy it gets.




There is left-over chowder, my neighbor left me a loaf of homemade bread, the after party cleaning is complete, my baby and I are snuggling beside a window looking out over a dimmly lit valley and listening to an angry wind pound our hill top.



But it feels cozy and harmonious in here.

A Beauty

The sun summoned us this morning as we dressed and I began opening windows.

There was a lazy hum of activity in the garden below. The last of the grasshoppers were making their final attempts at the last of my hollyhocks. A smattering of violet bachelor buttons attracted the remaining hungry bees as plush finger-tip sized spiders caught whatever dared to whirl.

By chance, we had very little on the docket so we toddled along and joined the tune.














There are days that just fall in line, one after the other. There are days that I barely make it to the next.

And then, there are days like this.

Halloween

It all started with Spiderman.



I'm not quite sure when or how Abram and the webbed one became acquainted but upon the meeting, Abram only saw red, blue and black. There are spiderman pajamas, spiderman underwear (not that spiderman knows how to use the potty-but just in case), spiderman blinking light shoes (Oh how I hate the blinking light shoes), spiderman shirts, a spiderman bucket, a spiderman poster-Abram even carries around a well-worn empty spiderman bandage box. So when it came to Halloween costume planning, well, that was a boring no brainer. Because I like to be cohesive, it was decided that all of the children should be superheros. On a Saturday morning we gathered around the computer pulling up pictures of wonder woman, batgirl, supergirl, and of course, spiderman. The children grew excited as we watched clips on youtube. I turned to Brad and said the only thing left for us to do is to dress as villians.









Brad decided on the joker. He said I should be cat woman. Of course, he would say that. It became apparent that there is really only one recognizable female villain and that is cat woman. But let's face it, she's a bit of a skank.

But I do like cats. I do own a black t-shirt. I also own a pair of running tights that have been laundered so much that they are barley hanging on to black. And, cat woman's costume would be one less thing to sew.

So in all her skank-o-licious glory, I was cat woman-at my mom's house.