A Day at the Races

So, after seeing the baby in real life (and by real life I mean, seeing that it was actually, truly, living inside me), I decided I didn't really want to strain my body so much to run a marathon. Also, like 3 weeks before the marathon, I didn't run for a week and a half straight because I was sick the whole time, so I figured a 10k was a good length that I'd be able to run without too much strain.

I was moderately nervous that morning, but ate an orange and sacrificed 2 dollars to buy two songs off I-tunes (first and hopefully last time ever, because I think it's a waste of money) because I really wanted to listen to them (which I did, the whole time).

From my house (Jordan's house) to the starting line was all downhill, so that was my warm-up:

View Larger Map

Here's the map of what we did, and the next picture is the elevation change throughout the run:




I forgot my number at home, so I got Jordan to bring it to me, along with making him pinning it on me. He said it was just like Prom all over again.





That super sharp increase in altitude all of a sudden means a hill that I didn't really feel like running. So, I didn't! I got Jordan to walk with me for part of it.



About the top of that hill behind me was when I hit my stride. It felt like a really good run from there on out!



Right after that last picture, I found someone I knew! It's the wife of one of Jordan's co-workers who's super nice! She was running the 5k and the 10k and 5k came together at that point. It was great to run with her! Her pace was just a hair faster than me, so I just kept up with her! It wasn't competitive at all, but I was happy to have someone to run with.



Right before this video started, was had just gone up our last hill and Alisa was the only reason I didn't walk. I just figured, if she's not walking, I guess I don't really need to either!



From then on, I was listening to Tim McGraw's "Something Like That," which I had been rotating through with Taylor Swift's "Our Song," and Carrie Underwood's "All-American Girl," but the sweet huge hill going down from the temple was the last mile and we just booked it. It felt good to just let it all out and run as fast as we wanted. It was good too, because Alisa and I pushed each other a little. I would get ahead, and then she would get ahead, and we did that way until the end.

Here's a video for the finish line. Sorry there's no sound---I guess our camera doesn't have sound. Anyway, Jordan asks me how I feel and I say "Tired, but really fun. Ok, turn that off." Yay for being done!



After that, there was a little area where only the 5k and 10k people could go, and there were oranges, bananas, watermelon, and a pancake area. It was fun. We all wished we were in the Half Marathon or Marathon category because there were massage tables in that area...oh well. Yay for oranges!



All in all, it was a good run. I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad it went so well. I felt like I could do anything after I had done that! It hasn't all the way worn off either, because I'm considering singing in "Malad Idol" on the 4th of July...hmmm....

2nd Ranch Adventures

Mending fences...ah how I don't want to do it anymore. But, we did it that weekend! We were up behind the cabin, and it was cold and rainy. But, not to Steve who what kinda mad the whole day for thinking it was going to be colder, and wearing pants...



Isn't he so handsome...



Then we went fourwheeling. None of these were in focus, so I just got the closest one. We took them all during movement which is why it's blurry.



And then here's where we went and put a rock up on top of the sheep herder's rock pile:

Update: 1st Ranch Adventures

Alright, now that I've finally finished one of my more difficult computer programs, I have time to update.

The first ranch visit with Brett and all them was fun. I already put some pictures, but there were more adventures.

One of them was while we were fourwheeling. Inside a shack on the side of a mountain, we found a little...I dunno what it's called. Someone can write it in a comment. Anyway, it's this little canister, which we all thought was a time capsule when we first saw it, but inside has two pieces of laminated paper, a notebook and a few miscellaneous objects. The laminated paper said that there were thousands of these canisters all over the country and it's our job to write what we were doing when we found it, and trade something inside for something on us (some little trinket or something). We thought that was pretty cool. We looked in the notebook to see what other people had written and there were a lot of hunters' accounts, a couple of "we're just exploring and found this cool thing," messages. Could we be normal like everyone else? NOPE!? This is along the lines of what we wrote (and by we, I mean Jordan):

It's been a cold, long winter.
Sally's had a fever for a week straight,
and Little Johnny's cough is getting worse.
To be honest, I don't think he'll make it
through the night.
We wanted to leave something behind in the
canister, but we have nothing nothing left to give.
We hope someone, somewhere, someday,
will remember we were here.
This is our last farewell.

I know, hilarious/ridiculous.

Here's a picture of us all reading what it is and Jordan creating brilliant ideas about the tall tale he was about to weave:



We also found this great bit of snow that Jordan had a jolly good time skidding on:



And then there was the slide connected to the treehouse:

This is Jordan getting his body into a child's toy


The rip on the shoulder of Jordan's right arm is a show of the dangers of playing on less than new tree-houses



This is Britt gracefully going down the slide



And Steve not wanting to tear his sleeve going down



This is Jordan and Steve doing the dishes. Jordan is in the middle of having a gas movement, and Steve is clenching his gluteus maximus...interesting. Also, I can't remember why, but Jordan's wearing Steve's "I'm Keanu Reeves from Speed" pants.

Really Behind

There are a lot of things that I haven't taken the time to write about during the last three weeks, and I'll write about them soon enough, but real quick, here's a link to listen to the baby's heart beat this week (at 10 weeks)!

Ranch Visit #1

A couple weekends ago we had Brett Campbell and a girl, Brittany and Stephen Keller, Jordan and me up at The Ranch for the opening weekend to get some fencing done. I didn't take any pictures of us fencing the first time, but I did take some pictures of us having a good time.

Not only did we do a lot of stuff but we ate a lot of stuff. We had a super good meal every single time because each couple brought a meal and then of course Madlyn is a great cook so she took care of the rest of the meals. We had fetticini alfredo, shepherd's pie, a broccoli and cheese...something, and many other great meals.







We went four-wheeling for the first time this season and there was still a lot of snow that got in our way. Some of it we plowed on through, but some of it we had to work our way through. After three or four of these huge snow banks, we decided to call it quits and head back.

It was a great first visit, and as soon as I get new batteries for my camera I'll put up the pictures of this last visit.

All American

No one in the entire universe could ever say that anyone at or anywhere near The Ranch is anything close to un-American. They're the most American people that exist on the planet. They're honest people, making an honest living, just trying to enjoy everything about America that's good. They even only buy American made cars (and if they don't, Buster will nag 'em about it until they do). I therefore didn't see anything surprising about seeing this sign in a mom 'n pop burger place at Alpine Junction, ID.

Baby

Alright, this isn't going to end up being a blog only about the baby, but I have to say at least one thing about it...so, here are the pictures of the baby:



Basic information:
Due Date: January 19th
Gender: Won't know until the end of August
How many weeks am I along?: 8 weeks
How big is the baby?: 2 centimeters
How do I feel?: The carsick feeling is going away and I'm pretty much just exhausted all the time.
How do I look?: I won't start showing until when we can find out the gender, but I am bloated all the time so I look a little bigger.
Do we have names picked out?: Drew and Emma
What do we want it to be?: Jordan doesn't care, but I'd like a boy.

Anymore questions, just ask! I'm really excited about it, so I'll talk to anyone about it for as long as you want!

The Library

I am still without a friend in Pocatello, so I've decided to use that time and do some volunteer work. So, I started volunteering at the library on Monday. I volunteer twice a week for three hours at a time. My job right now is to sit at a table and sign kids up for the summer reading program. So far we have 697 kids signed up.
Here's my desk and name tag:




I like it and it's ok work because all I do is read and wait for kids to come, but I'm hoping in a while they'll let me start putting books away and setting up displays. That's what I'd really like to be doing.

Books

I've been reading lately like it's going out of style. Here are the books I've read lately and how I feel about each one:

The Anybodies-This was a spectacularly interesting book. It's by the same author as Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, and since I enjoyed that movie so well I looked for other books written by the same author. I was not disappointed. The path the plot took was not something I saw coming, and every detail in it was enjoyable. There were several references to other books which was lovely (maybe because I knew them all) and I plan on buying it and reading it to my children. It is a book that will bring their imagination alive. If I was an elementary school teacher I would read it to my class every year.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret- I loooooove this book. Children's books are becoming just so much more sophisticated and therefore much more enjoyable for everyone. The book is 533 pages, but 300 of them are pictures that instead of illustrating what the words are saying, there are 5 or 6 pictures in a row that tell the story and then the words pick up where the pictures have left off. It's very creative and I look forward to reading the rest of his books. There is so much passion in the subject that he's writing about, it makes me want to be a clockmaker and build automata. Looooove it.

The Time Traveler's Wife-This is a beautiful love story that definitely does not follow your average plot line. It would almost be my favorite book if there wasn't so much sex and drugs in it, but there are, so it isn't. It's a very interesting book with the plot maneuvering in places you wouldn't think it would go. It doesn't end has happily as I would like it to, but it has a satisfactory ending.


I'm about to start I Capture the Castle which I hope is good. We'll see...