Golden Girls is the fashion back?

Many people will remember "Golden Girls," a sitcom from 1985-1992 .  If you have not experienced the show it is a must see!  Anyone who has seen this show could probably sing the theme song. " Thank you for being a friend. Travel down the road and back again...""


Who doesn't appriciate a good St Olaf joke?  Or the witty humor of Sophia "Silcily 1932...".  


Blanche: Now Rose... put yourself in my position.
Rose: Apparently I'm not limber enough!


Why am I writing about the golden girls?
One of the gifts I received from my Mother-in-law this Christmas was pajamas.  It is not unusual to get the yearly pj's, one year it was the silky pj's, then their was the super stretchy, and one year was the night gown. The years I get pajamas my Sister-in-laws always get the same ones with different patterns.  (Disclaimer:  I do not want anyone to think I don't LOVE these gifts because I appreciate everyone of them! And I am VERY thankful to have such a great Mother-in-law who takes good care of me)


I still have the super stretchy pj's and love them!  This years pj's were super soft and look like a warm fuzzy blanket.  It came with some bottoms and a zip up hoodie.  Who doesn't like a warm hoodie?  I wore them Christmas night and ended up kicking all the covers off.  Normally I am wrapped in what my husband calls my cocoon and have a heating pad on my feet.  Finally something that keeps me warm!!


My sis-in-law Samantha called me the very next day to talk to me about the extra warm pajamas.  While talking about them we both busted up laughing so hard we could barely speak. They may be warm and fuzzy but lack in attractiveness.  She called them "Golden Girl Pajamas" and it stuck.  The newly acquired name was a perfect description to my new lovely bedtime attire. One of the best features of the "golden girl" is that it makes your butt look overly ample.  They many not be pretty but the warmth factor made it worth it to look like Rose Nylund. I can appreciate warm pajamas.


After speaking to my Samantha I got an ah-Ha moment!  I will wear them snowboarding and stay warm! What a brilliant idea, my gluteus maximus has never been that warm on the lift.  It was after snow boarding that it really became and issue. I have to admit I was a bit embarrassed walking into the Victor gas station, and checking into our cabin in Jackson sporting my golden girl look  You know all the guys were checking me out.......and not in a good way!




Recently I asked my husband if he wanted to go to the basement and watch a movie.  I thought that enticing him to wrap up in a blanket and cuddle with me he would not realize I was duping him with a stupid chick flick.  I should not have been worried about the chick flick, I should have been concerned with the golden girl look.  He said  "Not unless you take off that thing you are wearing!"  Yes they are that sexy! I will post pictures of them with me not in them.  I will continue to wear the "golden girl" for the warmth.  If you ever get the chance to see me in my super sexy pj's please refrain from laughing until you walk away. :)

Guilt

The Dictionary defines GUILT as: feelings of culpability especially for imagined offenses or from a sense of inadequacy

I believe it should just say: Motherhood. 

Many mothers will know exactly what I am talking about. " The fruity pebbles for breakfast was not nutritious, I don't spend enough time, they sit in front of the television all day, leaving them to work, all I do is scream at my kids all day"  I have recently heard this from many moms with younger kids. 

As they get older it becomes different guilt missing the play, forgetting to send lunch money, and being late picking them up from activities.  The list goes on and on. 

My experience is that as my children get older it really never goes away.  In fact I think the decisions become more difficult and the guilt gets worse.  Every week we are faced with the decision of what activities we will attend and how much time we spend with each child.  Making it fair among the children is a hard thing to do.  I sometimes feel like the scale that is always off balance.  Finding the time to attend everything is rather difficult. They become more involved in activities and it becomes a delicate balancing act to attend all the activities. 

As a mother I want my children to know I support and love them.  I am facing what I call a "guilt weekend" and struggling with the decision of how to be the parent to all three kids. Kolton is running a college race in Nampa, I am committed to help McKenzie and the cheerleaders decorate and clean up for the sweetheart dance, and Kelsie has drivers ed.  Do I have enough time to decorate get to Nampa and back in time to clean up?  That just leaves Kelsie without a parent!  Do I force Kelsie to go with us to Nampa and back so I don't feel like I have abandoned her?  But if she comes then McKenzie is left home alone until the dance. Should one of us go to Nampa and the other parent stay home? Do we skip the race in Nampa?

In the end we are just parents doing the best we can to keep our heads above water. I will just have to accept being a mother means guilt.

Fire Breathing Dragon

Their is a stage of life that I like to refer to as the FIRE BREATHING DRAGON (FBD) stage.  This is a stage of life that most teenagers go through.  It generally starts between 14 1/2 and lasts until they are almost 16.  This is the time in their lives that the brain turns off and the mouth goes into overdrive.  Each one of my children have gone through this stage.  We thought that Kelsie was going to pass this stage and not turn into a Dragon.  But our hopes have been crushed.

  It starts out with back talk and then they become critical of everything you do and say as a parent.  All the skills you thought you had are now dumb and shall we say outdated.  Everyone else has better, smarter, trendier, and funner parents then you are or will ever be. My absolute favorite is when they critique you as a parent in front of others.  When you tell them no the fire gets hotter like adding gasoline to an already hot fire.  They say horrible things to their siblings and sometimes just say it to make the other one angry. 

  The last year McKenzie has been our FBD and sometimes Kelsie would look at her and say "are you stupid? you must want to be slapped".  Then she would tell me she would never turn into the FBD.  McKenzie is now coming out of this stage of life and FBD is getting less and less, just in time for Kelsie to take on the role.  McKenzie has seen the light and now can see the error in her ways and now gets a shocked look on her face when Kelsie turns into one.   I kind of remember Kolton being the FBD but it was so long ago and he has made up for most of the fire he spewed from his mouth.  I have hope that some day I will forget how bad the FBD stage was.  Kelsie keeps telling me she does not want to act this way and is really going to work on it!  I am not really sure you have control over your mouth at that age but if anyone can do it Kelsie will be the one to tame the FBD.
  The upside is this will be the last one of my children to be a FBD.  Most stages I miss this one I will not miss AT ALL!  I do see the light at the end of the tunnel when there are no FIRE BREATHING DRAGONS!

 

Time....

My kids are getting old! Every year passes with fun times but great sadness that we are moving on to a different stage of life.   As the years go on I am finding that we get busier and go from one activity to the next with little time to stop and enjoy. 

For Christmas this year we decided to take the kids on a trip and do less gifts and more fun.  This will be our last Christmas with Kolton until after his mission so we wanted to make it memorable. The best gift we could give our children is TIME.  It was a hard decision on where the right destination.  We looked at many options Cruise to Mexico, California, Seattle and BC Canada.  All great and fun choices.

One of our most memorable Christmases was five years ago when we spent a few weeks in Cocoa Beach.  That will be a holiday we will always remember.  The best way to have a great Christmas week...go on vacation.  We let Kolton make the decsion on the destination. What is his favorite past-time??? Snowboarding! And his favorite place? Teton Village! 

Booked a great cabin and hit the slopes.....

Life...

I have tried many times over the last year to update my blog. I have had no success doing this. Mostly because the last year has been so sad and exciting and full of personal moments.

My children are growing and while they are turning out amazing I find it hard to watch. Kolton hit so many milestones last year that turned him into a man. Each one made me cry. I found myself crying as I drove out of Arco for his last cross country meet in Arco. That was the moment I knew the year was going to be hard. Every meet after was very difficult with the happiness of his accomplishments and the sadness of it all ending. Track his senior was absolutely one of the most challenging and rewarding that he has ever had. He was in the top 10 for every race, making in the top 4 most races. He won the 2 mile in city county meet. Being the city/county Champ for 2010 was such motivation for him. The season was unbelievable he was almost guaranteed a spot for State. The week of the district meet Kolton got a sinus infection and strep and decided to run anyways. Watching him run his heart for the 1 and 2 mile races and getting 4th in both was heart wrenching. As the mom I wanted to pick him up and take him away from the pain but he needed the experience.

High school Graduation. I have so many thoughts on this. Nothing can prepare you for how hard it is to see your babies move on and go to the next stage of life. I have always had a hard time with each milestone, 1st birthday, 1st day in primary, 1st day of school, last day of elementary, go get the idea. Some parents want their kids gone and off to college to get them out of the house. I personally have had the opposite feelings not wanting him to go. I feel as if it has gone way to fast. Don't get me wrong! It is quite an accomplishment and such a fun time of his life. Following graduation he finished his Eagle Project and ran his 1st 1/2 marathon full filling his final goals before he want to college. College will have to be another post.

McKenzie....sweet sweet B. This last year was her first year in High School. As parents I am not sure you are ever ready for your baby girl to attend high school. As a freshman she really had to find herself. Running cross country was not really something she enjoyed it was something she did. Funny that this was the year she recruited her friends to run cross country and doubled the numbers of the team. Her first race at green canyon she placed 4th!!! Amazing race!

Kolton and Kenz became really good friends because they shared the high school experience. What a transformation to watch them go from siblings to good friends. The downside was knowing when he left for college it would be very difficult for her and it was.

She has such an amazing talent playing the piano. She uses this talent to bless the lives of so many around her. Most of the time she has no idea she is doing it.

This was her year of change. Becoming who she needed to be and not who others thought she should be. Kenz decided to try out to be a cheerleader and made it. It was a difficult thing to so because of the ridicule she received from so many people around her. "Stand out for what you believe in" This became her saying her freshman year.  Looking back now I am thankful she had a relatively quiet year because her sophomore year she made up for it.

Kelsie started her 8th grade year off a little rough.  In August at a family reunion she broke her arm on a slide.  After a trip to the ER in Pocatello on Friday, a visit to the Orthopaedic surgeon on Monday, and surgery on Tuesday it was quite an ordeal for her.  But we love her million dollar arm! It is her favorite afterall. She was angry about not being able to run cross country.  The day she had surgery was the first day of practice.  After many prayers and priesthood blessing she was able to run part of the season and got in a few races before the season ended. The last race of the season she got 9:30 for1.5 miles. Yeah a PR!

After starting the year so crazy she coasted by just quietly to finish off middle school.   Her track season was fun and fast.  Most of the meets were canceled due to really bad weather.  It was fun to see her get faster and be better.  She learned a valuable lesson about pressure and being the top runner.  It was hard for her handle being amazing and the top runner for long distance.  I hope she learned a valuable lesson from her experiences in track and uses them through out her life.



Funny how life can go by so fast. I feel like I am standing back watching my life go in extra fast forward. It was such a hard transition year.  I was lamenting to a friend about how sad I was to see life pass me by.  She gave me great advice "Every stage of life is fun.  You would never want to go back to babies or preschool age.  Find the fun in every stage"  Being an empty nester is something I have dreaded for many years.  Not because I dont love to spend time with Kelly but because I have to re-invent who I am. I have been the mother for 18 years and loved every minute.  She also told me not many people get to be empty nesters at 41, it will be a great ride.  Find the fun in every stage of LIFE...............

Logan Top of Utah

This may end up being lengthy…I apologize for that! I need to write this before I forget my experience and what the Top of Utah Marathon (TOU) means to me. I want to start off by saying how truly grateful I for my ability to run and for my body to endure these long and strenuous miles I put it through. I thank my heavenly father everyday for this wonderful gift. I have wanted to TOU for the last 4 years and every year some obstacle has gotten in the way. I was starting to think TOU was not ever going to be a reality. This was the year I decided no matter what happened I was going to run TOU and finish TOU even if it took me 6 hours! Back in May I signed Kelly and I up for this marathon, something I have never done because something always got in the way. I committed to this race and was not going to back out! I was not going to let my sinus problems, injuries, or my children's cross country get in the way of this race. TOU will be lucky number 6 marathon and the one marathon I really want to run.

I started training for this race and was getting really excited to run TOU. By the middle of July I started having bad pain in my left calf but still continued to run on it being very careful about my distance. Kelly and I ran the Ririe Days ½ marathon and I knew at the time this may not have been the smartest idea but my determination was greater than the pain. I know that was a stupid idea and hindered my training for TOU. I went out 3 days after the Ririe race and could only run a ½ mile. I knew I was in trouble and called my sports medicine guy to come and fix it. Only certain injuries can be fixed, stress fractures cannot! Lesson Learned J I had to stop running and training for TOU, it was time to let my leg rest. I pulled out the bike and started to train on my bike without the impact. This is not nearly as effective but it does help.

I had to give up running Mesa Falls Half because I was still having pain. This was one of the half marathons I love to run but I had my sights set on TOU and needed to stay focused. When I was able to run again I had 3 ½ weeks until TOU so I had to go out slow but get in the distance. Long runs were slower than I wanted but I knew I had to take it easy. Two weeks before the marathon I started having bad knee pain in my right side, AGH! I went to the Dr and it is tendonitis in my knee from over compensating for the injured left leg! Just my luck!!!! What to do? Keep running your training for a marathon! I actually back my training off a little bit and started biking and running to give both legs relief. The last week before the marathon I decided not to run and let my legs rest and hopefully all the pain and inflammation would go away. Friday Sept 11^th the kids had a cross country meet I had a hard time walking up and down the hills it was so painful in both legs. I actually considered at not running TOU, if I could not walk up and down hills how was I going to run a marathon? This next part may sound really strange to some of you but it is part of my story and it need to be told. I prayed and prayed for Heavenly Father to help me get through this. I wanted it so bad and I knew I needed his help. Wednesday of last week my legs started feeling so good and I knew I would be able to run the race. I made the decision to run TOU at all cost knowing I was going into it with odds stacked against me and with the potential of taking 6 hours or not finishing.

Friday the 18^th my children had a cross country meet in Rigby. I was not going to let them run so we could get into Logan at a decent hour. Last minute I changed my mind…..and it was so worth it. Kelsie ran her first race of the season! Kenzie did amazing even with a potty stop! Kolton ran a 17:48 in 16^th place! That was motivation for me to go out and do my best. We got to Logan at 9:00pm. Packet pick up for the race ended at 9 but they were wonderful and still let us get our packets!

I have never cried at the beginning of a marathon only at the end. The first mile I got a little teary because I could not believe I had made it! Every mile was wonderful and every step I took I was thankful for. Kelly and I chose to run this together because our family was going to be there and we knew it would be easier for them to find us. We have never run a full marathon together this was a new experience for us. Mile 20 I was on track for a 4:30 marathon feeling good knowing I had 6 miles to go! YEAH! Mile 21 my knee went to jello and gave out. I had to start walking and running slower if I was going to finish. Having my family there for encouragement helped so much. All of my kids ran with me for part of the course. Kolton stayed with us for 8 miles. I finished with a 4:55 and that's what I wanted to finish! I had to be happy and not discouraged I could not get a PR. With all the obstacles that got in my way finishing was amazing. I still am a little bummed that until mile 20 I was having a good race but I will get over thatJ.

I had my sister Robbie her husband Matt and son Patrick, My mother in law, and my children being amazing cheer leaders! Great signs great fun! Our new motto "girls with cute shoes run fast" ! The meaning behind it is " even though you are struggling and not having the best day or race put one foot in front of the other and finish what you started" I don't know if they will ever understand what it meant to me to have them cheering, I don't know if I would have finished without them. Kelly made this race to fun and memorable he brought a camera, phone, and fruit snacks. He had so much energy and was so excited to see his wife in this new way. He has only seen the long run Jennifer and not the marathoner. He pulled me through this race and made me laugh along the course talking to our family and trying to fix hotel problems while running down the road. I love him so much for this!

Everything we do in life is a lesson and a growing experience. I have found that marathons teach me determination. You can do anything if you set your mind to it I knew I would not have the time I wanted but I knew I could finish. TOU was such a growing experience for me and a very humbling experience.

 

Happy Birthday Kelsie!

I am really sucking at this blog thing.....

Yesterday my baby girl turned 13. Now we are onto the adventure of raising teenagers. Today we took her to downata to swim WHAT A BLAST! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELSIE