Marathon 2007

Everyone knows by now I LOVE to RUN! And every year I decide to run MARATHON. I had planned on the Logan marathon on Sept and found due to my great allergies that was not going to happen....so once again I was sucked into the Las Vegas Marathon. A group from Kelly's work ran it this year so they invited us and i just could not say no.

Kelly ran the half marathon due to his Achilles tear, and I ended up being the only one running the marathon out of the entire group that went to Vegas. Everyone had a reason why they could not do the full marathon so I was on my own.

Kelly was awesome this year he ran a 1:36 half marathon at a 7:22 mile pace! Wow I was impressed. He had this great idea to drive instead of flying so he could take his bike and after he was finished running come find me on the marathon course. After running a GREAT half Kelly rode his bike 8 miles and found me at mile 18. He brought the video camera so I got some great footage of my marathon and it was fun to have him with me the last few miles.

It is good to have it over with and have a small break before I start training for the Ogden marathon. I am thankful for my ability to continue to put my body through such grueling training. I could never do this without help from all my family (Kelly for training with me, the kids for taking care of themselves on Sat mornings, for SAM who picks up my kids and runs them when I am late during my long runs!!!, for everyone who takes care of our kids when we are at the marathon...countless names!)

Running a marathon is an emotional thing, I have found that talking to many marathoners that you get a little teary eyed after you cross the finish line and even after FIVE I still cried.
I think it is because during the marathon you go through a wide variety of emotions. I find ANGELS along the course that keep you motivated; The volunteer at mile 6 that cheers your name and tells you your amazing. Mile 11 I stopped and walked because my leg was cramping and this lady yells my name and says " Jennifer take a banana it will help!" I wish I could have found this lady after the marathon to thank her. The bands along the course with ROCKIN music that make you run harder. Spectators are awesome without them I LOVE THEM! My husband that tells me how great I am! By the end I have been happy, sad, frustrated, in pain, and angry. I guess that is why you cry! Mile 24 I was at 3:58 time I was on track for my 4:20 marathon. Somewhere in the last 2 miles I struggled and ended with a 4:31 better that last years! So I am happy!
Enjoy the video!!!!

Thanksgiving

wow......I love tradition! It was fun to hang with the Williams Clan! We had the ever traditonal dinner in the hottub room with the fireplace blasting! the football game, store ads strewn out all over the place, and gingerbread houses being put together. how can you mess with tradition.

We had a great time and went home to sleep for an hour before we got up the next morning to hit the stores for GREAT DEALS!!!

We spent Saturday with my family doing non traditional, however WE HAD FUN! Lunch at chuck a rama and then went bowling. Good times

My goal is to get through the weekend and then we get ready for vegas marathon......

dresses

Everyone loves little girls...and when they arrive in our lives we tend to smother them in PINK and bows. When you see the little girl with the cute dress and a big skirt you tend to stare and love that she is such a cutie. Most girls understand the "twirly Skirt" when you spin it just sticks out and you feel like a princess.

Having two girls I always dressed them in big puffy dresses with shoes and bows to match and every Easter and Christmas we would go dress shopping. And the fuller the skirt the cuter the dress.

Anyone who has read my blog recently understands I am now going through parental changes and i find it excited and sometimes very tearful. Today I went dress shopping and it made me a little teary...I bought big girl dresses for my baby girls. No more large bows tied in the back around the bodice and no more pink spongy rollers in the hair to make it curly. No more large bows protruding from under the blonde curly hair or cute little heart tights..........that chapter has closed and I leave it somewhat sad however its time to start the next book.

It was so fun to pick out trendy dresses! Stuff that I would wear shoes that we can all share. Seeing them change from baby girls to teenagers is going to be a fun road. I am excited for the journey.

CHEERLEADER MOMENT!

This is a TOTAL brag story! After having to delay my long run due to weather and health issues I finally got out today. I generally do my long runs with Kelly. After looking at our schedules and the weather forecast I knew we were on our own!!! I made several attempts at finding a friend to run a portion with me and with no luck I was on my own.....I don't do long runs alone!

So today I sucked it up and put on my cutest running clothes filled the MP3 with great tunes (who cant enjoy a little ABBA "Dancing Queen" mixed with a little OZZY?) turned on the GPS and out the door I went.


It is amazing that I needed to get in 15 miles and all the people I encountered
at first it was the psuedo excercise group. Moms in strollers causaully walking and the new runners just trying to get mileage, then the INL government workers out for a "LUNCH" jog (of course we all know then they take the 30 min lunch after the hour run) and then to my surprise, nursing homes drop the elderly off for a stroll around the greenbelt. Is that safe?

MILE 7.5 I pretty much feel as if I am amazing
Mile 10 ok maybe it hurts, My mind wanders to my kids and them cheering me on at
races....GO MOM...They are great motivation.
mile 11 AM I STUPID? who pays 100$ to run marathons and have to train for them?
Mile 13 Ok you can do this!FOCUS!!!
Mile 14 one more (it does not matter if you are running 5 or 15 or 26 the last mile
I think is the hardest, Just finish!

Mile 15 I think I am pretty much a super hero! And I do have to thank GOD daily that
I have the body and the ability to run and feel like a SUPER HERO!

Technology love or hate

Ok this is just a quick thing!
I have become quite dependant on my Garmin GPS unit when I run. Not very often do I have problems with it, and if I do it is always the fault of the user (me). I LOVE that I know my mileage, pace, overall pace and other various types of information.

this weekend on a long run I lost signal some where AHHHH! I was really angry about this. I heard it beep at 10 miles so I knew I was on track for my goal for the day. Kelly stops me about 3/4 miles later and asked me what my mileage was because his was wrong! Can you believe it had actually subtracted miles from my total! I was robbed!!

Those darn satellites! If I ran those miles I want credit...............Thanks for listening

catching up!

I received an email from my cousin that reminded me that it had been a while since I have posted..........................

the first reason was our Internet connection that we were borrowing required a password and I was not given the password! So I had to go back to my crappy dial-up connection, and I found to post was almost impossible. So I have been looking for high speed Internet. I finally found the right provider for me. And for you that think my borrowing is dishonest, i have left mine unsecured for all the months that I borrowed. Just to make it fair.

Second, our lives have been CRAZY! Kelly's job has been getting a little more time consuming and he was spending more time at work trying to make deadlines.

Third, OUR SUMMER!!!! If we had the time to fit in one more thing we would have tried! From the moment that school got out in may until school got back in until august we were out of town and BUSY! We did just about everything you could do! It started with out of town baby blessings (Clifford Fell and Lucas Williams), weekenders to sun valley, star valley, gooding, boise, and palisades. We took a GREAT vacation to Disneyland and stopped in Vegas on our way to California, spent some time in Cour 'd Alene at the Lake. And between girls camp and high adventure those took two weeks of vacation from Kelly and I. Kelly brought a calender home with out summer schedule and we maybe had 2 weekends open, then Kelly,s brother announced his engagement to get married in the summer. We got home from girls camp just in time to make it to the wedding. Then you have the annual Williams Family Rodeo, and the work party in the same weekend. And we spent Labor Day weekend with my family in Yellowstone.

I have never been happier to see a summer end. We are now getting ready for the Vegas marathon and I hope not to leave town again until then.

So now with great Internet and Kelly being home a little more, and our family being home more I will post more often.

Driving

Recently I have become a mother of a teenage driver. It has been quite a roller coaster, literally. In January Kolton got his permit and enrolled in Drivers ED. May he finished Drivers Ed and was released to his Idaho Mandated 4 months of supervised driving. When i received my license you just got to drive, trial and error none of this crap of driving with a parent. I think this is punishment for the parents. My very favorite day was almost rear ending 2 cars, moving over to oncoming traffic so the driver behind us could get around since we were making a left hand turn, and merging onto the hwy 20 without yield for the semi that was skidding so he would not hit us. All of these things happened in a short 5 mile drive to the river. WOW!

It is true that the things you learn in the Barnyard make you a better person, It was great to see the Driver Kolton became after moving to the farm. I don't want the details nor do I ever need to know how far he went alone, but wow it was much improved. I thought we were making progress until the day we let him take out the old beater truck we bought for him to drive. (83' ford ranger stick shift) I had this bright idea to let him drive Kelly and I in "the truck" to pick up the pizza. As we leave the parking lot he decided to dart across the road to the other parking lot. this road is 5 lane traffic and we have people coming at all sides! That was it, I am done.

I went to work and complained about my parenting woes, and my great friend turned on my light bulb. she said " I just got to the point that it was better that they just drove alone because they were going to be scary if I was with them or not" What a profound statement.

Last Monday Sept 24 Kolton PASSED the drivers tests and is now a proud owner of a license!

Not only did he pass he got 100% of the driving test and only missed 1 on the written. I commented the the instructor how he must have nerves of steel to do this job, his reply was "not very often do I give 100 on the driving portion he did great" I was along for the ride and I did my "hand thing" as Kolton would call it many times during the drive. SO I am obviously a little more nervous than I need to be. Well now another chapter closed in my book of life. On to the next.....

NEW ADDITION

I just realized I wrote this long story about our new puppy Morty, however when we got our new dog Sydney I never wrote a thing.



So to make a long story short....We decided we wanted to have puppies so we have been looking for a little girl. After a long search in Idaho, Montana, and Utah. We were just not having any luck with finding one. So I got online and found 2 girls in Oregon. Our choices were a 8 week old and a 2 1/2 year old. Kelly chose the financial aspect and went for the 2 year old.

The first question I get from everyone "Why were they getting rid of her?" It was an older couple and they were having some health problems and could not take care of her anymore. they actually had 3 dogs and were selling all of them. So we bought their girl, Penny which we changed her name to Sydney. She has been quite the addition to our home. Not only do I not beleive in dogs I also was also never going to have another. OH MY GOSH I LOVE HER!

She is 3 lbs and is quite the princess dog, so she fits our family perfect. Because she is so small she goes everywhere with us. I put her in the pink dog bag and decided to head out to the store. An employee of the Store came up to me and said " Ma'am we do not allow animals in the store" so what do i do? OH ok, and head to the other side of the store. Animnal? sydney is not an animal Really!

For all of you that know mw very well you all know I have a strong dis-liking for canines. these cute dogs have changed me!! AHHH. Just recently I even stopped and talked to a dog walker around the river about the cute dog they were walking. I hated the dog walkers around the river, the path was for running!

I guess change is good

Life Changing Experiences

One year ago..............
It is the anniversary of the New Horizons Pluto Launch. I have recently spent time reminicing about this event. The year and a 1/2 leading up to this day was so different than I had expected and planned for.
So heres a little background...
May 2004
I just started a new job with the Red Cross and was training over in Boise. Kelly and I knew there would be a possibility of him getting this new job working in the Space battery program and knew it would be a high demand job. The weekend before I left we were unsure of my new job knowing that I was going from 12 hrs a week to 20-24 hrs week. However Monday morning I got on the plane and flew to Boise. Friday before I got back on the plane to head home I recieved a call frofm Kelly "HE GOT THE JOB". Now we were faced with my new job and his new job. I decided to keep my job because Kelly would not start his job until Oct.

Fall 04 to Jan 06

This was the time in our lives that Kelly worked 72 hour weeks, various shifts and various days. We felt like we were living in a different world. I have gained a new respect for single parents. I know we had weeks that all we could do was make it through the week, the day, or sometimes just through the hours. Our family was in survival mode. We only survived because of the outside help we recieved.
Jan 19, 2006
We were at Kennedy Space Center watching the fastest rocket ever launched head to Pluto. That was a monumental day for our family. Our lives went back to normal and we knew what it felt like to have a Dad in our home again.
As I said before Kelly started this Job in Fall of 04, early on during training they told these 12 guys who were hired just for this project "take a picture of your family because until this rocket gets launched you wont see them." WOW they were not kidding.

A year later it is easy to look back and forget how bad it was at the time. We would never have made it through this experience without family. So many people stayed withour kids while we were working or picked them up from activities. We are so thankful for the help we recieved. It is so nice to be able to look beyond ourselves and be able to help others.

Kelly is required to go into the schools and talk about the projects they are working on. It has been fun to go and listen to him speak on the Pluto project and the recent Jupiter fly by. Now we just get to sit back and enjoy the fun it brings. The next project that they are working on is the Mars Rover which is scheduled to launch sometime in fall of 09. My hope is that since we are down to 18 months they meet deadlines so he is not working 72 hrs a week!!!

Birthdays

I am having a hard week....My little princess girl will be turning 12 in less than 2 weeks. This is such a milestone birthday, I feel like it is a coming of age. This is the birthday where you start to grow up and be a woman.

When I think about it the tears flow and I just want to stop time. When McKenzie was born our world changed. She made us better parents and better people. We were not sure if we were having a boy or girl. When the doctor said "Its a girl" both Kelly and I were overwhelmed with emotions. We now had this little baby girl to raise and take care of. She was the highlight of our lives.

It was a hard adjustment for the first few weeks of bringing her home. King Kolton was not our only priority and on many occasions he would ask us to bring her back to the hospital. He had a rough time being the only child, grandchild, and nephew on both sides of our families. He now had to share to glory, and with a girl.

My favorite thing about McKenzie as a little girl was her love for being girly. Her world was pink. she would tell you her eyes were pink and her hair was pink. We could not leave the house without hair bows, matching outfit and matching shoes. What little 1 yr old needs 10 pairs of shoes?

She knew she had to grow up fast to get ready for her unexpected baby sister
(Kelsie is 16 months younger). It seems as from the time she was born we were going 100 miles an hour. At 5 months she was crawling by 8 months she was walking and by her first birthday we bought a jungle gym so she would quit climbing on the counters and piano. She kept us going and going and going.....Things have not changed she keeps us going and going and going. I wonder how she manages 3 days of dance, piano, basketball, snowboarding, and school. All sometimes within the same day. And then I remember this is our baby girl that we would find on top of dinning room table and she would go and go and go. So what should I expect?

As her birthday draws closer I spend time remembering the past 12 years and how they have flown. If the past 12 are any indication of the next 12 it will be a great ride into womanhood. I am afraid for me it will be a tearful 12 years I have a hard time seeing my children get older.

So Kenz this blog is for you because you bring us sunshine everyday. Your beautiful smile gets us every time. You have always been such a pretty girl and every year you become more beautiful. WE LOVE YOU!!!

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN!!!!

Children are a funny thing. They have this way of talking you into something you never really thought you would ever do. I need to start with a little history so you can fully appreciate my little story. Kolton as a little boy always wanted a dog, and we had many attempts of getting him a dog. All the stories ended in tragedy, which we will not get into. So soon after McKenzie was born we learned she was allergic to dogs. This was a small misfortune for Kolton.

After a few months of research we found that poodles work well for allergy suffering people. Anyway as most of you know we had a white poodle that became part of our family and ran our house. Long story short....after we moved into our new house she struggled with the move and had a hard time being around little children. So she had to depart from our lives.

We said never again will we ever ever have another dog. OH MY GOSH!!! WE TOTALLY BUCKLED!!! McKenzie came to us with a proposal and we said no, every week she came to us with a different proposal and through time we finally said yes. So Kelsie and McKenzie pulled their funds together and bought a Yorkshire Terrier, we named him MORTY. The great thing about this dog he will only get to be between 4-7lbs so he is smaller than some cats. It is funny how he has grown on all of us.

Puppies do Funny things to people. The girls opened a separate savings account for puppy money. The CU we use is located at the site so Kelly has to deposit money and so forth. After a week of the girls giving him money to deposit the bank ladies had to ask why he was making all of these small deposits. He told them about this puppy and now when he goes in he has to give them updates on the puppy and email them the newest pictures.

Kolton thought this dog was just a boring piece of fluff when we first brought him home. He had to be responsible for him the weekend Kelly and I were in Vegas. When we returned home Kolton informed us that he was the dogs favorite and actually he would only hang with Kolton for a few days.

One Of my big objections to having a dog is we are busy people who are never home. Who was going to take care of the dog? We bought a cute PINK dog bag and we take him where ever we go. We picked him up DEC 1st so he came Christmas shopping with us, he goes to dance performances, basketball games, and anywhere we think we can take him. He has learned to be mobile and that is a good thing.

Kelly and I set rules for this dog and some people think we are mean, however it has paid off because he has been easy to train. He is not allowed to just roam around our house. HE is never to touch the carpet EVER! When we are not playing with him or taking care of him he has to stay in his bed or Kennel. The rules go on and on.....He does try to test us, last week he ran into the living room down the hall and back into the kitchen and jumped back into his bed. He knows he is not allowed on the carpet but I think he thought it was fun.

As a family he has brought a little joy into our lives. The girls have been very responsible they trade days taking care of him. At six in the morning we have not heard many grumblings about taking him outside. I wake up the girls when he is barking in the morning Kelly feels sorry for them and takes the dog out himself. Sometimes it feels like we have a new baby in our house again, and some nights have been bad. Over all I think we are all happy and he has definitely grown on us. I have really liked the company he gives while the kids are at school, at least now when I talk to myself the dog listens. If you asked each of us who the favorite is I know we would all say ourselves... We have crossed over to being "DOG PEOPLE"

NEW YEAR

I have these great thoughts when I am running, snowboarding, or during outdoor activities. I just wish I had a word processor in my head so In could later take my Pen drive and upload them out of mt brain and download them onto my computer. Really it would just be helpful if I had a USB port on the side of my head it would be a great way to transfer information. And maybe my great profound thinking when uploaded would really just be gibberish and ridiculous.

Anyway as a family we went snowboarding. I always love when we can spend a day on the hill and not have 20 little friends come with us. (which does not happen that often) I sat on the side of the hill and watched each of the kids, all have their own style of boarding and each one is at a different level. I love to see the bonding that takes place and each one of them helping the other. We take turns riding with each other, so throughout the day we are able to spend 10 min increments with each other on the lift just talking. It felt good to see the hills covered in snow it was so pretty. The ski hill is just a good place to build friendships. We ran into some friends and Kelly's Aunt that have the same age kids as us. It was so nice to do a few runs together. I think friendships grow stronger and relationships deepen in such a serene place.

I always have my usual goals every year

1. Lose weight

2. run a marathon

3. find more time

out of all of then all I accomplish is the marathon. I love cookies to much to lose weight. I cannot add more hours to the day soooo. This year my goal is to make someones life better everyday. Find the person who needs a pick me up or call a friend that I only send Christmas cards to. It is time in my life to look beyond just my family and living everyday. This sounds a bit cheesy, and my sisters would agree(They think I am kind of a cheesy person). I believe you need to seek out those who need you. In our ward we have this great Lady from Star Valley, Luann Egan who gave this talk and she told of this story of some neighbors that were giving them a hard time. The moral of her story was "kill them with kindness" Kelly and I have had to use that this year and what a difference. Even when we were right we apologized and went out of our way to make them happy. It made such a difference I think it has inspired me.

My goals this year

1. Run a marathon

2. look for someone daily to love

3. Lose weight! (to you all that say, You look good. I say obviously I do not want it bad enough.

TO THE COOKIES!!!