The race

Well, I noticed that I haven't posted anything for such a long time. We've been getting all of those last days of summer taken care of, and getting back into the swing with school starting again. I've had a range of emotions as I re-adjust to my quiet house and being able to shop and do things I want (when I want) a little more often now while the kids are away. I headed to the temple last week - that was great since I haven't been able to do just a me trip since last spring. So - school is underway and I've been trying to really evaluate and make sure that I keep my perspective. My kids and family are really the most important - it is so easy to get caught up in everything else, but that's my focus, and I've been surprised at how much happier everyone is when I remember this and when I find joy in serving my family and kids.

Due to the 42 tardies our kids had last year, we've re-evaluated some things and made some changes. While the girls are still taking gymnastics, they were invited to move to the next level. The next level however, involves 4 hours of gymnastics a week. Add piano lessons and homework and our girls are keeping very busy. As such, they've been getting lunches and clothes ready the night before, and then getting up in between 6 & 6:30. We are able to have breakfast together and move our scripture reading to breakfast time which is nice because they get to spend some time with their dad in the morning. After breakfast, they do their morning chores and do their practicing. While I don't really love to get up in the mornings, I'm amazed at how much happier everyone is when we stick to this schedule.

Okay - so my husband ran a race today near Price Utah. I have to say - we did a LOT of driving in 24 hours for such a short race. I was really bummed. He was SO nervous since he's never run a full marathon. Halfs - no biggee, but this was new.
Unfortunately, the marathon he chose had a great intriguing name, but it wasn't so great.

I did get ill (literally) for 3 days prior to as I tried to find a decent hotel. The only available ones got such awful reviews, I really got sick to my stomach when I thought about staying in them. Finally, I found the only decent place in the area and was SO relieved.
My husband didn't sleep well last night (before the race) (not that I could blame him) but while we agreed to get everyone up at 5:20, he was up and ready at 5:12 and so anxious for us to all be ready to drop him off. Too bad the drop off was 30 minutes away. So, we dropped him off and then found out that there's no finish line to that particular race. Apparently they bussed them up a canyon and dropped them off. There was really no place to go up and park and watch them cross the finish line. BUMMER

So - 3.5 hours after the race started, we went to see him get bussed back down into town. Except that his bus had to wait for over 40 minutes for race results to be brought back down and so he didn't get down until after 12:30.

To kill time, we played at the park for a while and hit the local case lot sale at the grocery store in the meantime. Then we drove home. That's it. We dropped him off in the dark and saw him 6 hours later. He says he ran the race, but we never saw anything (he did smell like it though).

He said it was the worst race he'd ever run. And scenery wise - he said it was downright ugly. So - at least he can check it off his list of goals, and he learned quite a bit about himself in the process.

I'm proud that he was able to do it. One anecdote he shared with me was that his race was 40 minutes longer than he'd anticipated it would take him. Well, behind him a runner came in and she was quite a bit older than he. He said that it was very obvious that she was very sick. She was bald and looked like she'd been going through chemo. When she crossed the finish line after him, her nose was bleeding and she looked pretty rough. Regardless of this, she was ecstatic that she'd finished. Perspectivewise - my husband ran double her distance and still beat her, but she was so thrilled and happy that she'd made it. Kind of puts things into perspective.
Carpe diem I think