Self Portaits

best I've seen in a while...
this is one of the ways she spends her time at soccer practice/games

I didn't, but I did

that could be applied to many aspects of my life for good or naught. This particular reference is to my third annual Women's Festival 5K. It's held in the Indianhead neighborhood, cute little area - with hills - small detail of much importance. I loved the hill factor the first year because going downhill gave me some steam. No so much the case this year.

I'm not a runner...why I've decided to take this venture up is beyond me. Until three years ago the only mile I ever ran was in high school for an ROTC requirement and I had a fierce retired Army colonel on my heels making sure I finished.

So some twenty years later, Brandon and I are on a date at a very non healthy mexican restuarant and I see a flyer advertising this race. I ask Brandon as he's rolling me to the car after dinner, you think I could do this? His response was, next year? This was two months before the race for the current year, fair question but I was still insulted and thereby determined.

I found a program called couch to 5k in two months, and thought, Hey that's me. It worked for the most part. It was a slow, painful start, but I started and kept with it. I was super nervous on race day. I ran/walked it but I finished it and I wasn't last, definitely in the bottom, but not last. I loved the atmosphere of the race, the different stories you could see.

I didn't run another race until the following year, same race, but not alone, MJ (six months prego) and MA (placed fourth in her age category- props to both) came along and that added an extra umph and I made better time.

I did the turkey trot that year as well and it was raining, but it was nice not to have the hills.

And finally to year three, great goodness, how did this get so winded? So I wasn't thinking doing the race, but my friend Rachel moved back into town and we started the couch to 5k program so I knew I needed to do this race and I really, really thought I might be able to run the whole thing. The Saturday before I ran two miles for the first time ever.

I tried psyching myself up, but I forgot about those hills, not about them all together, but their slight steepness in places, length in others and quantity.

I also ate tons of crap days before the race...go figure.


At one point as I was climbing one of the last two hills , I kept repeating... it's just a hill, it's gotta go down, it's just a hill, it's gotta go down.

cue Chariot's of Fire theme....

This hill decided it was not going down anytime soon, not high but long...I stopped chanting and one more hill after that I stopped running :(.

kill Chariot's of Fire theme.....

Bummer.

But,
cue Rocky theme....

I didn't accomplish all I wanted, I did come closer and I will continue until it's done.....

it's stated in cyberspace now so I have to live up to it.

I'm going to do the turkey trot again this year and hope for dry weather and give it my all...there are no goal threatening hills, not that I recall anyway. :)

kill Rocky theme

I wanna

go foreign, I am posting this so that I remember that.

For the most part I've always thought of leaving the mother country unappealing.
Seriously, we have everything and it's all so wonderfully familiar. If you are rude or offensive at least you're aware of how to do it, for the most part. I'm afraid in a foreign land I'd leave foot tracks everywhere of appalled people.

Wait, I kind of do that now. Anyways, it all changed today when I happened up this blog....

http://thelawfamilyblog.blogspot.com/

Beautiful.

I wanna.

Now just to sell off one of the kids to get a boarding pass. They're so crazy cute I would probably just have to rent them out while I was gone :), maybe a couple cause I'd Brandon to come too.

Always good to have something to work towards, just add this one to the list!

Aged to Perfection

36 and counting......every year is better!

I love you babe, Happy Birthday!

Music

I suppose I don't love music more than many others, but it feels like I do :). I love, love, love it. Brandon's piano playing was definitely part of the draw to him for me. (deep sigh).

This past weekend we were able to go to a concert with Marvin Goldstein on piano and Jenny Oaks Baker on violin. We arrived early and were third in row..such nerds. But we could watch Marvin's hands move and that was amazing. He did a couple of medleys of hymns and then more modern lds music, both beautiful. He finished with Phantom of the Opera and my did he finish. I didn't know anything of Phantom until my early 20s and fell in love with the music. I have never the production in person, but saw the movie. Not so in love with the movie. Anyway, I wish I had a recording of Marvin's rendition to share.

Then Jenny Baker comes on with a beautiful dress and she first played my very favorite hymn, Come thou Fount. I was glad I sat close too due to the fact that there was prerecorded music that was loud and it made her playing hard to hear and her playing was very good.
Then she played a suite from one of my favorite movies, Far and Away. She also played Over the Rainbow, and All Creatures of our God and King (my kids like a hip hop version of this I have on some deseret cd). One of the very best pieces was one I had not heard before. It's from a movie called "The Mission", titled Gabriel's Oboe.....beautiful, beautiful. Maybe you had to be there, but you should try it out on youtube and see what you think. I loved it.

I left wanting to buy a violin for all of us to learn at home and anticipating the next time Brandon sat down at the piano. I'll probably put off the violin purchase for a bit, even though Jenny Baker picked it up at four, but I didn't have to wait long for Brandon. He got Phantom fever too and played a couple of pieces. (Deep sigh). Nothing like a concert at home! It wasn't Marvin Goldstein, but, for me, watching him, it was better.

Grandma and Grandpa Great

Grandpa and Grandma Great - they prefer this title over Great Grandpa/Grandma

I'm on a roll....

Last month, Susan's (Brandon's mom) siblings and parents gathered for the Adamson reunion. Part of the entrance fee was to bring a memory from childhood and a miracle from the past year. All of the Adamson "children" are great storytellers which they apparently get from their parents. Below is Susan's memory.

Some of my favorite parts are Grandpa saying, last one asleep is a rotten egg and I'm asleep already - it reminds me of something Brandon might do with the kids, if he's not too tired. And Susan remembering the touch, smell and instruction from her mom. The sheet comment recalled a memory of watching my grandma hanging clothes out and the smell good off the line sheets.

Hopefully, Cole, Laura and Hannah will someday appreciate the glimpse into the "simpler" days. Years down the road or when video games are obliterated.


Sleep Time Memories
from Sue
As you are a parent for awhile, and again as a grandparent, years later, you think about sleep differently than you did as a kid or even as a teenager.
As a child you fight going to sleep until you just can’t fight it any longer. Later you put off sleep in order to do things–usually selfish things–involving fun, but that isn’t too great a problem because when you ARE asleep you can sleep through anything and well into the next afternoon.
As the parent of a newborn you begin to crave sleep and long for a full night’s uninterrupted sleep. After a few more children arrive you become accustomed to getting by with far less sleep than you thought you needed, and it seems easier after a while. However, an afternoon nap, even just a few winks, especially when you have been working hard, is precious. You realize that sleep is a necessity.
My memory is of having a nap with Dad. He was still farming at this time, in the days when farmers really worked hard physically , and we had our large meal, dinner, at noon. Afterward, Dad would usually ask, “Who wants to have a nap with me?” Of course, none of us wanted to sleep, but we did want to be with Dad as much as we could. What kind of response he got I can’t recall, but we’d all (I think there were at least 3 of us then) go into the Master Bedroom and lie down side by side, laughing and giggling. (We were such good kids. I wonder if we all usually fell asleep and gave Mom some much needed rest time. I hope so. I can vaguely recall waking up once and seeing that Dad was gone back to work.)
In order to get the sleep he must have needed so badly, Dad would always say something like, “Last one asleep is a rotten egg.” That was followed by absolute silence as we each tried to go right to sleep or, more likely, fake it better than the others. Dad must have gotten a real chuckle out of that.
On this particular day, Dad broke the silence and his chance of getting some sleep by creating total pandemonium when he called out, “I’m asleep already!”
Thanks, Dad, for a happy childhood.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mom had ways of making bedtime pleasant, too. How many of us can remember marching off to bed to Mom’s piano rendition of “March of Norma”? And an introduction to opera, too! We always had clean sheets (smelling so fresh- off- the- clothesline good) and nightgowns (undoubtedly home sewn by Mom–Where did she ever get the time?) on Saturday nights.
Probably one of my very earliest memories is of some of us (at least two) dressed in our pajamas or nightgowns, lining up along the couch. Mama must have been tired at the end of a long day after caring for two or three little kids, but she sat on the arm of the big, maroon, overstuffed sofa, waiting, watching, as we each took our turn. I remember loving her touch and even the sweet, warm smell of her. I remember how warm and good and safe and loved I felt. What I know about the Peace and Love of God I learned first from the peace and love of Mama as I knelt at her knees and she taught me how to pray.
Eternal thanks, Mom.

Perfection

See that silly reminder post reminded me...and it's not anything grand, mainly inspired by the shoes.

We went school shopping and have a few finds that were just...perfect!


Perfect Shirt for Cole...all about gaming















Perfect shoes for Laura, and perfectly not school shoes.



And we're walking through wal-mart not looking for a backpack for Hannah. Happened upon this one and it couldn't stay hanging on the rack when it truly belonged on the back of my three year old. Talk about representin'? Perfectly.



You know us Porters, settling for nothing less than perfection!