Scott's 10th Birthday and Dogs do like Banana Bread

Scott is officially 10 years old now. He opened some presents last night. Tonight will be the family dinner where he picks the restaurant. Here are a couple pictures:

Scott about to open a present.

Scott and Brenden.

Scott with his favorite present.

Also last night I made 6 loaves of banana bread. Apparently while they were cooling the dog thought they smelled good also and jumped up and ate 1/2 of one loaf, 1/4 of another loaf and just the corner to ruin a third loaf. Not happy.  Jason was up first and left me a note.

This was the best looking loaf of all 6, bummer it's gone.  Click on the picture to see how yummy it WAS.

Abby our dog

Mud Race without Mud

2012 Mud Chug is posted here if you want to read about it.  My best advise is not to sign up for it.http://managingthewaist.blogspot.com/2012/04/2012-mud-chug-iowa-city-ia.html

Little Texas trip

Back in January my friend  told me about this wedding for her Nephew that she was going to and she mentioned her husband might not go.  She asked me to go with her and her son  also came along as well.  While planning for the trip I mentioned that I thought it would be great to do a running race that has a finishing medal while down in Texas so that we could have a finishing medal from a new state.  We both googled lots of races and at first all I could find was half marathons and marathons with finishing medals.  I wanted a smaller race since we are doing a half marathon in just 3 weeks.  Then I found a 10 mile race called Austin 10/20.  The finishing medal looked amazing so we decided to do that race.

On April 12th my friend, her son and I boarded a plane in DesMoines, Iowa with our final destination Austin, Texas.  First we flew into Dallas, Texas and then connected to Austin.  All flights were on time.

Our first stop was Luke's Locker to pick up our packets for the race. Then we headed to San Marcos to stay a couple nights so we'd be closer to the wedding.  We were all hungry so after checking in we all went to this Mexican restaurant. The motel had a pool and a hot tub which I couldn't wait to try, only when I put my feet in the hot tub it wasn't hot.  I asked the manager why the hot tub wasn't working.  He said, "Oh that's not a hot tub, it's a mini pool."  Yeah whatever, it was small round and had Spa signs next to it, but whatever.  I knew then that he didn't want to fix it or ever intended to.  Other than that the bed was comfortable and the breakfast was good.  That night we went to a local Outlet Mall to do some shopping.  I ended up buying running shorts of all things.  Too funny.  The outdoor outlet mall was so huge we walked over a mile (according to my GPS watch).

The next morning my friend and I went for a run from our motel to downtown San Marcos by the University and then back.  Our run was 5.24 miles according to my watch.  While we were running we found this.  We were so impressed that when we got back to the hotel we told her son that we all had to go swimming in that.  Here's another link that describes what we were swimming in:  http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/sanmarcos.html

The river was cold and the current was a little stronger than I felt comfortable swimming in for too long so I only rode the river a couple times and then because I was tired decided I should get out and just lay in the sun.  My friend and her son continued to swim a lot.  That night was the reheasal dinner for the wedding.  It was at a super sweet Pizza restaurant.  There were around 90 people there and over 30 pizzas.  YUM and double YUM.  I had a great time eating and eating and eating.  There were also these amazing coconut chocolate kisses on the tables.  I LOVE coconut and haven't met chocolate that I don't like so this was an amazing combination.

The next day we got up and had breakfast and then packed our bags for our hotel we were switching to.  Drury Inn let us check in early so we were able to be there just before noon and they gave us our room.  I just have to say that Drury Inn is the best hotel around.  They give you sooooooo many extras for no extra price.  I will try and stay at a Drury Inn every single time I go anywhere because they are that great.  While My friend and her son swam in the pool there I worked out in the workout facility the hotel provides.  Then we all got ready for the wedding.

The next day we did our race and you can read about that here if you want: RACE

The next day we traveled home.  Here are some pictures to enjoy.  By the way, if you want to see any of the pictures bigger you just click on them and they will enlarge and then you can see them all large.

While flying over Dallas.

When we landed I looked out my plane window and there was  gate #13.
The #13 comes up all the time for me.  Too funny.

There were a bunch of awesome large guitars in the airport.  I liked them all so I took many pictures.

favorite guitar

The freeway system was quite odd in Austin.  Roads all over the place and you have split freeways, some in the middle, some on top, some on the sides.  And you have to go out of your way over 2 miles when you want to get to something on the other side of the road.  I'm not sure who designed Texas freeways, but they should rethink it.

There was this amazing GREEN stuff to eat with our chips.  Wish I knew what it was.  The waitress said it was just cilantro, sour cream and crushed tomatoes and some spices.  I hope to reproduce it for my own eating pleasure back in Iowa.

The restaurant had super cool stained glass windows all over.  This was my favorite one.

Our waffles at the hotel were shaped like Texas.

After swimming in the San Marcos River we all walked back to the car and  I was wondering what time it was.  I pulled out my watch to see this:  13th minute of the 13th hour on the 13th day.  Too cool since 13 is my lucky number.  Thank goodness the camera was nearby and I took a picture just in time.

While running on Friday morning with Tracy we saw this.  I thought it was awesome and I'm sure will be my facebook picture real soon.

The bride Lynn with her Father.

The back of her gorgeous dress.  I should have taken a picture of her with Chris her groom.  

A cool truck I saw outside Wal-Mart.

My favorite juice place in the entire world.  I got a pineapple, strawberry, banana, coconut smoothie with protein powder added!

Some weird plant I saw and can't identify.

Wasted half hour of my life

I just had a nightmare with our Mediacom cable company.

My son called me and said the cable was off and that he called them and they said I hadn't paid the bill.

So I checked it out and sure enough I did pay the bill by phone on April 10th for the full amount, like I've done for the last 4 years without fail.

I called Mediacom. They said, we show that you attempted to pay the bill, but then the payment was returned to us as non-sufficient.

I told them that there is plenty of funds in there, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Then they said, it wasn't lack of funds it was the wrong account number and so since the wrong number was put in, that they return the payment.

I told them that the phone payment system always confirms the account number and routing number and has me put in #1 to confirm that it is correct, then I put in the payment and it gives me a confirmation number, which I have.

They then looked up the confirmation number and said, it appeared it was right on my end, but whoever typed it in on their end must have put the account number in wrong and it couldn't pull from that account and I was being charged a $25.00 non sufficient fund fee AND a reconnection fee of $30.00

The lady wouldn't budge and I was super upset by this point.

I asked for her supervisor.

The supervisor checked over my account and reversed all fees, turned back on the cable, apologized and took a new payment by phone.

I want a nap.

Theism vs. Atheism

This last Sunday, I caught part of a debate on PBS put on by Intelligence Squared. I only got the first round (I had a HT appointment) but I was so interested that on Monday, I looked up the transcript and read all 53 pages of it. The topic was "The world would be a better place without religion." On the side for the position was A.C Grayling (an atheist philosopher) and Michael Chapman (great, great, grandson of Charles Darwin and avowed atheist). On the side against the position were Dinesh D'Souza (President of King's College in NYC) and Rabbi David Wolpe (Rabbi of the Sinai Temple in L.A.). The opening salvos (Grayling then D'Souza then Chapman then Wolpe) were cordial but pointed. It got uglier as the debate wore on but it was fascinating none the less. I was struck by the sense of smugness I felt in Grayling and Chapman as well as a sense of hopelessness from them. Their humanist views of existance are completely unfathomable to me. Although they technically won the debate (audience voted), I felt their views were really reduced to two things. First, religion leads to cruelty. They of course pulled out the crusades, 9/11, and so forth to further their position. I thought that point (which they attempted to make several times) was nicely combated by D'Souza and Wolpe (how many people have been killed in the name of atheism? Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, etc...). Secondly, our friendly atheists tried to make a point that a loving God would not make a set of rules that leads people to so much guilt, personal pain, or makes a lofty goal that is unattainable. I believe it was D'Souza that refuted that by essentially saying that we become better people by having something for which to strive, even if we fall short.

If you are interested, click on the following link: http://intelligencesquaredus.org/index.php/past-debates/the-world-would-be-better-off-without-religion/

Again, I can't fathom living a life devoid of God or my knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How hopeless that would be. There is great strength to be gained by following the precepts of the gospel - even when we fail.

Easter 2012

Our Easter weekend started off with a race, go here to view the details of that.

Here are some pictures from Easter.

Lots of Egg dye.

Finished eggs.

Hunting for eggs

This year I filled Easter baskets.  I don't do it every year, we didn't want the children to ever expect a basket.  So random years we put them out with some candy and fun trinkets.

I found this gorgeous yellow dress and it fit Alyssa great.  I did her hair all pretty and here are a couple pictures of her.

Her hair from the back.

The ham Jason made for our Easter dinner.

This is what happened to all the Easter eggs.

I made a rainbow Jello.  It only took 24 hours.

Good friends of ours brought some super yummy cookies over.  YUM!

A hard race

This year one of my goals is to do harder races and longer races.  Yesterday I did a hard team race that included tire flipping, cinder block carrying and stacking and then running/jogging or walking a 5K with 15 extra pounds on your back.  Here is the link if you want to see pictures and read about it.

I am currently training for several long races this year and I want to be able to do them safely, so I made my own training plan so that hopefully I can do all these races without tight IT bands or other injuries.  It seems like most half marathon and marathon training plans make you run a whole mile further each week even though it is said that you should only increase your distance week to week by 10%.  I tried increasing my miles by 1 mile further each week last year and ended up with several different injuries.  So now I do have long runs, but I alternate every other week with a super long distance of 7 or more miles.  Still doing at least 12-17 total miles a week between 3-4 days.

After doing the race you will read about in the morning yesterday I went for a long run of 8.35 miles last night. Total distance running/jogging/walking for the day was 12.05 miles.  I wanted to run at the end of the day when I was tired.  I figured that if I had the energy to run later in the day a long way then I will definitely be able to run a longer distance at the beginning of the day in just a couple weeks.

In two weeks I get to go with my friend Tracy to Texas.  She was invited to a family wedding and instead of having her husband with her I get the chance to go with her.  We decided to find a race in Texas so that we could have a finishing medal from another state.  In Texas  is our 10 mile race, then three weeks after that I have a half marathon in Columbus, Ohio and I get to see my parents.  Then two weeks after that another half marathon here in Iowa, and then 2 weeks after that a 20K (12.4 miles) in DesMoines, Iowa.  Then one week after that my first Sprint Triathlon.

Training for races is exhausting, but so worth it.  At the end of each hard workout whether it is weight lifting, swimming, biking, or running, you always feel completely amazing.   I hope that all this hard work is a good example for my children.  I want them all to be healthy and end up loving exercise.  Next week I get to enjoy a 5K race with some friends of mine and three of my children, I will be sure to post a lot of pictures of that race as well on my  running blog.