Motivation Salvation...

Lately I have been feeling exhausted. Not just tired, or sluggish, but
E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D! On my 15 mile run on Saturday I kept thinking that it was so incredibly difficult. I wanted to just lie down on the side of the road and die. Naturally I came to my senses and decided that I could die at home rather than on the side of the road, imagine the poor person who would discover me laying there legs up in the air like a dead cockroach with my big old eyes bulging :) As I was nearing the end of my 2:18:44 run I realised that it is ALWAYS this hard. As my weekly mileage increases my weekly energy goes down. This week I will have run 32 miles, which is a lot, and yet the week of my highest mileage I will run 40 miles.

When I finally arrived home I was pleased to see the number of calories I had burned (2,051), the distance that I had travelled (15.02 miles), the number of feet I had climbed in elevation (758), and my average pace (9:14 per mile). I love Runkeeper which is a really accurate running app. and keeps a log of all your runs. Long gone are the days of me measuring out my distances in my car the day before a long run :) Runkeeper also has coaching on it that will tell you how you are pacing, it will play your music, and gives you the option of joining up with other runners and sharing encouragement. That being said......I have been feeling a bit uninspired as I have been running lately.

My friend Anya told me about a blog written by a girl who has lost 110 lbs and completely changed the way she lives and looks. I got on the site and looked at her weight loss photo's and could not believe my eyes, not because she lost a lot of weight, but because of how her body and health has transformed. I certainly do not have 110 lbs to lose, perhaps 20 to be at my BMI recommended weight, but looking at the way she eats and trains has really inspired me. I have never struggled with exercising, I went to University with a mountain bike and a pair of Rollerblades and bummed rides to the grocery store to get my food :) Thanks for the rides friends. But, I have never been great at cooking or meal planning and have really enjoyed looking at the food suggestions on this website.

I am hoping that my new motivation and quite possibly a new playlist will get me through tomorrow's 16 miler. I am glad for this new motivation salvation with only 7 weeks left until Marathon day. I have pushed myself really hard this training round, perhaps too hard, the results are yet to be known, so I had better hit some PR's out of the ball park! If you are interested in getting motivated yourself check out the website Jen's Journey and get inspired. I am going to spend some time listening to the Rocky theme and American Woman and get super pumped for tomorrow.......

Our Snow Day in the UK

Where am I? Home? Are we back in UT? No, but it sure did feel like it. Snow, snow, snow. I have so many glorious memories of sledding, skiing, snowmobiling, and the annual snowy day igloo/snow fort making challenge. Hubby and I both love to ski which is easy to do as a UT resident. I don't mind the snow, I hate driving in it, but if you give me a glorious sunny day on the slopes I am inches from heaven. The kids as well as Hubby and myself were excited about our snowy day in the UK. We don't have a large garden, but we live right next to a green belt, so we all geared up and headed out to make a snowman.

Our snow angel.

The beginnings of a snowman.

Our snowman is getting better....

Time for the eyes.

Someone is well pleased with their work.

We spotted a big snow boulder a short distance off and the kids decided to take a climb. 

Will decided to slide down the boulder rather than jump off the boulder.

As we turned around to head back home we saw a couple of troll children take down our snowman. Oh. My. Stars! You should have seen our kids faces......happy smiles quickly twisted into frowns and tears. We tried to tell the kids that it was okay, but the devastation had already taken place. Ads had to run back to the remains and try to rebuild what she could and give him a love.

My boys.

Me and Joy.

The culprits! For shame naughty children......for shame.

We had a great time on our snowy day. The snow since has melted and gone, but we are glad that we were able to get out and take full advantage of our awesome snow day in the UK.

What Was I Thinking?

When my Saturday long runs roll around each week I am faced with that looming decision of "what do I wear?" This is not a difficult decision because I want to look rocking while I run, but wearing the right thing on a long run can either make or break the run. If I am going to be out on the road for 1:30 to 2:30 to 3:30 hours I need to be dressed JUST right. 

I am one of those runners who gets really warm quickly and I hate being over dressed for a run. I would actually rather be too cold running than too hot. So as you can see, for me, even in the winter in London it is typically a tie dye t-shirt and a pair of shorts. I can endure anything wrongly dressed for an hour, but beyond that I cannot run totally miserable. A couple of Saturday's ago I laced up, put on my running capri's, a fleece top, my good tunes, and headed out for a 12 mile run. As I stepped out the door I didn't realise that it was only 20 degree's F which is -6 degree's C. I was already dressed and committed to the run, so I was off. 

I made great time on my run which I now attribute to having lost all feeling in my legs. Those suckers must have been frozen solid! It wasn't until I went into the Gym where Ads does Gymnastics to wait for her to finish when I saw what my legs looked like. Apparently a little warmth after a freezing cold run looks like a skin disease. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw my legs. I knew that they were fine, but I thought that they definitely needed to be photo documented. What was I thinking?

Is that not the craziest thing or what?! I couldn't believe how they were corpse white in places and red in places and even purple in places. Good grief! The funny thing is that it still hasn't helped with that Saturday morning debate of what to wear.

Today I did my 15 miler in my new running shoes, and I LOVE them. Running in a new pair of running shoes is like dancing on soft little cushions.....so nice! As the mileage increases I expect the chaffing and blistering like I received today. The chaffing comes from my running bra (the joys of being a girl) and the blistering will eventually end in a couple of lost toe nails, which may grow back normal. I have lost my 2nd toe toenails 3 times now.

There are days when I am running and hating every minute of my run and ask myself WHY? Why do I get up early Saturday's and Thursday's to run? Why do I shuffle schedules and plan eating times around my runs? Why do I run through PMS, blisters, chaffing, heartache, and on most important holiday's? The answer is always the same.....BECAUSE I CAN. I do this crazy running thing because it proves to myself that I CAN do hard things, and I have learned that I may love perfume, make-up, crafting, pink, and chick flicks, but I am also one "Bad Ash Mother Runner!" I am a believer that all things that matter the most in this life are the things that require the most work. Running.....it's an amazing sport and I highly suggest it :)

Moving Up

The Pink One is a fabulous girl with many gifts and talents, however, she requires a bit of extrinsic motivation. We have been trying to get some fire in her belly, for anything.... The recent success in Gym has made a huge boost to her confidence and a few complements in swimming from her coach has helped as well. A couple of weeks ago after swim the coach told Ads he needed to speak to her Mum. Uh oh, what could it be? When my Mom came to swim with us in September she asked me why the coach didn't like Ads and why he was always getting after her? I had no answer except for the fact that Ads didn't listen or pay attention, which would have ticked me off as her coach as well. 

Ads and I  had a good long chat about listening and paying attention for a couple of weeks. At any rate, the coach said that he would like to advance Ads to a higher level class that would be swimming in the big pool. She was elated and a celebration was in order. We picked up a chocolate cake and enjoyed Ads little accomplishment. Until this girl finds herself intrinsically motivated I will continue to reward her accomplishments big and small. It is fun watching your child improve, not be the "very best," but to grow and improve within themselves. I am very proud of this girl.

Uncle Fred

You know how everyone seems to have that one "cool" Uncle......um yeah, that is Uncle Fred. Since Hubby and I have lived here in the UK we have been visited by Uncle Fred 3 times. Each time Uncle Fred comes to visit he comes bearing gifts from home and takes us to lunch. This past visit Uncle Fred asked if there was anything he could bring, but we were fully stocked from the holidays so we rejected his kind offer to bring us goodies. Saturday Uncle Fred called and asked if he could come and take us to lunch. We were so excited to see him and chat with him. 

Uncle Fred lived in the UK whilst stationed here with the US military for a couple of years and currently travels here a few times a year for work, so he knows the UK well. Anyway, the bell rang and there stood Uncle Fred with 2 gift bags in his hands, 1 was a Muppet's bag and the other a Princess bag. Uncle Fred had gone to the shops and bought a gift for each of the children. Can you say spoiled? Yeah, like crazy. The kids loved the toys and Will proceeded to refer to Uncle Fred as "Grandpa" the rest of the visit. I laughed. 

Uncle Fred is just a super cool guy who is smart and funny and has some great stories. We went to Toby's Carvery which is one of the more family friendly places to eat here. The food was good, but the conversation was great. We are excited to see Uncle Fred again in April when I run the Brighton Marathon. Yes, he is so cool that he said he will watch me run the Marathon whilst he is in Brighton for business. Thanks Uncle Fred!

Carrie's Fudge

I received a package just before Christmas from my friend Carrie. I was not expecting the package, but was more than over joyed....... so maybe I was over over joyed to receive it. Guess what was in the package??? Only the world's BEST fudge. I kid you not, my friend Carrie makes the world's best fudge. I gobbled up the whole container myself. Not only had Carrie sent me fudge, but she also sent me the fabulous earrings I am wearing in the picture and a sweet magnetic Nativity for the kids. I am so very blessed to have Carrie for a friend, she is a great example of thoughtfulness to me and I am thankful for her. By the way, this gift of fudge....made my whole Christmas.

Cracking the Whip

This weekend I was "Cracking the Whip" and getting our garage organised. Have I mentioned that everything here is smaller? It's not a bad thing, but everything here is smaller, Cars-smaller, Houses-smaller, People-smaller, Food Portions-smaller, I could go on and on, but you get the drift. The garages here are large enough to act as a storage unit, but not large enough to actually park a car inside, so a storage unit it becomes. 

Well, our garage had become absolutely awful with stuff plopped around EVERYWHERE. The home owners had left some unwanted furniture in the garage so I called up Anya and gave it to her. Once the Patti's took the furniture off our hands we put together some storage shelves and a wardrobe from IKEA and got organised. I am so pleased with the outcome and am able to start building up a little extra food storage, just in case. We now have room for our newly acquired bicycles.

Bicycles

Gucci and Crappa sent us some money for Christmas rather than buying Hubby and myself gifts, and so the quest for the right gift began. You could always use the money to buy groceries and put fuel in the car, but to me that seems more like financially supporting us than buying us a Christmas gift, so a gift we bought. At first Hubby thought it would be fun to get a wii, which it would have been, but then we went to Decathlon to get me a bike (which I always knew I wanted to get). When we walked into the shop we wanted to buy the kids, ski's, roller blades, skateboards, and bikes, pretty much all of the fun outdoor things that Hubby and I always enjoyed doing. So rather than get the wii, we got bikes for each of us. We have located a website that has cycling trails in Kent and are going to do a family ride from 1 castle to another. Should be fun. I think the ride is 9 miles, which I am betting that Ads can do.

We spent some time out at the park and green belt near our home teaching Ads how to ride her bike. We decided that rather than wasting our money on a smaller bike she would outgrow that has stabilisers on it we would go for the bigger bike and teach her to ride sans stabilisers. I have faith in my girl. It only took a couple days of practise before this girl had it down pat. 

Now we can all ride together as a family with Wills in a carrier seat. We are excited. Thanks Gucci and Crappa for the AWESOME Christmas gift.

Christmas Day 2011

MeRrY ChRiStMaS! 

It looks like Santa Claus payed our house a visit.......again. Back story: Santa Claus came and visited us in June and took us to Disneyland Paris for our Christmas. This time Santa Claus simply came and filled our stockings, but all of the other gifts were from Grandparents. The kids were both well pleased that Santa seemed to remember Goldie our pet goldfish. 

A half eaten cookie, half a glass of milk, and nibbled veggies are evidence that Santa and the Reindeer have left with a full tummy.

Santa has always left a trail of sugar plums leading from our bedrooms to where he has placed the gifts. The kids get very excited about the trail of sugar plums.

Our tree.

Someone is a happy boy :)

Big sister jetted straight into the family room where the gifts were waiting.

The kids hurried and open their gifts and then we had to get dressed and hurry off to our Church services. Nothing speaks Christmas to me like going to church and learning about the man to whom we owe the honour of this day of celebration, Jesus Christ.

After church we went to Hugh and Mary's home for a real traditional English Christmas dinner, and boy was it great. Hugh and Mary had a Thomas the train gift for Will and a Bracelet making kit for Ads.

Hubby helping the Blue One get Thomas up and running.

A very tired and somewhat glad Christmas is over Mom. It has been a wonderful Holiday, but I am beat and ready for business as usual.

I am super grateful for my family and Hubby for making a wonderful Christmas possible for our family. We are continually blessed and I am so very touched and humbled by the many thoughtful gifts and actions shown by our family. It was so much fun skyping with everyone today from Texas, to New York, to Utah and made our holiday complete. Happy New Year.

Christmas Eve

Our wonderful neighbours Hugh and Mary invited us to their home for Tea on Christmas Eve. It was so much fun to have somewhere to go and to have other people to spend time with for the Holiday. 

  Me and neighbour Hugh, who is 110% Scottish! I really love this man and feel like he is part of my family. Hugh embraces and loves my kids.....even the Blue One who can be a bit much at times. Hugh loves Will's boyish ways and treats him like his own grandson.

Twins! Ha ha ha....we laughed pretty hard.

Mary. Have I mentioned how amazing this woman is? Mary has a real self confidence that is filled with sure and sound advice. If you need something to get done.....ask Mary. Mary has been a life saver to me. Mary is old enough to be my Mum, but she is my friend.

Yes, I have a knife in my hand....so don't cross me.

Before Tea we all were entertained by Ads and Franks as they performed a show they had choreographed for us.

The girls ready to feast.

The boy feasting.

My Far Mor (paternal grandma) was from Sweden and in Sweden Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve. So growing up in my home Christmas Eve was the big deal. This worked out perfectly when I married into a family that celebrated Christmas on Christmas day. Part of our family Christmas tradition included getting matching Christmas jammies. This tradition has continued to this day. My Mom buys matching jammies for the women, matching for the men, matching for the girl cousins, and matching for the boy cousins. We all put on our jammies, laugh, and take a plethera of photo's. Now that we are all spread out we take the pictures and then post them for each other to see.....and still laugh. We left Hugh and Mary's home, came home, and opened our jammies from Gucci.

My Pink One was pleased with her night dress.

My Blue One who is more difficult by nature.....hated his.

After the jammies were on we let the kids open a gift from us, put cookies out for Santa, carrots out for the reindeer, and then read "Twas' The Night Before Christmas" which we do every year on Christmas Eve.

We put the children to bed early and had the missionaries from our church over for some dinner. Hubby and I were full from Hugh and Mary's spread, but we wanted the missionaries to have somewhere to go and something to eat on Christmas Eve. I had seen the perfect gift for Elder Rasmussen and Elder Bronson at Primark and with Hubby's permission made the purchase. I could not wait for them to come to supper on Christmas Eve just so I could see them open their gifts.

The expression on Elder Rasmussen's face pretty much says it all.

YES, YEs, Yes, those are Superman onesies....*snicker* Cold as it is here I thought that going along with our matching Christmas jammie tradition the missionaries could use some cuddly, fleece, and DC inspired jim jams.

They humoured me and put them on over their clothes for a picture. Truthfully, the jim jams could not have been more descriptive of these two 20 year old lads. I cannot begin to imagine how frightening it would be leaving home and country as a 19 year old boy to teach people about your religious beliefs only to have people mistreat you as well as embrace you. These two boys are kind, fun, and have a true light that shines through someone who is living what they believe to be true. So proud of them and so inspired by them.

I have already made arrangements for Elder Rasmussen to take out one of our dance teachers at the studio when he returns home :) Sorry, I couldn't help myself, but he and Sam would be great for each other.

Me and my babies. I feel like these are my sons.....who I would have had when I was 13-ish. Okay so the idea is off, but I really love feeding the missionaries and helping them when they text me about whether or not you can eat any kind of mushroom? They are too funny.

Hubby and the missionaries have a really close relationship. We are lucky to be able to live close enough to them to help them with rides when they have hospital visits, or need a lift to teach a family.

I was delegated the duty of getting them a gift from the church members. I decided to go with stockings filled with the little things they need like pens, sanitiser, tissues, gloves, chap stick, that kind of fun stuff.

The Elders were good to take a picture of Hubby and myself in our jim jams for our family photo swap.

The night ended with us reading from Luke 2 and Hubby taking the Missionaries back to their flat. We had a really great Christmas Eve and feel very very blessed.