Victory

Well, I finished. In one piece. A little sore and breathless, but complete nonetheless. I can’t believe it. That was a thought that kept me going actually. “I can’t believe I’m finally doing this! I can’t believe how far I’ve come.” It kept me going. For those of you who may not know my story (probably only a few), I’ve come a long way baby!

My Story

As a teenager I was always chubby. For a lot of reasons really. I was probably genetically predisposed to gaining weight easily, but I was also extremely inactive. Most days I’d come home from school and take a nap on the couch until dinner, and then get up, eat, do my homework and go back to bed. Not a lot of exercisin’ going on. I also ate more than I needed to. We all do it (right?). Too many calories in and not enough calories out. It’s a simple equation that reaps unfortunate results. Anyway, I was chubby growing up. I’d go on crash diets every year or so and lose the weight, only to turn around and gain it right back. This went on for probably 6 or 7 years. I was at my heaviest my senior year of high school. I didn’t go to my Prom. I wasn’t happy. I went on another crash diet that Spring. By the time I went to College, I was down 30 or 40 pounds. By the time I went on my Mission I had about 40-50 lbs. remaining that I wanted to lose. And I did it on my Mission. When I got off the plane, nobody recognized me! I was at the thinnest of my life, and it felt great. I stayed pretty active and in shape while I was single, and when I married Mark I wore a size 6 wedding dress. Never thought that would happen! After the honeymoon, the weight started creeping back on. Lots of reasons once again. I thought I could eat like my skinny little groom…mac ‘n’ cheese at midnight, ya know what I’m sayin? And I stopped exercisin’ in favor of snuggling on the couch and watching movies. When I got pregnant with Maryn, I really started gaining fast and it put me right back where I was at my heaviest in high school. And my weight hovered in that range through my second pregnancy, and afterwards. It wasn’t until Avery was almost 3 that I finally decided to get serious.

Road to Victory

It was January of 2006. I didn’t join Weight Watchers (again!) this time, but I did join a gym. I started going 3 times a week, just walking on the treadmill…slooooow walking on the treadmill. Eventually it got brisker, and then I started doing the bikes, and some weight machines. Eventually I started doing 5 minutes on the Elliptical. The Elliptical was my nemesis, but I wanted to conquer it. As I built up strength (out of nothing) in my legs, I started jogging for 2 minutes, then 5, but always ended my workouts with walking. I remember I didn’t jog for 20 minutes consecutively until I moved to Michigan in the Spring of 2006. And it went up from there…slowy longer durations of jogging, and then a faster pace of jogging, until I actually wasn’t jogging anymore, I was running. It hurt and I was always sore and out of breath, and felt like a red-faced sweaty mess after every workout. But it worked!! The pounds came off faster, my stamina increased, and I had more energy afterwards. The endorphins kicked in and I felt a new excitement about life, and it kept depression at bay. It was the answer to so many of my trials and obstacles in life. I was hooked.

I ran the Detroit Free Press 5K in October of 2006. I remember thinking it would be so cool to return and run the half-marathon the next year. Well it didn’t happen the next year, but it did 2 years later! At least I didn’t give up! I’m so glad I didn’t. There’s a lot of satisfaction in achieving your goals. I feel really good about that.

The race was exciting and fun and I’m so glad I did it. Seeing the sun rise while running across the Ambassador bridge into Canada was breathtaking. Running along the Detroit River in Windsor was beautiful, and the Fall colors were radiant. Seeing the crowds and hearing everyone cheering us on when we crossed back over into Detroit was so fun! I couldn’t help but smile and get all excited. It was a very memorable experience. I pushed myself throughout the entire race. I can honestly say I did my best. I’m sore today, but otherwise I feel great.

Thanks to all of you for encouraging me and cheering me on. I appreciate all of your support and love.

Here’s the stats:
Chip Time: 2:16:00
Clock Time: 2:17:53
Overall: 3379
Female: 1497
Division: 261

You Say It's Your Birthday!?!

Happy Birthday to my Darling Sister, Melanie Lee Day Norman (she's the one on the right)!!

Melanie is the next youngest from me…and we are about 3 ½ years apart. I think I was used to having the spotlight before Melanie came and was definitely trumped when her chubby pink cheeks and adorably cute blonde curls arrived. She has always been a beauty!! I remember finally going to a Homecoming game at Stevenson (I used to protest them in my teenage angst and rebellion), when she was invited to sit on the royal seat of Homecoming Court beginning her Freshman year, and ultimately winning the Crown of Queen her Senior year. People were often amazed that SHE was MY younger sister. “Really?!?”, they’d say, quizzacly, not making the connection. Indeed!

Melanie is extremely creative, crafty, and has a great eye for all things cute and fun. I envy her handwriting, she should patent it and make it into a font. She is gifted with the camera and has taken scads of seriously awesome photos. She then takes those photos and makes some wicked good digi-scrappy layouts on her other blog, “Scrap Matters”. She also sews—homemade costumes for her kidlets, and other fabric-y bits of goodness. She once made me a Christmas quilt and album that I still adore to this day.

Her house is adorably decorated. I’m always shoplifting her ideas to fill my own. On her living room wall, she took a painting that had graced my now passed-on Grandparent’s mantel, reframed it, found a fitting quote to go along with it, and vinyl-lettered it right to the wall underneath the painting. It not only looks striking, but is so sentimental (and here I thought I was the only one!!)

Melanie is also a great teacher (taught Elementary school), Mother, and Wife. She and I got to be roommates at Ricks after I got home from my mission. She and Jeff were engaged within a couple weeks of the semester, and so I got to be a part of that time in their life, and it was so fun (sappy) to watch the two of them fall in love. Jeff is a great guy, and I’ve always been so happy to see how much he cherishes Melanie. I know he knows he got a great catch when he found my sister. I used to love to visit them in their newlywed apartment and look at all of their new shiny stuff and silently wish that my time wasn’t too far distant. I also discovered that Jeff takes his games and his cuisine fairly seriously in those early days, and still does!! Can’t wait for Jeff’s Diner, “Thick, Rich, and Buttery”…coming soon!!

Melanie is Mom to 3—Gage Jeffrey, Hallie Beth, and Maia Janine. They are the cutest little toe-heads you ever saw, and so fun to be around. They live in Mesa, Arizona now…too far away in my opinion, but awesome just the same. I was able to visit them in their desert home a couple years ago, and am hoping to make the trip again…hopefully in the middle of February when Michigan’s ice and sludge is at their peak.

I am grateful to have Melanie for a sister! She is fun, extremely intelligent, and has a great outlook on life. She is serious and thoughtful when she needs to be, responsible and persistant as well. She is sympathetic and has a supportive ear when times are tough, and she is always willing to give without asking for anything in return. She is always up for an adventure, and trying something new. I love Melanie’s sense of humor as well. She can always make things seem funny in her own way. I am so glad that we were born into the same family! It wouldn’t be complete without #5!!

EEEEE!

Sunday morning...bright and early!! Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it!!

I liked this little ditty my Aunt Vicki sent me today on Facebook:

H--Hydrate

E--Energize

L--Loose (as in keep your legs and muscles loose and RELAX!!)

P--PRAY for HELP!!!! Agh! Am I really doing this?!? "Help me Oprah, Tom Cruise..." as Ricky Bobby runs frantically around the race track thinking he's on fire...that's how I feel!!

I think that about sums up my feelings for today!! I'll let you know how it goes...

EEEEEE!!

Ritualistic

As I’ve returned to work after 3 precious days of vacation, I’ve been kind of amused at how simply and effortlessly I’ve fallen back into the deep, well-worn ruts of my daily rituals. I used to snicker and mock my fellow, seasoned co-workers after I first started back to work at how monotonous and seemingly on auto-pilot their lives appeared. One of my co-workers, Dan was especially a sad specimen. Every morning, the same coffee and mug. And every afternoon, the same turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with an Activia yogurt (flashbacks from Couer d’Alene…help me!), and a cup of assorted fruit. He’d end the day with a can of V-8. One year for Christmas, he arrived to find a basket of goodies anonymously left on his desk. It contained Activia yogurt, V-8, and a new mug!! (Apparently the person who cleans our cubes left it…can you believe that? I hope I’m next!) And now, I’ve sadly come to discover, my own life has become strikingly similar.

When you work full-time, there doesn’t leave a whole lot of leftover time or resources to leave up to the imagination or spontaneity for that matter. Pretty much every morning is exactly the same as the one before, save for weekends. And when you’ve taken it upon yourself to train for 12 weeks straight for a half-marathon, even your weekends get predictable. Ugh.

Anyway, I never considered myself a boring, typical droid of a human being before my life in a cubicle. I kind of fancied myself somewhat fun-loving, always up for a party, and certainly prone to spontaneous changes in the regular schedule. When I was in college, my life was all about the party. Late-night trips to Perkins, ditching class for Craigo’s breadsticks, or a trip to the Dunes was just a part of the F-U-N of being young and single and on your own for the first time. You name it, I was your girl. When I started dating Mark, I discovered he was much the same way. Mark was a free-bird as well, and I loved our long drives into the middle of nowhere, discovering hole-in-the-wall diners, and obscure lawn art in wide, open Idaho wheat fields. When Maryn was first born, we even took our little premature 5-lb. chicken baby to the movies! We just couldn’t stay home for very long and certainly couldn’t resign ourselves to staying home night-after-night-after night.

Well the tides have changed my friends. Not that I never take the road less traveled by anymore, but it definitely doesn’t happen as often or as care-freely (is that a word?) anymore. I actually have to painstakingly plan in advance time that I can accrue to “ditch work” for the day, instead of just flying by the seat of my pants and faking sick like I did in days gone by. I have to look at calendars, and checkbooks, and schedule babysitters in advance…for everything! It just takes some of the wind out of my sails, ya know?

And I actually find myself craving…structure!! (Shhh…don’t tell anyone.) I actually found my body and mind breathing a sigh of relief when I took my seat in cube #6W-2525 on Monday morning. It’s like they missed it…the regularity of the schedule, the familiar sounds (clickity-clack, white noise, eavesdropping on nearby conversations), and environment that surrounds me...the expectation for a warm bowl of oatmeal at 8:30, regular trips to fill up my orange water bottle, and use the Ladies room. They needed them…they missed them. My mind didn’t recoil at the thought of work. It was somewhat soothed by it. Reading Release Definitions and Tech Comm Plans came as effortlessly as reading my Better Homes & Gardens. And in between, I got to catch up on my blogs! CJane and PDub, how I’ve missed you!! It’s crazy, I tell ya!!

But as I write this post, I can’t help but not be too happy about all of this…no, not really. I’m sitting here thinking, “what happened to me?” Where did I go? Is this really who I’ve become? Somebody who gets excited about a new flavor of Quaker to try the next morning at work? Somebody who notices when the white Escape isn’t parked in it’s usual spot next to me? Somebody who gets all giddy when the Secretaries finally put up Halloween decorations in the lobby? Really, is that ME now? Maybe so. I’m still not sure if I’m okay with it. I mean I’ve definitely come to appreciate simpler pleasures in life, and just slowing everything down a bit. But this slow? Like Activia yogurt and V-8 slow? Maybe not so much.

Now excuse me, I have some more sitting and reading to do. You still reading this? Or are you as bored as I am?

Sister’s Reunion 2008

When sisters stand shoulder to shoulder, who stands a chance against us?

~Pam Brown



That was the theme for the weekend. We laughed till we cried, we cried till we laughed. We played, we crafted, we read, we relaxed, we ran, we sat, we shopped, we ate, we spent precious time…together!! It was wonderful, and I only wish we all lived closer so that we could enjoy more time together and that weekends like these weren’t so few and far between.

Thanks and major props must go out to our menfolk who handled the kids and homesteads in our absence. We spent lots of time on the phone with frazzled husbands and hyper children, and although good to hear their voices, I don’t think any of us would have traded places in a million years. Thanks for allowing us this special time to be together Daren, Jeff, Mark, Jeff, and Ben.

This is what we did:

On Wednesday, Erin, Amy and I flew together from Detroit and arrived in Spokane around 11 am. Aunt Vicki and my Mom had been vacationing in Oregon and Washington for about a week before us and picked us up from the airport. The 5 of us went out to lunch at the Onion in Spokane. We shared a plate of onion rings the size of donuts. They were 1.69 a piece. Yikes!!

We picked up Melanie and Shauna from the airport and then got an extra rental car to drive up to the condo in Couer d’Alene. We arrived around 4. The condo was really nice, and had big comfy beds for all of us. We visited for awhile, and then went to Couer for dinner at Elmer’s. We got home pretty tired and all went straight to bed.

On Thursday, we got to go to the Zi Spa for Girl’s Day Out. We all got 2 services and then had lunch at the Spa. (I still regret not getting the salad. Hee hee.) I got a pedicure and a mini-massage. Bliss.

After the Spa, we got some groceries and headed back to the Condo for dinner in, crafting, and a movie. Shauna and I did a 4-miler in the mountains and practically died from drivers going way too fast on a 2-lane highway, and hills that were sucking my will to live. Amy taught us how to make bracelets, and we made matching bracelets that night, and watched “Dan In Real Life”.



On Friday, we headed into town for a boat ride around the Couer lake. It was fun, and we enjoyed the salty sea air. “I’m sailing…I’m a sailor!”



We also enjoyed an afternoon of shopping in the small downtown area. Lots of artisan jewelry and a toy shop with souvenirs for our kiddies. Before we left town, we ate at a fabulous Italian restaurant called “Angelo’s”. The best!!



On Saturday, we had to pack up and leave the condo. We stopped for lunch at a Chili’s in Couer, and then headed over to Spokane to Aunt Vicki’s house. Amy and I went out for a quick 4-miler around Vicki’s neighborhood, and when we got back we had our book discussion based on a book we had all read called, “The Runaway Quilt”. Very good.

That night, we got take out Q’Doba and ate at Aunt Vicki’s. We decided to stay in a motel close to the airport for early flights on Sunday morning, so we said our goodbyes on Saturday night.
Sunday morning, we left for home. It was bittersweet. So happy to see my little family again, but so sad that the fun couldn’t have lasted longer. It was a memorable and priceless experience. So fun!!

I love you guys!!

Return and Report

Well, what can I say following a pretty busy weekend? Lots to report on…

1. General Conference was great, wasn’t it? My favorite was the talk by President Monson about change and finding joy in the journey. My other favorites were Elder Wirthlin, Elder Holland, Sister Dalton, and Elder Cook. So many things to think about. Mostly we felt like the message was to press on, be happy, hopeful, and find joy despite the crumbling world around us.


2. Jeff and Shauna kicked St. George butt!! Despite pouring rain, and 10 mph winds, they did it!! They completed 26.2 miles and are still alive and kicking. I admire them so much.


3. I have to admit the 12-miler I did on Sat. morning has been my happiest yet. After I got home, and showered and sat down to watch Conference, I turned to Mark and said, “I feel good. I actually feel pretty good.” He agreed saying, “Yeah, you’re not yelling at me and you’re not asleep, so you must be feeling good.” Poor guy…he’s been really supportive and helpful during this whole thing and I have to give him credit where credit is due. Thanks Mark! All the advice and tips from my guru’s paid off and I really did feel soooo much better during and after this run than I have during any others. Now I feel so much better prepared and ready for race day. Only 2 more weeks to go!

In other news, I am so excited to only have a 2-day work week this week. I am packing my bags tonight for Couer d’Alene—Day Family Sister’s Reunion 2008!! I leave tomorrow morning bright and early (4:30 a.m., I'd only do this for my sisters, seriously!) and will return on Sunday. Yes, 5 whole days with some of the greatest ladies on the planet! Here is the tentative schedule to give you a little taste of how we will be spending our time.

October 8 ...
varying arrival times , but once everyone is here, car is rented, lunch has been eaten, we are off to Couer Condoland !!! Da Da Da dot tee Da ( that's a bugle !)

October 9 ...
Spa
Lunch at Beverly's
Bracelet making
Dinner
Book discussion "Runaway Quilt"

October 10 ...
Quiet morning
Lunch at Hudson's (Burgers extraordinaire !)
Boat ride
Dinner
Art Walk

October 11 ...
Leave Couer for Spokane
Loose as a goose
Pizza and DVD at Vicki's
Motel

October 12 ...
Weeping and Wailing and gnashing of teeth

It will be amazing, and I can’t wait. See you on Wednesday morning girls!!

Big Deals

This weekend is a BIG DEAL for several reasons:

1. It is General Conference. Hooray!
2. Jeff and Shauna are running the St. George Marathon on Saturday morning.
3. It is the anniversary of our engagement 10 years ago.
4. I have a 12-miler scheduled for the morning.

Don’t you just love Conference time? A whole weekend of spending time hunkered down at home in your sweats, with the family, feeling the Spirit and listening to wonderful talks, chomping on yummy snacks, and just pure relaxation. Not to mention I don’t have to teach Primary on Sunday…love TV church!

I’m so proud of Jeff and Shauna going for the marathon gold this weekend. I know they’ve worked hard and are ready. Jeff is becoming like a wise old pro. I think this is his 4th marathon, but I’m not sure. He really knows his stuff. He looks great…he told me he’s dropped like 20 lbs. during his training and actually weighs less than I do right now. (Don’t ask!) He just keeps getting better with age. For Shauna, this is her first marathon, but she’s done several triathlons before this. She’s learned a lot and has much wisdom to impart to me. I just hope and pray that she can calm her nerves enough to get some sleep on Friday night. I know she’ll be up every hour on the hour looking at the clock, nervously re-folding her clothes, and checking to make sure everything. is. just. right. Poor girl. I hope and pray she can get some sleep. My Dad is joining them to be their cheerleader. His brother, my uncle Mike lives in St. George, so it’s a good reason to spend time with him as well. I almost wish I could be there cheering them on as well. Race days are so exciting.

I had really wanted to scan a couple pictures of us on our engagement day. But alas, I ran out of time. "I didn’t get around to it, okay?" (Name that movie quote.) I’m bummed. It would have made such a cute blog post. (You know you strategize them in your own mind.) Anyway, yes we look young, yes we look skinny, and yes we look deliriously happy and sappily in love. It’s an interesting story. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but to give you a taste, it took place in a cemetery…macabre engagement anyone? Fitting for the Halloween season, I think.

And let’s not forget about the 12-miler scheduled for the morning. EEK! I don’t know why this freaks me out. But it does, and I feel scared. I get so nervous. I know my route, and I am SOOO much better prepared for this run than ones I’ve done in the past. I’ve had some very helpful, informative talks with both of my sibling guru’s. Shauna in particular emailed me a list of things “to do”. On it she listed vitamins and supplements I should be taking, when and how much to hydrate, how to replenish during the run with Gu, and to take a protein shake post-run to help repair muscles quicker (so I don’t lay around in a hazy fog all day long). She also chastened me to throw away my Costco-sized box of Fiber 1 bars. If you’ve eaten them, you probably already know the reason why. Suffice it to say that my family members will appreciate her advice and want to spend more time around me.

Anyway, so that’s the deal on our big deals of the week.

And I couldn’t be more happy that it’s Friday.

Wishing you all a relaxing and spiritual weekend!!

(And that J. Vos has that baby already! Prayers for a quick and easy delivery and a baby girl in your arms instead of your belly soon!!)