Sunday, February 28

Donations

We are asking for your support as we train and prepare to run a half marathon. We are doing this to help rais monies for the Susan Mortensen Turley Foundation. The faoundation was set up in honor of Sarah's cousin who died of colon cancer at the age of 25. The foundation provides financial support to families with young cancer patience in hopes that they will be able to recieve the same care that Susan got. We ask that you help sponsor our miles and donate to the foundation. We have set a goal to raise $1,000. Every little bit helps. You can use the button on the side of our blog to donate and mention that it is in support of Randy and Sarah. Thank you for your generousity and support.

Life

My how life flies by. It seems that I am just grasping one thing and the next thing I know it has been two or three weeks. I enjoy holding Jolee and just watching her. It amazes me that she is now eight months old, crawls, is trying to woalk, and has two teeth. How can my little girl have gotten so big so fast? At the rate that it is going, I feel like I will wake up the next day and she will be asking for the keys. She is a joy to be around. She does not know how to hold still, even while eating. She is always on the go, go, go. School is going well for me. I am now half way through with my student teaching and registerd to take my final certification testat the end of March. I have been able to make a good impression for the principle at the school I am at for my student teaching and she has recommended me to the head of Special Education in the district. The head of SpEd want to observe me once I have started my student teaching in SpEd. YEA!! I almost have a job for next fall!! Sarah is still working at the VA and has now been asked to start trainging for charge. Once whe has gthis position she will be incharge of all the codes during her shift. Yes, she is an adrenalin junkie.
We were driving around town yeaterday returning/exchanging stuff to/at stores and Sarah saw a sign for a fair at the park. We decided to go and check it out. Boy was it interesting. I wish we had our video camera. We spent some time there and then left. As we were walking to the car we decided to go to the humane society to see if they had a dog that would be good friends with Chonkiri. We did not expect to find one then, however we saw a dog that was almost what we were looking for, she is a little big, and took her out to the yard to see how she was with Jolee. She is so mild and sweet. She did not even notice the other dogs as she was walking past them in the kennel. She also did not mind Jolee patting her and pulling on her head. We decided to asopt her. Yes, we have another dog. Her name is Xyla and she is a little shy and scared. Xyla and Chonkiri are getting along just great. Xyla is still a little tiimid and shy but she is slowly making progress as we gain her trust. We went to church this mornign and when we got back she was sitting under the car port waiting for us to get home. She had gotten out of the yard and visited a couple of neighbors and then sat in the carport waiting our arrival. She mus thave decided that we are okay and that she can call this place home. She had pushed the gate open and squeezed thru the opening that we have never had a problem with Chonkiri. We will will be going to the hardware store tomorrow to look at new gate latches. We took her and Chinkiri for a walk tonight and she was just as happy as can be. Her tail goes up a little more each day. She did not eat the first night due to the stress of being in a new environment, but she ate this mornign and tonight. She also accepted a treat from my hand which is something that she would not do. Pictures will come soon.

Saturday, February 20

Excuse Me, I'm Sitting Here

Okay, just as a warning, this post references breastfeeding. So you're warned. Anyways, on to the story. A few days ago, when Randy was sick, we were all tired, so we laid down for a nap. Jolee slept between Randy and I in our bed. She woke up before we did, as usual, and she woke me up. She was hungry and I was tired, so I fed her while lying in bed. She has gotten to the point where sitting or lying still while eating is just too boring for her, so she often will try to stand or roll around while eating (yes, life is a bit hectic while trying to feed a dancing baby). As she is eating, she does her usual try to stand up and eat. She turned sideways in the bed, and sat on Randy's face. Randy, of course, says "hey." Jolee stops, looks at Randy as if to say "what" and "you're the one in MY way." Then Jolee went back to eating and pounds her tush right into Randy's face again and again. By this time, I am laughing hysterically and Randy decides that the bed is not a safe place to lay, so he made his escape. I love when her personality pops out :)

Wednesday, February 17

Getting Back on Track

So for yesterday's run... to start, Randy is sick and couldn't go running with me, so I had to run alone. In order to make the run a little more pleasant, I took the MP3 player. Such a good thing to take, yipee for distraction, especially when soreness is involved. I ran the 24 minutes without a problem, I was even still smiling at 22 minutes. I wasn't as fast as last Saturday, but I still got 2.1 miles in. Wooo hooo! I as so glad that I didn't repeat another run like Monday's. I was all hyped up after this run (I probably could have run another mile). I am glad to be liking running again.

This morning's run has to do with dogs again, but this time actually dogs, not coyotes. I got up early to run before my morning walk with my friend. I actaully got ready a little too fast and I didn't want to have to wait in the cold for too long before she got there, so I lolligagged for a bit. It was finally time to go, so I opened the door, went outside, locked the door. I got to the gate and opened the gate, just to have a huge dog run at me. I quickly slammed the gate and screamed (hey, it scared me, it was still O dark 30 in the morning). The dog kept trying to the get into the back yard with me, so I was yelling at the dog "GO AWAY." Clearly this dog didn't speak English. About this time, I realized that I was yelling and that Randy and Jolee were still asleep and if I kept yelling, they wouldn't remain sleeping. I stopped yelling and started whispering "go away." Well, you think I would have realized that if yelling didn't work, then whispering wouldn't have either. So about this time, I decided to threaten, "I you don't go away I am going to spray you with the hose." Dog still didn't go away and was still trying to get into the yard. Muahahaha, cold water works like a charm. I hosed that big old dog down, ran to the car, got in and locked the door (just to be on the safe side), and I was off. As I pull out of the driveway, the dog showed up again, this time with a friend. So the two dogs ran around my car as I attempted to drive away. When we got to the main street, they got disracted, and I took off like the wind. When I got to the park, I was still a bit scared (stupid dog) and of course, I was the only one there. So I hid in the car until another person showed up. I did get my run in, all 18 mintues scheduled for today. Whew! What a morning. Rest day is scheduled for tomorrow (insert happy dance). Hopefully Randy will be back to good health and I will stay in good health for our 26 minute run on Saturday. (Friday is cross training day, this week is belly dancing, fun). 

Tuesday, February 16

Running Update: The Good and The Bad

Last week was a pretty good week for us. We are getting stronger and a little faster. I have been averaging 12.5 minute miles (slow, I know). So Saturday was our long run of the week, 22 minutes. This actually was an enjoyable run for me. I even kinda sprinted the last little bit. For this run, we chose to run Pantano (the major street that we live next to), partly because it is easy to tell how far we have run, and partly because the first 0.6 of the mile is uphill. I would always rather start uphill and end down. So the run went up for 0.6, slight down for 0.4, then we ran back the way we came so slight up for 0.4, then down for 0.6. I was able to run 2 miles in 22 minutes, shaving 1.5 minutes off of my average mile time. Whoo hoo! I love seeing improvement.

With the good, comes the bad. Yesterday's run was not nearly what I had hoped it would be. It was to be a 20 minute run. We decided to run a different street (Escalante, downhill to start, then all uphill). This run was NOT fun at all. I think I was ready to collapse about 5 minutes into the run. (I think part of the problem was that I ran a couple of sprints yesterday morning, not a good idea. The other part was all about fuel, bad fuel=bad run. So Valentine's candy is a bad thing to eat before a run, go figure.) I ran the first 0.6 of a mile, then I had to walk (something I haven't had to do for weeks). From there, it just got worse. On the run back, I think I might have whined a lot, and cried a little. Everything hurt! So we ended up running about 1.5 miles in 17 minutes and at that point, I could go no further. It was warm yesterday and I overheated. When I got home, I hosed off (horray for cool water) and stretched. I am still sore and we have a 24 minute run today. :(

I will let you know after our run how we do today. Positive thinking. I CAN DO IT! Actually, something that helps me is something I read in Runner's World. A runner was talking about what she thinks when the run is the hardest and she said that she just repeats in her mind Dory's little song. 'Keep on swimming. Just keep swimming." If you see me running and I have a glazed, but kinda silly look, you will know for sure what is going through my head ;)

Open Again

After trialing being a private blog, we decided to once again become an open blog. Due to the hassle of being private, we changed our minds. So, ta-da here we are again.

Tuesday, February 9

To Unwrap a Present

For being only 7 months at the time, Jolee got pretty good at unwrapping presents. The hardest part was keeping her from eatting the wrapping paper. Here she is unwrapping her present from Auntie Meg!

Mess = Bath Time

A few weeks ago we had the missionaries over for dinner. Jolee refused to wear a bib and proceeded to have one of her messiest dinners yet!
There is just something really fun about squishing cereal in between fingers and smearing it everywhere :)
One of Jolee's favorite things to do is to blow rasberries. Although this is slightly dangerous for whoever is feeding her (namely me this night)
I am starting to think that somewhere in that innocent little mind of her's she has come to understand that if she gets messy enough, then she gets to take a bath. My little girl loves baths so much that I think she might be part fish.
Here she is going for the soap. She would grab the soap, drop it over the side of the bathtub, then lean over the tub and try to reach it. It is definately a splishy splashy event when Jolee bathes.
Covered in cereal or covered in soap bubbles, either way is fun for our Jolee.
Jolee and I post bath. I am a little wet, but it is worth watching how much fun she has and for that mmmmm mmmmm clean baby smell.

Tuesday, February 2

Running Update, with a little bit of a twist

As Randy and I are not runners (but we will be), we are training using the couch to half marathon program. We have just entered our third week of training and today was our longest run of the year, 16 minutes of running. I know it doesn't sound like much, but as a beginner it is NOT easy. We are however getting stronger and able to endure a little more. You should have seen our first run, we could barely run 1/4 of a mile. Now we are running about a mile and a half! This morning's run was broken up by a less than pleasant sight. Just after the mile mark, I looked up and saw a dog running across the path a bit ahead of me, I looked back down and continued to run. Just then it occured to me that that was a weird looking dog. I look back up and realized that it was not a dog, but a coyote, and not just any coyote. It was a coyote with a cat in it's mouth! I put on the brakes and started to yell and scream. Poor kitty cat! Randy caught up to me about then and told me the cat was already dead. So the coyote ran off with its breakfast :( and we continued our run. Thinking of the coyote was enough of a distraction that I didn't even really notice the next half mile and I was able to run that last bit with relative ease. I am actually looking forward to our next long run (18 minutes) later this week. Compared to how we felt when we first started really training 3 weeks ago with our first 10 minute run (oh it was hard), tomorrow's 10 minute run seems a little too short and too easy. I am looking forward to getting my work schedule for March, hopefully I will have the time off and we can head up to Tempe for the first run of the Susan Mortensen Turley Foundation!