Almost a year

Wow the time has really flown by. I can't believe my little baby has so quickly changed into a toddler. Here are a bunch of pictures I have been meaning to post.

Daddy and Jolee reading a book

First time touching snow, so cold

Petting a chick (she wanted to squeeze it)

Being a cowgirl, yeehaw

First time in snow fall (in Preston, ID)

Playing with cousin

Playing with cousins

At Daddy's high school locker (if you have seen Napoleon Dynamite this should be familiar)

So tired

Getting rowdy with Aunt Emily

Trying to steal Mommy's necklace

In her toddler bed

Tried to get a picture with the hat on and failed

Being silly

Munchies

Fell down and scraped her chin :(

Stole and demolished crackers, mmm

Lots of naps (and lots of growing)

Playing with balls

With Great Aunt Grandma (GrammE's aunt)

Petting goats at the Pima County Fair

Watch out sheep, here comes Jolee

So sweet

First time eating licorice

Playing with a turtle shell at the Tucson zoo

Jolee fell down in the tub and bashed open her eye, OUCH!

Yawn

Celebrating birthday early while family was in town for Daddy's graduation

Jolee doesn't like cake, but she loves frosting

Playing with toilet paper (Ellsworth family tradition for the first birthday)

Playing with GrammE

Jolee with her new Elmo. She loves to dance when Elmo sings. It is hilarious.

Party time in PJs

Heading to church on Mother's day. Jolee is so cute!

Being cute in my dress from Auntie Meg

Jolee will take 3 steps on her own, but she will walk all over while holding hands

Jolee fed herself breakfast this morning. Messy eater :)

What I Have Learned

Jolee after our run through the hills in Pine.

Sarah post Pine run.

As the race day comes closer and closer, I find myself thinking more and more about running. I eat, sleep, talk, dwell, imagine, ponder, and debate running. Run, run, run, run, run. I have learned so much about running and myself through 1/2 marathon training.

1. Mind over matter. As I push myself to further distances and running during less than pleasant Arizona summer weather, I have realized that when I feel like I can't run any further, I must change my thinking. I find some way to think that I can continue. Like Dori said in Finding Nemo "swimming, swimming, just keep swimming." I think "running, running, just keep running." My mind can completely over power my body and force it to continue to run, even if I think it is impossible. I can keep running!
2. Sunshine, heat, and running are a very bad combination. With the sun getting up way too early in the morning, we have done a complete of runs as it starts to heat up. My ability to run at a nice steady 10-12 minute mile, falls apart with the heat. Sometimes it feels like I am made out of lead. With the heat, if I want my brain to keep functioning, I have to guzzle water constantly. It is only May and I am already looking forward to next winter. Like my grandmother said "you can always put on more clothing if it is cold, but you can only take off so much if it is warm."
3. Runners are mostly if not completely crazy. There is an entire running world that is completely different from the one that "normal" people live in. They have there own social networks. Different rules. Different social norms. They are just a bit competitive (okay maybe more than just a bit). Just read Runner's World magazine and you can see how much people put into being a runner. Whoa dang!
4. Stretching is not nearly as important as I thought it was. I read an article about how stretching just as often causes injury as decreases injury, so I tried skipping my stretch after a run and realized that I am less sore when I skip stretching. In fact, I haven't stretched in months.
5. Running teaches patience. This is especially true when I run a little slower on the long runs. I run, then I run, and then I run some more. Sometimes it feels like I am going to be running FOREVER. But as I patiently run along, I eventually get to the end.
6. A mile is not nearly as long as I used to think it was. For example, on our run this morning, we were planning on running 3 miles. Quick and easy so I could get home, shower, and get to bed (I work tonight). We weren't really thinking about where we were running and we ended up running 4 miles instead of 3 and we didn't realize it until we were about home. During the long runs, the thought "only one mile left" is so wonderful.  It feels like just a tiny bit more and then we are done. Compare this with how we felt at the beginning of training when 1/4 mile was "so long."
7. I hate having dried sweat on my face. I think this is the worst part of running. Oh, the feeling is sooooo awful.
8. Caring chap stick during a run is very important. When my lips get dried out, I feel dehydrated and I will drink more and more water, which leads to a water logged belly and a sloshing run. Talk about making me feel like I am going to puke. By regularly using my chap stick, I drink water more sensibly and my run goes so much more smoothly.
9. Upbeat, fast tempo music is the easiest way to increase running speed. I would put type out my play list, but my MP3 player's batteries died during today's run and I don't have time to get new batteries right now. Any songs by Owl City work great for running. "Hello Seattle" is one of my favorites because it makes me think about race day and I end up getting so excited and then run faster. Go super turbo power!
10. Expensive, good quality running shoes are worth every penny. Less painful, more enjoyable runs all due to  shoes!

I love running and the crazy person than running has turned me into. I am excited to continue to run and see what else I can learn. Signing out for now.

The Swann family after this morning's run.

Still Running and Looking for Donations

Hello readers! As you know, we continue to train for the Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon. We have a 10 mile run this week. We are down to 37 days until race day and we are still looking for donation to help us hit our fundraising goal of $1000 toward the Susan Mortensen Turley Foundation. Any amount is very welcome (we would even be thrilled with $5). Please share this opportunity to donate with anyone you know who may be interested. All donations go to Susan's Foundation which is dedicated to the support of young adult cancer patients and their families. We would love to have you join the list of donors (if you don't want your name to be shown, anonymous will be placed). Once again, thank-you so much for your support as we train and prepare for race day!

Paint

It seems that I cannot be satisfied with one color scheme for more than 2 years, so the entire house is getting repainted (again). This time we went with very light colors (glimmer, summer mist, and baking stone). Pictures will come eventually. While the house is torn up for the color change, I am taking advantage of the chaos and reorganizing everything and sending oodles of stuff to the nearest donation center. Entertaining Jolee has been challenging during this project. Jolee is so mobile and energy charged that having one room to play in is driving her crazy. She is now regularly taking two steps before she gets back down and crawls. Time to get back to painting so that she can be free to roam again.

Randy's NAU Graduation!

Randy waiting to graduate. I absolutely loved this outfit on him! Next graduation in this little family won't be for a while. Eventually we plan to go on and get our Master's degrees, but not yet.

Eric and JoAn Ellsworth. Thanks Mom and Dad for driving down for Randy's big day. It was great to see you. We love you uber d duber amounts! As you can see, it was a tiring  day for Jolee and she napped before and during the graduation ceremony.

Sandy, Mikal, and Misty Swann. They braved the long drive and each other's constant company to celebrate with us! We are so glad each of you came. I have the best in-laws ever!!! It was super great to see and play with you. We can't wait for Sandy to move down (July 20th is the date!!!).

Here is me with my parents and Jolee. I am so proud of Randy and the hard work he has done!

Kelly and LeAnn Ryan. Super big thanks to both of you for making the very very long drive down. We love you both so much and are so glad you could be here. Thanks Mom for giving Randy such a good beginning and helping him to be the person he is!

 If you open this picture you can see Randy on the big screen during the graduation talks. I cried when Randy walked. He has worked so hard; he definitely deserved this day of celebration.

Jolee was so snugly with Randy after graduation. I think she was proud of him too! And I think she is glad to have her daddy out of school so that he can spend more time with her and spoil her all summer!

Our little family. We have changed so much since my graduation. It is so wonderful to have Jolee as a part of our family. She brings so much joy to our lives. 

Jolee looking on while Daddy and Mommy have a celebration kiss! I am so happy for Randy! It was a great day for the Swann family!

The Ryan/Swann family with Randy and Jolee. Mom looks proud too!

Thanks again to all of our family who made out of state drives to come and celebrate Randy's graduation with us!!!

Updates

It seems that we have dropped off the face of the earth. Life has been quite busy with me finishing up school and job hunting. I have done it, that is finished school. Still working the job hunting. I graduated on the seventh of May. Sarah and I spent about a week in Pine enjoying some much needed R and R. It was quite nice to do absolutely nothing. The Monday before we came home we decided to go for a walk/run. We ran as long as we could, being quite hilly we did not run as far as we had planned, then we walked. We went and walked around Camp Lamia and then walked down town and looked through the few stores that were opened on a Monday. We were surprised at how many stores were only opened Tuesday through Saturday. Our final stop was at The Honey Stand. They had so many different types of honey and jams. They had many different flavors of honey and whipped honey. They also had different types of "butters", pumpkin, apple, and even rhubarb strawberry. After trying the different flavors of honey we walked back to the cabin. After driving our most of our route, we decided that we had walked/ran about six miles. We returned to The Honey Stand and bought a pecan honey, pumpkin butter, apple butter, and a peach whipped honey. So far we have tried everything but the apple b utter and have enjoyed them all.

We are continuing to train for our half marathon. We have not been able to follow the training program as closely as we should, but we are able to get at least two runs in a week, one short and one long. Yesterday we ran nine miles in two hours. If we are able to keep that pace when we run thirteen miles we will be able to complete our marathon in about three hours. YEA!! It is getting rather hot here in Arizona so we are having to run either at first sun or at the end of the day as the sun is going down. We have discovered a bike/walking path that leads into downtown tucson and have been using that for our runs. It is more enjoyable to run along that than along the busy streets of Tucson. I am sure that we will eventually be making the complete run into downtown Tucson before our marathon.

AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I think I just might go CRAZY! I am just glad that this week is winding down. This was AIMS week. Many of you may know of or remember the agony of AIMS. For me this was my first taste of how it works. Fortunately, I was on the administering end and not the testee end. What? Are laughing at me? Lets see you sit in a room filled with students that have ADD or ADHD and keep them sitting in their seats without talking to the person across the room for more than an hour. I can remember how hard that it was for me during testing time to sit for hours on end. I was lucky enough to enjoy reading and read my book when/if I finished my test before the time was up. These students despise reading. It bores them, they rather talk to the person next to them or to their friend across the room. I did make an excellent observation yesterday. I have a couple students that have done some tagging in the past so I told them to draw my name "Mr. Swann" graffiti style and I would then decide who was the best one. The room was completely silent for at least an hour. Today I asked my cooperating teacher if students could work on homework or draw once everybody in the room was finished with their AIMS. She called the site testing coordinator who thankfully gave consent as long as the test were removed from the room prior to the students working on anything else. So we handed out blank paper and some students got homework out that needed completion. I was rather amazed that they were able to keep somewhat quiet for two consecutive days, especially after sitting through the hours of testing.

More about why we run

Here is a news report on the Susan Mortensen Turley Foundation and why it was set up.



http://www.azfamily.com/video/featured-videos/Run-to-benefit-89307987.html

To donate, please click on the link on the left side of this page.

Running Along

The past few weeks have been really busy. I have been working (as usual), Randy has been doing his last half of student teaching (graduation is in 6 weeks), we drove to and from Idaho, Jolee has been teething (all four front top teeth at the same time), oh, and we have been running.  I first realized that we are making the transformation into runners when we were in Idaho. We ran 3 of the 4 days we were there. The first day, about a mile into the run, I am wondering why I am starting to get short of breath. My muscles felt fine, but I felt like I couldn't get enough air. We realized that the area we were running in was more than double the elevation of Tucson. Oh my, oh my, does elevation make a huge difference for a runner. When we got home I was quick to look up the elevation for Seattle (about 2000 feet lower than Tucson). I am assuming that lower elevation will be easier to run in, any runners out there know if I am right or not? (please, oh please say that I am). The second day was during a snow storm.

You can't really tell in these pictures, but it is starting to snow. I can't believe Randy wore shorts, crazy guy. It was one of the hardest runs ever! Harder than our first couple of runs even. I think I might have cried a little. I know I whined. We could only do about 2 1/2 miles, there was no way I was going to be able to run 3. I now have a little more of an understanding of what Rachel (our Lemonade Maker team member) is having to train in. Rachel, you are one tough cookie! The stinging snow and freezing wind just about did me in.  The third day was the easiest. First of all, no snow. Second, Sandy, my sister-in-law, drove us 3 miles away and dropped us off so that we couldn't cheat and run less than our scheduled amount. Third, it was a beautiful day. Part of our run was past Napolean Dynamite's house (from the movie). Unfortunately I wasn't in the mood to carry a camera, so no pictures. It looks a lot different now than it did in the movie (no llama, etc.).  We did take pictures at Preston High, Napolean's and Randy's high school. Back to the run. As we were running, a dog was in the road (maybe 4 or 5 cars drove by for all 3 miles). I thought the dog would attack us because we were going by its house, but the opposite happened. The dog thought that we were chasing it and ran away every time we got close. So we ended up "chasing" it for about a mile, before it got off of the road and ran behind a house to hide. Another part of the run was up a very steep hill. We didn't realize how steep until we tried to climb it. It was difficult to even walk up it. I guess it is good training for Seattle.

Jolee snuggled with GrammS while Mom and Dad ran.

I am so glad that we are back in Tucson and training here. Idaho was 2 weeks ago. Last week was our first 4 mile run. For about 2-3 weeks, the couch to half training program has been having us run 3 mile runs. Sneaky. The 4th mile is so much easier than the 2nd and 3rd mile. I actually have been able to sprint the last 1/4th of a mile. From 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 miles is the hardest time for me. Once I get into the groove though, it is like I am flying.  I have learned to love to run!

We just got back from our first 5 mile run. Wow, I am just amazed at the progress that we have made since we first really started training in January. We did the run without walking at all! We are still slow with an average of 12-13 minute mile, but our distance is really improving. Today's run was really pleasant. We left just before dusk and so we got to enjoy the sunset (so beautiful) and we watched the moon come up. My favorite part was the smell of orange blossoms perfuming the air. We are really becoming runners, which I honestly thought was near impossible.