Justin and Kristin

Run, Drive, Sleep?, Run

At the last minute (one week before the race) I had the opportunity to join a women's team who was running the Wasatch Back, Ragnar Relay. I've thought about doing one in the future sometime, and my chance came sooner than expected! Thanks Rachael for thinking of me!

It was quite the experience and I really didn't know what to expect going into it. For those of you who don't know, the Wasatch Back Relay is a 188 mile race where a team of 12 (sometimes 6) runs in turn for over 24 hours straight. Each team member takes 3 different legs. It is quite an experience. You run a certain section hand off your wrist band to your next team mate, jump in your van and follow each runner until it is your turn to run again. You are suppose to sleep between legs, but lets face it, you don't really sleep for over 24 hours straight. It's a lot of fun energy and team camaraderie. You all decorate your vans with your team name and just cheer each other on!

My first leg was Friday afternoon. It was suppose to be my easiest leg (3.2 miles) but due to the heat and the altitude it was my hardest. The best part of it was seeing a surprise cheering squad for me at the end of my first leg!

 

  

 The end of my first leg! Then back in the van!

I didn't get any pictures of me running my second leg which was a 7 mile run at 11pm!! What a thrill that was! Very chilly but beautiful with the millions of bright night stars!!!

 Then I ran again Saturday morning, 6 miles. Justin, the girls and my mom were there to cheer me on! This leg was cool and even rained a bit on me. I finished before the torrent of rain pummeled the next 4 runners.

 

The exchange at the end of my last leg!

And then into the finish line as a team!

Go Team Tortuga! 

(Lock up your men and children!)

Still alive, but DEAD TIRED!!! 

Totally would do it again.

12 Years Overdue

One of my favorite places ever is Lake Powell. It has to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the world! 

I hadn't been there since before my mission! What a shame!! We were so lucky that Grandma Gina was willing to watch our kids so that Justin and I could accompany my dad to Lake Powell for a quick trip.

It was so great to be back there. Even though it was very windy most of the weekend we still managed to get a few ski runs in. We even managed to get Justin up on a slalom ski for the first time! The magic of Lake Powell. I know that Justin prefers wake-boarding, but I was so proud of my man! If we can get some more practice in he'll be a mad skier in no time.

 

I also did a little skiing myself. Man, water-skiing has to be one of my favorite sports ever; especially at Lake Powell. Look at the gorgeous water and amazing scenery!! I LOVE LAKE POWELL!

I Always Knew I Didn't Like Utah County

The reason for the bitter title to this post is that the job Justin has been working his tail off to get, fell through this week. They strung us along, made Justin prove himself over and over again, wasted our time and energy, even gave Justin a contract to sign before 4 days later saying "Oh wait, never mind." I keep telling myself that I didn't want to be in Utah County anyway. But now we're back to no insurance, and no income. Seriously how long is this trial going to last?

On a different note. We have made good use of ALL this free time. Last week we made it to the mountains for our first hike of the season. Sage hiked up by herself and even about half way down the hike before wanting a ride. We're glad that she likes to hike!

Grandma Gina came along for the fun.

Catch Up

Well, I'll catch you up to speed. These past few weeks have been crammed full.

First and foremost on May 10th Justin graduated with an MBA (or as we like to refer to it, his Master's in Unemployment!! :) ) I'm so proud of him for going after his dreams and working hard. Though there have been many sacrifices in our decision for him to go back to school, the things we have gained are immeasurable. 

 

Justin and I agree that graduating itself was kind of anti-climactical since he doesn't have a job to show for his efforts yet. But what was really great was that all of our parents were able to make it out (and one of Justin's sisters too) for the ceremonies! We enjoyed our time with all of them. Oh and um, hello? Doesn't Justin look just like his dad!! Crazy!

The week following graduation was spent packing up our apartment for the big trek back across the United States. The moving truck miraculously turning into Mary Poppin's bag and some how fitting EVERYTHING into it! Justin headed out alone with the truck (pulling the car) and due to a last minute change of plans, I stayed in our empty apartment with the two girls for a week. I couldn't have survived without all the help from friends, so thank you! Truthfully we won't miss the bugs, the humidity, the heat, or the 20 minute drive to decent shopping of Chapel Hill, NC. But we will miss Justin's schedule that allowed him to be home so often, our simple life, the Loop, the gorgeous trees that made our runs so enjoyable, and our friends we made in our 2 year adventure. It was hard saying goodbye to some of the best friends we've ever had, and that is what we will miss the absolute most!

So I made the 6 1/2 hour flight alone  with the two girls (too traumatic to relate) and we find our self living in my father's basement. Justin is still looking for a job....help!!! and my LCSW license just went through so, I'll be starting up at LDS Family Services here any day now. For more about how we feel about our move back to Utah please refer to a few posts from last year

Here and Here

We are signed up for a 10 mile race in a week and a half, another half marathon in August.....and (gulp) a marathon in Sep. Wish us luck with the training!!

Another Race Down

Justin here!  I thought since school is done, I am unemployed, and had a little time on my hands I would try my hand at blogging for the second time.  Here we are for the fourth time in seven months.  This time it was the Tar Heel 10 Miler.  A 10 miler race through the streets of Chapel Hill.  Going into a race I usually have in mind how I expect to perform and a time per mile goal.  This race was no different.  Things were going along fine until mile 8.5.  I had taken a gel shot about two miles earlier and it had not been sitting very well with me.  Then at mile 8.5 I began dry heaving and had to walk for a minute or two.  Kristin tried to motivate me and keep me moving but I just couldn't.  So I told her to go on without me.  After a minute or two I calmed down and started running as if nothing had happened.  I tried to make up for lost time but I had lost too much and Kristin beat me by about 50 seconds.  Even with the minor setback we both came close to our goal of an 8 minute mile (Kristin 8:07, Me 8:12).  I ended the race a little frustrated but Kristin put a positive spin on it, as she usually does when I am upset with myself, and said that it just leaves us some room to progress.  What can I say, she is always right.

The Daisies at Baity Hill

Sorry about neglecting blogging about my our life lately. I've been swamped with doing everyone else's family photos. I couldn't neglect it any longer and went out to the hill here where a gazillion white daisy grow! Too beautiful to pass up!!

Easter Treats

Easter Sunday I ran into this cool chick, apparently on the way back from an easter egg hunt. 

I think she's related to this adorable little thing.....

Easter was fun. Sage totally "got it" with the whole Easter Egg hunt. And Cadence kind of got it too. Next year will be even more fun!!

In One Whole Year

A year ago today I was due to have a baby. She came 11 days early (thank the blessed heavens above). So now our little baby Cadence is a year old, thus the occasion warrants one year old pictures! No JC Penny for us. I took the girls out and did a photo shoot. It proved one of the most difficult thus far. I think Cadence was dealing with a cold and on top of that, instead of having Justin there to help me make Cadence smile he had to chase Sage around and make sure she didn't run off.

Cadence is so cute that I think the pictures turned out great anyway....though I don't know what's up with the sticking her tongue out thing. She doesn't do that at home. Ah well, what ya going to do!?

A bit of an update on Cadence:

• She has four teeth, and we keep telling ourselves she's getting more - or at least that's how we explain whenever she's in a bad mood.
• She still has super-psychadelic eyes. I really don't know what color to call them.
• She is a super snuggler! I absolutely love every second of it!
• Who really knows what her favorite things are but she does seem to like to move to music and sing her own little songs (though half the time it sounds like screaming)
• She goes to bed at 6 and sleeps until between 6 and 7. We're still trying to make up for our lack of parental discipline re: sleep. Our fault totally. 
• She loves to giggle and laugh and it is very easy to make her do so. 
• She is the sweetest little thing, and our family just wouldn't be complete without her. My heart burst with so much joy and love for her, sometimes I just want to squish her!!

Oh yeah, and she's 100% model material just like her sister! 

Our little doll face! 

  

(Same pic so you can see the cool eyes)

(Click on the Story Boards to make them larger)

2 1/2 and then some

I've been meaning to do this for a month or so. Sage turned 2 1/2 just before Cadence's birthday so I put off taking some 2 1/2 year pictures for a bit. Here are a few. It's a miracle we got any, as she is always on the move and truly seems to love ignoring me while I'm trying to capture her in photo.

A few updates on Sage.

• She still loves dogs ("secret plan" we WILL get a dog someday is well under way).
• Her favorite color is brown. Weird I know, but it's usually all she wants to color with.
• She loves to "cook," play outside, take baths, and steal toys from anyone who will let her.
• In everything she does, she tries to act older than she is....I know I know...the teens are going to be killer! 
• She is a sweet big sister and loves Cadence a lot!
• She actually likes vegetables, even broccoli!
• She goes to bed between 6 and 7pm and usually sleeps until 7 or 8am (I seriously swear by that Baby Wise and Healthy Sleep Habits stuff)!
• She is a ball of energy and I mean a huge, enormous ball (maybe we should try sleep deprivation and that would take care of the energy).
• She still is a daddy's girl but we have our mother daughter moments as well.
• Her favorite books to read are Brown Bear, Put Me in the Zoo and Il Faut Pas Confondre (though I know she doesn't understand any of the latter). 
• She is sweet and loving, forgiving, friendly, and absolutely entertaining all day long! 

Oh and did I mention complete MODEL material?!?  

Runners in Action!!

So my OCD doesn't want me to post this out of order.....but I'll try and deal with it. Here are some pictures of us actually running our half marathon. Thank goodness for "Fotojack", our only fan!

 

  Obviously this must be towards the beginning of the race because I'm still happy.

This is Justin trying to decide if he's thumbs up or thumbs down.

I don't know when this was, but I think I had less than a half a mile left. I could care less about playing up photos for the photographer at this point.

One Year Ago....

I fell in love with this adorable baby.....

and now she's ONE!!

It truly was love at first sight, and we've loved her more each and every day. From her gregarious laugh, to her sweetness and gentleness, to her innocence, and her freakin' adorable face, there are so many things to love about Cadence. We can't wait to learn more about her and who she is.

We had her little party (or cake ceremony) yesterday. I think the funniest thing was as we all started singing "Happy Birthday" to her, Sage just starts bawling for no reason. It was like at that moment she suddenly realized that she really is going to have to share the attention for the rest of her life.

Here's the cake I made her. I giant cupcake.

I also made a smaller version (but still bigger than a normal cupcake) for Cadence to destroy. Though she didn't destroy it but just looked at it with wonder. All she wanted was a cracker.

She's ONE! Happy Birthday Cadence! We love you!

(Click on this picture to enlarge it)

Our First Half Marathon

I guess since I titled this post "Our First Half Marathon" that it is assuming that there will be a second. I suppose now that it's a day later I'm actually considering it. Though during the race, I must have told myself a hundred times "Why am I doing this to myself? I am never doing this again!" 

Here we are before the race. Feeling good. I was a bit nervous. Justin wasn't, but he now realizes that was because he had no idea what he was in for.

Here are a few highlights:

The weather:

It was 60 degrees with 99% humidity!!!  UGGGG. It was suppose to rain during the race but didn't. I wish it had. We were SO hot!

The most discouraging moment: 

The track runner/competitive side of me was a bit discourage any time ANY one passed us. Justin kept trying to tell me to ignore it and just focus on running our race. Around mile 5 this old man passed us and I looked to Justin and said, "Now tell me THAT doesn't discourage you." He claimed it didn't. About 30 seconds later this old woman, and I mean OLD, passed us. I swear to you she had to be in her 80's! I'm not exaggerating! I saw her at the beginning of the race and thought, "Oh that's awesome. You go granny!" I had no idea she would PASS us!!! We caught a glimps of her again around mile 9, but seriously she was long gone.

The hardest mile:

I think for me it was the first mile, just because it was so humid and we were used to training in 40 degree weather.

Justin said mile 11 was his worst. He wanted to walk, but he toughed it out!

The easiest mile:

No idea. Was there even an easy mile?

The greatest compliment:

Most of you know we're the kind of couple that does most everything together, so Justin and I ran with each other the entire race. I don't know if I should look at it like I'm such a good runner that I can keep up with my husband; or if I should look at it as I have such an awesome husband that he runs slow just to stay with me. Either way I guess it's a good thing!

The grossest thing:

That would be eating that Gu crap which made me nauseous and then throwing it up about 4 miles later!

Injuries:

I was worried my tendonitis would cause me trouble. Taking it easy the week before the race really helped I think. I didn't have any troubles with it. I came out the race with two blisters and Justin was unscathed besides a sore knee. We can actually walk normal today!

Our Goals:

When I finally convinced Justin (a self proclaimed NOT-runner) to start running with me, for him to even consider a half marathon was out of the question. So just having Justin there with me was a great accomplishment! When we started training we wanted to just finish without dying. Then our goal time started to come down. I think we really were shooting for under 8:30 minute miles. (About 1hr and 50 minutes). 

Our Results:

We came in at 8:35 minute miles (1hr and 52 minutes). Dang it! Now I HAVE to run another one just to do better!

Out of over 1500 runners we came in 349th and 350th.

Kristin placed 20th in her age group and Justin placed 43rd

Our thanks:

Thanks to the Hemmerts who sacrificed half of their Saturday to watch our kids. Not to mention all the support and encouragement they gave us all throughout our 12 weeks of training!

 

Pheww.....it's done! I'm so proud of Justin for hanging in there with me! When they put some running photos up on the web I'll post some. We will take a week off and then pick back up with training. We have a 10 mile race in 4 weeks.

A Plea From the Desperate

So here's the thing.....I'm sure I don't need to explain the economic troubles we are all facing at this particular moment in time. 

Ok, so keeping that in mind...add to it, Justin who is graduating on May 10th with an MBA, student loans that will begin to need payments, moving out of our apartment, 2 kids who need medical coverage, oh and did I mention that Justin's MBA emphasis is in investment management? Ok so he has no job lined up and we don't know where we're going to live.....blah blah blah blah blah blah....if you really want to hear me complain about it and explain all our stresses in detail give me a call. In the meantime my plea......

If ANYONE knows of any job in investment management (i.e. stock analysis, manager selection, asset allocation) or corporate finance PLEASE let us know! Or at the very least do you know someone who works in that field already!? Give us a contact.

Also if anyone knows of a home that is for rent for super cheap or even better yet, if someone needs us to live in their home (i.e. house sit) for FREE let us know! 

We would LOVE it if either of these things were in Colorado, but I suppose we're open to a few other states as well.

And for all you people out there who are "hands off" kind of friends, at least try and keep us in your prayers. THANKS!!

Spring Break? Really?

So a few weeks ago we headed to the Outer Banks again for probably the last time before Justin graduates. We thought it would be fun to have some family and friends join us. The first three days were spent inside because of this.....

Really? Snow at the beach? On spring break!? We got some relax time and stayed out of the freezing cold. I even broke down and played golf on the PS2. Crazy of me and against all I stand for, I know, but desperate times.....

Finally it got a tad above freezing so we braved the wind to go fly kites at Jockey's Ridge (just south of Kitty Hawk).

Sage did a great job flying the kite. I think she enjoyed running away from us on the HUGE sand dunes even more though!

We eventually made it to some lighthouses and the beach.

I think the temperature was no higher than the mid 30's for most of the week we were there. Of course the day we left it was like 63 (didn't stop me from getting a Slurpee every single day we were there though. It's never too cold for Slurpees!).

Despite the cold we still had a good time and it was fun to see "Grandmere," Wendy, and Clay!

Valentine's Wish

Sugar Cookie Art

So thanks to Karen for instigating a Valentine's Cookie Decorating Afternoon. I used to do this a lot more often: You know, before two kids took all my free time and energy. I jumped on the chance to decorate some gorgeous cookies for Valentine's Day. I'm positive that they taste better just because they look so cute!

BEFORE:

DURING:

and AFTER:

You want one don't you?

Doll

I took this for Cadence's ten month old picture and it was just too precious not to post. 

Oh, and per the post below this, the top one is Sage and the bottom Cadence. That was too easy with all these current photos of Cadence on my blog. I'll do it again in a few years and see if you're all still so good at telling the difference!!

Comparison

So as per Rachael's request, here is a picture of my two girls when they were ten months old, just to compare the similarities and differences. It's so obvious to me who is who. Do you know?

What? Me in a picture!?

When Sage was 9 months old our dear friend Hollie took some pictures of me with her. Those are some precious photos since I rarely am ever in them. Justin wanted me to have the same thing done with Cadence; so THANK YOU Kerrie, for snapping these for me!! I really think she caught some great moments which made it so much fun for me to edit!! Thanks!

Psychological Experiment

So I typically don't do these type of entries because after being a therapist for more than 6 years I feel weird talking about myself....but I'm willing to stretch my comfort zone a bit! I got this from a friends blog, who got it from a friends blog, and I thought I'd put my psychological twist to it. So I had Justin answer what he thought I'D say, and I wrote my answers separately; Justin's answers are in blue and mine follow in red. (poor Justin who has to be married to a therapist and put up with my psychological experiments!)

I am: OCD/the best driver

I know: my Savior lives/what my flaws and weaknesses are and that I have a lot to work on

I won: several races/a lot of debate and drama competitions in High School

I want: to move back to Denver/Justin to get a job in Denver

I have: two great kids/the cutest kids ever!

I hate: dumb drivers/mornings, and cleaning up hair (even my own)

I miss: Juice Stop and 7-11 Slurpees/ Denver so much it hurts

I feel: tired/ tired all of the time and I wonder what's wrong with me

I hear: Sage scream constantly/the theme song to Word World everyday, because I don't know how else to keep Sage from screaming while Cadence is sleeping

I care: about others/more than I let people know sometimes

I crave: Juice Stop and 7-11 Slurpees/carbonation and sugar all of the time!

I search: for meaning in my trials/for understanding of people. Sometimes I just don't get why people do what they do?

I love: my family/ to be in the mountains

I always: speak my mind/ speak my mind, which often either offends people  or they don't "get me"

I believe: the church is true/ I have the best father for my children anyone could ever hope for

I sing: very well/but no one in my current life really knows it

I write: short stories/ wonderfully, but have not used that talent in a long time

I lose: my patience sometimes with Sage/my temper too easily

I win: at Carcassonne/ almost every argument (or at least in my own mind I do)

I listen: to Dave Matthews Band/ to peoples problems and inner-most secrets for a living

I am scared: about bad things happening to our kids/ that I'll die young before my children are grown

I need: love and communication/ to live in a house again

I am happy about: spending eternity with my family/ a husband who wants to spend as much time with me as I do him