Justin and Kristin

My Annual Domestic Project

Seriously I'm not all "Mormony" and domestic like so many think every mom should be (and I'm ok with that by the way). But about once a year I do something really domestic and creative, and even then I either have to be WAY motivated, or have some super great idea. So this years project was motivated by my great friend, Missy, who is having twins. I thought it would be "fun" to make her a nursing cover. Ok, fun is a loose term....I guess I'd say not so much fun, but more like I had absolutely NO ideas of what to get her and when I thought of a nursing cover I didn't want to pay 40 bucks for one. So I got the pattern (or as my undomestic self likes to call it, the "recipe") on line and went to work. I know some of you out there are thinking how easy and simple this is....but it was hard for me, so back off!! I struggled quite a bit. It would probably be easier if I got my 1970's sewing machine out more than once every 2 years (seriously it's from the '70's). I think in the end after quite a few swear words, unstitching quite a few seems (is that what their called) without even one of those picker things....it turned out ok. Just hope she doesn't look too close at it! Here's the outcome.

 

5 Years

Every year a new adventure. Looking forward to all the more to come!

Happy Anniversary to my "as perfect as humanly possible" husband!!! :)

If you told me I was crazy, I.....

would DEFINITELY agree.

After 5 months of training the day finally arrived.

The Top Of Utah MARATHON.

Some of you might understand the amount of dedication and hard work it requires to prepare yourself for a marathon. At our last Half Marathon our finishing time was right on track for us making our marathon time goal (somewhere just under 4 hours), and even maybe put me close to qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

However, the day after our half marathon I found out I was PREGNANT, and everything changed.

My father, the OBGyn HIGHLY discouraged me from running it. My brother-in-law, the OBGyn, somewhat discouraged me from running it. My OBGyn in Boston definitely didn't encourage me to run it.

I went back and forth. Should I? Shouldn't I? I kept up with the training cutting WAY back on the intensity, and missed my 20 mile run. Training pregnant/tired, pushing two kids in a stroller by myself was quite a challenge......not to mention, feeling morning sickness 24 hours a day!

We decided to go for it, but to just take it WAY easy. Now my goal was just hopefully to finish, and hopefully before they stopped giving finishing medals away (7-8 hours). We thought it would be nice though to finish before the volunteers/aid stations left (6 hours).

The first 14 miles were down a beautiful canyon, where the fall colors were starting to change. We saw two Moose. Nice and cool with the wind at our back. It was very enjoyable. This is just after mile 14 when spectators could finally come and cheer for us!

I think this was about mile 21. Still feeling pretty good, but it was getting mighty hot - somewhere in the mid 80's.

My OBGYN(s) said that staying hydrated was the most important. I'd have to say I succeeded at that since I had to stop for a pee break every 2 miles.....no exaggeration!!!

I know it looks like we are walking...but we actually are jogging. Let's not mention though, that we're jogging so slow that a speed walker passed us at mile 3, never to be seen again!

About 1 1/2 miles left. Still feeling ok.

We did it! Under 6 hours! Actually I think the hardest part was forcing myself to hold back the entire race. Especially those last few miles, I wanted to just bolt! I had quite a bit left in me! Being 11 weeks pregnant though, I wanted to keep my heart rate under 80% MHR.

Still laughing and smiling. That's a good sign. And see, we weren't even the last to finish! Good sport Justin, ran the entire thing with me (at like 60% of his MHR). He said this was "OUR race." I think he just wanted to make sure he was there to force me to not push it. Good man.

Let's not even get into our stats this time. They were horrible. Maybe next time I can do better! I think it's a pretty safe bet. Not running for two should hopefully make a difference! 

FYI: I went with my dad for an ultra sound after the race....and everything with the baby still looks good. PHEW!!

we're only HALF crazy

In the midst of our marathon training we thought it would be "smart" to run a half marathon as kind of a "test" of our preparation.....Yeah....like I said....we're only HALF crazy. So we ran the Provo River Half Marathon this past weekend. 

Here are the bullet points of information in case you are curious about how it went...

Why is it so dark? Because we had to be there by 4:45 in the morning so we could take a shuttle to the beginning of the race!! We froze our butts off for over an hour and a half before the race finally started.

A beautiful race....if we could even concentrate on anything else besides not passing out.

There were over 1200 women runners and about 600 men.

Oh my HECK! Can anyone tell me why so many "gosh darn" women in Utah County want to run this half marathon?

We actually felt a lot better during this race then the half marathon we ran in Raleigh just less than 4 months ago.

Maybe the lack of 99% humidity had a little bit to do with it. 

Ok our training hopefully had a little bit to do with it to. I mean look at us! We're ripped!!!

...but around mile 3 I did start feeling a little inkling of pain on the outside of my left foot.

By mile 6 I knew I was in trouble as it then started to feel like 

SHARDS OF GLASS

rubbing into my foot!!

The last 7 miles were a mental war with the pain. Here is the blister. You can't really see it but man it hurt.

(FYI the tape on those two toes is where I lost my toenails about a week prior to the race. Isn't running fun?!)

Notice the shorts I chose to wear.....had to show my true colors while in Utah County!! :)

Though we had set our expectations low (considering training was interrupted by a 2 week illness just preceding the race) we still beat our last half marathon time by more than 7 minutes!

We ran this one in 1 hour 45 min (8 minute miles!!)....better than we needed to do to prove to ourselves that we're right on track for our marathon in a month!

According to Justin's spreadsheet I placed in the top 9% of my age group and he placed in the top 33% (his best yet!)

That's good right?

I think we established that this was the first race that Justin actually could have ran faster than me. Poop on me.....  :(

Ah well. We still did well. We can't walk today still, but it's a small price to pay!! hee hee!!!

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.

So...you think YOU can dance?

I know it's about time that I posted something else on this blog. If you want to know why it's been awhile, check out my photography blog that has new posts, and it's self explanatory as to why I might not have had as much time lately.....anyway.....all that fun photo stuff didn't get in the way of this amazing night!!

You can call me a nerd or whatever, but I just absolutely LOVE So You Think You Can Dance (and for all you Dancing with the Stars fans out there....I must say you have picked the wrong show!!!! :) ) 

 

Anyway, a girls night out took us to Charlotte where we had a kid and tantrum free dinner! Then we went to the show and it definitely didn't last long enough. I just wanted it to go on forever. There were definitely some moments were I wish I could have pushed pause on the TiVo and/or just rewound and replayed some parts. For example, during this number....

Awesome!!! Yahoo for SYTYCD!!!

Oh Summer

I meant to post this a few weeks ago, but with all the fun things we were trying to cram into our last week in Utah before packing up and heading back to North Carolina I wasn't able to post much of anything. I think my dad was feeling guilty for going golfing so much this summer and not giving me the chance to have fun doing a REAL SPORT - so on our last Monday in Utah we headed up to the lake! It was kind of windy, but we still managed to get a few great runs in before it got dark. For only being able to ski once in the last 4 years (curse pregnancy and distance) I think I still got it!

Spontaneity Pays Off

Tuesday night Wendy called last minute and asked if I wanted to go to the American Idol concert with her. How could I resist? So, spontaneously, we hopped in the car and headed to the E-Center. We scalped some awesome tickets three rows back (and no, not for 400 bucks--just to crush those crazy rumors)! Needless to say the place went ballistic and absolutely crazy for David Archuleta. How fun. I have to say the concert was pretty awesome. Everyone did a great job! So what? We're American Idol freaks! It was an awesome concert.

 

Wendy is in love with David Cook...."Sooooo HOT want to touch the heinie!!"

Birthday

 

So just a little update, way late, on the great birthday I had. It was actually quite the week because I cashed in on my Mother's day gift on Wednesday and spent the entire day at the spa! I got a full body massage, a facial, manicure, and pedicure. Justin is so thoughtful. How relaxing. On my actual birthday I woke up and went with my mom(2) for a surprise, which ended up being a hair cut and color. Thanks, Gina!!! Then I was able to spend the afternoon helping my mom with the cake, that you have previously seen! Then Justin had a whole evening of surprises planned. He had arranged babysitters, and everything! We first went to Frank's, which now has to be my favorite "nice" restaurant ever! It's a French restaurant (owned by the same people as the Tuscany - for all those Utahn's who are familiar). I have to say it was magnificent! We started with a 5 cheese fondu to die for, then the most amazing main course ever! These sauces that the chef comes up with are incredible. I wanted to try them all. There were things like Peach-Lemongrass sauce, Plum Lavender, and on and on. On my chicken was a carrot ginger sauce. I've never tasted anything like it! Justin had meatloaf, made from chicken, pork, veal, and WATERMELON! That's right watermelon! It was awesome! Perfect for summer. For dessert we had an apple tart on a crispy pastry, topped with rosemary icecream. It was awesome as well! We drove downtown, and he surprised me by making reservations at the anniversary inn. This was my first night away from Cadence. I only had a small panic attack ;) when I found out I wasn't going home to her, and, ok I admit, I cried a little bit, but then tried to enjoy the rest of the evening. Thanks Justin for an amazing day! You have to be the most thoughtful husband ever! Man I hope I can come up with something good for yours! At least I have 6 months to prepare!

Queen of Cakes

For many who know my family, they know one of our awesome traditions of making INCREDIBLE cakes for birthdays. I've had more amazingly decorated cakes than I can even count (ok it may be just as many as years I am old, but who wants to really reveal that). My mom was the master of cake making for us kids growing up (For more of some amazing cakes we've made see my mom's flicker account). As we've gotten into adulthood and especially now that we have kids of our own, my sister and I have continued the tradition with each other as well as our children.

Within the last year we have been introduced to the new way to decorate cakes on our new found favorite show Ace of Cakes. We have been wanting to try this foundant technique out, but didn't really know how. This year for my birthday we took it on. Now I'm sure making your own birthday cake is a little faut pas, but truly it wouldn't have been fair for my mom to do it alone. It was one of my favorite parts of my birthday (which was amazing all around, but those details will come in my next post). We spent hours making this awesome Chewy Gobstopper cake, and my mom put in more hours on her own after I left.

I think you'll agree on what amazing job we did (no humility necessary here) especially for our first time with fondant and not all the cool tools they have on Ace of Cakes. You'll see in the following photo just how realistic this cake looks to the original box- displayed behind the cake.

Oh and aren't these the coolest and most perfect candles ever?

Domestic?

I have never considered myself very domestic, but you do have to admit that this homemade bread might just fool you! This was the first time I've made homemade wheat bread, and I think it was a success! Justin ground the wheat by hand on our little hand-grinder and I nearly ran our KitchenAid into the ground mixing it all together. We have buckets and buckets of wheat in Sage's closet so we figure we should start "rotating" our food storage, since we really don't have much space to store it in at all. I must admit there isn't much better than homemade bread, topped of with my nephew's "homegrown" honey! Delish!!!

One more month

Bless Justin's heart for trying to take some pictures of me, my belly, and Sage. Hey, at least one or two worked out! Just one more month to go! How absolutely huge am I? At least no stretch marks! Thanks mom for the great genetics! :)