Keep Your Fingers Crossed...

I have had the feeling for the last two months to back up my pictures on my laptop. Did I do it? I talked about doing it a lot. I talked about putting all the pictures on disks. I talked about having Marcus set up a way to have a server at one of the restaurants and saving a back up there. I even talked about printing all my pictures "just in case" something happened. Did I do any of those things? Should I have done all those things?

The "just in case" has happened. My computer is dead. Completely dead...as in hard drive dead. In the beginning, I panicked. I got sick to my stomach. I may have let a curse word or two..or ten slip out. I almost cried...I still may need to. Hopefully I will find out shortly whether or not I will need to go into mourning for a few weeks. My wonderful, smart, talented husband has saved the day! (I think.) It looks like most of the stuff from my hard drive is recoverable. Marcus has been working on it all day and still isn't done. Some of my music files didn't get saved, but oh well. I really just want my pictures. Anything else on my computer I can redo or refind. But I can't redo any of the thousands of pictures that are on my hard drive.

Hopefully my knight in shining armor can fix it. Next time maybe I should listen to the promptings. I am still gonna spend a pretty penny getting a lot of them printed. That'll be fun.

Not Funny...Well, Maybe...Okay, It Is...

The man who lives across the road from us is currently serving in Iraq. His wife lives in the house alone. She needs help doing the yard work because she can't start the lawn mower by herself. She won't ask for help to start it, so the yard was turning into a jungle. Marcus arranged to have the missionaries help him get the yard cleaned up. He figures if the man is serving our country and helping to protect us, the least Marcus can do is cut his grass.

After they were done with all the yard work, Marcus took them all back home. The missionaries live by the dog park in town and at the time Marcus dropped them off, there were seven or so Minpins at the park. One of the missionaries said he wasn't sure how he felt about Minpins; he thought they were yappy little dogs. Marcus said that his wife had one and she was an ornery little thing. The missionary then said, "The dog? Or your wife?"

I won't tell you what Marcus said...

PSS: Easy Peasy...

My wonderful, beautiful, talented, not gonna forget to buy me a bag next week, sister asked: Hit random on your ipod. What are the first 12 songs that it lists?

Keep in mind I just ran my half marathon so my music right now is all get off your lazy butt and go stuff.

1. Beautiful Day U2
2. I Will Survive Gloria Gayner
3. The Way You Make Me Feel Michael Jackson
4. American Idiot Green Day
5. Start Me Up The Rolling Stones
6. Hollaback Girl Gwen Stefani
7. Tattoo Jordan Sparks
8. Hit Me Baby One More Time Britney Spears
9. Girlfriend Avril Lavigne
10. Thanks For the Memories Fall Out Boy
11. Rocky Theme Song
12. Dancing Queen Abba

You try running 13.1 miles....you'll do whatever it takes..even listen to Britney and Michael!!

PSS: Patronus

Last week's PSS question came from Kim. She asked: If you had a patronus what would yours be and why?

I would be a grizzly bear. They like to eat and sleep a lot. Usually harmless, as long as you don't piss them off. Mess with her cubs and she'll tear your face off. Pretty much sums it all up.

PSS: Fate; Believe It...or Not

Three or so weeks ago, Shane asked: Do you believe in fate? How has it impacted (or not) your life? I wanted to do a big long post on this one, but time has slipped away and I hate feeling behind...even on something like this.

I totally 100% believe in fate. If I didn't believe in fate, I don't think I would have the most gorgeous, most adorable, most awesome little boy in the world. I wanted to type the whole story of how we brought Christian into our family, but finding the time to sit down and do that is next to impossible. I do want to do a post on that so we can have it forever and never forget a detail, but it's gonna have to wait until life slows down..if that ever happens.

There are far too many "coincidences" that happened when we started the adoption process. We miscarried, then couldn't get pregnant, then find the right adoption agency, then brought home our wonderful little boy, then got pregnant seven months later. We were meant to have Christian in our family. We had to have Christian before we could bring Emma into our family.

Call it fate. Call it faith. Call it divine intervention. Call it what you want. Without it, I wouldn't have my two beautiful babies.

Next up...patronus...

A Few Clarifications...

A big thank you to Marcus for his previous post. (Remind me to change my password!) I couldn't have done the training and running without his support. He is my biggest fan, and I greatly appreciate all his encouragement.

I only ran the half marathon yesterday. The full marathon is 26.2 miles; I think I would still be dragging myself down the canyon right now if I went that long. I ran 13.1 miles...well, I didn't get to run the whole way. Like Marcus mentioned, I have really bad knees. The freak accident wasn't a hair curling accident. Who in the world would be stupid enough to destroy their knee curling their hair?! I was blow drying my hair and turned to get my comb...and it was junior high, not high school. Geez, Marcus, get your story right! :) After the first mile and a half, my right knee decided it didn't want to bend. There was no way in heck I was going to quit. I had worked too hard and too long to only go a mile. I ended up walking most of the way, running when I could, but my goal was to finish and do in under 3 and half hours. I did finish and I did it in 3 hours and 7 minutes. I felt great to cross the finish line. My next goal is to meet with a doctor and get my knees in better shape so next year I can RUN the half marathon and finish in two hours. Marcus and I are toying with the running the Logan half marathon in the fall. Currently, I have 10 blisters on my feet, can hardly bend my right leg, my lower back feels like I have been ran over by a train and my butt is killing me...so we'll see about Logan.

It felt great to accomplish something I set out to do. I can cross that off my goal list. Now I can start on my next goal-losing the rest of the baby weight. Emma will be a year old next month. How long can I technically blame Emma for my extra 12 pounds that won't go away? Maybe I should be blaming the Dr. Pepper and cookies and not my innocent baby, ya think?

My amazing wife (posted by Marcus)

My wife is not the kind of person who is going to use her blog as a medium to toot her own horn and talk about how great she is, so I guess I am going to have to do it for her. This morning Monica completed her first marathon. She has had multiple knee surgeries from a freak hair curling accident in high school. That is not a joke. She ruined her knee curling her hair. Seriously. Any how, she is not supposed to do things like run marathons. Never being one to let common sense get in her way, she decided a few months ago that she was going to do this. I have to admit, I had my doubts, not about her ability, but about her knees. I did not think they would hold up or let her finish the race. This morning at 10:10 am with Taylor and Emma cheering her on, Monica crossed the finish line of the Ogden Marathon with a time of 3 hours and 10 minutes. I missed it because a certain little boy has a bladder the size of a grape. I have never been more proud of her. Great Job sweetheart. You are truly amazing and I love you!!!

Monica running down Ogden Canyon

A little overexposed, but she still looks good.

Who looks this hot after running a marathon?

I Am Not a Flightless Bird...

If you try to get Emma to say "mama", she will say "Dodo". I am not kidding...she will laugh hysterically after she does it. It's not funny; I am not a flightless, extinct bird!! She will say "dada", "hi", "thank you" and if you say "Ready. Set.", she will say "go". But do you think she can say "mama"? No, she says "Dodo". What does that say about me?! Mama should have been her first; I brought her in to this world...shouldn't that count for something???


See...mama. Say it with me...M A M A

Dodo...Not mama. I really don't see the similarities.

Early Mother's Day Celebration

On Thursday we celebrated Mother's Day before Jessi and Taylor went to their mom's house for the week. I was kicked out of the house for about two hours while they got stuff ready. After dinner, baseball practice and Marcus' meeting, I got my goods. All four of the kids made me a card; it was the best card ever!!! I also got an 8 gig I-pod Nano. I have had a little I-pod that I have been using while I run that I have had to shove down my shirt or into my sports bra to keep it from flying everywhere. This I-pod has an arm holder which will be much nicer than shoving it into my cleavage. Wait until you see the card....




I do believe I was freaking out over the picture...you'll understand in a second...

Jessi's Page

Taylor's page


Christian's page


Emma's page...do you see what that is?! Read the bottom..now look back at the pink picture on the card...Yes, that is Emma's butt print. Yes, they covered the poor baby's butt in pink paint to make her card. Yes, I yelled at Marcus...and then laughed really, really hard.

Ouchie...

I just ran 5.13 miles. My butt kept eating my shorts. My sports bra kept riding up my chest. I had way too much cleavage sweat. When I got home, I decided to scrub the shower floor. This pretty much sums up how I am feeling at the moment:




But the Jazz are kicking some serious butt right now, so that helps a little...

Our Trip to the Park...

We went to the park to play for a bit today. It was freezing butt cold, but I think we all have cabin fever. We had to get out of the house. The little ones had a lot of fun and we played for about an hour and then it got too cold for Emma; the doctor said that cold is her worst enemy right now because of her lungs. I can't wait for the weather to get nice and stay nice. It's ridiculous: you get dressed in the morning wearing sweaters and boots and then by the time the day is over you are in shorts and flip flops. ANNOYING!! I can't wait for summer weather. Christian loves to be outside playing. I have a feeling we'll be outside a lot in the next little bit.








When the wind really started to blow, I took Emma back to the van. She was having a ball looking at herself in the mirror.
Then she started to kiss herself...that's my girl...