Among the thousands.

3 down and who knows how many to go. Darrin has added another 1/2 marathon to his track record. It's amazing to see the changes he has made about his overall fitness. For years I have had hobby after hobby, and he hadn't really found his niche, till now. Who would have thought it would be one of the most physically demanding sports (my opinion). Great job babe, I am so proud of your dedication! Here is the link to the group he runs with if you want to see additional pics http://redfruitfrunners.blogspot.com/

Some of Darrin's fellow FRUNNERS, at 4:45 am on their way to Moab, Utah.

Darrin and Suzy after the race. Canyonlands 1/2 marathon.

Mental illness Day

From the desk of Darrin:

So a few weeks ago I had to take a mental illness day, due to the fact that if I went to work that day I would go crazy. It was the last day of the girl's spring break and great weather so I called in sick, and we went for a hike.

All my ladies!

Berry throwing one of our favorite pastimes!

Baylie & Eden with their collections.

Being the alpha male of the family, I tried to impress the girls by breaking this stick. I ended up just really amusing Darcy when nothing happened but a bruised thigh. If only I were more like Chuck Norris.

The cutest shot of the day, Jaya sharing her sucker with her sister.

6 years really?

Sunday March 16, 2009 we celebrated Jaya's 6th birthday. We re-enacted one of our favorite restaurants Famous Daves, and Famous Darrin made some killer ribs. It was a family affair and we had a wonderful time.

One of my favorite traditions on my kids birthdays is to tell them their birth story. They love to hear about themselves, and as it usually happens I tell all the births because they each want to hear theirs again. I will spare most of the details but one thing that I completely remember like it was yesterday with Jaya's birth, was when I held her in my arms for the first time and looking at her and thinking she is just so perfectly beautiful. To see that every piece and part was there and beautifully formed was breathtaking. I remember saying over and over again, she is just so perfect! It was a truly magical experience.

These last 6 years with her have also been a wonderful experience. I treasure her, and love her with all my soul. I expect a lot from her, her being the oldest, and more times than not she rises to the occasion. She is determined to do new things and must be the BEST (were working on the being the best part). She is easily frustrated if she doesn't feel like she can do something the first time, but she is really trying to be "flexible" and practice something till she feels good about it.

She LOVES: compliments, the color pink, diaries, rock n' roll, reading, her teacher Mrs. Suchar, friends, her sisters (I'm so glad), having her hair down and straight, and most girly things. She has recently learned the value of sharing, when she gave her primary birthday present to her friend, because she wanted to be more like Jesus.

She DISLIKES: going to bed, and every night after approximately 1 min of lying in bed will proceed to tell me that she will NEVER fall asleep. She also dislikes, Cherries, being sweaty - unless she is getting exercise, classical music, pain, waking up in the middle of the night, and running errands.

We are so blessed to have her! I love you J!

Your so RUDE!

Yesterday Jaya had a rough day. For most mothers I could just say it like that and you would understand, but for everyone else, there was crying, whining, dragging (yes, I dragged her out to the car once, don't judge). Sparing most of the details, it was just a REALLY bad day for her. The evening was no exception. We ate dinner at my parents house and as we were leaving Darrin loaded the girls in the van and saw a very large mess of torn up papers, he must have told Jaya she needed to clean it up when we got home, because when I got in the van she was insisting that I help her clean it up. Now, I refused to do this ONLY because earlier when she proceeded to tear the paper up into tiny pieces I forewarned her and said "Jaya I wouldn't tear that up if I were you, because YOU are going to have to clean up all those tiny pieces." her response "But it's fun mom." Enough said, I let her do it. So now she wanted help. I told her no one was going to help when she made an intentional mess, all by herself. Well that was it, she had finally hit her melting point, RANTING and RAVING the whole way home (20 min. drive) I finally decided I better stop trying to reason with her, or else I was going to hit my melting point. I resorted to ignoring. I was doing pretty good till she said this line "Mom, you are being so rude!!!! I never knew you could be so rude!" I lost it, and I am not talking about yelling, I busted up laughing, I guess she has imagined me being rude before but this was the ultimate, I had crossed the line of rudeness. Fortunately the sun has risen on a new day and we are friends again.
Should I be scared for the teenage years?

I believe in Miracles

This is NOT my picture but, this was certainly my view, that is until the sun went down...

On our way back from our ladies weekend, we had heard that a storm was coming in, these are dreaded words for anyone that drives over the Rockie Mountain passes to return home. I wasn't too worried despite the news, mainly because Denver was beautiful, could there really be a storm looming? The answer to that was a resounding YES. When we got to Silverthorne we started hitting snow. We did a drive-thru dinner because I just wanted to get through the mountain pass that awaited us as soon as possible. Not long before we got back on the road my mom's little Kia Spectrum was no match for the snow-packed roads. We were fish-tailing even with me driving 25-30 miles per hour. It was the most heart-pounding, gut-wrenching drive I have ever made (I was the driver). I couldn't say a word, because I needed complete focus, I knew one wrong swerve and we would spin out which would then cause us to hit someone else or be stranded on the side in a snowbank, neither option sounded very good to me. I am a very visual person so my own imagination of the wreckage that could happen was enough to make my palm's sweaty, and then I had my ever so awe-struck mother pointing out trucks that had actually flipped over, and were stuck upside down! Soon after we got a call from a friend that was a few miles ahead of us saying they were closing the pass. Great, that is just what I was looking forward too, spending the night in the car on Vail Pass. Fortunately they didn't shut it down and by the time we reached Vail the snow was much lighter. We stopped to go to the bathroom, only to find out that the Alternator had gone out on the car.

As we were checking the oil a man came over to see if we needed help. He assessed the alternator and told us it was shot. His wife now joined him and kindly looked up repair shops, but the nearest was 18 miles. They asked what we were going to do, and we said we would wait there until my dad showed up to bring us home. They asked where he would be driving from, we told him the town that was two hours away and he said that they were staying there that night. They could just give us a ride. They unloaded the cab of their truck and we loaded in. Was I scared to go with complete strangers? We'll I figured there were 3 of us and 2 of them, so our odds were better. Really they were so nice. They drove us all the way home, and actually ended up eating and spending the night at my parents instead of getting a hotel.

It may just seem like good luck to the average person, but I believe in miracles and I know our prayers were answered that night when we returned home safely as we had asked.

My kind of time out

My sister Brianna & Me

Me, Jenni, Jolene (sisters-in-law), June (Jolene's mother-in-law)

I gave MYSELF a time out this weekend. My mom, sister, and I drove to Denver and attended TOFW - Time Out For Women. It's a day in a half conference that my church puts on, devoted to lift and inspire women. Which is exactly what it did.
We met up with two of my sister-in-laws, Jenni & Jolene, and Jolene brought her mother-in-law June. It was such an empowering conference and I completely enjoyed myself. However, there was one downside and that is I hate crying in public. This is something I am trying to change (I'll save the details for another post) but when I am pregnant I am especially weepy. So despite my mild embarrasment from that, I was able to focus on my life and my priorities and I feel ready to be better and make some changes!
They gave us a challenge and that was to share one thing we KNOW. Something that we know without a doubt, so here is what I KNOW

I KNOW God lives! Not only does he live but...

He knows ME and loves ME.

He is aware of my life, needs, sorrows, stresses, weaknesses, fears & joys.

After knowing all that about me, he STILL loves me.

So I challenge each of you to do a little soul searching and discover what you KNOW.

A Rumble in the Jungle

We had our first Kindergarten program! It doesn't take much for me to get excited about simple things, and when I found out that my little kindergartner was going to be performing I was set. I even called my parents the week before inviting them, thinking it was that night, to my disappointment I had to wait another week. She didn't divulge much information about the program before, I love surprises so I didn't press, but she did mention that she was going to be a monkey, because she LOVES monkeys! The program went great, and the first thing that Jaya asked was if we could go home and watch the videotape!

Not your typical...

I got a call the other night, the lady on the other line was wondering if I would be willing to coach Jaya's soccer team. I was a little surprised, why was she asking me directly? As I was guessing how many other parents she called she said "your friend Kendra said you might be willing to do this." Okay question answered, thanks Kendra! I told her I would have to talk to my husband and call her back.
I was really hoping this would be my out, normally Darrin is so consistent when it comes to telling me not to take on more responsibilities. This time he said "I think it would be fine." I was shocked! Apparently having no back-bone of my own, since Darrin wasn't resisting I called back and said I would do it. I decided it would be fine because it's just 1 practice a week and one game (which I would already be going to both.)
So I am waiting for the day when all these little, it's just one day a week things I have committed too will catch up and become a full on STRESS! Yet, I am a positive person (though you may doubt that by the previous paragraph) so here are the positive things that I think will come from this experience.

1- Meeting new moms and dads (our parent's meeting is tonight)

2- Getting to know Jaya and her friends better

3- Speeding up the end of this pregnancy (the season will end 1 month before my due date)

4- Staying fit (I will be doing a little more running around then I am now)

As for Kendra you may be wondering what her role in all this is...well she is now our new Referee!

The Recession Is Here

I think I have been talking about the recession a little too much. The girls have been practicing for when we have to wander the streets with all our valuables. The city park bums better watch out. Notice how she has only enough room for the important stuff like Barbie, the phone, the cell phone, the Wii-mote, and the TV remote. I don't want to brag but I think she takes after her dad, I mean I would want everything there but maybe the Barbie.

Something Is Wrong With The Washer and Dryer

Over the course of the last few days I have noticed something. It appears that Darcy's clothes are shrinking. I am not sure why, other then something must be wrong with the washer and dryer. I am only confused on why it is only shrinking her shirts and no one else’s. I will have to do a little more investigating to confirm.
No really, when I got home from the gym this morning Darcy was in our room trying to find something to wear because as you can see from the above picture, all she had didn’t fit well. She hates this phase of her pregnancy because she is not big enough to go full on maternity wear and getting too big for her normal clothes. I made her try on some of my shirts but it looked more like a tent/moomoo mix. So she had to settle for her shirt. Don’t get me wrong I love the pregnant look and if it didn’t lead to 2 year olds I would want Darcy to wear it more often. The great thing about Darcy is even in her shirts that are too small or my shirts that are too big she still looks great, and is the cutest pregnant girl that I know.