To Run or not to Run

That has been the question for me for a long time. But I've finally taken the plunge and started running. I LOVED to run back in 6th and 7th grade and even hoped to run track when I got to high school ... but I trashed my ankle at one point I've never really run since ... even in high school, I usually managed to get out of running due to my weak ankle. But, I needed to do SOMETHING. Our friends convinced Steve to do a 5K and he convinced me. So, I've been running. Do I love it - NO! But, am I committed to it, yes. I've run 3 weeks now at least 3 times a week. Its a big step for me. Today I did my first practice 5K ... finished about 1 minute slower than I had hoped and had to walk some on that 3rd mile, but I at least finished the entire distance. I am actually looking forward to running a 5K next weekend at BYU and then a 2nd one the following week to support one of my clients and her little boy who lost his leg in a lawn mower accident last year at this time. www.karsenmery.blogspot.com I think I might learn to love running again at some point. I love being outside but I'm still trying to get a good pace so its not fun yet. So for now ... I look forward "to someday" .... being more in shape, being thinner and to loving running. :)

Sunrise

I love living near the mountains ... and I love watching the sun peak over the tops of the mountains in the mornings. I'm not a morning person, but the sunrise does make me happy. These are some pictures I snapped this morning out the sunroof of my van as I was turning on my street after I dropped my kids at school. So grateful for the beautiful world we live in. It is truly majestic.

Art in Schools - HELP US!!

This summer, Alyssa and I discovered a website called dosomething.org Its a website designed for KIDS to learn to be more involved in their community. She LOVES doing service projects so I was searching for something for her. Right now, their featured "cause of the month" is art in school. There is a contest called Make Art, Save Art. She wanted to enter as soon as she saw it. Here is her entry!!

So here is what we need you to do! Go to this link and "share" it on Facebook and/or Twitter. Each "share" is a vote for her. If she is one of the top 5 "shared" entries, she wins a Laptop. But her goal isn't that ... her goal is to be #1 because then she earns $5000 and 5 HP computers for the art program at her school plus a $1000 college scholarship. She was REALLY excited about making a difference for her school. She is handing out flyers to all her friends for them to give their moms and delivering flyers to our neighborhood. She WANTS to make a difference.

http://www.dosomething.org/make-art-save-art/design/spring-flowers

When I helped her submit her entry, she was SOOOOO excited to see it online. PLEASE help her! Even if she doesn't win, it is a HUGE boost to her self-confidence that she did her best to make a difference. THANKS! .... AND if you don't mind posting a little link on your blog asking for your friends to share it too, that would be HUGE!!

Craft Night

We had a fun night at Crafters Corner tonight. Most of us did Halloween projects. Here are mine! I was really pleased with how well they turned out.



For those of you who haven't been to Crafter's Corner ... here is a taste of some of their other projects.

Hail, Hail, the Storm is Here!

Steve and I LOVE to watch storms and this one ranked up there as one of the best! The hail came down for 5 minutes ... it was amazing.

The rain and hail came down so fast it overflowed the rain gutters on the house and gushed down the street.
Usually when the black rubber under our swingset is white, its with snow ... but not this time. Hail!
We really enjoy a good storm ... rain, hail, lightning and thunder. We love to go out on the front porch and watch them.

Today, I have to brag a bit about Steve! He is very focused on getting better in shape. Today, he set out to run and the storm started about 2/3 the way through his run but he didn't stop. The rain and hail came down, and he kept running. I, on the other hand, didn't run as far as I should have because the rain was starting. :) Way to go Steve!

Racing Cane

Steve ran his first race today ... a fundraising race for the kids who work the sugar cane plantations in the Dominican Republic. He ran the 6K. Here he is in the pack as he starts - he's with his buddy Dallas - Steve is waving at Robyn (Dallas's wife) but Dallas is looking at me. Go figure!

Swoop (the U of U mascot) was there ... not sure why. When I saw him, I made sure to wrap my blanket with my BYU logo on the outside so he could see it. He and the Blaze Sasquatch mascot came right over. The Sasquatch teased me and Swoop for a second. Scoop took my camera and handed it to my friend Robyn and then he scooped me up in his arms and Robyn snapped a picture. I was glad I managed to wrap my BYU blanket around so that it shows more than the Ute logo. Swoop - you're wrapped in blue! :)
Steve pushing hard the last few seconds to finish his race. He blows past the lady in this picture and 2 others ahead of him. He finished with a 35 min 14 sec chip time which is a 9 min 28 sec mile. He was pleased with his first race. Alyssa and our friends Connor and Kylie raced in the kids races (2 laps around the track). Alyssa's first race and she really enjoyed it.
Steve, Robyn and Dallas after their race - 6K for the guys and 3K for Robyn. Way to go!
Steve and Alyssa ... aren't they cute!
Alyssa and Kylie rockin' out to some music while the older kids were running.

Jessica (purple skirt on the grass), Steve (black shirt) and Taylor (back of the pack in the short light mint green skirt) run with Alyssa the last 1/4 of a lap ... Alyssa is between Steve and Taylor and Kylie is on the outside edge.
Alyssa pushing hard her last little bit. So proud of her. Running is not Alyssa's forte, but she had fun and did a GREAT job. SO PROUD OF HER!!

Jessica and Tay got their faces painted, just before we left ...
Time to head home to get ready to watch ... yep, the BYU Cougars play FSU. Outcome yet to be determined. GO COUGS!!!

Additional Note ... BYU just lost to FSU. Not the best game, but we played better than we did last year against them. :) Its not going to be a great season this year, and we knew that going in with so many young players. We just want to at least show signs of hope for the future in every game and in today's game, we saw some of that. Unfortunately, we also saw an O-line struggle. Hope that looks better before the rest of our games or the season is going to be worse than we expect. That's ok, I still bleed blue! Home game next weekend ... we'll be tail gating! Come join us! Leave me a comment or call me if you want to tail gate with us.

Utah State Fair - Alyssa's field trip

I love getting to go on field trips with my girls. Alyssa's class went to the Utah State Fair in SLC on Friday. Our tradition is for me to take pics of us on the bus ... one good one and then a crazy one.

The State Fair had sea lions this year as their "feature" show. My group posed in front of them, then ate lunch while we watched them rest between shows.

Alyssa has always loved animals. Her whole group does so we spent a lot of time seeing the animals ... chickens, a HUGE turkey, goats, sheeps, cows, pigs. She loved all of them, but was a little intimidated by the BIG pigs. :)

We went back to see the sea lions at their noon show. We got their early enough to get seats in the stands, which was nice because we could see really well. The girls really loved the show.
My personal favorite trick was the congo line ... This is Alyssa and I in front of a BUTTER sculpture ... totally made of butter.
The girls hanging out under the cougar. Go Cougs!!
On the bus ride home, just before we got back to the school, the bus driver turned on a CD of YMCA and the kids BELTED it out! After that he turned on the National Anthem and the 5th graders sang with a lot of heart and energy.
I love my biz and I love being able to work and have my own thing, but I'm really grateful I have a flexible schedule so I can go on field trips and do other fun school things with my kids.

Yep, I'm back!

I'm back into blogging again, so hopefully you'll see consistent posts for awhile. :)

Update on life in general? ...

My business is going really well. I've added quite a few new clients recently which is really nice. Steve is working hard on his own business, AudioShare which is starting to take off. We're hoping for consistent paychecks soon as it has been over a year since the other company he worked for went under. Not sure how we've survived this long, but we've made it and we'll just keep on going. We are very grateful for my business and I'm really grateful Steve has encouraged me and supported it so much in the previous years. It has caused a lot of growth that I couldn't have done without his encouragement.

Alyssa started 5th grade ... wow, she's growing up. She is enjoying it so far. They are doing a lot of US History stuff this year and she is determined to earn an award - they have to memorize all kinds of things (anthem, pledge - with correct spellings, presidents, states, capitals and I think parts of the Declaration of Independence or maybe its the preamble to the Constitution etc). She's still dancing but her studio got bought out. The new studio owner is much stricter so we'll see how it goes. Alyssa isn't loving it right now. She has 2 hours of ballet instead of just 1, and that is the dance she hates the most. Give her tap, jazz and hip hop, but not ballet! But it will really improve her skills, so we're trying to stick it out.

Taylor is in 2nd grade. She LOVES it. I am so grateful for great teachers. This class is a bit chatty according to the teacher, which doesn't surprise me. The kids really seem to know each other well in this grade. She is working hard on her homework and really starting to increase her reading skills. Reading has never been her strength so I'm excited to see her finally getting into chapter books. She is returning to gymnastics. She didn't love dance and has been asking for since about October of last year to switch to gym. We had pulled her and Jess both out of dance last January. In May, I had them tryout just in case they were dancing this year. Taylor went to the tryouts. Afterward, I asked her if she had fun. She said yes. I said do you want to dance. Her reply was "Nope. I want to do gymnastics." She knows what she wants ... so we've given it to her.

Jessica, my baby is now in Kindergarten. We have half day kindergarten here, so I'm home with no kids for about 3 hours of every day! Its kind of crazy. She LOVES everything in life. She's so energetic about everything she does but she is picking up on some of the drama she sees from her oldest sister. She loves to go to school and be with her friends. She loves to come home and tell us all about it. She loves to do her homework (flash cards and reading) and then begs to head off to play with a friend. She just bubbles with enthusiasm and its fun.

Besides our businesses, Steve and I are trying to balance all the stress of our situation and trying to keep our attitudes up. Its been a long year, but, we've made it this far and we'll keep going. With a schedule back in our lives, I'm excited to be blogging and scrapbooking again. Of course, I am further behind now than I was 4 months ago, but hey, I do it because I enjoy it and want to do it, not because I'm supposed to so its ok. I have my whole life to scrapbook, right?

Steve is still in his band and has 4 gigs come up in the next 6 weeks or so. He hasn't flown his plane much this year ... probably becuase we can't afford to fix it if it breaks. :) But its been a good summer.

Well, that's the update on us. :) Hope all of you are doing well! And remember to say hello in the comments and check back often now that I'm blogging again.

20 years since Senior Year Started!

Twenty years ago, Steve started his senior year of high school. The seniors this year, invited his class back to Home Coming week. It started with a "Super Star Rally" on Wed night. The alumni and their spouses competed against teams from the faculty, freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes. We did all kinds of strange games. Steve enjoyed seeing all this old classmates and the games were a little fun too.


Yes, this is me in the helmet in the cart, with an egg in my mouth (ok, so I cheated and only held it up to my mouth) and Steve is pushing me.
Steve pushing a wheelbarrow with one of his classmates' daughters in it.
This one the guy had to dress up in a dress and wear a blindfold and carry the girl over a table and then through some flags.
Steve and several of his classmates. ... we did not choose the orange shirts ... but aren't they BEAUTIFUL?
Of course, the seniors won, and alumni came in a close second. BIGGEST cheaters! We came in 4th out of 6th, but we think the scores were wrong ... we should have been 3rd. :)

The week continues ... to a Friday morning pep rally where his senior class was in charge of a 30-40 minutes (they told them a skit ... but how do you do a skit for 30-40 minutes with little or no practice and not really sure who will be there until that week?) Watch for the next post to see what they did (and Steve coordinated it all, of course).

One more summer swim!

After our hike to Stewart Falls we headed to a neighbor's for a BBQ and swimming. We feel so lucky to have such great friends ... friends that our kids feel so comfortable with, friends that make our kids so happy and give us so many amazing memories!

Of course, Alyssa is always a poser when the camera comes out. :)

The smiles on even the adults' faces shows how much fun we have.
Taylor has discovered she LOVES to swim. She even took off the life jacket and swam in the deep end. So proud of how far she came this summer.
Jessica found a new friend ... she followed him around the pool and he played with her including tossing her into the air. She loved all the attention from him. Thanks B!
The girls love swimming with the tube - coming down the slide and just hanging out.
Steve joined in the fun in the pool and had fun playing with the kids.
Thanks Gormans for a fun final evening of summer!