Gettin’ Dirty

This past weekend Greg and I, along with 3 friends, participated in a “race” called THE DIRTY DASH. Essentially, it was a 10k that entailed running TONS of hills and going through multiple obstacles. I was SO not in the mood for this race when Saturday hit. The week had been busy and very stressful, and the idea of sleeping in, reading the paper over a cup o’ joe, and taking it easy was looking was much more seductive than the prospect of running 6 miles through the mud. But I had a team depending on me, and I had been training for this, so I had to suck it up and get down and dirty.

Here is the “before” picture.

The first obstacle that we had to face was at the start of the race. There was a huge mud pit that was super squishy and uber slippery. Luckily I didn’t fall, but many runners around me did. It was a ridiculous uphill run for the first mile (and the next 3 miles), and at about the mile mark, we were hit by snow! There were snow making machines set up, and although it did create mud, it was kind of nice to be blasted by the cold in the heat of the day. We then hit large hay bails we had to jump, followed by crawling through tunnels, jumping walls, walking (crawling, falling, jumping) through mud bogs, slipping down a huge slip-and-slide, and last but not least, literally swimming through a pond of thick mud.

Because it’s just the way I roll, I talked the boys (the ladies, other than myself, were a no-go on going head first) into just doing a dead fall into the mud pond. Think 4 feet of mud thin enough that you can move around, but definitely not just dirty or muddy water. Good in theory, but not so good for Greg’s eyes. We’re not sure exactly what happened, but he got so much mud in his eyes that he was completely blind. Simply put, it sucked. Greg was in a lot of pain, and the geniuses in charge of the race didn’t have any way for people to wipe or rinse the mud off after they got out of the shiz, and NO DRINKING WATER (which is a whole other story/bitch session). Seriously, you’d think that would be a given. Anyway, long story short, after trying to rinse the mud out multiple times, we headed to the ambulances for some first aid.

Note to EMT’s: When working on someone, saying “whoa… dude, that’s horrible” and “oh no… wow…” probably isn’t the best way to settle a patients nerves. They weren’t able to clear the crap out of his eyes, and told us a visit to the hospital would be necessary. Poor Greggy had to endure a  drive from Midway down to the city and to the InstaCare. But our friends Carla and Jeff deserve a big high-five for being so awesome in getting us out of there and home quickly. Thanks guys (and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!). After sticking these creepy huge contact looking things in his eyes unloading and entire bag of saline into each eye, they were clean.

His corneas were scratched and after only 3 hours post mud/eye fight, already had infection in both eyes. He spent the next couple of days in quite a lot of pain, but each day this peepers have been getting better, and soon he’ll be like a normal man again ;).

If you haven’t guessed, this experience wasn’t the most enjoyable of my life. The super hill-ish (and hell-ish) terrain hurt my already bum knee and hip, and Greg’s muddy eyeballs just made it that much more fun. But I’m glad that I did it, and LOVE the team I ran with. Thanks for the good (and bad) times.

(look at Greg trying hard to open his eyes for the picture… lol)

“A” One

It’s always interesting for me to hear the ideas and views of different people on marriage. Especially the varying views of friends who are divorced, remarried, and those who are still on their marriage numero uno.

The other day I ran across this blog, and I love this post.

For the few friends I have that still have what I call a “movie” mindset on how love and marriage should be, and have doubts or question their own relationships when there is an ebb to the flow of passion, this article explains much better than I ever could (and have tried multiple times) my beliefs on marriage. My favorite line of this post: “Have the attitude that this is the person you are going to spend the rest of your life with, so you must find a way to make it work instead of always looking for the back door.” – Scott Haltzman, MD.

In a time when life moves fast and people move through marriages even faster, what amazing advice. I happen to believe I married the right person for me, but there are times that are more stressful or grumpy inducing than others, and I think that THAT is where the commitement comes in… sticking it out even when it’s not rainbows and gumdrops.

Goodbye My Sweet Friend

School started a few weeks ago. As the summer vacation was coming to an end, I think the kids AND I were ready for classes to begin.

Now that the kids are a few weeks in, we’re getting back into the swing of things. It has been a little bittersweet.

We had a wonderful summer! I am going to miss kick-the-can in the backyard, roasting marshmallows and s’mores, waking up in the morning with nowhere to be, swimming and water slides, crazy summer storms, summer holidays, amusement parks, running through the sprinklers, run hikes in the beautiful Utah mountains, family vacations with friends, bike rides and walks to the school park, late “movie nights”, getting together with relatives, and just good ole’ summer fun.

Here are just a few pictures of our amazing summer. Sometimes I wish that my kids would just make a “normal” faces. You know, the ones in which they smile unnaturally but proves that yes, your kids ARE adorable. But then they wouldn’t be who they are, and I love seeing their personalities through their goofy poses and faces. While I’m sad to see the summer end, I’m excited for our upcoming adventures. Goodbye summer… thank you for being so good to us this year :).

I’ve Got More Painkillers Than Nick Nolte

I’ve decided that in the future, you can pretty much insert one the following lines at the beginning of each and every one of my following posts:

“It’s been a crazy week, and…”. Or how about this one: “So much has happened, but I had such a busy week…”. You get the idea. Instead of telling you WHY I haven’t posted this week (because it’s been crazy, busy, and therefore normal), I’m just going to dive in from here on out.

About two weeks ago I had a “medical procedure”. Nothing too crazy, but it wasn’t just an in-and-out thing, with no down time or recovery time. It was also something that required me to take along a “buddy” to drive me to my appointment, sit with me through the procedure, not laugh if and when I said anything stupid while drugged with FIVE (yes, 5) concoctions, unless I was trying to be funny, and drive my drugged butt home. My cousin and BFF, Carlie, came through (as always) and was an awesome surgery caregiver! We joked around a lot in the surgical room with the doctor and nurse, at least what I can remember through the haze. Yeah, it hurt like hell, but at least there were some laughs in between the screams (OK, I didn’t really scream, but if I were a sissy I would have).

After my cuz drove me home and put me to bed, my mom showed up about 20 minutes later. I knew I’d be pretty much useless for the rest of the day, so she came to help out with the kids until Greg got home from work. Because she’s my mom, and therefore awesome, she made cinnamon rolls for the kids so that they’d have a warm and delicious snack when they got home from school. She entertained the kiddos, took Ian to his guitar lesson, and heated up dinner that my OTHER friend, Maree, prepared. YUM!

I kind of thought I’d be good to go the next day, but it took me about 4 days to really feel like myself. I hate taking pain killers, so I only took them the first 2 days. Not sure if it made my recovery time longer (although I was convinced the pills were contributing to the weird feeling I had), but not feeling loopy was worth it. ANYWHO, it’s times like these that remind me how lucky I am to be surrounded by people who love me and will be there when I need them. Thanks to everyone who called to check on me, as well as everyone who took care of me!

The day after my “procedure” was the John Mayer concert, which I had tickets to. Could it have been better timing? SURE! But it was awesome. Mr. Mayer was an amazing performer, and while I went into it loving his music but thinking that as a person, he was kind of a d.b., I again love him and think he is only a mild jerk :).

One of the COOLEST things about being a real estate agent is the 18 (used to be 15, until this last year) hours of “continuing education” that is required to renew your license. Mine has to be renewed soon, so I’ve been packing in the classes the past couple of weeks. I was not looking forward to the 2 to 3 classes per week that I’ve signed myself up for, but surprisingly they have been really good. Interesting and pertinent, which is a whole different story than the last time I renewed. I’m about half done, and have my longest class scheduled for tomorrow. Not super excited at the prospect of sitting in a classroom all day, but hopefully I’ll learn a lot and be (even more) like the Superman of real estate agents. Totally.

Another YUCK of tomorrow… Alex is having surgery to have her adenoids and tonsils removed, plus tubes put in her ears. I remember the pain of the tonsil surgery, and I’m hoping that she heals quickly and everything goes smoothly. But she’s has so many ear infections the past 1+ year, I really think she’ll be much healthier after we get this done. I’m gearing up for a week and weekend with a grumpy and hurting kid… gotta love parenthood :).

My brain is pretty much fried, and I can’t even think past tomorrow. So I’ll just stick to making promises that I may or may not keep: Next post… PICTURES PREVIOUSLY PROMISED.

Fam Damily

I’m paraphrasing, but I’m pretty sure it’s been said that something good always comes out of something bad. I’m not sure if that’s always the case, but when it comes to relationships and family, it definitely can be.

When I think back to when I was a kid and up to the present, I have became increasingly aware that my situation, at least certain aspects of it, is somewhat rare.

Rare in that there is very little drama. No fighting. A lack of contention that, it seems, is present in so many families. I’ve seen the arguments over what I consider very little things occur within other families, but other than the little “that’s my toy” when I was a little kid, it’s has not been a part of my family life.

I remember being with my little sister on vacation with extended family members, and we watched a little soap opera ensue over a towel or something HUGE like that. We were caught between feeling shocked at what we were watching unfold as well as working hard at not breaking out into uncontrollable giggles. Don’t get me wrong,  I don’t enjoy watching people argue. But it was, and still is, so strange to watch families fight that I never really know how to react.

Back to the “flip side” of it all. As I sat on my couch listening to a dear friend talk about some of the problems within her own family, it really made me grateful and appreciative of the relationships that I have with my own siblings and parents. No, it’s not perfect, but there is no fighting, bad feelings, or old hurts. I have different relationships with each of my siblings, but I cherish each of them.  And we ALL get along. And if you’ve read any number of posts I’ve written, then you know that I have nothing but absolute respect and love for my parents, and I would never dream of speaking to them or treating them with anything but respect and love. I may be a smart ass, but I’m a smart ass who knows her place.

It’s not that I’m glad that other people have to deal with bucket loads of crap within their own families, but the fact that it helps me realize how lucky I am, well, I guess it’s not ALL bad. For those of you who have strained relationships with family members, and yes, I know this is simplifying it, but…. GET OVER IT! You’re family :).