I Survived My First 1/2 Marathon!!!

Hello everyone - I did it!!!!
Sunday Dec 6, 09 was the Inaugural Rock and Roll Las Vegas Marathon

This past weekend I went to Vegas with Michelle -my friend from Mt- and some of her friends (Amy, Sue and Luis). We spent the first few days walking around Vegas looking at the casinos and stuff because Michelle had never been. We had some wonderful food, we had amazing seats to see O by Cirque De Sole(sp?) at the Bellagio and then watched the fountains.




Saturday we did some more walking around.

Sunday was the big day, we woke up at 5am to get ready.

We stayed at the Mandalay Bay hotel as the race started in their parking lot. The total count for the participants was around 27,500. This race was a new one in a group of races called the "rock and roll" series so in the AM they set off some fireworks to get things going. It was amazing to see the strip full of runners waiting to get started. That lighted bridge all the way up there is the start line.



They have the runners organized into corrals (yes like cattle) and they release the corrals in timed intervals so the race way does not get clogged. We lined up in corral #12 (even though none of our numbers were in 12 - he he he). We got lined up and then we were off ---
I put a big arrow over my head - yeaaaaa thats me-



I did make the rookie mistake of running way too fast!!! Amy (who didn't run this one but she was our amazing support crew) warned me of this. I had been training with an average of apx 15 min miles - my first 7 miles were averaging 10 min miles-. The race was very entertaining. We saw many many people dressed up as Elvis, many people dressed up as Santa, a trio of guys running as the Three Amigos, and also a lot of people with wedding attire as there was a run through wedding chapel and vow renewal area. As it was a Rock n Roll event there were many bands scattered along the way, my fav were the Japanese Drummers around mile 6-7ish.

I did hit "The Wall" for me it was around mile 8-9, my feet just felt like steel boots were strapped on them and I was craving pancakes (obviously I was in need of carbs). Thankfully there was a GU station at mile 9. GU is disgusting (-sorry to the makers- it is a carbohydrate filled, artificially flavored, gelatinous gob) but it was the most glorious looking thing at the time, I just needed something to keep me going. I passed up the Holiday GU (vanilla gingerbread, double yuck) and stuck with the triple berry. I told my dad I felt like such a hard core runner with my GU packet in one hand and my water and Cytomax (like power aid) in the other hand. With no free hands I had to tear my GU packet open with my teeth, squeeze a bunch in my mouth, chase it with my fluids and then throw them to the side of the road and keep going.

The last 3 miles were very hard and I swear there were really 5 miles in between the mile markers. My friends were already finished and waiting under mile marker 13 to cheer me on to the end but I was so ready to be done and so focused on my music that I ran by them. My friend Michelle said I looked really angry, oops I should of tried to smile.

-here is a link of me actually crossing the finish line *click here* you may have to search my name, I am at the top of the screen and if you watch they will count it down for when I am gonna cross-

My final time was 3hr 2min and 22 sec (03:02:22) wooo hooo!!! I didn't realize I had done that well cause the finish line clock counts the "gun time" which is when the first corral was released - we didn't get released until 24min later- they record both times.
Here is my metal for finishing!!!


After the race we went out to breakfast and I ate some great pancakes and eggs Benedict. Everyone else was ready to go out for the rest of the day as this was not their first race - I went up to the room and slept for abt 3 hrs-
Today I am back home with my wonderful husband. I am very sore and right now stairs are my enemy but I know I will recover.
I am planing on doing 2 more 1/2's this late spring and summer - woo hoo!!!!

Wonderful Thanksgiving

-be prepared to read, it is a long one -
So this past week and a halfish we have had a wonderful time with all our family. Starting on Fri the 20th my mom and dad flew in from Wash DC to stay with us a few days.

While they were here they met Mike Garis (my sister Stephs fiance), we went out to dinner together and had a great time teasing Steph. Those of you who know her know she likes to "control" a situation or at least be present to mediate. She was very nervous about Mom and Dad meeting Mike with out her being here. We did play a little trick on her the first night we all went out to dinner (because we were all getting along so well). Towards the end of dinner I texted Steph that things had gotten tense at dinner and Mike had gotten up and walked out. Steph didn't believe me at first so I did a little more convincing. Mike was in on it too!! We didn't lead her on for long (prob abt 2 min is all) and it prob was a little mean, but we love you steph. She didn't find it that amusing, understandably.

On Sunday the 22 Mom and Dad, Ben and I drove up in our separate cars to Mt. Ben and I were able to stay in Mt until Wed the 25th.


We got to spend lots of time with my fam and it was so great! My lil niece Charlotte (daughter of my brother Derek and his wife Beth) is 1 yr old now and so cute. I was afraid she would not want Ben or I to hold her but thankfully she wasn't scared of us at all.



While up there we drove to Spokane Wa and picked up Stephs wedding dress! I know Feb will come fast for all of us but prob a lot faster for her. We weren't there cause we had to come back to Ogden for my work but Mike proposed so now they are officially engaged.

On Wed we drove back into town, bummer. I ended up not having to go into work on Turkey day because we didn't have enough patients to justify all the nurses who were staffed (thankfully). We went up to Mom and Dad Keeffers for dinner. After dinner and dessert Ben and Meg (along with their kids)and John came over to play cards and hang out. I stayed up way to late and felt it in the a.m. when I had to wake up at 0400 for work. The next few days were just normal work and chores.

Then today was Johhnys farewell talk, he goes into the provo MTC this Wed. I can't believe it has come up so fast. Also Mikaela Passey was blessed in the same Sac meeting, she wore a very cute very puffy white and brown dress. After the meeting we all went to the Pleasant View city building and had a potluck.

Now Ben and I are just hanging out at home, watching some football. Duke is here hanging out with us once again as Steph is in town to visit Mike. -see mom he fits in this bed much better, he thanks you and dad for getting it for him, i'm sure-


And lastly we are thankful for all of our wonderful friends and family, even if we don't get a chance to see you often or talk to you know that we care for all of you.

another week - another plumbing problem

We love our new house but needless to say we do not love all of the plumbing problems we have run into. For the first few weeks we have run into 3 different plumbing problems. First on moving in the upstairs shower was constantly dripping hot water, no matter what we did it continued to drip. We finally called a plumber and about $200 dollars later the shower was fixed.

The second plumbing problem we had was the main floor toilet. We had not been able to use it since we moved in because it would not flush. First I tried to fix it one day while Ben was at work. I disassembled the whole toilet, snaked it with our sad little snake we bought at Lowes, then reassembled it with no improvement. We caved and decided to try a plumber, we were hoping it would be something covered in our home warranty. The plumber came out and had to disassemble the whole toilet again, this time he had success! He found a huge chunk of glass that was lodged in the line (his first question to us was "Did ya'll get really mad at each other recently?"). Obviously it was something dropped down the line while the toilet was off before as it was so big it would not of been able to be flushed. So after another $160 (this repair is going to be one of our Christmas presents from my Mom and Dad) we thought we were all done with plumbing disasters for a while.

But no.........














Friday night we had our first dinner party!! We had some old neighbors from the apartments come over for dinner. After we finished eating we loaded the dishwasher and started it so it could run while we watched the Jazz game. Ben walked in mid dishwasher cycle to a sink completely backed up with dirty water. Most of the water drained overnight- or so we thought-. No it just drained down into the dishwasher.

Ben really did not want to shell more money out to a plumber so we called in the family troupes. Ben, Ben Passey and John all worked on the sink tonight and after a good handful of hours, two pizzas and some frustration we have a fully operational sink and dishwasher!!

Woo Hoo - I am glad I have a hubby who is willing to be a DIYer.

update

So we have successfully moved completely into our house! Things have been busy so we haven't taken many pictures but I promise I will start taking some more.

moving day #1

Hey all,

So today we started moving!!! Ben and I started out by scavenging for boxes. We started at some of the local grocery stores and when that didn't work we hit the local liquor store (hey the lady at one of the grocery stores told us to go there). Thankfully they had plenty of boxes, now we just don't want our new neighbors to think we are boozers.


So our moving crew consisted of Ben, Me, Megan (one of bens lil sisters) and Ben Passey, John (ben's lil brother), Matt (bens older bro) and Val, and one of our downstairs abhors Brad.
Matt was able to borrow his father-in-laws flat bed truck so we moved most of our large furniture today using that. The other stuff we just boxed up in our liquor boxes and moved them over to the house.
We took a Burger King lunch brake and then moved some more.

Towards then end of the move I was able to stay behind at the house with Meg and I started painting our accent wall. It only has the first coat on but I think it looks pretty cool. We are gonna paint the fireplace and change the tile.


A few days ago Meg was over at our house while we were doing some work on it. We were all outside as Ben was cleaning some gutters, Tafton decided to try to climb the ladder. He could only make it to the first rung with out more help but I thought it was a cute photo opp.


We are gonna spend tonight (sat night) and sun night in the apartment, then the first night in our new house will be Mon night after we watch our first Monday Night Football in our new house.

Work on the house

So we have been able to do some more work on the house the past week.
Below is a pic of the carnage that I was able to create after going nuts with the clippers and shovel.



Ben and John finishing up on some work about a week ago.



So today I spent a lot of money buying paint and suff at Lowes. I got to the house and started cleaning and preping to paint. It was amazing how dirty the place was. I just washed the walls, baseboards, molding and it was amazing how much dirt I cleaned off of them. Most of the walls in the house are green, not to knock green but it just is not my fav color. Below is a pic of the bedroom turning from green to a really pretty grey/blue color.


Then here is the front sitting room going from ..... you guessed it green now to a nice light tan color.


I was docked from work tomorrow (we don't have enough patients to keep all the nurses working) so hopefully I can get the living room painted and do another coat in the front sitting room.

work work work ---- we are gonna try to move this saturday and monday!

Our first day of yard work

So we closed on our house Friday Oct 9th at 3.30pm!!! We will get the keys Tuesday (the house usually takes 24hrs to record but we had the luck of closing on a holiday weekend). Today Ben and I just couldn't wait anymore so even though we were trespassing today we went in and started yard work.
We saw some interesting things today. So many so that I am just going to list them

1. The biggest harriest spider EVER!! Ben killed it for me and described it as "custard filled"
2. A porcelain cereal bowl.
3. A lid to a round Pyrex bowl
4. Two kinds of Lilac plants (amazingly still labeled)
5. A big pile of rocks we can use to finish a rock path at the side of our house
6. TONS of grape vine!! (one vine climbed two separate trees and was starting to choke them, the trees looked half the fullness they originally were pre vine removal)
7. Various imported Mexican beer cans
8. Various soda and energy drink cans
9. A shoe insole
10. Towels and rags
11. A ton of fuzzy stuff and random pieces of yellow foam
12. The head to an old broom
13. Oh wait..... two more kinds of Lilac for four types total
14. More grape vine!!!

I might of forgot to list some tupper-ware (sp?) that we found also but I think that covered most of the random items we found.

I didn't take pics yet but I promise to start photo documentation of the destruction and reconstruction of things.

I know that list makes our sweet little house sound like a pile of junk but I promise it isn't. We just think that two families ago were people who cared for this little house and then unfortunately the last family who lived there did not care at all. Thankfully we now have this wonderful place and we are gonna pour lots of blood, sweat and I am sure some tears into this place.

Let the work begin-----------

Hoping to close this week.

So for those of you who don't know we are in the process of buying a house. It has been fairly quick seeing as how a month ago we weren't thinking we were gonna move for a while. Wed our home inspector is going through and then hopefully we will be able to close at the end of this week or early next week. We don't think the reality has really set in yet that we are buying a home. Crazy!!!!

I am a slacker

Hello once again. Like usual it has been a long time since I have posted. Ben and I have had a busy couple of weeks with family and getting some new things started. Becca Bens little sister got married a couple of weeks ago so some family came in from out of town (Charissa and her little girl Leah from Md).


Then we were able to drive up to Nampa, Id and have a weekend with Ben's Grandpa and Grandma. Ben's gpa competes in various senior Olympics and we were able to go with him for his basketball event where he won a gold metal.

While in Nampa I bought some new running shoes and I am trying to get them broken in before I kill myself.. oops I mean before I do my half marathon in Dec.


We got home and settled from Idaho when Megan (Bens other little sister) had her second baby Mikaela! She is so little compared to the big kid that her 16 month old is. She is a beautiful little girl who we are excited to see grow up.



As Megan was recovering in the hospital John (bens little brother) got his mission call in the mail - it must of been one they were certain of because it only took one week. He is going to the DC South mission! I called my parents because they live in Falls Church, VA which is in the mission John will be going (he goes in Dec 2)

The next news is that Ben and I are looking for a house. We have been talking and shooting around the idea. We figured we are ready and we should move before the tax credit runs out. Right now we love one house on the East Bench in Ogden and today we are going to look at a few in Roy and Washington Terrace. We have discovered we are not afraid to make quick decisions, we started out with about 45 houses to look at between the above areas. We have been driving around looking at the outside and more importantly to both of us the neighborhoods. We now have that list down to about 5, 4 of which we get to look inside of today and the list will prob get much shorter.

When we make a decision you can gaurentee there will be photos!! We have already bombarded our close friends and family with plenty of them for the house on the East Bench area.

Sorry again for the long time- no post. I'll try to be better.

trip to denver

So last weekend I took a semi impromptu trip to Denver with two of my High School friends. Sarah (the blond one) called me a few weeks prior and asked if I wanted to go to Denver with her as she tried out for American Idol. We ended up roping in one of our other friends Angela to go with us. We drove into Denver,Co on Sat and got settled in.
Sunday was the first day of registration. It was very interesting to see some of the audition process as it is very different from what you see on TV. So Sunday we went and got lined up at Mile High Staduim. They opened up the parking gates at 3am- we went and got lined up at about 5am. We were expecting to be sitting outside till about 12 but we got registered and our tickets at about 8am.

Just lined up and waiting.





So here we are with our arm bands- The orange means you were trying out and the blue was for your designated supporter.

We were surprised to be processed so fast as the line was about 3/4 around the stadium when we got lined up. We ended up driving around Denver and getting a little acquainted with the surroundings. Those wonderful armbands they put on us, we had to keep them in place and dry until Tuesday.

-We have more photos to come----

Not much happening

Hello all,
So I haven't posted in a bit cause Ben and I have just kinda been chugging through normal life. Tonight we went out for dinner and then stopped by Albertsons to get some pie (we figured we could get a whole one for the same price as a slice at the restaurant) when I saw these cool roses. Ben bought them for me 80) - I really am such a lucky girl!! I just don't remember ever seeing yellow and red roses. Soooo yeah sorry there is not more news.

Productive weekend

Yes it was, a productive weekend that is. Ben and I were able to go over to Ben and Megan Passeys (Megan is one of Bens lil sisters) house and continue to help them prep their house. We helped them paint some more and even pull carpet out of a room to discover hardwood floors underneath. When we got home we needed to rearrange our living room so we could fit Bens recliner in the room.

No we did not go buy a recliner, it was free!!!! Don and Charissa (Charissa is one of Bens older sisters) who currently live in Cumberland,Md told Ben a while ago that if he could find a way to get the recliner here to Utah he could have it. Ben took a lot of time researching how much it would cost to ship the thing and decided he would wait to figure out some other way. John his little brother graduated from high school this year and took a cross country trip with his parents to see Charissa and her family, also Jessica(also a Keeffer sister) and her family in North Carolina. They happened to take the minivan which left plenty of open space for ......the recliner.
Our living room basically rotated 90 degrees. We have limited space so there weren't a lot of options.
Here is Ben relaxing for the first time in his chair.


Here is the living room now. The TV is in the right hand corner that you don't see.


After all of that Ben, Megan, their lil guy Tafton, and John came over to watch a movie in the newly arranged room. Tafton has been giving mom and dad a run for their money when they try to change his diaper, it is usually a two person attack tactic. Here he was trying to make a get away, first mom caught him (not shown) then dad finally got him.

Our 1 year anniversary

Hello - get ready for a long post!!!!!

So Ben and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary on Sunday May 24th. It is hard to believe that one year has passed. We decided to celebrate by going north for the weekend. Friday we picked up our small cake (so we didn't have to eat frozen ucky cake) and headed up to North Fork, ID to a bed and breakfast -100 Acre Wood Resort-. As a wedding gift my Aunt gave us a one night stay in a master suite. We had a wonderful dinner of steak and I got some crab with my steak 80) for dessert it was an orange creme brulee.


The view from the deck of our room.


We had a lot of fun looking out at the pond and the five new goslings that were running around.




The next morning we had a huge breakfast and then went to visit my Auntie Viccie who lives on the Salmon river. She and her friend Sid live on some property that is across the river in order to access the property you have to use the cable car of float across the river. They use a solar power generator for any "power" requirements. Sid purchased a washer and dryer, got it across river and hooked up, only to find out that it would not run off a generator. So while we were visiting we helped Anutie Viccie and Sid get the washer and dryer back across the river.

First Ben and Sid secured the appliances one at a time into the front loader tractor.


Then Sid drove them down to the raft.

Ben and Sid loaded the appliances onto the platform of the raft and secured them so that even if the raft tipped over the washer and dryer would not come loose. 80) Ben just told Sid "How about we don't tip the raft over, then we wont have to worry about it."


Because it is still early summer/late spring the river is running high and fast so Ben and Sid had to walk to raft up river a bit in order to make the pull out point they wanted.

Ben looking good while they were making it across the river.


Now comes the fun undocumented part. After we got the washer and dryer successfully across the river and into the trailer we had to make it back across the river. Because the river is moving so fast right now there was no way to row against the current to make it back to the property so Ben and Sid had placed the motor on the back of the raft and tested it out. With everything loaded up I asked to ride back across the river with Sid, after Ben pushed us off the bank and we were about 2 feet out the motor died. Sid was not happy, we were able to pull over only to spend some time assessing the damage and decided we were not going to be able to make it back up stream. Sid hollered to Ben the name of the take out point and then Sid and I went on an impromptu river ride. Auntie Viccie and Ben had to bring the truck and trailer to the take out point were we disassembled the raft completely.

This is us in the back of Sids truck. We did get a bit sunburned but not all that bad. So a bit wet and tired we said good bye to Sid and Auntie Viccie who was headed out to work and we got on the road to Missoula, Mt.


We took a brake from snapping photos then next day but had a lot of fun celebrating Beths (my brothers wife) birthday and just hanging out. Steph hooked up her WII and we made some great idiots out of ourselves doing soccer, hula hooping and ski jumping. Also just holding and talking to our cute niece Charlotte.

These are the flowers Ben got for me Saturday night. He suprised me with them Sunday morning however I found out about them Sat night. Sat as we headed up to Saundie and Matts from Beth and Dereks there was a huge lightning storm that knocked the power out. Ben told me he was going to cut and arrange the flowers after I had fallen asleep but with no power he couldn't see anything. I was so tired I was almost asleep when I told him he should just put them in some water and we could do it in the morning. When I woke up they were cut and arranged by the bed. Ben said he had a flashlight and found a hacksaw in the garage so he decided to cut them and arrange them during the night for me. Not may people can say they used a hacksaw for cutting flowers.




Now to Charlotte Harbour and the wonderful messy thing that is feeding time. She has to be one of the messiest babies when she eats. She just loves to turn her head to see what is going on and wont sit any kind of straight at all. 80) We love you CharHar.


See what I mean.


Now here is why I can tell that Charlotte is my brothers lil girl. Below is my brother feeding her in what I can only describe as the baby food funneling method. He has obviously done this before because she eats really well like this and loves it.!!! My brother is a goof.


Oh wait a camera..........

Ok more food now. 80)


It was so nice to spend so much time with family and we hope to do it again soon.

My Trukey

Happy Mothers Day

Oh first here is a pretty pic of lilacs that I cut from Joanne and Dennie's yard for the table. Reminded me of all the lilacs we planted in Montana.

So this weekend was mothers day!!! I got a call last week from my lil sister in law asking if we could help out with mother day dinner, we decided we would go all out and roast a turkey. I had seen a method called brining (brine - ing) it is kinda like a seasoned salt water bath for the turkey.



So here is my brine while it is simmering on the stove. I use thyme, rosemary, sage, onion, carrots, celery, paprika, and some bay leaves.


After it came down to room temp and the turkey was thawed it go to hop into its bath overnight.

then drum roll please ..... brummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
The finished product!!! It was really moist, this was the first time I have not used one of those reynolds cooking bags. I also rubbed a compote butter of sage and some other stuff under the skin.