Sorry I'm so awful

So I know I have been horrible! No posting in almost two months. No time to upload tonight but I did snap a few pics from the Super Bowl party we had tonight and I will post them.

This weekend we are heading down to Arizona for my sisters wedding. Woo hoo.

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!