News:

I loved Halloween. If I can gather the costume photos I will post them later. I was a silly witch with a tutu, high tops, and green face, and AJ was THIS guy. I had some fun decorations which I may have to post pics of too. But it's late.

I got called at the primary chorister (I teach kids songs at church). It's a big job and I get stressed out every Sunday. Today was a good day though, surprisingly, because I had 40 minutes to fill instead of 20. Twice. We have our program coming up, so it's been a challenge to just figure out what songs they know. I'm also on the enrichment committee too which is right up my alley (versus singing in front of kids). AJ has been called as scout master which I think he'll rock at once he gets a chance to be there, work permitting.

For the last 3 weeks AJ has been working in Rock Springs, only coming home for a day or 2 on the weekends. We miss him. A lot.

Something's wrong with me. All evening the room spins every time I move. Vertigo? It's weird.

My highlights are totally growing out now and I think I'll dye my hair dark auburn tomorrow to cover it up, instead of paying a professional to do a great job fixing them. $3 is cheaper than $60.

I was only home last night long enough for 2 trick-or-treaters. Anyone want some candy?

I made Griz the coolest dog bed ever (kinda old news). It's 46 x 36 inches which is just right for him = huge. He slept on our bed last night.

It snowed a week ago. And stuck. And I was a little sad instead of excited. But the real problem is all the leaves covering my lawn. Not only do I have to rake those up, but I have to find the dog poo to pick up underneath too.

I almost won 2 doughnut-on-a-string eating competitions yesterday. I'm pretty much awesome.

It's officially my dad's birthday now. Happy birthday Dad!!!

We won!!!

Griz and I got 1st place in Petsmart's Howloween costume contest! YEAH!



Winners were based on applause, and I really couldn't tell who was a clear winner. Our friends and their dogs Cooper (black lab) and Jade (mix-looks like a mini black lab) were dressed as Batman and Robin. They were awesome! But somehow we beat them and they got 2nd. We won a $20 Petsmart gift card, and went home with lots of treats. Oh, and we got our picture taken of course :)

You can't really tell in the pic, but Griz was wearing an old nightgown, or "Granny's" nightgown you could say. He was the Big Bad Wolf who swallowed Granny and I was Lil Red Riding Hood. I pulled together our costumes super last minute, but hey, we won! WOOOHOOOO!

Grizzly is ONE!

You all know I'm the crazy dog lady, but I try not to blog about Grizzly TOO much. Well yesterday was his first birthday! WOOHOO! So just to catch you up on his incredible growth, I made this little chart. It amazes me too, holy cow. I'm making him a huge dog bed since I couldn't find one big enough for a decent price (um, Petsmart, that is NOT a "large") so maybe I'll post some pictures of it when I'm done. And yes the above picture was taken with my camera's timer because I'm a huge nerd.

Blog Post #158

I know, I've been the crappiest blogger lately. Basically it's because I keep waiting until I can post the latest news about job interviews, rejections, and offers, but my sister has pointed out to me that I shouldn't blog to the world about such things. I can't tell you the names of these places just in case they google me and read about it. I can't mention my personal feelings about these places or people just in case I screw myself over in the process.

But let it be known: There have been interviews, rejections, and offers. I have been excited about things, upset about things, and still don't know some details about some other things. BUT the bottom line is, I'm still doing freelance from home and have gotten some new work. So that's pretty cool. Nothing yet that will look good on a home loan application, but whatever. We're doing well.

A.J. is amazing...he just works his little buns off. He turned *gasp!* 25 last week! We got a Playstation 3 and up until a couple days ago have been playing our games. Why have we stopped? Because we BEAT them! Booyah! AJ got Birds of Prey (WWII airplane dogfighting game) and I got Harry Potter–The Half-Blood Prince. I decided I love kid games. And I haven't seen a Harry Potter movie since the 3rd one, so now I totally know what The Half Blood Prince was about. Haha! I did the same thing with Kung Fu Panda (during the week we had an xBox 360). So anyway, does anyone have PS3 games they want to share with us? We don't have cable...

Grizzly is almost 1 year old! He's about 75 lbs and finally starting to slow down (growth-wise) but he'll probably fill out just a little more. Just had to answer the question that EVERYONE asks me ("so how big will he get?"). I'm sure I'll post pictures of whatever ridiculous thing I decide to do for his first birthday. Cute lil' guy!



In other news, I'm super excited for October, Halloween costumes and decorating. But it snowed yesterday and that's despicable.

I'd also like to randomly announce (may be old news) that Simply (juice) now has raspberry lemonade, and you all need to go out and buy 2 bottles, because 1 won't be enough. It's incredible.

AND Happy Birthday Ashlee! Haha.

Wherewolves and heartbreak, the Volturi–Oh My!

*If you are not a fan of the Twilight series, just ignore this.*

A new New Moon trailer! This looks so sweet.

At the time I read the second book, I couldn't wait to get to the third one, but I'm remembering what made that book so great (it wasn't the beginning!) It's gonna be soooo cool to see the Volturi on the big screen!

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Oh. My. Goodness.

#1- I'm SO glad I don't have to date anymore
#2- I'm SO glad I married the coolest/smartest/awesomest guy in the world

Listen here to see why.

http://melodymaker.posterous.com/the-reason-some-girls-stay-single-very-funny

Top of Utah Half Marathon

And finally we're caught up to this week's events.

Saturday was the Top of Utah Half Marathon! Woohoo! Natalie had challenged me to do the Georgetown one with her, and I figured since I was already prepared, I might as well sign up for the one in my own hometown. Right? So I did. And it was awesome!

The course starts in Blacksmith Fork Canyon, at the same place my 15k started. It was dark when the buses took us up there. The course ends in Providence, oh, 13.1 miles later :) The canyon part is beautiful, and it's downhill most of the way. It was even overcast and breezy which felt perfect! We even had a tail wind there for a while, so I was really getting pushed down some of the hills.

I felt really good and strong the whole time. Not perfect, but pretty darn good. I had been worrying about my hips since they were STILL sore from my first half, 3 weeks prior. I prayed hard, and stretched really well, and I don't think I even felt them until maybe the 10th mile. But by then my knees hurt worse, so I was good. Haha.

My first mile was about 9:17, and I thought to myself, okay, you're going too fast, you're going to get burned out, but I just kept going at that pace since I still felt fine. One thing I do with all that time to think, is I do math with my mile times. I had a goal of finishing under 2:10, so I figured if I kept going at that pace, I could get pretty close to that. So I just kept on going. I passed each mile right around 9 minutes from the last one, so I knew I was doing well.

I had such a blast because I felt like I was passing people the entire time. In reality the first 3 miles is just a mess, because there are so many people at that starting line, starting their race at different times (for example I was over 30 seconds behind the people in front) and running at different speeds, so you have to weave around slower people while faster people are trying to get around you. But after that, I was steadily passing people which was fun.

Right around the 6th mile, I saw my old roommate Melissa! It was so crazy! She lived with Natalie and I, what a coincidence that 3 of us did half-marathons this year. So I ran with her for about a mile and went ahead. Around the 7th mile you come out of the canyon and start running past houses in some rural neighborhoods. This was fun because that's where people line the streets and cheer for you. Hooray! I don't care who they're cheering for, it helps me keep moving. Around the 10th mile my knees were really killing me, but I pushed through. That's also about the point where the course goes gradually uphill for about 2 miles. The last mile or two are all downhill towards the finish line. That was the best! I could see the finish line for probably half a mile and it helped me run really strong until the end. There were tons of people and I felt good enough to sprint to the finish (although it probably didn't look like a sprint). All these people are cheering, and I heard one voice out of all of them, A.J.'s! YAY! I grinned at him and Grizzly bear and was sooo glad they were there at the finish for me.

Well, I am so excited about my final time. I was hoping for at least 2:10, thinking under 2 hours would be awesome but not likely. Well I finished in 2 hours flat! Woohoo! My average mile time was 9:13, which is really good for me. I had been watching my mile times the whole race, so I was really happy that I had ran at such a consistent pace.

AJ took this picture of me after I finished. The other shots of me show 2 legs, but I figured not showing you those other strange facial expressions was worth my one-legged look here. Haha.

And no, that guy behind me is not dead.

Later that day we went up to Bear Creek Lodge, which is close to Bear Lake, for AJ's summer work party. I could hardly move my legs, and that really impacted the games I competed in. I had hoped to excel in the cow pie toss, the gunny sack race, and the 3-legged race, but it wasn't happening. Sorry, AJ. They had some nice prizes so it would have been nice to win. AJ told me earlier that a 50 inch plasma TV would be one of the prizes, so I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to perform. Well, my husband is just a sweetheart and let me believe that for like, 4 hours at least. There was no plasma. Fortunately he filled me in on the truth before I started telling people about the TV I wanted to win...haha!

We had a delish BBQ and then just kinda hung out and watched the employees' kids go crazy with marshmallow guns. (It's amazing how people can let their kids get so obnoxious and as I'm being shot with sticky marshmallows they will ask, "so when are you going to have a little angel of your own?" Hmm.) The adults were all just hanging out and probably thought I was boring, but I was completely drained of all my energy for the day. They tried to convince us to stay the night but I was out. So we went home and I slept for like 12 hours.

The end!