Growing Up

Our own Ashley Lundquist took these gorgeous pics. Check it.

Remembering Grandma

Last weekend we flew up to St. Louis for an extended weekend to attend the funeral of my grandma, Arline Huber. Although we will miss her, it was a peaceful time to visit with family and remember the many good things she accomplished in her life.

This is a picture of her wedding picture. I'm working on getting a digital copy of the real thing...

The Vasel family home

And this is the back porch I remember--eating Drumsticks ice cream cones and swinging on this swing after dark and catching fireflies. It's a treat to visit a place you haven't been to for awhile; it helps you reconnect with yourself. And what a weird feeling to see a new batch of halfpints filling up the swing...the great-grandkids.

Four generations: Ella, me, Avery, my dad, and my grandpa

The Arch. Bryson and I got to go to the top.

Grant's Farm, also a favorite. We spent many summers visiting my grandparents and coming here.

I think the strongest thing I've learned from my grandmother's life is to be generous. She always gave to her grandchildren above and beyond what you would ever expect. We used to look forward to visiting her every summer for a week at a time without our parents and we'd get spoiled rotten. We'd go swimming, eat at Chuck E Cheese, visit Grant's Farm, get to pick out something fun at the toy store, and go to the movies. I want to be as generous as she was and I hope to have the same kind of relationship with my kids and their kids. Thank you grandma.

Ogden Marathon

Life is a marathon. Seriously.

My time at Ogden was 4 hours 16 minutes 8 seconds, a 9:46 minute mile pace. This was not my favorite time, but it takes just as much to run a slow marathon as a fast one. So next time I might as well just run it fast. This was marathon #5 for me and I love this course.

Other than needing a body cast to get around for a few days afterward, I love being on cloud nine after a race. It's such an empowering experience to push past your mental and physical limits and find out you are always capable of more than you thought.

So I feel like I was in better shape than my time reflected, and I'm considering running the Utah Valley marathon in Provo on June 13 before I lose all the hard work I've put in. Anyone interested? I just want to break 4 hours.

*Advice to myself for the future: Two Imodium tablets are a little too much, don't forget the Ibuprofen next time!!!!!, now is the time to break the temptation to use a sports bra as a purse for gu, chapstick, granola bars, etc. Also, the song "No air" might not be the best choice for tackling the one hill on the route. Just switch it next time.

Almost done...I can see the finish line about a half mile away

P.S. If you have not yet left me songs for my ultimate playlist, please continue to do so! I'm still gonna need them. I recently discovered the downloading wonderland of mp3 panda and have nickels to burn.

Gimme 5

I spent the greater part of last night creating the ultimate playlist for the marathon this weekend and realized that it needed a little spice. I'm a same old same old girl and I've got my solid faves down, but I wouldn't mind mixing it up. So leave me a comment with your top 5 songs to work out to...but if it's Ace of Bace or Brittney Spears, you can just send an email privately.

What Bryson Does All Day

Well, at least when the sudoku gets slow...

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=6341378

p.s. There is a picture of Bryson in the video if you watch it. He is testing bird flu.

Paid in Full

These words are a relief to me. I am wondering: how in the world have we scraped by for the past three and a half years? This is a little overdue, but also very timely. Our New Year's resolution this year was to finish off this second loan and about a month ago we made our last payment. Yay! Then this Monday we closed on a refinance with the first loan, lowering our monthly payout even more. I'm not judging, because everyone's circumstances are different (and we love all our neighbors), but with so many people walking away from their financial obligations and foreclosing on their homes, I am grateful that we've been able to do this. Financially I guess it doesn't make a lot of sense, but we've honored the commitments we've made and did what we said we would do. I'm grateful to have a spouse I can trust with money and who can work with me to live off very little when times are tight. But now it will be nice to have some breathing room!

Wallflowers

So no one picked up the swine flu this weekend at the Wall family reunion. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was too busy eating yummy food. I don't remember having a family reunion with this many people on my mom's side since I was in the fourth grade and we all got hotels in Saint Louis and our family stayed at the lovely Knights Inn. Now all my cousins are grown up with kids.
Rick is very sick, but I was impressed with how he has his life in order and his loose ends mostly tied up. He said goodbye to all of his sisters. I wish my mom had it more together--she still has loads of loose ends--although a friend pointed out to me that I will probably always feel like my mom is not ready because I will not ever want her to go.
I'm battling kids, so I want to jot down items of note before I have to run: Sue's living room decor is awesome, Heather is a darling little pregnant lady but I can't picture her as a mom (I'm going to have to see it to believe it), Debby's kids crack me up and I am going to have to see Hayden's SloMo skillz again, I hope Josh Berrett made it to South Africa with enough cash to keep him out of jail, Josh Troyer's baby Opal is a beautiful little tiny baby, and Avery is in LOVE with Sue's dog Kiera Knightly. It was fun to meet spouses of cousins and see everyone's kids. I'm grateful for my family :)

Possibly the last time these guys will all be pictured together: Leslie, Debbie, Patty, Tanna, Rick, Terry, and Sue...

...and Dusty. How thoughtful. Someone brought her a cookie.

If I had a dollar for every egg hunt this year...

Attending multiple egg hunts is not a bad thing...except when mom is eating all the candy. And reading a book about the evils of high-fructose corn syrup while downing those jellybeans.

Our church grass is rockin'.