10 for September

Here we go for September!

10 things I will miss about summer:

1. Hanging laundry out to dry. Mm, it smells so good! And it's so nice to have it all dry and put away, rather than hanging in the basement, damp and chilly.
2. Family walks after dinner with Thomas riding his bike, Ben riding his scooter, and Shane and I walking together. It had been a long time since we were able to walk together without pushing a stroller. The end of an era, I guess...
3. Zucchini. Sniff.
4. Long evenings with lots of sunlight.
5. Barbecuing on the back porch with friends.
6. Morning runs.
7. Cute summer shirts.
8. Seeing my boys skinny legs hanging out of their shorts. Ben had a pair of plaid shorts that he wore every chance he got. He called them his "color shorts."
9. Sending the kids outside to play.
10. Going to work without wearing a sweater (even if I am freezing once I'm in the building.)

Songs that will always remind me of Summer 2009:

1. Don't Stop Believing (Glee cast.)
2. Dustland Fairytale (Killers)
3. Sometime around Midnight (Airborne Toxic Event) (Shane and I have analyzed this song to death. It is the perfect snapshot of how men and women act when they suddenly find themselves in the same room after a break-up when alcohol is involved.) (Not that I would know; oh, wait, I would.)
4. Show me what I'm looking for (Carolina Liar)
5. Crack the Shutters (Snow Patrol)
6. Broken (Lifehouse) (The song from the Time Traveler's Wife trailer.)
7. Human (Killers)
8. The High School Musical 3 soundtrack. (No, I'm not 12!)
9. Where does the good go (Tegan and Sarah)

8 things that were great about September:

1. Going on vacation! It has taken me a few weeks to get back into the grove of life. I'm so glad we had that time in San Diego!
2. Ben went back to preschool, giving me 2 free hours on Friday mornings. Love!
3. Running two races, one that I organized, another that showed me I can be (kinda) fast when I want to be.
4. Running on the beach (sorry, had to put that back in!)
5. Going with Thomas for his baptism interview. I can't believe he is old enough to be baptised! I'm grateful.
6. Having my friend come back from a month in California. Our kids do everything together, and we were frequently bored without them. Thanks for coming home, Shelly!
7. Finding a new friend for Ben to play with that is a boy. He plays with girls, mostly. Amazing in a neighborhood where everyone has multiple boys.
8. New shows coming back on. Still have to wait 3 more months for Lost, though; grrrr.

7 People I saw:

1. My best-since-we-were-14-friend Rebecca. Her grandma died, so she came up for her funeral. We don't get to see each other very often, so it is awesome when we do. Our husbands/boyfriends met each other for the first time, which was awesome. So glad she has someone so nice in her life!
2. My dad.
3. My sweet boys. Having a solid week with them was so awesome.
4. Rebecca's family while we were in Las Vegas. They are just like family to us.
5. Shane's grandpa.
6. Amy. We ran the Temple to Temple race together (ok, not together, but we were both running at the same time, even if she was a ways ahead of me.) Love doing things like that with my sister!
7. Shamu. He might not be a person, though.

6 people I was grateful for:

1. Shelly for watching my cats while we were gone.
2. Vonnay for cleaning my cat box and watering my garden and buying me awesome canning equipment.
3. Janice and Bill for letting us invade their house for a night.
4. My husband for converting to the belief in Vacationing. He fell hard....(insert evil laugh)...all part of my plan!
5. Enterprise for renting us a car that didn't break down.
6. The lady that sold us her RockBand 2 game on KSL. We love to rock....

5 things I'm looking forward to:

1. Conference this weekend.
2. Going to our friend Matt's wedding. We are leaving the boys overnight with my sister, something we have never, ever done. It should be fun to have time together!
3. Canning tomatoes with my friend Melanie. She is all sorts of knowledgeable about canning!
4. Decorating for fall. Usually I do this in, oh, August, but I've been a slacker.
5. Playing Christmas music (yes, we start as soon as the "ber" months begin. But it will be on 24/7 from here on out, I'm thinking.)

4 Books I want to read this fall:

1. The Children's Book, AS Byatt
2. Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood
3. Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
4. Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver

3 things I need to do in October:

1. Start buying Christmas stuff. That big holiday will be on us sooner than we know...
2. Go and help in Thomas' class. His teacher last year didn't want volunteers, so it's exciting to go and help this year.
3. Mail my last SDBBE book. One girl read fast, so I had 2 books to read in September. I guess I'm done with another round!

2...Tired people in my house (Me and Shane)

1 good reason to end this list:

1. I can't think of another thing to say. I'm ready to push "publish" right NOW! Thanks for sticking through this to the end...

Catching Fire and Lost Symbol

If you are wanting to read these books and don't want to be spoiled, don't keep reading. I'm just saying....

So, I finished Catching Fire (Hunger Games #2) and Dan Brown's Lost Symbol this week. It was a reading frenzy at my house, which my husband didn't 100% appreciate, but we got through it. I have thoughts on both of these books that I just have to get out.

First, Catching Fire. I loved this book, and was so excited to find out the story of what happened to Catniss once she got home from the Hunger Games. I was surprised about some of the events, particularly the brutality that the Capital started to show towards the districts as they started to rebel. I loved how it ended; Collins strings you along without a clue of what is coming down the pike; she is so talented at surprising you.

Here is my one criticism: Catniss kind of reminds me of Bella. I'm really, really trying hard to not allow her to, but I can't stop myself comparing them. The love triangle. The absence of caring what she looks like, or desire to decide on her own wedding dress. I don't want her to be Bella, I can't stand Bella, but the comparison has already been made in my head. It's the perpetual self-deprecation, the "who am I that so many boys love me?" quality, the way they are always targeted by people who in authority who want them dead. Am I the only one who sees this? Does it bug anyone else? I hope I don't ruin it for anyone else by saying this, but it just keeps creeping into the corners of my brain.

The Lost Symbol was not my favorite Dan Brown book. I was intrigued with the subject, and it's true I did little else for 2 days but read this book. But the foreknowledge of his formula for his books lessened the effectiveness of the reveals, which made me distrust the direction the book was taking. I learned a little, but was disappointed with the last 30 pages or so. He's already shown us Mal'akh's true identity, and his "reveal" that the word was the Bible wasn't really much of a reveal to me.

The real thing that bugged me was his insistence of writing a book that is so closely related to the subject of God and religion, but that insists that man is the glorious one, rather than God. Does that make sense? He kind of did the same thing in Da Vinci Code by saying that Jesus was less than divine, but here, in Lost Symbol, he stressed that man needs to have faith in himself, rather than God, to become divine. I understand sort of why he did it that way, but it goes against the grain of what I believe personally. The premise that man needs believe in the power in himself to become like God is backwards to how I think. I know I'm not making myself totally clear, I just disagreed with the end of the book, that man will become divine through himself. What is the point of faith in that situation?

I almost hate it when I have opinions like these, because I know one of you smart people out there is going to show me all the holes in my argument (but don't hesitate to do so; I need to be challenged!). I know my argument isn't totally thought out, so bear with me in my ignorance! If you saw things differently, if I'm missing something, tell me what you think. Especially if it's about the last few pages of Lost Symbol. I'm still forming thoughts....

But, these are my latest best-sellers I've plowed through. What did you think of them?

Fall! Time for tv, people.

I don't spend much time watching tv, but now that the fall shows are coming on, I find myself actually watching shows, rather than re-runs of Property Virgins, My First Place, and LOST episodes via abc.com.

So, the shows that we are watching this year are, in no particular order:

• Glee. Any thoughts on this one? It's kind of schizophrenic; one week it will be awesome and filled with songs I want to download, the next it's smutty and obnoxiously scattered. The last episode was really good, so we'll see. Maybe they'll manage two good ones in a row.
• Grey's Anatomy. I still haven't finished the new episode; I have about 7 minutes left, but I'll get around to it eventually. I was sad about George dying, but glad Izzy is back. I love Izzy; she has light, even if she doesn't want to admit it.
• The Office. Still as funny as the day we first started watching it. Love The Office.
• 30 Rock. Looking forward to new episodes; I hope we don't have to wait long.
• And of course, Lost. I love Sawyer, have a huge crush on him and have since day one. It's ok, Shane knows.

What about you? Are you watching any of the above? Any good ones I should know about?

Temple to temple race

If you are interested in a cool run happening this Saturday (Sept. 26), check out this link http://www.runnercard.com/e/runner.Main?meet=2219. It goes from the Oquirrh Mountain temple to the Jordan River temple.

Anyone want to run it with me???? I'll be running solo this time...

I want to cry...

We have been on vacation for the past week. Since I'm a wee bit paranoid announcing to the world that I'm on vacation, I wrote a bunch of posts from our trip and saved them to post when I got home. I'll be posting them over the next little bit. Read them, or not; they are a bit lengthy because I wrote them mainly so I will remember our trip.

We had such a great time in California. We stayed on the Mission Bay in San Diego at a hotel called the Catamaran. It was beautiful!! So, if you want to read the story from the first, the first vacation post is from September 14th. Remember, I'm a wordy girl, so if you don't make it to the end of the posts, I don't blame you. Anyway, on to tonight's post...

Back to reality.

I've heard that coming back home after a vacation can be the emotional equivalent of someone you love dying. I think I'm almost there. (Just kidding. Kind of.)

Yesterday morning I woke up for my final run on the beach. It was just as the sun was coming up, and I got a great shot on my cell phone of the sun rising over Mission Bay (swoon.) I ran along the beach, thinking how much I would miss hearing the surf and smelling the ocean, seeing all the runners and walkers and ocean gazers out on the beach in the morning. I got done with my run and ran into the water outside our hotel, washing my run away with the salty water. I was childishly amazed at the fact that I could float, so I laid my head back, closed my eyes, and floated on my back in the water. I know, I know, I need to stop talking about running. But it seriously was one of the highlights of our trip.

As we left town, we set the GPS for Las Vegas (a far enough destination to get us out of town in the right direction.) It took us out of San Diego a different way than we had come in. I was so glad it had when we turned around a corner on the 56 and saw the beautiful San Diego Temple. My niece Lyndsay was sealed there a few years ago, and it made my heart so happy to see the temple that I know she loves. I had just enough time to alert the boys and Shane to look before it was gone. It was a great way to start our trip home.

After 8 long hours, we stopped for the night in St. George to spend some time with Shane's Grandpa Bob. We listened to his stories for hours, then got a great night's sleep. It was hard to get up this morning and leave him. He is missing his wife of 62 years so badly. We love Grandpa so much. I'm grateful we were able to spend some time with him.

We pulled in today at 4pm, just in time to unload the car, drop the kids off at the neighbors, and rush the car we rented to the airport. At first I hated spending the extra money on a car, but it was nice to have someone else’s tires and brakes being worn out instead of our own.

Now I sit in my family room, missing the great vacation we just had. As we unpacked, Shane showed me the bag that had held my running shoes. It was full of sand from my run yesterday morning. I couldn't throw the sand away, so I collected it in a little egg cup that sits in my china hutch. I'll always have a few grains of sand to remind me of this great trip, of the great runs I took, of all the fun we had as a family in San Diego.

I hope we go back next year. And, if we do, I hope the year goes by fast.

A view of Mission Bay where I swam in after my run. I could look at this forever. This shot was taken from the deck off our hotel room. Beautiful!

Our good-bye visit to the ocean. My kids could easily be beach bums, I think.

Thomas, Ben, and Grandpa Bob before we left this morning.

Me, Shane, and Grandpa.

The last remains of my final run on the beach. Sniff.



Souvenir. Am I weird?

Beach day

Today was officially beach day, and officially the best. day. ever. That is, if you ask any one in the Kump family.

We were at the beach this morning before 10am. I'd gone running early (I can't seem to stay in bed). The ocean calls for me to run on it every morning, and I have to obey its call. Shane went running after me, and while he was gone, the boys and I went down to the bay to play in the sand. We stayed there long enough for Shane to return from his run, and we went to the beach.
Thomas and I had a ball jumping waves. I've never seen Thomas have so much fun. He loved the ocean, and wanted to spend every moment he could in it. I loved the giant smile he got on his face whenever he jumped a particularly big wave. Ben and Shane played in the sand, building and destroying sand castles, burying the bucket that we bought at Sea World ($5 for popcorn, makes good beach toy. Who knew?).

We played til almost 1, when we walked down the boardwalk to Joe's Crab Shack for lunch. It was officially the first lunch we have bought on this trip. Most breakfasts and lunches have been cereal or peanut butter sandwiches (we're cheap like that). We looked like total total tourists: sunburned, windblown, my hair fuzzy and wild (I'm jealous of those girls who look great post-swim. That will never be me.) It was a good, good time.

Back at our hotel, we rented a paddle boat and went around the bay for a while. The boys didn't paddle much, but we had a good time seeing the Mission Bay from a different perspective. We topped off this perfect day by walking down to the beach to watch the sun go down. It was cloudy, but it was peaceful watching the waves drift in and out, the surfers waiting for that perfect ride to come in, the sun sinking slowly down into the sea.

I love the beach. I am going on one final run in the morning (wah!) and then maybe we will have time to go to the ocean one last time together. I can say this: we are a different family, vacation-wise, because of this trip. All of us are excited to come back to our little hotel by the ocean. It will be so hard to leave here. But we are going to visit Shane's grandpa for a night, so at least we aren't done with our trip just yet. If only we could take the ocean home with us in our suitcase.

We will come back here. Catamaran Resort, we love you.



I told you I look terrible, post-swim. Ick.

Ben all kicked-back at the beach.

Thomas playing in the waves.

Ben & his dad.

Eating at Joes. Thomas does rabbit ears even to himself, apparently, not just other people.

Shane and I on the beach waiting for the sunset. Like I said, this was the trip of self-portraits.

The sunset on the beach. Beautiful! I'm so glad we caught one, even if it was cloudy.

My boys running around. I told them to stop and close their eyes and listen to the waves while we waited for the sun to set. After a moment, Thomas said to me, "Why are we doing this?" Kids.

Sea Lions, Sharkies, and Shamu - oh my!

It's probably pretty obvious what we did today. If you said Sea World, go and get a gold star from your sticker drawer and put it on your forhead. Yay for Sea World!

But here is the thing: I kind of felt like I was at Lagoon, or the zoo. You know the feeling, all excited at first, looking at the dolphins (from a little distance; you don't want to be pushy!). You go and pet the sting rays, head to the Shamu show (almost the best display; I think the Arctic display with its bears and penguins trumps), and things kind of slowly peeter out. Where is the roller coaster (oh, yeah, being repaired.) By the time you get to the fresh water acquarium (which isn't much better than the the local PetsMart), your about ready to throw in the towel and go find the aircraft carrier museum, even if you did pay the equivalent of 1.5 weeks of groceries for tickets.

Am I sounding snobby? I hope not. Things did pick up, and like I said, Shamu was really, really cool. We sat in the soak zone, and though he did splash us twice, we weren't totally drenched by the end of the show. It was fun showing my kids something that I really couldn't see at home. But, it kind of felt like the zoo, or Lagoon, which are two places I enjoy for 2.5 seconds before wanting to go home and bath in some hand sanitizer. I'm just sayin...

So, today was fun. My kids had a ball. We were there on a perfect day: sunny, but not too hot, no lines, easy access to every display we wanted to see. I would say we saw all of Sea World today, and some of them we saw twice. Thomas loved the sting rays. He spent probably a half an hour at the end of the day, petting as many of them as he could, watching them glide through the water, as happy as he could possibly be. We rode the rapids ride, which got us all good and soaking wet, which was fun (though not fun when you step into the ultra air conditioned, bordering on freezing cold artic displays. Brrrr!) The kiddie play land entertained both Thomas and Ben for almost an hour, where they jumped on the giant bounce house, climbed ropes, ran through a field of punching bags (sounds more violent than it really was, I swear.) They will remember it all their lives, I'm sure.

The rest of the day was spent trying to find somewhere to eat for dinner, and bringing the kids home to the hotel. The ocean was calling to us, but there just wasn't time before the sun slipped over the horizen - I think it gets dark here faster. The boys fell asleep within minutes of each other, even Thomas, who never falls asleep without putting up a fight.

I think we succeded in wearing them out. It was a good, good day.

Now, for pictures...

Dolphins! They were the first display we saw.

Cute boys.

At the Shamu show.

The sea lions.

I took lots of self portraits. If I didn't, I would never be in any pictures.

Vacation, day two

****Disclaimer: this post is incredibly long, and might be boring to those who are not involved. But, blogs are a good journal, especially when you have forgotten yours at home, the one that you've taken everywhere for the past 2 years, including the top of Timpanogas. I suck. If you don't make it to the bottom, I don't blame you. But, there are pictures. They might make up for all the boring text.******

One pm today found us at our hotel, 3 hours early. I had imagined us trying to find somewhere to park, all our luggage/life stuffed into our rental car, as we played on the beach and prayed no one would break in and steal everything. How silly I am.

Our hotel graciously let us check in when we arrived in town. As we drove down the street, which I knew was ONE. BLOCK. from the Pacific ocean, I caught one tiny glimpse of the wide expanse of water. My heart skipped a beat and I couldn't wait to get checked in to our hotel and walk down to the ocean. The four of us found ourselves walking through the sand down to the water's edge, our feet sandy, hair blowing every which way in the breeze, and huge smiles of happiness (me), incredulity (Ben and Thomas) and amazement (Shane) that we were there. The ocean was erasing my footsteps, and I couldn't have been happier.

We only stayed a few minutes. Long enough to learn that very few ocean swells fail to deposit seaweed at your feet, and that sand sticks to every possible skin surface. We walked to a little pizza shop a stich away from the boardwalk, where we devowered 2 pizzas in moments. A few blocks further we found a grocery store so would could buy milk and gatorades (because who can live without milk and gatorade, right?).

Our hotel is right on the Mission Bay Beach. I had no clue that this locale existed before it came up on my trip planner a few months ago. I gave up a hotel with free breakfast when I found this one, and paid an extra few dollars, and boom! we have a beach vacation. We no longer had to plan a day to spend at the beach; it is just part of what we will do here in San Diego. We can walk to to the beach in minutes; heaven, I say.

Late in the afternoon, the boys were playing in the sand on the Bay, and the itch I'd had to go running finally could not be satisfied. I set off down the Bay, wending my way past more streets than I wanted to count, knowing that in a few minutes I would turn west, cross a couple more streets, and be running on the beach. I never run without my headphones, and today wasn't an exception. But once I turned the corner onto the boardwalk, I took my headphones out of my ears. The only sounds I wanted to hear were the crash and pull of the waves, the gulls flying over head, the jingle of bike chains and pounding of feet from all the other runners. It was pure.......heaven? I don't have a good enough word to describe the joy I felt at running on the beach. It was a heady combination of so many things, physical and mental, spiritual and environmental, that I can't describe it. I imagine I will run every day I am here, just because I find myself unable to stop myself from wanting to be right back there again.

I feel so lucky. I can't believe I am staying at a hotel like this. I can't believe that we are really on vacation, that I'm showing my boys this little neck of the wide world. Their view of the world will be widened so much by this experience. How grateful I am for that. And that I get to spend it with them is just incredible. I want to pinch myself just to make sure I'm not dreaming (Thomas just offered to do it for me. Thanks, but no!). I am blessed. So, so blessed.

One picture I'm going to include is one of all of our feet on the beach. Back in the day, Amy, me, and our parents were at Lake Tahoe. We took a picture of our feet. I did the same thing today the moment we all were barefoot on the sand. It seemed an appropriate throw back to my past, and a wonderful portrait of who my little family is today.

San Diego, I love you.

The view out our hotel room. Squee!

Our feet. Clockwise from the top - Ben, Thomas, Me, Shane.

At the beach. I could post about 100 of these, but I'll spare you.



Me and Thomas at a restaurant right. off. the. beach.

Shane buried the boys in the sand in front of our hotel room. They loved it!

Leaving Las Vegas….

We drove into Las Vegas yesterday around 2 pm local time. My kids were anxious to get out of the car; 6 hours is a long time for them. But they are great travelers, even if they don’t get a lot of practice (remember, we are vacation-cautious around these parts!).

I got totally excited as we crossed the knoll that drops you down into the valley; Vegas is the city of my childhood. My family vacationed there a few summers. We stayed at the now long-gone Landmark Hotel, where my sisters and I would swim all day while the parents played in the casinos. We spent mornings at the Stardust Hotel (long gone; I saw its ghostly barrenness as we drove down the Strip; not even a hint of it remained), eating at the buffet. When we weren’t at the pool, we were shopping at Fashion Show Mall, or trying to convince our parents to let us play at Circus Circus. All these places were within walking distance of the Landmark; I can remember walking barefoot down the strip one night, the sidewalk still hot from the desert sun, the shock of an occasional live cigarette ash searing my toes.

This trip, we stayed at the same house Shane and I stayed at on our honeymoon. My friend Rebecca’s mom lives in Vegas and was willing to let our little family of four stay in her cabana house. Thomas and Ben had a great time playing in the pool while we chatted with Janice and Bill, our gracious hosts. It was strange to think the last time we had stayed there, we were two day-old-marrieds, in our 20s, no kids or mortgages or pets to speak of.

Janice, Bill, and my kids. They are such nice people!

Some things about Las Vegas never change. You still get that blast of heat to your face as you exit the cooled casinos. The same smokey smell takes me back to my dear grandparent’s apartment, making my heart ache for missing them. The same casino noises fill your ears, and your eyes can’t stop looking at all the posh and not-so-posh people from all walks of life. The stores are fabulous, the food is both expensive and incredibly cheap, and you can’t mistake yourself for being anywhere else in the world.

I wanted to share all that with my kids. We went to Rainforest Café in the MGM for dinner. It’s been a long time since I’ve dropped that much cash on dinner, but the kids loved the animals that roared, trumpeted and cackled their way through our dinner. After eating, we walked the Strip for a while, going from New York New York to Caesars Palace (my kids weren’t amused at how close Caesars looked, yet how far it was to walk!). We went through the Forum shops for a while, which were, in the end, of absolutely no interest to my non-shopping loving sons. What do you do? To coax them to walk back to NYNY, they each got a stuffed animal at the FAO Schwartz.

Outside New York New York. They didn't know they were going to have to walk a mile when I took this.

After they had walked a mile. They are in Caesars Palace in front of the fountain.

The giant drink Shane is holding cost me $6.75 on the strip. It originally held lemonade. They didn't even have a lid that would fit the cup. Seriously? We figured at those prices, we needed to keep the cup and fill it with water before walking back to NYNY.

We were all tired by 8:30 local time and headed back to our home for the night. After a fierce game of pool between Shane and Thomas, we all went to sleep. We are now in the desert past the Nevada State line, heading into California (a place that neither Shane nor I have ever, ever driven in!). That song from Cheryl Crow is going through my head (Leaving Las Vegas!!). The sun is glinting off the sand, and I’m watching the terrain slowly turn from mostly scrub brush to big cactus fields spreading as far as the eye can see.

California, here we come. Vegas, thanks for never changing.

I'm so not prepared...

It's the Boy Scout motto, right? Always be prepared. Well, I'm not prepared for having a boy scout.

I found myself at the scouting store on Saturday dropping a pretty penny on scout clothes, books, numbers, kerchiefs, etc. I had no idea scouting was such an investment. Last night I was sewing on his troop number to the sleeve, being grateful I forked over the extra $3.50 for the shirt that had the council patch already sewn on (so, so worth it!)

I don't mind the scouting thing itself that I'm not prepared for. It's kind of nice to have him have somewhere to go one night a week that teaches him good things. It's that it's the start of THAT part of his life, of starting to be a big boy who goes on campouts (ok, not til 12, but still), of having to learn about knives and actually using knives and fire and stuff. I had all sisters - we didn't do scouts; the closest I got to scouts was seeing the boys in my class who had to wear their scout shirt to school on days when they went to scouts (note to self: don't force Thomas to wear scout uniform to school. He will not thank you for it.). Plus there is the risk I run with having two sons that I could receive a scout calling; shudder!

So, all you girls out there with sons. Do you love the scouts? Have you found yourself sewing red numbers and triangle patches onto shirts and wondered how this thing happened to you? I hope I'm not the only one.

First Oquirrh Highlands 5k

My ward did a 5k this morning. It was awesome to get up and walk to the church, watching tons of people arrive, ready to run, and, once the race started, even better to look back and see so many people I know and love running with me in the morning. A few people, out on their own run, were happy to join in on the race. It was fun to see the looks of incredulity on their faces at all the people running, walking, and riding their bikes.

Shane and I planned the route, which was interesting since we live on a big old windy hill, which makes planning a flat course impossible. It was a challenge getting the course to include exactly 3.1 miles, but somehow we did it. Last night we went around and put up signs marking the path. I worried all night that the wind would blow them down, but I only had trouble with one sign. Thank heaven for duct tape, right?

The race was fun. Shane stayed with me the whole time, so we chatted and enjoyed the beautiful morning. Two girls were on our heels the whole time; I kept thinking, "You are NOT going to pass me!" And they didn't. I heard them saying how the hills were killing them, so I guess all the hills I've ran in this neighborhood have paid off. Sweet.

It was awesome. The ward had bananas and water at the finish line, and we sat and chatted about running with friends. It was fun to see people so relaxed, wearing sweaty clothes and giant smiles, commenting on the challenge of the hills they just conquered. Good times, fun memories.

Here are my shoes. And a picture of me, post-run. I look hot, huh? I just love my fly-away hair.

A wedding story.

Today is my mom and dad's 39th wedding anniversary.

39 years.

My parents never did a lot for their anniversary. I can remember one year, Amy and I stayed home alone while they went to Wendover for a concert. They celebrated their 25th with a cruise to the Bahamas (the one and only time my dad was ever out of the country.) It was just a day for them, usually, marked by a dinner out or a movie.

My dad was my mom's second husband. My oldest two sisters are products of that marriage to a man who, ironically, had the same first name as my dad. My mom and dad met because of a chance meeting my mom had with a friend who was dating my dad's older brother, Roe, who set them up on a date. My dad had lived his whole life in my grandma's house, working a job at Geneva Steel, driving old broken down cars, visiting the bar with his hard-earned money. I know my mom was the love of his life. In their long marriage, I never once heard him bad mouth my mom. She was his wife, and though he couldn't give her everything she wanted or needed, he did give her his complete and utter love.

They were married in a double wedding in my grandparents house one September day. The friend who introduced them ended up marrying Dad's brother, and they all tied the knot on the same day. There are a few pictures of this day: my mom with her white, 70's bouffant hair, wearing a pink dress; my dad with his awesome sideburns and bushy mustache; my sisters wearing pink, standing next to their new cousins. I'm not sure what they all did afterwards; whether they all sat down to eat some of my sweet grandma's cooking, or if they left my sisters with my grandparents to have a night alone. I like to imagine it was a happy day for both of them, my dad knowing he finally had a family, my mom knowing that she wouldn't have to raise her two daughters alone, my sisters with a dad who would take care of them in the best way he could his whole life. I hope, hope it was happy.

Amy came along a year and a few months later, and then I showed up 3 years after that. We were a family. We tried hard, even when dreams and promises were broken, when jobs were lost and money was tight, and realities couldn't keep up with appearances. We tried. My parents tried. It wasn't perfect, but whose life is?

Are there things I would change? Sure, of course. But the family choices that were made weren't my choices, and I couldn't (and still can't) control the consequences of those choices. I will say this, they stayed together, even when they probably didn't want to. I'm glad they did. As much as I hate my mom having to go through my Dad's Alzheimer's alone, I'm glad my dad has someone who visits him regularly, a Diet Coke in hand, the question of what her name is posed to make sure he hasn't forgotten (and he usually can come up with her name. Suellen.) She was taking a pizza over tonight after work to eat with him as an anniversary celebration. He won't know why. He'll eat the pizza way too fast, and gulp down the Diet Coke in moments, and then he'll resume the hunched over position he takes, wringing his hands and closing his eyes. She will leave and go home alone, the remnants of the pizza to eat as lunch the next day, the reality that he celebration is really a solitary one, because she's the only one to know the reason for the pizza, heavy on her shoulders.

Regardless, they've gotten to this day. They are still married. He's still loving her, she's still taking care of him. In a way, things haven't changed so much after all.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad. Thanks for staying together. Thanks for my sisters. Thanks for having me.

Random Monday thoughts

Oh, wait. It's Tuesday. How's that for random?

• I have to go up and down a total of 5 escalators on my way to my car from my place of employment. There are lots of people who just STAND on the escalator and let it take them to the top. It drives me nuts to stand behind people who do this.
• Are you an escalator-walker or escalator rider?
• Am I being too anal about the escalator?
• My little digital camera broke. Just died, mid-shoot. I need to buy another one, because my camera phone is unsufficient for California pictures. Am serioulsy considereing finding one off KSL. I don't think they have a long shelf life, and I don't want to pay a ton for something that will break.
• However, I've recently gotten some pictures developed. Many taken with said broken camera just plain suck when made up into a tangible picture. If I buy another cheap one, will probably end up with crappy pictures. Quadry, quandry.
• I got a FREE running shirt from my work today. I love free stuff.
• I didn't do an August "10" list. It bugs me that I didn't document last month. But not enough to write a post.
• Ben starts pre-school this month. I can't wait to have 2 hours to myself again!
• Why do grasshoppers have to wait to jump until you are right over the top of them? Can't they see the giant building-sized person lumbering toward them that they can get out of the way sooner? It's like they play chicken with you.
• If I was a chicken I would kill as many grasshoppers as I could.

Any thoughts on escalators, cameras, or grasshoppers? Please share.