Baptism by running...in the rain

As some of you know I ran the Wasatch Back a couple of weeks ago. I feel like it sucked my running soul dry. Since then it has been VERY hard for me to get motivated to workout, esp to run. I have gone on a few runs and they have been really difficult. I felt as though I was starting over, completely. I would run and just whine and complain in my head. It was hard to breathe. I didn't feel together. I walked. I don't walk. If I'm going running, I'm going running, otherwise I would say "I'm going walking". I would come back feeling like a total loser for even trying.


But that changed (finally) today. I told myself I'm just going out for a nice run. No Garmin, no watching my pace or even thinking about the pace, just me and my tunes and whatever my legs could do. I have a half marathon in two weeks and I was starting to wonder if I would be able to do it. However, today I went out and started like I used to, walk for a minute or two and then a slow jog, then into my rhythm. There was a big dark cloud and it started to rain. I thought, it's just one cloud. It rained on me for 2 1/2 miles. Which was actually quite nice. Kept me cool with a nice breeze. Toward the end of the rain, the sun came shinning out. It was really nice to have the sun so bright, but also the rain still keeping me cool. I ran all 4 miles I had hoped to and I am back on track!

It. Was. Good.

Chickens Riding a Dog

A lot of people have asked us how our dog likes the chickens. We tell them he only cares about a frizbee, ball or anything to do with fetch, going for a ride in the car or for a run. Here he is letting the chickens ride on his back, I think he could care less, he just wants us to go outside and play with him. So as you can see, he likes them fine, but wishes they would throw his ball.

Crafts to win!

This is how it works: The first three people to type "Tiffany is trying to be crafty!" in the comments on this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. The catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and give the same offer to the first three commenters who will also craft it forward.

Here are my contingencies:
1. I make no guarantee that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It will be done this year.
4. You have no clue what it's going to be.
5. I reserve the right to make something extremely strange.
6. You must post a picture of what you win when you get it.
Have fun!

My co-runner for the Wasatch Back is doing this and I wanted to join in the fun. My crafts might be more along the lines of food I make, but we'll see how much I get my brain thinking and my hands doing.

Goobard

Last weekend we went up to visit our families. My parents have a fabulous garden with two (huge) rhubarb plants in it. I'd been toying with the idea to make jam. For the most part I don't like jam, but my mom makes this one with rhubarb in it that I actually enjoy. So while we were up there I picked and chopped up my rhubarb. Yesterday I made the jam and had a couple cups leftover and made a strawberry/rhubarb crumble. Scott LOVED it and didn't want the kids to miss out. Relentlessly he offered them some and finally they caved- and liked it. Oakley really liked the jam too. But after she ate the crumble she kept saying how much she liked the Goobard stuff.

Also while we were up the kids, Scott and I got to help Grandma and Grandpa plant some of their flowers and garden. Oakley held up a trowel and asked Grandma, "Do you have another shovel stick so Sierra can help?"

So after a good weekend we have come up with two new vocabulary words; goobard and shovel stick.

Announcing our new arrivals...

Here are our new baby chicks! We just got them tonight. This one has been named Nina, she's super sweet and even fell asleep in my hands.

The black one is Lilly and the one on the right is Hedwig.

We are sharing them with our neighbor. They'll have them half the time and we'll have them the other half. We get to share the eggs all the time.

These little yellow girls will lay blue to green eggs and I was told, occasionally a pink egg.

Oakley, Sierra and I are pretty excited about them. Izi likes to look, but doesn't want to touch, which is OK, cuz I think she might accidentally hurt them AND I don't want to wash her hands twenty times a day. Scott says he's not that excited, but if you listen to him talk to them, I think they'll be good friends.

Sierra with Nina. She has crazy hair cuz she'd just finished swimming at a friends house.

The black one will lay brown eggs. Here is their new home, for a few weeks. We are looking for scrap wood and other supplies to build their coop. Anyone who has any ideas or plans of a good coop, please leave a comment!

Fun Day at the School

On May 2 our school had a huge rummage sale, carnival and craft/vendor fair. Here are the girls in front of their school.

This is Oakley going down the slide.

Sierra was a huge help. I had to be at the school at 6:30 to help and didn't get home until 4:00. So Scott was left with the girls. Sierra helped do Izi's and Oakley's hair and got Izi dressed. She also helped keep track of her at the carnival.

I was in charge of the bake sale, here are 12 loaves of bread I made. I also made 3 pans of Rice Krispy Treats. The whole thing was a lot of work by a lot of people, but we were able to raise a lot of money for our school. YAY!!

Our New Garden!

This is a cute picture of Izi throwing a bouncy ball to Duke. He loves to play ball/catch/frizbee with anyone or anything willing. We've seen him try to toss the tennis ball to the cat many times. The cat is not a willing participant of fetch. Anyway, behind them in the far corner of our yard is the BEFORE picture of where we put our new garden boxes.

Scott built the boxes and we put ground cloth on the bottom. Izi and Oakley are helping us pound in the staples, they did a really great job! We later applied stain/water repellent. This was last Wed. It took most of the day to build the boxes and move the rocks. Plus we bought a new yard wagon to help with the moving of the rocks, but we had to stop so Scott could take us on a few rides, he even took me :))) It was a lot of fun!

This is today. It was good enought weather last Wed and today, but the rest of the days inbetween were pretty windy and cold. They girls had a lot of fun playing in the water and are taking a break here. Notice Duke trying to play and Izi doing whatever her sisters are. I'm surprised she's still dressed.

This is the mostly finished product. Scott (in true Scott fashion) had to rearrange some of the bordering rocks and add more. But we layed down more ground cloth under the new rocks and boxes, put the boxes and rocks on, and filled them with yummy peat moss and garden soil. We covered them tonight with more ground cloth (I think it's becoming an obsession-NO WEEDS!). The nifty white rocks are courtesy of the "forest" behind our yard. They're really chunks of cement we think. Who cares, they are free and look great for now.

These are our seedlings we planted last week for FHE. At the top we have corn-we got a "new" kind that has red kernals, we also got the yellow kind. Below that is a row of cantelope, then a row of watermelon then our mini, carving and GIANT pumpkins. We have other things to plant, but I'm sure only my mom and dad care about what those are. So there you have it, the before, after and what we're going to put in it.