Going Crazy and Having Fun

As with every couple, Craig and I have our unspoken rules and responsibilities. It's something like a silent routine that we've slipped into somewhere during 10 years of marriage. It's mostly just simple things that we do, or know that the other one will do. As seen from my perspective some of those little things are:
I put the trash in the garage and you take it out to the can
or
I clean the house; you do the yard work.
or even
I make the dinner; you clean it up (OK that one doesn't really happen, but a girl can dream right?)
or one of my favorites
You do all the deep cleaning (Notice I'm not involved--is there any wonder that I like this one?)
or even better:
I sort, wash, fold and put away all your laundry and socks and you complain if I do it wrong. (Don't tell him that I sometimes I secretly put it away wrong just to watch his reaction)

I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. However there is one unspoken rule that we just don't seem to see eye to eye on.

The rule: The last person out of bed in the morning has to make it. This seems fair right? Easy too? And it is, but we do have a slight problem. Not in the task so much as in the execution of the task. I'll let the finished products speak for themselves:

Craig's"made" bed:

My "made" bed:
And silly me, it seems to have dawned on me that while I was trying to make fun of my husband for his poor bed making skills I have instead uncovered yet another unspoken rule that comes from him:
I (him) pretend to make the bed by pulling up the covers on my side and you (me) come in and fix it!

It looks like he just got the better of me! DRAT!

As some of you might know, I ran the St. George Marathon in October. For those of you who don't know or just don't remember, I REALLY wanted to qualify for Boston. I was trained, I was ready, I should have done it. But I let my mental troubles get the best of me and I missed my qualifying time by 70 seconds. I have been mad at myself ever since and while the frustration and disappointment have faded a bit, they haven't really gone away. But something happened a few weeks ago that made me find one silver lining to the whole experience and I just can't forget it, so I decided to blog about it. Before I tell you what, you need the back story.

As I hit mile 23 I knew that I was dangerously close to the edge of not qualifying. I knew I had to push hard, really hard, if I wanted to meet my goals. I also knew it was possible, but only if everything went my way, which, judging by the morning I had already had I knew wasn't bound to happen. I picked up the pace and mile 23 was a breeze, but then I turned the corner on to Diagonal street and my mind started messing with me. I couldn't find a decent stride, let alone keep one and for some reason all the tar on the road and the uneven surface proved to be my undoing. It was purely mental, but I just couldn't find my footing on that road and then it took everything I had just to get going again after the water stop. By the time I reached that point I knew that I wouldn't meet my goal and I was totally bummed. Thankfully there were a few things that kept me going, One was seeing the couple a ways ahead of me running along and holding hands. It was so cheesy and since I was fatigued, I would dare say nauseating. I knew that I couldn't let them beat me. After I passed them, I knew that I was almost there and that alone was enough to help me finish strong.
Then, when I was about 100 yards away from the finish line I noticed a woman in front of me. Her legs were jello. Every step she took seemed like it would be her downfall. She looked like she was going down any minute. Knowing I wasn't going to qualify I decided that I could have one redeeming moment from the end of race. I would help her cross the finish line. I picked up my pace until I was right behind her then I slowed and grabbed her by the elbows and to help stabilize her before she went down. It took her by complete shock--from the look she gave me, I thought she was annoyed. But she regained her footing and we finished within moments of each other. I didn't think much about it until a few weeks ago when she called me and left me a message on my answering machine. It went something like this.
"Hi my name is ____________. I don't know if you're the right person for me to be calling or not, but if you are, I wanted to say thank you. I think you came up behind me and helped me cross the finish line of the St. George Marathon. I have been suffering from an injury and I really wanted to qualify for Boston and I did and you helped. I don't know how many people would take the time to do something like that but I want you to know that I appreciated it and I wanted to thank you!"

That was it. It made me cry. It brought back all my frustrations of not being able to qualify myself, but for the fist time they came with a different perspective and even a bit of peace. Maybe I didn't qualify, but I helped someone else who did. Maybe I didn't have my best race, but despite my utterly painful disappointment and frustration, I was able to be my best self--and being reminded of that has made a huge difference in how I feel about the whole experience.

I also have been so impressed with this girl, who almost five months after the fact took the time to call and thank me. I share this not so much because I feel I deserved the thanks, but because it made me wonder who I'm neglecting to thank in my life and made me realize that it's better late than never. So without further adieu, here are a few past due thanks:

To Stephanie: for being such an amazing friend--sometimes better than I deserve. I don't know what I would do without you (dinners or not). You inspire me with your ability to always be true to yourself and your beliefs. You give so much to everyone around you but you don't give what they want you to or what they think they need. You give what people really need, the good, the bad and the ugly. I have such an admiration and appreciation of your honesty and integrity and I don't even know how to express my gratitude for you and your friendship. You make me a better person and I love you like a sister!

To my sisters: Thank you for being you and loving me unconditionally. I would be lost without you and you are each my best friend in your own special way!

To my brother: Thank you for making me laugh and being my friend. Growing up (especially in high school) I wanted to be your friend and we both know that didn't really happen, but I am so happy to be your friend now and I look up to you more than you will ever know!

To my Primary Presidency: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! I don't know what I would do without you

To Laurie: Thanks for dragging me to that blogging lunch. Yes it was strange. But it got me blogging again and I forgot how much I missed it.

To Laura: Thank you for sharing your son with me. He is such a joy and a pleasure and I couldn't be happier with Andrew's choice of best friends. I love that it has brought us closer together and I thank you for being the amazingly strong and funny woman that you are.

To Leslie: Thank you for making me be a better mom and for making an effort to build a friendship. You have reminded me of what it's like to be a mom to just little kids at a time when I really needed that reminder because that's something I struggle with.

To Monica: Thank you for talking my ear off at the reception. I feel like I've gotten jipped in not getting to spend much time with you. I seriouslly think you are one of the most amazing people I have ever met and I know that if we ever live near each other we will be great friends!

And last but certantly not least:

To my running friends: Thank you for dragging your butts out of bed with me every morning. Words can't express what you mean to me. I would be lost without your friendship and advice. And to those of you that I have only known a year, it seems as if we have been friends forever...and I wouldn't want it any other way!

I know this was long, and maybe even boring, but I think everyone should do this every once in a while. It makes you realize what you have in your life and stop focusing on what you don't!

My cute friend. Leslie, just got a fun new camera and is trying to get the word out about her photography business. She's having a contest for a free photo shoot and a few other prizes, so I think you should check her site out because then you could end up with cute pictures like this:

Since it was such a bee-u-tiful day today I decided that I would walk to the few places that we needed to be. I was doing the whole visiting teaching thing and since everyone's house is close to mine we decided to walk. (And by we I mean me, I just like sounding like I'm diplomatic in my parenting) The idea was quite exciting--for me--that is. Ben and Sarah weren't as keen on the whole walking thing, so I pulled out an old yet trusted friend, my big yet beautiful red double stroller that I thought I had retired last summer:
First, I had to dig it out from the corners of the garage. Then after dusting it off and checking for spiders I finally put the kids in. You might laugh at the whole checking for spiders thing but after opening a lawn chair at a the first soccer game of spring several years ago and seeing that an almost quarter sized spider (that even made grown men squirm) had made itself at home in my blue chair, it's now standard, and horribly frightening, protocol for anything that has sat stagnant in the garage for more than a month. Back to the stroller, I thought I had practically retired all my strollers and as I walked around the neighborhood pushing my double stroller, I was reminded why that was a good thing and here is my best shot at explaining why:

There's something to say, I'll tell you what:
It is the story of STROLLER BUTT.
It plagues all kinds of mom's you see,
No one's immune, not even me!

Stroller Butt, what's that you say?
It is a problem most mom's display.
Somehow when we start to stroll
Our posture looses all control.

Our legs they bend, our shoulders slump;
But the biggest problem is the rump
Somehow pushing kids about
Makes us stick our buttocks out.

Maybe it's a power source
A secret mommy-kind of force.
But force or not, it's just not pretty
It really is a mommy pity.

Now why we do it, I'm not quite sure,
But there really is a simple cure
A secret trick for mom's that push
Make sure that you TUCK YOUR TUSH!


*On a sad side note, even if I get rid of strollers all together, there is still the closely related shopping cart butt, wheelchair butt, and just plain big butt which I'm not sure that I can avoid!

I have always been so impressed with people who are able to give of themselves so freely to serve others. I am especially impressed by people who serve people they don't know and have never met in a purely humanitarian effort. In my opinion it's easy to serve the people around you, but being able to put yourself out there for those you have never met and making it such a part of you takes someone really amazing.
My friend Erin is one of those people. She started a charitable foundation called Signs of Hope International that assists and teaches in deaf schools in Ghana. (she's also trying to adopt so if you know of any babies that need an absolutely fantastic home check this out). There's also Madeline's dance teacher, Gina, who goes to the Dominican Republic at least once a year to assist poverty stricken people with medical and dental care. (I don't know the name of the organization she goes with though-sorry) When I was talking to her one day, she just said that sometimes a plight or cause just speaks to your heart and lets you know it is just part of you and will be part of you forever. And now I have one more amazing person to add to that list, At that crazy bloggers lunch I went to (sorry I just can't bring myself to say blunch ever again--it's just to weird) I met this really cute and incredibly fantastic girl. She too has a cause and a passion and there is something you can to to help. Someone in her family, I think her aunt, is heavily involved in mother's without borders and they are doing a huge, and very fun fundraiser this Saturday. The money raised will then be used to help continue their work building schools, homes, and community care facilities in Zambia. Check this out if you want more information. Below, I am just copying and pasting her most recent post to tell you more about it. But first I have to say that I have so much respect and admiration for anyone who puts themselves out there like these three women have. It has always been a dream of mine to find a cause that speaks to my heart and to embrace it and make it part of our lives. One of my goals is for my family to spend a Christmas away from home without any presents doing humanitarian work somewhere (the hard part is convincing Criag that it's one of his dreams too). For now, I will just have to settle with with doing the little things that I can and one day I hope I get the chance to do something bigger.

Here is one of the little things that I plan on donating to and supporting this week and I would encourage the rest of you to do the same:


Crunch Week is officially upon us! For those of you who thought this was an exciting idea 6 weeks ago when I presented it to you, but have forgotten all about it since then, this is the week to get involved! We have been asking everyone to collect and then hold on to their donations, but this week, we are asking everyone to get their donations turned in! It's going to be a very exciting, busy week!

Here are your options for turning in donations:

Provo/Orem - Kristen Degraff- kdegraff@gmail.com
Lehi - Jen Myers - hubbamyers@yahoo.com
American Fork -Jen Nelson jenmontynelson@hotmail.com
Springville/Spanish Fork - Laura Dugovic serveutah@live.com

Email the representative for your area and they will either come pick your donations up, or give you information on where (in your town, close to you) you can drop them off!

OR you can bring them to Noah's (on hangers please) and drop them off between 10-6 on Thursday the 26th.

If you live up north and are wanting to come to the sale and you don't want to make two trips down to the valley, you can bring your donations with you (on hangers please) when you come to shop and we will add them into the sale. However, if you are in the Utah Valley, please get your donations turned in by Thursday!

I'm sorry I haven't been able to arrange donation locations for the Draper-Sandy-SLC areas, but if anyone would like to volunteer to be a "home base" for the drop off of donations, email me at serveutah@live.com and I will get your email info posted on here so that others can contact you. If you live North of the point of the mountain, another thing you can do is get a group of your friends & neighbors to donate and have ONE of you volunteer to bring a car load of ALL of your donations to our Lehi representative sometime this week.

Last but not least, if everyone will re-post this on their blog, I would really appreciate it! That is one of the best ways to spread the word!

Directions to Noah's can be found here. and you can also find it by using mapquest!

Also,C.O.M.E. & S.H.O.P.! This will all be for nothing if you we don't get hundreds of women out taking advantage of all these great deals! We are talking GREAT prices here people! .50 cents-$3.00 for children's clothing (and some of it is BRAND NEW with tags and everything!) $1.00- $5.00 for designer, name brand, high quality clothing! It will be killer!

Also, we'll be selling off clothing donations from the Good Things Utah girls. (and their stuff is c.u.t.e)

Seriously, you won't want to miss this sale!
For more info, you can go to serveutah.blogspot.com

I told you that I had more to say on the stimulus plan and while these aren't my words I couldn't not post it (thanks Janae for the great e-mail)

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House. One is from Chicago , another is from Tennessee , and the third is from Minnesota .

All three go with a White House official to examine the fence. The Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Chicago contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700."

The official , incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"

The Chicago contractor whispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence."

"Done!" replies the government official .

And that, my friends, is how the new stimulus plan will work.

Yesterday I went to lunch with a friend. Well, that's not completely true, I went to lunch with a friend and a WHOLE lot of other people. And by a whole lot, I mean 40 women and I only knew one of them. (I know the questions are coming)
Here's the story. My uber wonderful, amazingly fantastic friend Laurie has been out of commission for a while. Normally I see her 3-4 times a week because we are crazy and like to get out butts out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to run. However she has had to take some time off this month and we have missed her like crazy. And I think she has missed us too. Normally she is completely content to stay within her comfortable circle of friends and I don't know that I've ever seen or heard of her putting herself out there to extend that circle. It's not that she's wouldn't want to, it's just that she's content. (And it's also that said circle is completely fantastic and amazing) Anyway she has been spending more time in cyber space for this past month--my theory is just that she missed me and was looking for a suitable substitute, but that's just because I want to feel important. But whatever the reason, she heard about and really really wanted to go to this not so little lunch hosted by the fantastically funny Kristina. I told her I was game and we were off. (Of course that was after she offered the babysitting services of her daughter) I'll admit that driving there we seriously considered just getting a table near the group so we could be like almost every kid at a junior high dance--standing in the circle craining our necks so we could watch (and pass judgment on) the few kids brave enough to dance to the slow songs. But we didn't. We ended up sitting in the middle of the giant table. To put it best it was an interesting experience. Since I wasn't on the same blogging bandwagon that she was, I was totally in the dark as to who all of these people were. I just kept telling everyone that I was there for moral support. And then after being laughed at for that, I kept my mouth shut and started laughing when people pretended to have been to my blog before. It was an interesting experience to say the least but truth be told I met some really cool girls who do some really cool things in their lives and with their blogs and I'm glad I went. Another bonus is I now have some fun new blogs to stalk. And I'm glad we both kind of put ourselves out there to do something so out of the ordinary. Overall it was a little bit of a lot of things. It was a little bit fun, a little bit crazy, a little bit annoying, a little bit weird and a little bit strange, but let's face it, stranger things have happened...

Sometimes I think.

No really--it's true.

Sometimes when the stars align and everything seems to be working in my favor, my thoughts are even coherent! Here are a few thoughts that have come out of those random moments today:

Sometimes I think that being a mom makes me dumber

Sometimes I think that I would like a dozens of people to read my blog leave me a comment-but only if it's good-so that I feel validated

Sometimes I think that I am going more crazy and having less fun

Sometimes I think that I need to do a better job at standing up for myself

Sometimes I think that Target is one of my favorite places to escape to

Sometimes I think that my kids are the best

Sometimes I think that my kids are just beasts

Sometime I think that selfish people suck

Sometimes I think it's crazy to stay up 'till one in the morning-but that doesn't stop me

Sometimes I think I let my kids be involved in too much stuff

Sometimes I think I want to write a children's book (but then I think I'm crazy...but then I think I'm not....but then I think I am.....it's a vicious cycle)

Sometimes I think that getting out of bed to run in the morning is a really bad idea (OK really I always think that--it's not the running part it's the getting out of bed part)

Sometimes I think that I won the lottery when it comes to my friends (OK I don't think it--I know it!)

Sometimes I think it's easier to laugh than cry

And sometimes I don't think at all--I just sit and watch and wonder.

I HATE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S BAILOUT PLAN!!!

(I have lots to say on this and maybe one day it will turn in to a post, but for now, that's all you get!)

Hi, my name is Becca and I am a facebook failure.
Sad but true. After hearing so many people talk about using facebook and how much they like it, I decided that I should give it a try. The concept sounds so cool and I really think it would be a great time waster for me ('cause I definitely need more of those). After hearing about it for long enough I decided it was time for me to check it out. I went to facebook and I tried to sign up, but for some reason, facebook's interface does not work on our computer. I have tried using 2 different browsers and all I end up seeing is a very boring link list. That does not strike my fancy. It is not fun and I just don't feel like wasting my time trying to figure it out. So to those of you out there who have tried to add me as a friend, please know I have not turned into an upity snob, I'm just too dumb for facebook!

Since I just posted about our final Christmas decoration, I figured it's about time to catch up on Christmas and what better place to start than with the story of our card. Last year (technically 2 years ago) I thought I was oh so smart to buy Christmas cards the week after Christmas. They had a ton on sale at Target for 90% off or something great like that. I just put them up by all our Christmas decorations so I wouldn't forget and was pleasantly reminded this year when I pulled them out. I loved the cards and thought I was so smart. They were the kind of cards that are basically a photo frame that you insert your own picture into. When I pulled down all the decorations, I thought "OH, these are cute, but I better get that picture taken quickly so that I don't end up sending these out 2 days before Christmas." Then I forgot about that thought until the week before Christmas. To complicate things further, Craig and I (and our propensity to be cheap) decided that we could just do a quick photo shoot in the basement with our kids and our new (but not so high tech) camera. After a very tense (to put it mildly) photo shoot, we had a shot that we thought would work. All four kids were looking and none of them looked like total goons so we decided to order a picture and try it out. The one worry we had was that cards I bought had to have a vertical picture in it instead of a horizontal one. Well, we ordered the picture and when I put it in the card we immediately became a three child family- we hadn't left enough of a border to fit everyone in and either Andrew or Madeline were cut out of the shot. Well, we knew that wouldn't due for a Christmas card and we also realized at this point that we were beaten--we needed help and soon! Enter our hero--my friend and neighbor happens to be a photographer and I called her with a last minute plea for help. Being the amazingly wonderful and selfless person she is, she dropped everything she was doing and came over and did a whole photo shoot with my kids. Not only did she get the perfect shot for our family Christmas cards, she also did individual pictures of each kid and then spent hours editing and photo shopping our pictures so that they were perfect! Really and truly she is a saint and I feel so guilty that I haven't done anything to repay her kindness (maybe she will let me watch Tayla this Thurs so she can sleep..hint hint..please call..she can come play). I am so grateful for her and the amazing example she is. She is just one of those people who inspires me with her kindness and Christlike attitude. She truly loves everyone and I feel grateful to know her and sad to know that we don't spend nearly enough time togehter, but I will say I am a better person for knowing her and I look up to her in so many ways. And now without further adieu, here is our family Christmas Card picture--isn't it the best?

Yesterday I took down my last Christmas, yes I said Christmas, decoration. It wasn't one of those little things that just sat on a shelf and got overlooked because it was so small and easy to forget--that would probably make more sense. It was this:
and it has been on my front door since Christmas break. I have NEVER had my decorations be up past New Year's so waiting until February was a huge stretch for me. Usually I am so ready to take all my decorations down a couple days after Christmas. I love having them up and around the house during the holidays, but by the time Christmas is over and I have to find places for all the new stuff, I just feel a HUGE desire to declutter--in fact I usually take down all the decorations and then go through every closet, shelf, nook and cranny in my house and have a huge D.I. load to deliver. This year was no exception (except the one major one that has been taped to my front door for the past two months). I think I took down my decorations on the 28th. Ornaments were packed away, the tree was put down, lights turned off, but I just couldn't say goodbye to our homemade Christmas tree. I LOVED IT!! The reason--I made a goal over Christmas break to do something fun and organized with my kids every day. (It's something I know I need to work on and this seemed like a great time to start). This project was one of those things. We literally spent the better part of a whole day making the tree and the ornamets. The kids were so proud of their handywork and I think that this was my favorite decoration EVER!! It reminded me of what my job as a mom is and about how much I really like spending time with my kids. I still struggle to make myself stop and sit down and do things with them because I have enough of my own things to get done, but that tree reminded me every day of what I should be doing and I think that that little reminder made me do a better job at focusing on my most important role to fill. I'll have to admit that the only reason I finally decided to take it down was because I let my OCD get the better of me and I just couldn't stand looking at a Christmas decoration in February. But I hope I remember what I learned from that tree! I loved it--I loved what it reminded me of and I hope that I don't forget what I leared from a silly paper tree!

My life has been bu bu bu busy lately and I'm sad that I haven't been able to blog about all the things I wanted to over the past two months. But it does look like life is slowing down and things are getting back to normal so I plan on playing a little game of catch up over the next week or two. I'm actually excited to go back and document some of the fun things I have missed putting up over the last few month--let's just hope that I can follow through with my new plan and not get interrupted!