I RAN A MARATHON!

Honestly I did run in a marathon, but I was part of a relay team that ran about 4.5 miles each. Some friends asked me about a month ago when part of their team dropped out of the race and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to start running again. The marathon was part of Oktoberfest in Leavenworth, WA, a town that is built on a quaint German town theme. All the buildings look a little like gingerbread houses. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the leaves were all changing colors. My leg of the race took me right along a river and straight up a mountain (my legs felt like we were going straight uphill). I felt pretty good because 1)I ran the 4th leg and those running the full marathon were pretty winded by then and I could keep up with them and 2)my goal was to just keep running and although there was not always a lot of forward progress, I was able to do just that. I love the adrenaline you get with finishing something you worked really hard at. Now I have the running bug and hopefully will be able to try some other races for fun. Thanks to those Tunnell girls for asking me to play!

Joy in the Journey

What a blessing to get to listen to General Conference this weekend. After 3 hours of trying to get four active boys quiet so we could hear the speakers, I finally motivated them with treats for messages. If they could sit still and listen and share one thought from a talk, they could get a treat. Oh sweet bribery! It was quite humorous to hear what they came up with. When I asked what President Monson said in his talk Andrew quoted "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Well at least he heard that part. We just had a great day home all day on Sunday and then we got to feed the missionaries and Brother Rosenauer (our comedic entertainer).
President Monson repeated several times to "Find Joy in the Journey" and I feel that is a good theme to live by. My good friend, Bridget, lost her little boy, Evan, two weeks ago when he got trapped under their large "luv sac" and it was so hard to find joy for that week. I just felt so bad for her knowing how hard it would be to press on. She was due to deliver her baby any day and did so almost a week after her son's death. It is amazing to see the plan of salvation in action as one child is taken after such a short life on earth and then to have so many around me bring new life to earth (Hooray for my friend Kristi and sister-in-law Jenny!) Will we really see our loved ones again? Yes! I can't imagine a loving Heavenly Father to have it any other way. Evan's death has helped me realize how short our journey on earth here can be and I have hugged my kids a little longer, taken time to read just one more book to Andrew, and tried to "treasure the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less." (Anna Quindlen as quoted by Elder Ballard)
Andrew loves to read books which has been a special thing to do when I nurse Kimball.