The Number 2

Fun facts about the number 2...

- My sister and I are two years apart, which means we experience many milestones in life within two years of each other. Yesterday she had a birthday - Happy Birthday Brooke - I love you!

- She was born two years, two months, and two weeks after me and I was privileged to experience our childhood together and I love where our relationship has come now that we are "adults".

- Two years ago (today) I graduated from college, now it is Brooke's turn in just a matter of days.

- I will soon be making trip number two of three this year to Texas to celebrate Brooke's success in completing her undergraduate career.

- Brooke turned 22 yesterday - have I said Happy Birthday yet?!?! =)

- I really only want to spend about two minutes on this post because I've got the Blazer game on and I am hoping they can pull this one out...

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood...

It has been unseasonably beautiful in Portland the last few days and I've been soaking up as many rays of sunshine as possible. This last weekend was spent getting caught up with some chores around the house, a baseball opening game, and discovering a great hiking/running trail not far from my home. We've got the windows open and its so great to be reminded of what summer will be like eventually. Of course we know it's just a tease right now, but you've got to enjoy every moment of good weather you get around here.

I really don't have any news to share, or photos to share, but I thought I'd check in quickly anyway. I hope the sun is shining and flowers are blooming wherever you are reading this!

What's keeping me up at night...

Is this wonderful book Jantsen's Gift written by Pam Cope. I'm more than halfway through and loving it. I had pre-ordered it on Amazon back in February and I was pleasantly surprised when it was delivered at the end of last week. This book is about a family who experienced great tragedy when their 15 year old passed away suddenly in 1999 and their journey after losing their son and brother. With the funds donated to Jantsen's memorial fund, the Cope's started an organization called Touch A Life Foundation and have rescued, assisted and loved on many children in Vietnam, Cambodia and Ghana in recent years. I commend them for confronting the extremely ugly human trafficking issue that is rampant across the world head on (and for clarity sake, "the world" includes the United States). I highly recommend this book, and I'm not even done with it yet!

You can check it out on Amazon here: Jantsen's Gift. I'm happy to share my book, but I'd also encourage you to support this ministry by purchasing your own copy if you are able to. Okay, that's all the time I can bear to spend blogging, now back to the book...

Pear Blossom 2009

So I only have a few minutes, but I wanted to put a few pictures up from my weekend in Medford with my family and give a quick update....

Friday I got to hang out with my mom and sister and do some random errands and just relax. It was nice to have the day off. That evening we had dinner with some good friends at an Italian restaurant so we could "carb up" for the big race the next morning.

Saturday was an early morning as we had to be at the starting line by 6:45am for the 5K that Brooke and Lauren were doing. We cheered them on and you can see them on the course and finishing below...

Mid-run / walk with smiles!

Brooke and Lauren crossing the finish line!

Then a little before 8:30 my mom and I lined up for the start of the 10 mile race. This is us just before the race, ready to go!

And this is us at the halfway point.... Brooke and Dad were great supporters by coming to the halfway point to cheer us on (mind you they managed to get in a Donut pit stop on their way to the halfway point).

And finally, proof that we did cross the finish line....

Big thanks to those who cheered us on - it's amazing how much more fun it is to run when you have friendly faces cheering you on along the way! Now what's the next race you want to do Mom?

I'll update with more pictures as soon as I have a chance. I've finally gotten a new computer so I'm doing a lot of playing around and setting up (my old computer was the laptop I got when I was a freshman in college, so I am in shock at how fast this new one moves!) Hope you all had a wonderful Easter - it was certainly a great weekend back in Medford for me with the family - it's so rare for us all to be together anymore so it was an extra special weekend!

Beautiful Sunshine and Miserable Allergies

Hope of the end of a cold, dreary and rainy winter came this weekend with beautiful sunshine. Granted, the clouds are back now, but it was definitely a beautiful weekend and Monday. Unfortunately with the sun, came major allergens in the air and I am apparently back to being allergic to everything. For the last 5 springs, I haven't had any allergy problems. As a kid I had a lot of allergies - I played soccer and was allergic to grass - you can put two and two together on what that means. I thought I had grown out of them or just had been allergic to stuff in the Rogue Valley..... apparently I was wrong. Stuffy nose, watery eyes, scratchy throat, the whole nine yards. Now I'm trying very hard to get it under control before this weekend for the big run. It helps to be able to breathe when you are running 10 miles, right?!?!

In the sunshine this weekend I headed to the farmers market, went for a long run down by the waterfront and went out for a friends' birthday Saturday night. Sunday was busy with church, going to lunch at my grandparents house, church meeting and the home community Sunday evening. All in all it was a good weekend.

Now I'm looking forward to my weekend back in my hometown, seeing my sister, running a race with my mom and celebrating Easter with my family. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures from my upcoming weekend to share here.

Just a run to Home Depot and a flat tire...

Last weekend I headed to Medford to get in a long run with my mom and to enjoy a bit of time with my parents. It went by very quickly, but was a nice treat. Saturday morning my mom came in and woke me up too early to head to Home Depot where we left a car and then took a an 11 mile ride to be dropped off so we could run back to Home Depot. I was overjoyed to have people to run with, as evidenced by me chatting away most of the mileage. For the last few months I've been training, I've been running by myself (more on that in a minute), so needless to say I was thrilled to have other people to run and talk with.

It was a beautiful morning to run, and we were out in the hills so we could look out over the valley. After doing so much running in the city, it was a nice change of pace. All in all the run was great. I tried out a new hydration belt that I picked up at the Nike outlet store on the way down and it was a great way to have water along the way. The last mile was especially entertaining thanks to my mom's making up songs game she plays. I have to admit I felt kinda spoiled because when we got to Home Depot (that's right, we ran to Home Depot) two of the other ladies we were running with had mini muffins, bananas and some crazy recovery drink waiting for us. Usually I'm by myself on the long runs, so no treats for me at the end, although I will admit I've done little celebratory dances at the end of a long run.

Sunday I got to hang out with my parents a little more before I took off for the drive back home. It was nice to spend some time with them, although it was short.

The drive home was going great, until I was almost to Woodburn, talking to my sister, and suddenly there's a loud noise and my back driver side tire has blown. I quickly hang up with Brooke, get to the side of the road, get the flashers on, check my tire to see the damage, get back in the car, lock my door, get my heart rate back to normal, and call my parents. When my mom answers the first thing I tell her is that I'm okay, but my tire is blown. She hands the phone to my dad because he's more familiar with all things car and AAA. Now once upon a time my dad showed me how to change a tire, but it was probably 8 years ago, and the thought of me trying to do it on the side of I-5 at dusk is not appealing. So I proceed to call AAA and they send a tow truck out to help me. Thank you mom and dad for AAA - I know you were grateful for it the other night, I'm so grateful for it too!

The rest of the drive back was slow seeing as you can't go faster than 50 to 55 mph tops on the spare, but I was thankful I was 4/5ths of the way home at that point. Two new tires later (my other two are good for a few more months) my car is back in business. Buying tires is sooo much fun...

So back to running on my own -- I've been training with my mom (by long distance) for a 10 mile run Easter weekend. That has required me to go out on runs by myself frequently, which I've actually come to really enjoy. Lately I've been listening to two audiobooks. I only endorse one of them. The first book I listened to was The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I highly recommend it - I also highly recommend listening to good audiobooks while running. The audiobook I do not recommend is The Funny Thing Is... by Ellen DeGeneres. Generally I find Ellen funny, the book I barely chuckled at. I had thought I'd be running down the street cracking up.... nope, not a bit. It held my attention which was nice, but no laughs. So the next time you're looking for a good audiobook.... check out The Last Lecture.

That stinking hour

I LOVE daylight savings... probably not as much as my mom, but still, I do love how late it is light. However the whole hour change in schedule just takes a toll on me. While that's not the reason I haven't blogged in a while, it is what is on my mind.

This will just be a really quick post, but I was starting to feel like I was totally neglecting my blog, so I wanted to give it a little love. Life has been just humming along lately - I have a hard time believing it's already mid-March. Work is good and busy as usual - one of the best (and also most irritating) things about my job is there is always change happening. I realize that is generally true for most people, but it is great to never be bored!

I went and watched some boys basketball last weekend. My high school was playing in the Boys State Championship tournament so I went down to watch a couple games, see my dad, and also bump into a few old friends. It's weird how long ago high school was now.... I was definitely in an environment that reminded me of my age (no, I'm not saying I'm old, just now quite a ways out of high school). The boys team won the state championship, which made the two trips to Salem worth it. I have to admit, when I was in high school the thought of us winning a championship would have provoked much mocking laughter, so it's exciting to see it really happen.

I've asked for and received time off for a summer vacation that I'm super excited about....more details to come later. Let's just say there will be lots of relaxing in the tropical sunshine....

I downloaded two audiobooks from iTunes last night to listen to when I am running. I'm starting to get sick of my Shuffle playlist, so I have decided to try something new. The first book I'm going to listen to is The Last Lecture - I've heard lots of good things about it and am kinda surprised I haven't actually ready it yet. I'm hoping listening to an audiobook will help especially on the longer runs to distract my mind. I'll let you know how it goes.

That's all for now.... I swear on my runs I think of great blog posts, and then I get to writing and none of it comes back to me.....