Court of Honor

Here we are at one of the biggest nights of the year.

Patrick's court of honor!

Patrick is the oldest grandchild in our family and the first to receive an Eagle Scout. His final project was to clean up an ederly woman's home. The painted the house, took trailer loads to the dump, and fixed up her yard. Patrick showed great leadership and service with his project. He is a great example to his cousins.

Patrick wore a very special neck kerchief. The hand carved Indian head was made by Uncle Luke. Luke loved scouting and received his Eagle when he was only 13! He would have been so proud of Patrick.

Grampy sang a special song to honor Patrick. It was a song he sang when Luke received his Eagle. Patrick has worked hard and is very deserving of the honor of an Eagle Scout.

We love you Patrick!

Graduation Day

Yep, that's Harrison. Kindergarten graduation. He did it!

It was a challenging year, mostly for mom, but Harrison loved school and especially his teacher, Ms. Estes. He learned a lot, made some friends, and really grew.

Lucy loved the cake at the after graduation party.

Whiskey Row 10k

We did it! Rebecca, Mary Andrus and I ran the Whiskey Row 10k. It was a hard run with Prescott's higher altitude and hills, a little training would have helped, but we did it.

We had a super fun girls trip. The boys were on the father son campout so we took the oportunity to get out of town with just the girls. There's nothing better than staying up late talking, window shopping and talking, eating ice cream and talking, and sitting in a park talking, not to mention the entire drive home with nothing to do but talk.

Colorado

Damon and I took a turn around trip to Colorado this weekend. We left Phoenix Thursday night and came back from Colorado on Saturday night. It was a long drive but well worth it. "Why?" might you ask... for these guys:


My sister Stacy and her kids

Daryn (with her mouth full.) Hayden

Justin and Morgan

We came to see all of them but Stacy's graduation was what brought us up. Stacy graduated with her LPN on Saturday. We are so proud of her! She has worked so hard to get to this point in her life. She is such an example to me.

Stacy and my mom after her "pinning".

Stacy is amazing! She is one of my heroes.

We also got to see Hayden play hockey. What a stud!

Remembering

Two years ago today I was teaching preschool and could not get myself into gear. School was about to start and I still didn't have a lesson plan. I kept coming back to the idea of just baking cookies with my students but felt it would be a cop out. I couldn't pull myself together to put together a lesson plan so at the last minute I finally decided to just make the cookies. It was actually perfect, the kids loved it, we had a fun snack and I was able to present some good concepts and ideas. It was also fun to send the kids home with their own bag of cookies because I had to break the news to their parents that I had to end the school year early and it was my last day. The reason for the shortened school year was that Damon's brother, Geoff, was dying of cancer. At that point we were just waiting. I hated to end my school year early, I love teaching and I loved those kids. I knew that the next few weeks would be very emotional as well as busy and when things calmed down summer break would be here.
So I sent my preschoolers off on their last official day of school (I had a little party for them a few weeks later) full of sugar and with more cookies to take home. A couple hours later Damon called. He had been spending almost every minute at his mom's house to spend as much time with Geoff as he could. He told me I needed to come and to come now.
I had been praying for days, maybe weeks, to be able to show love and bring comfort to Damon and his family but I never seemed to get an answer. As I was making babysitting arrangements and loading up the kids I decided to bring the cookies I had made in preschool. I hesitated and almost left them at home because I thought it would be silly to show up to say good bye to my brother in law with a plate of cookies. For some reason I decided to bring them anyway.
Shortly after I arrived at my mother in laws house Geoff passed away. I was in the room with my family as we watched and waited for him to take his last breath. It was a sweet and tender moment that was also filled with heart ache. After everyone said their good byes and had their last minute with Geoff we all reconvened at the kitchen table. I don't know what it is about families getting together but no matter how comfortable the couches are we always seem to gather around the table. Sitting on the table were the cookies I made that day with my preschoolers. Soon everyone was eating a cookie with or without a glass of milk and we were sharing stories and remembering Geoff.
My prayer was answered...I was able to bring comfort and show my love to Damon's family.

I love and miss you Geoff. Thank you for all your kindness and laughter and thank you for letting me serve you.

Pat's Run

Here we are...We did it! Damon and I ran Pat's Run together. We ran 4.2 miles in 47 minutes and 15 seconds. (Well, Damon ran it in 14 seconds and I finished in 16 seconds but who's keeping track :)

This was a really fun race, especially because I haven't ran a race in two years when I was prego with Lucy and I pretty much walked it AND up until recently Damon said he would never run with me. I was so proud of him for running the entire race.

I finally feel like I am back on track. Four years ago in June I started running and ran my first half marathon in September. I have never been into sports or exercising, so to go from nothing to training for and running a half marathon in just two months was huge for me. I felt awesome about myself. After the half marathon in September I did a triathlon in November and then another half marathon in January. I planned a 10 mile for December but got pregnant in October and had to give up training, running just took everything out of me. Since then I have been struggling to get back into running.

The night before Pat's Run I took my kids to stay with my sister Rebecca and had a long drive home by myself. I started thinking about my "running career" and why I just couldn't get back into it. I had a break through and realized I had some major fears I had been suppressing. My first fear is that I will hurt my knees. I have always had knee problems. My knees were fine during my first half marathon but I was in major pain during my second. Every time I run since then my knees have hurt after only a few miles.

My second fear is more emotional. Only days before my second half marathon my brother passed away. I ran my second half marathon on the day of his viewing. That was horribly emotional. Shortly after Damon and I took a triathlon training class. We had also signed up for two triathlons. We were only weeks away from the first when we found out Damon's brother, Geoff, had cancer. We cancelled the triathlons and exercise kind of went out the window. Damon spent so much time with Geoff and worrying about him that exercise for him was impossible. I still tried to keep up running and then got pregnant and had to stop. So running for me has become a very emotional thing. I think about my brothers and I wonder what is going to happen next. Why should I really work hard when I'm just going to have to stop again? I finally feel like I have recognized my fears and can now work through them.

Having said that...

During Pat's Run we could hear sirens and wondered what was going on. Soon we passed a clump of people surrounding a man on the ground. He was being given CPR. Damon and I got separated in the chaos. I passed the man first and instantly broke into tears. I turned to find Damon, he saw my face and grabbed my hand and held me tight. What's going to happen next I always wonder. We later found out that man died.
Running. Exercise. Living. is hard. But what's worth doing that isn't hard?

Easter Time

Happy Easter kiddos!

The kids had so much fun searching the house for their baskets and treats that the Easter Bunny left for them.