This morning while waking Zeth up for school, before he even opened his eyes he started composing and singing an impromptu ode to his mommy that went something like this, “I love you mommy; Nobody loves you as much as I do, and Ducky too.”
His little stuffed duck that was a gift from auntie BJ two years ago has become his constant companion. It’s his comfort object that goes everywhere he does. It’s amusing to see how attached he has become and how real “Ducky” (aka “Quack Quack”) is in his mind. Yesterday, Zeth helped Ducky say morning prayers. Zeth told Ducky what to say then repeated each sentence as if Ducky were speaking. My 3rd cousin, Joan and her husband David Peffley, are visiting from Monterrey, CA right now (more on that in a later post) and “Uncle” David was teasing Zeth the other night saying that Ducky said he wanted to go stay with them for the night. Zeth thought for a moment then replied, “I think you must have misunderstood him.” The vocabulary and elocution on this kid cracks me up.
A year ago I ran my first 26.2 mile marathon with a small group of friends and finished in 5:01 just missing my goal. Despite all the factors I could site as reasons for my lame finish, I really wanted a rematch and I wanted experience an official race with thousands of people all pushing forward together to reach the finish line.
What a difference having that kind of support made. In 2010, I hit ‘the wall’ at mile 20 and just dragged myself along solitarily walking the highway shoulder and forcing a slow jog as much as I could handle. In 2011, I didn’t really feel that overwhelming desire to stop running until mile 23 but I ran through it and kept going. My goal for running this marathon was to beat 5 hours. When my mind was begging me to stop and walk a while, I just kept telling myself that training was over, this is the moment you’ve worked so hard for over the past 6-months and there was no way I was going to miss my goal this time. So I pushed on and ended up finishing the race in 4:54. What a high. Tears sprang to my eyes at the finish. I enjoyed a deeply spiritual moment of gratitude. That sense of accomplishment after such a struggle was very humbling and rewarding at the same time.
This was the first time I’ve competed in an event on a
Sunday and wouldn’t you know it, out of 23,000 runners in the Honolulu Marathon I somehow managed to wind up on the front cover of the HNL Star Advertiser Sports page. (That's me in the light blue top throwing the shaka.) The race started 2 hours before dawn so this picture was probably about 2-3 hours into the race – just as the elite runners were finishing and I was nearing the half-way mark. This paper will be on my wall until … well, forever.
Since 12/11/11, my running routine has been stuck in the recovery room and my mileage over the past 6-weeks total is less than I would normally run in a single week of training. This morning, out of nowhere, my eyes popped open at 5a and I headed out the door to go run the bike path from Sunset Beach to Sharks Cove & back. The surf is way up and was hammering the black shore this morning. I stopped at Pipeline to watch the surf in the darkness with a dozen professional surfers all doing the same probably waiting to see if the Pipe Masters event could be held today. What an awesome sight. It was therapeutic to just be able to go cruise a few miles over to the North Shore and start my day off with a bang. I love living in Hawaii.
Two weeks ago my husband became a bishop. BYU Hawaii just reorganized the whole married student stake and created a brand new ward which they assigned Bishop Brothers to. So he’s been very busy selecting and setting apart the leadership positions, organizing his ward and getting to know his members. He’s had many years of experience serving in 3 different BYUH singles ward bishoprics as a counselor
but it’s been a big change going from being an Elder and teacher in the Primary to being ordained a High Priest and Bishop all in a week’s time. I’m not really feeling the pinch as much – in fact, I feel almost relieved because the same day he was set apart, I was released as our ward Primary President. So the past two weeks have actually been less stressful for me just subbing for the Valiant 9 class he was teaching and letting the new presidency take over.
This was the first time I’ve competed in an event on aSunday and wouldn’t you know it, out of 23,000 runners in the Honolulu Marathon I somehow managed to wind up on the front cover of the HNL Star Advertiser Sports page. (That's me in the light blue top throwing the shaka.) The race started 2 hours before dawn so this picture was probably about 2-3 hours into the race – just as the elite runners were finishing and I was nearing the half-way mark. This paper will be on my wall until … well, forever.
Since 12/11/11, my running routine has been stuck in the recovery room and my mileage over the past 6-weeks total is less than I would normally run in a single week of training. This morning, out of nowhere, my eyes popped open at 5a and I headed out the door to go run the bike path from Sunset Beach to Sharks Cove & back. The surf is way up and was hammering the black shore this morning. I stopped at Pipeline to watch the surf in the darkness with a dozen professional surfers all doing the same probably waiting to see if the Pipe Masters event could be held today. What an awesome sight. It was therapeutic to just be able to go cruise a few miles over to the North Shore and start my day off with a bang. I love living in Hawaii.
Two weeks ago my husband became a bishop. BYU Hawaii just reorganized the whole married student stake and created a brand new ward which they assigned Bishop Brothers to. So he’s been very busy selecting and setting apart the leadership positions, organizing his ward and getting to know his members. He’s had many years of experience serving in 3 different BYUH singles ward bishoprics as a counselor
but it’s been a big change going from being an Elder and teacher in the Primary to being ordained a High Priest and Bishop all in a week’s time. I’m not really feeling the pinch as much – in fact, I feel almost relieved because the same day he was set apart, I was released as our ward Primary President. So the past two weeks have actually been less stressful for me just subbing for the Valiant 9 class he was teaching and letting the new presidency take over. Here's Ram getting ready for church with his new toy on Christmas morning. He loves his Vizio tablet .. and so do the kids. They made sure it has all the requisite games installed right away. There's no shortage of Angry Birds in our home now.
Zana had to do her first Science Fair project this year. Her brilliant idea was to determine which gum made the biggest bubbles. Little evil genius. So I dutifully bought her 8 different brands of gum and worked with her to scientifically test and document each brand using a timed test and self-portraits which we later measured. The goal was to get at least 12 measurable bubbles spaced out over a 16-minute test period per brand. I somehow volunteered to be a secondary tester to give the experiment more validity. We (I) put together a spreadsheet of 192 of the best self-portraits we took then selected the largest 3 from each brand for each tester, zoomed in & enlarged the 48, and had Zana measure them. There were some surprises – like Bubble Tape performing less impressively than Ice Cubes among others. It’s been a month and I still have no desire to ever blow a bubble again. BTW, Bubble Yum came out on top overall.Out of the blue quote of the day from Zeth: “ Mommy, you’re in my heart and my heart is in yours.” I don’t know where he came up with that line but it melted my heart.
I haven’t seen my camera since Christmas and I fear it must have been tossed with the wrapping or something. I miss my camera dearly so I’m shopping for a new one. Hope to be back in the pictures again soon. For now I just have my cell phone camera which is sorely lacking in clarity but it’s better than nothing. Here's the little critters having a ball enjoying the chocolate covered strawberries Grandma sent for Christmas. Nothing like gigantic strawberries in Dec. Yum.
