And You Are? Giselle. Oh, Giselle! We Shall be Married in the Morning!

Last Saturday Drek's cousin got married, we went to the reception and had a lot of fun. I walked up to the serving table and saw these little brown balls on the end of toothpicks.
"Oh! Brownie Balls!" I said and thought was a great and delicious idea it was. I went inside the house and took care or the two little babies. Drek went out to get a plate of food. He came back in with one of the brownie balls as wells as some fruit and other things. We sat next to each other and since I had my hands full, he fed me fruit (best husband ever). After the fruit was gone, he held up the brownie ball for me to eat. I went for it, he moved it back. I went for it again, he moved it back. I gave him a look. He smiled and held it out for me again. Right before I took a bite he said "So, I guess I should tell you that this isn't brownie, it's meat."

Ah. Dead-animal-carcass-on-a-stick is so much less fun than chocolate-on-a-stick. I'm glad Drek told me though, that was very nice of him. He's come along way from hiding bits of meat inside the macaroni noodles.

Yesterday Drek's other cousin got married. At her reception, there were harmless cream puffs.

Well My Days of Not Taking You Seriously are Certainly Coming to a Middle

I've been staying at my in-laws house since my race. My little niece and nephew are here and need some love and attention so I've been taking care of three babies under two. It's an adventure.

My nephew is six months, my baby turned nine months today. They look nothing alike. Ash is taller, Jo has more hair. Ash has blue eyes, Jo has HUGE brown eyes. Ash looks like a little porcelain doll, Jo looks like an old man. Ash is all cheeks and lips, Jo is all eyes and forehead. Ash has two teeth, Jo is toothless. And also Ash is pale and Jo is black. Like, Ash is white and Jo is African American. The two may be cousins, but you can't find any similarities.

I mention this because today I was carrying one in each arm when we walked into a restaurant. The girl behind the counter smiled at the babies (they are adorable. I love having my arms full of cute) and says

"Oh! Are they twins?"

I didn't really know what to say. I just stood there, thinking if that was even possible. I think it is.

victory, Victory, VICTORY!

Saturday was the big day; my first half marathon race!!

Drek took Ash over to his parent's house for the night and I stayed at my parent's house so I could get some sleep and so I wouldn't wake them up in the morning.

I woke up at three thirty in the morning (So early)! My dad and my sister and I were all signed up to run, and my mom was wonderful enough to drive us do support throughout the race. When we signed up to run, our goal was to finish in under four hours. After we ran out fourteen miles two weeks ago, we decided we could finish in under three hours if we pushed it,so that was our new goal; finish our first half marathon in under three hours.

My mom and dad and I drove over to pick up my sister, then we headed up the canyon to the starting line.

So the race finally started at (ten minutes late) and we were off! I'm so grateful to my sister, who was so good at keeping the pace. For the first six miles I was so excited and so high on adrenaline I kept wanting to run faster. If it weren't for my sister, I would have taken off and wouldn't have been able to finish.

We reached the halfway point before we knew and we were making really good time. All of us were feeling great so we added a short sprint at the end of every run/walk cycle. Right after we passed mile seven we had a wonderful surprise; my mom and my sister's family were on the sidelines to cheer us on! A few blocks later, my nieces waited to cheer for us! a few blocks after that my wonderful husband stood with our baby! It was so wonderful to see them cheering for us! I have the best husband ever.

They showed up a few more times throughout the race! My mom was at different spots the whole way to offer us water or juice or towels (it was raining) of take whatever we didn't want to carry. At one point Toshi even showed up! All of it was so appreciated. We couldn't have finished without you!

Mile nine is where I started feeling tired, but it wasn't anything new and I knew I could keep going. The surprise came during the last mile, when for some reason my throat closed up and I had a really hard time breathing. That's never happened before, I still don't know what happened. I ran through it and was fine a few minutes later.

Then came the finish line! When we came around the curve, dad was ahead of both me and my sister, so we decided to sprint to catch up to him, and then sprint to the finish line. When we passed him he decided to sprint too. We rounded the final curve, where all the stands were set up and everyone was cheering, so I decided to give it all I had. I took off and flew down the last part. I passed two runners, and the realized my dad was gaining on me! I ran faster, he ran faster, I ran faster and we crossed the finish line at the exact same time! I crossed so fast they didn't have time to call my name!

Right away they cut off my timing chip and hung a medal around my neck. A Medal! And that was it, I had just finished a half marathon! The best part; we finished well under three hours. I finished in 2:51:48.7, point four seconds behind my dad. That put me in in place 473, out of 1,000 half marathon runners. I was 99th for my age group. I was doing one mile every 13:06 minutes.

At then end my family and Drek's family was there, as well as my sister's family. It was so wonderful to have to much support! I really, really appreciate everything my husband did to help me with all my training and this race, and I really, really appreciate everything my mom did. And, of course, I am so grateful to my sister and my dad: You guys are amazing!

Now on to a marathon!

He Was So Deadly, In Fact, That His Enemies Would Go Blind From Over-Exposure to Pure Awesomeness!

My husband is very wise. I'm so grateful for his unyielding logic, even if I don't always agree with it.

In other news, a week and a half ago I ran the fourteen miles with my dad and my sister. I love running with someone, it's so much better than running alone, and they are the best running buddies ever! The great news is that at the end, I was fine. It was a hard run, but I could have done more. I think I pushed myself to hard on the Thursday before I ran my twelve and half miles and didn't give my muscles time to recover. Lesson learned! I'm so excited for Saturday (the actual race day) I know we will be great and that we will finish and that we will finish in under three hours!

You're Living in the Past. This is the 14th Century!

Saturday was wonderful. Toshi planned a semi-spontaneous trip to Yellowstone! We made a day trip out of it and had a wonderful time.

Have you ever eaten lunch with an elk? I have. We drove around looking for a place to eat, when we spotted three elk hanging out with a lunch crowd. There were about four picnic tables in this little area and three of them were filled with people, watching the elk eat their lunch.



We ate at that picnic table. We were about four feet away from that elk

They enjoyed their lunch conversations and we enjoyed ours.

They ate their food and we ate our picnic food.

So great.

.

Put The Lime In The Coconut

I get our produce from a food co-op. I love it. Fresh farm produce for cheap makes me happy. I can't choose what produce I get, it's just a random box full of fruits and vegetables that I may or may not know how to use.

Last week I got a coconut. A real, actual coconut with the husk and everything. I just spent the last twenty minutes trying to get to the edible parts. What does one do with a coconut? I hammered a few holes in it to drain the water (yum!) and while I was holding it over the bowl, I dropped it, resulting in coconut water splashing all over my shirt, hair and face. I hear coconut is a great conditioner.

So the water was all out, but then what? In LOST, they open coconuts by sticking them on a sharp bamboo shoot and hammering them with a rock. I didn't know where to find bamboo, and couldn't think of a good substitute, so I took it outside, set it on the cement, and hit it with a hammer.

I didn't think it would work, but it actually worked great. Who knew? I am now munching on coconut meat and sipping on coconut water. I am also drenched in the stuff. Maybe I should go change.