Long Past Due

Okay I am finally going to update my blog....

LOTOJA

In September Isaac completed Lotoja and stayed with me a few days while he was getting used to the higher elevation. It was good to see him since it had been almost a year since I was in Chicago last. On his first day here he totally guilted me in to riding with him. I hadn't ridden much since the MS150 due to an injury and then of course my complete and total obsession with the Olympics. It felt great to get out again and I have been riding an average of 3-4 times a week since then.

Isaac at one of the rest stops (photo courtesy of Sheila, coach Mark's wife)

ECHO



My family went boating up at Echo and had so much fun. Michael once again showed us all up. I guess it doesn't hurt that he gets to go out all of the time and demo boats. He is getting really good at surfing and even Christopher got up once. I always sit up front and this time I fell asleep and no one noticed. I had reapplied sunblock 45 twice, but I still was fried. I was so sore the next day it hurt to even change positions.

Chris trying to surf

Mike surfing

Natalya is BACK!!!

Natalya came back from her home in the Ukraine on September 24th. It was so weird to have her gone for four months. She has become a part of the family and it is nice to have her back. I hope that she is able to work out the visa issue and bring her daughter over soon. Michael went over there for two weeks to meet her parents and see her home country. I will post some pictures as soon as I can get her to send me some.

ESS

Ali left ESS on Sept. 12th. It has been lonely over in my corner since she is gone. I still see Em every now and then, but she is soooo far away :-).

Ali, Em and I on Ali's last day in front of the office

Actually, I have been extremely busy since she left. I have become the go to person for several fraud investigations. It has been very time consuming. I am always amazed at what people think they can get away with. I have also been reviewing files (R12s) for 3 out of 4 of the assistant controllers the last two months. I am so sick of looking at them I wanted to scream with joy when I finished the last one on Monday.

Stay Tuned....

Okay I have heard from several of you that I have not been updating enough. I know it has been a couple of months, but I am working on it. I am still gathering a few pictures and then I will post. Hopefully in the next couple of days. :-)

Post Olympic Let Down

Like many others in the world I have watched the Olympics these last two weeks. Okay I will admit, I did a little bit more than just watch a few events. I was a bit obsessed with the entire thing. I dvr'd two channels to watch when I got home each night. In the morning I couldn't go to work until I finished watching the match or race. I watched a little of pretty much everything. I could not believe some were even sports. I mean seriously, doubles badminton? I am sure the players in these events trained extremely hard and were excited to make it to the Olympics, but at what point do you say to yourself "I want to go to the Olympics playing doubles table tennis"?

I loved watching each of the swimming events. I was so excited to see Phelps win each of his medals and the freestyle relay was intense. Dara Torres is such an amazing woman, her devotion to the sport is unbelievable. I was so impressed by her to have the courage and sportsmanship to approach the judges to have them delay the heat so a fellow athlete could have the chance to swim after her suit ripped.

My favorite by far was beach volleyball. I am a beach volleyball junkie to begin with, but this year was especially fun. I had only slightly paid attention to the sport the last few years. I knew Dalhausser and Rogers and loved watching them each event that I caught on TV. But coming into the Olympics there was an all new team for me to really cheer for. The first time I saw Gibb and Rosie was their opening match and thought wow, he looks so familiar. I couldn't figure out why until the announcers said that he was from UT and had 11 sibs and was a twin. At that moment I knew this was Jake of Jake and Cole. I had heard so much about the twins while Joy and Dale were living at her in-laws while they served a mission. Each time a camera would pan out over the audience I would search to see if I could see Joy. I never did, but Jake put a really good picture of Dale on his blog.

Then of course, there was the Professor and the Thin Beast. I absolutely loved watching them. Their matches were always late at night and I would try to stay up so I could watch them live. I am sure that my neighbors were annoyed each time I did because I was yelling and cheering for them the entire time. The one time that I didn't make it and fell asleep, I woke up the next morning and couldn't go to work until I saw the entire game. I kept yelling at "the boys" to hurry up and win because I needed to get to work!

Now that the 17 days are over I don't know what I will do with myself. :-) I guess I will just have to go back to having a good nights' sleep, cleaning my house, weeding my garden and I might even have enough energy to get back on my bike again. I look forward to the 2010 Vancouver games and the chance to people watch again and hope that I get just a glance of Myriam (works for the city organizing the games) and anticipate the announcement of the 2016 games and hope that they will be held in Chicagoland.

breaking dawn

Like everyone else I know, I picked up the final book in the Twilight series this weekend (Saturday morning, not at midnight like Em). I started and finished it on Saturday. I started getting sick on Friday night and spent all of Saturday either reading the book or sleeping. All of Stephenie Meyer's books are easy reads and this is no exception. She did a nice job of wrapping all of the story lines up. Over all it was an enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend it. Now we all just have to wait for the movie coming out in a few months.

Heber Valley Girls Camp

Last week I spent time at my Stake Girls Camp. This year it was at the Heber Valley Campground. We stayed at the Marjorie Pay Hinkley campground. It was super special being there since it was named after such a special lady. We had so much fun there. We saw a couple of badgers, moose, deer and tons of potguts.

All the girls next to the Reeder Trail Sign. We spent an extra hour on our hike because of this trail. We eventually found a sister missionary and she led us back to the Abish Trail and we made it back to camp safely.

Ashley and Cambry on the Challenge Course. Michelle, Kaylynne and April there to support them.

Kylee, Megan, Kelsey, Hilary and Talor on the Challenge Course.

Jennifer, Amanda, Ami and Camille on the Challenge Course.

The Police

Bobby gave me and Brisco tickets to "The Police" Reunion Tour last Saturday. I took Libby and Brisco took his wife. The seats were totally kick ass. I had an unobstructed view for most of the show (the only time I had trouble seeing was when the drunk off her ass lady one row up kept walking back and forth saying "sorry").

Brisco made fun of everyone the entire time. There was this couple just down the row that were pretty amusing. About half way through the guy took his shirt off and was dancing towards the audience.

I spent the whole time dancing and singing. It was so fun to go to a show and know the words to every single song. Libby likes to leave concerts a little early to beat the traffic, but I just wouldn't leave. The Police are one of my all time favorite groups. I remember listening to the Synchronicity album back in elementary school and making up dances for the songs with Angie.

Thanks Bobby!!!

MS 150

It has been a while since I posted, but I have been busy. On June 28-29 I rode in "Utah's Best Dam MS 150 Bike Tour". It was fun, painful and fulfilling all at the same time. My team rode a total of 300 miles and raised $1100. There were over 3000 riders and over $965K raised.

Here are a few of the pictures from the event.

Team Pedal Pirates

My poor bike at the end

Self-portrait after I finished

Our campground

Little Red Riding Hood

I rode in the Little Red Riding Hood ride, my second long ride. It was raining in Salt Lake as I drove up to Logan and I kept hoping that it would be clear up there. When I arrived at the park it was brisk, but sunny. As the ride began there were at least 1000 women lined up and riding out of the small town of Wellsville. It was extremely slow going for the first 3 miles. Women of all ages and abilities were everywhere. After the pack broke up I kept a pretty good pace of 16mph, until about 12 miles into the ride I began to feel a sharp pain in my knee. I was coming up to the first big hill of the ride and I got about 1/2 way up and realized that I would not make it up with my knee. I hopped off and walked the rest of the way up. It was awful having to walk that soon in the ride. I kept telling myself I just had to walk it off and then I would be fine. About a mile later I reached the turn off for the 36 mile route. I had originally planned on going the 80 miles, but realized that I was not going to be able to do that. I was so mad at myself. I was able to do 80 miles 3 weeks ago no problem and today I was going to have to punk out at 36!! I told myself that I could at least finish in 2 hours and be proud that I kept a good pace. I skipped the next rest stop and headed to the next. My knee was hurting pretty bad, but I thought if I just grabbed a quick snack and kept going I would still finish in 2 hours. After about 5 miles it got to be so windy that I could no longer keep my pace. I slowed to 13mph and just kept pushing. I ended up having to walk for about 1/4 mile because my knee hurt so bad and my fingers were frozen. At the next rest stop I ate a little protein and thought you can do this, you only have 6 more mile and you will still make it in less than 2 1/2 hours. Not what I had hoped, but respectable considering the wind and the pain I was in. Boy was I delusional. About 1/2 mile from the rest stop was a hill that I didn't even remember coming down on the way out. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even pedal any more. I stopped and tried to walk, but that hurt too. After about 10 minutes of walking I finally made it up the hill and started riding again. Less than 2 minutes later it started to pour. I was now soaked through. I couldn't see because my glasses were foggy and wet. I stopped so I could take them off and just let the hail hit me in the face without any protection. I just kept telling myself, two more miles, two more miles. These were the most painful and slow two miles I have ever ridden. I could only go 8 mph and it hurt every time I tried to use my left leg. Finally after 3 hours I made it and could wait to get my wet clothes off and get warm again. It stopped raining and I thought I would go buy a $20 worth of raffle tickets since all of the proceeds went to a good cause (Huntsman Cancer Institute). I arrived at the pavilion and they were serving lunch. I thought okay, I need to get some fuel in me. I grabbed a sub, some watermellon and cheetos. I went to sit down and saw the fountain drinks. I don't know what it is about riding, but after a long ride all I want is Diet Coke. I filled a small cup and sat down. I took a bite of my sandwich and thought, wait where is my $20?? From the time I walked to the pavilion and sat down I had lost my money. I was ticked. I was wet, cold, tired, in a lot of pain and now I lost my money. It was then that I started noticing that I was wheezing. The cold air and rain had given me a bad cough and I was having trouble breathing. I thought great, I am finally starting to get in decent shape that I can ride these rides and my asthma is going to give me problems if the weather isn't perfect. I ate a few more bites of my sandwhich and a couple of chips and decided I was done. I gathered everything up and then threw it away. I started to walk away and I remembered I had my cell phone in my hand when I tossed my lunch and now I don't. I had thrown it and my license in the garbage!!! Luckily noone else had put anything in it so they were on the top. I walked to my car and said I am done. I am going home and not doing anything the rest of the day, and here I am. I took a shower and then slept the rest of the day away and decided I should blog this before I forget all of the details of my lovely day. Another lovely picture of me in my pretty blue jacket. :-)

Kids

As much as I love visiting Isaac and Khania in Evanston, I miss playing at the beach and watching the kids even more. They are so much fun to watch and Grant has so much energy that sometimes I am exhausted just watching him.

Bad Dreams

Have you ever had a bad dream and woke up completely ornery? Last night I had the worst dream. I was yelling at my brother and telling him what an embarrassment he was and that we were all ashamed of how he was behaving. I woke up just after that dream and I have been in a bad mood ever since. Even now 14 hours later I am still in a pretty bad mood.

Sod, Flowers and Veggies

I moved into my house 4 1/2 years ago. While the house was in decent shape, the yard was atrocious. The sprinkler system was complete crap and there wasn't any kind of landscaping in at all. The first year I focused on the front yard. I seeded the lawn, side yard and park strips. I planted four trees, iris, day lillies, daisies, tulips and chrysanthemums. All of these survived and are still doing very well.

Year two was spent weeding and trying to help the plants in front survive. The morning glory in Riverton is just awful. It is a never ending battle trying to get rid of them. I also began trying to figure out how I could landscape the back and somehow get the West side of my house cooler. With the help of my family we put in a good sized deck and some sod that my dad's friend gave me.

Year three was the year of the sprinkler system. I had attempted to hire a friend's brother who owns a landscaping business to come install the system, but he ended up flaking out. Knowing that I had tried, my dad felt bad and started to work on it himself in late Summer. I hired someone to come in and design the system and we began the long tedious process that is installation. Since we could only work on the project on Saturday's it took several months to complete. Travis trenched the entire yard, my dad, mom and I laid all of the pipe, and my dad did all of the electrical work. By the time we had gotten that far, it was winter and time to quit. While working on the system, Travis had cut down my front fence so he could trench the yard easier. Nala also decided that she wanted to see what was going on next door and decided to take a look. For those of you that don't know, Nala is Michael's Great Dane and they live next door. Having a 200lbs dog trying to peak over put a lot of stress on the poorly built fence and it eventually toppled. So we decided it was time to put in a new fence in March. We ended up going with a tan vinyl fence (no maintenance products is all I do).

Year four involved finishing the sprinkler system during the spring. We also laid about 600 sq ft of sod that year as well. I spent so much time out of town last year I really didn't get to do much on the yard. Between Girls Camp, Snowbird and my 3 Chicago trips, the summer was gone.

Year Five so far has been a really busy year. I laid 2000 sq ft of sod. I planted a salsa garden and a peach tree and by the end of the summer will have raspberry bushes, a compost area and my southwest corner will finally be cleared of the sticker weeds and huge clumps of cement (thank you Michael).

I am so excited to finish these projects. I have not had a garden since I moved and I have truly missed making homemade salsa. It is such a stress reliever for me. While I was studying for my CPA exam I would listen to Mr Joe Ben Hoyle on CD and blanch, dice and bottle salsa for hours. I think it greatly contributed to my passing the exam that November. I am also excited for all of the peppers. I always have more peppers than I can possible use for the salsa and I am going to try drying them and then making spices out of them. I love to cook with pepper spices all year round. My favorites are cayenne and habenaro!!!

Movies, Movies and more Movies

I have not been going to see many new releases lately (I couldn't justify having premium satellite and going to new releases), but this week I have seen a plethora. Last Monday I went and saw "The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian", Saturday I saw "Iron Man", yesterday I saw "Indiana Jones and the Valley of the Crystal Skull" and Friday I am going to see "Sex and the City"! Oh how I have missed the movies. This summer is packed full of fun popcorn flicks that I cannot wait to see.

Friends Lost

It is always hard to realize a friendship needs to end. I had dinner tonight with a couple of people from graduate school. For a time I considered one of these people my best friend. We were practically inseparable for a while. As our lives got busier we still got together at least once or twice a month. In the last year I have seen this person only three times and each of these times were strained. I have several friends that I only see or talk to a couple of times a year, but there isn't any ackwardness between us. I guess it is true of the saying about friends. Some are for a lifetime, some are for a season while others still are just for the moment. Each has a place in your heart and served a need for you at that time. So to this friend goodbye and best of luck in your life. I wish only the best and that all your hopes and dreams may be fulfilled.

Salt Lake Classic Century

Holy Cow!! I rode the SL Classic Century today. I only rode 76 of the 100 miles, but it was 9 miles more than I had planned on. It was hard, but satisfying. I have a feeling I am going to not be able to move tomorrow. I rode with Christopher and Laura and kept up with them for the most part. They were riding a bit slower because I was with them. I kept telling them that it was okay to go on without me. They are hard core riders. This is the first year they have ridden road bikes, but they go mountain biking all the time. Last weekend they were down in Moab with their road bikes and easily rode 150 miles over the weekend. I appreciated their concern and it did push me harder so they didn't have to ride so slow. On the way back, Christopher had to get to work so they finally took off without me. He called me with about 5 miles to go, apparently they had finished slower than anticipated and were doubling back to check on me and let me know that I wasn't that far behind them. That made me feel even better because it felt like everyone was passing me and I was the last one to make it back.

While I was riding, my allergies were killing me. My nose was running so bad I had to stop every 5-10 miles just to blow my nose. Each time I stopped concerned people would make sure I was okay and give me encouragement to keep going. I was so grateful for those words of encouragement it made me realize that not all roadies are jerks like most of the ones that were on the big teams. I even had one guy give me spinning tips, which helped out a lot. I also want to thank the REI tech that helped tune my bike so my chain would stop slipping between gears. He was so nice and took the time to educate me on what the chain should look like and how it should be aligned.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom and my Grandma. This time of year is great that we get to honor all our mother's.

This is also a time that I think about my Grandma Matson. It will be 12 years this August that she left us, but I still miss her so much. She was such a strong woman and a great grandma. I used to sit at her counter while she was canning some kind of fruit or vegetable from their garden and just talk to her about everything. Since my mom had to work it was nice to be able to walk across the street after school or every day in the summer and see her. I used to think it was weird that most kids didn't know their grandma as much as I did. She would tell me stories all the time about her sisters and brother and her life growing up in Payson. I knew that Aunt Lauralee was a great speller and would drive all of them nuts trying to memorize her spelling words each week. Having her tell me all these stories is probably why I know so much about her family. This time is also such a great reminder of her because of the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. This is the first year in the last five that I have not volunteered for the race. I was always happy for the survivors that attended the race and enjoyed helping with the event. But it was always difficult for me to listen to them, because she didn't survive and her battle was so short. It was less than a year from the time she was diagnosed and the time she passed away.

I hope that all of my friends have a wonderful day and realize that there is nothing greater in this life than being a mom and I love that so many of my friends are and that they allow me to be part of their lives and see the blessing as well as the trials of being a mom.

Brand New Day

So, I have decided I am going to finally start this thing. I have been contemplating it for several months and I am just going to take the plunge.