Marathon Weekend

 
 
 
 

Can you see the smiles? Scott completed the National Marathon in 3:21.44 and qualified for the Boston Marathon in the process. The amazing part? He was smiling the whole time & got to even run for several miles with the mayor of D.C. He didn't really know who the guy was but people kept saying "Hello Adrian!" (everyone knew him) so he (Scott) finally figured it out. Scott felt strong for the entire marathon. His slowest mile was 8:01 & his fasted was 7:04. So what does he want to do now? Run another marathon, of course.

Lisa & Crystal were awesome & we all just loved the whole experience. It was fun to have two additional family members hanging out with us for the weekend.



The boys and I had a blast riding the subway and chasing the runners. After the race we drove over to Alexandria & visited my favorite pizza place - Bertucci's. The pizza was 16" across & brick-oven fired. We then parked the van at the hotel & left to meet our friends the Rankins at the Lincoln Memorial. It was SO GOOD to see them. We walked around the Lincoln Memorial & then the Korean & Vietnam war memorials. We disembarked at the wrong subway station and ended up walking A LOT on the way to see the Rankins.



On Sunday we went to the Richmond, Virginia Branch. The building was very non-descript old building, in the middle of a poor part of town, with VERY limited parking. The people were very friendly. So many people stopped & introduced themselves to us. The speakers happened to be visitors - we were glad that we were not the ones called on to speak!

At the web-site MapMyRun, I input the roads that we walked on & figured out that on Saturday we walked for over TEN MILES!

Washington DC

Last Thursday we drove to Washington DC with our three sons & two friends whom we would gladly claim as daughters. The purpose of the grand adventure? To run the National Marathon and to qualify for the Boston Marathon. The Boston Marathon is the only race in the United States that requires a qualifying time in another race; Wikipedia says that that fact makes it the "people's Olympics".

What's cooking Wednesday (almost)

Tonight I was desperate for a fast dinner. In the refrigerator? Dubliner cheese from the tasty-tables at Costco & chicken-apple sausages (fabulous!). I looked at the web-site for the sausages & found a great salad - which I tweaked because it wasn't for a grade. I called Scott to grab spinach on the way home. Here's the rest of the recipe (my way):

Apple Sausage Salad

4 Chicken-Apple sausage links (when sauteed they taste like bacon)
4 oz. Dubliner cheese (or goat cheese)
2 apples, cored & sliced thin
Bag of spinach
4 Tbsp. Walnuts (mixed with craisins, optional)
Ken's Lite Honey Mustard dressing

Slice sausages into small rounds; saute in a bit of cooking spray for 5-7 minutes. Layer spinach, sauteed sausage, apples, cheese, walnuts, & then honey mustard dressing. Yummy & ready in under 15 minutes. WW points? 6 for 6 servings.

I'm published! ... well sorta

While helping a friend with her algebra today, I received a knock on my door & found my favorite postal carrier with a package for me. I couldn't imagine what was in the box. I tore it open to find a new cookbook - for free - for submitting a recipe for the Worldwide Web Cookbook. I submitted a recipe for Pulled Pork sandwiches (page 146).



When I heard about the project & submitted my recipe, I thought, "OK, sounds fun." I didn't realize the book would be hardcover, spiral-bound with beautiful photos & even a cute font. I almost bought the book on Friday before I realized I would soon own one.

If you're in Utah, there's a great event next Wednesday with demonstrations of recipes from the cookbook. Tell them I sent you (or not...) --

³Confessions of a Chocoholic Cook² is a free cooking event in which community members will be taught simple but tasty chocolate recipes from author and cook Deanna Buxton.

The event will be held at the SCERA lobby (745 S. State St., Orem, UT) and will begin at 7 p.m.

Some of the recipes that will be taught and demonstrated include Chocolate Pancakes with Grandma's Syrup, Snickers Salad, ³My Most Favorite Cake² and Fudge Cookies.

The event¹s recipes are based on the book Worldwide Ward Cookbook, which features recipes from all over the world.

³Confessions of a Chocoholic Cook² is open to the general public, but those who want to attend must RSVP by March 16 by emailing covenantpromotions@gmail.com.

Participants are also encouraged to email their best chocolate/dessert recipe ahead of time to be included in the recipe-swap table at the event.

Reedy River 5K race

Yesterday, I went downtown & ran with several of my girlfriends. I had a blast & was miserable all in one grand occasion. You will need to read the pictures uphill to understand what happened. ... My phone went dead but we managed to meet up before the race. My calves have been KILLING me but I thought I would try running & just see what happened. My best time ever was 33:11 so I just wanted to beat that. (Well, I really wanted to beat 31:00 but didn't hold my breath.) I ran & my calves were fine most of the way. I walked for a little bit at the water stop but it hurt to walk & hurt to run so I just ran & ran & ran. I decided I would rather hurt for a shorter amount of time. When I rounded the corner & saw the finish line I wanted to sprint but my legs said no! I don't remember much of the race - but when I heard Crystal cheering me on I was SO excited.

My official clock time was 32:56 and the GPS watch said 32:23 for exactly 3.1 miles. Whatever?! I beat my old time by 15 seconds or more. Hooray! I had a blast with my friends & probably look forward to doing more races. But never a marathon - and you can quote me on that one.

Want to see my new favorite gadget? It's almost midnight & I can't figure out how to upload another image to facebook but you can see it here.

Snow Day

 
 
 
 

The weatherman had been predicting snow for quite a while but we did not want to get our hopes up. The kids heard about the trick of wearing your pajamas backwards for more snow while in Primary on Sunday. They came home & put their pajamas on right away. Voila! Snow!!!

First Grade sweetness

Click on the picture for a close-up view.

Jared has a homework assignment each night to draw a picture & write a sentence with 4/12 spelling words. I love that they capture the innocence & beauty of first grade. His spelling words are spelled correctly but there is some creative spelling going on for the rest. I guess I could correct him & make everything perfect, but *newsflash* perfection isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

If you need a translation:
We can say anything.
Put your food on your tray.
We can play with are frends.
You can yous gray.
Bee, go away to your bee hive.

I have been working on a picture-a-day project for the year & have done a pretty decent job of capturing the mundane. Somewhere along the way though, I lost track of adorable hug-hug-kiss-kiss Jared. My new resolution for today is to take a cute picture of each of my kids... eyes opened... smiling... perfect. Wish me luck!