Do something daring every year

Last night Richard and I had a great date.  We talked about things and asked each other strange questions like "if you were featured on the cover of Time magazine, what would you want the tagline to read?"

One of the questions was "What is the most daring thing you have ever done?"
Richard's answer was "ask you to marry me!"  I think runner up responses for him would include:
1) get kicked out a mall for setting up a tent and campfire in the mall
2) run mostly naked through a Wal-Mart
3) run a half marathon with just 6 weeks of training
4) hike Angels Landing with a fear of heights

When I thought about it, the thing that took the most guts for me was to serve a mission.  My hands used to tremble sometimes when I would think about going out to contact in the morning.  I still sometimes wake up in the morning, relieved, that I am not a missionary anymore because it scared me so much.

But I have this other part of my personality that is thrilled by doing hard things and pushing my limits.  I realized about a year ago, that I hadn't pushed myself toward anything in awhile.  I was sort of coasting.  I wasn't growing, I wasn't changing (except to get older), I wasn't progressing.  I was inspired when a friend of mine made 30 goals for herself the year she turned 30.  So I started thinking about goals I could make for myself-- goals that did not revolve around my children.  All the goals I could think of revolved around 1 main theme-- increase my talents and push myself.  So this is what I have been doing:

I started a garden (I have a couple of baseball bats growing in my zucchini plants...)
I ran a ragnar (loved it.  I didn't wash off my ragnar tattoo for about two weeks and got a little bit of flak for it at church :)
I signed up for an ultramarathon (the Middle Fork 50k in North Bend on September 21)
I tried out for a choir (and was accepted!)

More about these last two items.

I love to sing.  And you wouldn't know it if you just asked my kids ("mom, can you please stop singing?!" whenever we are in the car), but I think I have a pretty good voice.  Despite not even making first callbacks for my high school choir, I somehow persevered and with a few lessons and became not terrible.  A few years and a mission later (and singing every day on that mission), I was in a college womens choir.  I have sung in some stake performances and performed some solos in church.  A few months ago, I was invited to audition for a new choir-- the Seattle Ensign Chorus and Symphony (a kind of regional Mormon Tabernacle Choir).   So I signed up for an audition slot on my mom's birthday.  I prepared a song I loved to sing and showed up prepared to accept whatever happened.  The audition was pretty intense.  The whole thing was recorded.  I first had to tell why I wanted to be in the choir.  I told them that I was auditioning on my mom's birthday because my mom loved singing and had inspired me by auditioning herself for a choir 15 years ago after she had worked a 12 hour shift at a hospital (and which she is now happily a part of).  My mom had been daring and I was going to be daring too.
First they tested my range.  Then they tested my sight singing ability (pretty poor if you ask me).  Then they tested my tonal memory by playing random groups of 4 or 8 notes and having me sing them back.  Then I finally got to sing my song.  But...then I had to sing the same song with no vibratto ("think of the Vienna boys choir" she said), and then after that I was supposed to sing the same song like an African spiritual.  Well, you know how much African blood I have in me.  What I lacked in authenticity, I more than made up in my enthusiasm!
And that was my audition.
Well, I got in.  And I am pleased as punch.  The first rehearsal was amazing.  I felt so honored and blessed and I am so excited to be stretching myself again.  I want to be better.  Heck, I want to be in MoTab someday, so I better start practicing.

The second thing I have done is prepare to run an ultramarathon.  A 50k is roughly 31 miles.  But it is not on roads, and it doesn't always have a well marked path.   This race will cover mountains and rivers and everything in between.  But a marathon distance just wasn't that hard anymore.  I could run 18 miles and not even be sore that same night.  I know what you are thinking (either "I can't believe she is so egotistical" or "why don't you just try to run a marathon faster?"). But the truth is, since I can't/won't/refuse/hate to sprint and really only have the one running pace, running the same distance faster is not an attractive option.  I would rather just increase the distance to push myself.  So here I go.  I probably will regret this and I may throw up at some point.  But at least I will have done something daring!

Colorado 2013

This summer was the summer of road trippin' 

I have to admit, I prefer my 20 hour drive in the summer.  So thank you Nick, Mike, and Stephen, for giving us good reason to come to Colorado in the summer.  

Richard's Colorado time began with a true boys weekend with all of his best high school friends.  The weekend included staying up all night, pushing over trees, and attempting to start a fire with two sticks. 

Richard and I got to go on some dates around Grand Junction as well.  This is us trying out a "dramatic" pose.

Models always look angry in their photos, so this is me trying to look like a model!

We got to spend a ton of time with one of Richard's best friends and the groom-to-be, Mike Pacini.  We went on an all day hike looking for some magic pools of water, only to find some small puddles of smelly tepid water.  Drought season.

I know that Richard gets a lot out of the particular beauty of Colorado.  It had been years since we had been here in the summer, so it was nice to see red rocks and blue sky and desert....hmm, that sounds like my home town :0

This is Stephen Pacini, himself to be a groom in about 6 weeks, giving the best man toast.  Mike and Mary's wedding was really beautiful and a very special experience for both of us.  WE got to spend a lot of time with the bride and groom for the entire week before their wedding.  There were game nights and hikes and lunches and brunches and even a yoga class!  Even on the day of the wedding we sat right next to them and square danced with them on the dance floor.

The groomsman were organized according to height.  Guess who was the last groomsman?

I sat right across from the bride and groom at the wedding dinner.  That is how special I am.  Actually, I just moved my chair so I could sit close to my husband who was at the wedding party table.

The highlight of the trip to Colorado for me was our all-day date to Moab and Arches National Park.  Neither of us had been there, and Delicate Arch was just as spectacular as it appears to be.

we actually got to go hiking quite a lot while we were in Colorado.  Hiking brings me back to the beginnings our relationship together.  The first time I ever talked to Richard was on a hike.  The first time Richard told me he loved me was on a hike.  When we got engaged, we were on a hike.

Maybe that is why I am always urging us to do more hiking.  I love everything more and am more content with my whole world when I am outside in the sun surrounded by beautiful things.  Best therapy around!

Anna's Birthday

I think I look forward to my kid's birthdays more than they do.  Although I am not ever going to be one of those moms with the designer birthday parties featured on Pintrest, I do love to make birthday cakes and create fun birthday parties.  Heck, I just love celebrations and birthday parties are the best kind of celebration. So Anna and I had been discussing her 4th birthday party practically since her 3rd birthday party.  Anna decided that she wanted an "Ariel under the sea" birthday party.

I found this great wall cover.  Why reinvent the wheel?

For the second year in a row, it was cold and overcast for Anna's birthday party.  Who would have thought that July 28th would be such trouble?  Only in Seattle.  Well, while we did not use the two kiddie pools we had set up for the game "princess and mermaid" in which you jump in and out of the pool depending on when the music is playing.  But we did have a very successful treasure hunt.  Each child decorated their own sand bucket with stickers and then used the bucket to gather up gold coins in our backyard. Later on, the kids were able to exchange their gold coins for salt water taffy and swedish fish.  And that was their party favor.

I was actually particularly proud of my outdoor decorations.  I wanted to create an aquarium feel.  It is amazing what you can do with crepe paper.

For lunch the kids had peanut butter and jelly fish sandwiches, cut up cheese (sharks teeth), goldfish crackers, and watermelon :)

Anna had about 8 friends over.  This is a picture of all the pink girls who were present.

And I loved making this cake.  It was easy and fun.  Not too time consuming and Anna loved it.  Success!

Anna's real birthday was the next day.  We had chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream for breakfast. 

Anna got a real tea set for her birthday that  I had found at Goodwill in February.  She loves to have tea and I thought that she and I could spend many an afternoon (and we have) having real tea parties and discussing the day!

Anna also got her first bike for her birthday-- also second hand.  

Last year Anna wanted to go to Costco and eat a hotdog for her birthday.  This year she wanted McDonalds.  Is that a step in the right direction or are we descending?

We made cupcakes and she got to blow out the candle.  If I were to guess her wish, it would probably be to go to Disneyland.

She is already talking about her next birthday party, which at this point would be a "my little pony" party.

Here is what Anna is up to as a 4 year old:

1) She loves books more than any other toy.  She goes to bed with books.  The accompany her on every trip.  She doesn't have a favorite stuffed animal, but she has her favorite books.  She loves fairy tales in all their forms and all Fancy Nancy books.
2) Her second most used "toy" is her dress up box.  She has collected an odd assortment of princess gowns, dance wear, capes, shoes, scarves, and hats and uses them almost every day.  Her imagination is really blossoming and she loves to dress the part.
3) She still screams every time the sleeping beauty castle appears at the beginning of a disney movie.
4) When eating a cupcake, the only important part is the frosting.
5) She is equal parts tomboy and princess girl.  This summer she helped me in the garden by collecting a commune of worms.  She loves dirt and puddles and running and jumping and cars and is fascinated by all insects and creepy crawly things.  But she also loves jewelry and shoes and anything "fancy"  She wears one of her princess dresses almost every day for some period of time, and she dances and sings everywhere we go.
6) She has developed a strange and irrational fear of dogs and cats.  She will stay inside the house if there is a mention of a cat outside.  I have to check for dogs and cats before she will go outside.
7) She is around 45 lbs of solid muscle
8)  She loves to help me cook.  She knows that she is my sous chef and she has a pink stool that she has to bring into the kitchen.  In fact, she has me "freeze" what  I am doing until she has a chance to go back and get her stool so she can help me.  Sometimes when I am making dinner, she will put a large soup pot in the sink and pretend to make soup with all the extra ingredients I don't use.  She always licks the bowl, and the spoon, and dips her fingers into the batter and tries to eat the sugar plain unless I am physically there preventing her hand from sneaking in.
9)  She will now say prayers regularly on her own.  Sometimes she sings them and other times she whispers them so softly that you can barely hear them.
10)  She loves her little brother. She likes to help feed him his breakfast and lunch.  When she does, she likes to add a magnet to her chore chart for "sharing."
11) she loves "ganoler bars"
12) she associates riding in the car with eating snacks.  She demands a snack every time we are driving everywhere, even if she has just had a big meal
13) She has recently shown some ability to delay gratification.  She can wait to eat chocolate chips and will save a particularly good treat for later.  It might be time to try the marshmallow experiment again.