More of Utah Trip

I haven't gotten to see Laura in like 4 years, WAY to long, but I was so glad we were able to see them and we had just such a great time with them, it was the relaxation that I needed after my run, and the kids had a blast! We ended our trip with them at the Salt Lake City zoo, which the boys loved. Here are some of the memories we made while there.

Here we are at Becca's, the boys were all wanting to hold precious little Jolie, even though ryan doesn't look to thrilled, he held her the most :)! We had such a great time getting to see Becca and Derek and there cute kids.

Below are some of our pics of Temple square, we spent a good time in the childrens section in the history museum, it was obviously not just fun for the kids ha ha. They also were OBSESSED with the escalators, they just loved going up and down. We just had such a good time visiting Family and friends and Utah is so gorgeous if we had a good paying job I would so be any of the places we visited ;) (hint hint ha ha) and we will definitely be coming back hopefully this year :)!!

New Diet

So you would have thought with all that running I would have lost some kind of weight right? Well maybe about 5 pounds but I was hoping for a bit more, so I have succombed to the diet that all my neighbors have been doing and succesfully losing weight, the HCG diet. I started my "loading" days yesterday and today and I feel SICK!!! Its where you eat lots of high fat foods, and that sounds like a no biggie right? NO!! ha ha, I am sitting here after eating my 5th donut for the day and I am ready to gag!! Willey doesn't think I ate enough but I think I ate WAY too much! We will see the next few days. I plan on doing it for the 26 days maybe 30, and I am hoping for a good 20lbs. I really really would like to start trying for another baby but I also would really REALLY love to start a pregnancy at a "normal" weight :), so hopefully this will work where other things have totally not! So good luck to me and my weighty journey.

I know its taken for ever to get this blog updated, like 6 weeks!! SOOO much has happened so I am so sorry its most likely going to be a long one but so many amazing things have gone on!! Ok, so my half marathon is OVER!! Totally done, relieved but left feeling like NOW WHAT? anyways so after all my hard training-12 miles took me 2 hrs and 15 mins so I was feeling on top of things! I had heard that you usually will run faster because your adrenaline is pumping so I thought for sure I could probably do 13 miles in about my 12 mile time, but I had set the goal to finish 2 hrs and 30 mins, and I finished in 2 hrs and 34 mins!! We headed up to Utah Wednesday and got there Thursday to my sister Crystals house in Spanish Fork (gorgeous btw) and play with their cousins and had a relaxing time, then it was off to Salt Lake City to our hotel-The Little America-which was so nice very comfy beds!! And we headed straight over to Temple Square and crammed as much as we could into about 5 hours. It was fun to walk around the city and see all the excitement of living in an actual city. We headed over to Smiths and got milk for my cereal in the morning, got everything laid out for the next morning, set my alarm for 4:50 and we got off to bed about 9. My phone started vibrating in the morning and all I could think was oh, I am SO tired, but then I looked at my phone and it said 6:36, wait, WHAT? that couldn't be right!! I looked at the hotel clock and it also said 6:36!! I was supposed to be there by 6:30!! I FLEW outta bed and got ready, feeling very panicky and ready to fall apart, and ran out the door to the trax following other people that had their bib numbers on. They were all very helpful and THANKFULLY I was not the only one that was late!! I met a lady on the trax who ended up running with me until mile 10, but can I just say that not having ANY thing to eat or drink before this race just about killed me! I had drunk my 5 hr energy which is equal to 2 cups of coffee, but I was dragging by mile 2 and my stomach was growling so bad by mile 3, but I am made out of a lot of determination let me tell ya! I didn't walk at all until mile 8 and then it was on, I had to keep going or it wasn't happening!! So I just kept going one foot in front of the other, and mile 11 was there and ALL up hill it was CRAZY! But then it was mile 12 and ALL down hill! I was exhausted but then there were all these people the last mile just cheering and it was so amazing!! So i did it, I ran a half marathon, and I am afraid its not the end of running for me :)! I will be taking a break for now, my fibula head on my knee keeps popping out, so for now its just 5-6 miles for me.

I just have to blog about running AGAIN but yes I was able to do 8 miles in 89 minutes!! I am just so proud of myself, and this was not easy, I was afraid that I my legs would give out and I almost did! The last 2 miles were hard because my tennis shoe was rubbing on the back of one side of my ankle-gross-I know and it hurt SO bad, so I thought to myself, "Mary you have 2 options, wait until Willey realizes its been a few hours and you still aren't home, or option to just keep running even if its like a turtle pace just keep going suck up the pain". So I choose option 2 and I was so happy to be home and then a little ecstatic to see the clock, 89 minutes! YES! And my dear sweet hubby went out right when I left and placed a water bottle half way for me, it was the best drink of water I have had in a while :)! I appreciate his support, he let me know today before I left how amazed and proud he was of me and that just made me want to do my best!!

This week went good, for the most part. I have been trying to be a better mom, and when my kids ask me to read to them or play with them I have tried really hard to stop what i am doing, even house work, ha ha, and do it with them. I also started at least twice a week helping Ryan do activities to help him start to get ready for preschool. We do it when Josh is at school so Zack also feels he needs something, so I give him a piece of paper and scissors and he has a blast cutting away. I also discovered that my new scale that I have been weighing in on is actually a whole 4 pounds heavier than my old scale!! So I am debating going back to the old scale, ha ha!! I ran 7 miles on Saturday, and really didn't want to. I even called willey while he was still at work and told him that I could hear the wind outside and I didn't think I would be able to run, ha ha. He basically told me to get my stuff together and get out there If I didn't I would regret it, and he was right! I defintely had a hard time at it but was glad when it was done. It took me 83 minutes, and that is way longer than any of the other runs but I did it!! I am ready for a new week for sure.

These last few weeks have just been so long, and Willey is FINALLY off for his four days, ha ha, its just not enough but I will take what I can for now. I have been in a change mood lately so I have been rearranging things in the house and getting things re-organized. I just have been admiring all my friends who seem to have it all together and they are such examples to me to do better. So it has been good and it helps me de-stress :)! I also was able to run 6 miles Saturday, in 67 minutes!! This half marathon is coming up so quickly, it is really a mental thing I am finding!! Three to four miles is nothing now. WEIRD. And my weightloss is not going anywhere. I really think my body is so comfy where it is (been at this weight a year) it is not wanting to let go. But my waist, hips thighs, etc are getting smaller, so again I will take what I can :)! Its hard at times to stay positive but I know I can do it!! I asked one of my friends how she was able to stay so consistant in losing weight and she said she just says a prayer and is able to do it through Heavenly Fathers help, so maybe with a bit more faith.........

Hair do's or don'ts

Ok, so I am notorious for dying my own hair and most of the time messing it up, ha ha! I have been wanting a change so I started changing it back to blonde and instead of blonde it turned out more orange!! AHH! So my good friend Jennifer helped me out with the color and gave me a much needed cut. It is shorter but my hair was so damaged. SO... let me know what you think :)!