My Poor Baby Benjamin!

Last night we went over to visit Grandma & Grandpa Anderson. I took off for about an hour so I could run. When I got back, I was about to leave and go home so I could shower. Then, it happened.

Benjamin and Ryan were standing on a toddler table watching Grandma make some yummy popcorn. Then, all of a sudden, Benjamin fell! I saw him fall and I was already running towards him while he was falling. I picked him up to comfort him and then I saw his horrible gash! I remember within a couple of seconds, Troy and Marianne stood there with panic looks and I was calm and told them to get a wet washcloth.

Troy and I drove Ben to the ER in Orem and the bleeding stopped. We then had to wait for 2 hours to get him sewed up.

Here is a picture of Ben when we just got there...

Poor little boy!

He was really upset because I held him in the car and he didn't want to be restrained. After we got there, they needed to sedate him because he needed to be calm enough for them to stitch him up. Here's Ben after the calming medicine...

He was a little happy after that. Troy and I wished we had a video of him. He was clicking his tongue and laughing. After waiting for the doctor, he finally came and we had to hold Ben down. He didn't like that at all and he just cried. That was pretty heartbreaking. Benjamin ended up with 2 stitches inside the wound and on the outside, he came up with 13 stitches!

Today, Ben is just fine. We have to take him into his doctor next week to get his stitches out. Troy and I are just really happy that it wasn't worse. I'm really glad that Ben didn't throw up. Then we would have had to get a CT scan. I guess we need to count our blessings.

One of the things Troy and I are really worried about though is the bill from the hospital. As of right now, Troy is unemployed. His company that he's been working for is not working out and the company is just got getting the business and money to survive. We need to pay the bills and mortgage so Troy has decided to move on and get a job. We're hoping that something comes along soon!

Here are some pictures that Troy just took of the boys.


Look at these pictures from when Troy was doing one of Jon Schmidt's shows at BYU. Pretty cool huh?!

Wow! My ticker says that I have 2 months and 2 days until my 1/2 marathon! Geez! I remember when it said 6 months to go. Time is going by too fast for me!

Saturday, Jenn, Katie, and I ran 6 miles. I thought I was going to die! Around mile 4.5, I started praying really hard! Heavenly Father really helped me finish successfully! I don't think I've ever done anything so hard before... well wait. I've had 2 c-sections. Those are harder to deal with. This Saturday is suppose to be harder... 7 miles! I'm already dreading it and it's only Monday. Heaven help me!

Let's see... what else can I talk about other than my running?!

Yesterday, Troy and I went to church with just Ryan. Ben came down with a cold and so my MIL took him to her house to rest. I was enjoying church up until Primary started. Ryan had a melt down in sharing time and then a HUGE melt down in class. You could hear him throughout the whole church! Not pleasant! So many people were peaking in my room to see who was screaming their head off. I sure hope that Ryan gets use to his new Sunbeam class. I'm not sure what to do to make my lessons more entertaining for him. The other boys don't seem to mind how boring I am!

After we got home from church, Troy let me take a LONG nap! It was wonderful!! I enjoyed it immensely!!

Well, I guess I'm just rambling here so I better just end this.

A small update...

Alright so, I'm off and running with my training! I am in my 2nd week. ( Wow! It feels like only 8 thousand more weeks to go! )

Have I noticed anything different with my training and how I feel? Yes! I'm SORE! I think what's getting me this way is all the cross training I'm having to do. I have DIRECTV and my sister, Anne, told me of channel 261... FITV. There are tons of workout shows that kick my booooo-tie!!

There is something that is great though! I have a running partner!!! I am so ecstatic! Her name is Jenalee... here's a picture of her!

She is SO cool! We have only ran together a couple of times and I feel that we are already great friends! She has already given me great ideas to improve my training and she pushes me during my running. I couldn't ask for anything better!!

Happy 6th Anniversary Troy! I love you!!

Closing my eyes and... JUMP!!

I read on one of my friend's blogs that her new year's resolution is to blog more frequently. *clear throat* I guess I need to do that also. I don't know why I should... I blog everyday!!! Right... I guess the last update was Thanksgiving. That's when I finished my first race ever! My 4-miler. I have kept up with my running but December was a little bit of a disappointment for me. I didn't progress as I would have hoped but I should say that I've slowed down a little. I don't know if it's my lack of motivation or if the holidays distracted me, but getting up in the mornings to run has been hard. I'm happy to report that I didn't gain any weight from the holidays but, I didn't lose anything either. I think I'll take that.

Our Christmas 2008 was on the small scale this year. We didn't buy many presents but I'm glad that we all still had a great day. I was really glad to have Troy home because he was really busy all month and I barely got to see him. It wasn't fun at all being a single mom. We were able to enjoy a family Christmas party, family reunions, and much needed rest! I must say though that I am grateful for my parents and Troy's parents. Because of them, we were able to enjoy Christmas much more and the boys sure did get some fun things!

Here are some pictures from the holidays...




(Ryan got a hold of my camera and took some self portraits!)



So, for the new year, I thought I'd start it off with a bang. I'm proud to announce that Ryan is about 95% potty trained!! Wow! Potty training isn't much fun! Ryan has learned very well though and he's an underwear boy now (with the exception of night time.) Our turning point was last Sunday. I was pretty unsure about going to church with him in his underwear but he surprised me and didn't go unless we took him to the potty. I guess being a new Sunbeam really distracts you enough to forget about "down there." He surprised me again when he went to school this week and came home dry for the most part. We did have an accident one day but I'm not sure if he was taken care of. Who knows what happens at school right? I'm really proud of Ryan though. He's so smart and he has come a long way with the potty training! Yay for underwear!!!

So, my title of this update is really about my big event this year. Next Monday, I am going to start my training for my 1/2 marathon in April. Since my running wasn't so impressive last month, I literally feel like I need to close my eyes and jump in with my training. I need to make some changes in my mentality and just push myself out of bed and push myself with my running and strengthening. I know this isn't going to be easy but I know it will be worth it in the end.

My FIRST 4-mile RACE!!

I'm finally writing about my first race on Thanksgiving Day! (I was waiting to get some pictures in the right format so I can post them.)

So, a few days before the race, my BIL Cody decided to run with me. I was really excited to have a running partner for my first race! ( Hey, did I mention that this race was my very first?? ) I was able to get him all registered before it closed.

The morning of the race, it was sprinkling. I was worried that it was going to downpour on us but it thankfully didn't. Here's a picture of Cody and me right before the race...



I was pumped and ready to go. I don't think Cody was. He was really tired!

At the beginning of the race, there were tons of people around me and passing me. This, I knew was going to happen. I'm a pretty slow runner but it was still depressing when person after person would pass me. Cody was really nice to slow down for me and stick with my pace.

Here in this picture, it was at the beginning of the race and I was excited. Thank goodness Whitney was there to snap this picture!



See how excited it was? I'm all waving at the camera!

THEN, IT STARTED TO GET HARD! Cody and I weren't even halfway through the race when I saw people dashing to the finish line. My jaw dropped. I guess at that point I didn't realize that hard-core marathon runners were going to run this race too. But, why wouldn't they run the race? If you are one of the first 5 men or women, you win a turkey.

I tried to push that disappointment out of my mind and continue running. I needed to focus and not worry about what place I was going be in. After we reached the 2 1/2 mile point, I started feeling like I was going to die. I wanted to stop but Cody told me not to. He was a good running partner who was going to push me hard.

Here is another picture of the same location but a lap later...



Haha. Yeah. I'm not so pumped and excited here. Right before this picture was taken, I told Cody not to let me stop. Can you see how wet my pants were at the bottom? They were soaked and that didn't help my running either. So, right before we got to the 3 mile marker, I had to stop. I was going to die. Cody let out a grunt of disappointment when I stopped but I was pretty tired and I wanted to lie down on the sidewalk. I was happy that I ran that far distance in the race. I don't think I've ever run that long without stopping. GOOD FOR ME!

Right after we started running again, Troy was able to catch up to me to take a video. It was really awesome to see Ryan out there with me. He starte d running with us at that point and then he saw that I was holding Troy's Iphone. I was using it to track my pace, time, and distance. He wanted it then so we had to get Troy to take care of him. Here is a short video of me running and wanting to die!!!

About 3 1/2 miles into the race, I noticed that my left shoulder was starting to hurt. I was hoping that it wouldn't get worse but the pain didn't go away until after the race. I'm not looking forward to dealing with this pain here in the near future. I have a feeling that this isn't the first time I'm going to complain about my shoulder.

And now, for the final picture... Here is Cody and me crossing the finish line!!



It looks like I finished the race around 47 minutes. I was hoping to run the race in 45 minutes but I was a few off.

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I asked my sister, Lindsey, earlier this week about my shoulder and how it was hurting during the race. She told me she had the same problem. She told me it was most likely due to the fact that we all have bad posture. She had to solve her problem by buying orthotics for her shoes. Great... I can't afford to get those!! I guess we'll have to see down the road when I train and run longer.

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I am pretty excited and happy that I did this race. While I was running, I was thinking about how in the world I was going to make a 1/2 marathon! I think I can really crazy but I'm still going to work for it!!

Look what I did to my FIL's U of U Flags...



GO BYU!! I HOPE YOU WIN TODAY!!!

Testing, Testing! Is this thing on?!

I haven't been updating because everytime I sit down at the computer, either Ben or Ryan come to bother me. They just want to sit at the computer too like mom, I guess. Ben likes to come up and take my wireless mouse and run away!

My running...

I've been doing well with my running so far this month. I'm up to running Monday-Friday in the mornings. I am running about 3 miles a day. I think I need to change my running schedule though because I take the weekend off and it's too hard to start back up on Monday. Yesterday I only ran 2 miles. Today I needed to kick it in gear for my race next week so I ran 3.25 miles.

I can't believe that my first race is NEXT WEEK! Happy Thanksgiving to me!! I'm still not sure how I'm going to run 4 miles though. When I'm running in the mornings, I am usually thinking about how I can cut the run short because I'm so tired!

This morning wasn't so pleasant to run outside. We are in the middle in an inversion so the valley is being a soup bowl full of pollution. It's so gross!! Everytime a car or bus passed me, I had to cough and try to catch my breath. I feel like my lungs are black!! I think I might quit running outside for the rest of the week so the air can clean itself out by the weekend.

So, Troy had a bad experience with Ryan yesterday. Troy was putting Ryan in his carseat when Ryan was NOT willing to get in. Ryan decided to BITE Troy! Here's how the bite looks this morning!



OUCH!! That is a quarter in that picture to compare the size of the bruise.

Last night I decided to take some pictures of the boys while they were getting in the bath. Here are some of my favorite...



This last week, I also took some videos of Ryan singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and his ABCs.

Hope to update very soon!!

Hooray! Yay for me!! I DID IT!!

This morning, I threw out my training program and just RAN! I was suppose to walk for 1 minute and run for 5 for a total workout of 36 minutes this week. I still worked out for 36 today but I didn’t stop! I just ran and ran!! I’m really glad that I finally got to this point.

It sure wasn’t easy though. For the first 15 minutes of my run, it was hard and I was huffing and puffing. I just had to stop running for a minute to catch my breath. I then walked for 1 minute and then started back up again. I was very surprised at how easy it was after that to run. I ran for the rest of the time! This morning I think I ran a little under 3 miles. I’m not 100% how many miles I did because my tracker that I’m using is NOT accurate. Troy bought me an IPOD Nano a couple of years ago and he bought the Nike+ to go along with it. You have to insert a little sensor in your shoe and it tracks your time, pace, and miles. I don’t know what the matter with it is but it is NOT right! It tells me that I ran over 4 miles today and that my pace is about 8 miles per minute. I think I’m running about 12 miles per minute.

Now, one other thing that I’m struggling with… MUSIC!! I really need a great playlist with great upbeat music!! Here are some of my favorite songs to workout with…

• Funkytown!
• Life is a Highway by Rascal Flatts
• I Will… by SheDaisy

Those are just a few to name. What is YOUR favorite workout song?? I need serious help with a playlist!!!