Lengthen Your Stride

I am organizing a 5K for the Raleigh NC Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as part of our Day of Service on April 25, 2008. You really should check it out here. It is a food drive to benefit the NC Central Food Bank. I'm really excited about it and am glad to be involved in such a great community event. It is another reason though, to explains my lack of posts lately. It has kept me very busy!

This Day of Service is being organized by the North America Southeast Area (NASE) of the LDS Church (it covers 10 states). You can check out what other areas are doing here. Each stake is encouraged to have a day of service to benefit their community. The LDS Church is well known for helping out in disasters and now members are being challenged to serve their neighbors in times other than emergencies.

I have also been assigned to work with the Public Affairs team of the NASE. I wrote my first press release this week. I haven't written for a newspaper in years. It was just the kick in the pants I needed to get back to writing. I have another press release in the works for this week and a newsletter for next week. They are keeping me busy. I'm flying to Orlando in March to teach a class on interviewing and writing press releases at a Public Affairs training conference with the rest of the NASE team. When they were telling me about the conference, I asked if I would be attending (I wanted to attend the classes) and the answer was "Yes, and this is the class you are TEACHING..." I laughed out loud thinking it was a joke at first but then as the Director of Public Affairs for NASE kept going on about the class I realized it wasn't! I'm lenghtening my stride and am amazed at all that I can accomplish with the Lord's help.

I'm a Minivan Momma but I Don't Like It!

I drive a minivan- well not this week- but that's getting ahead of myself. I don't like minivans. They just aren't my style but for several reasons it is the vehicle I'm forced to use.

Want to know why?

1. My husband is 6'9" - without shoes on. He doesn't fit in a lot of vehicles. We had a Honda Civic once upon a time (we were poor college students) and my husband's knees hugged the steering wheel and we kept having to jump start the battery because he would accidently turn on the headlights with his knees and not know it! He does fit in many minivans though.

2. I have four daughters. I have to have a car that will fit 6 comfortably.

3. Due to my husband's height and mine (I'm only 5'11") our twelve year old is over 5'8" already. We don't have small girls for their age and they are only going to get taller. I looked at some of the non-minivan vehicles with third row seats but none would fit our tall family for long.

4. I'm frugal. If you've read my penny pinching post, you already know that. I need a vehicle that gets good gas mileage and that isn't too expensive. I don't need a big car payment!

That's what brings me back to the real topic of this post. I had a minivan that was paid for... and I got in a fender-bender. Because of the age & mileage of my minivan, the repair value was more than 75% of the value of the minivan so the insurance decided not to repair but to give me the value of the vehicle instead. That meant I had to go car shopping! I hate car shopping because it only reminds me of #1-4 above!

Due to lack of competent communication from our insurance company, we thought we had the rental car for 30 days. That's only the car was being repaired, but since it was being totaled I had 5! I didn't know that before I decided to buy the MINIVAN that had to be shipped from Alabama (It was worth it- it has only 8K miles and was a fabulous price). My rental was returned and now I'm driving my husband's rust bucket.

When I say it's a rust bucket, I'm being all too serious and maybe a bit too kind.

-It is rusting away in several places, most noticeably on the rear passenger doorways near the back tires (I'm guessing due to salted roads where this car must have been driven and never washed).

-The driver side doorway handle broke. I have to open the door by reaching across from the passenger side or by reaching from the rear door (by all the rust).

-The lights on the dash work intermittently...when it's dark I can see outside the car because the headlights work but I can't always see inside the car, like how fast I'm going. I figured out how to turn them on inside yesterday though- if I flash my high beams the interior lights turn on for a while only to turn back off at some point so I am sure to blind someone as I try to see how fast I'm going.

-The gas gauge doesn't work. We know how much gas is in the car by resetting the trip odometer every time we fill up and use mileage to guess how long we can go before running out. -The rear windshield is not really attached anymore. The plastic brackets that once held it in place are broken and have quit doing their job.

-The dome light on the interior of the vehicle doesn't work when you open the car door. So that means at night I have to manually turn on the light (and hope it works because it doesn't always)so I can see where the ignition is so I can start the car and then manually turn it off before I go anywhere.

-It only seats 5. So we had to have our oldest sit in the hatchback/trunk area so we could all go to church this past Sunday. Good thing it is a very short drive to church! Hey- remember sitting in the back of a pickup truck? This wasn't much different. It's not something I'm proud of, but at least we went to church.

The good news is that the engine is fine. It stops and starts fine. It gets me where I need to go this week. I got an email that the minivan should be here this week (right before we are headed out of town so it will get a good test drive). The picture at the top is of the "new" minivan I will be using for the next several years. I made my husband promise me though that this is the last minivan I have to buy.

Biopsy Should Be a Four Letter Word!

It's been a while since I've posted anything and thought I should explain why. My life has always been a roller coaster but lately the ride has gotten a little wild!

Last month when I was at church I noticed my neck was hurting and thought a headache was coming on so I took some Excedrin and went back to class. The pain didn't improve and by the time church was over I was miserable (I'm really glad I stayed at church though because the Relief Society lesson was awesome and I got to sit with my best friend Megan who was visiting from Virginia). I had a huge knot in my shoulder and my neck was pulsing with pain. I took Aleve, Tylenol & Advil (rotating each every few hours) but it still hurt so bad I was in tears.

The next day I went to the Dr. and the diagnosis was that I had wrenched my shoulder and I was given a muscle relaxer- even though I told the Dr. that my neck hurt when I swallowed. Three days later my shoulder was great but my neck was worse. After I was brushed my teeth on Wednesday night I swallowed in front of the mirror and gasped at the lump I saw on my neck. The next day I saw the Dr. again and was sent for an ultrasound. It was a cyst of some kind on my thyroid and I had to have a biopsy the next day.

The Ear, Nose & Throat surgeon did the biopsy and said for me to call with the results on Tuesday evening. Those days waiting to find out if I had cancer were pretty stressful. I let my family know and asked for prayers. By this time the Dr. had prescribed some antibiotics because I had a fever too. The antibiotics worked and by Monday I was no longer on 800 mg. of ibuprofen. It snowed Tuesday and Wednesday and I didn't find out the results of my biopsy until a week after I had it done. It was benign! I was so grateful and know that prayers were heard. At my two week follow-up the Dr. was amazed at how small the biopsy had shrunk compared to how large it was previously.

I was relieved and told I have to keep an eye on it and have biannual ultrasounds. I thanked the Lord and was ready to move on. Then this Friday I got ANOTHER LUMP on my thyroid! I was having the same symptoms but the lump was on the other side of my thyroid. I called the ENT dr. and got antibiotics again. Sure enough, I felt better a day later this time because it didn't have as much time for the infection to spread. I don't know what is going on with my thyroid and am going to keep a close eye on it but am grateful for now that I don't have cancer and I don't have to have surgery!

Basketball Babes

I've been blessed to serve as the Coach of our Young Women's basketball team this year. We have a great group of girls. This is a photo of just a few of them - those that played this last Saturday. I want to share about what happened at our last game. #3 is Nikita. She has cerebal palsy and is a wonderful girl that I am blessed to know. Basketball is not an easy sport for many and is even harder when you have special physical differences. Nikita got out there and played hard. She tried her best and kept a good attitude.

The referees were great and let her start over again when she travelled. They brought tears to my eyes though when they called a "technical" foul at the end of the game and let her shoot free throws a few feet in front of the free throw line. There was no reason for the technical foul- they wanted to give her a chance to shoot without anyone on her. Both referees agreed to do it and explained to the other team's coach and it was great. No, Nikita didn't make the shots, but as you can tell from her smile in the photo- she loved it.

It was a great game and I'm proud of all the girls. They played hard. When Nikita was on the court it was harder for them and they could have won if Nikita hadn't played, but that wasn't the point. They are a team and worked together. I told the girls that ten years from now they won't remember if they won or lost the games but they would remember that Nikita got to take a shot.

Who Is Jesus Christ to you?

I was watching this video clip of Rachel Esplin, a student at Harvard, who was on a religious panel and talked about her LDS beliefs. She did a great job of articulating her religion and I recommend everyone watch it at http://vimeo.com/2120177. The panel director asked Rachel, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?" I watched Rachel answer but couldn't help answering for myself as well. I wanted to blog right away because I feel so much love for my Savior that I started to get teary eyed!

Jesus Christ is my Savior, my friend. He guides me and helps me on a daily basis. He strengthens me when I am weak and lifts me up when I am down. I feel his love when I pray. I know that he knows ME and loves me and wants me to succeed. He has shown me the path to follow so that I might return to my Father in Heaven one day. My joy in life has come from following that path. I talk to God through my brother, Jesus Christ. He is my lifeline. I am so grateful for the atonement and all that Jesus went through for me. I am so blessed to know Him, how could I not cry when asked "Who is Jesus Christ to you?"

love letters on the wall

My daughters love each other. I'm grateful for that really. What I'm not grateful for is how they express it sometimes...like how my 7 year old wrote a sweet letter to her 4 year old sister ON THEIR WALL IN CRAYON.
"Dear Olivia,
I Love You.
You are Pretty.
xoxo
Love,
Emily"
Notice the wall has been well decorated. They used all sorts of mediums for their art: lipstick, markers, crayons, pens, pencils and nail polish. How did they get this wonderful stuff? They took it from their 12 year old sister's room, of course! They had a great time while I was out running one day (Dad was home with them and thought it was great they were playing so quietly upstairs)! The art is mostly gone now, thanks to four Magic Eraser cleaners. I ran out and will have to get more to finish "erasing" their artwork but I wanted to keep this extra special part of their art that I hold dear in my heart.

Marathon Mama!

I did it! I ran a marathon! It was an amazing experience and I'm really glad I did it. I ran 26.21 miles in 5 hours and 15 minutes. I beat my time for my last 10K and last 10 miler (I did a half marathon in the time it took me to do the 10 miler back in June). I am not the fastest runner ( My fastest mile is about 9 min. and I couldn't do that for much more than one mile), in fact, I don't really see myself as a runner. Up until 2 & 1/2 years ago I had never gone farther than 2 miles (and I only did that once)!

It all started with a goal I always had to run a 5K. I ran two last year and decided for a 2008 New Year's resolution I would run a 10K this year. I did that in the spring with my great friend Megan. I had so much fun doing that one I decided to try a 10 miler. I did that in June with my sister Veronica and it was awesome, so much so that I decided to go for it and run a marathon.

I felt a little crazy when I registered for the marathon a few months ago. Training for a marathon takes a lot of time- it took me 4 hours the first time I ran 20 miles. Where was I going to find the time?!! I found Jeff Galloway's run/walk marathon training schedule which worked with my busy schedule (I ran 30 min. on Tues. & Thurs. and did my long runs on the weekends). My wonderful husband was so supportive and didn't complain as I left him and my four girls for hours to run.

Most of my runs went really well. It took me four hours to run 20 miles, but I was just amazed that I ran 20 miles! I wasn't even that sore the next day. Then two weeks ago I ran 24 miles and it was painful. I needed new shoes badly and I didn't have the time to break in the new pair before the big race. I had hurt my ankle and wasn't sure it would be ok in time either. The week before the race I prayed a lot and was very concerned that I wouldn't be able to finish the marathon. I asked everyone I could to pray for me. I know those prayers were heard and answered.

I ran and dedicated each mile to friends and family. I would pray for that person and their family during that mile. I prayed for my siblings, my husband's siblings, my parents, my in-laws and several of my closest friends. I even dedicated a mile to this wonderful country that we live in and prayed for the USA and all it's people. I prayed for the soldiers and for the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I prayed for the missionaries and all those suffering and in sadness to find the Savior and joy through Him.

Praying for everyone took my mind off myself and helped me to focus on why I was running the marathon in the first place. I saved my husband and girls for the last 5 miles. It got really tough those last 6 or 7 miles and when I got to the 21st mile and was dedicating my miles to my girls I started to cry. In fact, just thinking about it is making me cry now. I love my girls so much and part of the reason I did this marathon was to show them that they can accomplish anything they put their mind to. I want my girls to be as proud of me as I am of them. I started praying for my girls and had to fight back the emotions just as I was fighting the muscle cramps in my legs.

As I was running it hit me just how far I've come this year. I would never have believed you if you told me in high school that when I was 34 I would run a marathon. I thought people who ran were gluttons for punishment and more than a little insane. I ran those last few miles and held back the tears as I thanked God for sending me my family and for their prayers for me. I know the Lord helped me to run without injury. My ankle didn't bother me. My new shoes were awesome. I ached but that was unavoidable. I felt the power of the Lord helping me finish that race. I know that the Savior knew my pain (and worse) and was with me every step of the way. I knew my girls had prayed for me and when I prayed for them I felt the Spirit so strong.

Those last 5 miles were the hardest but they were the most amazing to me. I knew my girls would be waiting for me at the finish line. I came around the corner approaching the finish line and there they were and the tears started up again. I gave my girls all high fives and made it across as they announced my name and I could barely hold back the emotions as I was hit with a wave of gratitude for my Savior. I know that with God all things are possible. I know that God made this marathon possible for me.