The Wilkins Wonders Triumph

As usual I haven't blogged for a long time again. But I have been in training for the most grueling experience. Months ago I agreed to participate in the Wasatch Back ragnar relay team with some family members and friends. This race is 188 miles long and consist of 12 members. It begins in Logan Utah and ends in Park City Utah. Not such a big deal if it went on some normally traveled roads,but we went through the Wasatch back county. Some of us were lucky enough to run on paved roads, but many had dusty dirt roads and some even experienced mountain trails. The distances varied and the degree of grades we ran varied also. Some took you to extremes that you would never dream of accomplishing.

We started Friday June 18th at 5:15 AM with a run around Logan and headed south out of town. The nice dark cool day turned in to a sunny bright day quickly. With the windy, rainy, cool, spring we have had the warm temperatures of the day were a concern because we haven't had any to train in. Truthfully even if we would of had warm weather to train in I don't know if I would have pushed myself to run when it was 70 degrees!

I can run 8 miles now at a time without any great concern, but when you ask my body to do that again in 10 or 11 hours it wants to protest especially when you place a good hill climb at the start and then 8 miles of down hill with a 7% decline to it. I wish that I could report that I amazed myself and it wasn't as hard as had imagined, but that would be a down right lie. It was beastly, but my team members were better than anyone could pray for and they prayed for me. They realized that I needed some help so they did the only thing they could for me and asked the Lord to step in and give me aid. That meant a lot to me when they told me about that after my leg.

Our team traveled in two vans and our team's name was the Wilkins Wonders.(Wilkins is my maiden name and since a majority of the team came from the Wilkins family we chose that name.)We thought our decorations were fun and they helped us spot our vans along the way. You run throughout the night and there is a team member running at all times. It is hard to describe this experience to anyone that wasn't there. Warren drove our van, Van 1, and we were glad he was there because our van was full of 6 ladies, myself, Michele Lewis my neighbor's sister from Utah, Alisha Wilkins my SIL, Karisa my daughter, Christine Gunnell my neighbor, Alison Dustin another neighbor. During the night while we had a rest period my SIL was sick. She went down to the first aid station to see about it. They told her she might have appendicitis, Warren gave her a priesthood blessing, Karisa traded legs with her. Alisha was suppose to run 8 miles and Karisa 4. Team members were ready to take over at any moment while Alisha was running if she got feeling to bad. She was a trooper and completed her leg. At this posting she still isn't feeling well and is going to head to the Dr. first thing Monday morning, but that is the kind of team we had.

Van 2 suffered some extreme hardships too. They got the hardest times of the days to run. They expexperienced the worst heat, the middle of the night and the hardest legs to complete, and unexpected added miles to their legs. That alone would have been enough, but their van all developed cases of diarrhea. They had some meds tucked away that helped them some. They persevered over the roughest of trails and brought in the team in great fashion. This kind of experience sure develops a greater love for the people you endure them with and this was no different.

Here's our whole team running to the finish line together. WE DID IT!!!

Another Try

My daughter brought it to my attention that I should blog again using prompts to get me writing again. I had honestly forgot about using the prompts, that's how long it's been since I've done it.
I looked up some prompts today and decided that it would be a good thing for me to do.I could describe all the wonderful and exciting things I do I my life if they happened, but my life is pretty common. So some prompts will let me think about new avenues of my life...
Prompt for the day... What are some everyday kind things that your family or friends do for you that you are thankful for, but which you have never actually thanked them?

Yesterday as I was sitting in church there was a sister sitting with us on our bench, whose husband was killed a few years ago in a snowmobiling accident. She is younger than I am and alone now. The thought cross my mind how I would really miss my husband's compliments when I got ready to go somewhere. He always tells me how great I look. How sad it would be to get ready and not have those comments.I promised to start giving her little compliments to let her know that her efforts in looking good are noticed. I don't know if I really thank my husband for his goodness or if I try to tell him everything wrong with my appearance. I do appreciate it, so thanks for being so kind to me and making me feel beautiful!

Declo Days and Beyond...

I did it! I've been saying that I would like to run a race of some kind and I finally did it. Last Saturday was Declo Days and Chris was coming home to run the five mile run they had. Deidra and Chris convinced me to run the 5K. I finally agreed to it just wanting to be able to run the whole thing without walking.

I know to a lot of people 5K is only a warm up to their runs, but to me that is a milestone. I am excited to say that I ran it all and wasn't the last to finish!! Hooray for me. Now I can just keep going!!

I don't think that there are any marathons in my future, but I know that I can run a little further in the mornings than I've been doing, so that is good.

*$!@#&%

Dang! I hate feeling stupid and clumsy, but that is exactly the state I was in last night. We went to visit some friends and they asked us to go around to another door because of a remodeling job going on in their house. Warren and I turned to head to the other door and I guess I missed the bottom step and did something crazy to my ankle. Once inside their house it was apparent that major swelling had already started.I'm not sure what I did to it, but am headed to have it x-rayed this morning.

I've been tagged by Deidra to share some of my Christmas memories.

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? I'm not really into either. How about fresh squeezed orange juice?

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? It's a lot more fun to unwrap something than to just look at it. If things are very large or really irregular then they are left unwrapped. Most stocking stuffers are unwrapped for little-middle-of-the-night-spies to see.

3.Colored lights on tree/house or white? White lights and thousands of them on the tree.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No mistletoe

5. When do you put up decorations? As soon as Thanksgiving Day is over. I have a lot and it takes me a couple days of steady work to get them all out. I love to bring them out and remember how and where I got them. Most things go in the same place each year.

6. What is my favorite holiday dish? I love food so it is hard for me to pick just one. I do make a salad every year for Christmas Eve dinner that is jello with blueberry pie filling and a wonderful topping that I only make for Christmas so I'll pick it.

7. Favorite memory as a child? Waiting for my dad to come in from doing chores so we could go out into the living room to see what Santa had left us and having mom read stories to us to keep us entertained in the bedroom.

8.When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I have always known the truth about Santa! He's the one that makes Christmas happen!

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? How do you get a Christmas gift before Santa comes?

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? One in every bedroom, one in the family room downstairs and a large one in the living room upstairs. When we built our home I had an electrical outlet placed in the floor so I could have my Christmas tree in the middle of the room. It has thousands of lights with large Santa face ornaments that look like they are carved out of wood on it. I love Christmas trees!

11.Can you ice skate? I can put on ice skates, but what I do with them isn't really called skating.

12. Do you remember your favorite gift? Well my husband surprised me last year with a new car which was pretty spectacular, but I really just like gift except "blue footed booty things" that my husband also gave me one year.

13. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? There's so much that is wonderful about the holidays, but my favorite is FAMILY.

14. What is your favorite holiday dessert? I don't really like mince meat pie, but anything else rates pretty high with me.

15. What is your favorite holiday tradition? We have a lot of traditions and I think the combination of them is what I love. I like to hear that my daughters have enjoyed these things also.

16. What tops your tree? The ceiling! I don't have a tree topper.

17. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving hands down. I love to give something homemade and try to make a lot of gifts each year. It's the only way I can afford to give to everyone on my list.

18. What is your favorite Christmas song. "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day". It's not sang often, but I love the message in it.

19. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized? The world has it way over commercialized, but it doesn't have to be in our homes and that is where things really matter any way.

Office

I thought if Chris could show off his office I could let people see where I spend a good part of my day. My office was constructed this summer in the back corner of the media center's back conference room. It still lacks a door which I really don't care about because I probably wouldn't close it much anyway, but the thing my office lacks the most is a telephone. Each week I'm told that it will be that week. The only good thing about no phone is that I make a lot of trips down the hall in search of an available phone to use.

Also the computer they dug out of some back closet is suppose to be replaced. The other day I discovered a big nasty spider nest in the backside of the monitor. I wonder where they found this dinosaur and how long it had be there. It doesn't even have a USB port. I have to remember to take my shuffle home to recharge it every so often, which I'm not very prompt about.



The watercolor above my desk is of Bentley and Hudson at Bear Lake on the 4TH. I also constructed the hutch. You can see the sleek monitor taking up half of my work space. Oh and the blue line running across my desk is my internet cable that needs to be replaced with a longer one so it can go behind my desk. Don't get me wrong I love my little corner. I'm totally out of the way so not many people can to interrupt my time which is fine because I can get everything done in my short space of time there. There is one other problem and I'm asking for your help. The wall above the filing cabinets... I want to put a vinyl saying, but I'm not quite sure what saying I want to put there. Please sent me your favorite ones for a better choice.

Gentle Nudge

At church Sunday we got another gentle reminder that we should be taking this great opportunity to invite our friends to the temple open house. I'm a wonderful procrastinator and could make excuses everyday until the time runs out to invite anyone, but I acted on it. I have a day scheduled and people invited.

Everyone I've talked to about it is excited to go. So if you are needing a little nudge to get you moving let this be it. We will never have this opportunity so close to us to share something so important in our lives. It makes you feel really good inside after you do it and then you don't have to feel guilty when you hear it from the pulpit.

Take a deep breath and just go for it!