Ragnar Del Sol

This weekend I finished my third Ragnar, my first one out of state.

It was in Arizona and it was a really neat experience running in a different state. The idea of a cactus as a symbol for Arizona is not far fetched, since I saw countless ones during the four days I was there.

Personally, I am really proud of how I performed. I expected to maintain a 9:40 minute mile pace. My first leg, about six and a half miles, I started out with a 9-9:15 pace, but wore myself out too fast and ended with an exact 9:40 average pace (adding in my too slow last couple miles).

My middle of the night leg was slow, bleh. However, I know why- I screwed up my eating schedule and really should have eaten more before my leg, but it was really approaching my time to run, and I didn't want to have digestive issues while running. Plus, I never napped that afternoon, which meant that after getting up before 5am, running 6+ miles and starting this leg around 11pm... I was just tired. Oh well. I got to sleep in a high school gym while the other van ran, and felt great by the time my third and final leg started.

I finished this last leg five minutes faster than projected! I was so stoked! Plus, I forced myself to run the entirety of the last mile, plus sprinting to the hand off.

Lots of great memories were made on this Ragnar, just like all the others before, and I think it is safe to say that it won't be my last.

I've been asked, many times, why? Why choose to be in and out of a van, lose sleep, be away from family, etc.?

 First off, I will quote what was on the back of the collective medals:

 "We believe that being a Ragnarian is about more than being a runner; that misery loves company and happiness is "only real when it's shared"; that there is a badass inside all of us; that everyone deserves to be cheered at the finish line; that tutus make you run faster; that adventure can only be found if you are looking for it; and that a little sleep deprivation is a small price to pay to watch the sunrise with our friends. Together we ran 200-ish miles. Together we can accomplish anything."

 Sunrise on Friday.

 Here is where I slept.

 Sunrise Saturday.

 View when I finished.

 This highlights a lot of the big reasons, like having that support. My favorite single phrase, repeated often in our van by multiple people was, "What do you need?" Many times it was said as someone is trying to figure out the last location of their gear (which got moved multiple times as seats were shifted countless times). Sometimes it was said in reference to what food we were looking for, or what kind of support we needed on our legs. 

It is an amazing feeling to hear your van cheer for you as they run by, or to see how far you have come from the start line when you finally get to the finish. 

I had my Ragnar "mom," Tabitha, who took care of me and Olivia (both the same age) as the "babies" of the group, and helped us avoid dumb mistakes, open packages for us, rubbed in sunscreen spots, and made sure that I didn't leave my pillow at the hotel (a narrow thing). 

Olivia and I had lots of great conversations throughout the course of the four days, and kept getting in trouble for our talking. At one point, we were a bit more awake than our vanmates and literally had the door closed on us for our conversation lol! 

Stephanie had the best handle on where exactly all of our stuff was, and was so good at finding everything for us as we were digging around for it. 

Cindy did a great job getting us where we needed to go as she was frequently the driver, and even when she wasn't driving, she was using her gps (and we never got lost!). 

Esther was great at encouraging all of us, as well as being the person always there for me (as I handed off to her). This was especially huge to me as she made sure to be there early for me on that last exchange and made it so that my fast finish wasn't wasted. :-D

I was able to challenge myself to be my personal best, while still on a team, and constantly surrounded by support. There is really nothing like it. Sure it is long, and you are running on low sleep, infrequent real meals, and lack of a real bed, but when it ends, there are so many memories and moments to look back on. You also get to see a really significant portion of the area, and get to experience it more than a typical single race could do. 

Thank you to both sets of parents for watching the kids while Blake was at work. Thank you especially to Blake, who not only let me have this adventure with my friends, but took care of the kids as a single dad for four days, including taking them to the library, to visit my grandma, and to a birthday party. When I got home the house was picked up, clean, all but one load of wash was done (saving it for my dirty clothes), and a lot of it was folded too. I am extremely thankful for everyone's support, even if you don't get why these are so much fun for me. 

At the end of this race, I look forward to future Ragnars with these fine ladies, and have a new goal for myself. I hope to break a 2 hour half marathon, and plan on starting to train towards that (as well as future Ragnars).

Launching the "Give One Get One" Campaign

Anyone else have the problem of too many toys in their house?

Like many families out there, our family has many people that love to get our kids presents, not only for their birthday and Christmas, but other holidays, and other random times too.

I get it, I do, because I do it too. It is so fun to see them get excited, and it is hard to hold back.

But it results in this influx of toys, and without sending toys out again, we are reaching capacity for toys. So, I went on a hunt yesterday to figure out the best place to get new homes for the toys that we have convinced the kids to let leave the house.

Goodwill is certainly the most convenient option, but for those who might not know, the toys are put into the stores, and sold, and then the money is used for good causes. There is no guarantee that these toys will go to kids truly in need instead of families just trying to save money (no blame, I shop at thrift stores myself, just saying).

What I discovered though is that the most worthy of causes (in my opinion), like hospitals, foster homes, homeless shelters, Ronald McDonald House, Make a Wish Foundation, and others don't want our old toys, no matter how good of shape they are in.

Mostly for health reasons, none of these locations can or will accept used toys, what they need are new toys (and clothes, and many other things).

This got me thinking about a solution to my two main problems. One, too many toys at our house when they don't need them. Two, great causes need new toys, but good luck trying to get your kids to ditch toys they haven't played with yet.

Here is my proposed solution, that I would love to get momentum and become a campaign instead of just something for our family: Give One, Get One.

The Give One, Get One idea is simple: spend half as much on gifts for my kids, but instead buy two of the toys you do give. Wrap both presents, and put a note somewhere inside: Give One, Get One. Gift card givers can get two smaller amount gift cards, with "Give One, Get One," and one goes to others, and when my kids spend money on themselves, they can also spend money on toys explicitly for others.

Hopefully this will result in a birthday party with half as many toys to find space for in our house, and a car full of brand new donations to one of the many places that has kids that REALLY need those new toys.

Every spoiled time will become a time about teaching to give. My kids, seeing all those toys go to a hospital or shelter, learn about giving, and can know that another boy or girl will get to play with the same toys they are playing with. But since the "Give" and "Get" toys are identical, it won't hurt them at all to see them go, since they have one to play with themselves.
To family members that read this blog, please consider doing the Give One, Get One plan when you shop for my kids for all these occasions coming up.

When their birthdays come up again or when people ask me what to get them for Christmas, I will be including this blurb:

Our family would love it if you would consider participating in our Give One, Get One plan. Whatever budget you were planning on spending, please consider spending half of it on our kids, and instead buy a duplicate of the item or items you do purchase. Include the words: Give One, Get One somewhere on your card, and wrap both toys (or clothes, books etc.), and then we will donate the duplicate item or items to a local hospital, shelter, Ronald McDonald House, or Make-a-wish Foundation since they only accept new items. "Give One, Get One" works with gift cards as well, just do two gift cards instead of one, one to spend on themselves, one to spend on others. We appreciate your help in teaching our kids about generosity and giving to kids in need.

Freezer Meals Party

Starting in September 2015, every couple months I have been hosting a freezer meal party, and it has been great!

I started talking to a couple of other people at the ptf meeting last week and discovered they were really interested in the knitty gritty logistics of how I have been making it work. I was happy to share, especially since my particular flavor of freezer meal parties isn't like anything I have read on Pinterest, but is the best solution I've found to something that could be a logistical nightmare.

My friends and are are all connected through Facebook, and the parties are planned as events through there, with RSVPs incredibly important. The group has changed somewhat from month to month, and I am totally at peace with that as long as the people who are coming let me know a few weeks prior.

As it was my idea, I do choose the recipes, but I do have a group Pinterest board, and if people don't like the meals for the month, they just plan on coming on a future month. The number one thing I have strived to do with picking meals is to choose a meat theme.

Every freezer party that I have seen online is full of a few of this, that and the other kinds of meat. Which means that someone has to buy a bunch of different kinds of meat. I don't know, it makes more sense to me that each month I just choose one kind of meat.

We did a chicken month, a beef (like chuck roast) month, and today we did a ground beef month. 

The next thing I do, which again, I haven't seen anywhere, I just made it up, is I buy all of the ingredients except for the meat, I just buy enough for the whole group, then they pay me for their share. I do my best to be cost efficient, using Costco, deals at Target, or the 99 cent store to get all of the side ingredients for as little as possible, while having each person pick out their own meat prices. The reason is simple- my family prefers to typically get a higher quality meat (or use our freezer bison). But, I don't want to drive up the costs of my friends' meals to those prices if they don't want to use it. So we all just get our own meat.

Then, because I used to be a teacher, and am a planner by nature, prior to the party, I make up a strategy. For example, today's menu had a meatloaf that needed to bake prior to freezing, so we prepped and did that one first, and while it cooked moved onto other things.

At my house, we prep for the group, but assemble for ourselves. For example, our sloppy joes needed onions, garlic, peppers, etc. cut. So I was cutting one thing while my friends cut others. But once the vegetables were cooked, we all just put a portion into our bags. Some parties everyone preps their own food just near each other. No right or wrong way, just the way I think it works best for me. 

Things to note:

-I typically choose 4 meals, but most months I am doubling a lot of them. I have a deep freezer... most of my friends don't, so I have space for more, and they are happy with four (but are welcome to double anything as well). 

-Many hands make light work... but it is still a lot of work. Come expecting to be chopping, mixing, and assembling for hours.

-It makes a lot of dishes. Like stacks, because you are using multiple cutting boards, multiple bowls, and multiple work stations for it to go faster.

-The payoff is not on the day of the party (though friends make it fun).  Today I was tired, and literally just laid on the couch once we were done. But in the next month or two, when I can take something from the freezer, put it in the oven and have a healthy, low sodium, homemade dish ready for the family with no cutting, prepping or dishes... it is totally worth it!

2015 Wrap Up Post

 The biggest overarching theme of this year for me was races, even though you don't see all the bibs in the picture above. Back in 2011, I made a huge goal to achieve the goal of running a marathon. I ran races leading up to it, but due to getting pregnant, I was unable to run the marathon I signed up for back in 2013. After more training, I finally achieved this huge, years in the the making, goal in February of 2015! In honor of this race (and future races) Blake made me a medal display. The left bib and far left medal will always remain in place. On the right, where the picture below shows the pink Diva run race bib, I put my newest race bib on top, and add the medals below. This picture is from February, but there have been 4-6 more added since then.

 This is the face of someone who has been running for 5 hours, and is so over the top excited to finally see the finish line!

 It doesn't get more genuine than this picture above. I was exhausted, but so proud of myself for finishing this goal.

 This is the half marathon I did a few weeks later with Jami! This was a particularly crazy weekend as immediately after the marathon in Temecula, we had to hightail it to Santa Barbara to see our good friends get married! We didn't even have time to stop for a meal, just gas and a quick stop at our hotel to get changed. This was also our longest time to date of leaving our kids with grandparents.

Apparently I was itching for more adventure, because soon after finishing my marathon I decided to do another run out of my comfort zone, with my first Ragnar in April. I then loved the whole Ragnar experience enough to do another one in October (no picture in this post), and signed up to do another one in February of 2016, this time in Arizona! I just love having a running goal to pursue, and these especially hit the spot as they require you to run three times in a short period, run through the night, but also have to be part of a team and support each other. If you like running, grab friends and do a Ragnar! So addicting. Anyways...

 This is the half marathon I did with Blake in November! His first half marathon (and he hates/hated all the pictures I took on that run).

 The pictures above are from family day this year, celebrated on the date that Grace arrived in our home back in 2013. Every year Blake takes the day off work for the four of us to celebrate our family, and in 2015 it was a trip to the aquarium.

 At the top of the first picture you will see a stack of Ducks tickets. We continue to be huge Ducks fans and go to as many games as we can (here's hoping they improve over the second half of the season and still get to and through the playoffs!). Some of the tickets are for games we bought in 2015, but some are tickets that we are given from a few amazing sources.

 Thought people would enjoy some random pictures of the kids from Easter this year, when our family was looking exceptionally good, if I do say so myself.

 This summer my brother finished his Masters in Business! Go Grant! They also are expecting their first child, and I get to be an aunt!!! So excited!

 More sports fan pictures, as we made it to a few Angels games too, even if Remington insists that he is a Dodgers fan in honor of my grandpa (so sweet!).

 We had an awesome trip to the Orange County fair this summer too! Remington literally talked about it for weeks afterwards, thanking God that he got to drive the car, and catch a fish.

 Two totally random, I love my kids and aren't they so cute pictures.

 The kids had their first camping trip this year, thanks to Damian and Katy!

 We had a great December with me finally getting around to the advent bags I had been intending to do for the last few years, and did a fun Christmas/nativity/winter themed fun thing every day (except for the two days that got too busy for the bag thing to happen). The two above are the kids having an amazing time making "snowflake soup" which basically was water play with snowflake confetti.

The kids also had their first time in the snow on our trip to Big Bear after Christmas. They even got to see snow falling, though both of them expected snowflakes to be bigger than they were. The snow didn't hold together very well, so didn't really get to make a snowman, but they had fun throwing snow around.

Featured in the "mason jar" picture, we have tickets from our annual trip to Disneyland and California Adventure, as well as a trip to Sea World. These big trips are fun, but I think my favorite memories from the kids this year were the little moments. I love seeing their imaginations and seeing them play together. They use the experiences we are able to give them, and they recreate it on their own, like going camping together on a blanket in the living room, and giving each other "marshmallows" which are actually just toys on sticks. They make each other food, go to the beach, drive to El Pollo Loco in their toy cars. They fight bad guys, or pretend to have characters go to school. I love the moments when they beg me to read to them (I sometimes wish they didn't too, but usually give in), and show me that they already know the power of a great book.

Speaking of books, I started tracking my books read back in 2010 on a website called Goodreads. My highest year since starting to track was 2011, when I got through 63, but this year was my second highest with 55 books! This is especially good considering that 2014 was exceptionally bad with just 17. No, that wasn't a mistake, or a lack of tracking, it was a year that I had subscribed to The Economist, and though I found it very interesting, I could not keep up with those weekly magazines, and didn't have much time to read anything but magazines. I did not renew that subscription.

What I did do this year was start my new reading goal, which is admittedly a long way from being complete, of reading through the Rory Gilmore booklist.
http://www.listchallenges.com/rory-gilmore-reading-challenge
 I have made good progress though, and have read 34 more books on her list (in addition to the ones I had already read) since I started this goal back in April. I am still working my way through Don Quixote (which I also started in April... and am just going really slowly though, while also reading other books for fun and the list concurrently). It has completely pushed me out of my comfort zone with books, and some of the books I loved, and went on to read/ intend to read other books from that author, while others I hated and had to force myself to finish them. For example Ann Patchett's book Bel Canto was amazing, and I then went on to read multiple books from her that weren't on the list. I read the books that I had only seen the movies of, or had just heard about, like Lord of the Rings. I read poetry, I read journals, biographies, etc. and really expanded my horizons of books, and was able to make connections between books, or between what I read and my life. It has been a really positive change in my reading habits, and I am excited to start another year with it.

I also made progress towards another goal of being a paid writer. I have gotten a few articles published online, and one little blurb in a print magazine coming out in a few months. I have written a few children's books, but haven't made progress towards getting them printed yet.

So, for the new year, I plan on doing less races, but continuing to run to stay healthy, and try to get to the gym on a more regular basis.

I plan on continuing to read through the Rory Gilmore list, and see where it takes me. I will continue to try to get articles published on the website I have been, mostly for supplementary income, and I will also dust myself off, and make another good attempt to get a children's book published.

In 2016, in September, when Remington starts preschool, I also plan on starting to substitute at his preschool (which I can do, since I got my child development permit this year, yay!)

As far as the kids are concerned, I intend to be more purposeful in engaging with them on a daily basis. I realized that the advent bags really forced me to plan time in that was fun for all three of us, and usually were sweet connecting moments, whether it was reading, or art, or a game, whatever the day's bag brought, I felt it brought a good point to the day. It made me realize that too often, I allow the chores of the day- get to school, go to the store, lunch, naptime, make dinner, etc.- become the only thing I do with the kids until bedtime, with no moments of me stopping and carving out that quality time. I really want to get better at that.

Looking back over the year, it was a good one, but I cannot believe how much my kids have grown, and continue to grow. People said the time would fly by, and it truly does. I want to cherish these little ones as long as I can, because I really feel like I will blink, and I will have two teenagers.

Here's to a great 2015, and a warm welcome to 2016 and all the memories it will bring! Happy New Year!