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Well I haven't updated my blog in a while for a good reason. A couple weeks ago I wrote a REALLY long blog about a river rafting trip we went on and I was putting up pictures and videos. I was so excited! But then all of the sudden my computer decided to restart the Internet and erase my whole entire blog entry. I was so sad! All of that hard work I had put into it had been totally obliterated and it has taken me a couple of weeks to calm down. :) Well have no fear, I am much better now! But instead of having to pick and choose which pictures I want to post on the blog I was wondering if any body knew how to post a slide show of pictures? That way I can put more pictures on and hopefully my Internet won't start over because it is in over load.
Well life is going well. This is my last week off before school starts again. I am trying not to think about it.... So, I am running a half marathon this Saturday. It is the same route as my marathon this coming September. So that will give me a good idea of what my marathon route is going to look like. Ah, I have to go. Brighton and I are trying to work on our FAFSAs. Nothing beats free money from the government!

Amazing!

So this week has been amazing so far and the plans for this weekend are only going to make it better.
1- I am finally done with the summer semester!! YEAH! I just finished my last final today. And now I have a whole three weeks to do WHATEVER I want! I have a whole list of things I want to get done. Some of things include: preparing for my marathon, reading, super cleaning the house, finding an internship for next semester, more running, not having to go into work until 8:30, and running some more. I am so excited!

2- Brighton was such a sweetheart on Monday and did all of the laundry. It ended up being four loads and he even folded them all. Four loads it a lot for us. A LOT. It was awesome because I had been working on one of my final projects all day and he knows that getting the house clean and getting the laundry done takes a lot of stress off of me. In the picture the laundry doesn't look like that much, but trust me it was. We had been avoiding it for weeks because of finals and Brighton was the better spouse and did it. What is so funny about this picture though is Brighton's outfit! He was hot and had to put on some shorts. Our neighbor laughed at his outfit but I think it makes him look sexy!
Laundry and more laundry........

3- It was my birthday on Wednesday. Brighton was a double sweetheart and made me dinner (he always does that) and this awesome cake. It is a double layered chocolate (mmmm) cake. And he did it all by himself. He is amazing.
If I look like I just got back from exercising that is because I did. Wednesday was not only my birthday but my last day of teaching my exercising classes! Ahh bitter sweet. I will miss teaching my classes but now I can focus all of my energy on running a marathon!

This video is of Brighton bringing the cake to me. I will admit up front that I look REALLY bad in the video. I hadn't showered after my spinning class, I had taken out my hair, and it was almost midnight. I was tired. But I was finally ready for my cake. Ah great times!! Brighton's singing is great. :)

For this weekend we are going to baby sit my cousins kids on Friday and I am so excited. She has three of the cutest kids! Then we are going river rafting on Saturday, out to dinner with my mom and sister (because of my birthday), and THEN my great sister Michelle got me tickets to the High School Musical Tour that is in town! How freakin awesome is that! I am really excited!!

Anyways, that is why my week has been so amazing! Hope your weeks have gone just as awesome...to be continued.

Finals

Well I am not really going to post a lot about my finals coming up on Monday but I will tell you this much. I am supposed to be studying for them right now but I really wanted to update my blog instead. So that is what I am doing. This last week had a lot going on. I ran 10 miles on Monday and practically died. I ran 10 miles and felt great (but tired) when I finished. Then I drank some water and that queasy nauseated feeling that I got after my half marathon last year, came back again. It was awful!! After a half hour of sitting on the toilet trying not to throw up I got in the shower. When I got out I threw up once but still felt so sick. I went straight to bed and got up and went to work. I was sick the rest of Tuesday but felt better Wednesday. I ran the July 24th 10K on Thursday and felt great during it. I even sprinted the last 3 blocks I had so much energy. But I drank water after that run and got that same quesy feeling. However, this time I stopped drinking water so the feeling went away. I don't know what it is but drinking water after my runs is turning out to be a bad thing. Also on the 24th we went to Brighton's house and hung out with his family. All of his Nephews and Niece were there and they are so FUN to play with. I even have pictures to post about it! Then I went back to work on Friday (lame) and they we went to the ward camp out. Those are always fun and we have an awesome ward. Today (Saturday) I caught up on some sleep and now I am studying for finals. (Kind of) Brighton is out grocery shopping (what a sweet heart) and running other errands. He is always such a sweet heart at doing things like grocery shopping, laundry, and cooking dinner. Working full time, going to school full time, and trying to run a marathon kind of cuts back on my time for those kind of things (plus I hate doing them anyway) and he is always great to step in and do them for me. Well I guess I better get back to studying. But first I will post some pictures! :) These are my nephews warming up in the sun after they slippin slide. Jayden is at the top of the picture and Dayton is at the bottom. They are so cute and fun to play with!!

This is the only picture we got of me at my 10K on July 24th. I felt great after the run and I ran 6.1 miles in 52 minutes!
This is my only niece Kennedy until Novemberish. She has finally warmed up to me (even though it doesn't look like it) and she let me play with her all day. I had just painted her toenails and fingernails and she wanted to show everybody!
This is another picture of Kennedy and I. She wanted to show our matching toe nails. They are a cute green. Or as my Nephew Dayton said, "They look like Shrek toe nails!"
This is my niece Kennedy again. She is sun bathing in her CUTE swimming suit. I thought the ruffels on the back were so cute!
This is our slippin slide crew. On the top is Brighton, Dayton, Uncle Frank, and Kennedy. On the bottom row is Jayden and Pierce.

And last but not least, here is a video of almost everybody going down the slippin slide. The first person going down is Brighton, then Frank, Pierce, Jayden (running down), and the pierce again. My video ran out before I could get Dayton going down. Also included in the video is Kendra who is pregnant and having another girl! Brighton's dad and Kennedy and I. It was such a fun day!

Random

This post is going to be kind of random. But then again, when are they not. It is a little past 11:00 pm and I am exhausted! But I wanted to update my blog and so I tried to find something that I could say a lot about with out doing any effort. :) (If that line doesn't make sense to you it made sense to me in my head.) Smart I know. So last summer my brother and Brighton had a little competition. They are both very competitive and you can image what happened. Brighton is about 5'9" and wrestled in high school. He was actually very good at it. My brother David likes to lift weights and is about 6'1". The decided to have a wrestling match at it ended up being REALLY funny. And guess what?!? We got it on video! So tonight I am posting that video. Every time I watch it I can't help but laugh. And David, if you read this I hope you don't mind. (Same with you Brighton!) Enjoy, and yes, that is my brother David spanking Brighton and then Brighton spanking David. The match ended up being a draw. Brighton couldn't pin David because he was so big and David couldn't pin Brighton because Brighton is a wrestler.

Running - you either love it or hate it

So I have officially signed up for my first marathon. I signed up for the Top of Utah which will take place on September 22, 2008 in Logan Utah. Now some of you might say this is no big deal and why are you posting about it, but I am scared out of my mind. I didn't want to tell any body I was doing it just in case I wanted to drop out. But now everybody knows and I have to do it. Training so far has been going well. I ran 7 miles on Saturday and survived. That is 1/4 of the marathon right there. I know I can at least run 13 miles because I have run a couple half marathons, so 13 + 13 equals 26 right? I can do it. (Or at least I tell myself I can. :)) I have tried to sign up for the St. George Marathon a couple times but it is a lottery and I never get the winning ticket. So I figure this year I am determined to run a marathon so I signed up for the Top of Utah where there is no lottery and I am running it.

On August 11, 2006 I met Brighton's family for the first time. I remember this because on August 12, 2006 I ran my first half marathon. I was so nervous to meet Brighton's family but once I got over my nerves about meeting his family I was nervous the rest of the night because I had to run a half marathon the next monring! I ran my second half marathon August of 2007. I don't remember that exact date but I do know it was in August. I hadn't trained very well for it because I didn't want to so unfortunatly it was painful. I had only run six miles previously and it was on July 24th. At about mile 8 I wanted to stop and my body hurt from head to toe. But I made it through and only threw up three times after. Here is a video of the end of my race and the picture at the beggining of this post was a picture taken after the race. If in the video I look like I am running slow and dieing, it is because I am, and thirty minutes after the picture was taken I throwing up. I don't post these pictures because I look good (because trust me I know I look like death just warmed over), but I post them because I accomplished something good in my life. I hope to always be physically active and pushing myself to reach new goals. It is a fun challenge.

I do have to mention though that my husband is always to great to take me to my races. The first race that he took me to was a half marathon. My very first one (and we were only dating.) He has even run in a couple races with me, but that is another story for another day. But for the half marathons he always gets up at 4:00am and drives me to the course, waits the entire time I am running, and he is always there to cheer me on at the end! Thanks Brighton! I couldn't do it without you.

Summer Cont.

So I mentioned that I would post a picture of my flowers. I have both real flowers and fake flowers. I however, love them both the same. The two pictures on the left "ish" are pictures of my real flowers. I really like these flowers and I am proud of them because it is the first time that I have planted flowers in a pot! Who knew someone could be so happy about something like that. I think they are fun and they make me smile. The picture on the top right is a picture of my fake flowers. They didn't quite end up looking like I had imagined but you live and learn and don't do it again. :) However, I still like them because they add brightness to my apartment and I made them myself. I put a lot of effort into making the arrangement so even if the pot doesn't match I still love them. I thought about putting a picture of my orchid in with this post but I realized that I don't have a picture of my orchid and right now it isn't blooming. Oh well, next time. I was also going to post a picture of out brand new dishwasher but I am having issues posting pictures so that will have to wait until next time.

Next week we are leaving on out annual trip to Moon Lake. If you look at my first posts on my blog you will see pictures of when we went to Moon Lake last year. Ah, good times. I am awfully excited to have time off of work and school. It will be a good time to be with family and to enjoy the out doors.

Hopefully I will post at least one more time before next week. Here's for hoping. :)

Summer

I can't believe it has been over a month since I have last posted. Life is, well, CRAZY. I feel like if I can make it through this semester of school then I can make it through anything. I pretty much say that every time life gets hard but when I say it I mean it. I am working full time, taking 11 credit hours, and trying to not go crazy. If everything goes smoothly with school I should be done in a year. Can you believe that? One year! Wow! I can see the end in sight. It does exist. Before I used to just dream about the end but it is now within sight. For one of my classes this semester I am teaching exercise classes. I am teaching spinning (which is a cycling class) and I am teaching circuit training (which is a weight lifting/cardio) class. Can you beleive that, I am actually doing my dream of teaching exercise classes. I love it. That is one thing that makes me really happy. Both of my classes are really fun but they are a lot of work! But I will admit, I have never been in such great shape. I do enjoy that. I like the people in my classes and I love the inspiration they give me. They come to class over and over and they continue to workout even when I don't want to. I have learned a lot from them. (Brighton has even come to a couple of my spinning classes.) :)
Brighton got a new job and he will be starting that Monday. I am really excited for him even though he is a little nervous. He is going to be working in a chemical engineering lab and making more money then he did at his other job. That job is huge blessing for us. He is also taking classes this summer and well, need we say more. Summer and school should never be in the same sentence.
I planted flowers in pots outside my apartment door. I love them. My neighbor Lisa was so great to help me. She loves planting flowers and offered to help me do mine since it was my first time. They look great and I will post pictures of them next time I post. I also got new flowers for the inside of my apartment. I will also post pictures of those flowers next time I post. I love flowers because they add so much joy and life to anything. Oh that reminds me. I better water my flowers outside of my apartment. I haven't done that for a couple of days.
Things are going well for us overall. We both have changed jobs, we both taking summer classes, and we are both trying to be the best we can. Next time that I posts I will put pictures up!