I sometimes have to remind myself that this is, afterall, my journal and that I need to record more of the events of my life. Today was a cool day because I got to see one of the young men that I’ve worked with in the ward the past several years give his mission farewell talk before he enters the MTC on Wednesday. I’ve worked with Young Men in three stakes, but this is the first time that I’ve still been around long enough to see one of them go from a youth to a missionary. He's going to Chile and will be a fantastic missionary. Our ward just got a new missionary straight from the MTC last week and when the Bishop asked him to bear his testimony, you could see how green he is “My mission is, like, way cool. It’s awesome,” etc. In contrast, he bore a very strong testimony of the gospel, his love of the scriptures and how he sees his call as a sacred responsibility.


Our sacrament meeting ended up going way long, so he couldn’t even give his talk, just a brief testimony. So, I asked if he would come into the Priest Quorum and give his talk to them. He did and it was a great experience for the other 16 & 17 year old boys to see someone who had just been sitting beside them a year or two ago now leaving on his mission. I think it was a reality check and reminded them in a very real way how soon their missions will come. Our Bishop gives all the young men a crisp $2 bill that are willing to accept the challenge to 1) become an Eagle Scout, 2) graduate from Seminary, and 3) go on a mission. When they leave on their mission, he has them sign the $2 bill and exchanges it for a crisp $100 bill.

It also made me think about our three boys. Eli will be 19 in just 12 years, doesn’t seem like that far off, really. I asked them where they want to go. Nathan has said he’s going to NYC just like Uncle Todd, but today said he wanted to go to Tokyo like me. I told him he’d have to eat rice three times a day. I think he’s reconsidering. Eli, who has all along said he wants to go to Japan, said he wants to go to Montana so he can go to Grandma’s house whenever he wants. I told him that Grandma and Grandpa feed the missionaries a lot. It seems like when they remember they signed up they grill steaks or something, but when they forget, they feed the missionaries KFC.

Motives

Preface: Jenny is totally cool with this post. We were laughing about it this morning, so don't think that I'm being mean.

I told Jenny this morning that I scrubbed the bathroom counter and sink last night with Clorox. Thinking she’d say “I noticed. Thank you so much. That’s why I love you, you’re always helping out around here and doing things without being asked. You’re the greatest husband I’ve ever had.” But, no. “You cleaned it because the crud from the boys’ toothpaste and dirt from their grimy hands were making you mad, so you were mad cleaning, weren't you?”

Answer: yes. But I wasn’t really mad cleaning, I just wanted it clean, and since Jenny had a super busy day yesterday I knew she hadn’t had time to do much.

By the way, she did say thanks – without being asked to.

No more running or donut posts

That's it. You'll no longer have to read about my donut issues or running woes here. After some deliberation, I started a second blog where I can keep detailed notes of my training for the half marathon, and track my donut intake. For a while I told myself, "Self, it's your blog. You can write whatever you want to and if people don't want to read it, they don't have to." But then I thought it would be easier for me to look back at my progress if I don't have to wade through my other nonsense to find it. So, you can check it out if you want to. http://www.illrunfordonuts.blogspot.com/

I wanted it to be willrunfordonuts.blogspot, but would you believe that someone else started a blog with that name on the exact same day as I built mine? Oh well. I took my frustration out on my design software and made a custom header. Looks a lot like the logo to a certain favorite donut shop of mine. Coincidence?

What would you do for a donut?

There are a few central themes that find their way into my posts: running, Crunch Wraps from Taco Bell, lists, and donuts, to name a few. I decided that if I'm going to lose the 13 lbs I gained back this year that I'm going to have to curb my donut intake. It's not like I eat them every day for breakfast, just on Friday's at work and occasionally with the kids for special treats. I told Jenny last night that I'm going to earn my Friday donuts from now on. If I have logged 15 miles by Friday then I can have a donut. To warm up to that, I would treat myself today if I woke up at 5:00 am and ran five miles. I figured that would test how bad I wanted it.

Well, I got up at 5:00 am and ran five miles, feelin' good. Came into work, and as I rounded the corner to walk toward my cube (the cube on the outside of which is the donut table) I directed my eyes to where the donuts are to see what glorious, glutenous delight awaited me, only to see this...

WHAT???!!! I DIDN'T HAUL MY SORRY REAR OUT OF BED AT 5:00 am AND PUT MY BODY THROUGH THAT...FOR A BAGEL!!!!

The donut gods played a cruel trick on me this morning, but all was not lost. Someone's wife had made peanut butter and chocolate bars and brought them in, so I indulged in one of those. It tasted better than a donut would have anyway.

I'm only sort-of nice. That's what I found out today. I've been reading a book called "The Power of NICE: how to conquer the business world with kindness" by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval. After reading the book (119 pages - quick read, unfortunately no pictures), I took the NiceQ test on their website. I scored 13 out of 20 which means I only have a 65% understanding of nice. I thought I knew more than that about how to be nice and use it to get what I want/need.

The book is great, and I'd recommend it. Then go take the NiceQ test. Better yet, take the test, then read the book, then take it again to see what you learned. Don't take my post-read score to mean that the book is worthless, though. As Jenny will tell you, she thinks I cheat on everything so probably the fact that I didn't have the answers is why I scored as low as I did. But saying that wouldn't be very nice, would it?

The Japanese beat us to it again. They’ve been celebrating 0707 for centuries, but seems only this year (probably because of the added ’07 factor in 2007) do we Americans seem to notice there’s something magical – casinos and wedding planners are planning on record receipts today. In Japan, July 7th is the festival of Tanabata. Tanabata celebrates the one day of the year that the river of stars (the Milky Way) allows lovers on opposite sides of the celestial river to meet. Oh la la. Closer to home, July 7th is Momma K’s
_ _th birthday, although it hasn’t been her birthday as long as it’s been Tanabata (which is my way of saying she’s not that old, and “Happy Birthday”).

On our date night last night, we went canoeing on a “lake” nearby. It’s really more of a big pond, but who’s counting? We paid for an hour of canoe rental and was only $10, so pretty good, I thought, being the expert on hourly canoe rental rates that I am. Jenny captured some pictures of me from behind which are further proof that I’m balding. People always say “Oh no you’re not. You should see my husband. Etc.” My brother-in-law/sister-in-law thought they were being funny when they gave the boys a book called “Where’d Daddy’s Hair Go?” for Christmas. As you can see below, I really am thinning, but I still have my figure (I didn’t say what kind of figure, but I still have it). I'll save that brother-in-law the humiliation and not post some incriminating evidence I have of his own folical challenges.


After canoeing we went to a restaurant I’ve been wanting to try called Ohana, a Hawaiian BBQ place. Don't confuse it with Mahana, as in "you ugly." As we walked in, the two teenagers who were so not Polynesians, greeted us with a cheerful, yet somewhat reluctant-because-their-manager-made-them-say-it “Aloha”. I ordered the Katsu Curry (properly pronounced in Japanese as kaw-tsu, but our friendly plastic lei-wearing island order-taker kept saying cat-tsu) and Jenny got sesame chicken. The food was overall pretty good. As we left, the entire staff bid us a fond island farewell and a “Mahalo," also not to be confused with Mahana, as in "get out of our restaurant, Ugly." You couldn’t pay me enough…

Today’s run

Went about five miles outside and didn’t have to take as many breather breaks as before. For some reason, I felt self-conscious today and found myself counting (oh for the love, not the running/math thing again) how many people were looking at me as they drove by and then performing analysis on what kind of people seemed to be taking notice of me. Here’s what I found.

In my mind I think I thought that fit people were looking at me and judging me on my form and jiggly stomach. Amazingly, people who from the steering wheel up look like fine athletes weren’t even looking my way. Apparently they seemed to thing that keeping their eye on the road was more important. I was surprised at who did look at me as they drove by.

• - The lady on the Jazzy scooter on her way back from the farmer’s market. I know she was thinking that I was going to snatch the beets right out of the front basket as I sped by.
• - People who looked like they are the presidents of the office donut club, and have held various club leadership positions since the club started. Much like myself, they are not only the president, they’re also members. I started fancying myself as being a role model for them and that I was inspiring a group of people to change. Speaking of donuts, we found a great new donut place this morning, Steve’s Delicious Donuts in Lenexa, Kansas. The lady even gave us (me) a bag of free donut holes. This was all pre-run; I needed energy.
• - Mall walkers. These are easily identified by the Buicks they’re driving. If anyone should be watching the road and not me, it’s this bunch. However, as their heads turned toward me I think I could read their lips saying “Wow, Mable, that youngin’ is walking at a pretty good clip.” No, George, I’m actually running.

I now need some input from other runners. I need to come up with a solution to my hydration needs. When I run on the treadmill, I have all the cold water I want at my fingertips. When I run outside, though, I obviously need to stay well-hydrated. We have plenty of wide-mouthed water bottles, but the water just splashes all over and aren’t easy to hold onto. I stole/borrowed Eli’s Jump Rope for Heart water bottle with a pull-up top, but it’s pretty flimsy plastic and is a little too small (10 oz.). Today the water in it got quite warm about half-way through my run and 10 oz just didn’t last long. Then I ran by the Taco Bell, so I went in and asked if I could refill it with water from the fountain. Si. Between the ice-cold water and the hot water bottle, steam actually rose from it as I filled it. Luckily I didn’t have any money or else I would have stayed for a Crunch Wrap Supreme. I then had to stop at the library a couple of miles later for another fill-up.

So, what I want to know is what kind of hydration device do you prefer and why. I went to the running store the other day and also looked on-line, but can’t really decide for sure what I would like the best. They’re all somewhat pricey, so I want to be sure I get the best one for me. I’ve looked at Camelbacs, running belts that hold multiple plastic flasks, fanny packs that hold regular water bottles, and the ones with a foam strap that goes around your hand/has a mesh pocket for keys, etc.

The Scary Fairy

Last night was a late night. We got home later than usual from mutual, and on the way home we stopped to buy $4.26 worth of firecrackers (sparklers, some rooster things where colored flames shoot out from their rear end, and some of those white poppers that look like spitballs). We let the boys do a few and then tried getting them to go to bed (10:17pm by this time). The firework spectacular got them wound up. Funny, I thought that would have calmed them down and made them tired.

I couldn't get them to get in bed, so enter a little fib - The Independence Day Eve Fairy. Haven't heard of him? He's the Tooth Fairy's evil little brother. He's the "scary fairy" that comes to the homes of kids who don't go to bed on Independence Day Eve. He then makes their toys explode like fireworks. Perhaps the fact that the Tooth Fairy made her first appearance at our house last week made it more believable. I may be terrible for telling them that, but it worked. We heard not a peep from any of them and they were out in minutes.

Happy 4th of July!

Mom My Ride

Funny YouTube about minivans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEFE3B0Rje0

Here's the van Jenny wanted:
Here's the van I wanted (that's right, it's not a van, it's a Trooper):

Here's the van we got:




...and here's the van we'd have gotten if the boys had their way: