Just a re-cap

Goodness....how do you briefly recap 6 months of goings-on???

Maybe just a few highlights.

Bear with me here.

Tyler turned 14. Tanner turned 16.

I am that old apparently.

Here they are the Sunday they were ordained a Teacher and a Priest. So good to have both Grandpa's there.

The boys are now old enough for this (just for the record....I totally FOUGHT this one. I didn't want them to start.) (However....Tyler's got more of a 'stache' than any 14 year old should have........which, also just for the record, frustrates Tanner to death. He only has enough hairs on his face that you could mostly count them on one hand) (but....he will remind you that you can see them.....and that's what's important, right?)

We had a combined birthday of indoor soccer for the boys - with all their best buds. Fun times for sure.

Tanners birthday fell on a Sunday this year.But, rest assured that bright and early Monday morning (no kidding people.....we were THERE at 7:00 AM)....we were pulling in to the Utah DMV to get this:

Now he can drive his car.... (which he bought at a yard sale for $150 bucks) (kid you not).

Jason and I have been able to run several races this year. The Salt Lake half marathon.

TheOgden Marathon (Awesome. Hard. But Awesome.)

And the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay, which runs from Logan to Park City. Had a fabulous time! (Thanks Aunt Carol for letting our whole gang hang out with you for the afternoon!)

Jason was also "Spartan" for a day - running an 8 mile obstacle course with everything from fire, mud bogs, 9 foot high walls to scale, barbed wire to slide under, and of course Gladiators to battle. He said that the 8 miles seemed harder than the full marathon. (Having run the entire 26.2 miles......I don't actually believe him though) :)

And I ended the summer running the top of Utah half marathon.

I'm not a real runner. Those of you who are my neighbors know that. You see me plodding down the road at my turtle-pace with my non-runners legs. In the middle of these races I am asking myself over and over "why oh why am I DOING this??? This is NOT one ounce of fun". But as soon as the finish line is in sight, and then behind me, I know the answer.

It's the feeling of accomplishing something you didn't think you could. Slow as it may be, I can DO hard things. And I love that feeling.

Life is good. And hard. And did I mention busy?

Grateful for opportunities and reminders to not only DO hard things, but more importantly to Enjoy the Journey while we're here.

Hushpuppies, cancer, and ice!

Goodness - this was going to get updated a little faster I thought......however, life just apparently 'happens', and then all of a sudden it's been a couple of months. So once again, this is a slightly old-ish update, but for family history sake - now it's a documented old-ish update :)

A few days after Christmas, we got a phone call from Jason's mom. She was diagnosed with Multiple Myloma, a type of cancer.

WHAT???? Back up a second. We were Not prepared for that announcement. That isn't something we were planning on. At all. Cancer is something that happens to other people. For the first month or so, it seems fairly surreal.

However, 3 months later - What a remarkably positive attitude Carol has about this whole thing. And how well she's responding to treatment. Truly inspiring to all of us.

Nearly 5 rounds of Chemo down, and soon a bone-marrow transplant (and WHO KNEW the miracles of modern medicine?....She is actually going to be her OWN DONOR for the transplant!)

Truly a blessed time we live in, and what a remarkable woman she is!

With in just a few days of mother in law being diagnosed with cancer, we got another phone call that her mother - Grandma Britt had passed away (my mother-in-laws- mother) (got that?)

So last minute arrangements were made, Chemo was put on hold for a week, kids were shuffled around, and thanks to many wonderful friends picking up our parental duties - we were able to spend 5 days in North Carolina with some remarkable people.

GrandpaWoody Britt is quite sincerely the cutest southern man you'll ever meet. There's a sparkle in his eye, and the best southern accent you'll ever hear! He spoke at the funeral and it was truly touching.

Almost all of Jason's siblings were abletomake the trip, and we had a fabulous time experiencing a little of NC and just visiting together. Some of the NC highlights were visiting the U.S.S.North Carolina, eating at Captain Ratties (best darn clam chowder I've ever had !), and of course eating authentic North carolina barbecue and hush puppies with the whole fam! Husband and I both agreed hushpuppies could become a staple at our house, AND that we'd weigh much MUCH more if we lived in North Carolina!

The day before we were to leave there was a big storm on the weather front. Stores were closing early, gas stations all but deserted,and you've never seen the canned food isles at Walmart so bare! And honestly, there was no more than a few flurries in the air. We spent a good chunk of the night chuckling at everyone's apparent terror about the impending storm, which we were certain would be no more than a 'light-dusting' of snow.

So.....imagine our surprise when we woke up the next morning, ready to head to the airport and this is what we saw:

The pictures may not do it enough justice, but the ENTIRE van was completely ICED over - 1/2 inch to an inch thick. (it sort of looks like water in the picture - believe me, it was ICE). Completely.

We then embarked on the scariest 2 1/2 hour drive of my life. If you've never driven in an ice storm, then there's absolutely nothing to compare it too. The roads don't do that here where we live. Thick thick ice - not black ice - just plain old thick ice covering every part of the roads. I think we lost count of cars that had gone off the roads after 20 or so.....and that was in a relatively short distance too. My heart was a pounding! Just having experienced a crash in poor weather the month earlier, I think I was a little hyper-sensitive to the driving conditions, and quite honestly I don't know if I had ever been more relieved in all my entire life than when we FINALLY reached the airport.

It's always good to find your way back home again.

Me, Stef, and Heather back at the airport.

Much ado

Sheesh! So much has happened in the last few months, I'm truly not even sure where to start.

This post should probably be 4 separate posts.....but we'll try and condense it as best we can.

I think Chronologically is probably the bestway to go here, so here it goes....

Thanksgiving weekend (I KNOW that was a long time ago, and this is technically very OLD news. But news none-the-less, and since this blog is serving as a bit of family history project for me......it's better documented later than never, right?).

Thanksgiving weekend. Winter storm. En route to a family vacation, we were involved in a car wreck. Roads were super slushy and slick, and the visibility was poor.

Just coming down from the summit of a mountain pass, the car startedsliding, spun around, and hit the concrete barrier in the middle of the freeway head on. Spun around again, and hit again- this time in the back.

After first assessing that there were no injuries, we offered a prayer of gratitude.

The car sort of limped off to the side of the road where we hopped out in the snow to see the damage. The front end of the car was quite literally DRAGGING on the ground. Back end a bit squashed as well.

Realizing that we were most definitely not in a very safe place on the side of the freeway, and realizing that the car, for now at least, as still somewhat drivable, we decided that our best option would be to try andmake it to Beaver (the next town which was about 11 miles away). A prayer wassaid, and we literally plowed snow with thefront end of our car as we s l o w l y made our way into a Beaver gas station.

It was a Sunday, and our insurance agent informed us that for 'some reason' it appeared that not only was there no rental car place open any where close, but all the auto shops were also closed (only in Utah....). Our only option was to stay in a hotel in Beaver until the morning, or somehow get to the St. George airport, where there was rental caravailability.

The van was becoming a spectacle. People were gettingout of their cars to take pictures. Seriously. Embarrassing.

Jason wrangled up some tin-snippers, and with the help of the boys they were able to cut OFF the front end of the car so it looked like this:

Said another prayer, and headed s l o w l y again out to the freeway headed for St. George.

There's no reason we SHOULD have made it all the way to St. George. After the van was looked at by the auto collision center and declared a 'total loss', we were again reminded of angels watching over us.

All the engine mounts had been broken. The frame of the car was bent. Radiator smashed in. Every sensor and light ON (check engine. Check brakes. Check oil. No airbags. Low tire pressure. Seriously, you name it, the sensor light was on).

The trip was slow. Andloud. There were a few 'stray' pieces of the front end that husband couldn't quite cut away with the snips, so things were rubbing against the tires the whole way down.

It looked pathetic I'm sure.

But, we made it. All the way to the St. Georgeairport.

And rented a newer van.

The kids loved it. And wanted us to buy it. It had TWO TV screens. Awesome.

The crash was inconvenient. And expensive. My heart started wishing that the concrete barrier hadn’t been there in the first place. Wouldn’t it had been better to just slide into the median and gotten stuck in the snow, instead of hitting a slab of concrete? There wouldn’t have been near the damage (if any) to the car. Perhaps we mighthave needed a tow-truck to pull us out, but other than that - that damage would have been minimal, and we could have continued on our trip much easier and cheaper than we are now.

Of course as we were coming home from our vacation later that week, - children and parents alike were eager to see the ‘site’ of our crash earlier in the week (remember, it was stormy, and visibility was not good. We knew about how many miles outside of a certain town we were when we crashed, but that’s about all)

Imagine our audible gasps as we approached the crash site. We hadn’t realized that the place we wrecked into the concrete barrier was a place where the Freeway is divided. The North bound lanes lie 30 - 50 feet BELOW the South bound lanes.

That same concrete barrier, the one that I complained about causing somuch inconvenience and trouble, was the same one that saved our lives.

I was much humbled that day as we drove the rest of the way home. Thinking about a loving Heavenly Father, who kept our family safe with a concrete barrier. And couldn't help but think of how muchsafety there is in the gospel.

Well goodness....that story went and got a little wordier than I had planned (is that a sign that I talk too much????). If I tackle everything else that has happened since then, this could potentially be the longest blog post on record.

So......I think I'll end there.

Stay tuned for more adventures coming soon :)

Oh BTW....just for the record - even after all that - we still had a fabulous vacation. Disneyland was fun as ever. And the beach was completely awesome.

Pathetic...

Here's just a sad sad commentary on life at the Nelsons.

It's seriously December 8th.

And this is seriously what is still on the mantle.

'nough said?

40 year old miracles

So.....Jason officially turned old this month. FORTY. That used to seem so ancient to me.

I remember many moons ago being a nanny to a family of five children. The mom was 30. Thirty seemed SO MATURE. So put together. And, I'll admit it - to a 17 year old nanny, it just sounded down right OLD.

But here we are, far surpassing the young age of 30. And sincerely, not feeling much more mature or put together than I was way back then.

Jason had this great idea to run a marathon for his birthday, and so......we TOTALLY did it!

It was awesome! And horrible. And a little bit of everything in between. I hated it, and absolutely loved it - all at the same time. But we finished it. It was somewhat of a miracle I think.

Thanks for great running buddies who somehow made it easier to get up at 4:00 in the morning to do long runs. You guys are awesome!

Thanks for such wonderfully supportive friends - you MADE my day!

Thanks Jason's parents for coming to support us, and for lunch afterwards. Golden Corral never tasted so good!

Thanks Jason for taking a risk and signing up.

Mostly I feel overwhelmingly blessed that, although it's not speed-record-breaking, my body was healthy and able to run 26.2 miles. Our bodies are amazing things, and what a blessing that is! Jason and I figured that as long as we are healthy, we might as well take advantage of the situation. So.....we just signed up for another one!

Can't wait for May 2011!

Golden Birthday Shoes

So it was that time of year again. Birthday time. HOORAH for Birthdays that make you closer to more and more wrinkles and 40 years old.

We've got a couple of big ticket items needing attention from the budget in the next few months (i.e; house taxes, etc.). So we have had sort of an un-spoken rule (of which we thoroughly discussed) which states that hewill NOT buy me a birthday gift this year. The big day was a couple of weeks ago, and I had a fabulous day - even in all it's 'Tuesday-Glory'.

You see, Tuesdays at the Nelson household - once the kids get home from school, are nothing short of organized-ish chaos. Boy #1 gets home, get's snack, 25 minutes to do homework (which, incidentally, is no where NEAR enoughtime to get it done), get's ready for work. Boy #2 gets home, changes into work clothes, grabs something to eat on the way out, and then both boys are headed for their work on the farm. Child # 3 arrives home. Church activity days at 3:45 for child #3. Boy #2 Check in at soccer 4:45. Soccer game at 5:30. Dad home 5:30. Dad scouts 6:00. Child #3 soccer practice 6:30. 2 boys Scouts at 7:00. Pick up child 3 at 7:30. Dad home. 9:00 boys home.

But....um......NO ONE'S EATEN DINNER YET!

Seriously, not sure why it all chooses to be on that one very day, but it definitely makes for an adventure each week. I have to admit here.....I actually really DO enjoy Tuesdays. Everyone is doing the things they love, and although it always proves to be a little bit of mayhem, I love it that everyone is busy doing good things. Does my heart good.

Anyway, I digress....

it was my birthday......

Not expecting any sort of birthday packages this year, I was surprised when one was brought in for my to open. That's JUST like him, I think to myself. Arg. Thinking he apparently wasn't listening to our 'budget' discussion, I was, I have to admit, not thrilled that a box was being brought in.

Slowly I open the package, and then my eyes - I have to admit, are brimming with a few tears. Here's what I found:

Hum.....Are those really actually......Golden shoes, you ask?

Why yes there are. Here's the deal.

Many of you know I like to run. I am NOT a runner by ANY stretch of the word. But I like to run. Someday, when we can ask for wishes to be granted, I will ask to run a 6 minute mile. JUST to know what it feelslike. That would be heaven. But until then, I will have to be satisfied with my slightly slower pace.

A couple of years ago I had a desire to do something I'd never done, nor did I ever think possible for someone like me. Run a half marathon. The first one I ran, I was crying as I crossed the start line (yes, I really did say START line....not 'finish' line - like most people). Just BEING there. BEING at the START of a HALF MARATHON was HUGE to me. Never ever even in my most crazy dreams did I think that would be a possibility for me, but here I was!

The race was tough. It was slow. But we finished. And signed up for another one. And another one.

After a while, that got a little discouraging for me because even after doing 4 of them, they didn't seem to be getting any easier, nor did I seem to be getting any faster.

Fast forward to August of this year. Jason and I signed up for the Provo River Half and started training again. For 2 weeks before the race my feet and legs seemed more sore and achey than normal, but I figured it was just the extra miles.

The night before the race, I was packing up our stuff to head down to In-laws house so the race morning drive wouldn't be quite so long. Grabbed my shoes, looked at them from the back, and gasped! Where the HECK did the SOLE of my SHOE GO???? On one shoe the back sole was missing. Seriously gone. That shoe was 1 INCH shorter than the other shoe. Worn right down to the squishy under-sole part. NO WONDER MY FEET HAVE BEEN DYING. Apparently 2 years running in the same shoes isn't so good for the shoes.

Panic starts to set in as I think that there is no cotton-pickin' way I can run a whole race on those shoes, and no cotton-pickin' way to quickly buy new ones at 8:00 the night before the race. To say thatI was panicking might be an under-statement.

Alright, I think you get the gist....

But, thanks to a very calm and reassuring husband, and a little divine intervention from above, the race turned out fine. It turned out better than fine. My best time ever.

On our way back to the car we joked that those shoes should be bronzed.

A few weeks later Jason and I signed up for a full marathon.

Again.....NEVER EVER EVER thought that would be something I could do.

What a journey this has been for me the past several years. 17 to be exact. I've been running since we got married. It took me YEARS to get beyond one short mile. Then two miles. And now seventeen years later we just completed 26.2 (but I think that will be a whole different blog post)....

As I pulled the shoes out of the box, I noticed that he had written my PBRE (personal best record ever) on them, with the date of our Provo River race. The race HE came back and helped me to finish.

The shoes are tattered and the sole is missing, but now they are spray-painted gold, with my time on it, and on my shelf they will stay as a reminder for me.

They represent my journey. They represent doing hard things. They represent setting goals and working toward them. They represent being a 'finisher'. They represent progress. And they represent a kind husband who pushes me to become something better.

Thanks for the best golden birthday shoes ever!

We (and You) can TOTALLY do HARD things

I love the challenge of a good challenge. Striving to enjoy the challenge whilst in the middle of it, and loving the feeling of making through to the end of a good challenge.

Saturday #1, Provo River half marathon.....truly one of the most beautiful runs ever!

AND.............my very own PERSONAL BEST RECORD EVER PEOPLE!

Not horn tooting. Just sayin.

My PBR is still loads slower than a truck load of people, but the fact that I beat the time that my last 4 races have been, made my whole entire live-long day. Smiles were a plenty that day.

Mucho thanks to fabulous husband who gave up a chance at gaining his own PBRE (Personal Best Record Ever) to runright along side of me and cheer me on. Husbands rock!

Thanks Stef for the invite, and Stef's dad for the pre-running pep talks. Sister-in laws and their fathers rock!

So....last Saturday Jason and I were planning our annual hike to the top of mount Timpanogos. NOT to the cave, people....but to the shed that's on the tip top of the WHOLE ENTIRE MOUNTAIN. 11,700-ish feet or so.

It's a bit of a monster hike - but OH so worth it. You'd think after doing it once or twice the hike would get a little easier, but it's still a tough one to do.

We had a great idea this year, husband and I. Let's invite the teenagery boys to join us. One of them agreed, so long as his cousin would come with. But boy number 2 said no thanks, not interested, and WHY would anyone want to do that anyway?

Preparations were made. More Nelsons decided to come. Some came all the way from St. George to make the hike. Hooray for more people!

Son #2 made a 'night-before' surprise announcement that he'd actually be joining us for the hike. Hooray for son #2.

We went. All 11 of us. From age 13 to 50, and headed to the Timpanooke trail head. 5 of us made it to the summit. Breath taking and spectacular!

3 more made it to the Saddle. and 3 made it to the meadow just below. Absolutely beautiful!

We headed down in the dark, and even had a chance to practice some scouting skills. Ran into 2 girls, one injured, and neither with a light - trying to navigate their way to the bottom (minus a good foot, and minus any sort of light source). All the boys considered their "good turn daily' done for the day. Returned missionary cousin even donated his sweatshirt to be sacrificed in the name of bandages to wrap the girls foot in. Quite an adventure - 13 people hiking in single-file down the trail.

Challenge #2 conquered: Making it to the summit with Husband, and 2 teenagery boys. Completely Awesome.

What a blessing that we CAN do hard things. And that sometimes we even CHOOSE to do hard things. Isn't that what makes us grow? Truly a lesson I hope my children learn (and me too actually), that life isn't meant to be all-easy-all-the-time. It's alright to take a risk, set a goal, and work to accomplish it, and smile while you're in the middle of it. I know that not all 'hard things' are physical things, those just happened to be the things we've done here over the last couple of weeks. But sure has reminded me of 'other' hard things we each deal with in life. Everyone has them. And in a way that's comforting. Everyone has a struggle, or two, or ten. We're all here doing the best we can, and hopefully striving for better each day. Hooray for good people to cheer us on. Hooray for divine intervention that seems to come right when it's needed. Hooray for easier days (cause truly, everyone needs one of those every once in a while too, right?), and mostly.....a BIG WHOPPING hooray for just doing hard things.

GO FIGHT WIN!