Fabulous Marathon!

Here we all are in our "Team Thomas" shirts designed by McKay. The back has a Braveheart quote that says, "Fight and you die; Run and you live." We loved them!!! Notice that even Jack has one. :)

Here's a few finish shots where I ran across with McKay. I had come in about a half hour earlier, but I took everyone by surprise and so I don't have any shots of my original cross of the line.

Here are signs the fam made to cheer us on. Fun!

The marathon was fantastic! Not one single thing could have gone better. The weather was absolutely perfect. My running was smooth and virtually pain-free. I ran on the nose 10 minute miles--just like my practice runs! I started feeling pain at about mile 20 and realized it was time for more ibuprophen, so I popped some and 2 miles later felt better. I slowed down for the last few miles, but had made up a bit of time earlier on so I still averaged 10 minute miles. I felt great crossing the finish line. Not exhausted or anything! I surprised the fam because somehow they didn't get my 20-mile text--so no pics. I'll have to buy official ones. My final time was 4:21:23 and my net time was 4:20:36. I'm in love! I'm doing it again! If I can pick up 16 minutes I can qualify for the Boston. Woo Hoo!

Deseret Industries and my Marathon

Alicia (Smith) told me that waiting for the marathon to start could be really, really cold. It will be practically the middle of the night (4:30 or 5:00 am) and 10 miles up a canyon. She said that I will need to have warm clothes for the top, and then I will probably start the race wearing more than running shorts and shirt. I can shed as I go, but there's a good chance that what I shed will be stolen. So she recommended I buy my "shedding" clothes at DI!!! She also suggested a robe rather than a coat for up top--warm and much more fun than a coat! So this weekend I did my DI shopping. Here I am in my "shedding" clothes. I got this great, fluffy, thick, purple, Victoria Secret robe for $6.00. That was my most expensive purchase.

Now the race has started and I've shed the robe, but am wearing my ear warmer head band, gloves, jacket and pants. The ear warmer and gloves I already owned, but they're totally expendable. In fact I'd love to lose that ugly head band! The jacket was $3.00 at DI. Definitely 1980s era! It's lined with a mesh fabric.

OK. Now I've shed that jacket, as well as the gloves and headband. I'm now wearing my actually pretty nice Nike warm-up pants. $4.00 at DI. Slits on the sides so I don't have to take my shoes off to shed them. But they don't come off as easy as I'd like--not that I'll actually be racing for time in this marathon!

Finally here I am in my plain (and rather expensive) running clothes after having shed all my DI gear. Thanks for the heads' up, Alicia! My race is in less than 2 weeks. I'm psyched! By the way, McKay is designing a team logo for us (he's running this marathon, too!). We will put it on new running shirts. I'll show you when it's done.

Monta the Minimalist Bulletin Board Teacher

On this bulletin board I put news stories. I slowly add them each unit, and then the students can tell me about them on their tests and get extra credit (I cover up the board on test day). Then I start over with new articles. I try to make them about areas we are studying or have studied, or bizzare tidbits I think the kids would like.

Here is "my famous" Evil Dictator board. Our terms are 12 weeks each, so I swap out evil dictator each week and we have a count-down to #1.

This board, pretty obviously, is the calendar. Each day I swap out the big numbers. The smaller calendars on top list our days' work.

Finally, back by my desk I have a personal board with pictures I enjoy--family pictures.

Mom mentioned in her last letter about Dena's amazing room . . . all true. She also mentioned mine, and my Evil Dictator board. Even for middle school I think I'm a bit of a minimalist--and I love it! Thank goodness I don't have to spend time and effort on my bulletin boards, but I think mine are useful, interesting and nice looking.

Yellowstone Hike

Here we are at the trailhead for Heart Lake.

Here's Cath reading her new Kindle.  She brought it on the backpack!  It really ended up being great for her because she sleeps so little and this allowed her to read and read and read and not worry about how many books she could justify carrying in.  Nice!

Our second day in was an 8 mile dayhike up (and then obviously back down) to the top of Mt. Sheridan.  You can see the ranger station at the top and Heart Lake way down below us.  It was a beautiful hike and we had a wonderful time.  There was actually a picnic table up top where we ate lunch.

This was an outhouse on top of Mt. Sheridan.  Inside the door, written with black marker, it said:  "For full effect, latch door open."  So I did, and the view was absolutely spectacular.  Cort and I especially enjoyed this wonderful outhouse.  Really unusual, that's for sure.  We had a couple of other camping spots on this trip where there were "pit toilets"--without the outhouse building built around it.  One of them had an especially pretty view.  It seemed really exposed, but it was actually private because no one was around.  But the view from this outhouse was really extraordinary.

Here's a pic of me in one of the many beautiful fields of wildflowers.  I think this was the most beautiful field, however, which is why I had Cath take my picture here.  It was gorgeous!

Straight from Mexico I took off on a backpacking trip in Yellowstone with Cath, Steve, and my nephew Cort.  We had an amazing time.  It seems like my most recent backpacking trip is always one of my favorites, and this was no exception.  It was beautiful, the weather was amazingly good, and the wildflowers were so in bloom you wouldn't believe it.  Absolutely stunning.  Probably the best wildflower hike I've ever been on.  We all thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Cort better and we had a wonderful time with him.  We crossed paths with a wandering grizzly bear many times, but lucky for us never saw him in person (fresh scat, fresh prints, claw marks up food-hanging poles).  Great wildlife!  I even got in some good skinny dipping and talked Cath into doing it once!  A fabulous hike all around.

Mexico Service Project

This is the whole group.  You can see Rob and I are in the center, kneeling.

This is the orphanage--with Kent Lloyd, Jeffrey Bennett, Jeff Morris and Nate Hill (all boys from our ward)

Here are a few kids from the orphanage.  The amazing story is the woman (Cathy).  She was raised in this orphanage--since it opened when she was 4 years old.  Now she is an attorney and works as such mornings and works--and still lives--at the orphanage the rest of the time.

Here's the first wall being raised in the home addition.  This was in the Miramar neighborhood of Tijuana.

Here is a big part of the neighborhood of Miramar.  Amazingly, this was Rachel's friend Greg Hyatt's first area on his mission.  He's in the Tijuana Mission, which is the upper half of Baja California (Mexico).  We met some missionaries who knew him.

Rob and I (and a big group of people from our neighborhood) went to Tijuana, Mexico in mid-July and participated in a service project through "Charity Anywhere."  We worked on 4 projects:  Building a 3-room addition onto an existing home, building an outside-the-home bathroom for a family who up til now had been using a 5 gallon bucket, building a bathroom in an orphanage, and helping build pieces of a developmental center for handicapped children.  Don't let the "three-room-addition" make you think about a 3-room addition here.  The entire addition was about 10 x 12 feet.  The original house is teeny tiny and in terrible disrepair.  Another group that is going down in October will finish our addition as well as gutting the original house inside and re-doing it.  Two of the projects were for members of the LDS church, one was for a Catholic priest parish, and the final project, of course, was the orphanage.  I got to know Tijuana a bit and had a good time being an errand runner.  Rob had a lot of faith in my abilities, which made me happy and proud.  It was an amazing experience, and one that made me oh so grateful for the blessings I have.

I'm a Grandma!!!!!

Jack was born August 5th at 12:36 pm, weighing in at 6 lb. 1 oz, 18 inches long.  He is the cutest thing you've ever, ever seen.  Even one of the nurses at the hospital said he was the cutest baby there!  So it's absolutely true!  That nurse had no reason to be prejudice in Jack's favor.

Wendy ended up developing HELLP Syndrome and became very, very sick.  She and Kimball went to the hospital on Sunday, but they didn't do the tests necessary to catch the problem and Wendy was sent home.  Monday night Wendy was again very ill and in a lot of pain, and Tuesday morning Kimball took her back to the hospital.  This time the staff did a blood test and boy, when the results came in they started hopping.  Wendy had an emergency c-section--general anesthetic--almost immediately.  Brian Timmins, who visited a couple of days later, said out of five thousand deliveries he's done that only 2 have been general anesthetic.  It was serious!

Wendy had a 4 day hospital stay and went home today.  Mother and baby are both doing great.  It's so fun seeing Jack!  We are all totally in love.

Being a Grandma is already wonderful.  I'm happy to join the ranks.  :)  

To Run or Not to Run . . . That is the Question

OK, all my friends and family out there. I'm trying to decide if I should run a marathon this fall or not. The pros? It's on my bucket list (something I want to do before I die). I'm in really good shape right now. I can cross it off my list. Cons? It's hard on the body. The training is quite time-intensive. Sometimes I don't feel like running or training! It's hard!

Let me know what you think! Click on "comments" and give me your opinion. I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks!