Nothin’ much to write about….

But writing anyway. I’m in that ‘mood’.

The weather here is crazy today, half sunshine, half sleet/snow.  I’m ready for some good solid sunshine!

Now that the race is over, the soreness is slowly subsiding and I can feel my legs again! It really wasn’t all that painful, my leg muscles just seemed to stop responding altogether and my walking was reduced to a slow waddle. I’m pretty much back to normal though and already looking forward to the race next year! In fact, I’m considering entering a couple of the other half-marathons here in the Boise area, just to keep up on it!

Not much new on the job front, I got a message about a telephone interview with T-Mobile, but am unable to contact the lady as of yet. When I call the number she gave me, it says to call back during business hours. MMMMkay! SO I finally emailed her today to let her know that it just wasn’t going through.  Oh…something IS new! I talked to Talitha last night at church, she works for St. Lukes and they are hiring for a phone coordinator type person, they start them out at decent pay and benefits, I have a ton of switchboard experience and I also have a certificate in Advanced Medical Terminology. Even better, they take a slightly longer day and only work 4 days a week! This sounds like the perfect job for me right now!  At least till I figure out what I want to be when I grow up!

I’ve been thinking that something in PR would be fun…I really need to get a handle on what it is that I want to do. I was successful as a kitchen designer, but to be honest, I never really felt like it was my passion.  I just don’t know exactly what it is though. There is a book that I want to read, i’ve heard of it before but just never read it, called “What Color is My Parachute” and it is supposed to have helpful advice in figuring these things out.  In the meantime, this job would pay enough to make things work and I’m loving that 4 day work-week. It gives me that extra day that I can skip town, or if a certain someone comes up here….or, if I need the extra hours, I could work it for overtime. I just knew when I heard about it that it would be perfect for right now! So, Talitha was gonna talk to her boss and see if she could get me in there and she just called to say that her boss wants me to bring a resume by tomorrow and she’ll come out and talk to me. I’m gonna go have it all printed up nice and in a display folder, like I used to. That always impresses people!  I’ll try to be on my best behavior for once….and see what I can do. It is honestly the first prospect I’ve been very excited about since I started this process yet again!

Elizabeth is sick, she’s coughing and has a stuffy head.  Sick kids are always a ton of fun! Other than that…I’m just goofing off and trying to get a few things done. I’m over the drama of losing my job, life is too short and I got pretty stressed out over the whole thing and that isn’t like me. It is nice to feel ‘normal’ again, whatever that actually means for me .

Not much for plans for the weekend, I think we are going to gather up junk from around here and get it all to the dump, get it done and over with and then this place will look better and I can even start some flowers and stuff for spring. Most of the snow is gone, still a little patchy stuff here and there and it is still visible on the mountains across our little valley.

Well…I’d better carry myself on out of here and down to town to pick up Gabe from Kindergarten! Thanks for reading!

The Race to Robie Creek!

Well….I made it!  Yesterday was the big day. First though, I have to tell ya….Jeremy flew in late Friday night.  Ideally he would have been able to come earlier, but he had to find one last minute and that was what was available, and I’m just glad he was there for my big day! 

We started out the day on Saturday by getting everything ready, driving down to town, picking up Sergei from his friend’s house on the way, and then to Marie’s house. We were running late by then, so we got her and headed to Ft. Boise and she braided my hair into pigtails on the way.  We got there just in the nick of time, about 4 minutes before the race started, so Sergei and I grabbed timing chips and did some quick stretches and we were off!  We spotted Jeremy and Marie on the hillside on the way up and waved g’bye and it was all uphill from there. LITERALLY! 

I ran the first 3 miles, and considering that it was almost all uphill, I’m ok with that! Then I walked about a quarter of a mile and then ran more, but the last 2 miles coming up the summit, I just walked. By the time I was AT the summit, it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other and keep marching, it was SO steep! Right before you get to the top, you go through “temptation station” which is set up with shots, beer, cigars, twinkies, you name it! I grabbed a half a cup of beer on my way past but did not stop. It really didn’t sit very well in my stomach though…yick!

Sergei left me in the dust after about the first 1/2 mile and we figured out later that he was crossing the finish line at about the same time I was crossing the summit! We are all pretty danged proud of him!

It was all downhill after the summit, though still very steep. I ran most of that, stopping at about 12 miles to walk for a mile or so and crossed the finish line running and with a smile on my face!  Other than the fact that my legs were very tired, I felt great. I finished in 3 hours and 39 minutes.  Jeremy and Marie were there, having gone back up and caught the bus in to the party.  We got some food, our souvenier tshirts (you have to run to get one!) and hung out for a while before catching the bus back to where the truck was parked.

Here comes Sergei!

 

And there he goes!

 

 

And finally…an hour and 11 minutes later…here I come!

I think I can, I think I can….

 

No wait…I KNOW I can, I KNOW I can!

And finally…2 years after she set her goal…she crosses the finish line! Woohoo!

 

Jeremy and Sergei

 

(Did I mention I was how happy I was that he was able to make it up for this?)

After that, we went and met Karen and the kids in town and went to a Jewish Passover celebration thing, where the Rabbi explained the traditions and the meanings behind the food. It was very educational, but a LOT of reading aloud and seemed like we’d never be done. I’m glad we went though and we got to surprise Karen and the kids with the fact that Jeremy was even here!

I do have some pictures, but I have to wait for Marie to send them to me (hint hint!) and I also made the news on channel 12! I am trying to figure out how to copy that video from the site (www.ktrv.com) so that I can put it on here. They took video of people crossing the finish line but stopped doing that 10 minutes before I crossed . Also, the timing chips didn’t register for some of us, so my time is not listed yet but from what I understand, they are working on that.

SO….when I get pictures and hopefully video, I’ll add those to this post. I want to add, I’m pretty danged proud of my time, because although the first place runners ran it in about an hour and 18 minutes, and Sergei completely whooped me with 2 hours and 28 minutes (Go Sergei!), I am not a runner and I did not go into this to get a great time (maybe next year) but to fulfill a goal that I set for myself several years ago….one more item to scratch off of my to-do list.  I loved every minute of it, except maybe that last 20 minutes or so at the summit, and I can’t wait to do it again next year!

 

There are lots more pictures and video at www.ktvb.com/robiecreek

 

Updated: I got an email from the guy I bought one of the bus passes from, to ask about our times and I shared a picture of Sergei and I with him and he said “I know that kid! He blew past me up on the summit and passed like 1400 people!”  

 

The Last Lecture

I just wanted to pass this on…found it the other day and it is truly inspirational! You should probably click on the link and read the story before watching the video. It is a lengthy video, a little over a half hour I think, so wait till you have time to watch the whole thing, well worth it!

http://www.thelastlecture.com/

 

 

 

I guess I have to write an update….

When I started this blog, I intended it to be filled with good stories…not sad ones. That is why I haven’t written in a week and a half….because instead of being filled with adventure, it was been filled with….what? Not ALL bad things, of course…but definately some negativity.

Last Thursday, I was let go from the new job. You remember the blog I wrote about being thankful to have it…well, that fear has become very real.  I don’t really want to rehash every detail because I really just want to get over it and move on, but I believe I was treated very unfairly. The owner stated that I wasn’t aggressive enough, and named off several things that I was able to back up. I know that I did my job to the best of my ability and I could have done very well, but wasn’t given that opportunity. I don’t believe that 3 weeks is enough time to learn enough to sell someone a several hundred thousand dollar home. I really did my best to absorb everything that I could and prepare myself.  Despite everything, I can rest assured that I did my very best and it is their loss.

As you can imagine, this has caused a pretty great upheaval in my life. I’d just begun to settle in, rearranged school, daycare, other things…and now I’m back where I was a few weeks ago. I’m doing my best to keep everything else in order.  Emotionally, it is a little tough to handle though and this experience has brought me down further than I’ve been in a very long time…but I’m not staying down!  Something else is out there and I’ll find it, or it will find me!

I’ve pretty much decided to make a career change. I believe that I’m very good at sales, but what I’m not very good at is lying to people. I’m successful by building trust and relationships. Not by using used car salesmen techniques. The irony is that those ‘used car salesmen’ may have a good run for a while, but they won’t last. It takes a little longer and a lot more work to do it right, but the payback is much bigger. Nonetheless, the construction industry will not recover soon and I’m feeling like I’m ready to move on to something else. Unfortunately this means starting out at entry level again.  I’m ok with that because although it may be difficult, it will lead me to much better places!

I’ve discussed a couple of different opportunities, my friend Jesse does tech support for iPods, through a company that contracts with Apple and I applied there and have an interview on Wed. The pay is rather low, and the hours are awful, but if I could find a way to make it work, I’d be good at it, and there are lots of opportunities for growth.  I also put in an application at T-Mobile, the hours can be crappy but the pay is decent. Honestly, I’d rather work on iPods than billing for cell phones, haha.  We’ll see what happens though.

Other than that…life goes on as usual. My friend Marie and I ate Sushi three days in a row last week. Yep….3 days.  Wednesday we met up with a friend of hers to look at swimsuits and decided to go to this place in the same strip mall, then Thursday my friend Karen and her daughter Isabella came over for a while and Marie showed up with Sushi in hand…then Friday, I woke up to a text message of “Sushi?”. Yep…we went again.  It was a lot of fun though!

Sunday, Clayton, Elizabeth, Sergei and I went up to Bogus Basin for the Season Finale. Last day of the season to get some snowboarding in and ironically (you know how I love that word!) it was our first chance to try out our very own snowboards. I bought mine off of craigslist a few weeks back, a pretty purple one with a butterfly on it, and Clayton and Elizabeth’s came from a sale that the resort had where they sold off old rentals in a really cheap package!

It was sunny and hot and the theme was a Beach Party. There were girls snowboarding in bikinis, people in costumes, wackiness everywhere. I had to draw the line at the couple of guys in brightly colored speedos….could you imagine the icy cold wedgie? Yikes! We got a little burned, and the snow was pretty slushy and icky, but still had fun. Clayton lost his hat off the lift and I decided to chance it and board down the steeper part to get it…and realized when I got there that it was a black diamond run. Well..no point in stopping, so down I went!  Made it to the hat, stopped to pick it up and went on down without falling!  The adrenaline rush from boarding my first black diamond was so great that my knees were shaking when I got to the bottom.  I made it though, and then took the kids back up to take them down it!  No more bunny slopes for me is all I have to say about that! 

 

 

We won’t get to go again until this next winter and I already can’t wait. I really want to go try out the other black diamond runs that they have…I’m just hoping I don’t lose everything I learned during the summer. If I do, I’m sure Jeremy will be glad to teach me again, haha!

We got back into town and met Tim and Karen and Marie and all the kids out on the beach at Lucky Peak. They’d been there all day, kayaking and canoeing.  The kids were all sandy and grimy and definately worn out! Marie and I were supposed to go kayaking today but it was overcast and windy, so we decided to wait till another time.

As for today…well…it is one I’d rather not repeat. I took the opportunity to tackle some overdue phone calls, mostly about bills that were due and arrangements that needed to be made….and I made it through, but now have a splitting headache to call my own. The good news is, we’ll survive a little while longer with all utilities intact.  I also found out that on May 4th, I can reapply for unemployment. It is good to know that worst case scenario, I have that to fall back on. I sure hope to heck my dream job comes along before then…or if not my dream job, one that I can at least succeed at!

I think that is most of what is going on….oh yeah, did I tell you Sergei and I got numbers for the Race to Robie Creek this Saturday? I think I did…but just in case you missed it, we’re running 13 miles of dirt road, 8 uphill and 5 down. This is a major event, billed as the “Toughest Half Marathon in the West”, so we sure would appreaciate your thoughts on Saturday!  I know we’ll do just fine, running long distances may not be a strong suit of mine, but endurance sure is.  Sergei will be working on blowing them away on time and I’ll be working on meeting some new people and enjoying the scenery…while I grit my teeth and curse the day I ever though I wanted to do this! Next year, I’m definately running for time! This year is just to say I did it!

On that note, I’m going to go try to get my fire going and get some dinner for the kids and just hang out for the evening!

 

p.s. Leigh MADE me write this blog.  Ya happy now?

 

Reliving last summer on the boat…

Most of you have probably heard this story (a couple of times) but I was just thinking about everything that I need to do to get the boat ready. The water level is coming back up and we are finally warming up and it will be here before I know it!

When I first got the boat, I asked a couple of different people to go with me the first time I put it in, just to make sure I did everything right, didn’t know if there was some trick to it or if it was pretty straightforward. I was nervous though and figured that would be best.  Things came up though and that just never happened, so when Gene came out to visit, I rounded up Lori and the guy she was dating then, Jim, and the kids and off we went!

We got the boat off the trailer just fine, parked the truck, got everything situated and tried to start the boat. Nothing. When I’d bought it, the guy started it up just fine. We figured out that it was just the shifter, you have to push it a certain way to get it started.  Got it going, putted out into the no-wake zone and I just tried to get a feel for the responsive-ness of  the wheel. It isn’t like driving a car, where it reacts immediately, there is a delay. I remember saying something to Gene about it, but he didn’t say much.

As we headed out of the no-wake zone, I got a little braver and went a little faster. Little by little, I inched the speed up. Ok…now I can go straight and really fast…and I even conquered the slight curves as we went through the canyons. Well….guess we better figure out how to make bigger turns in this thing! I believe I said “Lets do doughnuts!” as I cut the wheel. First a big circle…that was fine…then a smaller one and a smaller one until suddenly, that boat was standing on edge. The kids were screaming, Lori was yelling, Jim and Gene were yelling to slow down.

I did….the kids started crying, Lori demanded that we pull up to a dock (presumably so she could empty her drawers) and for the next few hours, the kids demanded that someone else drive the boat. Jim started picking on me and I responded with “well, how was I supposed to know? I’d never driven a boat before!”. You coulda heard a pin drop, then Gene started laughing. Jim never did think it was funny, and proceeded to tell me how HE thought I should drive the boat, while Lori took a few hours to get normal skin color back.

We finally got the kids a little more ok with it by having Gene teach THEM how to drive. Even then, which ever one wasn’t driving would only cower on the floor and plead with us to slow down. 

Now…let me defend myself here by just saying that I do have SOME experience with boats. I spent plenty of time at the help of the ship I was on in the Navy and I’ve been out ON boats. I understand the aerodynamics of them and the basics of the limits you can push them to. The boat has a deeper hull than most recreational boats do, and you’d be hard pressed to actually tip it over. 

The day didn’t end there though…once we finally got everyone breathing normally again, we went to explore new territory and promptly ran out of gas. Oops! The guy I bought it from claimed you could pull a skiier all day on one tank….NOT!  I just remember thinking ‘well…sure got ourselves in trouble this time, now what?’ Surprisingly, it only took a minute or so before someone else pulled over and we threw our bow line over and they towed us in to Spring Shores Marina, a few miles from where we put in. The gas pump was closed though, and we’d started taking on water. It took hanging upside down in the water to figure out that the plug had come out, luckily I had a spare (ALWAYS keep a spare plug!). 

Gene flagged down a sheriff’s deputy that was putting a patrol boat in the water and had him run them over to the boat launch to get the truck. I realized as they were pulling away that they didn’t have the keys (I’d thought I’d locked them in and would be able to use the keypad to get in). I flagged down the deputy in the boat to see if he could radio them to come back, but…no radio signal. He said to get in and he’d run me up to the other launch to meet them and we took off. I don’t know if he was just showing off but holy crap! The patrol boat is a jet boat and we were going FAST and hitting the wake so hard that it was like metal on metal. I thought I was going to lose some teeth or fall out, one of the two. We made it though, got the truck, headed back over to Spring Shores.

The story doesn’t end there though!

No….we got started loading the boat up on the trailer…had it on, Gene went to pull the truck forward out of the water and I realized that the motor was still down. I waved my arms and yelled for him to stop, he did and immediately the winch rope snapped and the boat slid backwards. All I could do was turn around and put my hands over my ears, because I knew we were going to be losing that huge tank of a boat right onto the concrete. It slide backwards and stopped when the prop caught on the concrete though. Another guy came running over to help and loaned us a tow strap to winch it back up, Gene cranked while the rest of us pushed. We finally got it back on the trailer, but the tow strap was too slick, it wouldn’t stay tight. 

We pulled it out of the water and parked in the parking lot, took Lori and Jim back to their car and headed down to town to find a new winch line. Of course…the same stores that had had them days before were now sold out…so we got some rope and headed back up. I’m booking it back up 21 trying to make time before it gets dark and they close the gate to the boat launch….and I get party lights in the rearview mirror. Great…now what? I explained what we were trying to do and Gene schmoozed them with his southern accent and he let us go. Got to the launch, changed out the rope, strapped it down the best we could and headed for home.

Up the driveway, ever so carefully…and jockeyed it into the parking spot. I realized as we parked it that the new rope had snapped during the trip, the only thing holding it on were the straps on the back. If that thing had come off on the steep driveway, it would have taken a crane to put it back on!

We did get the winch line replaced with something much more heavy duty, and there were a few more boating adventures that followed, but nothing nearly as dramatic.

Here’s to hoping we have a smooth boating season this year!

Update on Lee

For those of you who have asked, Lee is home and doing better. The Dr’s think that he just has so much going on physically that his nervous system overloaded and sent him into the seizure. He’s still got a ways to go to be ‘healthy’, but he’s home and resting!

I’m running a half marathon!

I say every year that I’m going to run the Race to Robie Creek (www.robiecreek.com) and I fail to get a number (or flat out chicken out) every year. I scored two yesterday though and Sergei (Karen’s oldest son) and I are going to run it on the 19th of this month! 13 miles of uphill dirt road. I’m not going to make him run it with me though, because we are running for different reasons….he’ll be running for time and I’ll be running just to try to finish the danged thing! Check out the website for photos of last year and the course we’ll be running. This is the biggest half-marathon in the west and it ends in my own backyard! Ok…4 miles from my backyard.  I’ll be sure to get some pictures and post them then!