Two things good things of the place I live in

When we moved to Iowa from Arizona. It was a cultural shock in many ways. In AZ I was close to everything, here I am away from everything, but I have my husband and kids, Which makes home wherever I go. We have been here for a year already and today I want to mention a couple of things that at first did not seem so good, but now I love. Number One, the train passes by in front of our house. I thought it would be impossible to get use to this. But my kids love seeing the train go by everyday. The noise does not bother us at all now, and I get to enjoy many smiles when the train goes by. Specially from Beckam who loves to say: "choo, choo!!!!" and as soon as he wakes up, he wants to see the train.
The second one, we live behind a baseball stadium. I thought it would be noise and hard to deal with all the games so close to our home. However, during baseball season, we have free fireworks shows in front of our house. One of the best views I have ever had of fire works, right in the privacy of our yard. Yesterday, while my hubby was out of town. The kids and I had a movie night, and a pajama party. We got to enjoy an amazing firework show and one more great memory together. Love it!! Sometimes the things that seem to be a hassle in our lives turn out to be good, depending on the perspective we look at them.

St Louis, the Zoo, and the Storm

After drooping off my niece at the St Louis airport we spend a couple of days there. We loved the zoo, and the time we got to play at the hotel pool with the kids. They had lots of fun and were exhausted after a busy day at the zoo and swimming. After a couple of days of fun it was time to come back home. We were stuck in a horrible thunder storm, and had to get off the freeway and park behind a storage building to block the strong winds that were going on, 60 to 70 miles per hour winds. The car was shaking and I seriously thought there was going to be a tornado. We all said a prayer asking for protection. After that prayer Arianna was in the back praying non stop, and Rachel was sucking her thumb. I told Rachel, Rachel you should say a prayer too. She said: "Mom! I am tired, I just want to suck my thumb." This illustrates the difference between the two.They definitively compliment each other. here are some pics

My Niece's Visit

My niece Vanessa came from Utah to visit and to observe at Rob's clinic twice a week for almost a month. She is thinking about being a dental hygienist and had the opportunity to be at the clinic observing how things work. It was a great opportunity for her who is in high school right now. I guess she decided that is what she wants to do. So it was all worth it, and even if she would have decided that is not what she wants to do, it is still worth knowing what route you don't want to take, especially that early in life. We also had a lot of time together and with the kids. One of the things we did was to go to Nauvoo and let the kids play at the pioneer games site. It was lots of fun. We also went hiking, went swimming and had a chance to draw closer together. Fun moments.

Marathon and Insights

June was a busy month. I went to Utah and ran my marathon. It went pretty well, the race was beautiful and challenging specially from mile 22 to 26.2. But I finished as strong as my body allowed me to and my time was 3 hours 24 min 37 sec. I qualified for the Boston Marathon and had a great experience seeing my family at the end. Marathons are always more than a physical experience for me. I always think of a marathon as an analogy of our lives. Many times we enjoy the view, are keeping a good pace and run side by side with many people, learn from them and see them pass by. There are times when we wish we could quit, when our mind is willing but our natural men says "I can't do this anymore, it is too hard". It is then, when something greater inside of us tell us we can do it, that we can finish the race. For me it was many things, it was the memory of my family running and cheering me along the way in my mind. It was the inner strength that I received from a loving Father in Heaven and the idea of seeing my love ones at the end and to say in my heart that I had run a good race and finished what I started. That the months of effort and preparation paid off. I think our lives are just like that. There are good and bad times. Sometimes our only motivation is our love ones, the inner strength we receive from up above to finish a challenge; or the idea that at the end we will have the satisfaction and the peace that we have fought the good fight, and that in the end we will be with our families and enjoy the blessings of heaven with them. I am so grateful for this experience for the time I had to reflect on my life, to think of all those who have made a difference for me, my family, my friends. I am specially grateful for the life my friend Briana Stephens lived, for her battle with cancer. For her whom in the hardest time of my marathon came to my mind. I thought of how she never gave up hope, never gave up trying. I picture her running with me at some point and I received the strength to go a little farther and to not give up. I hope to finish not only this race but the race of life like she did. I also want to thank my family for always supporting me in all I do. Not only my husband and children, but my parents, siblings and in laws. For Rob's family and all my friends who showed me so much love and support. Thank you. I love you all.

Utah Valley Marathon Coming Up

I am so exited!!! I have 11 days to my second marathon. I can't believe I have come this far. My training started on February 7th, 2011. I am following a new training plan, The 100 Day Marathon Plan by Dr.Marius Bakken. February 7th was my first day of three weeks of pre-training but the actual training started March 1st. It has been a long journey with hard speed work outs as well as endurance training. I have tried to follow the program to the T and I feel great so far. I absolutely love this training program. I guess the true test will be the day of the marathon. I am so nervous I decided to blog this last week just to help me relax a little.

Previous Marathon: Ogden Marathon, UT
Finish Time: 3hr 47 min

Goal for the Utah Valley Marathon: To finish in 3 hrs 30 min or better.

Arianna's Preschool Graduation

The Great Bridge River Race

I have been training for four months for the Utah Valley Marathon which will take place June 11th. Last week Rob brought me a flier advertising a 6 mile race. Since my sister was going to be here to pick up her kids, we would have someone to watch our kids, so decided to go ahead and run it. We had a blast and surprise, surprise, I came in first for the women over all category. Wow! I was even surprised. It was fun though. The next day I was in the news paper, I was not planing to be, but it was fun to have that to show my kids one day or Grandkids, that their Mom/Grandma was made it to the news paper hahaha. They might not know what a news paper is by then.

Memories with Cousins

Some pics of Our time with Kianna and Kaella, Arianna and Rachel's cousins.

My Sister's Visit and Our Real Tea Party

My sister karen,her husband, and their two girls Kianna (4 1/2 years old)and Kaella (20 months)came for 4 days to visit. Even though, the main goal of their trip was to leave their daughters here so we could watch them while they went to Europe for a month, we managed some time to have fun during her short stay. One of the great memories we had, was our real tea party at an old house where they offer tea parties on Saturdays. The girls got to dress up and they had hats and jewelry they could wear there. The girls were super exited, they wore their princess dresses and we got to wear some of the hats. Fun, fun!