Moving Day or Week

Well there's no turning back now. The transaction is complete. We have moved all our stuff in and if you came to visit you wouldn't be able to tell what color the carpet is because you wouldn't be able to see it. I never really felt like we had a lot of stuff but moving out of the old house into this one proved me to be uninformed. We were just getting started when this picture was taken, hadn't even begun to move in all the boxes. We've had two Sundays in the house and we havn't yet adjusted to a single bathroom. Church starts at 9am and I think Kaitlin was in the shower at 6:30am to make sure she got hot water. I've just decided that showering isn't that important anymore. So here's how things finally shook out. The family that bought our house closed on a Monday, we closed on Tuesday evening an had until Thursday night to get all our stuff out. I figured it would be no problem but if the YM/YW hadn't have shown up Wednesday there is no way we could have pulled it off. They got all the really heavy stuff out of the old and into the new in less than an hour. So that just left a few more loads of boxes and stuff, oh, and three ton's of hay that had to be moved. Can I just say that I hate hauling hay, absolutely the worst activity I've been involved in. Leslie, Kaitlin, and I got up Saturday morning early to try to beat the rain. The wind was blowing about 60 miles and hour and it was all we could do to keep from getting blown off the stack. We got it stacked on the trailer, hauled down to the new place, and the last tarp went on as the rain started to fall. I had to apologies to the ladies. I had to lay on them pretty heavy when they started telling me how tired they were and needed a break. "We don't have time to be tired now!" I'd say and they'd both give a dirty look and I'd point at the impending storm that the 60 mile an hour winds were blowing our way and back to work they'd go. Good times! I think we've just about got things where they need to be now. Cooper, Wyatt, and Bronson are sharing a room, actually it's the laundry room but we managed to fit the bunk bed in, yes they all three sleep on one bunk bed. The bottom bed is a double. Kaitlin and Addison are sharing a queen in one room and Leslie and I took the other. It's going to be a long year while we get this other house built. Here's a shot of what the view out of our back window will be once we finish, so it will be worth it. BTW, I didn't think it would bug me but we've gone down to the house to pick up a few odds and end's and they have completely torn out the tile downstairs. It took me three days to get that stuff laid and a night of sleeping on the floor. They're putting in hardwood throughout the great room, it's gonna look really nice, we should have done that. Here's a shot of the moving vans. This is how you do it in horse country....

26.2:4:37:07

We did it. Spent the weekend in St. George for the St. George Marathon. This year was so much more fun than last year. We loaded up and headed down to St. George Friday morning and got to the St. George Convention Center about 2:00pm. They have a Health & Fitness Expo that the kids really enjoy going to; it's also where the runners check in. I run in the weight class and figured I'd weigh in around 230 or so. I was surprised when 249 popped up. I think there was something wrong with the scale. After walking around for an hour checking out the booths and getting our share of free samples of Energy Bars and Goo, Leslie and the kids took off and I stuck around to wait for Peter, Nathan and Jill. After they got checked in we went up to Lane and Rhonda's for a big spaghetti dinner. (you've got to carbo load). Nathan and Jill stayed down in town, the rest of us stayed at Lane and Rhonda's house, (thanks you guys it was a good nights sleep) We were all up at 4:15am, including the kids. We had to get down to St. George to meet at the hotel to catch a shuttle to the buses that take you up to the starting line. Leslie and the kids, Lane and Rhonda drove up to Veyo which is at the seven mile mark. We hopped on the bus and started the drive up to the starting line. It's always a little nerve racking driving up there, you just keep going and going and you're thinking to yourself "I have to run all the way back down?" It's quite a site when the bus drops you off with 6500 other runners waiting for the start of the race. I was surprised when Dixon Kumer came walking up, somehow found us in the dark with all those people. After a twenty-five minute wait it was finally time to start running. The run was awesome. It seems like the miles just fly by, nothing like when I'm doing training runs. There are all these people along the way cheering you on, not to mention all the runners. It seemed like at no time at all I was in Veyo passing by Leslie and the kids and feeling pretty good about things and then hit the Veyo hill. Feeling good to not so good. It's pretty tough for me to get up that hill. I felt at the 18 mile mark I was making pretty good time and by the time I was at 24 miles I knew I was going come in at about 4:40 which I was hoping for. Last year those last two miles were mostly walking for me. This year I was still chugging along. It was a good run and can't wait for next year. Having Peter and Nathan there running it too made it even more enjoyable. (even though all I saw of Nathan was his rear end heading off in the dark at the start, he ran it in 3:47, Peter passed me at about the 10 mile mark I think, he ran it in 4:22, not bad for a 40 year old. ;>) Can't wait to do it again next year. I don't think, with all the athletics I've been involved in, I've ever done anything so extremely difficult and so completely satisfying all at the same time. Somehow you have to figure out how to keeping going when every thing inside of you says to stop. Good times.

What I learned this year:

Sodium Pills work really well for keeping the cramps to a minimum

That Goo stuff can really make a difference

Buy a shoe one size bigger next year(fortunately I only lost one toenail)

Compression shorts do a great job of limiting chaffing

Visit to the Dentist

If you've ever wondered what it might look like when a horse has to go to the dentists, wonder no longer. Joe was losing weight and was obviously not feeling good. Leslie finally took him to the vet to see if he could figure out what was wrong. He determined that he needed to have his teeth floated (filed down to smooth) A horses teeth will develop sharp edges and start to rub the inside of there cheeks and tounge raw. Then they don't want to chew so they pretty much inhale whatever food they can get down whole so they get no nutritional value out of it. Here are a few more photo's .... Leslie was there to observe so she can do it herself next time.

This last photo I know looks like a trick that George the Giant performs but those are actually drain tubes. While he was there Joe also had to have a little growth removed from his chest. Pretty cool stuff I should have been a vet. Would have been fun and would have saved us some money on this particular day.