Sad times for Mark

We have been gearing up around here to run the ING Hartford Marathon or 1/2 marathon October 9th. Mark was planning to run the full, and Abram and I are registered for the 1/2 marathon.

I am recovering well from my stress fracture and I am feeling strong. I ran my first post-fracture 6-miler today, and it was actually fun. No music or anything! I was just enjoying the beautiful morning with no distractions.

Mark is another story. After his recovery period from the Newport Marathon, he jumped right back into a training program for Hartford, and was back up at 70 miles a week before too long. He was really doing well, and then about 2 weeks ago, he just had a terrible week. His week would have been a good week for me, but for him, it was terrible. His speed and leg turnover just wasn't there, and he couldn't figure out why.

Then about 10 days ago, he started hobbling around like an old man with a severe pain in his lower back deep inside of his....well....gluteus. He did turn 42 last week, but that's not old. He actually took some days off of running, which he has never done before. He tried running again twice this week, and I happened to see him coming home, and noticed a severe limp and short stride. I told him he had better go see a doctor, because he looked like I felt when I discovered I had a stress fracture. He did go see a doctor, and yesterday he had an MRI.

Diagnosis is--he broke his butt. Literally. A sacral stress fracture. This type of stress fracture is extremely rare, and usually only seen in long-distance runners training 70 or more miles a week.

His plans for Hartford are up in the air. No marathon for sure, but it is 7 weeks away, and it is possible he may run the half with whatever is left in him after recovering, swimming and lifting weights for the next 7 weeks. But I don't think he could run in a race and just be in it to finish. He would push himself to go fast, and that wouldn't be good. Poor Mark.

Now the plan is that both of us will run the Houston 1/2 Marathon at the end of January, and Mark will train hard once he is better for the Boston Marathon April 19th. That's the one that really matters. I think Mark would be having a harder time with his injury if he had been counting on Hartford for his BQ. But he's got it, so that takes pressure off of trying to pull out a miracle for Hartford.

So now I get to have a swimming buddy for my 5:30am swims. That's not a bad thing.

We love Uncle Scott

When we were in Salt Lake for spring break, we had a lot of fun. But one of the most fun things was when my brother, who is amazing at everything, took pictures of all the grandkids. My brother-in-law works at a TV station, and he arranged for us to use one of the studios for an evening. Scott brought all his gear, and we all headed downtown for a night of photos.

These are a few of his works of art. He did such a perfect job of capturing the personality of each of my kids.

Joel

Jacob

Aubrey
Abram
Zack
Savanna
NoahI have a few more treasures from Scott that I'll save for a post later.

Henry Knox

You may not believe it, but this is actually a post about a costume I made 2 years ago. In my quest to unearth past Halloween costume pictures, I realized that in 2008, I did not make any Halloween costumes. That September/October I ended up with big tummy trouble that put me in the ER and GI doc's office for a Halloween colonoscopy that saved my life, and the lives of 3 of my siblings. But that is a post in and of itself. This one is about a costume I made earlier in 2008 for Abram for his school's Walk Through History. Each 8th grader had to choose a person from American history and make a set, wear a costume, and give a speech to anyone who would stop and listen. There were hundreds of kids lining the halls of the school. Of course, Abram was the best. And he was Henry Knox.

Have you heard of Henry Knox? Probably not. He is my favorite hero of the American Revolution. Well, there are a lot of great guys and gals from that era that helped our country give the boot to King George; but as much as I love George Washington, I also love Henry Knox. I could swear that I have blogged about my admiration of this man before, but apparently I have not.

Knox was one of the bravest, smartest, and war-savvy, imaginative men who have ever lived. Sure, if you have heard of Henry Knox, it was probably just a sentence in a history book acknowledging that he was our country's first Secretary of War. He and George Washington were BFFs. But what happened to make them so? Let me tell you.

Here's the short version. The best rendition is told by David McCullough in "1776." Read it! The story of the guns of Ticonderoga and the British quickly departing Boston is a tear-jerker.

In 1772, Knox left his life as a bookstore owner, and joined a local militia unit. Later, at the outbreak of the War for Independence, he volunteered for service at Bunker Hill (June 1775), where he served with distinction. Knox caught Washington's eye and received an immediate appointment as an artillery colonel in the Continental Army. In the winter of 1775-76, Knox suggested the genius idea that the cannons of recently-captured Fort Ticonderoga could help turn the fortunes of the Colonists. Washington told Knox to take as many men as he needed and to get the cannons to Boston. In a truly remarkable trek, Knox and his men managed to transport 59 pieces of artillery on oxen-drawn sleds over 300 miles of snow and ice to Washington’s waiting army. They didn't lose even one cannon--even the one that fell through the ice into a river they managed to recover.

The artillery pieces were stealthily installed in the darkness of night and cover of fog on Dorchester Heights, overlooking the British-occupied city of Boston below. The British woke up in the morning surrounded by cannons that had not been there when they had all said nighty-night. The British were under the mistaken impression that the colonists had no artillery in America. When they saw 59 cannons and 20 hastily-constructed sticks-over-rum-barrel forts (which appeared as real log-construction dwellings) that morning on Dorchester Heights, the British peacefully and rather quickly bid farewell to Boston before the sun had set that same day.

Henry Knox lived a happy and busy life, continuing to serve his country as the first secretary of war under Washington, and then retired to live a quiet life of a gentleman farmer in Montpelier. His life was cut short at age 56 when he choked on a chicken bone at a family get-together. Poor Henry.

To turn a scrawny 116-pound, 5 ft. 5 in. 8th grader into a 300-pound, 6'4" man was no easy task. I made a revolutionary-era costume in the largest possible size. And then I took a big square of 1" foam and cut it into a circle. I cut pie-shaped wedges out and then glued the edges together to give it a nice, big convex belly shape. Abram's set was complete with a cushy chair, a sign for his book store, and a pewter platter with a chicken on it. Luckily, he didn't choke while he talked and ate chicken at the same time.

How does Henry Knox impact society today? For one thing, Bostonians celebrate Evacuation Day on March 17th every year. Also, ever heard of Fort Knox? And who can't live without my favorite--the Ticonderoga pencil? You know, the one with the eraser that actually works? The guy on the package IS Henry Knox. Plus, we all have our country because of this guy. Seriously, the colonists were on the verge of losing Boston and giving up when this big hunk stepped in to save the day.

I dream of going along the Henry Knox trail some day just to see what kind of insane trek this hero made. Thank you, Henry.

My baby is 4!

Today we celebrate the happiest and hardest day of my life. The day that Zack joined our family and made us all so happy. He has always been the sweetest, happiest, most mellow, and most charming boy I can imagine. He is witty and smart, and so dang cute.He started out at a scrawny 9 pounds 13 ounces, 2 weeks early. What a sweet little bug.
We'll never forget his first birthday when we all watched the big red number 1 balloon fly away up into the air unexpectedly.
By the time Zack was 2, he could speak in complete sentences, and tell jokes like nobody's business. He also potty-trained himself at about 2 1/2.

It seems like just yesterday that he turned 3. He is so great at explaining and describing everything, and he is super observant. He remembers everything and can find anything that I have misplaced.
I love everything about this boy. His face, his giggle, his toes, his soft, fluffy hair, his big eyes, his white teeth, and his huge hands. I love to snuggle with him, and I'm so glad that he still likes to snuggle up with me. He loves most movies that I do, and we could read books all day without him getting bored. He can run faster and jump higher than any kid I've ever seen. And boy, can he sing! One year until he goes to school. I've got to live it up.

One good thing about Zack turning 4 is that now when people ask him, "Are you four or five?" He will be able to say, "Four," rather than giving them a crazy look like, "What is wrong with you? I'm three."

Party like it's 1990

I loved high school. I really, really loved it. Every day was fun, and I never complained about waking up at 5:30 AM to wash and dry my long hair before putting it up in hot rollers while I practiced the piano. I loved my teachers . I loved my friends. I loved my classes. I loved everything about it.

Well, that was 20 years ago. My high school reunion was last weekend, and I left Mark and the kids for a weekend in Salt Lake City.

Friday night was a casual gathering at the high school football field. No spouses. Just alumni. I admit my heart was pounding as I walked up to the gate alone, but I soon found old friends and spent the next several hours chatting away with people I knew well, some I don't remember knowing but must have, and some I knew a little bit but really clicked with 20 years later.

At about 10:30 when the crowd was dispersing, one of my friends asked if I needed to get home. Of course, I did not need to be anywhere, as Mark and the kids were 800 miles away, and so about 12 of us went to Hires. It's always a good time for a Big H and a frosty mug. We talked and laughed until about 2AM. Hire's booted us out at about 12:30, but we stood around in the parking lot talking for another hour and a half. At our midnight meal, a group of four of us decided to run the Disneyland Half Marathon next year. I am so excited for that.

I spent the afternoon Saturday with my Grandma and Grandpa Breinholt--2 of my favorite people in the world. They are slowing down, but are just as amazing and fun to be with as they were when I was little.

Saturday night was the fancy party. I was happy that many of my friends were going without husbands. After I was at Mark's reunion 4 years ago, we made the agreement that he really didn't need to come to mine. I spent the night talking to many people I had always wondered about, and re-acquainting myself with many I had forgotten about. Everyone looked older, but pretty much the same. Thanks to our nametags, it made people easy to recognize. It was such a fun night, that I didn't even care about the lousy food or my rumbling tummy. I should have stopped at Hires on my way there... At least I had a Cafe Rio salad for lunch earlier in the day.

As always, as fun as it was, it was good to come home. The kids and Mark had missed me, and I had missed them. Jacob had done the laundry and Aubrey had shined up the kitchen. Everything was clean! Good thing, too, because about 10 minutes after I got home, we had a fireside at our house for all the youth in our ward.

Happy Belated Halloween!

I was a complete slacker. Well, at first I wasn't. I worked hard all of September and October making costumes for my babes. And then Mark took pictures of all of them, and life got busy and I COMPLETELY forgot to look at any of the pictures or post them so you can see my creations.

Then last week happened. My 20th High School Reunion--a whole other post coming soon. But I needed a picture of myself to send in for the slideshow. I kept meaning to have Mark take one, but things just didn't work out, or I looked crummy when it was convenient to take one. So in desperation last week, I started looking for a picture through the archives. I stumbled across this one at the top from Halloween.

Despite the handsome gorilla next to me, I actually looked pretty decent in this one. But sending in a picture of yourself standing next to a teenage gorilla just isn't cool. So I decided to crop. And sent in this picture.

You can barely see the gorilla fur in the lower left corner.

Last year was a record. I had never made 5 costumes for one Halloween before. Usually the kids can find something in the boxes of costumes in the basement that makes them happy. But this year there were just so many other good ideas.

Savanna, of course, saw the owl pattern and I had to make it. It is my magnum opus.

Zack thinks he is Bolt. It's his favorite movie, and he has white hair, so he is Bolt (his own words). And Noah is Rhino. Crazy, spunky, wild, and so cute. And his teeth were just like Rhino's at Halloween time, so it was the perfect costume.

The problem for these two was that there was no pattern for either one. So I adapted one I had to make Bolt and added the ribbon collar, and Rhino's was a combination of a penguin pattern and mouse pattern I had on hand. And if you tell me Zack looks like a bunny and Noah looks like a mouse I will scream. If you haven't seen Bolt, go watch it. It's one of my favorite Disney movies ever.

Joel wanted to be Hercules. Who knows why? I don't. But this pattern was actually quite easy, and required no adaptation, which was good.

I promised Mark's awesome cousin-in-law Lindsey that I would do a Halloween History post and show all of the creations since 1994. We'll just call this the first installment, and I'll work back from here.

Party with cousins

I have a lot of cousins. My dad is from a family of 10 kids, and I have at least 50 first cousins on that side alone. As if that wasn't enough cousins, Mark's mom is from a family of 14 kids, and he has 78 first cousins on that side. The ages of his cousins range from 47 down to 13. Not a chance Mark could name all of his cousins, or even recognize many of them as he grew up away from most of them. But thanks to Bradley girls weekends, I know many of his cousins and aunts better than he does. When I was dating Mark, we went to a birthday party for his grandpa. Mark introduced me to his aunts and uncles, and they all asked me the same question, "Are you overwhelmed by all these people?" When I told them, "No. My dad is from a huge family and this is just like one of the Breinholt parties," I don't think they believed me. But it just felt like home to me. I always wanted 86 more cousins.

We were lucky enough to have Mark's aunt Lisa and her family come for a week to spend their summer vacation with us. It was so fun. Lisa is the youngest of the 14 kids, and so she is not much older than Mark. Her youngest kids are the same ages as our oldest kids, and everyone really hit it off. I have no clue what the technical term of the relationship her kids have to my kids is (cousins once removed, second cousins???), but it doesn't matter. They were cousins, and they were having a party.

How did we start the week? We watched the sun set from Crown Point. The next morning, we got up and hiked to Punchbowl Falls in the gorge. It was a perfect day for a hike, and we waded through the icy water at Punchbowl where we ate lunch under a rocky cliff. We had to do the good tourist thing and stop at Multnomah Falls on the way back to my house.

We then went on a very exciting adventure: Winco! I had told them all about my favorite store, and also its excellent pizza and bulk food section. They were impressed, of course. Who wouldn't be?

Our next exciting adventure was a trip to Fabric Depot. 1 1/2 acres of fabric. It's just heavenly. The boys had randomly decided they all wanted matching Pokemon pillowcases, and Fabric Depot did not disappoint. The girls found some lovely fake furs as well.

To top this day off we headed to the ultimate Portland landmark: Powells Books. It's supposedly the world's largest used bookstore. All I know is it is big and confusing and it smells like the Terror Ride at Lagoon. And there are A LOT of books. Piled miles high. It was a fun adventure. Especially the parking garage.

They headed for the beach and we followed them there the next day. Here are a few shots from our adventure to the beach. We stayed in a KOA Kozy Kabin. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of it. We played at the beach, and then roasted marshmallows over the fire at night. It was a very fun trip.

Who wants to come visit me next?