Running through life...

Do you ever feel like your running through life...last week seems like it happened a month ago but you can't believe that next week the month is already over?? Everyday is a marathon and we just take what comes and keep going...

 

On Wednesday Taylor had a league meet that is a race with the surrounding high schools. The day before or the day of every race the boys wear their shorts to school. Even though Taylor wears spandex under his daisy dukes he admits it's pretty comical looking. His science class had to do presentations and it was a race day and he was wearing his mini shorts hoping with all hope she wouldn't have time to do his presentation that day. Well just his luck he got called up to the front at the end of class. There were snickers coming from one section of the class when he started...so he stopped mid presentation and pointed to his legs and said

"Yes, they're spandex."

The teacher said "He had to wear them for cross country, get over it!" The snickering stopped but Taylor said his shorts probably made his presentation more interesting, everyone paid attention to him ;) 

 I was very happy this race was local so I could go. King was hosting it so we got even help out. I volunteered to help collect tags at the finish line, which was pretty sweaty work (a lot of the tags were pretty drippy, blah)...but I was able to sneak away to get some pictures (of course).

Here's the JV girls getting ready to race.

Here's the boys JV starting their race. The boys tend to order themselves in order of who they think will finish first. Because Taylor is a freshman he gets pushed to the back...probably loses him a second or two. I told him it doesn't matter where you start, just where you finish.

I got to cheer Taylor on as he ran.

Luckily they came by twice because I missed him the first time. When the crowd ran by I was looking hard for him and they kept coming...and coming and no Taylor. It was getting later and later and stragglers were coming and I was feeling bad that Taylor was doing so badly...then I got worried that he had hurt himself as only a few runners were left to come by. I was standing next to Simone Bradford and her daughters who were standing there to cheer him on and they didn't see him either. All the sudden the youngest girl said "I saw Taylor! I already called to him a long time ago" whew, what a relief but funny that she was the only one who could pick him out :)

 

Yeah Taylor coming into the finish!!!!

Taylor ran it in about 17 minutes which is a couple minutes better than his normal time...then they re-measured the course and realized it wasn't a full 3 miles (all the runners were saying they didn't think it was long enough). He ran hard and did great. He's one of the faster freshmen boys.

We're so proud of him for always trying hard and trying to push himself a little more all the time! He's even learning to appreciate running jsut for running's sake.

Right after the race we ran home to eat dinner and I took Jacob to soccer while Jeff took Taylor to the Stake Court of honor. Jacob and Ashley and I showed up about an hour after it started and we still hadn't missed the Woodcrest ward's presentation. My last minute slide show medley of the different scout groups super-activities was shown. We were glad we didn't miss it...but after how long everyone else's presentations took...everyone was so DONE I think I could've cut it down even more even though I only did 2 minutes for each group.

This was a looong night, I got the younger two home almost at 9:45 and then Taylor had a paper due and homework so he was up until 12:30 and then up again in the morning at 4:00am.

While Taylor was sitting at the computer he discovered Ashley's silly bands which are now the hottest thing at school. He even swiped a couple to wear to school the next day. (I guess both boys and girls wear them) Ashley thought this was hilarious.

I had read about silly bands on the east coast blogs I follow...through the novelty...the popularity and then the banning of them from the schools months ago and I had yet to see them.

So now they're hear...already in the course of maybe 3 weeks they've gone through all the stages and now they are banned from Ashley's classroom and she can't wear them to school anymore. (I guess they were too distracting and the kids would play with them too much)

On Thursday night it was back to school night for Taylor. 3 schools and this is my 3rd back to school night.

This time I had to go to all of Taylor's classes in order and hear presentations from his teacher. He gave me his schedule and I loved his "0 period" which for him is seminary. :)  I'm so glad that he actually enjoys seminary, he never complains about having to go and I think he likes that spiritual boost and the time he gets to spend with his Mormon friends in the morning.

I stumbled across campus trying to find all the classes (his campus is huge and somewhat confusing!) Luckily there were some ROTC people that were around to help direct us. But by the end it was dark and all of us parents are walking up and down stairs all over trying not to bump into each other staring down at these schedules. I only messed up once and ended up in the wrong period of his English class.

Instead of hearing about Honor's intro to Lit I heard about remedial English for juniors that have no interest in college. I'm glad I went though just for the fact that I got to observe the teacher. I ended up having to agree with Taylor, this teacher was a bit of an odd duck.

Friday night Jeff and I thought we didn't have anything going on so we were starting to figure out what to do when Taylor said "There is stake volleyball tonight and then we want to get together at Becca's after".

OK if the boys go to the stake center that means Jeff has to be there (he's Taylor's leader) so he was out for the night but we decided to host Taylor's friends here to watch a movie after. He's been invited to so many people's houses but since we haven't ever found a night that we were free we haven't been able to return the favor yet.

So Jeff took the boys to volleyball and I worked on caramel popcorn and brownies for the kids when they came back to watch Prince of Persia (great action movie). Since it was last minute the only people that could come were Becca, Madeline and Elise.

Ashley got comfortable on Becca..

And everyone else got comfortable all over the room. Jacob was very happy to be a part of it and said it was fun even though all they did was eat tons of snacks and watch a movie (I think he liked being with the older kids). They left by 11:00 and Taylor and I were out the door for Cross country by 6:15 the next morning.

Taylor's teacher's quorum was wake boarding in the morning but Taylor didn't want to miss practice so being the good mom I took him to practice and then brought him out to the lake to meet up with his group.

He decided to run with the group 2 runners (the group that the coach said he wasn't ready for) and ran 10 miles!!! In one hour and 13 minutes!!! I guess he kept up with the guys and didn't have a problem with it. He ran fast than this threshold time for all 10 miles. Crazy.

The only problem was he was so tired out he couldn't get up on the wake board. So he hung out in the boat trying not to fall asleep.  

From dropping off Taylor I ran to the grocery store  to rush through shopping and then picked up Jacob and Ashley to take Jacob out to the soccer fields to get team pictures.

All day Jeff was in referee class. It was a hard core allllll day class from 8 to 5 with no break for lunch (they brought in pizza) He called me for 2 minutes twice for a potty break. Luckily he passed the test in the end so now he can be an official line judge during Jacob's games and has the power to call offsides. This year they required that a certain number of parents become referees Jeff was nice enough to volunteer.

The bad thing he said is that he won't be able to yell from the sidelines anymore...I'm thinking this is a good thing :)    though I know it will be sad that he can't yell encouragement to Jacob while he's in uniform. I guess I'll have to get louder.

On Saturday I finally got a shower and got to sit down and eat at about 2:00 after the non-stop running around.

At 4:45 I left to go to the Relief Society General broadcast and annual dinner. Jeff still wasn't home from his class yet!! He ended up having quite a long day!

At the Stake center they had a cupcake challenge for the dessert. They had the cutest cupcakes!! 

It made me remember why I love Relief Society!! I had fond memories come over me of all the activities and times I had attended fun, spiritual and uplifting events right there at that building. Made me grateful to be part of the church!

Look at all these beautiful women!

Better than the cupcakes was the talks especially the prophets talk.

He started out telling a story basically about not worrying so much about the neighbors dirty laundry being hung out to dry until we look at the cleanliness of our window we are looking out of. It was all on not judging and being charitable.

What stood out to me was not only not judging on the outward appearance of a person but on not judging what they do, or don't do, or your perception of their errors, failings and things that irritate you.

My thought was bbasically we are all imperfect so we are ALL looking at somebody else's laundry through dirty windows.

He said that being judgemental and critical is the Opposite of Charity.

You can't pick apart someone else for what they say, do, look like, act like or don't act like and see them as Christ sees them. It isn't possible.

The only way we can see someone through a clean window for who they really are, see their potential and appreciate them is to see them as Christ sees them. We can only do this by having the spirit with us and by looking past what we THINK is dirty laundry.

So basically we can't be Christlike if we are being critical, judgmental or looking down on anyone.

Good food for thought.

I was glad for the spiritual boost because when I got home I learned that Jeff had spent all evening at the new house we are trying to buy dealing with the fact that it was broken into and stripped of probably at least 10,000 worth of appliances, fixtures, even custom built in cabinetry.  Only the Lord knows if our "dream house" is becoming too much of a money pit for us and we'll have to end up walking away. I am grateful for a faithful husband that reminded me we just have to turn it over to the Lord's hands and if it's meant to be it will work out. His calm faith in knowing the Lord knows us and our situation and that he will help guide us to know what to do when the time comes has helped calm me down and stop being worried about it.

So if it happens it happens great, if not we'll just move on.

I am very grateful that this years council trip is coming up. I feel like I've barely seen Jeff lately and we are going just the two of us to Florida for his New York Life meetings and we're leaving the kids here so they don't miss school.

Daren and Tiffany are playing parents for the week so we had them over to go over some of the ropes (life sure looks complicated when you have to write it down).

The kids are just thrilled that they are going to have a week with a baby to play with!!