The month that nearly did me in PART 3.

Let’s wrap this up shall we?

15. Drivers Training.  We signed Kelsey up to take drivers training through the school district.  We headed off to the DMV to get the proper credentials.  Do you think she is excited?

16. Snakes.  It must be the time of year….or the fact that we live in the mountains.  I don’t know, but we have had a ton of snakes!  They are only garden snakes but they still freak  me out.  This one in the picture was blocking my way to the car. I was walking out the door to work and there between me and my car was a snake.  I went to the right and so did the snake. I went to the left and so did the snake.  I called Kendall and he caught the snake.   The best was when Kelsey was using the net to clean insects out of the pool and there was a snake swimming in there!

17. Freshman Orientation.  We entered the gym where the  band was playing, the cheerleaders were performing and the bleachers were full of kids.  It was so strange because I remember being in high school like it was yesterday!  I loved high school, so I hope Kelsey has a good 4 years.   Annoyingly and predictably, the senior boys were all there to check out the girls.  Senior boys look REALLY old compared to my baby!…..and since when do high school boys have MUSTACHES?

18.  First day of school.  Kenny was out of town this week so I tried to be super organized.  In order to get everyone where they need to go I have to leave my house at 7:20 AM!  Here are some pics of the kids.

19. 1/2 Marathon. Two years ago I decided to run a half marathon with my sister, Becky.  She was living out of state and was planning to drive to Pocatello to run the race with me.  She had to quit training and couldn’t run the race.  I ran anyway.  But not the 1/2.  She is living here in Pocatello this year while her husband is deployed to Iraq.  Since they will be moving away when he gets home we decided to train and run our half marathon this year.  Training has been interesting.  With 8 kids between us, the training was crazy.  Some nights we were able to get away and get our run done quickly.  Other nights we brought the whole crew with us to the track.  Those runs took FOREVER.  There were messy pants to change, clinging children….you name it, it probably happened while we were trying to run.  It was pretty humorous.

 

Training for this race was a huge time commitment.  The long runs on Saturday usually took a couple hours.  It was nice to train with Becky.  She is a good listener and was able to help me work through some things I was struggling with.  I grew to admire and respect her insight and am so thankful to have her as a sister and friend.   Before I knew it, summer had flown by and race day was here.  It felt really good to know I had stuck with the training and was prepared to finish.  The race started well and I felt really good.  Things were moving along nicely until about mile 7.  I got a really bad stitch in my side that lasted the rest of the race.  I ran through the pain but I think it slowed me down a little.  The last 2 miles were ROUGH!  I wanted to die.  We only trained to run 10 miles so after mile 11 I could feel my body shutting down.  Becky is the only reason I finished my race.  Our original goal was to finish in 2 hours and 15 minutes but we really wanted to finish under 2 hours. I was slowing down and she said, “If you want a finish time under 2 hours you have to run faster.  I know you don’t care right now but you will after the race.  You want to leave everything you have on the road.”  I am so grateful I had her with  me to push me and encourage me.  If I had been by myself I would have stopped and walked those last few miles.  I can honestly say I left EVERYTHING on the road.   Now all we need to work on is my race finish….  They had our timing chips embedded in our race numbers.  When we started the race we ran across an electronic bar that activated the timer.  As we came to the finish line we were sprinting as fast as we could. I could see the electronic bar ahead and as soon as we crossed it we stopped running, only to see a second bar a few yards ahead was the actual finish line.  So we walked a few steps before realizing it and then ran to the second bar.  What a glorious finish!  Also note to self: Quit talking and smile when you come to the finish line so the photographer doesn’t get spastic pictures like this and this AND this.   Ya, that last one is a beaut!  I was so excited when they posted our times and we finished in 1 hour and 59 minutes!  Here are the pictures of the race.

Up before sunrise.

 

Riding the bus up to the starting line.  There is the electronic bar. :)

Don’t we look happy?……and sweaty?

WE FINISHED!!!

Back at mom’s.

20. Pizza Party.  We celebrated with the kids at Pizza Hut.

 

Zoey made sure to lick her plate clean.

And that is the end of my report on the craziest month ever.  Here’s to hoping September is nice and relaxing.