WEEK OF JUNE 25th - WE'RE GETTING A NEW GRANDDAUGHTER

Today is a wonderful family day. Brooklyn Brielle Giles will receive a baby's blessing this afternoon in Sacrament meeting from her daddy Thomas.

Lindsey and Thomas arrived yesterday evening around 8 or 9 p.m. They'd stopped in Grandview on the way from Boise to visit with Thomas's grandma and some of his siblings who are staying at his grandma's. Our Sacrament meeting starts at 1 p.m., so we'll try to be there by 12:30 p.m. to take some family pictures before hand and save some seats.

All of Thomas's siblings are coming including his sister and her son from Texas and of course his mom and dad and Darvin, and I, Darvin's dad, Lance, Donna and Aidan. After Sacrament meeting we'll come home and start bar-b-quing for a family luncheon. We're going to have hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, fruits, vegetables, soda pop, cake and ice cream. We'll also cook a couple of salmon burgers for Donna. It'll be nice to spend some time chatting with both sides of the family.

SATURDAY - JUNE 30, 2012
Wow, it's hard to believe June will be over after today. Time flies! Today is the 5k race at West Valley park. My goal is to run the whole thing. I can do it, I'm sure of it. I ran 3 miles earlier in the week without stopping I can run 3.1 miles too! This morning on my arm I wrote in permanent marker "Run the whole race - YOU CAN DO IT!"

I got up this morning about 2 hours before the race was scheduled to start. Made myself a protein shake and ate 4 strawberries. I've since had 32 ounces of water to drink with an hour to go before race time. We'll see if this agrees with me.
Back from the race! I DID IT! I completed my goal. I RAN the whole way, I didn't WALK one step! I sure appreciated the people that encouraged me. I had one woman I think in her 20's who had been walk/jogging. She and I finished the 2nd lap around the same time and she told me she wanted to try to run the last lap with me. She did a walk/run and she actually beat me, but I didn't care, my goal was NOT to walk, so I didn't care about my time. I was encouraging her to run as she walked up the last two hills on the last lap. It was nice to be accountable to her as I'd shown her my goal on my arm to run the whole race. As Haley Moon passed me on her last lap she told me I could do it! Bless Ethan Kimzey's heart. I had 3 or 4 of my seminary kids that ran the race and Ethan did a cool down lap and caught up with me when I had about 1/3rd of my last lap left and jogged to the finish line with me! I love that kid! He was so sweet, he kept encouraging me and telling me I was almost there. When we had about 100 yards left he asked me if I wanted to sprint it. I told him I WAS sprinting it! lol I'd sped up ever so slowly! I actually did better on my time than I expected. Here's the 'after' shot of my arm:

My cousin Jeanie Searcy posted a facebook message to me this morning after I finished the race. She indicated that she wants to start becoming a runner, that she's always wanted to and asked for some advice on how to get started. She was so sweet indicating that my facebook comments about my progress have been very inspirational to her. I told her that the hardest thing for me has been getting rid of my negative self talk, and all the doubts and reasons why I can't succeed. I still struggle every single time I go out on a run! BUT, I'm starting to feel like I WANT to run. When I go out just for a walk it's really hard not to start running! I told her how much I love the couch to 5k program. Another thing that has been really important for me is convincing myself that it didn't matter if I had a setback I just need to keep trying. It has been so emotionally thrilling for me to be able to accomplish these things that I never thought I was capable of. I plan on getting in the best shape of my life in my 50's! If I don't take care of myself, no one else will! I never set out to be an inspiration to anyone, I decided that by posting on facebook it would help hold me accountable. It has been very fulfilling to hear that other people have been motivated by my posts.
According to my Garmin I ran 3.26 miles with a 12:28 pace. Certainly not my best pace by any stretch of the imagination, but I was running in the grass and I DIDN'T QUIT! I'm a winner!
I am currently enjoying listening to Darvin and Aidan in the man-cave. Darvin is playing his guitar and 'teaching' Aidan how to play. It's the sweetest thing ever! I keep hearing Aidan saying, "Yeah", "Yeah"! So fun to have this sweet little person around.
Aidan enjoys bubble bath time at Aunt Denise and Pop's house!

FRIDAY - JUNE 29, 2012
It's another traveling day. I'm exhausted. The babies have had a rough time traveling. Between not being able to sleep in the car and having problems sleeping at night I think we're all worn out. Hopefully Lance, Donna, Aidan and I will do well on the last segment of our travel this week. We're heading from Boise back to Yakima today. I'm wishing for a quick and uneventful trip home today!

THURSDAY - JUNE 28, 2012
We returned from Salt Lake City to Boise today. We're were hoping to leave Salt Lake by 3 p.m. so we'd arrive in Boise about 9 p.m. We didn't depart until 3:30 and didn't arrive in Boise until about 10 p.m. We barely had enough gas to get to Boise. The warning light came on just as we were arriving in the city limits. Brooklyn had a bit of a rough time. She cried for about an hour straight at one point. We made 3 stops instead of the 2 we'd made on the way down to Salt Lake.
Lance drove the first half of the trip. As we were preparing to depart Salt Lake he was checking to see that the side mirrors were set correctly and noticed that the passenger side mirror had been broken. It was a very strange break as it was the plastic cover underneath the mirror. Apparently another car had knocked against the mirror at their hotel room. What a bummer!

I don't know why we seem to attract problems when we have rental cars. Fortunately what my primary insurance doesn't cover American Express will pay. In my experience it's just such a hassle to get the claim processed and deal with the rental car agencies! We'll see how customer service friendly Alamo is! When I returned the car this evening Javier the employee that was on duty said he was relatively new, so he suggested I call the manager back during normal business hours to get more details on the claim process. He said they wouldn't file the claim that they'd mail me a bill and I'd have to file my own claim. That just doesn't seem right. We shall see!

I'm really glad we were able to go visit Mom. Even if it was a very short visit! It was nice to be able to chat with her and do some catching up. She really seemed to enjoy seeing the grandbaby (Aidan) and great grandbaby (Brooklyn).

Lindsey and I were glad that we were able to stay at her apartment with her as we were able to spend more time visiting. Lindsey and I would both like to return in October to attend General Conference with Mom.

WEDNESDAY - JUNE 27, 2012
We made it to Salt Lake City yesterday with all 4 adults and 2 little people all in one piece!

Poor Aidan is not sleeping in the car, so he hasn't been getting his naps which makes for a very tired little boy. No big plans today. Mom would like us to visit the Family History Library where she works this afternoon when both shifts are working so we can meet the folks she works with. She would also like us to visit the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Other than that we'll probably just have a relaxing day visiting.

Lindsey, Brooklyn and I are staying at Mom's apartment. Mom spent the night with us at her apartment which was nice because then we were able to get up and spend time to chat. It's been nice to catch up.

Aidan's favorite part of exploring Salt Lake was the 'broom brooms' at the Joseph Smith Memorial building!

Yesterday evening Donna and I took a walk at the high school track that's a block from Mom's apartment. It had cooled off by the end of the day (it's been SUPER hot here) so it was a really nice 2.5 mile walk. Today is a running day. I plan on running this evening around 9 p.m. again after it's cooled off (hopefully).

Just returned from my run. I'm kind of proud of myself. I know, I shouldn't be prideful, but I don't know what else to call it. I have been tired since arriving in Salt Lake City and the elevation is about double Yakima's but it didn't stop me from my run late this evening. I didn't get out until about 10:30 p.m. I was determined to beat my last longest run which was 32:20 minutes. I have a head light that I use at night and at home I always take Abby with me when I run at night, but she wasn't here and everyone else was ready for bed, so I headed out by myself. I started running at the track, but after a few times around the track alone there was a guy that was walking between the track and the field. It was relatively dark on the track, so I decided it would be safer to run around the block on the sidewalks. I finished my lap and headed for the sidewalks. I was thinking I'd need to go around the block about 5 times to complete my time. I decided I wouldn't look at my watch until I'd gone around at least 5 times. My Garmin watch was set for 34:00 minutes. I decided I'd try to keep running even after the timer went off if I felt like I still had some stamina. I was excited when the Garmin went off at 34 minutes and kept running. I ended up running 37:08 minutes! A new personal record AND 3 miles which was a much slower pace than usual, but almost to the 5k mark so I'm not complaining! I should be in good shape to finish the 5k race on Saturday. Hooray!


TUESDAY - JUNE 26, 2012

Exciting news yesterday! Ashley delivered Vona LeeAnn Rush on Monday, June 25 at 9:20 p.m. CST. She was 21 1/4" long, 7 lbs 3 oz with a head circumference of 14ish". I think Ashley was in labor for about 18 hours (maybe Ashley can correct me if I'm wrong). They had a home birth. The plan was to have her in a pool provided by the midwives, but as 'luck' would have it Ashley had needed to get up out of the pool to walk around when she started feeling like if they didn't check her and tell her she was about to have the baby, then she wanted to go to the hospital. So she laid down on the bed. When they checked her the baby was crowning so she stayed in bed to have her.

Ashley had Justin, her two midwives, her mother-in-law Dolly and her Aunt Vicki there for the birth (and of course Bernice the proud big sister dog!). I knew that she was going to have quite a 'crowd' so felt like it would be more helpful if I came after the baby was born and Dolly had gone home, so we could extend the support. Ashley said that at one point in the labor all she wanted was for me to be there. I felt really horrible about that, but hope that we made the right decision in me coming later. I'll arrive on July 11th and will stay until July 31st. Justin and Vicki will both be gone from the 18th through the 31st on tour with their band, so I think it'll be good for me to be there to help.

On another happy note, Darvin received a letter from the Board of Pharmacy yesterday indicating that he was within the scope of practice in the investigation that they'd been conducting on a patient that had died at the hospital 3 years ago. So, case closed. Hooray! He knew that he'd followed hospital protocol, but you never know how crazy government agencies will act!

Now if we can convince Great Grandpa Clement that living near the grandkids is the thing to do, we can start working on getting our houses on the market so we can move to Texas!

MONDAY - JUNE 25, 2012

It looks like today will be the day the baby Vona makes her arrival!! I had a message on my answering machine that Ashley is in labor. Hooray! She decided not to wait for her Daddy's birthday on Wednesday. Ashley's contractions started sometime in the night. I think she'd been in labor a couple of hours by the time she called me around 7 a.m. Yakima time (5 a.m. Dallas time). It's now about 8 a.m. and the midwife should be coming over in about an hour to check Ashley. Her contractions are about 2 minutes apart and lasting about 40 seconds right now. Vicki's 'on call' waiting to get an update after the midwife checks Ashley, and Justin's mom is on her way up. EXCITING!!

Lance, Donna, Aidan and I will be traveling to Boise to Lindsey's later this morning. We'll spend the night there and then will head on to Salt Lake with Lindsey and Brooklyn tomorrow. It should be a fun week.

Darvin came home from work last night super frustrated. It will be so nice when we can move and he can get a retail job. He's really tired of working with the stress at the hospital.