When I get that feeling....

You know that feeling? That one you get deep in your stomach when you can't decide if you're making the right choice or not? How about the feeling of nervousness? You remember those? Now put them together and what do you get? My registration for my first half marathon! Yep, I've officially sent out the form and money to be a participant in the 2010 Top of Utah Half Marathon. I feel sick already. This is a huge goal of mine because I've never been a runner and I would feel accomplished if I completed this race. It's not until August 28 so I have a while to practice up and I need to stop the excuses on why I haven't been running. Tomorrow is a five mile run and with this heat, I may be waiting until 9pm to start and that puts my finish time way past my bed time. Who knew I'd compromise sleep for running? Let the training begin! I'm going to go throw up now.

Goals for the summer

I rarely create a list of goals because I have issues and once I see them, I think I won't do that, so I throw it away. *Mental note: goal #1 should be to save the list*

Anyways, summer is officially here (YES!) and this brings on a new lifestyle for this gal here in Idaho. For starters, summer = more work for Shayne which = less time with me and that = boredom and weight gain. NOT THIS SUMMER! I've got my mind set on the following tasks. Let's call this the "It's summer so get your butt in gear and have fun" list!

Here we go:

1. Complete everything on this list
2. Read 5 books (for some of you, five is a small number but I'm not a reader, so this is a huge goal for me. I may need suggestions for summer reading)
3. Stick with the exercise program
4. Go to the lake every weekend (this is weather pending and won't be too hard, I love the lake)
5. Attend 3 Chuckers games
6. Ride my bike more often
7. Golf
8. RUN THE STINKIN' HALF MARATHON!
9. Love Shayne even if I never see him
10. Spend some quality time with my BFF before she leaves the country
11. Get down two more sizes
12. Go hiking in the Tetons
13. Spend a Friday night with Shayne in the tractor while he's baling (even if there isn't room for two and I'm basically sitting with my butt out the side window)*Also note, this will involve learning everything about farming and tractors*
14. Play tennis
15. Take piano lessons
16. Get back on a horse

I should probably stop there, I think I'm getting ahead of myself. (See...I want to throw the list away already!)

Wish me luck because right now, the lake is all I can think about...and ice cream.

Montana is where my heart is!

Most of us have head this song...

My home's in Montana I wear a bandanna My spurs are of silver My pony is gray While out on the ranges My luck never changes With foot in the stirrup I gallop away!'

I love Montana and I truly believe it's the last best place. Each time I go to visit my family and friends, I can't remember why I moved away. Why did I trade mountains for missionaries? Or valley's full of wild flowers for potato fields? I received this picture from my sister last night, and I am almost positive, my heart ached because I miss this beauty:

Thanks sister for the awesome picture!

Tell me of that Treasure State
Story always new,
Tell of its beauties grand
And its hearts so true.
Mountains of sunset fire
The land I love the best
Let me grasp the hand of one
From out the golden West.

Montana, Montana,
Glory of the West
Of all the states from coast to coast,
You're easily the best.
Montana, Montana,
Where skies are always blue
M-O-N-T-A-N-A,
Montana, I love you.

Each country has its flow'r;
Each one plays a part,
Each bloom brings a longing hope
To some lonely heart.
Bitter Root to me is dear
Growing in my land
Sing then that glorious air

Save Now

The one I understand.

Montana, Montana,
Glory of the West
Of all the states from coast to coast,
You're easily the best.
Montana, Montana,
Where skies are always blue
M-O-N-T-A-N-A,
Montana, I love you.

Heat Wave

I don't want you to get your hopes up because this is not the heat wave that involves 90 degree weather, bright sunny days and cool refreshing drinks. This heat wave involves crying, an open window and a constant need for affection. How is this a heat wave? Well here's why:

This is my kitty Dee. We adopted her from Shayne's parents farm and she is such a girl. She only like to be held by Shayne or I, she hates our roommate Sarah and loves attention all the time. When the time came for vaccinations for the cats, (I'll introduce you to Charles in a moment) we could only afford to have on of them fixed. Charlie was cheaper and we wanted to prevent him from peeing on everything. SNIP! The vet warned us about Dee coming into heat and how it would be annoying and all she would do was cry. We shrugged it off and thought we could deal with it.

It started this week. Dee's hunt for the perfect "man" who wanted to father her children. I cannot believe how OBNOXIOUS she is. All she does is cry and cry telling us how miserable she is and how she needs to go outside.

It was only the first night and Shayne and I were thinking about letting her out and we'd just have to get rid of the kittens once they were born. Then we remember she was born in the wild and loves it. She'd never come home and we would miss her so she's stuck inside. I had to go outside for a second and we had the bathroom door open so she could look out and this is what was happening: Do you see her little paw trying to claw her way out of the window?

She was focusing on find her boyfriend. I kept asking her if she had found him yet and she would just cry. At 4 am Dee woke me up with her mating call and I was SO GRUMPY! I picked her and Charlie up and threw them out of the bedroom. They sat by the door the rest of the night trying to get back in. This is when I have anger towards Shayne. He doesn't wake up to anything. I could yell and he'll still stay asleep. Grrrr....

Anyways, I figured out if we left the bathroom window open all night she'll just sit there and be quiet. What a relief! I only had to deal with it for a few nights because I'm house sitting this week, far far away from Dee! I'm hoping the poor girl is over this soon because I can only imagine being that excited for lovin' and not getting any is very hard to deal with.

All you have to do is watch the first little segment of this clip and that's why we decided to give that name to our cat, Charlie.

http://vod.fxnetworks.com/watch/sunny/85240005001

Charlie or Charles, it depends if he's in trouble what name we call him. Charlie was also rescued from a farm, and I hand picked him out. It was love at first sight. A cute little gray kitten who loved to be held and slept next to me every night. He does have issues though! He really doesn't understand the concept of bathing himself. When we first got him, we had to bath him ourselves because he was stinky! Now we realize how that developed more issues that don't need to be mentioned. Anyways, now that Charlie has grown to be the size of a small lion, he struts around the house as if he owns the place. He isn't affectionate anymore, he pretends that he wants to be petted or held then he attacks you!

Case and point, this is what he does to Dee:

Yep, just goes and sits right on top of her. He's not a light kitty! He's actually on a diet because he's getting that skin that hangs down. SICK!

I have many stories about our cats, but I fear that I've become the "cat lady" because that's all I talk about. I will spare you the boredom and just sum it up with this: I'M SAVING UP TO GET DEE FIXED! I will not go through this again!

Will I adapt?

At the end of this month, it'll be my three year anniversary for living in Idaho. Each day I'm reminded that things are so different down here. Here are some issues that I have yet to adapt to.

1. Everything is closed on Sunday.
2. I'm 26 and not married with children, thus I am shunned.
3. I don't belong to a Ward, thus I am shunned.
4. I live with my boyfriend *that's out of wedlock*, thus I am shunned.
5. I wear tank tops to funerals, thus I am shunned.
6. I have tattoos, thus I am shunned.
7. I drink, thus I am shunned.
8. Holiday's are rearranged if they fall on a Sunday. Un-American!
9. Many people won't reach out to you if you're not in a Ward.
10. Some coffee shops don't open until 9am!
11. Funerals turn into "you're going to hell if you're not sealed"
12. Bishops are not as amazing as they think they are.
13. It's hard to make friends!

A story/example:
This weekend I attended Shayne's 10-year high school reunion. I had already accepted there would be no alcohol at the event but on the way there Shayne said "Did I tell you this is at a church?" I had a minor freak out. When we talk about churches here, they aren't your Catholic or Evangelical Churches, they are one of the millions of LDS churches in our area. When it came to introductions, Shayne was 1 of 3 people who wasn't married or had kids. I felt so bad because we were behind the times and not married. Let me remind you that I went down that road before, and I am thankful that I am not married right now. I am happy where I am and I want to be married one day, I just want to make sure it's the right time. I love the fact that Shayne doesn't care. He lives his life and loves his job. He may not be married or have a college degree, but in many eyes he's an amazing farmer. No farms, no food!

It makes me sad because I have few friends my age and it's very difficult to make friends. Shayne works 7 days a week, leaving me to myself on the weekends. I'm grateful to have Deana, Ken and Sarah in my life because they bring excitment and break up my boring weekends. I have become friends with Shayne's friends wives, and I am grateful to have them. It's hard though because they all have children and can't always come over or go out for dinner. I still miss my friends, but I guess that's part of growing up. Everyone goes their ways and we just need to make the efforts to visit each other.

I'm done venting now, sorry but I just don't think I'll ever adapt to how different things are here.

Did I move?

It's no secret that this spring/"summer" has been different from the previous years that I have lived in Idaho. Here is an example of what has been causing my depression:


Do you see Idaho? Yep, it's been crappy weather all spring. I say spring because summer has not come yet and I fear it's going to skip right over us this year. There was hope yesterday when the sun was out and it stopped raining but it was just a dream. I woke up this morning to gray skies yet again. I am one sad Panda!

Another example; as I drove home on Sunday I opted to take the scenic route though Ennis and Island Park. This is a beautiful drive any time of the year. This was taken on June 6th (please disregard the poor quality photo, this was taken by my phone):

Do you see it? That snow?! SERIOUSLY!

At this point, I'm in desperate need of becoming a millionaire so I can go somewhere warm! Anyone have any suggestions how to "get rich quick"?

Starting Over

I've changed my mind. I haven't loved running so far, thus I decided to post-pone the half marathon in July. I want to learn how to love running and enjoy every minute of it. After my second race on Sunday, I decided to start all over. My new goal is to run the Mesa Falls half marathon at the end of August. It seems like a tough course, but I have 11 weeks to prepare. Tonight marks day one (yet again) and this time, I hope to succeed.

On another note, I've officially lost 30 pounds!!! I would like to lose a lot more, and it's my goal by the end of the summer to be another 20 pounds lighter. I need to work harder because I have lost some ambition to eat healthy and I have to get that back. Summer is here and it's time to be more active! I need to see how long it takes to ride my bike to work along with finding the safest route. I'd like to do that on Tuesday's and Thursday's so let's pray for warm weather!!

Here's a picture of Dad and I after the Lewis and Clark 5k this past Sunday. I'm so thankful that he's my dad because he was encouraging and ran with me the entire time. (I'm sorry you had to be last, I'm working on being faster.) YAY DAD!