SYNCHRO

This summer has been suuuuper busy!!

I decided last minute to take the job as head synchro coach again.  Yes, I decided to work a part-time job on top of a full 12-credit externship.  I'm crazy!  I know!

This meant that I woke up at 4:45am every morning and rarely worked less than a 10 hour day.  Towards the end of the summer, it took all that I could to survive with my severe sleep deprivation.

But I did.  And, it was a ton of fun.  9 years of coaching and I still love coaching synchro.  The girls this summer were so much fun!  

Here is a picture from championships...

I am so glad I got in one last summer of coaching before I get "a real job"!!  It has been an incredible job all these years and I have been so blessed to have it!  I have so many good memories at the pool at 6am!!

*Story from this summer: ALL my girls wanted to use the microphone to sing karaoke to the songs we swam to.  (Yes, even the 7 year olds knew each and every song. That's what happens when you listen to them every single morning for 8 weeks straight.)  I let them, and it ended up being the most hilarious day of practice in the history of my career!!  They were sooooo cute!  I miss those girls already!!

Always Home

Flagstaff

I dreaded moving up here.  I wasn't looking forward to it.  I had a hard time looking past the small-town feel and the lack of family.  I didn't want to be alone in a new place.  I really didn't want to be alone.  Little did I know how much I would fall in love with this place!  I quickly was converted to the Old Route 66 town filled with laid-back people and a significantly slower pace.  The speed limit never tops 40 mph and drivers never top 38 mph.  Downtown Flag is filled with quaint buildings and a homestyle feel.  The train horn brings a smile to my face.  The skies are always blue - a clean blue.  The air is crisp and fresh.  It is a biker/walker town.  The Urban Trail is the world's best running trail.  The 7,000ft elevation is challenging in a fun way.  The sound of the never-ending wind is calming.  The mountains are breathtaking.  The lake is peaceful.  The trees are protective.  The town is active: Health is a priority.  Gratitude is a way of life.  Kindness is freely given.  Tradition is honored.

God's hand is so easily found. 

I am a different person when I am in Flag.

It is there that I learned to

Be Still, and Know God.

Flagstaff will always be 

HOME. 

Weekend Get-Aways

For the past three weekends, I have driven up to Flagstaff to enjoy it as much as I can before officially moving out.

Week One: Sedona, West Fork, Racquetball, Beaver Street Brewery Restaurant, The Creperie, Taking in the incredible stars

Week Two: La Bellavia Breakfast Restaurant, Fisher Point, Eating all our left-over food in the freezer, hot-tubbing

Week Three: Enjoying the cool evenings, Chatting with Cami in the hallway, late-night movie, mid-night runs to Wal-Mart, Dinner at Charley's, Waiting for trains, Making Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, hiking Mt. Elden

I seriously LOVE Flagstaff!! 

Ode to Cory

The day I got my drivers license, 

my parents surprised me with you

Just a few years later, 

your side mirror became brand spankin' new

You got me up "the hill" real fast

You know my entire life's past

You never left me stranded 

on our outings in the dust

But last week you became 

a really expensive pile of rust

I'm sad to see you go

I learned much of what I know

Like who I am and how to drive in snow

But after your last check-up, I knew it was time to go.

Thanks so much for being a part of this great story. 

I will never forget the good times. See you later, Cory! 

I'll miss that 2002 Honda Accord....

but 

say hello to Valerie, the Hyundai Sonata.  

Looking forward to all the new memories to be made with Val! 

Priorities and Kids

I ended up watching 3 kids for 8 days last week.  On top of that, I worked a part time job, and continued my internship.  Can you say crazy?!?  I have watched kids for 8 days before, but to try to handle kids with jobs was the most exhausting thing that I have ever done!

Lesson Learned:  I want to be a 100% stay-at-home mom.  I know many women have to work in order to help out.  In those cases, I believe those moms are blessed for doing their best.  However, I want to do everything I possibly can to make sure that I can focus on raising my children without any outside distractions.

With all the changes in my life in the past few weeks, I have felt that my life is going in 20 different directions with so many pulls on my time.  I haven't been able to refocus.  Who knew that adding 3 kids to the equation was exactly what I needed to remember where my priorities lay?!?

Lesson Learned: Children are the best reminder of what really matters.  They reminded me multiple times a day that why we are here and where we are trying to go!  We are here to become perfected and return to live with Heavenly Father.  Their sweet and honest prayers remind me that no concern is too small for God (for example, we can pray to only have happy shark dreams and not scary shark dreams). :)

As hard as it is to take care of 3 kids, it was by far the most rewarding thing I did all last week.  We had a blast going to Chuck-e-cheese, playing with 10 puppies (yes, I am trying to overcome my fear of dogs), going to the Phoenix zoo, and swimming until we had all swallowed enough pool water for a life-time.  As fun as those moments are, it's the small little moments that are the best; like when you laugh until your stomach hurts after the 2 year-old teaches you how to rawr like a lion. (Isn't he a cute lion?)

Lesson Learned: It's the simple moments in life that really matter.  Don't take for granted those moments to hold someone you love, to listen to a simple but faith-filled prayer, to play pretend in the sand, to count fingers and toes over and over again!

Elder Oaks gave a great talk on priorities, sacrifices, and families in this last conference.  This talk seems to sum up all the lessons that I have learned in the past week.  I am so grateful for the many opportunities I have been blessed with to learn about having a family despite the fact that my own family still hasn't begun.  Heavenly Father allows us so many ways to learn and grow regardless of our situations!  I am so thankful to this family who shared their kids with me last week!

Scrubs and Things

Remember this post where I talked about my random bucket list? Well.... I wanted to give you an update on how it's going and then tweak it a bit! Is that allowed?  I've decided that I've changed, so my list can change!!

Here it is from April 2010....

1. I want to get my Sign Language Interpreters License someday. (how about I not go back to school ever again!) 
2. I want to go to beauty school and learn how to cut hair. (yeah, no more school.) 
3. I want to go make a home for someone in a needy country. (new goal... Just visit another country for any reason because if I ever actually go somewhere, it will be a miracle!) 
4. I want to go on an Alaskan Cruise. (still want to do this someday!!) 
5. I want to go mentor in a near-by preschool that teaches children how to read using the Book of Mormon so that someday I can run my own preschool. (done, and have even worked at 3 different preschools since then).
6. I want to take up family history. (I took a family history institute class) 
7. I want to snuggle up a beautiful corner and read a cheesy romance novel. (DONE) 
8. I want to train for a triathlon. (proof here)
9. I want to scrapbook every single picture that I own. (how about I just blog a ton of them and then print my blog books?! - I have printed ever single post in a bound book!!) 
10. I want to learn how to make darling accessories. (headbands, winter headbands - check and check) 
11. I want to read all the scriptural based books alongside my scripture study and take every single institute class offered. (ok. I haven't read every book but I've read many the past 2 years and I just got my "doctorate" in institute this past semester!)
12. I want to plant a huge garden. (still gonna do this someday... like when I have a yard! That might help.)
13. I want to get scuba certified. (on my list for very soon I hope.) 
14. I want to refinish old furniture and make it super cute. (first, I need a place to put furniture).  
15. I want to learn how to quilt with my grandma. (post all about it to come soon!) 
16. I want to take cooking classes so that I might be a wonderful cook who actually likes to make dinner.(no cooking classes, but one awesome roommate and years of practice... And a new found love, or maybe just a like, for cooking!) 
17. I want to become certified to be one of the class instructors at the gym. (just taught lifeguards how to teach water aerobics. Close enough?!) 
18. I want to learn how to snowboard. (DONE) 
19. I want to take a church history trip AFTER I read all I can about it. (I started reading the manual and took the first institute class. I'm getting there) 
20. I want to take even more classes on children and family sciences because they are my absolute favorite. (DONE x 4) 
21. I want to get a job that requires me to wear scrubs - just because it would be cool. (and... Wouldn't you know, I wear scrubs at my internship!! Love 'em!!!)

Yes folks, I have accomplished 13 of my 21 items!!  Not too shabby in a 2 year period!  I'm pretty excited about this!! Time to make a new, updated list...cough... that doesn't have any more formal schooling on it!

5K Foam Fest

To celebrate graduation and a new chapter of my life, I signed up for my first mud-run-like event.  It looked like a blast and I was excited that it was only a 5K for starters.

My sister and I went in the morning and it was HOT!  We were really looking forward to the foam part of the race where you get wet!  The race was not as well run as I would've hoped and didn't end up being all that they made it out to be; however, we still had a really good time!

The fact that you ended by army crawling through a mud pit and then sliding through foam to "wash off", I felt well-enough inducted to this new type of racing!  A and I laughed through it all and there was a smile on our faces when we finished (and pounds of mud in our shoes)!

Now, I am itching to do a real mud run...