Salt Lake City Half Marathon

This was not the best Winter to train for a Spring race. The entire month of Jan and into Feb was single digits and even negative temps. I really wanted a sub 2-hour half, but it was so hard to train. I love to run but I was getting so sick and tired of the cold. March was decent weather and I trained really hard. I started to get excited and was pumping myself up for a great race. 

Then this happen

I was at work when my Mom sent me a text: A bomb went off at the Boston Marathon. My heart sank and I felt sick, I had friends and coworkers running. Fortunately everyone I knew was safe. After work Nick and I talked about it a lot, I told him I didn't want him to come, I didn't want him to be at the finish line. Nick told me that we couldn't live our lives in fear and that he would freak out if he was at home and something happened. We were not going to let the actions of evil men rule our lives. 

Friday my sister and I rode the train up to SL Nick met us up there after work. We carb-ed it up at the Cheesecake Factory.

We signed the banner at the race expo

We wore blue and yellow ribbons on our racing bibs (the colors of the Boston Marathon). Sat morning they had a moment of silence and then played Sweet Caroline at the starting line. There was a ton a of security, at one of the tracks station we all had to get off and a bomb sniffing dog went through the train before we could get back on. There was more than usual police officers along the race course and there was a police helicopter following us the entire route. 

About half a mile into the race it started to rain, and it rained the ENTIRE 13 miles. It was cold, it was freezing, it was pouring rain, it was miserable. 

Mile 10 soaking wet and freezing cold and we still managed a smile.

Mile 11 I was hurting, the cold was making my muscles cramp and my shoes and jacket were heavy from being soaking wet but I kept going. WE FINISHED!! do you see all the ginormous puddles? 

We look like crap

I didn't make my goal but I did set a new PR 2:02:07

Cousins of the Year!! 

They drove up and cheered us on in the freezing rain

My sister has the BEST co-workers!

Husband of the Year goes to this guy. He ran almost 3 miles from the hotel to the finish line to make sure he was there to support me. 

House Hunters

In January we decided to start house hunting. There was so much about the process that we didn't know and it was so intimidating. I found a loan officer (who happens to be in the High Priest Group with my Dad) and we started the pre-approval process. I was thrilled to find out that we defiantly qualified for a loan (we both have "excellent" credit) and interest rates were the lowest they've been in decades. Our realtor was recomended to us by a co-worker and she was wonderful. *side note: Nick and I being on the same page and having the same taste made the process ONE MILLION times easier*
In Feb we found a house that we absolutely loved. It was in a great location and the builder did an amazing job (with Nick working construction and doing finish work for 10 years, he was SUPER picky) and the best part was that the house was listed in our price range!! We meet with the builder, looked at the floor plan, started going through the process. Turns out the house we walked through and the house that was listed (that was within our price range) was 2 different houses AND the lot we wanted cost more AND the price of lumbar and concrete had gone up. SO now the house we loved kept going up in price. We kept readjusting the numbers to see if we could make it work. We decided to go ahead and go into contract (so so stressful) our realtor came back and told us the price of the house had gone up even more. We were now $35,000 over budget! I was sick, that was way above what we were comfortable with so we said no and walked away. I was devastated and cried for 2 days, house hunting is such an emotional process. CURSE YOU HGTV FOR MAKING IT LOOK SO CAREFREE AND FUN!
Our amazing realtor, Nancy, told us not to get discouraged and to keep on looking. It obviously wasn't meant to be so back to square one.
One Sat morning in March I happen to get online and look for any new listings. I found this super cute house, Nick and I really liked all the pictures and it was listed in our price range. I called Nancy to look into it. The house was just put on the market the day before and they wanted 24 hours notice to show the house so we planned on seeing it Monday. She called me back 20 min later and told me there were already multiple offers on the house and if we wanted to see it we had to see it now! We rushed over to Lehi walked through the house, loved the house and decided to put an offer in. We offered their asking price and said if it's meant to be it's meant to be. We didn't feel as stressed this time around, actually we both felt pretty peaceful about it. Monday night Nancy called and told us they accepted our offer! There were 5 offers on the house and we weren't even the highest offer but the seller felt like they should pick us. Obviously it was meant to be and this is where the Lord wants us.  We had just bought a house!!
We'll close on this Friday (April 26) and we'll be able to move in middle of May.

It has been a loooooong process. I've never signed so many papers in my life! You don't have to sign this much for open heart surgery!  I'll defiantly post more pictures (this is the only picture I have) I've only been through this house once and that was 6 weeks ago! We'll both be so happy once it's finally done and we finally get to move in.

2013 gonna be lean

I've been running for almost 3 years and I love it. My intention was never to loose weight (although that became a welcome side effect) I just needed something in my life that I had control over, a goal I could set, reach, even excel. Infertility is hard, it takes away all sense of control and damages your feelings of self worth and confidence as a woman, that's our whole purpose in life is to bear children and when that's taken away.....then what? For a month during the IVF process I wasn't allowed to do any high impact activity, raise my heart rate or body temp. I had to be on bedrest and when I wasn't on bedrest I just lied around and watched TV. Then we found out that it didn't work and I sank into a depression and didn't do anything for weeks. I became a fat lazy slug! Oh how I missed running and being active, I promised myself that I would never let myself become inactive.

In Sept I started doing CROSSFIT

I had heard from my sister (who introduced it to me) that it was crazy hard but I figured I was in pretty good shape from running- boy was I wrong! Crossfit optimizes fitness by doing constantly varied functional movements at high intensity, basically it's cardio and weights combined to make a workout that kicks your butt! I LOVED IT! I've had a personal trainer in the past but this was unlike anything I've ever done before. After time I found myself lifting weights I never thought possible ( I can bench press 75lbs, deadlift 85lbs) and finishing WODs (Workout Of the Day) that seemed impossible. Not to mention the "side effect" of a better looking body. I lost 3.5% body fat in 3 months! Two years ago I was a size 8, I'm now a size 4!!

150 wall balls with 14lb medicine ball in under 20 minutes!

150 Overhead walking lunges 15lb plate

My butt was soooo sore!

I'm still running (that will always be my first love) and crossfit has helped me be a better runner. 4 months til my first half marathon of 2013 and I'm excited to set a new PR!

Yep...pretty much sums up 2013

The end is near

2012 is coming to a close only a few hours left.  Thought I would squeeze one last blog post about our Christmas. 

BAKEFEST 2012 with my sisters

It's just not Christmas without matching PJs. 

Yes most of us are all adults but when your mom makes you Christmas jammies you have to wear them....

Dad looking classy in his Christmas sweater

lots and lots and LOTS of snow..... the hospital has been CRAZY busy

Whiting Family dinner at Tucanos yummy!

Final run of 2012!! 

Looking forward to running a few more half marathons and Ragnar next year!

Merry Christmas.....

from The Happiest Place on Earth!!

The weekend after Thanksgiving we took a quick little trip to my most favorite place. I found super cheap flights to Long Beach (which BTW is super ghetto fab small and low key, we LOVED it and will only fly to Long Beach now) I reminded Nick that he had promised me that if we didn't have a baby by now we could go to Disneyland (yes it was a guilt trip and yes I played that card). Two of my sisters and my BFF Julie came along. It's been 20 years since I've been at Disneyland during Christmas and it was absolutely magical! 

My Prince Charming

 New Star Tours ride is EPIC! 

He's a wookie (hehe) 

it RAINED all day Fri which meant no lines 

but we were SOAKING WET

no worries though we were in the Happiest Place on Earth where you 

can buy dry soaks and starbucks hot cocoa

The Christmas Carolers were great!

Sat was dry (thank goodness!) I love this girl!

What do you do while waiting in line?

Read your book

Nick + 4 women....it was a little "sister wives" hehe

Bless his heart he was a champ the entire time

Ragnar sisters waiting in line

You do ugly faces really well....

Maybe we won't get wet on splash mountain....

Nope

We found Mickey!!

and Santa 

Grateful

So Thanksgiving has come and gone. I kinda missed the gratitude bandwagon, everyone blogging or posting on facebook about everything they're grateful for.  I will say it was sooo nice to get on facebook and see posts about gratitude rather than politics.

I had to work on Thanksgiving (boo!) it was unfortunately pretty busy, the floor was full of a lot of sick people. But this is a post about gratitude and I am grateful that both Nick and I are employed. I'm grateful that I don't just have a job but a career that I love, I love being a Nurse! I'm grateful that I get to work with some pretty awesome coworkers and Dr's. 

Thanksgiving dinner from the cafeteria.....yummo  k not really but at least it was free

I am so grateful for my stud muffin, totally amazing, patient, kind, loving husband!

I don't have a baby to gush about so I get to brag about my wonderful hubby. About a month and half ago Nick was released from Young Men Pres. and called to be the ward executive secretary. I am so grateful to have a husband who is willing to serve and is a righteous priesthood holder. Even when I'm struggling and don't want to pray, he reads our scriptures and prays every night. He is the rock in our relationship.  I will come home from work exhausted and he's picked up the house and made dinner, this happens on a regular basis- I am one lucky girl!! 

I'm grateful for our health. Nick is healthy, he beat cancer and that's something I'll always be grateful for. I'm in better shape at 30 than I was at 20! I still run every week and started doing CROSSFIT in Sept. I'll have to blog about crossfit sometime, it's crazy and whips your booty into shape! 

I ran to the top of squaw peak over Conference weekend with my sister. It was an intense uphill run but it felt amazing to reach the top! 

I'm grateful to have wonderful supportive friends and family, they're pretty awesome!