Eryn: Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Eryn and Andrew, 

I feel a little sad that I did not tell you everything that happened for Thanksgiving when you called. I forget that sometimes you just want to hear all the nitty gritty of our daily lives, which can make for a very boring phone call on my part. I like to hear about what you and Andrew are doing because it's pretty much the same crazy stuff here, but as I was laying in bed tonight trying to go to sleep I realized that you didn't get to see any of the holiday wackiness...well, our kind...I'm sure you saw a whole different kind with all the family in Idaho. So this blog is just for you and Andrew:

We started off our holiday 'break' waking up at 6am! Boy, oh boy! We all ran the Turkey Trot 5k in Centerville this morning. I know...so crazy, but I really want this to start being our Thanksgiving tradition (can't wait for you to come and do it with us!!). So we headed out of the house at 6:15 so we could drop Alivia off at the Rowberry's! We ruined our tradition of sleeping in so why not ruin Lexy's too so she could babysit?

We got there early enough to walk to the start/finish line and see the masses of people! 4500 runners registered!  That was as many that registered for the 8k I ran in Richmond a few weeks ago, but this was much more difficult because we all took off at the same time and it was a shorter run, so people were weaving in and out of each others path the whole time, and little kids were all over the place just waiting to trip me O.o! 

Dad hasn't had the time to put into any kind of serious training, so I was a little worried about him, but he did great! Not only did he finish, but he finished only 3 minutes behind me! Pretty impressive since I've been running since June.

Josh had us all beat by a long shot! He was like a rocket out there! He said he held himself back since this was his first race and he just wasn't sure what to expect, but that he could have done much better and wanted to run it again. I said, "Uh...no!" So we're going to look around for other 5ks that he can do. He wants to beat his time and better his pace. We may have a running rock-star on our hands.

MeKenzie did really well too. She wasn't too far behind Josh. I know it was hard for her, but she's been training for field hockey and running indoor track, so I wasn't too worried about her. And she finished with a big smile on her face as always :)

You know I've been running since June and that I have had shin splint problems, but what I didn't tell you was that a few weeks before I ran Richmond I pulled a muscle in my leg :( I haven't rested it enough since I had a 5k last Saturday (you know where Sierra lives, behind Walmart? It was down that hill and back UP that hill...pretty awful) I'm pretty sure I ripped the muscle now, so today was really hard for me. I pushed through it because I wanted to run with the family, but I won't be walking for the rest of the weekend. I have a doctors appointment on Monday, but I don't know if I can wait that long...I am in pain :(

But the thrill of the four of us running together was really awesome and I'm glad we did it.

We stopped at McDonald's to grab breakfast (yuck, I know) and hot chocolate. They forgot to put any chocolate in mine and they put coffee in Dad's! Hahaha! Then we rushed home, after picking Alivia up, and we started on the turkey and ham that we were taking to the Rowberry's. Well...Dad started on the turkey and ham because I passed out from pain! He bought the craziest thing last night to grill the turkey in:

It's the silliest looking grill, but it made the best turkey we have ever had!! Christmas came early for Dad this year :)

There were us, the Cherry's, another family, the Jenson's, all at the Rowberry's this year. There was so much food! I was worried that there wouldn't be enough meat and everyone else was worried that there wouldn't be enough food so of course we had a ton!

We got there late, so we missed the turkey hunt that Sis. Rowberry does (do you remember?). Sis. Jenson put on a little skit with her two kids, the Cherry's boys and Alivia. It was really cute:

 

She was a natural at playing a wild Indian

Alivia was totally wild tonight. I mean W-I-L-D. She was taking on those bigger boys. Pushing, shoving, biting...what the heck? I don't know what got into her tonight, but she was out of control! I was so embarrassed, but luckily it's the Rowberry's and they love us (whew) or else I don't think we would ever be invited back. Dad told Alivia that we couldn't take her there anymore because she was so wild and naughty. She told him straight out, "I don't like that you said that to me because I love Rowberry's"! Little miss sassy pants. Oh! And Josh said that he has never seen the Rowberry's house look like that, ever, because the kids had things scattered all over the place, and you know the Rowberry's house! It's so beautiful and clean all the time. Josh was shocked :) Also, Alivia only ate half a roll and a whole Crunch bar that she found. Can you say sugar-high?

Josh was Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky. You know him...he was enjoying teasing me, Lexy and MeKenzie. But then he would look at me with those big brown eyes and we would just start giggling. He's such a punk!  He is getting up at 3am to hit Best Buy's Black Friday sale for a couple of games he wants, then he's off to work at Hollister at 5am until 4pm!! So, he won't be around to help with any decorating for Christmas this weekend.

Kenz was busy with Lexy - doing what girls do - texting, whispering and giggling too. I love those girls. She stayed the night there tonight, so you know she'll be of NO use to me whatsoever in decorating the house tomorrow :)

Through all this craziness I was missing you so much! My heart has been sore for weeks with just missing you. I kept trying to imagine you there with us all day doing all of these things too, and low and behold I kept picturing Andrew right behind you in my mind. I am so proud of you. I am so thankful for you and for finding the right person to help you in life. I know you are taken care of and are happy, and that makes me full of gratitude. I love you, and your cute husband.

Happy Thanksgiving:

xoxoxo

Alivia: Day of Sharing

I have to say, I haven't been a huge fan of Alivia's preschool this year. I am happy that she likes it, although whenever we pass her old preschool she says, "That's my favorite preschool and I want to go there again." But we are going to stick it out for the year and then move on.

Yesterday she had a "Day of Sharing" program. The kids all dressed up and sang songs for Thanksgiving. She sure makes a cute pilgrim:

(I put the videos on Facebook since my blog video isn't working...grrr)

Homecoming?...Anyone...Anyone...Anyone...

Tonight Josh left for his last high school Homecoming Dance. 
This has been a very busy week for him since he is SCA President. There has been lots for him to do and organize. And there have been a few bumps in the road, but tonight I think he'll enjoy the rewards of all his, and his crew's, hard work.

MeKenzie left for her very first Homecoming Dance. 

She's been busy too! There have been parties and pep rallies, a game! 

What a great time for a Freshman.

All of this takes me down Memory Lane:

(the last names have been removed to protect the innocent and their children.)

1984

Tony's Senior Year. Meridian High School.

Don't you love the wicker chair and soft lighting? 

I know I do.

Sophomore year.

Unfortunately, we, Pocatello HS (go Indians!), lost the Homecoming Game to Highland HS,  our nemesis. 

My date, Gary, was the quarterback and was not in a good mood that night, but clearly I didn't care:

1985

Tony was kind enough to escort this young lady the following year to her Senior Homecoming Dance. 
You may notice that it is indeed the same girl from the previous year. 
Please forward your comments/questions to him:

I did not go to Homecoming in 1985.
Instead I rebelled and went to Provo, UT with a few friends.
It took us several hours to get there. 
We climbed the Y mountain and drove home. 
I have no idea why we did it, but it was memorable nonetheless:

1986

Tony did not return to his Alma mater for another dance. 

Could it be that he had an inkling that his dreams were about to come true just a few short months later?

This lucky guy is Erik.
Really nice, but...a football player...and...
we lost the game... again. 
I remember he called an hour before the dance and told me that he was "too sad" about losing 
(curse you Highland HS!), 
and "could we maybe not go to the dance?" 
"Um...no! This is our senior year! We are totally going!"
(I hope you can hear the Valley Girl tone because I still can)
He obviously was not in a good mood either. 
And clearly I didn't care:

Is there anything better than Homecoming Week? 

The pep rallies, the marching band, the football game all topped off with a dance. 

It was my favorite week of the whole year:

Lesson to my girls:

Go to the Homecoming Dance with a basketball player!

Alivia: Accident or...

Alivia woke up this morning and said,"My bed is wet."

Tony asked,"Did you have an accident?"

She replied,"No."

Tony said,"Then what happened?"

Alivia said,"I think someone was baptized."

She recently went to a baptism. It's great how her little mind works:

This reminded me of another baptism story that my friend wrote for a children's magazine.

I will never forget Josh opening up The Friend that month and saying,"Hey! I remember this!" Now Lauren is off to college!

Alivia: Cows 'n Corn...Oh My!

I was totally sucker punched into doing this. Here's the story:

I did not mention to Alivia that her preschool was going on a field trip to a 'pumpkin patch' for a reason, (It was me, actually, not wanting to go with a bunch of screaming 2-5 year olds to a smelly dairy farm, go figure.) but her teacher decided that this would be the kind of good information that Alivia should have. She told her that they, the class, were going and that Alivia was not coming and that it was "all my fault". Not a happy moment for me...or for her teacher after I spoke with her:

So, in the effort to rededicate myself to my life, I thought I better go make my little daughter happy. Here are the results:

"Finally! I get to drive a tractor!"

Making butter from cream (store bought cream...what the...?)

Lily the Cow

She loved Lily.

Pure joy.

Hayride

It took her a while for her to find her courage to go through the tunnel, but once she did she was hooked!

"Can I keep her Mom?"

"I promise I will feed her!"

"Yummy. Ice Cream!" (store bought! what the...?)

When all was said and done, I was really happy that I took her. And I really did have some good hard laughs watching Alivia run and play, not to mention the following favorite moments:

It actually set the mood for me when Alivia got out of the car and yelled,

"Ewwww! Is that the cow smell?", 

whereupon the parking lot attendant, who was later the butter-making technician, went into a lengthy lecture of why that smell wasn't the cows...it was their feed. (Ummm...ok...really? Because I smell cow-poo.)

There was also the moment when another mother was sneezed on by a sheep. She was covered in black boogers. Bless her heart.

There have been a lot of pumpkin patch visits in my life with my kids and it looks like there will be quite a few more visits with Alivia to see cows, sheep and pumpkins...

Oh my!

Here are a few shots that Alivia took on our way home:

Love the boots!

Did I mention that the pumpkins were store bought too? Umm...what the...?

My personal favorite! Hooray! We're home!

(Oh! there was no corn...what the...?)

Trina: A Rededication:

I find myself, lately, not being as dedicated as I should be.

There are things in my life that I have let...slip (shall we say?).

For several months now I have been very focused on things outside of myself:

A wedding, which went off beautifully I think.

Lots of family staying at our house. I am so grateful for all of them that came and helped.

Driving for a group of ladies who ran 200 miles of Ragnar Relay Race. Um - amazing!

My kids starting school again..a husband in the Bishopric and his PhD classes...things like this and more.

I, also, for that past few months, have been fully engaged to...running.

Yikes!

I have been very reluctant to talk about my running because I just saw 12 women run 200 miles! Holy cow! They are intense and awesome. And I am just Trina Fife, the non-runner, the slowest-one-in-the-pack, the what-the-heck-am-I-doing!? Trina Fife.

There are lots of stories I could tell you about why I have never been a runner. Yes, there is actually a history of it. But I choose today to tell you why I am running now.

I needed a challenge...um, no. I wanted to be with a bunch of women who are natural runners...YES, but no, not really. I wanted to hurt like I've never hurt before in my life...definitely not. The plain honest truth is that my daughter, Eryn, was getting married and I needed to lose weight! I went into panic mode, looked around and low and behold there were some good-looking runners out there...so off I went.

What I didn't know was that running is not a quick fix. In fact, it creates a whole lot of other problems. I won't go into them right now, but let's just say that this HAS become a challenge.  It has taken up a huge chunk of my life that, honestly, there was no room for it to begin with.

Due to this change of focus my house has fallen into a state of uncleanliness, Alivia is behaving like a pre-civilized wild Scottish child and I have no clue to what's going on around me (outside of my running trails).

So, this weekend I went to Time Out for Women in Richmond. I wanted to be energized and feel the Spirit intensely. Although it was a great get-away and there were some really amazing speakers, I just didn't feel it in me. I realized that more and more lately all I've been feeling is BLAH. About everything. I'm not sure what the cause is, but I came home on Saturday evening and decided that it's ok that I didn't have the experience that I thought I would. It's ok that my house is only clean on the surface. And it's ok that I am not on top of everything every second of every day....right now. 

I am doing something for myself and if running is going to take that much focus then I can let other things in my life go. I do have to deal with Alivia pretending to be Tom Sawyer, but that's a lifetime of work! 

I woke up Sunday morning and just decided to rededicate myself to myself. And it's not just going to be conclusive to running. There are some other things in my life I need to refocus myself on:
My spiritual self needs some taking care of. I want an orderly mind that needs an orderly space. Drinking enough water (why is this so hard?), and there are few projects I need to start up again...things like this and more. But not so much more that I lose myself (balance,...right?).

I do have to say how grateful I am for so many wonderful choices in my life. How blessed I am that I actually am choosing not to just focus on my housework! I am just thankful to have a house. And I really do have the most amazing people in my life. My kids are so awesome. They are more than awesome...they are awesomesauce (thanks, Deal's for that expression). And how blessed am I that I have a new son-in-law, Andrew, and his parents in my life. I have some pretty great parents and some pretty great siblings, including all the in-laws. I really do love them all so much. My husband is pretty terrific too. And my friends...WOW! Could I be anymore blessed? 

Ok, maybe a quicker pace would be nice...

Alivia: Do You Know About...

So all day long, every day Alivia asks

"Do you know about..."

I will keep this blog updated from time to time with things that she is asking about because some of them are hilarious.

Sometimes there is an explanation of why she's asking, 

but mostly she just wants to know if I know about things:

Do you know about:

blood?

  stomachs talking?
throw up?
waterfall trees?
a giant rooster that says "Cock-a-doodle-do"? 
But we don't have one.  

At 3am:
Do you know about the sleep number bed?

Do you know about:
walking on your hands?
walking on your feet?


On Columbus Day:
Do you know about the giant book?
It had three ships that sailed, and then the people played with the Indians. And Jesus was happy and so was the whole earth.
Did you know about that, Mom?

Do you know about tornadoes? 
You go in a room with no windows.
Then the tornadoes can't see you.


Do you know about spiders have a round body?
Like a round circle.
And lots of legs.
Ewwww.

Do you know about me being a girl?
...not a boy.

Just The Highlights, Please:

I'm not going to lie. I really thought I would be posting more here. I wanted to keep up to date on the things that were happening for Eryn's wedding. I really thought I could blog about every detail and emotion that occurred. But I completely over-estimated my brain capacity and energy level, and under-estimated the overall busyness that this happy celebration is creating.  I thought I understood what it would entail, but I was so wrong:

This blog will just be the things that I can remember highlights of my trip to Idaho:

I went to Idaho to:
 

1: Find Eryn a wedding dress and bring it home with me:

We found one easily in Logan, Utah. At a tiny little shop called Belle Bridal (that's right. No 's' on Belle). I cannot tell you how amazing this little place was. Eryn spent most of the time just trying on everything we saw because all the dresses were so amazing. She narrowed it down to two beautiful gowns and we headed to lunch to contemplate which was the ONE. When we went back to the shop I picked two more for her to try on (note to other mothers: I did this just to make sure the two she had already picked were ones she really liked, and it worked!). After loving the latter two, trying on the newer ones really sealed the deal for them. She then had to make a decision. Which one is the dress? She loved them both and they were very different from each other. She put on Dress #1 and said, "I love it so much." She put on Dress #2 and said, "I love it so much...but, Mom is crying... I am glowing...This is the dress!" Hooray! 
They were able to do the alterations by the following Saturday, the day before I left for home. When we returned and tried it on with the alterations it was lovely and Eryn still loved it (big sigh of relief), but it didn't fit just right. So this cute little Chinese woman said, 
"No problem! I fix it. Come back in few hour." (Hahaha. I loved her) 
And it was done. It was probably the easiest thing I've done for this whole wedding. 

The drama did come a little later trying to get everything on the plane, but honestly,
that's a whole blog in and of itself:

2: Do wedding invitations:

Andrew was a trooper and did all the labels and printing while we were shopping for The Dress. I think it all went pretty smoothly with the exception of a typo on the sealing time. It's 11:00 am, not pm, for those of you planning to come. I know he had some printer problems, but he's not just The Man of Eryn's Dreams, he's a Problem Solver. (There was one other thing about it, but I can't remember what it is right now so it must not be very important.) It took the whole weekend to get all 350 envelopes labeled, filled and sealed, but whew! 
What a big thing to check off our list!

Eryn, Andrew and Rico at G'ma's:

3: Buy Eryn temple clothes and...ehm "unmentionables":

'nough said:

4: Get Eryn and Andrew cleared out of their apartments at BYU-I:

Although I really didn't do too much here...a little packing here and there...I did do a lot of driving back and forth with their things that are now stored at my mom's house in Pocatello. In fact, the mileage of my car rental was actually higher than the miles flown from DC to SLC. Alivia and I were in the car all the time. SLC, Pocatello, Inkom, Idaho Falls, Rexburg, Logan. All of these places several times. Back and forth, back and forth. I could have done it in my sleep

(which I didn't, of course, but still! That was a lot of time in the car):

The scenery was incredible:

 

5: See family:

Oh my goodness. This was seriously the best part of my time in Idaho. 
I really didn't get to see very much of those that I love, 
but the time I spent with them was amazing. 
I got to stay with my Mom several nights and see my Dad way more than I thought I would 

(still wasn't enough though).

Alivia and Papa reading her new "Ka-chow" book:

I had one really peaceful day at my sister's house...
she pulled weeds while I just sat in a lawn chair and visited. 
I could seriously do that the rest of my life and be happy.

At Auntie's:

I spent a night at Tony's parents and really loved watching them cook and prepare for their
reunion (sorry I missed out on the fun and seeing all the sibs...
not too sorry that I missed cleaning the bathrooms though! You are my hero, Crista).

Alivia eating "The Best Cowboy Hat Cookie Ever":

Grandpa Fife:

My little brother, Trent, came all the way down from Boise to see Alivia and me. I was so excited to see him, and his hot new car, that I pulled Alivia out of bed at 11:00 (pm) so she could put a name to a face. He scared the crap out of her, but then she warmed up to him. Who doesn't though?  

He's a rock star:

Alivia and Uncle Trent:

(I am totally crying right now thinking about all of this)

I miss everyone so much and I can't believe how much support they all gave to me. 
My sister, Toni, watched Alivia all day when we went to pick a dress out. 
My Mom and Dad took her the whole next Saturday so we could go pick it up. 
She had the best time. 

She spent one afternoon with her cousin, Stephanie, while I took Eryn to an appointment.

Steph and Livi:

We met my niece's, Janelle, new husband, Jacob (or Hiccup, as Alivia likes to call him)

Jake and Janelle:

and my nephew's, Drew, then fiance, now wife (!!), Ashley. 

Hiccup spent a whole hour just blowing bubbles with Livi, and Ashley painted her nails.

Alivia and Hiccup:

 Alivia got to see cows and wild turkeys.

Idaho has Dandelanders, not just Dandelions:

She ran around Inkom Park and Ross Park (oh my gosh...the memories of Ross Park...), 

went to the zoo with Grandma and Papa.

And she loved seeing all the temples and even walked around a few. 

The Rexburg Temple is so beautiful:

 Thank goodness for cameras, although mine was not used nearly enough:

Our reunion with Eryn

Rexburg Temple

Cooling off

We crashed late every night

Uncle Trent and Mom taken by Alivia

Our new friend, Ayden

Grandma Fife's Reunion Cookies

Let's go get a dress

I'm still the Princess

And the Diva

Papa taken by Alivia

TV, oh how I've missed you

We were only sad that we didn't get to see so many others that we love:

There is always next time:

Josh is graduating next summer:

Oh dear...