31 Things About Mama

In celebration of Mama's 31st birthday yesterday I thought it would be fun to share a little about myself. I've seen this done before and always thought it would be fun to do myself, so here we go...
1. I hate celery
2. I hate coconut
3. I am deathly afraid of snakes
4. I could out eat anyone in an ice cream eating contest, I promise
5. My favorite number is 5
6. I plan to visit France again before I get old
7. Nothing makes me happier than cuddling with my kids
8. I have a secret stash of chocolate
9. I am reading the Old Testament... and enjoying it!
10. I love to eat pizza
11. I love getting the mail everyday, it's like waiting for a surpise to come
12. I love Chick Flick movies
13. I enjoy cool weather, specifically the 70's
14. I wish I lived closer to family
15. I love staying up late at night, reading or playing games
16. I love the feel of clean sheets
17. I used to be called the class Dentist in 2nd grade because I pulled many teeth out for classmates
18. I've never had a bloody nose
19. I used to play the piano, I'm so rusty now it's really sad
20. If I could go back to school I would be a psychiatric nurse practitioner
21. I might be tempted to become a nephrologist (kidney doctor)
22. I love to learn about kidneys, they are amazing
23. I refuse to drive a mini van
24. I like the rain, it feels so refreshing
25. I wish I were a better at decorating my home
26. I am in love with Diet Pepsi
27. I adore purses
28. I love all things to do with snowmen
29. I think my dad and I would make a great team on The Amazing Race
30. If I could be any animal, I would be a monkey
31. I feel like the luckiest girl alive with the most wonderful family

My Skydiving Video... Finally!

So we had to convert it and in the conversion it became grainy, sorry! And yes, I'm a dork! And no, I wasn't scared! Be sure to go down and mute the music on my blog otherwise you won't be able to hear the video.

Mama's Skydiving in Picture!!!

Mama did it!!! Video will come, we are having issues with saving it to my computer. Here are a few pics though!Walking to the plane with my tandem jumper.Flying to our jump point. Right before we jumped I sat up on his lap and he buckled me to him and told me to cross my arms, arch my body like a banana and look up!This is it... walking to the back of the plane!And we jumped! I didn't dare look down when we jumped. I looked out at the sky and let him jump! It was a feeling like I've never experienced before. I wasn't scared, it was just unbelievable!Flipping around in freefall at 140mph for 1 full minute!!!Here the parachute is starting to open!And here we are SAFELY landing!We landed on our butts and I didn't even really feel it.
I got nauseated while we were coming down in the parachute, but it was so worth it!!! It was so much fun. There is nothing like this feeling! The freefall was my favorite by far!

Mama's Skydive Jump is Scheduled!

I made the call this morning. It's official. I am jumping out of an airplane on Friday May 28th at 11:00am! I did ask the gal on the phone if anyone had ever barfed before jumping and she said that occasionally it does happen, but not often! I might need to borrow one of Baby Girl's diapers though because I just might pee my pants!

Our Blog Title Comes to Life!!! Happy Birthday, Mama!

Mama's life long dream has always been to skydive with her dad. She watched her father jump from an airplane twice as a young child and since then has dreamt of the day.

Master Chief pampers Mama all the time, but she NEVER thought he'd let her live out her dream! Mama turned the big 30 today and as a suprise, he purchased a skydiving trip for her and her father in Colorado!!! We will be there in 3 weeks!!!

Mama will free fall for 1 full minute at 130 mph!!!!! Then it will be a 5 minute ride to the ground. She will jump tandem with an instructor, while her dad does the same.

Mama is "flying" high today!!!!!!! She doesn't think turning 30 is quite so bad after all!

Mama's Race Report!!!

Mama ran her first 5K today!!! The short story, my stop watch said I did it in 37 minutes. I'll know my official time later I think!

The long story...

3 years ago some friends started running and I decided I wanted to run as well. They were training for a 5K and I thought they were crazy, but I wanted to try. Master Chief was working nights, so as soon as the kids went to sleep, I'd run in my back yard. Really cool, huh! I think I ran 7 minutes without stopping and about died. DIED. My friends were going longer and progressing. I was not! I gave up. I hated it.

2 years ago I had another group of friends (I'm seeing where my problem is, I choose running friends) that decided we should exercise together. We ran every day it seemed. They killed me. I just couldn't keep up with them and felt like I was dragging them down. I had two goals that summer. 1- to look good for my 10 year High School Reunion and 2- to run a 5K. I felt like I looked good for my reunion, but I never ran my 5K. The most I could run was 1.3 miles without stopping.

Last year I had a baby and did not run!

This year, it's not even spring yet and I've RAN A 5K!!! Without stopping!!!

I have 2 new friends and guess what, they are runners! They've told me it's okay to go slow. Snails pace to be exact. The first time I ran, I ran 1 mile without stopping. Then I ran 2 miles without stopping. I ended up hurting my knee on a run and have had to take it easy, ice and wear a lovely band on my knee and I'd never ran 3 miles during my training. My training did take me up hill for .5 miles and most of the time I ran into the wind. But it was dry outside, never snowy!

Race day I was SO excited. I wasn't nervous. I wasn't in it for time, I wasn't in it for anything but the satisfaction that I did it! I woke up and guess what, it snowed!!! Ack! It was windy. Ack!!! I got to the race, checked in, got my number, my time chip thingy (what are they called?) and then froze to death! The little kids had a mile run to start out with. They were adorable! The big racers started their 5 mile race. Then it was time to line up! Then before we knew it, it was time to go!

People passed me like crazy! It didn't discourage me though. I just ran. I listened to my MP3 player and just ran. I was hoping there would be markers along our trail telling us .5 mile, 1 mile and such. After a while I checked my time and I was at 12 minutes. I figured I had to be around a mile. Wooh hoo! 1/3 done! I kept going. I was running into the wind and had little hills here and there. But I had trained this way, so I knew I could do it!!! Then I started wondering why people do this for fun. It wasn't fun. My right leg was hurting, my toes were frozen, and I had no idea where the heck I was and how far I'd gone. I looked at my clock, it said 24 minutes. I imagined I was around 2 miles or so. I looked over and there was a marker... 2 miles! I thought, I can do this!!!

I had in my mind that I needed to pass someone. Anyone. I think I passed like 7 people. Left them in my dust... or splatters! I was feeling pretty sore in my leg though and started thinking again, why do people do this!!! I knew where the finish line was, and I thought I knew how to get there, but then people would turn and go the other direction. I wondered if I'd ever see the finish line! I wasn't winded or anything it was just my sore leg. And then I saw how it would all come together!!! I could see where the end was and I could see one of my running friends, who spanked us and ran lots faster! I could feel that victory!!! I gave everything I had left in me and did a sprint to the end!!! My legs didn't want to stop, but since we were cattle herded into these lines I had to and that stunk!The clock was timing the 5 mile run, so pay no attention to that! I'll get my official race time soon.I'm proud of myself. I rocked it. I did as good as I wanted to. Half way through the race I told myself to be happy with 45 minutes. Originally my goal was 35-40 minutes. 37 was my final time and I am SO proud of myself!!! I ran the whole way and it was awesome!!!

What Mama has been up to

I got a new sewing machine for Christmas and I've been having some fun!

My first project was an apron for Miss Piggy's birthday.And my second project was a new purse/bag. This was a little more challenging as the directions are wrong on the pattern! My mom and I made these 2 bags but we feel like we've made about 12 after having to unpick a zillion times!

As a note, somehow my mom and I always end up with projects where directions are not right. A few years ago we decided to paint her living room wall. We did a belagio faux. SEVEN coats later I called the Behr people and they confirmed that you can not do it on a textured wall and agreed that they should put that somewhere in their directions.

At least we have fun creating these memories!

A Girls Night to remember!

My friend Taffi and I are kinda crazy women. I belong to an amazing group of LDS mom's who like to party it up. Now when I say party it up I mean, go out to dinner, talk all night, leave our kids at home with the daddies and then go back to being mommies. Part of these women live about 5 hours away from me and they were planning a GNO (Girls Night Out). Taffi, the silly gal that she is, suggested that she should come crash the party. Me, not wanting to be left out, suggested that I could squeeze into her trunk and join the fun. Now we assumed that our sweet husbands would never agree to such an idea. We were so wrong! Not only did they agree that we should go, but they encouraged us to stay a few days and enjoy our time away. Boy were we excited!!! Now that I think about it, perhaps they were sick of us and wanted a break from us!?!?? Hmmm, anyway...

We left on Thursday and made the journey to our friends city, picked up a few more girls on the way, and hit Chili's. There were several of our friends there, most I'd met and a few I'd never met. Of the few I'd yet to meet, you'd never know we've never been face to face. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! We stayed until the restaurant closed and then went to Denny's so we could chat all night if we wanted! We probably would have if I wasn't almost asleep at the table, some of the people at Denny's at 1:30am are kinda scary, and most of the girls still had to go be moms the next day. So we departed.

This was not the end of our trip though! Taffi and I convinced Meagan to let us crash at her house for a few days. And I mean crash. We got back to her house around 2:30am and I hit the bed and didn't look back. Infact I was so tired, Meagan thought I was dead all night because I didn't move even once! I got up at 10am only to take my shot. Then we got ready and hit the streets of her little town. We visited the grocery store to stock up on goodies and then we dove into the scrapbooking store. We all spent some fun money on great paper and embellishments. We got home and I took a nap. I couldn't help it! These girls wore me out! I got up, and we all made a tasty dinner of Tortilla Soup and then invited Meagan's mom to join the madness. We played games until 9pm when we decided we'd better scrapbook. So we scrapbooked. We worked until 2:30am and I personally only got 3 pages done, Meagan got 1 done and Taffi I think got a few more done. I think we talked more than anything!

The next day we got up and had a delicious breakfast, made cinnamon rolls and then Taffi and I had to hit the road. We got home around 7pm and boy were Kermit and Miss Piggy excited to see me. They had SO much fun with Master Chief though!

Master Chief took the kids to Madagascar 2, McDonalds, KFC, they made cookies, rented a movie and Master Chief even let the kids have a picnic in the living room. The kids had so much fun, they can't wait for me to go out of town again! And they are in luck, I get to take off to visit my parents and brother next week!