Wedding Preparation

I have been missing in action for a few weeks but seeing as I got married and went on a honeymoon I think I deserved a break! Since writing about the few days before the wedding, the actual wedding and the honeymoon all in one post would take forever to read and write I am going to break it up into 3 separate posts to make it easier for everyone.
I worked Monday and Tuesday the week of the wedding and Tuesday night went out to dinner and had some drinks with the girls, nothing to crazy but it was a good time!
Wednesday was a little crazy. We got up went to breakfast with two of my sisters, my Aunt Becky and cousins and my grandma. We had breakfast at the Park Cafe in Salt Lake and it was so so good! McKenna decided she was going to love my hair during breakfast and was literally cuddling with my ponytail, that little girl is so silly. Then we went and got pedicures which felt so good, my feet needed a good scrub down.
After that Nicole, Emily and I went to my apartment to grab a few things before heading down to the rehearsal.
The Rehearsal went well, except McKenna didn't want to walk down the aisle, she wanted to stay with Aunt "Mergen" but she did it and everything went well and we were all ready to go for the wedding day!
I went home and got to relax for a few hours before heading off to the "rehearsal" dinner and to meet the remainder of John's family who had come in for the wedding.
At dinner Mckenna stuffed a whole chocolate covered marshmallow in her mouth, she had chocolate running all down her face and couldn't talk for a full five minutes, it was incredibly funny.
John stayed and visited with his family for a while and Morgan took me to my hotel room where Emily and I would be staying for the night.
I took the longest shower ever, watched TV and got ready for bed. The whole day everyone kept asking me if I was nervous but so far I hadn't been nervous at all. I slept well and didn't feel too worried about anything, which was good I guess.
Don't worry there will be nervousness in the post about the actual wedding!

The Ragnar Experience

I am happy to say that Ragnar is over and we finished and I survived and I can even walk normal!! The whole thing, training, preparation and the actual race was quite the experience! But I can honestly say it was a good experience.
I was nervous about the whole thing from the very beginning and not just because I was getting married such a short time afterwards but because I always doubt my ability about racing and preparing for races and I was especially nervous about letting me team down!
The whole adventure started Thursday night with dinner at Olive Garden and then shopping for food at Walmart, it is amazing how much food the six of us thought we needed for two days, we actually ate a good percentage of it but we did go a little overboard.
The next morning we got up decorated our van (SUV actually) and headed to our starting place just outside of Ogden, the other van was a little behind because they got a late start so we hung out for an hour or two and then we were off. Sammi Draper started us off and was a serious rock star!! With a hurt ankle she still ran way faster than I ever could! Then I went and ran my 3.5 miles and then Angie ran and then Whitney and the Morgan conquered a big giant 7-mile hill with no van support!! I couldn't have done it, I need people cheering me on. Then my mom ran and we got in the van and were getting ready to head to the next exchange to stretch out on the grass and get some much needed rest before our runs through the middle of the night but unfortunately that didn't happen. As we got to the bottom of the big hill coming out of Snowbasin we found out our Van #1 had lost its brakes completely so Angie, Sammi and I took Lori, Michelle, Jacoy and Jobi in our van to make sure they got to their runs on time and we kept going. By the time a new car arrived and we were back in our original groups and we got to the next big exchange we had a little more than an hour to stretch out and relax. I laid down on the grass to try to sleep but started to get really cold so I went to sleep in the car but it didn't get better! I was shivering, felt like I was going to throw up, had to use the porta-potties several times and I am pretty sure I had a fever. I was supposed to be running 7 miles and I didn't know if I was going to be able to do it! But I got my running clothes on, forced myself to eat a banana and an oatmeal muffin and slept a little on the way to my exchange. The run went really well!! I was 30 seconds ahead of pace and I felt good the whole time. After I handed off to Angie things went from bad to worse, we had to pull over on the side of the road so I could throw-up and I was still shivering. In the next several hours while Angie, Whitney, Morgan and my mom ran I threw up several more times and couldn't stop shaking! Waiting at the exchange for mom to come in I was finally able to sleep for a few minutes but then Sammi, who had been sleeping near the front of our van on the ground opened the car door and yelled that she had just got ran over! I was the only one there and she was crying and shook up of course but that was understandable. Apparently a big 15 passenger van had ran over her hand and arm and didn't even know it and drove off. I couldn't believe it. She had a big bruise down her arm but was otherwise okay!
We finally got to go to a hotel and take a quick shower and sleep for a few hours. I woke up feeling much better and again forced myself to eat something so I would have a little energy to run. It was hot, like 92 degrees when I started and 5.5 miles seemed like forever. I did good for the first mile or two and then I started feeling sick again, around 3 miles I threw up but kept going, a half a mile later I threw up again and my mom saw me and made me get in the van. If you see the pictures on facebook this is when I was crying!! I was so upset that I wouldn't be able to finish and was so mad at myself for making Morgan have to run more, especially since she had already run so much!! Morgan ran for a mile and then I decided I wanted to finish the race so I did the last mile. It felt awesome to be done!
Angie and Whitney were super rock-stars powering up the biggest hill I have ever seen! Four miles straight up would be impossible for me but they killed it! Morgan ran down the huge hill and then exchanged with my mom to finish it out. We rode the shuttle to the finish line at Park City High School and when I got there we saw my dad, John and McKenna. McKenna ran up to me and said, "Paige, Paige did you win the race?" I told her "Yes, we did win the race." Because finishing was our only goal!!
When my mom came around the corner to the finish line I ran out to meet her and almost started crying because it was such a big accomplishment.
We finished in 38 hours and 30 minutes, a little slower than we hoped but we finished nonetheless!
I am so so grateful for being able to do the race with my mom, two sisters and two other awesome girls, I know I couldn't have done it without them!! I need cheerleaders to cheer me on and they total did that! And they rocked their own runs of course. It reminded me of all the reasons why I loved playing team sports. It is so much fun to come together with other people who have the same goal as you and then reach that goal together! And it just made it that much more awesome to do it with my mom and sisters.
I don't know if I will do another Ragnar but I know finishing this one is something I will remember forever!

Sometimes you just need a reminder

I have been so nervous about the Ragnar. I keep worrying about not finishing and letting my team down and to be honest, how much I suck at running. And then something amazing happened.
My little sister, Morgan, posted the most awesome message on my facebook page about how I inspire her because I never give up and always work so hard. It was super sweet and almost made me cry. I almost felt guilty reading it because all I have felt like doing the last few weeks is giving up!!
Sometimes it just takes one little thing to remind you that other people think you are awesome and that they believe in you! And sometimes that is all it takes for you to believe in yourself again!
So in the name of inspiring and being inspired I leave you with these thoughts.
Remember, even when you don't believe in yourself, someone out their believes in you. Remember, that no matter how much you think you such, someone out their thinks you are awesome. And remember that no matter what there is always someone that loves you!

When will we learn?

This morning on my way to work I saw a woman driving down the road putting on her make-up. I'm not taking about applying a little chap-stick at a stop light, she was full-on rubbing on her foundation and driving at the same time. Several weeks ago I saw a lady putting on mascara while she was driving and I can't even begin to name all the people I see texting and driving every single day. To me texting, putting on make-up, drinking or doing any other number of stupid things and driving is like smoking. There is so much data showing how bad it is for you, yet people still do it! Every time John texts while I am in the car with him I tell him texting and driving is worse than driving drunk but he never believes me. He would never drink and then drive and would kill me if I even thought about it but doesn't think twice about sending a few texts. They have done studies!! At the University of Utah they took volunteer students got them drunk and had them drive through a simulated street, then they did the same thing with sober people that were texting. Those texting had more accidents, slower response times and worse driving skills overall.

On facebook this morning I posted about the woman driving and said I hoped she crashed. I didn't have room to say, "I hope she crashed but not into someone else and not bad enough that she was badly injured but just bad enough to learn her lesson." Many of you may think this makes me a horrible person to wish ill on someone else but I have no sympathy for people who knowingly do stupid things. 

When are we going to figure out that distracted driving kills people?!! 

My little sister, Morgan, was in a car accident last week. She rear-ended a truck, she was fine but her car was not. When we were at my mom's house this past weekend I asked her (out of ear shot of Mom and Dad of course) "Morge, be honest were you texting when you crashed?" This was the conversation that ensued. 

"No, I wasn't, I don't text and drive." 

"Since when?" 

"Since when do you think I text and drive?" 

"I have seen you do it when I was in the car with you!!" 

"I don't text and drive, not since two 19 year-old boys from Rich got killed texting and driving." 

I was quite for a moment and then responded. 

"I am sorry it took those boys dying for you to learn your lesson but I am glad you did." 

Again that may sound selfish but its true. I truly am sad that someone else's family members died but I am grateful that it wasn't my sister and that she has hopefully learned how dangerous distracted driving really can be. 

I will admit I have texted while driving in the past, I would be lying if I said I didn't, but I don't do it anymore. If I am talking on the phone and traffic or weather gets to bad for me to talk and drive I hang up. 

The thing that baffles me most about people doing all these things is it is not just you the decision is impacting. More often than not those injured or killed in drunk driving accidents are the ones that weren't drinking, the innocent bystanders. By making the choice to drive distracted you are choosing to not only play Russian roulette with your own life but with the lives of everyone else on the road with you, which to me is just plain unacceptable. 

The Body is Amazing

The more I learn about the body and the complicated things it does just while I sit here and type this blog the more it amazes me. I have been working with a personal trainer for the past 3 months, following a pretty specific meal plan (I will not call it a diet) and working out regularly. I have a few more months paid for but I have been concerned about what is going to happen when I no longer have to report what I ate to my trainer every night and have no one but myself to be accountable too. Well today my body took some of that worry away.
We had a pot luck lunch at work today and while there have been days I have eaten "off plan" foods today was the first day in several weeks that I have eaten an entire meal of foods that I haven't eaten in a while, including white rolls, broccoli salad, hamburger dip, tortilla chips, carmel popcorn and some cookies. Less than an hour later my body is not pleased. My stomach hurts and feel all gross. I do not like this feeling, I don't like feeling super full and like I ate a bunch of stuff that is not good for me. I guess this is nature's way of keeping me accountable because I feel like as long as I can avoid this feeling, even after I have no trainer to report too, I can stick to my new healthy lifestyle and keep the weight I have lost off for good!!
It amazes me that in 3 short months the body can adapt to a totally new diet and learn to dislike other certain unhealthy foods. I have also been told that if you give your body the nutrients it needs it will no longer crave things like salty and sweet snacks, I am still waiting for this to happen. Salty snacks are not a problem for me just the sweet ones and I am convinced that no matter what I give my body I will still crave yummy treats. But back to the body being smart. My body has "learned" the right amount of food I should eat, I put learned in quotes because I suppose it has always known how much and what I should be eating I just wasn't listening too it. That means that although I weigh most of my food now I won't have to do this forever, because I have learned what is enough and know exactly how much fuel my body needs to function.
I now have hope that I won't have to follow a "diet" for the rest of my life!! If I continue to learn and listen to the cues my incredibly smart body (this is not being conceited, your body is smart too) is giving me everything else will take care of itself.

A Lazy Week

You know how people say they are having a lazy day, well I am having a lazy week. Unfortunately that does not mean that I am being lazy it just means I wish I could be lazy. I have no motivation to do anything and I have lots of things to do!! Yesterday I managed to make myself go workout, I don't know if I will be so successful today. Just a few of the things I need to do this week: get supplies for Ragnar, including running clothes, run 4 and 7 miles, go get a marriage license, clean my apartment so John's grandma isn't horrified when she gets here next week, go grocery shopping and finish picking music for the wedding. There are more things but my brain is tired and I can't think of them. By themselves none of those things would be a big deal but when I list them all together I get overwhelmed and just want to take a nap, which would definitely not be a good use of my time. For just this one week I need one extra hour a day, okay maybe the next two weeks then after that I will be fine! I know there are people out there that have way more to do than I do but since I went to Altamont the past two weekends and I get zero accomplished when I go there I feel like I have a lot to do and as you can see I feel like complaining about it. I have now changed my phone screen saver and desktop backgrounds to beach scenes to remind myself that in a few short weeks I can do nothing but lay on the beach for 4 days if I want.

Take a Deep Breath

Over the past several weeks I have found myself stressing about various things in relation to the ragnar and the wedding and most of them are things I can't control, like how fast my teammates are running and how many people are going to come to the wedding. As RSVP's have been coming in it is pretty clear that we are going to have a pretty small wedding, which I should be excited about because that means it is cheaper! But I have also been kind of sad because I was hoping lots of people would want to come and celebrate with us (selfish and silly I know) BUT!! I realized today none of that matters, it doesn't matter if their are 10 people at our wedding or 210 people because those who are there are exactly the people we want to be there and want to share our special day with. Not to mention the wedding ceremony isn't for everyone else, it is simply for John and I and I should be focusing on enjoying that not on how many people will be in the crowd. As the list of things to do before the wedding gets longer and longer, I just have to remember to take a deep breath, breath in and out and know that everything will be okay. Since I am huge control freak this is easier said than done but like John said yesterday about some tiny detail I was stressing about, "It will be fine, everything will work out how it is supposed to." For the next 3 weeks this will be my mantra, "Everything will be okay, just breathe."