Young Women

The missionaries just stopped by my house to see if they could help out with any of our young women. I think they thought I was messing with them when I told them no nonmember and 1 inactive. I have to say that we are truly blessed in this ward because we have 20 young women and only one is inactive and we still see her with sports and girls camp. We don't even have any non member families with young women. I have never lived in a ward like this. I sometimes get bogged down with all of my families activities and all of the activities and things that we are suppose to be doing as a young women presidency and I realize that that is not a battle I have to fight. I get to see all of my YW every week and get to encourage and uplift and enjoy everyone of them. I really love this calling as the president. It has been such a growing experience for me and the Lord has blessed me so very much.

WE REALLY DID IT!!!!!!!!!!

This is the sign Maren made for me. I saw it and wanted to cry but I was so tired I couldn't even do that. I love my sister and my family. They are all amazing!!

Malia at the finish line. Maren said she was so good and just waited patiently for us.

I can't believe that after 5 months of work we finally ran the Ogden Half Marathon. We even finished it. Friday we picked up our packet and I seriously thought it was going to take forever but it was so well organized that we were in and out in about 15 minutes. I was so excited. I know Robbie was because on Sunday he drove up to Eden to check out how long it would take us to drive up there, how the canyon looked, the smell of the air, the humidity in the canyon, the road surface temperature. Ok not really but he did go check it out. This was our first experience running anything over 3 miles. I really don't think I could have done it with out Robbie. He was such a motivator and kept me going even when I cried because it was so hard.

Maren drove us up to the starting line and then she took off down the canyon and got out just as they were closing it up. We were afraid she wasn't going to get out and get to her race. She ran the 5K and did really good. Mom and Dad came and brought the kids up and so the 5 of them spent hours waiting for us to finish. Thanks for doing that. It was a huge help knowing someone was at the end of the race waiting for me.
This was about a third of the portajohns that were set up at the start. They had a band playingand it was a rocking atmosphere. I loved it. As soon as they told everyone to start lining up the lines to the johns were so long.
There seemed like there were so many people there. Fortunately I actually got to see the ladies that I ran with. They all did really awesome. Some of them had really great times. I also saw my friend Shelly there. She walks the half marathons. She says that at about mile 9 you have to run some because your muscles need to change what they are doing. Once they told us to go line up we walked through the starting line and then they had times posted like 10 min. miles and so everyone with a ten minute mile starts there. Robbie and I split up at this point and next time me will stay together. We could have run together for a while. There were so many people. It was awesome. As you round the bend to start up the canyon you can see about 1 mile ahead of you and there are just masses of people running up this hill. It truly was amazing. I wanted to stop and take pictures all along the way but I am a serious athlete and that just would not have been cool.I realized that anyone can be a runner. I saw people that looked like they really were runners. I saw so many different body types and sizes. This was one of the best things I personally could have done for my own self esteem because I realized that my body is divinely mine and as I take care of it it will preform for me. I don't have to be a size 2 like I was when I got married but I do have to take care of myself.

Robbie intensly running. He changed headbands at the end so Malia could see him running with her pants on his head!!!

Robbie took 16th in his category of half Clydesdale's(big men runners-I think you have to be over 200lbs). He was 304th overall out of 1852 runners, he placed 174 out of 648 men ,and his class place was 16th. He ran his race in 1:50:45.88. His pace was 8:23.5 minute miles. I love that he did so well because at about 2 miles he cramped up so bad that he could barely walk. He got it stretched out and off he went.

The real runner (no not me and the hobbler next to me) took 2nd in the marathon. Crazy!!!

I would have liked to have done better but I had to stop at 3 portajohns along the way. I waited in one spot for 5 min . But I had to go. I ran in the Athena division which means I weigh more than 140 lbs. I was 1300th overall out of 1852 runner, I placed 787th out of 1194 women, and in my class I placed 103 out of 222 in my class. I ran 11.24.0 minute miles. I ran it in 2:30:28.96. It seriously was one of the best experiences of my life.

On Sunday I wore my medal to church. Totally inappropriate I know but whatever. I wanted those YW to know that by setting goals you can accomplish things. This was huge for me and hopefully that saw that if Crazy Carrie can do hard things then they as well can do them!!!

MY baby is 14...that can't be right because I am only 24!!

Britton turned 14 this week. He has grown up so fast I can't believe it. This child is my twin. He is so much like me it is crazy. It causes us to argue some. It felt like yesterday that I was changing his diaper, that he was worried about the "birdy bats" in the house, that as a 3 year old he was riding a bike on country rodes, that he was "corralling" the bulls across the rode in the field, that he was crying because he hated tee ball, that he was Zorro for the 17th time for Halloween and Breckin was Zorrito, that he loved the cats so much he was teaching them to swim, that he was coming in and asking if he could have me hold him and give him momma love.



He was also ordained a teacher yesterday. I was so proud of him. He is such a fantastic boy and I am blessed to be his fabulous mother. Love you Britton Hamilton!!!!

ONLY minor damage

Malia had kindergarten testing on Tuesday morning so we drove down from my moms house to be home for that. I had some toys to take to Skyler from my mom and so after her testing we were going to Maren house. We got half way there before this happened

A high school girl was turning left and she was trying to beat the light and she either didn't see me or thought she could get through the intersection faster than she did. I was able to slam on my breaks hard enough to prevent her from hitting the drivers side but not hard enough (obviously) to not hit her. I popped her front passenger tire but there was no other damage done to her SUV. I was so mad not so much for the accident because that could happen anywhere but because Malia was so scared and just kept crying. She slept a long time yesterday. I would have thought she had a concussion if she had hit her head but I think it was emotionally exhausting for her. The other reason I was mad is because I love this big Grandma car. It is a glider and it super comfy plus the horn sounds like a train. Best of all though is we own it. She was ticketed for failure to yield so her insurance company will hopefully pay to have it repaired. As soon as the insurance adjusters come, we are off to the junk yard to see if we can buy some parts. Luckily no one was hurt. I am sore today in my neck and shoulders but everybody involved had seat belts on. Thank goodness. I just want to know why my air bags didn't deploy. I am glad they didn't. I would have had some pretty black eyes this morning.

Mother's Day

Robbie is the best husband. He surprised me this mother's day and took me shopping. He bought me running pant, running socks, a sports bra that fits properly-Hallelujah-, scrapbook software that actually works with Vista (I actually bought this and told him it was my mother's day gift. I didn't know he was doing all the other stuff). He also took me to dinner with our friends Dean and Michelle. We went to a great Mexican restaurant and enjoyed great food and fabulous friends. What a Great Mother's day Treat.

I am crazy. I know that about myself and have accepted it. I am way less crazy now than I was when Britton and Breckin were little but I am still crazy. Mother's day is something that makes me a little nutty. Less nutty now than I used to be but none the less still nutty. I wasn't like this until I had Britton. OK that makes it sound like he is the one that made me wacky. He is not. He just put my over the edge. I have some hormonal issues that have been taken care of now but when he was little I had so much guilt about my mothering skills or lack of them that Mother's day was one big day of "look at what a failure you are". I refused (OK I still refuse. I had one of my counselors teach my lesson on Sunday so I could run away with Malia to my moms house. I'll drive two hours just so I don't have to go to church on Mother's day.) to go to church on mothers day. It's against my religion. I didn't want my sweet children singing "Mother I love you mother I do" because I was so overwhelmed with failure. That is the nice word for it. I was overwhelmed with feelings that if these little shits(I was only repeating what Grandma Hatch called us) really loved me they would be good and not be naughty. Ya medicine and perspective has a way of changing things. I was a moron and really, what 5 and 3 year old boys aren't naughty please. So needless to say I still struggle going to church on Mother's day(like I said I ran to my moms house so I could give her her mother's day gift. I was never naughty and so I am sure she never felt like I did :-)) but my children have grown up and although they are still boys and naughty I don't feel the overwhelming failure. Maybe having a girl also has helped because ROCK ON I AM MOTHER OF THE YEAR!!!!!!!!

I totally have this kid fooled into thinking my food is good. Mind you he only mentions breakfast foods and I can really batter up some bread for french toast.Some very thoughtful teachers helped my sweet Breckin on Mother's day and they made these in class. I love it.
Britton gave me a card and thanked me for taking him to all of his games even when it is cold outside. This young man knows what a cold weather woos I am.


Malia gave me a beautiful artificial flower and a portrait of myself. I truly wish I had eyelashes like that.

I gave all of my Young Women Leaders mothers day candy bars because they truly are great women and I would love my daughter or sons to be apart of their families in the far future.

Running, Lacrosse, and Cabelas

We went for our weekly long Saturday run of 9 miles today. Robbie had really good times and I am still keeping my 11 minute miles. I love running!!!!! We got home and immediately started cleaning house because we were going to be gone all day with Lacrosse. We played Olympus(a SL valley team) at Highland(in Utah county). It made no sense. Why go all the way down there when both teams are from the north?? Crazy!!

Check out the hot ladies on the left!!

Luckily the day was nice and the sun was mostly out and the Lacrosse was good. A guy was taking photos and his are way better than mine. This page takes you to the high school website. Just click on the thunder league page on the right hand side. Breckin is #2, he has a yellow visor, and black shorts with a V on the leg. http://www.viewmontlax.com They won 7-2 and Breck scored 3 of the goals. After the game we went to Cabelas. Our family doesn't hunt or fish but we do eat. Cabelas has great
hamburgers and food. We went there with the Fujikawa's and the Bryson's after the game for lunch. Low and behold Breck's coach and some other player are eating there. Good Food. We also like to go there because they have a huge aquarium and all these really cool animals. It is like going to a museum. Took a long Saturday nap and wasted away the rest of the day hanging out with my family. Love it!!!!!

I'm late, I'm Late for a very important date

Today was one of those days that I was late for everything. I spent the morning doing lots of stuff that I can't remember. I go to the school on Thursdays for 1/2 and it always ends up being like 1 1/2 hours. At 5:30 Britton had a game in WX at a park in the middle of a subdivision that we couldn't find. He was suppose to be there at 5 but because I was trying to get ready and so was Malia it ended up being 5:30 when we got there and then I still couldn't figure out how to get to the park that we could see so I told Brit to "Run Forest Run!!" I spent the next 10 minutes winding around streets hoping that one would lead to this park. Brit played a great game. He was playing 3rd most of the night and he hit a home run!!! I didn't see it because at this point I was gone. Robbie was suppose to meet me at the park at 6 because I had an obligation at 6:30. Thankfully Breckin was able to car pool to Lacrosse so he got to where he needed to be at 6pm. Anyway Robbie was at Bingham HS for a weight lifting competition. He had 4 players take second and the only reason was because the other boys broke the state record to place first. Anyway it is about 3o min. without traffic and with traffic it is who knows how long. Being the good mother I am I left Malia in a chair, wrapped in a blanket with the cell phone connected to Robbie(when I left he was about 10 minutes out or at least that is what he told me but really how would I know). I told her not to move and that if she needed something to get Britton. I told Brit good job and that I was leaving and to keep an eye on Meena( ya that makes a lot of sense as he is playing baseball) and then I dashed off. I seriously had to get dressed in the car on the way to the church. Thankfully it was just changing my pants to a skirt and my shoes. I am pretty agile. I am now only 15 minutes late to the Young Women Recognition Dinner for the YW in our stake. We had two girls that had earned their Medallions and as the YW president I needed to be there. The dinner was nice and it was good to talk to the girls and their parents. I love these girls. They are turning from beautiful YW into stunning Women. I love it. The Jones talked about their mission to Burma and about service. She stressed that the YW take every opportunity to serve in their home, in community, and in the church. It was great. I got home at about 8:30 and thankfully Breckin made it home alive and about 10 minutes later Robbie and Britton and Malia walked in. Malia had a T-ball game at 7:30 and she hit a ball into the outfield. She earned a white star that we iron onto her hat for doing that. Awesome. Homework got started and hopefully done and then I got everyone to bed and immediately I was out. LONG DAY !!!

Friday Date Night

I love that Robbie and I are able to date again. Friday is normally our date night and we needed to carb load for our 9 mile run on Sat. morning so off to the Olive Garden. I am the most pathetic eater around. I only order things that I know because I don't want to waste money on food I won't like so I get the same thing every time I eat there. Sandwich shops-Ham and cheese on wheat, any fast food place-bacon cheese burger, Mexican restaurants-enchiladas, Chinese restaurants-egg rolls(it is the only Chinese food I like and then they have to be dipped in ketchup. Gross I know)Italian restaurants-Lasagna. So Friday I had Lasagna at the Olive Garden and it was good. It tastes just like it does at Fazolis(fast food Italian-yes I like it better than the Olive Garden because it is fast) and is about twice as expensive. Love the bread sticks. We then went to see the Forbidden Kingdom. I love kung fu movies and if they have Jet Li or Jackie Chan all the better. This had both. This is my disclaimer:You must really love kung fu movies or incredible choreography. Don't see it in the theatre unless you do. Totally amazing. I really liked it.

We then bought ice cream and went home and made milkshakes for the kids. I love chocolate milkshakes. I was a BUTT when I was 16. It was all about me(I know it is hard to believe) For some reason I was in deep need of a milkshake and I was watching TV and didn't want to move. Layne was downstairs with me and I kept asking him to make me one and he wouldn't so I put the tears on. I had the ability to cry on request and so the tears started and not long after I got a great chocolate milkshake from my fabulous brother Layne. Isn't that what everyone does to younger brothers??It still is one of the best milkshakes I have ever had. I definitely owe him one.