Almost Over

Only one more night of this.  Truly, I am going to miss it.  Yes, it will be nice to slow life down a little with summer break, but we love watching our kids play.  

This Tuesday Barrett's Mtn. View Softball League team - juniors division - plays for the championship against Red Mountain.  It's the last night of the tourney and we have to beat them twice back to back.  They lost to RM on Thursday night in our game 3 of the tourney, 5-4 in bottom of the 6th.  They just didn't have any bats after the first inning when the scored all four of their runs.  But they played great on Saturday to eliminate the Mesa Southern team, and now we are back up against Red Mountain, the only undefeated team in the tournament.  We all know the girls can do it.  They beat them before in regular season play, and Barrett's team is really quite good.

 Afty had a great season playing in Majors.  She was so much fun to watch and we're hoping she tries out for All Stars again.

Rowan really picked up the game this year in her second year of Coach Pitch softball division.  She has a great arm already and she hits the ball hard.  She had so much fun playing on the Pink Devils.  We loved her coach, too.  Dan Richardson coached Barrett years ago in coach pitch league and he is still awesome.

This was Buddy's first year playing ball.  He was on a coach pitch baseball team in Mesa North Central league, so he played all his games at Hawthorne.  Although it's a little tough for a field full of kindergarteners to stay focused for three whole innings, he did great and had so much fun.  

love this picture of my boys

Wish Barrett luck for Tuesday against RM!  We're hoping for a double header victory!

Just call her Madame President

I would be terribly remiss if I didn't post about this.  Meet Miss Barrett Brown, the newly elected President of the 8th Grade at Stapley Junior High, 2012-2013 school year.

Yes, we are proud of her.  Yes, we are thrilled she won her election.   But mostly, we are proud of her because she had the guts to run for office in the first place and the diligence to get everything done for her campaign in such a short window. And because she's a great young woman with so many terrific skills to be a leader and a friend to so many kids at her school.  Her campaign slogan was "Rock the Vote" and she made some super cute posters.  Right in the middle of the posters were one of these funny pictures.  Yes, we laughed a lot during the photo shoot.

We took some mug shots too, but decided not to go the criminal-looking route.  Maybe not the best PR move....just sayin'...

But in all seriousness, she's gonna be great.  Way to go, B.  We love you!

South Rim, here we come!

I'm getting excited.  Really, really excited.  This weekend we are hitting the trail again, and hopefully getting out of the big hole with no broken bones this go around.  But unlike the picture below (taken last September on our annual Grand Canyon Rim to Rim hike), there will only be 3 of us making the journey this weekend. 

By the way, I love this picture. It makes me happy just thinking about all these amazing people, about half of which I'm related to, and what a memorable experience we shared last year. What a group! We went from 10 of us the year before (9 hikers and 1 driver) to 28 in 2011 (25 hikers and 3 drivers). Our 2012 crew is even bigger! It seems that the madness has become contagious.

Everyone else has bailed for one reason or another, or said they wanted to go but just couldn't make it work, yada, yada, yada.  And that's OK.   I've kinda figured out that extreme hiking isn't really for everyone.  Not everyone gets excited about 8 hours of hiking one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  Not everyone feels the urge to push and train and climb and sweat and work and call it "fun" once they've conquered 9,000 feet of elevation change and are completly exhausted, sitting on the top of the world's largest hole licking the most delicious chocolate ice cream cone known to man.  I get it.  I guess.

And just like with anything, if you're not really committed to something, other things will take priority. That's just how life goes. Like every good family I know, our house is in full drive mode just about every day.  We're busy.  So busy.  We work hard and play hard.  I'm pretty sure I like it that way.  I'm hoping it's the recipe for good kids.  I know it's the recipe for a good marriage.   So...in our house, I've long since learned that there will always, always be something else to do, someplace else to go, something else to fill the calendar.  So we schedule early and do our best to make it happen.  It's important to us.   

Ryan, Barrett and I are going to rock it.   What a cool thing to do together. And what an awesome thing for our 13-year old to accomplish at her age.  Sure, she's a little nervous, but that's OK.  She'll be great.

The North Rim isn't even open for the season yet, and the Rim to Rim  hike certainly does pose some transportation challenges since it's a 4+ hour drive from the North to the South via car.  So this weekend we are just doing a South Rim hike:  South Kaibab to Bright Angel.  16.5 miles.  The NPS website says it's 7 miles from  South Kaibab down the canyon, across the Colorado River to Bright Angel Campground.  Then it's 9.5 miles to the top of Bright Angel.  I've read a few bloggers who wrote up their adventure, and most say it's more like 17 - 17.5 miles.  Who knows.  I'm sure the NPS has it figured out after all these years.  I just know it's about 7+ miles shorter than the Rim to Rim, so I am hoping that it will be a good experience for Barrett.  She's been a rockstar on our training hikes.  Hopefully she enjoys it and still wants to rock the Rim to Rim with us in September.

Go and Do

Sometimes it's important to write it down.  Today I feel strongly about it.  So here it goes.


Last Monday morning, 4/16, I woke up for my early morning run as usual.  I hardly thought about the run or the weather or the music or anything common, as I was so preoccupied with a dream I had the night before.  Actually, I think the best way to describe it was that I felt frustrated that I could not remember all the details and I was, for some reason, struggling hard to recreate the fragmented bits and pieces.  Nonetheless, the feelings and impressions I had were undeniable.


After the run, the hustle and bustle of the morning routine kicked in as Ryan and I worked in tandem to get our 4 peeps off to school with cute hair, ironed clothes, full bellies, signed planners, and something healthy in the lunch bags.  Then it was a rush to shower up and get ready for work while Ryan went for his run.  As I stood in my bathroom curling my hair and doing my makeup, those strong impressions kept coming back.  Finally, Ryan got home just as I was about to head out the door, and I had a couple minutes alone with him. 


I told him about my dream and that I had such a strong impression that we needed to get our water storage supply in order.  It was an unmistakable prompting and his immediate reaction was, "I'll go today."  No hesitation.  He concurred that when inspiration like that hits, just obey, don't question.  I felt a sudden peace.


Not an hour later, I got a call at the office from Ryan telling me he was at Fry's buying $100 in bottled water.  My first thought was, "Wow, that was fast."  And then he said, "After I ate breakfast this morning, I came upstairs to brush my teeth and the water was all cloudy.  I turned on all the faucets and let it run, but it didn't clear up.  What if the water supply is contaminated or something?  And I couldn't help but think about your dream.  So I am here."


Just wait - it gets better...


The week passed and we had intermittent cloudy water a few times, but it would clear up.  Then this weekend and this morning it seemed especially bad.  The girls were freaking out about brushing their teeth with it today so they used bottled water instead. 


Well, Ryan left for his run this morning out the back Arcadia door, and when he came back he yelled for me to come outside.  When I got out there, our back patio was getting flooded with water coming up from a hole in the patio.  The sprinklers were on in the yard so we weren't sure if there was some connection.  But it was flooding bad and looked like a spring had erupted under our house.


This, combined with the skim milk coming out of my bathroom as I brushed my teeth kicked me over the edge and I called the City of Mesa.  After waiting on hold forever, I finally got through and talked to 3 people before I finally got the city cell phone number of the water inspector for the Water Quality division.  Amazingly, he answered right away.  His name is Jeff and he was very kind.


I told him about my milk water and he explained the following:

• Last Sunday night, 4/15/12, the main water plant at Lindsay and McDowell which serves our area went down.  They have been working to repair it all week.  (This was the night I had the dream).
• In the interim, the City is running water from the reserve wells in order to "not run out of water to serve the residents."  Yes, he said that.  I wrote it down.
• As the wells are used so seldom, there is a lot of air in the lines, which is causing the water to appear "milky" looking when it comes out of the tap.  He advised for us to fill a clear glass and watch the water clear from the bottom up as the air evaporates out of the water.
• He assured me that there was no issue with the quality, just excess air.  I grilled him here, and he stuck to his guns.  No issues he says.
• When I asked him how long this would go on, he said that they were hoping to have the water plant repaired by yesterday, but they've been running into problems and the latest estimate is that they will still be tapping into the reserve wells for another week.  They hope to have it back up by Friday.

And what if it's not?  Hmmm...


Well, our under-house spring is yet to be resolved, but we are praying it's just an irrigation pipe that burst.  Our guy will be out today to check it out.  But at least now our water storage is in order again and, if nothing else, we'll be blessed for our obedience and prepared for the hot summer.  I am grateful for the inspiration that comes when we need it, and even more grateful that I heard the prompting.  I am certain that inspiration and promptings come more often than we recognize and certainly more often than we heed.  I hope to do a better job recognizing that and being ready to "go and do." 


One more thought...


Thanks to my Uncle Dale for his short and sweet testimony yesterday during stake conference.  The reminder that we need to be "goers and doers" was a good one for me.  By the way, that was the best stake conference I have ever attended.  Ever.   What a great spiritual boost for me.  And I was so grateful that our family accepted our stake president's challenge from last stake conference to read the BOM before this conference.  We finished as a family on Friday night, and I finished my personal reading on Saturday.  Without a doubt that was the best BOM reading experience I've had.

Easter

Our Happy Easter Pics

Somehow the Easter Bunny just knows to make a special stop by the Brown house on Saturday morning during his last minute rounds of prep for the big drops on Sunday.  But we like it that way.  The littles were concerned that he might not remember (even though he's been coming to our pad on Saturday for years) and urged me to send him an email.  Unfortunately, I told them I wasn't sure he was that techno-savvy, but hoped that he'd find his way back to our house this year.  

The kids woke up early on Saturday, pretty weary-eyed from a long week of late night ball games and too many shortened nights of sleep.  Since Buddy Boy had a game at 8:00 and the hidden eggs just apparently could not wait until later, they were all up at 6:30 scrambling to see how much hidden loot they could discover and pile into their baskets.   

The big bunny man must have seen some economic recovery during the past year, since he filled our kids' eggs with a bunch of quarters and chocolate eggs.  Jackpot.  I think Afty's haul topped the list at nine dollars and change.  Not bad for 15 minutes of work (if you can call it that).

The rest of our Easter Saturday was fantastic.  After Easton's ball game and a few chores, the kids went swimming in the ice pool while dad and I enjoyed a little sunshine and reading.  Us oldies weren't quite ready for the chilly plunge.  Let's give it another month.  The Brown/Hawk extended family Easter get together followed that afternoon out in Queen Creek with lots of cousin time, swimming, another egg hunt, early dinner and good times all the way around.  It was great seeing Ryan's Great Uncle Keith, even though it's so hard to see him getting so old and now largely unable to speak.  I have such a soft spot in my heart for him.  I've always loved him a little extra.

Ryan and I took off from the family shindig a little early to head to the Sun's game with some friends from my office.   We had the suite that night, which is always nice, but truth be told...after sitting in Francis' floor sits a handful of times, nothing else really compares.  Of course we still had a great night and enjoyed the company and free eats.  Plus, the Suns beat the Lakers by a landslide.

Easter Sunday began with 9:00am church, which was nice.  My mom and I sang in the choir and Barrett sang with the YW.  The program was great and the kids and Ry indulged me with a few pics afterwards.  Aren't they so beautiful?

We finished out the day with late lunch at my folks' house with all the Teeples clan, followed by dinner at Morgan & Jessie's with Ryan's fam.  Lots of fam.  Lots of food.  Great day.

Track Star

Atta girl.

Way to run.

Way to push.

You rock.

Afty at her school track & field day on Friday 3/9/12

Here she is, far left, running in the first heat of the Girls 5th Grade 50-yard dash

She was fast, and she finished in the top 3 of her heat, qualifying her for the finals

Only the speedy ones here.  These are the qualifiers from all three heats.

And they're off in the finals...

Afty pushed hard, but she didn't get the greatest start at the horn, and ended up finishing 5th overall.  I was a proud mama, though, watching her determination and desire to win.  She had been looking forward to this day for several weeks.

Each class had competitions amongst themselves to choose the two fastest boys and two fastest girls for their relay team.  Afton was the fastest girl in her class, so she was chosen to be a part of the team. They practiced almost every day for two weeks.  I haven't seen her this excited for something in a long time.  On the big day, she ran the first leg for her team.

Love this game face.  And I love this girl.  I was only there for the morning running events (she ran the cross country event too and finished 12th in the school), but then they spent the afternoon doing all the field events.  Of course, Afty wanted to participate in everything, and she did.  Long jump, hurdles, softball throw, etc.  She thinks she won the girls softball throw for distance, although the final awards weren't given out that day, so she'll have to wait and see.  But she loved the whole day and had a blast being in her element.  Outdoors, in the sun, with friends, working hard, going for the gold.  Love it!

Seeing Arizona

Over the past month or so, I have had the opportunity to see so much of our Arizona landscape that I rarely ever take the opportunity to do.  After racing in Sedona in early February then running the Ragnar a couple weeks ago from Wickenburg to Tonapah to Surprise to New River to Carefree to Fountain Hills to Scottsdale to Tempe, I was reminded that our beautiful state has a lot to offer.  And our kiddos haven't seen much of it!  And we are all Arizona natives, dang it.

So I picked up one of these beauties today.  It's the America the Beautiful Annual Pass and our family's ticket to exploring some amazing national parks and monuments.  


I am excited for Spring Break. We're busting out of the Brown family norm and doing something new.  We thought it would be a great opportunity to take our kids to some places they've never been and give them a dose of some good old Arizona culture.  We debated about going South or North, driving or taking a train, but the North via car won for this trip.  Next time it will be Kartchner Caverns and Tombstone.  And I still want to take the train from Williams to the South Rim.  Another time, though.


For this quick 3-day adventure, I've done my homework and made a list and mapped out what I hope to be a fun-filled trip across Northern Arizona.  I remember visiting a lot of these places in my 6th grade ELP trip and/or summer vacations with my grandparents.  So far, here's our plan:

• Head out Thursday morning and visit Montezuma's Castle
• Hike into Montezuma's Well and picnic there
• Drive to the Grand Canyon and stay Thursday night at the South Rim (luckily I found us a room there so we won't be camping!)
• Take a family friendly rim hike and explore the beauties of the canyon.  Get Barrett really pumped up to do the Rim2Rim with us in September (woot!  woot!).  Eat some Hagen Daaz. Take lots of pics.  Start to indoctrinate the kiddos that hiking is fun! Buy souveniers :)
• Drive to Flagstaff on Friday afternoon and visit Sunset Crater National Monument and Waputki National Monuments
• Tour the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff Friday night and have some cool star gazing experiences with their giant telescopes
• Spend Friday night in Flag
• Drive through Williams, AZ on Saturday and check out some cool historical sites, lunch there OR go to Camp Verde and do the Out of Africa Park 

Yay for something new!  Yay for new memories and cool cultural experiences and good family time.  I am excited.  I hope the kids are too - hard to tell, since they have no reference point on this one and no idea what to expect.  They are used to the beach or snow or camping or cabin (all of which actually sound pretty fun right now too).  I think I am itching for a little vaca.

All eyes on us

They watch us all the time.  Even when we don't notice, they are watching.  Learning.  Thinking.  Deciding how and what they want to "be".  Deciding if they want to be like us.  Or not.

I've always known that my living example to my children, whether good or bad, is more powerful than anything I will ever say.  I am grateful for such amazing kids and so thankful that the Big Man Upstairs had enough faith and trust in me to let me be their mom.  I pray every day - every single day - for help to be a good mother.  And I pray that as I am ever-so-human and make many mistakes along the way, that they will know I am trying, really really trying hard to be the best I can be.  For them.  For me.  For our family. 
It's seems like as of late, parenting has been on my mind so much.  As I've taken opportunities to counsel with my precious peeps about things going on in their lives, trials they are facing, emotions they are reconciling, I've asked myself if I'm doing this right.  Am I teaching them what they need to know to become a successful adult?  Am I helping them develop their faith?  Am I too tough on them? Or not tough enough?  Am I showing them how important it is to stay strong and healthy and fit?  Am I giving them enough opportunties to "choose" and exercise their agency and learn to responsible?

I was firm with the one about a grade that we both felt was unacceptable given her smarts and her gifts and her upbringing.  She knew it wasn't her best and so did I.  We talked a lot about expectations, abilities, and what is means to be our best.  I asked her how she felt about this whole situation, and although she quickly responded that she knew she hadn't been putting her forth her best, she said she didn't feel that bad considering how she was doing in comparison to some of her friends.

Oh no you didn't just say that.
Stop the show.

Bring out the soapbox because my "life is too short to be mediocre" lesson is about to begin. 

I reminded her that there are all kinds of average people out there - people who are content to just get by, content with doing the bare minimum.  In short, content with being mediocre.  We are not those kind of people.  Each of us is born with our own package of gifts and talents and just like the parable of the 10 talents, we are each commanded to work with what we've been given and make the most of them.  The fly on our wall has oft been blessed to hear my well rehearsed, but 100% sincere, speil about doing our best.  I tell my kids that if they work hard and bust their tails and the best they can bring home is a C, then I'd be as happy as I could be.  But they are not C students, and in fact, are not B students.  They are capable of excellence and have shown it over and again, so that is what we expect.  She got it.  I think they all get it and probably always have.  Sometimes we just need reminders.

Monday evening when I got home from work, the two youngest girls had both our yoga mats spread out in the family room and were mimicking Tony Horton and his crew as they worked through the P90X Stretch-X routine.  I couldn't help but smile.  They were so stinking cute.  How many times have they seen Ryan and I pull out those mats and plug in those DVD's over the years?  Apparently, Rowan wanted to "limber up" so she could perfect her splits, and Afton wanted to loosen up her muscles since she's been running a lot.  (BTW - Afton was the fastest in her class and is representing her class in the team relay race at this Friday's Track and Field Day.  She is sooooo excited!)  She's doing the softball throw and cross country event too and wants to be her best.  She wants to be fast.  Hmmmm...I wonder where she gets that?

I know they are watching.  Sometimes when the week seems too busy to steal away for 2 hours to the Big White House down on Main, I think about them.  They need to see me go always.  They need to know that I love that place and that it's important to me to be there every week. 

They watch us work.  They see us run.  They see us sweat and do hard things.  They see us date.  They know we love the Lord and that we think it's important to be kind, kind, kind.  They know that church attendance and softball practice are pretty much non-negotiable.  They know we don't tolerate whining and that anything short of 100% honesty isn't going to cut it in our family.  They know we love them beyond measure and that all their friends are welcome in our home. 

How do they know?

They see.  They watch.  They learn so fast. 

Reality Check

Sometimes we need a reality check.

Last night after the kiddos were tucked in bed and before I tucked myself, I sat alone for a few minutes at my kitchen counter indulging in a little late night graham cracker and milk treat.  As I casually flipped through my newest Women's Running magazine that just came in the mail, I came upon an editorial that struck a cord.  The guy had just finished running a marathon - a race for which he had seriously trained for months and in which he fully expected to hit a new PR and qualify for Boston.  However, he had an "off" day on the course and missed his qualifying time by 2 minutes.  Two minutes.  During the car ride home from the race, he went on and on about his dissapointment, what went wrong, the woes of not qualifying by such a small margin, etc., until finally his wife broke in after an hour and said, "You may only do this for one day and then you have to stop.  Your sister would give anything to be able to run, and you just did 26."  The man's sister suffered from a life changing illness the prior year and was no longer able to run - at all.

Today, part two of the reality check hit.  Today marks the one year annivesary of my sister in law, Lacey's, most unselfish act.  On her 29th birthday, March 1, 2011, she donated her kidney to her dad and saved his life.  I still cannot talk about it or think about it or read about without tearing up.  At the time, she was a single mother of three young children, her baby not even one year old, engaged to be married.  Only 29 years old.  A friend commented on her tribute Facebook post today:  "Nothing compares...the most unselfish act known to man.  I laugh when people talk about sacrifice...until we all start giving away body parts we can't even speak."

We watched a short little video clip from the LDS website on Monday night at the conclusion of my FHE lesson on the family.  It was titled, "What Matters Most."  All this gives me cause to reflect and make sure that I am focused on what matters most:  my health, my family, my conviction, my faith.

Truly, I am blessed beyond measure.  The luckiest girl I know...for sure.

Ragnar del Sol

I am nearly recovered from a bad bout of bronchitis and am hoping to have full lung capacity back in the next few days.  I got sick last week after our fun family President's Day campout to Bulldog Canyon and by Thursday night, I was feeling pretty crappy.  I even gave in and started on some meds since all the natural remedies I was trying weren't touching it.  Everyone knows that feeling sub-par is never fun, but I am quite certain I made it much worse by being a part of the Ragnar insanity.  You know that part where the doc says, "Rest, rest, rest."  Oh ya, I missed that part :)  I must have heard, "Run, run, run."

Last weekend was Ragnar del Sol weekend, and I was part of an amazing 12-person team who, while still claiming to be perfectly sane, voluntarily paid to run 200.5 miles nonstop over two days in a relay style race (3 legs each) while shuttling between the 36 exchange points in two vans, all throughout much of Arizona.  What an experience.  Really, an incredibly cool experience and something I will never forget.  The van was so trashed with all our gear and crap everywhere after just a few hours.  In and out.  In and out.  I wonder how many times we got in and out of that dang van?  Lots of time spent leapfrogging our runners every mile or two along the Arizona highways, giving support, delivering much needed water, yelling encourgagement over the megaphone, laughing at the insanity, frequenting more porta-potties than any human should ever frequent in one weekend.  My bronchitis/maybe pneumonia lungs burned with a fire I haven't felt in years and my body was so dang tired.  I think I might have slept a grand total of two hours over a two-day stretch, and that was curled up in a van on the benchseat I was sharing with my rad hard core cousin, Jodi.  She rocked the insanity with me, and so did my cousins, Jimmy & Tamara, along with a couple of their cousins on the Van Epps side of the family plus 6 other random friends.  Oh, and I might have caught about 20 minutes of shuteye sleeping on the ground in the cold, bermuda grass football field of some high school after showering in their locker room Friday night (exchange 12).  That was not the most pleasant part of the trip.  Jodi and I were laughing so hard at the insanity at that point.  Still, even sick, it was really so much fun.  And yes, I know that sounds a little deranged.  Actually, a lot deranged as I write this.  But yes, it was actually fun.  And I am pretty sure I will do it again with 2 vans full of my best friends and family.  Maybe we'll get a killer team of crazies together for next year's hoopla.

I posted all my pics on Facebook already as did many of the other peeps on our team, but I am hoping to put them up here too in case I ever turn this blog into a book.  I was runner 5 of 12, one of the two token females in Van 1 and four in our total team.   I followed Jodi (she was runner #4) so I got to get the baton slap bracelet handoff from her each time.  Sweet.  We collectively decided (in our humble Van 1) that we rocked extra hard since Van 1 ran so much more than Van 2.  We logged 111 miles to their 88 as most all of our legs were longer.  Not sure why the Ragnar Gods designed the course like that with so much disparity, but so be it.  Actually, that only adds up to 199 miles, so somewhere along the course there was another 1.5.  They must have rounded down in the Rag Mag that published all the leg distances. 

My legs were 6.8 miles (run along Wickenburg Rd toward Phoenix at 3:15pm on Friday - super toasty but a nice flat and gradual downhill run), then 6.7 miles (run along New River Road, mostly uphill, on the way to New River in the middle of the boondocks at 2:30am Saturday morning - cold, dark, a little creepy, going on 22 hours with no sleep with lungs fire-filled), then finally 4.8 miles (run over super hilly road coming into McDowell Mountain Park in Fountain Hills at noon on Saturday - so hot and lungs now bursting into flames).  Can I just say how happy I was when I finished leg 3?  Soooo happy.  But I was even more happy when I finally laid my head on my pillow on Saturday night at 7:30 pm (after being awake for 48 of the preceding 50 hours) and crashed like nobody's business.  I don't think I moved for 11 hours. 

The hardware from the race is the coolest in my collection.  Our team's race shirts are rad (our team was Rock the Ragnar).  The pictures make me laugh and smile and remember what it feels like to push. 

Good times, good times. 

For our record books:

We finished in 31 hours, 3 minutes, 37 seconds, and best I can tell from the results sheets, we finished 176 of 377 finishing teams (excluding the ultra teams that were running with 6 people only).  Our team's average pace for the whole event was 9:17/mile.  Not bad, not bad for a random bunch of banshees. We'll take it.