Happy Birthday Mom

November 1, 2008

Last month in one of my classes, we were asked the question: " Who has the most influence in you life?" In years past my habitual answer to this question would have been my dad. He has always had the outspoken and loving nature to warrant this title.So in thinking about this question, by default, the first answer that popped into my head was just that; my dad. However a competing opinion took over my thoughts; mom. Unlike my dad, my mom was rarely outspoken but she was equally loving. She never had time to be outspoken because it was all she could do to be a perfect example to her children (cheesy but true). I grew up being a daddy's girl, but more and more I find myself subconsciously becoming a carbon copy of my mom. She has instilled and cultivated tradition, culture, love, service, talent and creativity in my life. She prepared me to be a wife and mother without ever letting me in on the secret. Of course it isn't possible to get a lifetime of "Priscilla" skills in 18 years, so to this day, my mother is my number one lifeline second to Anthony. There has never been a time when I haven't heard the joy in her voice when she hears me on the other end of the phone. She is elated to continue to share her life knowledge with me whenever I need it, like when I called her from the grocery store early this morning to ask her opinion about the best kind of beans to put into the infamous Halloween chili.

Mom, I love you so much and I am so thankful for the immeasurable love that you have for me and Anthony. This past week he has regularly reminded me to do something for "mom." He loves you more than you think a son-in-law could, but thankfully you make that really easy for him. You are my number one blogging fan, and my biggest cheerleader.

This is the part where I would typically post a picture of my mom to remind everyone of her astounding beauty, but I know that she wouldn't appreciate that.

Happy Birthday Mom. Perhaps you might enjoy a nice movie in the theater by yourself ?(hehe)

work halloween party!

I just got back from an efy work party. Go to this blog to see pictures:

http://efyhalloweenparty08.blogspot.com/

FALL

I think fall is my favorite time of year; Especially now when the mornings are brisk, the afternoons are warm and the night is just cool enough to snuggle a little closer to Anthony. I love the smells, the colors and most of all, the seasonal desserts! (I am waiting for pumpkin cookies to come out of the oven right now!) Anthony and I are also enjoying all of the football. We spend our Saturday's scheduling and flipping channels between BYU, Utah, USC and BSU. We also love Halloween. We usually don't have set plans for halloween, but there are two things that we always make sure to do. The first is that I make a big pot of chili with cornbread. This is a tradition that my mom always did (and still does) and now it is one of my favorite parts of October 31st! The second thing we always like to do is carve pumpkins! This year we celebrated a little early and carved our pumpkins a couple weeks ago with our favorite family the Hollands!

Jessica's Pumpkin

Anthony's Pumpkin

Oh, and I'm blonde now if you didn't notice.

Late Summer Catch-up

It is already fall and Utah's weather went from 80 degrees to 45 degrees in two days. Classic. With this cooler weather brings some of may favorite fall activities. But before I get into these I need to catch up on the last of our summer memories!

So you don't get confused here is a titled list of the pictures you are about to view.

1. Visit family in Idaho
2. Make an apron
3. Run a marathon
4. Go camping

1. The first of the of our last summer memories was visiting my family up in Idaho in late August. One of my favorite parts of visiting my family is seeing my nieces and nephews!





We spent the whole weekend playing in the sun and catching up on some board game time!

2. I made an apron with some very diligent help from my talented friend Rachel Q. Many may think that this is normal, not for me. I consider myself talented when it comes to "crafts," but let me tell you, sewing was never my thing. I always somehow managed to break the sewing machine. But thankfully, this time, I actually pulled it off!


3. The Top of Utah Marathon was such a great experience! My goal was to run the whole thing without stopping and I did! Below are some of the more fabulous moments.


Here I am putting my number on before the race. My hands were shaking because I was so nervous! I'm surprised I didn't stab myself with those little gold safety pins.

My good friend Suzie ran the marathon with me! We decided back in April that we were going to run a marathon and then we picked one and trained all summer. Looking back on the summer, I have great memories of going on long Saturday runs, and getting up before dawn so I could get a run in before work. And when I wasn't running I was reading about running!

Here I am getting on the bus that took all of the runners up the canyon. The bus ride was 45 minutes long! It was scary seeing what I was going to run(and how long it was) before I actually ran it.
Anthony was at mile 13, which was such a surprise because spectators were not allowed on the course until mile 14. Of course Anthony never follows rules like that. Somehow he got past the security early in the morning. There were even a few runners they didn't let up the canyon when they were late. I guess my husband knows whats up.

This is Anthony's proof that he ran the race with me, (at least 1/4 mile of it). He snapped this picture while running. He was so cute, he would snap some pictures and then run ahead of me, turn around and snap some more, and then run ahead etc. etc.
Isn't the canyon beautiful. It made the run so much easier!

This is my surprised look when I saw Anthony at mile 18! I wasn't expecting him until the finish line.

The one above was just coming up on mile 25. I was had really been struggling for the previous 5 miles but when I crested the last hill all of a sudden I see a whole group with Anthony! His mom and dad and the Holland family! I had no idea they were going to be there and I was really overcome with emotion to see that they all came out to support me. It gave me the boost of energy that I needed and the last mile was one of my best splits!

FINALLY! I am about to cross the finish line. It was a great feeling. And then I stopped. That is when everything started to REALLY hurt, worse than when I was running!

Anthony was so sweet throughout the whole race, he was so supportive. As you can see I got a little teary eyed about it.

This is the absolutely beautiful Holland family who came to support me! Alisa even made a quick little blog about all of the pictures she took:

http://yourungirl.blogspot.com/

And one last thing. If you are planning on running a marathon anytime soon...be prepared for blisters like this one!

4. The last of our summer memories was a perfect camping trip! We went with (who else) the Holland's! We had good food and stayed up all night talking around the fire!

Here is our amazing tent for your viewing pleasure.