When your the Best of Friends

A person who has never owned a dog has missed a wonderful part of life.

Bob Barker

The Dirty Dash - Lots of Muddy Pics!

I had to put this picture at the very first cause it was the absolute highlight of the run for me!
(Plus I don't know how to move pictures on this dumb blogger format) ;)


Here we are before we started, our team name was "Dirty Soles" we all were so excited super clean and smelling pretty!!

This was the third obstacle on the 10k course the first two were barrels of hay you jumped over, followed by huge tubes you crawled through, then three of these walls you jumped over! This was the hardest one for me. I need to work on my upper body strength, but I got over all of them!

Running up the hill covered in mud, not to mention your shoes felt like they were about 50 lbs! Now that's a workout.

This was at the top of the hill! Cute Kim and I!

Almost to the end here is our team smiling before we go down the awesome sloppy slide. Thiw was before we got super muddy!

Now there are some dirty soles if I do say so myself!

Don't worry Joe, I will spray off with a fire hose before getting in the car. Celebrating before the final mud slide!

Cute! If I do say so myself

By far the best 10k I have ever done! See you next year piggies!

A Preview of things to come

I'm excited. Super excited. Why you ask? Because this is what I am doing on Saturday!

It's the first annual Utah Mud Run at Solider Hollow!

I just have to tell you

"Dogs are not our whole life -- but they make our life whole."

This may seem like a weird post to some, and a year ago it would seem crazy to me.
The story begins like this. I come home from a long day of work and Joe says to me, "Let's get a dog."
You know how the story ends up the next day we are at the Humane Society for 5 consecutive days finding us a dog that meets our checklist.

1. Must be good with babies
2. Must be able to run
3. Must tolerate cats
4. Must be well behaved
5. Must be a lab
6. Must love us unconditionally

For the next 3 months after we've have had Blacky, I keep wondering what's wrong with him. Why would someone give him up? I don't understand. I keep waiting for him to tear up stuff, become aggressive or some other bad behavior that would make you get rid of a dog. While there are many things we don't know about his previous owner or life we do know this. He has an unconditional amount of love to give.

He's my sidekick he follows me around all day and by my side twenty four seven. He's my training partner no matter if its the crack of dawn, or right before the sun goes down he's ready for our training run. Him pulling me the first two miles and me dragging him the last three. If I'm on the treadmill he's right by the side waiting to slime me if I get off.

He let's Tymon use him as a step stool, crawl all over him and shove chapstick down his throat (true story) and yet he's still as happy as can be to be here. Sure he gets hair everywhere, has horrible gas (no joke, its bad) and refuses to miss a meal--we love him to death.

I'm pretty sure Joe knew I needed Blacky more than I did. Its weird how that works out. Joe hates dogs. But not Blacky. I have a half marathon coming up the end of next month and I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it alone. That's when I call in my sidekick, and don't worry he'll be there one of us dragging the other.

Savor the Moments...

Everyday when Joe comes home from work he asks, "What did you do today?"
Since leaving my job, I always try to think of some huge task I accomplished. "Hmmm... I cleaned the bathrooms." "I studied for my personal training test." "I read Ty 12 books."

The more I have been thinking about this question, I have come to realize something very small. I don't need to sale $5,000 in clothing, clean every window in my house and have everything in perfect order to accomplish something that day. Its not about the big things it is about the little things. Not about the hours it took to clean up every piece of dog hair off my light tile. Not about the hours it took to organize my closet by color and sleeve length (I know I am kind of obsessive) rather its about the minutes and moments. The moments you think about someone else, write them a note, or send an e-mail. The moments you take time to savor, to appreciate.

Its about the moment that Ty learned that a cow says Moo. (However he can't pronounce his M's so it sounds like bmooooo. ) Or when he learned to go down the slide and constantly demands to do it again and again. Its about the moment I let Ty dip his own spoon in the yogurt for the first time and feed himself, which ended up with yogurt on the carpet instead of his mouth. Its about those moments when he gives you a big sloppy kiss, with his tongue of course. Its about those moments when he snuggles up to me when he is tired. Its about the moment he gets a smile on his face when he hears the bath tub water, sees his dad come home or mickey mouse on the t.v.

I've been touched lately with a spirit of gratitude for all of the huge things I have been blessed with. I am a very very lucky person. But I think its more than the big things we have to be grateful for, its the little things. Its the moments...the moments we have to savor.

I love...

I love this face. I mean really how can you resist. His hair is getting so long but I don't want to cut it because that means he is just getting old enough to need hair cuts. Look at his big eyes and that little scratch on his nose as he screams everytime I try to clip his fingernails. This was just after he woke up and right after I was chasing him around to put his diaper back on.