Our boy, Cody

Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook know the horrid week we have had. For those of you who aren’t on FB, this week was bad and ended yesterday in the passing of our 4 year old lab, Cody. At the end of this post, I will include all the details as to what transpired but first I want to share what a wonderful dog he was.

Cody truly was the best dog. I know people say that when a pet passes but he really was.

He rarely barked. He was so quiet, even in the car. He loved to go for rides and would just sit quietly or lay down and enjoy the ride. When he did bark, he sounded pretty tough. It was a deep, scary bark but anyone that knew him knew that he was actually a big marshmallow that wouldn’t hurt a fly. We didn’t let strangers know that though.

He was obedient and a quick learner. Kayla loved teaching him new tricks. She worked really good with him and he could do all sorts of things - shake, roll over, go through (her legs), stay, down, spin, and she was working on jumping through the hoola hoop. I don’t think that was his favorite but he would do anything for a treat.

He was spiritual. He prayed with the kids. (I have a picture but can’t find it right now). Every night when we kneeled by each kid’s bed and said prayers with them, Cody joined right in by putting his front legs on the bed but leaving the bottom ones on the ground. It was his way of kneeling next to the kids. For family prayers he would come lay by us as we said the prayer and as soon as “Amen” was said, he would jump right up. He was a very reverent dog.

He was a water boy. You couldn’t keep that guy out of water if he saw it. He loved him some water! Which is, unfortunately, probably what killed him.

He was smart. He knew our routine and would do his part in it without being asked. Every morning when we would get ready for school he was out and about with us in the kitchen but when it got close to time to leave, he would disappear. He would go get in his crate without anyone telling him to. He loved his crate and had no problems going in it. Going to church was the same. He got so crafty at it that he would go get in his crate and we would often forget to shut the door and he would have free roam of the house while we were gone. Although we always thought he stayed in his crate until we returned.

He loved to be part of what we were doing. He thought he was one of the kids, always in the middle of what was going on. He loved to go on walks with me. He was my training buddy there for awhile. He was always in the middle of what we were doing. Even when building cardboard boats, he wanted in on the action.

He was a great snuggler. For being 86 pounds he could snuggle in a way that didn’t feel like 86 pounds. He slept on our bed, on my side at the foot BUT every night when I get up with T, he would be between Kurt and I, on his back with his legs sprawled everywhere but by the morning, we would wake up, and he would be back at the foot of the bed. I always knew what he was getting away with while we were sleeping.

He was fun to play with. Kurt and Cody would wrestle like nobodies business. The two would go at it and everyone enjoyed watching them. Cody knew where the lines were and didn’t cross them in being too aggressive with Kurt. He was just the right level of aggressive fun for Kurt. But he also knew the difference between playing with Kurt and playing with the kids. When the kids (or sometime even me) would wrestle him, he would be so soft and gentle. He let T crawl all over him and he never made a fuss about it or got mad. 

He had a funny way of laying down. He always sprawled his hips out. Sometimes he would tuck his front legs under his body and he looked like a seal. It was always something people commented on. 

He was a great helper. Every morning I would say, “Come on Cody. We need to go wake up the girls.” We would go into their room and I would go to Hailey and Cody would jump on Kayla’s bed and snuggle in to wake her up. Usually he ended up cuddling in with her and not waking her up. I would give him a funny, hard time and Kayla would say he was doing a perfect job and snuggle up even more to him. She really struggling with getting up right now. Every morning the first thing she knows is that Cody isn’t there.

 He loved to go camping. We usually pull the trailer home 3 days before we leave so that we can charge the batteries and clean it, if needed. As soon as he knew it was out front, he followed me around and not let me out of sight. He didn’t want to get left behind.

He just was an amazing dog. We loved him so much and will truly, truly miss him. We love you Cody!

So here is what happened. I am actually writing this more for me because I think I need to get it out. When things like this happen, you are in shock and so much information gets thrown at you so fast and you have to make quick decisions and all this is still bouncing around in my head. I am hoping that by getting it out, I can let it go. So read if you want but you don’t have to.

Thursday, Nov 28, Thanksgiving - we had a house-full. 26 people, I believe. Everything seemed fine.

Friday - He threw up a few times (maybe 2 or 3). We weren’t concerned because he had always been a pukey dog, ever since he was a puppy. Usually he would eat a toy or a hair rubberband and then throw it up. Plus with Thanksgiving the day before, we figured he ate some human food. We didn’t feed him people food but with everyone here and little kids carrying food around or leaving plates unattended, we just thought he got some people food. We were not concerned about turkey bones because Kurt had carved the turkey, removed all the meat from the bones and then tied up and threw away the bird so we knew there were no bones for him to get. We weren't even worry about it.

Saturday - Evan was baptized and we hosted a lunch for about 36 people. We didn’t feed him that morning because we wanted to let his tummy rest. Plus who wants a puking dog at a party? He seemed fine, ran around with people outside. I don’t think he was 100% but I definitely didn’t think anything was seriously wrong. He did throw up during Saturday night  which did kind of worry us because there wasn’t anything in him to throw up plus his vomiting hadn't lasted this long before.

Sunday - he was a lot more lazy. Just kind of laid around. That evening he drank some water and immediately threw it up. Ok, this worried us. We figured that something he ate must be stuck in him. We took him to his vet, which also happens to be a pet hospital so at least they had all his records. They took x-rays and did an ultrasound but didn’t notice anything stuck in him. They did notice that he was dehydrated and that his stomach looked like it had gas in it and the lining of a section of his intestine looked thicker than normal. This was called gastroindo. . .something, I can’t remember. They said he probably ate something that upset/possibly scratched his stomach or intestines and it just needed to heal. They gave him fluids and told us to feed him a very bland diet of chicken and rice and to gradually increase the amounts if he kept them down.

Monday - I made him chicken and rice which he ate each time I put it down. He ate the chicken and kind of left the rice but he didn’t throw up so we thought he was on the mend. He also peed a lot because of all the fluids they gave him. We thought things were ok.

Tuesday - We noticed that each day his activity level decreased. Kurt got him to eat about 6 bite size pieces of chicken at about 11 am. The rest of the day he refused anything we gave him. This worried us because he always ate everything (including toys and hair bands) but not even chicken would pass his lips. We kept trying (bread, pasta, chicken, cottage cheese) and by dinner, we were really getting worried. Kurt had Mutual (a church activity) to go to and so we decided that I would try again while he was gone. Kurt came home determined to get him to eat. Cody would always do anything for Kurt but this night he would NOT eat. We decided he need to go back to the vet. Of course, we were now after hours and it was an ER visit again. I took him while Kurt stayed home with the kids. The vet came in looked in his eyes, which I couldn’t see from where I was sitting but then she flipped back his ear and I knew immediately we were in trouble. The skin in his ears was yellow. She then showed me the whites of his eyes which were not white, they were yellow. My mom immediately popped in my mind because when her liver started shutting down, she turned yellow too. I knew he had liver problems. She wanted to admit him and do lab work which I immediately agreed to. I went home and she called us at about 11:30 pm with the lab results. His liver definitely showed that something was wrong. It also showed a kidney level at 1.9. The normal level is 1 with 1.8 being a high normal so they just thought that it was slightly high because he had been dehydrated. They were not concerned with his kidneys, just his liver. They wanted to give him some medicine for his liver during the night, we agreed.

Wednesday - the vet called and told us that after the blood draw the night before, the site wouldn’t stop bleeding. Cody’s blood wasn’t clotting correctly. This can be a definite sign of liver failure. She tested his clotting factors and discovered that in fact they were out of normal range. Due to the elevated liver levels and the clotting problem, they declared him in liver failure. We had hope because the liver can regenerate but it would just depend on the damage done to it and if enough of it was left undamaged to regenerate. It would just take time to know. Kurt and I actually went down after the call to talk to the vet in person because so much can be lost over the phone. She was really concerned about him and his prognosis. She said that, due to the clotting problem, he needed a plasma transfusion otherwise he could start bleeding uncontrollably. We agreed to it. She said that he would get worse before he got better and that they would redraw his blood again that night to compare to the labs from the night before. Kurt and I visited Cody and he stood up when he saw us but immediately laid back down. Definitely not the Cody that we knew. Poor baby felt so sick. When she called Wednesday night with the labs, there was good news and bad news. The liver actually looked stable, if not a little bit better. We were surprised by this. We were also surprised because his kidney level jumped to 4.3. This was really bad. He was now showing signs of multi-organ disfunction. This was also the first time that leptospirosis was brought up. The vet didn’t really think it was lepto because Cody had been vaccinated against it but since his liver was having problems and now his kidneys, she said lepto was possible. She recommended that we put a catheter in so that they would know exactly how much urine his kidneys were making (this also helps protect everyone from urine in his dog run). She also recommended that we transfer him to the internal medicine department of the hospital in the morning.

Thursday - he was transferred to internal medicine (which basically means that a more specialized team took over his care. He was still in the same dog run). That vet, Dr. Smith, called that morning and shared that she was really concerned about him. She wanted to rerun is blood work that morning instead of waiting until that night. I agreed. (They have to get your approval to do anything since everything is so expensive). When the numbers came back, his liver looked even better but the kidneys were even worse, now at 7. At this point she said he was in liver failure and acute kidney failure. It didn’t look good at all for him. They suspected lepto even more now that his kidneys were looking so bad. Kurt and I went to visit him that morning. They now required us to wear gloves to touch him because lepto is potentially transmittable to humans (although you would have to ingest his urine to get it). He stood up when he saw us and remained standing for a little while. We finally told him to lay down but he was definitely more alert and energetic, by which I mean he wasn’t just laying there. He wagged his tail, he responded by lifting his head when we talked to him. He just seemed a little bit better even though the labs looked worse. The vet was still very, VERY guarded about his prognosis. She was giving him a 10-20% chance of pulling through so we knew it wasn’t likely he was going to survive. We took the kids to visit him that afternoon to say their goodbyes (T was left with a babysitter). Talk about heart wrenching. The kids just sobbed. He also looked a lot worse. He didn’t even stand when he saw us. I think he may have wagged his tail but he definitely didn’t feel good. Also, they now not only required us to wear gloves but also to stand in a bleach bucket if we walked into his run. They put a blanket down for us to sit on and that is where the kids stayed. They had lepto warnings and a lepto laundry basket in his run. Kurt and I met with the vet while the kids waited in the waiting room. She said she wanted to recheck only his kidney level that night just to see what was happening. We agreed to it. If the number went up, we would be out of options and need to put him down that night. If it was the same or went down, we should give him more time and see what happened. 10-20% of the dogs make it so we had to give him that chance. Maybe he would be in that set of dogs that make the 10-20% possible. She said there was still a chance for the antibiotics to kick in and turn him around. We had hope but we were fully prepared to go back to the hospital that evening and put him to sleep. When she called that night, I could tell by her voice that she had good news - his number dropped to 4.3! She said we should give him until the morning and recheck it again. We went to bed so hopeful. We understood the chances but, man, we hoped.

Friday - they were scheduled to pull the lab work at 7 am. We were on pins and needles waiting for the call. I was in the middle of grocery shopping when it finally came. His kidneys had completely stopped working. He was making very, very little urine and his body was swelling due to the fluids going in but nothing coming out. It was time. Kurt met me at the vet and we said goodbye to Cody.

We are devastated. I mean, we will be okay and get through this, but we are pretty sad around here. We just can’t believe he is gone. One day he was playing and happy and then 5 days later, gone. The kids are doing okay. They all cried themselves to sleep last night but I think that was to be expected. We just hug which ever one is falling apart at that time and tell them it is okay to cry and be sad but it is okay to be happy too. 

They think he contracted leptospirosis somehow. It is a disease that is transmitted by wild life through urine so probably a squirrel or rodent or something peed in our yard in a puddle and Cody, being the water loving dog that he was, probably drank it. He was vaccinated against it but it is kind of like the flu. They can vaccinate against some variations of it but not all and he must have been exposed to a variation that he wasn’t protected against. We did everything right. It was just a fluke thing. A devastatingly, fluke thing. 

Like I said before, it is transmittable to humans, if they ingest his urine. It is very rare for a human to get it so we should all be safe but we had a houseful of people on 2 different days. I have had to notify everyone that was here about the risk. My main concern is that a kid dropped food in the grass and then picked it up and ate it. That is the only way I can imagine someone ingesting his urine. T drops food all the time and then eats it. Totally freaks me out but all we can do is wait and see. Can you imagine how I would feel if a little kid were to get sick?

Oh, and also we were doggie sitting for friends of ours from the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to that Sunday. I am so worried about their dog. Can you imagine how horrible I will feel if their dog gets sick too? I have told them to watch their dog like a hawk and let their vet know about the situation.

I can’t even think about it. I can’t even think about someone getting sick from this.

They don’t know for sure if he even had lepto. They are guessing but it is hard to test for. You have to take their blood one week after symptoms start, which was yesterday, so they drew his blood before he passed. Then usually they retest the blood 2 weeks after that and between the 2 tests they can tell if it was lepto. We will not have the 2nd test to compare with and reading just the one test can be tricky because it will show positive for lepto because he had the vaccine. We will probably never know for sure but from their experience, that is what they think it was.

So if you are still reading all this, and if you have a dog, and even if you have vaccinated your dog, DON’T let them drink any water in the backyard! Who knows what is in there. We thought our yard was safe. We thought we had protected him. We thought we would still have our Cody right now, but we don’t. And we are so sad.

If you read all of this, you are a trooper. Thanks for hanging through all that with me. Hopefully now I will be able to sleep better. Hopefully all the “what ifs” will settle down. Hopefully now I will have some peace. 

The Story of the Day I Finished a Half Marathon

Yes, that's right. I did it!

Me!

The girl who has never liked to run. The girl who thinks if you look up 'crazy' in the dictionary, you will find a picture of people running. THAT girl finished a half marathon! And she is just a little bit proud of herself.

This is probably going to be a pretty long post but I want to use it as a 'journal' of sorts about my experience so I want to record all the details. So hopefully you enjoy it and it's not long and boring.

Just a little family genealogy so you know who the people are that I refer to: Kurt's sister, April, is married to Rick and they have a son, Kaulana, who married Michelle, and therefore, is my niece. And another of Kurt's sisters, Margo, is married to Greg and they have a daughter Brittany, another of my nieces.

Our story actually begins back at the beginning of the year. A friend of mine, Nikki, started up her running group again. I had tried to join her group in 2011, just after T was born but that ended up being a bad idea but I was determined to join it this time. I didn't have the new baby excuse anymore. Nikki lives in Woodland, which is about 45 minutes from our house, and she had a meeting one morning to kick-off the group. Since Michelle lives in Woodland I called her up to see if she wanted to join me and she did so off to Nikki's we went. The group was going to be training for a half marathon in October and I said "no way" but Nikki has her ways of convincing you to do things. Driving home from Nikki's that morning, Michelle and I were discussing the half and we both concluded that "if you do it, I'll do it" and so we did it. We registered. Yikes!

But have no fear! We had until October to train. This would be a piece of cake, right?

My training started off really good but after about 4 weeks, it died. It was the "off" week of training (the take a break week) and it was enough to break my routine and training. It just took a back seat to all the summer activities and distractions like: kids, playing, family visiting, T's broken arm, traveling, etc. Then all of the sudden, about 6 weeks before the half marathon, I realized "I only have 6 weeks until the half marathon!" Duh!

Now, have you ever noticed that when you want to do something that there tends to be an "Opposing Force"? Something that just causes trouble along the way? Let's call it "OF". Well, looking back I see that this is OF's first attempt to derail my goal. "Ha, I'll get her so busy this summer she won't be able to train and then she will quit! Ha ha ha!" (said with an evil laugh). I am sure that is what OF was thinking and it almost worked!

But 6 weeks before the half, I started training again. It is not easy to do while pushing a stroller but I persevered and continued on. Then OF got crafty. Oh, yes.

After about 3 weeks of training I heard about a girl who was abducted from a bike trail (not in our area). Now, it would not take a big man to take me down and carry me off and here I was out on bike trails with just me and little T. Doubt started creeping in but not enough to make me stop, just enough to make me much more vigilant while I was out.

So OF had to step it up. Next there was ANOTHER bear sighting in our area. Are you kidding me? Seriously? Ok, that was it. I wasn't going to go out and have to watch out for bad guys AND a bear. I stopped training. OF won that battle, but hadn't won the war.

As those last 3 weeks passed, the stress and pressure and doubt about what I was going to have to do (go 13.1 miles) started to seriously increase. I didn't even want to think about the half. I refused to acknowledge it was getting closer. OF was gaining some serious ground but I still wasn't willing to quit and back out. Michelle was doing this with me and I couldn't bail on her. That was what kept me in - not bailing on Michelle.

The week before the half, my kids asked me
"Mom, aren't you going to start training again?"
"Nope, if I go out now I will be really sore and I don't want to start off sore. I will just do my best and do what I can do.  I plan on not being able to walk the week after the race."

That was my plan. Go in totally unprepared and hope for the best. Not necessarily the best plan but it was what I had.

Well, Tuesday turned into Wednesday and Wednesday turned into Thursday and then all of the sudden it was Friday, the day before the half. I was scared. I was nervous. I was trying to think of ways to bail without being a quitter - there aren't any ways to do that, by the way. But there was this part of me, way deep down inside of me, that wouldn't let me quit. Every time OF convinced me to drop out, that part of me yelled "NO! I am going to do this!" and so I carried on as if I would go to the race.

Well, OF panicked and got really, really crafty. Friday afternoon I was driving to Folsom to pick up our race packets and I got a text from Michelle. She was dropping out. My heart sank. She had broken a toe a few weeks before and was hoping that it would heal in time but she had done a trial run the night before and was worried about what 13.1 miles would do to her toe. I totally understood but was devastated. I went to get our packets and picked up Michelle's too so that she would at least get her t-shirt.

Then I had the thought "oh, I can totally back out now because I won't be bailing on Michelle. Woo Hoo!" I was actually excited about that for a few seconds until . . .

"NOOOOOO!" came this voice from not so far deep down. Oh that stinkin' OF, he is so crafty! He almost had me but I was determined to do this! Ok, so Michelle won't be there with me but I can come up with plan B. So my next plan was to buy 2 talks on CD from a church speaker that I really, really enjoy and had just discovered on Tuesday. His name is Hank Smith and he is amazing! "I will get the next 2 talks that I want and download them onto my phone and listen to those as I go," I thought. Perfect.

I didn't have time to run to the church store in Roseville so I found the store in Folsom and ran in there. Wouldn't you know it - they only had 1 of the talks in stock. Really? Ok, not too big of a deal. I will have one talk and I will download some more music. No problem.

(Just a little side note: Kurt was up with the boy scouts who were camping for the night. Kurt wasn't staying the night because of the race in the morning but he went up to spend the evening with them.)

I rush back to Roseville, picked up the kids from the party they were at, took Hailey to another party, took Evan to soccer practice (which had been cancelled and I didn't know) and then took Kayla, Evan, and T out to dinner. At dinner I had a great idea - I was going to get one of those arm bands to put your phone in so that you don't have to hold it. Great idea! Except that I was exhausted and wanted to get to bed on time and didn't want to take all the kids shopping but I came up with a plan. I picked Hailey up from her party, took all the kids home and then ran to the mall by myself to get the band. I walked into the crowded Apple Store and straight to the wall of gadgets. Searching . . . searching . . . searching. . .

They didn't have it. They didn't have the one that fit MY phone. They had a bazillion other ones but not the one that I wanted. Man, you little OF. You are so tricky!

Honestly, at this point I was pretty deflated. I was exhausted, plan after plan seemed to be failing, Kurt wasn't there to encourage me to continue. It was hard. So I went home to download my new CD and music onto my phone only to find out (and remember when I couldn't find my computer) that Kurt had taken my computer up with him so the boys could listen to the first CD we had purchased. Now I couldn't even download things onto my phone. I was beat up.

I wrestled all the kids into bed by myself and went to bed at 9. My mind was racing. How was I going to be able to do this? I have no buddy to go with me. I have no talk to listen to. My mind just wouldn't stop with all the thinking so I decided to read because that always distracts me and helps me sleep. Since I had to get up at 5:30, I REALLY wanted a good nights sleep. Well, by 9:30 my eye lids were so heavy I turned off the light and went to sleep pretty quickly.

I was jolted awake at 10 by the phone ringing. Kurt was traveling from about an hour away and he doesn't drive good at night so it always makes me nervous when he travels by himself at night and this night he was pulling a trailer so I immediately thought "something has happened" and grabbed the phone.

"Hello," I say half asleep.
"Hey Jenn. It's Rick. What'cha doing?"
"Sleeping"
"Oh, sorry. Is Kurt asleep too?"
"No, he is up with the boy scouts."
"Oh, that's right. I forgot. Sorry to wake you."
"No problem." I was so relieved that Kurt was ok.
"So you and Michelle are going to do the race tomorrow, uh?"
"No, Michelle backed out because of her toe."

Then he said the BEST words that I will NEVER forget:

"She changed her mind. She is going to do it with you."
"WHAT?"
"She changed her mind. She is going to do the race with you."
"ARE? YOU? SERIOUS?!"
"Yes."

I was soooooo happy! Apparently she had tried to text me but I had left my phone downstairs so after we got off the phone I ran downstairs and grabbed my phone and immediately text her back saying how happy I was that she was going to do this with me. We text back and forth until about 10:30 about how nervous we were, how excited we were and what our plan was going to be. Our plan was this: have fun and finish before they closed the course. That was it. They were giving us 3 hours 30 minutes to finish and then they close the course. We weren't sure what that meant but we didn't want to find out.

Now I should say that Michelle is an avid workout girl. She works out every day and is in great shape. With her hurt toe (and my lack of training) we decided to walk the half and run if we felt like it. I figured her hurt toe was the only way that I would be able to keep up with her.

So I settled back down around 10:45 and tried to go back to sleep.

Kurt got home at 11. I had not fallen asleep yet so I waited for him to come in. By the time he got everything unloaded and put away, it was 11:30. I told him all about my night and how Michelle was back in and he told me about his night and how the boys loved the talk. By the time we resettled back down it was midnight. Kurt was out as soon as we stopped talking. Me? My brain was still thinking. Then it thought "where's my computer? Did he leave it in his truck? Is his truck locked?" so I got up and locked his truck and went back to bed. Then I thought "did I put the bagels (that I had purchased from Noah's) in baggies so they don't dry out?" I didn't think I had so I got up and bagged up the bagels and went back to bed. Then I thought "did we set the house alarm?" We hadn't so I got back up and set the alarm. I finally settle back down at 12:30.

Remember the 5:30 wake up time? Ya, well OF wasn't done with me yet.

Since T potty trained 3 weeks ago, he has only had 1 night time accident. This, of course, was night #2. At 1:30 Trevor wakes up crying. I go in and he had wet his bed. So at 1:30 I am changing sheets. I kid you not! I was actually laughing as this point and thinking "Go ahead OF. Bring it on. I AM DOING THIS RACE TOMORROW!" So after I changed T, changed the bed and got him settled, it was almost 2 am. Awesome!

I woke up at 5:30 excited, although nervous, and ate breakfast. Michelle came over and then Kurt dropped us off for the race. Here we are pre-race:

We had no idea what time to get there. It started at 8 and we ended up being there at 7:15 so we had time to chat. We both talked about how running just wasn't our thing and we both agreed that our bodies just didn't like to run. We chatted about Brittany and how much she loves it! Brittany has run several FULL marathons and has told us that it is addicting. She is amazing. We thought maybe this might be what it would take to get us addicted to it but we seriously doubted it.

It was finally time. They were counting down: 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 -1 BOOM! The {fake} gun goes off and we were off!

Now let me tell you on how this half started. I am not sure how others go but this is what happened here: they group you by your estimated finish time. We went straight to the slowest group - Corral 5. The 1's (the super fast people) are right at the starting line, the 2's behind them and so on. We were waaaay in the back. Now you have to all file thought the starting area which was more narrow than the bridge we were on so it took just a little time for us 5's to get there but here's the thing - when every one reaches the starting line, they take off running. It's kind of like a stampeding herd. They just all start running so we had to run or risk getting run over so off we ran. We actually ran for a little bit but not too far and then we started walking. Now, I have to give us credit, we were fast walking. No leasurely pace. We were moving.

Mile 1 - we missed the mile marker. No idea where it was. We were too busy chit-chatting.

Mile 2 - we got on the bike path. Still chit-chatting.

Mile 3 - our first aid station. Water and gatorade and cheering people. Love them! (You never skip an aid station!) More chit-chatting.

Miles 4, 5, 6, 7 - chit-chatted the whole way.

Mile 7.5 - Kaulana called to see how we were doing. It was 10 am. We tried to do some mental math and realized that we were going to be cutting it close to finish before the 3:30 time limit. We realized we couldn't let our pace slip even a little bit.

Mile 8 - started to feel some pain. Random pain. "Oh, my hip hurts." "Oh, my knee hurts." "Now, my ankle." Just random pains.

Mile 9 - ok, let me just say that we were told that it was mostly down hill with a little uphill at the end. Mile 9 started with hills. This was not the end! This was still the middle! Anyways, we started to feel the pain. Things were hurting but still, we didn't slow our pace. Also at mile 9 we realized that from 9 to 13 sounded really far but saying only 4 miles left sounded a lot better so we started saying 4 miles. Only 4 more miles. We got this. 4 miles.

Mile 10 - more pain but still we were tough. And we were in the double digits! Only 3 miles to go. We decided that we couldn't wait to see the mile marker #12 . "Just think about it - only 1 mile left is going to sound so heavenly!" 3 miles. Only 3 miles to go. We got this!

Mile 11 - at this point the pain was no longer pinpointable. Everything from our hips down hurt. We couldn't WAIT to see mile marker #12. Only 2 miles left. 2 miles. We totally got this! We walked and walked and walked and finally decided that they must have forgotten to put out mile marker #12 because we had gone so far with no mile marker. Even another lady that we passed made a comment about the missing mile marker #12 so we started looking for mile marker #13. The path was curvy with up hills and down hills so you couldn't see too far ahead. We came around the corner and up ahead there was the next mile marker.

Mile 12 - You've got to be kidding us! We are only at 12? We totally thought 13 was right here. We were discouraged. Oh man, were we discouraged. These were some of the things we said: "This was the worst idea we have ever had." "Brittany is crazy to enjoy this." "We are never doing this again." "We just need to finish this and get it over with." But then I said "Remember we were going to be excited about 12? Remember how saying "only 1 mile" was going to sound heavenly?" So we changed our attitudes. Only 1.1 miles left. We got this. Now let me tell you something else I learned doing this. Miles at the end are twice as long as the miles at the beginning. I don't know how that happens but it does. Miles 11 and 12 were soooo much longer than any of the other miles. They felt like they went on forever!

Mile 13 - we were hurting. And then we saw it: the last marker:

Only 1 mile to go. It did sound good but it also sounded really far knowing how long miles 11 and 12 were. Our calves were SOOOOO tight. It seriously felt like the muscle was going to jump off our legs. I think I actually said to Michelle "I think my calves are going to just detach from my legs any second." In our attempt to not feel pain in our calves, we discovered that running actually released the pressure in our calves and felt good. Yes, I just said that, running felt good. And so we would run a little, walk a little, run a little, walk a little. We started to see people who had finished and had turned around and were going back down the path. They would say "Good job." "Keep going." "You're almost there!" We would ask "but how close is 'almost'?" Here is something else I learned: when Michelle is tired and hurting, she goes faster! Yes, faster. She just wants to get it over with and so she pushes harder to get it done. My approach is usually the opposite but I hung tough and kept up with her (mostly). I think we chanted "Only 1 mile. We got this. We totally got this. One. More. Mile." the whole last mile.

And then we heard it. The sounds of people. The announcer on the microphone. WE. WERE. SO. CLOSE! We ran, not fast but we ran. Around the hair-pin right hand turn and there it was. The finish line. Up a hill of course but there it was. We ran and ran and crossed the line! We did it!

WE FINISHED A HALF MARATHON!

We were so excited and relieved and tired! We finished in 3 hours 21 minutes and 4 seconds. 9 minutes to spare, baby! They handed us our medals and congratulated us.

We were official half marathon runners. We were so proud of ourselves. It was an incredible feeling. It was hard but we had done it. And now I get to get what I was after all along. I get to get one of those stickers for the back of the car that says 13.1. Oh, ya! Can't wait to get that!

I don't know what I would have done without Michelle. It was great having her with me and we were able to encourage each other when we each needed it. We had a great time chatting, having girl time and pushing ourselves and each other. I couldn't have done it without her.

I was sore that afternoon and on Sunday. Monday morning seemed to be the worst but by Monday afternoon it seemed like a switch was turned off and the soreness was almost completely gone.

Here is something else: Saturday night I had a thought. A crazy, crazy thought.

"I think I might want to do that again."

Crazy, right? Sunday morning I felt it even more and it changed to "I want to do that again." Then I got a text from Michelle Sunday afternoon. She said: "Even though it was hard I kinda want to do it again." I responded: "I want to do it again too! Kinda crazy. Maybe we did get addicted."

Sunday night we went to friend's house for dinner. This friend, Christine, is an avid FULL marathon runner. She runs every day of the week except Sundays and will run half marathons on Saturday mornings just for the fun of it (this coming Saturday she is running 20 miles, you know, just because). She told me of a marathon she is doing in December and that they have a half option. I text Michelle and told her about it. "You in?" I asked. "Yep" she responded. And just like that we are doing another one. We started training today. This time I will not back out of my training (thanks to the gym which doesn't have bears but does have daycare). OF will not discourage me this time.

Here we go again . . .

How I Accidentally Potty Trained Trevor

I had no intention of potty training Trevor until next summer when he was 3. After our major fail in April, I really wasn't holding out any hope of him potty training anytime soon but I guess I am not in charge of the timing of these things.

So here's how it went down:

Last April, Trevor teased me with a little potty training trick. If it was his idea, he was all for it. If it was mine, he battled me. After about a week (or maybe it was 10 days) I gave up. It wasn't worth it. So for the last few months if he wanted to use the potty, I encouraged him and rewarded him with a treat but I never suggested it. He would randomly go - it kind of went in waves from using the potty a lot to not touching it for weeks. I just let him call the shots.

Somehow I got into the routine of letting him run around naked after we shower in the mornings. I am not sure how that happened but it did. Then last Thursday he was playing by himself in the toy room while I was doing my hair in the bathroom and he came running in saying "Potty! Potty!" and proceeded to go in the potty. It got me thinking . . . "when was the last time he had an accident on the carpet?" I came to the conclusion that it had been quite awhile. A long, long while. Hmmm . . .

Then I thought: he does great when he is naked but as soon as I put undies on him, he has an accident. The feeling of having something on felt like a diaper and he would go. I was talking to Karen, my dad's wife, on Thursday and asked her what I should do about that because, obviously, I can't let him run around naked all day and he needs to get used to wearing clothes. She suggested putting undies on him right when we get out of the shower when he is used to being naked and using the potty and seeing if that helped. I also thought that maybe I just need to let him have a few accidents in the undies and keep putting new undies on him and letting him try again.

Friday I decided to try a little experiment. After our shower I put him in undies and explained to him that he needed to use the potty. I think about 10 minutes later he had an accident. So I cleaned him up and put new undies on him and told him to try again and to remember to use the potty. A little while later he started to go but then realized that he was wearing undies and stopped. We got him on the potty and he went - CANDY time!

After that he basically had it. He stayed dry the rest of the day (even during nap time) and used the potty! Woo Hoo! Friday night I put him in a diaper for bed but he was dry Saturday morning. Awesome!

Saturday morning I decided to continue the experiment just to see what would happen and he did great! About 10 am we had to go to a soccer game. I wasn't ready to trust his abilities yet so I put him in a diaper but at the game he told me he had to potty so we ran for the portapotty. I wasn't about to let him sit on that nasty seat so I tried to hold him up but he couldn't go. He tried so hard but it just didn't work. He said he had to go again when we were at the car leaving so I let him try to go on a tree. That was more fun and he was successful. We went home, put him back in undies, ate lunch and he took a nap and woke up dry. He stayed home with Hailey while I went to Kayla's soccer game late that afternoon and was dry the whole time I was gone and used the potty.

It was when I returned home and realized how well he had done that I realized I had just accidentally potty trained him. My experiment was apparently a success. I was in no way prepared to tackle this project right now but there was NO WAY I could put him back in diapers. That would just totally confuse the poor kid so, oops, we were potty training! I was committed.

Saturday night I put him in a diaper again. He woke up at 1:30 am, said he had to go potty, went potty in the toilet, went right back to sleep and then woke up dry! Sunday he did AMAZING again and I knew we had it. Sunday night he didn't want a diaper and slept in undies and was dry.

Since then he has done awesome! He did have a few accidents today with the babysitter but he has done good since I got home so I am not sure what happened there.

It's totally crazy. 4 days of no diapers. 4 days of lots of running to the potty. 4 days of giving him 1 m&m and me eating a handful every time he was a successful. 4 days of NO DIAPERS! Did I mention that? NO DIAPERS! I can't believe it.

I wish I could say that it was all me and I had some magical trick but honestly, it was all him. He was ready. He worked hard. HE did it.

WAY TO GO TREVOR!

BEST. DATE. NIGHT. EVER!!!

What a morning.

It is nice and cool outside after a night-time rain, Trevor is playing quietly (until I typed that line and now he is yelling at me - sheesh!), the big kids are either still sleeping (it's 8 am) or playing on their iPads (since they don't get them during the week, I let them play on them Saturday morning), Kurt is at an appointment, we don't have to be to a soccer field until 9:30 . . .

Ahhh, I am just enjoying the morning and I thought, hey, I should blog! So here I am.

I have so much to catch up on but I thought I would start with the funnest date night that we have had in a long time. 

Last night we went out to dinner with 5 other couples. We had a nice, grown up, adult dinner and then we went and let our wild sides out with a little laser tag! OH MY GOSH - SO MUCH FUN!

First we had a little (ok, a lot) of trouble understanding the different games/plans/packages and couldn't figure out what we were doing. The teenagers that worked there thought we were crazy, I am sure, but once we got past paying for the games, we were ready to go!

Now they "randomly" make the teams but we found it "odd" that the couples were all split up. Not a single husband was on the same team as their wife. Hmmm . . . how "random" is that?

Anyways, the red team was: me, Amanda, Marty, Doug, Debbie and Jenna.

The blue team was: Kurt, Erik, Lorraine, Rebecca, Debbie's husband (yikes, I can't remember his name  - so sorry!) and Jared.

Now you might notice that the teams were not evenly male and female. (Oh ya, there were 2 teenage boys that were playing in our game too, poor kids.) The red team had 4 girls, 3 boys and the blue team had 2 girls, 5 boys. One would naturally think that the team that was mostly boys might cream the team that was mostly girls but oh no, the girls threw down! The red team totally dominated it! GIRL POWER! Also, it might have had something to do with the fact that Marty loves to hunt, knew the secret to scoring lots of points and had played there before but those are just minor details, right? GO GIRLS! =-)

We played 2 sessions. This is where we got all confused about the games and playing so let me explain so you don't look like goobers like us trying to figure it out. Each session is made up of 4 quarters (I don't remember how long each quarter is) and there is a little break for a "half time." In the first session, the red team completely dominated and creamed the blue team and won all 4 quarters and therefore the session.

Now being the old fogeys that we are that don't get out of our houses much, we didn't know we had paid for 2 sessions so we came out of the first session hot, tired, exhausted, sweaty and totally exhilarated and were told that we got to do it all over again! Woo Hoo!

Unfortunately, 2 couples (plus the teenage boys) had to go so it left just 4 couples to play and since the spouses had all been separated, it left the teams 4 and 4 with 2 girls and 2 boys on each team. Let the battle begin!

Once again, the red team beat the blue team for the first 2 quarters and we were thinking it would be a shut-out but something happened at "half time" and the blue team came back out fighting. Erik (blue team) found a great spot that he could protect his sensors so the red team couldn't shoot him and he could hit our "base." Blue team kicked butt for the last 2 quarters - way to go blue team! So we called the last session a tie.

Holy cow - can I just say how much fun it was. It was a BLAST! I think what made it extra fun was that we were the only ones in there so we knew everybody. That makes it extra fun!

Here is {part of} our laser tag posse:

 Erik, Amanda, Me, Kurt, Lorraine, Marty, Rebecca and Doug

One more time - SO MUCH FUN! I think we may all be addicted - already planning our next battle! You should come join us!

A Little Weekend Home Improvement Project

When we moved into our house, the fireplace just had one 12" x 12" tile on each side all the way around. A few years after we moved in, we built a mantel and tv cabinet along that wall. The wood work covered some of the tiles but left most exposed. I have always thought it looked a little funny because you could see some but not all of the tiles. Whatever, we lived with it.

A couple of months ago, Kurt brought home a stone sample that he had been showing to a client for an outdoor BBQ. We both really liked it and thought we should put it around the fireplace but that was as far as we got. The sample then sat in the office on the floor for months collecting dust and dog hair.

When T broke the fireplace glass awhile ago we thought "hey, we should put that stone on now that it is all taken apart." But it didn't happen then either.

Then about 2 weeks ago Kurt was down in Sac near the stone place and called me and said "are you serious about that stone?"

"Yep," I replied.

So he picked it up on his way home. That weekend we FINALLY got to working on it!

Here are the before pics:

And here are the afters:

We are very happy with the way that it turned out. 

Yeah for a completed project!

(Because you know - sometimes these projects can drag on and on).

Hey, Remember Us?

Holy Moly, life has been crazy. 

I am not sure what else to say.

Life has just been absolutely crazy.

I feel like I just bounce from one thing to the next without even having a chance to look up or catch my breath. Whew!

My grandma passed away Aug. 7th. It was hard to say goodbye but she is in a much better place now. She was 93 years old and was sick with cancer and was ready to go.

School started. Wow. Kind of a shock to our system this year. We are all having a hard time adjusting to the homework and the schedule but it is gradually getting better. 

It didn't help that we got a bad flu bug the first week of school. I had it the worst. I am not going to lie, it was horrible. Horrible, horrible, horrible. It got all 6 of us but the boys, BY FAR, had it the best. They didn't throw up at all (well, T did have one tiny incident, but that was all). Me and the girls were sick a lot. Did I mention it was horrible?

Soccer started. Kayla and Evan both signed up again this year so we had practice on Monday (Kayla), Tuesday (Evan), Wednesday (Kayla) and Friday (Evan). Then some friends of ours called and they were short a few players on their team and asked if Hailey wanted to join. She said yes and guess when their practices were - Monday's and Thursdays. So now we have practice every. single. night. of. the. week. How dinner and homework are suppose to get done, I have no idea.

So, soccer, school and the flu all hit us at the same time. No wonder we are going nuts. Crazy. Just crazy.

Anyways, here's what's been going on around here the last month or so. And these are totally out of order but I didn't have the time, or the energy, to put them in the right order. Sorry.

Mid July - Trevor got a marker out of the cabinet and marked on the cupboard door. I asked him to go get a wipe and clean it up. He promptly obeyed . . . by licking it clean - but notice, he does have the wipe!

Good times with big sissies!

End of July - This wasn't so fun. Somehow that little boy threw a glass stone thing at the fireplace hard enough with his LEFT hand to break the glass. We lived for several weeks with the glass missing but it is all fixed now thanks to my handy hubby.

Beginning of August - One of the activities Kurt did with the young men from our ward was to build cardboard boats. They had so much fun that he decided to build them with our kids too.

Kurt found all these HUGE boxes and brought them home and they lived in our family room for a few weeks until he actually had time to build the boats. They were castles, forts, houses, schools and hours and hours of entertainment for the kids. They just weren't the best decorating items we have ever had.

And of course, I don't have the finished product pictures because those are on Kurt's phone. Maybe one day I will get those and get them on here. We took them to the lake and the kids set sail. The kids had a BLAST and the boats actually worked. It was a lot of fun!

Late July - Trevor discovered the joy of playing dress up.

Now we frequently have a lion or spider man running around here. (Luckily all the girls princess dress ups were passed down long ago or he may have suffered the same fate as Evan. . .)

Last week - T got a hair cut. Oh how it hurts me to cut off the curls! But his hair was getting to be clown crazy all the time so it was time for a trim.

He is adorable now too but I miss the curls.

August 13 - I have been a bad, bad mommy in regards to birthday parties. Just don't get them organized and pulled off lately. Kayla wanted to have a get together for her friends before school started and so we decided to have a pool party at Papa's house. Hailey invited a few friends and Kayla invited a few friends and a party broke out!

I let the girls pick their decorations. They did a good job!

Hailey and her friends.

Kayla and her friends.

August 8 - 11 We went to San Diego for a White family reunion. Long drive. Long, long, long drive. It took us 13 hours to get down there thanks to hitting LA at 3:30ish in the afternoon. Driving all day + hitting traffic at the end of the trip = long trip. But we made it and had a great time.

Friday we went to the San Diego Zoo. Beautiful! These . . . uh, gorillas? or monkey things (ya, not coming up with the right word so on we go) were right at the glass. It was pretty cool to see them so close.

Ah! Orangutans! That's what they were! I knew it would come to me!

This bear was really active. That was fun to see!

He was walking all around and sniffing the air and pacing back and forth.

He even got up on this tree limb that stuck up in the air and that was really cool. To bad I wasn't fast enough with the camera!

The kiddo's riding a lion. Hailey is still at that age where she bounces back and forth between being one of the kids and being too mature for things. Apparently she isn't too mature for jumping on the back of a lion with all the kids!

And here is Margo. She got to ride this super cool scooter around and Hailey and Evan just would not stay off of it. Margo was such a trooper! Margo's family had just moved into their new house the previous week, she had surgery on her foot and here she was hosting a family reunion and cruising all over the zoo. 

Trevor learned to trust his floaties while in San Diego. Since he broke his arm this summer, he hasn't had much water time and despite the fact that he is a total dare devil, pools are the one place he is scared and he does not want to leave the step. Kayla and him ended up being the only ones in the pool one afternoon and she got him to trust her to leave the step and eventually for her to let go of him. 

Now? He is a total maniac in the pool and swims all over. Guess he conquered that fear.

July 24 - Ah, yes. So when T broke his arm and I took him to his primary, the dr. said 4-6 weeks with a cast. When I took him to get the cast, that dr. said 3 weeks. I questioned the difference in durations and the cast dr. said "ok, we'll do 4 weeks." Urgh! I was just asking and if 3 would do it, lets do 3 but he scheduled the removal date for 4 weeks out.

Well at 3 weeks exactly I thought he was getting a sore under the cast and wanted the dr. to look at it. I took him in and since he was at the 3 week mark they x-rayed him and deemed him healed enough to take the cast off! YES! I was so happy. Casts are no fun and it was really cramping our summer plans so I was beyond thrilled to get that stinkin' (literally) cast off.

He did so good and laid so still!

Man as soon as that cast was off his arm went straight and he just laid there with his arm straight in the air for a long time. It was so funny. It was like he was shocked that it could straighten. It had to have felt sooooooo good!

And boy was he one happy boy when he got home. The dr. said it usually takes a few days for them to adjust back to being able to use their arm again. Nope, not T. He was right back on his bike.

And we even let him do the dishes that night. Finally he got to play in water again.

Life is good!

So that is a little snippet of what's been going on around here. Next Saturday (the 7th) soccer games start. 3 kids with 3 different soccer games at 3 different locations but usually all at about the exact same time. Uh, funny how that works. Looks like our Saturday's are going to be just as crazy as the rest of the week. I guess we better get ready to HANG ON!