The New Niece!

The phone rang around 4:00 am on Saturday, December 17th. "This is your wake up call!" Wha!?! Oh! Tami was in labor! My new niece was arriving! And I was going to be able to be there for her entrance into this world!

My mom and I quickly got dressed and headed out the door to the Riverton Hospital.

After conquering a few obstacles - not having the correct security code and getting past the controlling "labor and delivery" access nurse - we made it to the delivery room. The epidural was taking effect, the contractions were coming on strong and the doctor had arrived!

I'll spare you the bir-thing details - but I will say that it is amazing!

I cried.

During the birth and as they whisked my niece to the exam table, I took in all of what I had just experienced.

"Does it make you more excited to have babies?" Tami asked.

YES! It definitely does.

Contrary to everything I have seen on television or in movies, the birth is not loud or full of screaming, blaming or contention - much better than the distorted view the media has given me.

Back to the baby.


They cleaned the little girl off, weighed and measured her, then handed her to her beaming father, my brother, Tom. He then took her to Tami and they announced her name:

Sophie Adair.

She is beautiful!

She looks like her brother with lots of blonde hair and just beautiful!

Barefoot and I were talking yesterday and we decided that being present at the birth bonds you even greater to the niece or nephew than you would otherwise. I hadn't really thought about it until our conversation, but its so true. I feel very close to Sophie already.

I am the very proud Auntie. I couldn't wait to hold her and talk to her.
And I can't wait to do so again.

Another One Completed

Oh hooray! Yet another semester completed! I love the satisfaction of taking your last test or turning in your last assignment for the semester. Now I just have to wait for my grades.

I just can't wait until I take the last test or write my last paper for my bachelor's degree...HA! THAT is going to be awhile.

I was thinking I only had three classes left at SLCC before I could move on up to the University of Utah to take my final teaching courses...and I got excited because it looked as though the end was in sight...
But then I reviewed my course requirements. Bad idea. Now I'm depressed - err - discouraged as I found that I still have, are you ready for this?, TWELVE classes to take before I'm done with SLCC. TWELVE! At the rate I'm going of 2 classes per semester (because I am also working full time) - that will take me six more semesters! SIX! That is THREE LONG YEARS (or two if I take summer classes). Something has got to change. I could take the same classes at the U, but then they will be more expensive and probably harder, so I might as well take them at SLCC.

My advice for all of you just starting college, high school and younger folks out there - Take as many classes per semester as you can! Don't stop (unless its for something good like a mission). Going to school for many years beyond the normal time frame is ridiculous and discouraging! Don't put yourself in my same situation!

Okay, deep breaths...I'm okay now.

I will say that I do recognize that it has taken me this long to complete school due to the following factors: 1) I didn't want to go into debt for school so I started off taking only the classes I could pay for myself 2) I've worked full time the entire time I have been in school, averaging 2-3 classes a semester 3) I served a mission to Brazil for 18 months: from June 2004 - December 2005 (so easily missed 4 semesters of school there) 4) I took a much deserved semester break after completing my Associate of Science degree 5) That one semester break turned into 3 as I got engaged and married (taking up 2 more semesters).

Regardless of how frustrating my discover today can be, I will continue to go to school (its good for me, right?). I want to complete at least a Bachelor degree, if not Masters (aargh). And maybe eventually (like when I'm 50) go on to get a PhD. That would be cool. Ahh, wishful thinking.

Firecat

Me. The Firecat.

Are Mormons Christians?

The question "Are Mormons Christians?" is a question that is seemingly endless in the media. 

Right now there has been some extra talk in the news due to comments made by Robert Jeffress: 
"Texas evangelical leader Robert Jeffress, the Baptist megachurch pastor who introduced Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit, said Friday afternoon he does not believe Mitt Romney is a Christian.  Jeffress described Romney's Mormon faith as a 'cult,' ... [When]asked by POLITICO if he believed Romney is a Christian, Jeffress answered: 'No.' "
(http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65445.html)

I was listening to someone on talk radio today in reference to this statement, and they also ignorantly stated that Jeffress is right, that Mormons aren't Christians. 

Let's talk about this.

First of all, let's visit our good friends Webster and Wikipedia. That way we can get an official term, and a term that comes from our fellow Internet users. 
Their definitions of a Christian are:
Webster says:
1a : one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ Wikipedia says:
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. "Christian" derives from the Koine Greek word Christ, a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term Messiah.[1]  Central to the Christian faith is love or Agape. Christians also believe Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, the Son of God, and the savior of mankind from their sins.[2] Most Christians believe in the doctrine of the Trinity ("tri-unity"), a description of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which retains the monotheistic belief of Christianity's Abrahamic heritage through an ineffable confluence. This includes the vast majority of the churches in Christianity. The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to describe anything associated with Christianity, or in a proverbial sense "all that is noble, and good, and Christ-like."[3] It is also used as a label to identify people who associate with the cultural aspects of Christianity, irrespective of personal religious beliefs or practices.[4]

Does this give you a good understanding of what a Christian is? 

How would you define a "Christian"?

Secondly, let's see what the Mormons, or rather the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (as that is the real name of the religion) believe in relation to Jesus Christ.

"Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and the Son of God. He is our Redeemer. The Holy Bible teaches us that Jesus Christ's mother was Mary, His father on earth was Joseph, that He was born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth, and labored with Joseph as a carpenter. When he turned 30, He began a three-year ministry of teaching, blessing, and healing the people of the Holy Land. He also organized His Church and gave His apostles "power and authority" (Luke 9:1) to assist in His work.
"But what do we mean when we say He is the Savior of the world? The Redeemer? Each of these titles point to the truth that Jesus Christ is the only way by which we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. Jesus suffered and was crucified for the sins of the world, giving each of God’s children the gift of repentance and forgiveness. Only by His mercy and grace can anyone be saved. His subsequent resurrection prepared the way for every person to overcome physical death as well. These events are called the Atonement. In short, Jesus Christ saves us from sin and death. For that, he is very literally our Savior and Redeemer. In the future Jesus Christ will return to reign on earth in peace for a thousand years. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and He will be our Lord forever."

Now remove any biases or previous prejudices that you may have surrounding this church. 

Does the information given from Webster and Wikipedia coincide with the beliefs of the Mormons? Yes.

I firmly state that Mormons are Christians. 

The title of the church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, states that they believe in Christ, and that it is His church.  The "of Latter-day Saints" portion states that they are members of Christ's church in the latter or last days.

The members of this church are given the nickname of Mormons because of the Book of Mormon.  The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ.  "It is Holy Scripture, with form and content similar to that of the Bible. Both books contain God's guidance as revealed to prophets as well as religious histories of different civilizations." (http://mormon.org/book-of-mormon/)

Part of being a Christian, means being Christ-like, or trying to be like the Savior Jesus Christ.  And that means being kind and respectful of others and their beliefs. 

Before we jump to conclusions, or negatively place someone in a category, we should do some valid research.  Go to the source of this Christian belief, find out for yourself what Mormons really believe.  Go to http://www.mormon.org/.  You will get the facts from the members of this church, not someone else's interpretation of what they believe. 

If you really want to find out for yourself what this church is all about, take a challenge and read The Book of Mormon (or re-read it for that matter).  Get it free here.

Again, I firmly state that Mormons are Christian. 

I am a Mormon.  And I am a Christian.

I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the only Begotten of the Father.  I know he came to this earth, lived a perfect life, taught and followed God's commandments.  He taught how to love and serve each other.  He was the ultimate example of how we should live our lives.  Before Jesus was crucified, he knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane, and prayed to the Father on our behalf.  He suffered the pain of our sins, for us.  All of us.  Jesus Christ did this so that we could be made clean and return to live in with our Heavenly Father.

I know that Jesus is the Christ.  I strive to live my life as he lived his.  And that makes me a Christian.

I Can't Walk

On Saturday, October 1st, I ran the St. George Marathon.  It was my 4th time running that marathon, my 4th marathon this year and my 8th marathon overall. 

I rocked the marathon - my time, my pace etc....until mile 16.  And with about 10 miles left to go, I hit my wall.  I couldn't get over it.  So I didn't finish in as good of time and I had hoped.

But I finished.

I think my legs stopped working because they decided that 104.8+ miles was plenty for the year.  I've been tallying all the miles I've run this year and it is well over 400 - if you count all the training and race miles.

And today, two days after the race, my legs still don't want to function.

I'd be walking down the hall at work and my leg would give out on me and I'd nearly come crashing down.  The slight slope in the parking lot to my car was grueling.  And then the stairs up to my condo.  Death.

Not to mention my ankles are swollen.  You'd think I was 8 months pregnant, not that I'd just run a marathon! 

I think I will definitely be taking a break from racing for the remainder of the year. 

But in the meantime I will enjoy my 5 medals and my award from coming in third place for my division in the Utah Grand Slam. 

Poor feet.

Go me.

More Running - Top of Utah Marathon

For the 3rd of my 4 planned marathons this year, my brother, Tom and my sister, Teresa, and I headed north to Logan, UT to participate in the Top of Utah Marathon.  I was looking forward to this race.  The course drops 1045 feet over the 26.2 miles but is only a 1% to 2% grade.  And my last long and short run before this race were really good, so I felt more prepared for this one than for the others. 

However, when we arose at 4:00am the streets were wet from rain with more possibilities coming our way.  I was prepared with my jackets and big black garbage bag (which keeps you not only dry but quite warm - I've used them even when there was no threat of rain, just cold temps).  We got to the starting line, got in line to use the port-a-potties one last time and then it came.  Loads of rain started falling.  So we stuffed what we didn't need for the run in one drop bag, while we kept our jackets and garbage bags on and another drop bag with us so we could ditch our warm clothes when it stopped raining - because we were convinced that it would stop before long.  Which it did.  About mile 5 the rain had stopped and it was starting to warm up a bit.  Tom and I put our jackets in the drop bag and held onto the garbage bags for a bit longer - just in case.  But by mile 7 it was still fine so we ditched those as well. 

Big mistake.

It started raining around mile 9.  Scratch that.  It starting downpouring around mile 9.  It appeared as though we should be searching for an ark with the extent of the rain.  We were soaked through in a matter of minutes - if not seconds.  And it was COLD.  It then proceeded to hail on us - as if the rain wasn't dreadful enough.

It continued to rain.

And rain.

And rain.

Around mile 18(?) It started to clear up.  But I was still soaking wet and freezing cold.

And then I saw an angel.  Well, really it was an older gentleman standing outside his house with a box of garbage bags.  He was cutting holes in them for the head and giving them to the runners.  He was my hero!  I admit that I hesitated a bit because I didn't think it was going to continue to rain, but then I decided I wanted it to help warm me up. 

And boy am I glad I took it.  Not a mile later it started to down pour on us AGAIN.

Tom's iPod stopped working.  Mine stopped shortly after.  And then his GPS watch also stopped.  Misery.  Pure misery. 

I nearly missed enjoying the beautiful scenary or the ease of the course...the rain tried hard to ruin it for me.  But it didn't completely.

Around mile 22 the sun came out and it started to get warm!  Oh glorious day!  The rest of the race was pretty awesome, and we came in under 6 hours which is what I was really hoping for (I do think the rain slowed us down a bit as we were hoping for about 5-5:30 on the time - dang). 

And now I have another medal added to my collection, and only 1 more marathon to run this year.

The Great Park City Marathon Injustice of 2011

On Saturday, August 20th, I arose at 3:30 am to prepare for and travel with my brother, Tom, and my sister, Teresa, to Park City for the marathon that would begin at 6:30 am. This was my second of four marathons that I planned to run (and complete) this year.  Why would I run four marathons in a year?  Two of which are just two weeks apart?  Because I am a little crazy, ha ha!  Also because my sister, brother and I signed up to participate in the Utah Grand Slam this year. 

The Utah Grand Slam is organized by Wasatch Running Company, and it is a program in which if you run 4 qualifying Utah Marathons during the calendar year, you will receive an extra medal.
I'm a sucker for extra medals.  So I signed up for it.

We arrived in Park City that morning with plenty of time to make sure we were in the right place, know where the start was located and use the restrooms one last time. 
With about 10 minutes to spare, we went to find the restroom, which was located right off the start in a local hotel lobby, so we waited in the fairly short line...we came out with many runners still around, so we stopped for a "Kodak Moment" then went to start the race.  When we got to the start...there was no big group of runners about to start the race...only the random runners standing around like they had a ton of time to kill.  Not a good sign.

One race volunteer noticed that our number bib showed "Marathon" and they told us the marathoners had started about 10 minutes ago!  Oh no!  So we took off running to try to catch up to the rest of the group.  We ran, and finally mostly caught up to them by the end of the first mile.  At that point, my sister decided to run on ahead.  Tom and I wanted to take our time during this race and the next as to not push ourselves too much before our final race in which we planned to run our hearts out. 

We were averaging about 13 minute miles, as I was struggling a little because of the altitude (crazy!) , the many MANY hills and the wretched runners trots as it is called.  =(  We had passed two runners, and according to Tom's GPS watch, were right on track to finish the race in a little over 6 hours. 
We also had a race volunteer who was the "race cleanup" that would ride pass us, come back, then ride ahead.  He never said much to us, but to tell us who he was and to ask about the runners we had passed.

Now for the injustice. 

A little after mile 15 there was a water stop right before a hill and a 2 mile loop.  As we arrived, being anxious for the upcoming downhill that we knew was coming, the "race cleanup" man was there and said, "hey guys, sorry to tell you, but I have to take your numbers."

WHA!?!?!

Tom and I were perplexed.  What was he talking about? 

He continued to tell us that the race had a cutoff at that water station that if you weren't there by 10:00 am that you had to turn in your number and either 1) finish the race with no number and no finishers time 2) ride back to the start in the "suburban of shame" (as I have titled it).

This is where the ridiculousness is.  They told us we had until 1:30 pm to finish the race, which was in a little more than 2 1/2 hours.  And we had just about 11 miles left to complete the race.  One can EASILY do that in 2 1/2 hours by WALKING.  And the rest of the race was down hill (pretty much).

If we did not finish this race we would not qualify for the Grand Slam, and not get an extra medal (which was the reason for me to do all this running!)

We tried to talk to the two guys there about letting us go.  One was more sympathetic, the other that was not (the race clean up guy - RCUG).  He even pretended to ask his boss about if we could finish the race.  His conversation was as follows:
RCUG: Hello. Uh huh.  Uh huh.  Yeah.  Okay.  Thanks.  Bye.

No question to his boss about us finishing the race.

At this point we were losing time.  I asked them to let Tom go as he is super fast and was just running slower with me.  They conceded to this request and let him go.  The RCUG then rode off and the other guy asked me, "do you really think you can do it?" "YES!!"  I responded.  So he let me go.  So I started running my little heart out because I wanted to finish. 

Not 5 minutes later the RCUG came riding up to me on his bicycle and said, "um, you need to give me your number.  If you want to keep running you can, but I need your number".  I asked if I finished in time without my number if they would give me a qualifying time and he said that because we didn't make it to that table in time, I would not. 

LAME!!! 

So I let them take me back to the start in the "suburban of shame".

This is something that I have never heard of at another marathon.  Even my mother was allowed to finish the St. George Marathon in over 7 hours - and she still received a medal.  Ridiculous!

The guy that was going to let me go, took myself and a couple of other runners to the finish line and took our numbers. 
I called Husband and bawled my eyes out.  The guy returned my number to me as I was sitting there crying.  I could tell he felt horrible about it.

After I composed myself I went to wait at the finish for my sister as I knew she would be finishing fairly soon.

She came in at 5:20:30.  I went by the finish line to cheer her on, then stepped back while she received her medal.  I then called her name and she came over to me, perplexed.  She thought we'd passed her.
I told her what happened and we sat there upset together.  We then went and waited for Tom.  I so wanted to go around the corner and wait for Tom and run in with him (it is not unheard of for family members/friends to finish the race with the runner).  And as I had my number, I was hoping to get a medal that was super cool, and I had paid for and earned it (well, would have, had they let me).  But I kept worrying that some alarm would sound when I went across the finish line or that RCUG would appear and tell everyone I didn't deserve it. 

So I didn't. 

But when Tom came in to the finish, I cheered him on,  then went to hug him in congratulations as he came in at 5:45:19.

We hugged and cried together. 

We then allowed Tom some rest time, then we gathered our stuff and left.

The rest of the day was an emotional one.  One of major injustice.  One that the Park City Marathon will be hearing about.

The next day my sister sent me a text and told me something I did not expect.

I had a finishing time of 5:20:48.

Wha!??!

How I got a finisher's time is beyond me.  I was expecting the horrid.  DNF next to my name. 
Whether my bib registered as I went to congratulate my sister, or the nice race volunteer had compassion on me and gave me a random time, I'll never know.

At this point, although timely feedback is most impactful, I have decided to let my feedback wait.
I'm going to take my finisher's time to the Top of Utah Marathon and the St. George.  And hope that I will get my extra Utah Grand Slam medal.  Once I receive it, then they will be getting my feedback.

But I will not be running another Park City Marathon in the future.  And I ask you to do the same.

New!

Friday marked my last day at the employment I've had for the past 5+ years.  And tomorrow is my first day at the employment I hope to have for years to come.

Goodbye Harland Clarke.
Hello University of Utah Healthcare.

Wish me luck!

I'm A Runner

In January I participated in a 5K in St. George, UT. Today I finished the Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon in Lehi, UT. In June I will run the Utah Valley, Marathon. In August, the Park City Marathon. In September, the Top of Utah Marathon in Logan, UT and in October I will run the St. George, UT Marathon for the fourth time.

Yes, running has officially commenced for the year.

I'm sore, I'm exhausted...but I'm excited. Its that adrenaline that shoots throw the veins that make all the many, many miles worth it. People say I'm crazy, and some days I agree with them and I dread the next long run, but there is something indescribable about how you feel when you cross that finish line. It's incredible.

With my races alone this year I will run 121 miles. I've decided to track ALL the miles I run this year, training and races. Every one. I'm excited to see what I accomplish!

Let's see how far I go!

I Heart Podcasts

I am crazy into podcasts right now.  They are fascinating!  Err...at least the ones I've been listening to.  My brother, Eric, and his wife, Carlee, introduced them to me on our trip to Vegas in February and I have been a faithful listener ever since!

The podcasts I've become glued to are two from howstuffworks.com.  One is titled "Stuff Mom Never Told You" and the other is "Stuff You Missed in History Class" and the topics are interesting.  The people doing the podcasts do their research, and, for the most part, remain non-biased. I've learned about "How Typhoid Mary Worked", where the term "Peeping Tom" comes from, about the most two famous female pirates, about Barbie's secret past, what the deal is with pink and blue and about the ever intriguing Winchester Mystery Mansion.  

I highly suggest you check these out.  And the best part!?!?....they are FREE.  Just go to itunes or to the howstuffworks.com website and you can download them to your iphone at no cost. 

I'm off to learn about Lizzie Borden and her axe!