Rex Lee Run

Last weekend, I ran the Rex Lee Run. Its a big tradition at BYU and probably the most popular race at BYU. Its in honor of Rex Lee, one of the presidents of BYU who died of cancer. All of the funds go to BYU's Cancer Research program. So I've been pretty excited to run it. First of all, I signed up for the 10k but was notified that due to construction, there would be no 10k course this year. I was bummed. But oh well. The 5k would be fun either way. As I was getting dressed the morning of, Blaine looks out the window and says "I don't think you'll be running today." There was a TON of snow on the ground and much more was coming down. I called BYU and, sure enough, the race was still on. Blaine tried to convince me not to run, but was unsuccessful. And like a crazy person, I ran it.


What we woke up to

 

Where the race began

This probably was one of my least enjoyable races. As you can imagine, running through snow and running while its snowing, isn't fun. It really took a toll on me. Where there wasn't snow, there was a ton of slush. I felt like I was about to fall the whole time! It was driving me insane. I didn't know running in that kind of condition was possible. The snow coming down on my face was really annoying and I'd occassionally get some in my mouth. My toes were absolutely frozen, which made running really uncomfortable. I've ran in cold weather before, but never in snow. In other cold races, I warm up and wish I hadn't worn my long sleeve running shirt. I never warmed up in this race. I drank a protein shake after, but what I really wanted was a huge mug of hot chocolate! Anyway, I've gotten to average an 9:08 mile for 4 miles. So I was hoping to finish in around 28 minutes. But with the snow factor, I finished in 33:11, which I was happy with considering that I didn't fall like so many people around me did. I was really looking forward to this 5k to beat my PR, but I guess I have a new PR for running in the snow...
 

After the race, my shoes were covered in snow.

After running in the snow, Blaine tells me that he had planned for us to go snowmobiling with Uncle Dave, Aunt Cathy, Devin, Bryce, Sarah, Dayna, Tim and Ryan. You can understand why I wasn't really motivated to go, being that I just froze my behind off for half an hour. But I had never been snowmobiling before, Blaine enjoys it, and I wanted to see the kids. So we bundled up and went. Needless to say, I froze for another 4 hours while we snowmobiled. But it was fun. It isn't my favorite thing to do, but I'm glad we went. Sunday came around and I wasn't so glad that we went anymore. I've been sick ever since! Thankfully, the weather is warming up again. But in Utah, you never know if its going to snow again in April, May or even June.

Due to not wanting to freeze our fingers, this was the only picture we managed to get.

With Sarah and Dayna. And yesm they were almost my size.

Rue's 1!

A year ago yesterday, our Ruester was born. We didn't know that she would be ours yet, but we are so happy that we found her and got her! At first, I was really doing this whole dog thing for Blaine, but I have converted to a dog lover. Rue really is a sweet and gentle pup. She has never ever growled at us or bit us or shown any sign of aggression. She is intelligent and obedient (most of the time). She has left my house poopy and pee free and that makes me one happy dog mom. She doesn't drool. She rarely rarely barks. Gosh I love how quiet she is. She usually doesn't shed much, except that we're in shedding season right now and I hate it. Other than that, she has been the best dog I could've asked for.

When we first got her at 8 weeks

She accompanies me when I'm lonely, she cuddles when I want to and leaves me alone when I'm busy. She listens to me talk and wags her tail while doing so and acts like if I'm saying the most interesting and important thing in the world. She eats whatever I put in front of her and never complains. She always makes me feel loved more than anything else (maybe except for Blaine - she loves him a lot). She knows that I will never forget to feed her, brush her, buy her new toys and give her treats and that Blaine probably will. But she knows that Blaine will play with her for hours on end and will let her give him kisses while I'm not a fan.

She loves having people, other dogs, and kids around her. Her BFF is Tess. Her favorite type of treat is anything with blueberries. When she goes potty, she needs to have a toy in her mouth. Really, she has toy in her mouth all the time. She loves her sock monkey and we think her favorite color is purple (even though dogs are colorblind :]). She loves car rides, but goes absolutely crazy for walks. When we want to sleep in, she politely leaves us alone and plays by herself. If we've really slept in for too long, she just stares at us till we wake up. She goes to bed pretty early. When I pick up Blaine from school, I usually take her with me. She watches out for him and can see him when he's far away and her tail starts wagging like a crazy. She loves to drink water. She goes crazy at Petsmart and wants to say hello to everybody - canines and humans alike. All the nurses and doctors at Banfield go crazy for her. She's a star there and knows it. Unlike other dogs, she isnt' crazy about peanut butter. Instead, she loves cream cheese. She loves being outside. She's a master at putting you in a good mood. She can actually "throw" her ball pretty well. She can kick her ball around for about an hour. Blaine likes to think that she'd be good at soccer. When we go for runs, she trots while I feel like I'm sprinting. She's crazy fast and occassionally runs in circles in our backyard like a maniac. Surprisingly so, she enjoys wearing clothes and bandanas. When it was really cold, we put her in a little jacket and she would jump for joy when we reached for it.



Always with a toy in her mouth

 

Watching out for Blaine

Trying to get as many toys as possible in her mouth

She can sit like this for hours...when its not snowing

 

I know that we talk about Rue like she is our child, but until we do have REAL children of our own, she is our baby! She brings so much joy and love into our lives. Ever since we got Rue, I have found myself smiling a lot more. I hope we get to have Rue around for many many more years!

We celebrated by playing with new toys and eating dog-friendly cupcakes (rest assured - Blaine and I did not eat the cupcakes, but Rue sure did). We were supposed to watch Lady and the Tramp (one of my favorite Disney movies growing up) butI had to study for my last midterm of the semester. And yes, I did make her that birthday hat (out of some scrap materials I was getting rid of) and yes, she kept it on for as long as I told her to sit :)

 

 

 



Obviously, she had no clue that it was her birthday, but she did know that something special was going on. Judging by the amount and length of tail-wagging that occurred, Blaine and I concluded that she had a good birthday.

What We've Been Up to

A couple of weeks ago, we had dinner with Erik and Whitney at their place. We had a great time and Whitney made an amazing chicken pot pie and fruit salad. We're so grateful for the friendship we have with them. 

We also went to Mainstreet Park City for the first time with Mechaella, Steve, her brother and sister-in-law. We've been to Park City before to snowboard and to go to the outlets, but hadn't  been to Mainstreet. We had pizza, tried Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for the first time (so good...why did we wait this long?) and went to the outlets.

Devin turned 29 and we went to his birthday party. Devin danced, rapped with Randy, did some skits, opened presents and blew out trick candles on his birthday cake. He was one happy guy.

On the day that Chavez died, we went to a new Venezuelan restaurant right by our house with Matt and Nina. We had arepas and empanadas the pabellon. So good! I know it seems horrible to celebrate the death of a person, but this guy was on his way to doing to Venezuela what Castro has done to Cuba. Anyway, we hope that Venezuela can recuperate from the damage that this guy has done.

After much tracking, we finally had dinner (we're all about breakfast for dinner) at the Waffle Love food truck. They change their location everyday, but tracking them down was so worth it. They had the best waffles and cream ever. Their hot chocolate was also out of this world. Blaine got their caramel apple cider and, for a person who hates warm apple cider, I think it was delicious.

We had the privilege of having dinner at one of Blaine's professor's homes. His name is Kim Smith and he's Blaine's Investments Academy teacher. Every year, he has a devotional-type of dinner at his home. The food was yummy and he and his wife talked to us about their experiences in the finance world and establishing a work-life balance. Kim Smith is highly respected on Wallstreet and is probably the reason why the business program at BYU is so prestigious. They talked a lot about the sacrifices one makes at the beginning of their life and how everything that is good requires hard work. It provided me with a lot of peace about our future.

Daylight savings killed us. We were off for days. But we are enjoying the extra hour of sunlight in the evenings.

We've been able to hang out with the Slaughs a couple time in this past month. We had them over for dinner one Sunday and watched Wreck-It-Ralph together (possibly my new favorite Disney movie). We also hung out with them this past weekend. We went to Station 22 for dinner and watched Perks of Being a Wallflower, mainly due to Ryan's liking of Indie films :) Joking. It was a well-made movie and we had a good time watching it with them. Station 22 was as yummy as always, but my soup was way too salty. So I gave it back, which I never do, and I had a cute dessert for free in addition to not being charged for the soup. And the waitress didn't charge Blaine and Ryan for their fancy rootbeers. It was a great night.

Dessert at Station 22 - The jar in the middle was for dunking :)

Luna Sophia Stevenson was born on 3/13/2013 - one day before her due date. I picked up Nina's mom from the airport on Wednesday and as soon as we got into Provo, Matt called saying that Nina was going into labor. The timing of it all was perfect. And so is Luna! She is so cute and has Nina's awesome hair and Asian eyes. She weighed 6 lbs 3 oz and measured 17 inches. She's a healthy baby and Matt and Nina are completely in love. I'm still in denial that they're parents!

On Pi Day, we celebrated by...making a pie. Making pies is one of those things that I'm not really great at and therefore, don't do it a lot. But on Pi Day, I always attempt to make one. Last year's was a disaster, but this year I succeeded! I made a German Chocolate Pie that was so good. It had a layer of coconut, caramel and pecans under the chocolate layer. I might be making this again before Pi Day comes around next year :)

Remember when I signed up for the Lazyman Ironman last semester? Well, I didn't complete it in time and was so bummed about it. Thankfully, BYU decided to have another one this semester. So I signed up and Kailyn did too. We have been encouraging each other and exercising together when we can. One thing that I've discovered while doing this is that I am an absolutely horrible swimmer. It is so hard for me. I feel like I don't control my movements or my air flow really well, and I just get anxious. But it has definitely worked me out and I think that with practice, I'll get better. 2 weeks left and I'll have 2.4 swimming miles, 26.2 running miles, and 112 biking miles completed in 1 month! How people can do all of that in one day is beyond me.

Of course, we've been working, studying (1 more midterm this week and all we have left is finals!), trying to figure out whether we're selling or moving our stuff, collecting boxes, packing, and all that fun stuff. There are only 6 weeks of school left. 6 more weeks of college and then we are DONE.

Lately...

I usually don't post much about my feelings on here, but sometimes its good to let it out. We are doing fine. More like great. But gosh, I've got a case of the blues or something. I don't know if its been the gray and dreary weather (that is improving by the way...lots of sun today) or if its the uncertainty of our life in the next 2 months (graduation cap & gowns have been ordered), but I have been pretty bummy or like we Hispanics like to say tener flojera. Major flojera. And it bugs me! I'm only taking TWO classes this semester and it has been so hard for me to actually go. Isn't that pathetic? I'm doing well in my Aural Rehab class but Speech Science is KILLING me. I hate it! Yes, I said it. I have nightmares about not passing and not being able to graduate and then having to wait until next winter semester to retake the class. Isn't that about the worst possible nightmare you could imagine? For me, it is. Anyway, that's just one part of my bumminess. Usually, I'm really good about keeping our place super duper clean and organized. It has gotten more challenging with Rue, but she's a pretty clean dog. I love cooking, but have been struggling to meal plan and cook as often or as yummy as I usually do. I've been slacking on keeping up with family and friends as much as I like to and should. For the most part, this is not something that I struggle with. For some reason, I haven't completely given up on trying to dress nice, doing my hair and putting make up on. This is the first thing that goes out the window when I'm stuck in a rut like this this. I know I might sound like I'm complaining and that these things aren't really a big deal, but for me they are. I can't help it.

I'm only taking 2 classes, working part-time (work can sometimes be more stressful than at my previous job) and I feel like I'm falling apart. Not cool. I think (more like I'm pretty sure) it has a lot to do with my subconscious that is really freaking out about not knowing what's going to happen after graduation. Blaine committed to the Dealersocket position where he'd be traveling a lot, but we can always back out if we find something else before then (which is what we're hoping for). I know that I should be more grateful because this job offer is really good. The compensation is above average for finance graduates, there is a ton of room for advancement in the company, and this would be seriously awesome experience for Blaine. I just don't want to deal with being away from him so frequently. Anyway, I feel like my mind is racing 24/7 thinking of endless questions like "what about if this or that happens? " or "gosh I'll miss Blaine a ton" or "I can start packing already, but no, how about if we stay in Utah?", "How much will moving costs be?" (a lot more than we thought), "If we stay, should we move to the city?", "Should I apply to grad schools?", "What about kids?", "I just want to go to the beach and stay there forever", "Do I look for another job in Utah that's better if we stay?" and the questions go on and   on and     on and            on. Even if we do really do this Dealersocket job (which looks like a huge possibility right now), we still won't know where we will be living until Blaine's training is done. That's another 3-4 months of worrying. I guess I'm scared. I'm a worrier - that's for sure.

So our life is good. I am happy. I promise, I am. And I'm really trying to enjoy what could potentialy be our last months in Utah. I'm just worrying my head off and that worry paralyzes me. Thank goodness that I still manage to go out for runs quite a bit. I think I like running so much because I think of NOTHING while I'm running. I have never thought of nothing before! It's awesome! I just focus on breathing, the music in my ears, and telling the legs under me to keep on going. Reading also helps me relax, but sometimes its so tempting to get lost into a book and that doesn't help my case of keeping the house clean. I know - hard life.

I think that my worrying is just a matter of faith. I need to worry about the things that I can change and control, put my trust in God and forget about the rest. So I know what I have to do; it's just really really hard. Like-a-lot-harder-than-I-thought hard. I love this graphic that I found on a blog and made it the background of my phone today. I hope that it serves as a good reminder to "Hey Daylin, take a chill pill. You're immensely blessed."

Anyway, just wanted to get that down. I love using the blog to journal events in our lives, but I guess it's just as important to remember how we are feeling. And this is definitely how I am feeling right now.