Last night my dad and mom came over. I told him that I was going to run a half marathon on Saturday. To much surprise, he told me that I was going to hurt myself and that I wasn't ready(he's so positive). I questioned the reasoning behind why he said that to me; I thought about it a lot. So, this is the answer that I came up with.

Here it is:

Ode to a half marathon:

Even though I signed up for you three times in a row and chickened out three times in a row,

I did it!

Even though I knew it would be hard to conquer this difficult task in my life, and you kept on telling me I couldn't.

I did it!

Even when I ran just one mile outside and couldn't run any more or else all of my insides would end up on the pavement(and they did).

I did it!

Even when I pulled my hamstring, and thought I couldn't participate in the half marathon because it hurt so bad to run.

I did it!

Even when I was exhausted from a hard days work and the last thing on my mind was to run, but knew I had to.

I did it!

All of those early mornings, running, puking, and sweating.

I did it!

To those many tears of pain, agony, hurt, and even happiness.

I did it!

Here's to you half marathon.

I DID IT!

My dad always taught me to love myself...to always reach for higher goals...and never forget where I came from.

Even when I was going through a hard time in my life, my dad took me aside and told me what his mother used to tell him. "Where's your faith?"

So, here I am less than a day away from a very big day in my life and I know that I can do it, I know that I will do it, and I know that whatever the outcome, I am proud of myself for coming this far.

I look forward to the future and what it holds. Hopefully many more half marathons and maybe even a full marathon, eventually.

Honestly, Dad, your were the person that has inspired me to set such a high goal and reach it. You were the one that taught me to have the courage to be able to run this half marathon.

And, you were the one that always told me to never give up.

So next time, when you wonder why I am doing such "horrific" thing and am worried that I might hurt myself; just remember, you were the one that taught the important steps on how to build a strong foundation.

In the words of your mother, "Where's your faith, Bobby."

Thanks, dad for all you do for me and all that you have taught me.

I love you forever!

Meredith

July 4th fun!!!

We have had a lot of fun this summer and it has flown by so fast. Here is the activities we did during the summer.

Rex participated in the ATV Derby in Plain City this year. This is the only pic I got of him because I was filming the rest of the time.

After we went to my Aunt Joy's house who lives in Plain City as well. She took all of the kids for a ride around the block on her lawnmower.

Who can resist a cute baby and BOB! Cormick, my nephew, was enjoying barbeque on the 4th of July.

Rex, well he enjoyed it and then took a nap. Got to love Lazy summer days.

Grace and Max are best of friends. They love each other. As you can see, "pyro Max" was ready to do the fireworks.

A Fairy Princess workin' Mechanic

I love that Grace doesn't mind getting her hands dirty. Rex was working on our truck, and Grace was helping him. Actually, if her daddy is doing anything, then she is right there beside him. Even if it means wearing her princess dress while she is helping him. 

Goodbye Harrison....

You never know how much a dog is there for you until they are gone. Harrison, born 17 years ago, past away yesterday, and has gone to be up in doggy heaven. He was a very good dog and had a very spoiled life. He was our first dog growing up and was given to us by a friend when he was was first born. He will be missed very much. I Love you, Harrison! Thanks for all the unconditional love you gave to me.

I think I forgot that I had a blog. I finally get to sit down and have some time to catch up and let the blog world know that we are alive and well. No, we have not done anything important. Well, sort of. I have just been too busy to keep this up to date. No excuses! Here are some pics. Mostly of my darling Grace of course. I don't what Grace likes about tractors, but she loves to help her daddy when he is driving them.

Rex and I ran the 5K in the Ogden Marathon. It was freeeeezing cold that morning. We made it through. I almost ran the whole thing, almost.

Grandma Malan turned 70 on May 7. We had a big family party and went to Maddox. Yum! It was sure fun to be with the family.

We were outside working in the garden, and Grace walked outside looking like this. I guess half of a shape sorter can be considered a hat. I love her creativity in everything she does.

The past month in review!

Not much has happened this past month but here are a couple of pix that we did.
We went to Speedstreet with some of our old ward friends and had a blast. This is Grace and Porter playing on one of the arcade games.


My niece, Isabella turned 6 on March 10. They were in the middle of moving out of their house so I offered to make her birthday cake. So here is the masterpiece. Well sort of...Grace put her fingers in it so it's not so perfect.



It snowed a lot a couple of weeks ago, and Grace wanted to go outside to help shovel the snow with her dad. I had to get a picture of the cute snow angel.

Goodbye diapers...Hello Big Girl!!!

I had to get a picture of the momentous occasion. I started potty training Grace yesterday. I am proud to say that she has gone 24 hours without an accident. She has done so well and I am so proud of my Gracie-bell. One of my clients at work told me about an eBook, 3daypottytraining.com. I have to say it works wonders. She tells me when she needs to go potty. More importantly she's excited to wear princess panties. I'm just excited not to have to buy diapers anymore, well at least until we have another one.

Pinching your pennies?

So I just went to probably the coolest thing last night and am so excited to share it with my fellow bloggers. It was so interesting and very educational. It's a class that the Standard Examiner has twice a month. A lady from pinchingyourpennies.com comes to tell us about "couponing." I know it sounds like a hobby. In some ways it actually is. 

The lady that taught the class last night says she has 5 children and only spends $300 a month on groceries. That sounds so unrealistic to me, but she does it and it works for her. You basically get the coupons from the newspaper every sunday and cut them out and wait for the item to go on sale. There is a lot more to it; she explains it all when you go to the class. 

So I'm so excited about it, more importantly about saving money. I recommend going to the class. It is worth it! It sure has got me pumped to try it. 

5 years...and more happy years to go!

January 23, 2004

Yes it's true! Rex and I have officially been married for 5 years. We have made so many memories and shared so many things together. It has made us grow even closer to each other. 

I can't wait to spend a lot more years with my wonderful husband. I am so lucky to have such an amazing person in my life.

We had such a wonderful day together. We went up to Logan (where we got married) to the temple and did sealings together. After that we went the Anniversary Inn only to find out that the room we booked had a toilet that backed up and did when we were there. So, they let us choose another room that was available. Of course I chose the Biker Roadhouse because it had a pool table in it. It was so much fun; we played pool all night. Here are some pictures of the cool room.

Overload of Posts!

I did it again! I got busy and didn't have time to post. So, here are a whole lot of posts.

Happy Birthday Nana!

Isabella and Grace played dress up.
Jon stole Max's pirate hat.

My mom's birthday is on January 2. We went over to there house and had chinese food. We were going to play games, but we ended up watching the sugar bowl(go utes!). It was too exciting to miss. That was fun too.

Happy New Year!

We sure had a fun time celebrating the new year. We went over to Rex's brothers house. We played a lot of games. The funnest one was the bag game. You just try to pick up the bag with your mouth with one foot on the ground. The part that you touched gets cut off, so the bag gets smaller and smaller and it gets harder and harder to pick it up.
On the other hand, I don't know what got in to Grace, but she somehow got hyper starting at 11:00 at night. She probably was so tired she was wired. I don't think it helped that we gave her some Dr. Peppper at 9:00 either. She fell right asleep as soon as we put her in the car to go home though. It was an exciting night for her.

Santa Came!!!!

We woke up to a fun filled morning. I was so excited to see how Grace would react to what Santa brought her. I don't know why, but she slept in pretty late that morning, and woke up to a messy diaper on top of it. So, after her bath she got to go and see what Santa brought he. It was fun to see Grace so happy. She probably played with her kitchen for at least 2 hours before she opened any more gifts.

Christmas Sunday

Here is Grace in here cute Christmas dress.

Rex posing for a picture outside church. We were in a hurry, because we were late again.

Christmas eve...

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The nativity scene. Baby Jesus was not a happy camper.

Father Christmas!!! Can you guess who it is?

Grace just couldn't look at father christmas, Makelle came up with her so she wasn't so scared. He's not that scary.

Grace was excited to be one of the wisemen. Actually, the only wiseman. What a cutie!!

We go over to Rex's parents every Christmas eve. We always have nativity. We eat breakfast, yum, and the kids get to open a gift. It is fun and full of many memories. This year the adults went to a rest home and sang Christmas Carols to the residents there. I got to stay back and watch the kids.
Father Christmas came too. Grace was really scared of him. She did not want to sit on his lap. If she only knew it was her daddy.