2011 Half Marathon Result

I ran in the Ogden 1/2 marathon a few weeks ago. It was lots of fun, but my time was a bit weak when compared to my first 1/2 marathon time. I'm excited to sign up for the next one, so I can try and do better. Half marathons are a good time if you're a runner...They don't require all that much extra training & like my cousin Johnny pointed out the other night--a marathon is the only event in sports that participates can choose to go only half way and still get praise & accolades from friends. Ha! I'm just happy that I came in under 2 hours...barely under 2. Race results. Here are a couple pics I stole from Leesh.

Leesh and I trying to stay warm at the start.

Matt and Aleesha after both of their races were done! I was so proud of both of them, especially Leesh since this was her first big race. She did great.

Threading

I finally found someone who threads! And who knew I'd find these people at the mall?! I was hanging out with Jill on Friday night when we decided to go to the mall in Mesa to get a treat and just walk around for a bit. We were heading for the food court when we passed by this place call the Brow Bar. Yes, the Brow Bar. I thought I was hallucinating. I made Jill turn around with me so we could take a closer look at this place. We walked over to the place, and I noticed that a girl was getting her eyebrows threaded by another girl that looked like she was about 16 years old. This girl, the one who looked like she was about 16, seemed like she knew what she was doing, plus she had really beautiful looking brows. We waited for her to finish threading before asking some questions, but I really had already decided to give it a try before she answered any of the questions we had. Jill thought I was crazy for jumping in the chair so soon, but it was only $10...and like I said, this threader girl had really pretty brows. Luckily, she did a great job, so I'll definitely be going back. The whole time I was in the chair, Jill kept on saying, "Oh my gosh, Monica, I wish you could see this! It looks so cool!"

And my obsession with eyebrows continues...

The ubiquitous camera phone: A not so in-depth study of my camera phone usage

Remember how I said I jacked up my camera on the camping trip a couple weeks ago? Well I've yet to fix/replace my camera which started me thinking about how much less worried I'd be about replacing my camera if only I had a super cool smart phone with the capability to take quality photos. It seems like everyone just uses their phone to take pictures now anyway. Man, I really want an iPhone more than ever. My roommate just got one and I'm jealous. All this useless thinking about my outdated phone led me to the rediscovery of several of my camera phone files I had long forgotten about. I haven't used the camera on my phone a lot, because the quality isn't very good at all, but every now and then I'd use it. Here are a bunch of old pics I found that made me laugh. I'm leaving for Utah and New York in about a week, so I better fix my camera before then...or get a new phone that takes better pictures before I take off, whichever happens first I guess.

Lukey

Newborn Maya

Mom holding Maya on the day of her blessing

Jason and Melinda

Maria

San Antonio

Me, newly blonded.

Another blonde car pic. Haha!

Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork

Lex, post color throwing

Bread Rabbit!

Remember this one, Ben? Haha! I think this one was sent from Portland. Sweet sweater, Benny!

Maya

Rocky, before he had hair.

Rocky and Isaiah

Me, taken a few minutes ago. My phone has gots to go!

Redneck Golf and Rhinos

Who knew that I'd end up freezing my butt off while camping in Arizona? Not I. I used to love going up into the Uintas to camp during the summers when I lived in Utah. You were guaranteed freezing cold nights while up in the Uintas. I didn't imagine that I'd come across the same type of thing in Arizona. Good thing I have a decent sleeping bag, because I definitely needed it this past weekend. A bunch of us went up to the Mogollon Rim to camp. Our campsite was near Bear Canyon Lake up there, and it was beautiful. It was cold, too. It's a bit early to go camping up there, but that didn't stop us from having a good time. I'm really glad I was able to go up. I almost forgot how much I love camping, especially staying up late and sitting by the campfire. My camera decided to die about halfway through the trip so I wasn't able to get any footage of Karen at the lake catching her first fish! It's time for a new camera finally...I'll just add that item to my growing list of things I need to purchase, right underneath "new white iPhone" and "plane ticket to Hawaii." Here's the stuff I was able to capture with my camera before it went kaput.

Hanging out after breakfast on Saturday

Greg and Chad cleaning up after making breakfast burritos and chorizo for everyone. So good!

Karen and Dan playing catch

Starting up a round of redneck golf

Amy teaching me how to play redneck golf. I got pretty good after a little coaching. Amy's my visiting teacher and always has the best stories to tell. It was lots of fun having her around the campfire late at night.

View from the rim.

Here's some super compressed footage of a ride I took on Chad's quad. I had never been on one of these things before and had lots of fun. It felt like I was on a roller coaster. We rode it to the top of the rim to check out the view.

Friends Are More Important Than Money

The title of this post is one of several very yoga-esque phrases I came across this past Friday. I tried out yoga for the first time on Friday with Alan, my new found friend I mentioned earlier. Alan has become a good friend. I'm not sure exactly how we became good friends, it just happened without me realizing it I guess. I think Alan decided that the two of us were going to be pals before we even had a conversation with one another. I'm usually really standoffish with people in the beginning stages of getting to know them which results in a very long process of becoming friends. But Alan didn't let me do my regular standoffish thing, he was pretty aggressive in his friendship recruiting, so we quickly became friends before I even realized it had happened. I'm happy to have him as a new friend though! He's a really good one, always checking up on me, and has turned out to be a person who is genuinely concerned about the well-being of others. Alan's Jewish, has long shaggy hair and wears really expensive jeans. He's also claimed that I am the very first LDS person he's ever met; this has led to many interesting conversations between the two of us. Karen and I have managed to get him to come out to a hike/bonfire that our ward put on a couple weekends ago. Alan said he had a good time, and afterward had a million questions about the whole social dynamic of the activity. He was pretty fascinated by the whole thing, and I can't say that I blame him for that in the least. Anyway, let me tell you a little about Friday's yoga session. I loved it! Since I like to work out, I knew I would enjoy it to a certain extent, but I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. I'm definitely going to try it again. Alan does yoga several times a week at this studio which specializes in hot yoga. Hot yoga sessions take place in a room heated up to about 105 degrees. So you walk into the studio and are sweating even before the session begins. It was so funny, I walked into the studio with Alan and was like, "Okay, this isn't as bad as I thought it would be...Is this as warm as it gets?" Alan turned to me and said, "Oh no, it gets waaaay more hot than this." At that point, I got a little apprehensive, but luckily I did fine. The heat didn't end up bothering me at all really. Everyone's just dripping with sweat by the end of the session, which lasts about 1 hour and 15. Alan kept on checking up on me during the session, making sure I didn't pass out! Toward the end of the workout, I even managed to do one of these....



Haha! I was so proud of myself. For me the craziest thing about doing yoga is how much it gets your heart pumping. I mean, I was concentrating on doing all these different slow, meditative yoga poses and before I knew it my heart was pumping at the rate it would've been had I been jogging or cycling. It's a really great workout. I found out there's another studio in Gilbert just like the one Alan took me to in Phoenix, so I'm going to start going to that one I think. I love being drenched in sweat after a workout...makes me feel like I actually accomplished something. Here are a few more yoga-esque phrases I noticed on Friday. It was a good time for sure.

Stress is related to 99% of all illness.

Jealousy works the opposite way you want it to.

Your outlook on life is a direct reflection of how much you like yourself.

The pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness.

I Know a Lot About Everything but Not Enough About One Thing

I can't believe I haven't posted on this thing since September. I owe my loyal fan base a sincere apology...So Tess, I'm very, very sorry about not posting since September. Ha! I miss you, Tess! See you in May! Okay, let's get down to bidness. Lots and lots has happened since September, so I'll go ahead and post the monthly highlights.

OCTOBER

October was pretty uneventful. Howevah, I heard that Isaiah and Jason dressed up as pirates for Halloween, and that's nothing short of awesome! Melinda made these amazing costumes with her own two hands of course.



NOVEMBER

I got to go to Missouri for Thanksgiving, and I was so glad I did. It was so very fun to be with Melanie, Luke, and Merrill. We even got to go to the Nauvoo temple while I was there. That temple is simply beautiful. I couldn't get over the wood floors found throughout the inside, so cool.

Merrill

DECEMBER

My whole family was able to be together up in Utah for Christmas which was fantastic. I just realized that I don't have any pics to show evidence of the grand time we all had together, so this shot of Melanie dressing her tree with Luke and Merrill in Missouri right after Thanksgiving will have to do.



JANUARY


I moved to Arizona! Yes, that's right, I just can't stay away from the good 'ol AZ. This place was definitely calling to me, so I decided to move down to Gilbert at the beginning of January. I moved in with my good friend, Karen, and have LOVED being in Arizona. I've been substitute teaching down here while I look for a job. Substituting has actually been a lot more fun than I ever thought it would be, so that's a relief. One of the many things I love about Arizona is that I feel so at home here. For some reason I feel like I fit in with the people down here so much more than I ever did up in Salt Lake, so it's been really easy to make new friends. PLUS Grandma Fern just lives up the road from me a short ways! Life is good!


FEBRUARY

This is Pete Yorn's guitar pick from a concert I went to in Tempe on Valentine's Day. February's highlight? I think yes.



MARCH

March was super fun and busy. I turned 26! Can you believe that?! I know, crazy. Here are some of the high points...

Here I am at the ballpark on my bday. I had lots of bday fun in spite of the fact that I turned 26! Ugh!

San Diego trip! This is Laguna Beach. Most beautiful day ever.

And here I am sporting a brand new sunburn on the most beautiful day ever. Check that out! Sick.

Trip up to Utah for Phil's bday party. Dad prefers pie over cake on his bday.

Baby Girl.

Isaac and Luke in Dad's office. I miss them so much.

Matt and I made it up to Powder Mtn while I was visiting. It was so much fun! I wish I was up there right now cause I heard it's been snowing like crazy this past week. This was a good day.

APRIL

This month I've been really lucky. I was able to go to Missouri AGAIN and see Melanie on her birthday! Take a look at how grown up Merrill looks. He's so cute and cheezes it up for the camera every time. It was lots of fun to be with them.

Merrill and Luke

Happy Bday to Melanie!

So there you have it. I intend to start updating this thing a lot more often so check back soon...I plan on trying Bikram Yoga out this Friday with my new found gay friend, Alan, so you better believe I'll be blogging about that!

Try this.

Matt just sent me a link to this really cool interactive movie.

The Wilderness Downtown

I tried it, and it's pretty amazing. It prompts you to type in the address of the home where you grew up. If you're like me and didn't grow up in just one particular place, just be sure to put in an address that means something to you when it asks. I put in my grandma's address, and if you want to see what happened when I did that, here's the link:

Grandma's House in Mesa

The music by Arcade Fire is pretty cool, too.