Have I Always Been This Short?

Over the Thanksgiving break, we were visited by two young men who are so dear to our family that I would consider them almost my third and fourth sons.  The Holmsteads moved to Florida in July 2010, and I have missed them a lot since they left our western state.  I was most bummed that Devyn was on his mission at the time, and I kind of wondered if I'd ever see him again.  Last weekend Matt announced that they were coming to Boise, and I told him to text them and threaten bodily harm if they didn't stop in for a visit.  Being the nice boys that they are--I really don't think I scared them much--they complied.  It was awesome to see them again.

I had forgotten one thing:  these guys are TALL.  I remember talking to Kendra when they were househunting, and she said that their realtor referred to them as "the tall family."  Since I'd known them for 16 years, I guess I had just gotten used to their size.  However, when I hadn't seen Devyn and Derek for so long, I completely forgot they have been blessed in the height department.  In a sentence, I felt super short around them.


Ignore the t-shirt covered in flour.  They came when I was in the
middle of feeding a load of people homemade pancakes and bacon. 
I was a mess, but I couldn't miss seeing them.

Fortunately, what I hadn't forgotten is what great young men they are.  I so appreciated that my boys (and girls!) grew up next to this awesome family.  Devyn is older than my sons and always set such a wonderful example for them.  He served an honorable and successful mission in Washington, D.C., and I look forward to seeing where Matt and Derek will go in the spring.  I'll be eternally grateful that my sons had the chance to associate with kids who had similar values and who always stood strong in their beliefs. 

I guess my boys look kind of short next to them, too.

Anyway, it was fun to get caught up with them and to hear their laughter and enjoy their sense of humor and personable natures.  It's nice to see good kids grow up into even better adults.  Now, if I could just find a way to see their sister Heather and their parents, my holiday season would be even brighter. . .

Believe It or Not

My mother-in-law is on a temple mission right now, and in an effort to feel more connected to her family, she recently sent a ten-question e-mail for us to respond to.  One of the prompts was to identify my happiest moment of the past while.  Some of the other questions made me think, but this one was easy.  A picture is worth a thousand words, so consider:

Yes, that does mean what you think it does:  I'm going to be a grandma!!  Karen and Andrew are expecting a little one on May 11, 2012.  Oh, happy, happy day!  Selfishly, I'm thrilled for me and Mike to reach the exalted status of grandparenthood, but I'm even more excited for the great blessing that my daughter and son-in-law have been wanting for a while now.  What tremendous parents they will be!!  I don't know how good a grandma I will be, but I already feel crazy in love with this grandbaby #1.  Let the spoiling begin!

Tough Season

I'm afraid that in my period of blog neglect, I completely missed recording anything about Adam's sophomore cross country season.  Cross country is Adam's favorite sport--he seems to like it MUCH more than track--but this season was kind of a tough one.  He was injured, undertrained (because of the injuries), and generally unlucky pretty much the whole season.  I think, quite frankly, that he was happy to see the season come to an end.

Not long after the spring track season, Adam started to have lots of pain along the outside of his left leg and ankle.  He took some time off, then tried to start running again.  Still had lots of pain.  Rested some more.  We took him to the orthopedist and found out he had tendon overuse injury to two of the tendons on that side.  Awesome.  Treatment?  More rest.  That means he missed most of the summer training and was way behind fitness-wise when the season started. 

Here he is at the first meet of the season, at which he couldn't run.
At least he was there to support his teammates.

He gradually got back into regular training and was progressing slowly but surely.  Then he went to a Mutual activity where they were playing kickball.  Unfortunately, he collided with an adult there (a fairly big adult) and injured his left foot.  We thought he had broken the bone right below his left big toe.  Back to the orthopedist.  No break, just a bad bone bruise.  Awesome.  Treatment?  Rest.  In the middle of the cross country season?  Are you kidding me?!

Adam is a pretty tough kid and wasn't one to give up.  I'm thinking, "Man, this kid is unlucky!"  Nevertheless, he resumed training and finally got some meets in.  His times weren't great but were improving.  He ran quite well in the Trask Mountain Assault in Oregon, a true cross country race where they had to ford the creek a few times and slog through lots of mud.  I was unable to go, but Mike got some good pictures at that meet.



Emerging from the thigh-deep creek.

 

He brought a lot of the course home with
him.  We found mud in his ears for days.

Fortunately, he stayed healthy for a few weeks and ran quite well at the Kuna meet the week before the district meet.  I was very hopeful that he was peaking just in time and that he'd run really fast at district.

Both Matt and Rachel came home for the district race, and in typical fashion, we spread ourselves out along the course so that we could each cheer for him when he ran by us.  The gun goes off, and I'm getting excited to see him in 200 yards or so.  Then the gun fires a few more times, and I'm thinking, "What is going on?"  A fan next to me said, "Sometimes they have to restart the race if someone falls or gets trampled."  Yep, you guessed it.  That someone was Adam.

None of us saw him go down because we were all spread out over the first quarter mile of the course, but I guess he got shoved from behind by a Timberline runner about a hundred meters from the start where the course bottlenecked.  He got pretty banged up, but I didn't realize it until AFTER the race.  All the time I'm thinking, "Why isn't he running as fast as he did last week?"  I didn't figure it out until I heard the story and saw all his injuries afterward.  Ouch!  I'm sure it stung a wee bit to have sweat pouring into those wounds.  How did he even run?

This looked downright nasty for about a week. 

I'm trying to figure out how he got an abrasion on his back. . .

Not sure if these were spike marks or just road rash.  I feel bad
that I didn't see him getting trampled.

I think the biggest injury was probably to his psyche.  He was just too rattled to run a focused race.  The good thing about this season is that Adam learned a lot and will be a better runner because of all of his experiences.  Here's hoping the track season (and subsequent cross country seasons) are a little less "eventful."

They're Home!!

It's been so long since I blogged that I'm interested to see if (a) I remember how and (b) if the computer and/or blogsite blow up due to the sudden increase in activity.  I think I got behind this summer and then felt overwhelmed with trying to "catch up."  I've decided to abandon the updating idea and just try to hit a few memorable moments of our last few months.

A super huge highlight of our October was the safe return of my parents from their 23-month mission to Bulgaria.  I've never sent a child on a mission before, but the joy of seeing my mom and dad come home was pretty huge. I suspect the feeling may be even greater when one of my kids returns, and that makes me wonder if my heart will be able to stand the excitement and joy.  Seriously, I've never been more happy to see someone, and I've also never been so proud of my parents.  I stand in awe of their sacrifice.  Well done, M and D!!


This is part of the crew able to meet them at the airport.
(l. to r. niece Rebekah, me, Mom, Dad, niece Emma, sister Karen, and nephew Josh)



This is a sign that my nieces and nephews made to welcome

home the grandparents.  Josh and Emma are all smiles. 

I couldn't hug Mom tightly enough.  At age 45, I still need my mommy.

Grandma, doing what she probably missed most while she was gone.

We had a short reunion the night they came home (and for a few hours the next morning), but we had a weekend reunion with all but one of their grandchildren ten days later.  I then had the blessed privilege of monopolizing them for another four days after everyone else left.  Awesome, awesome, awesome!