Repairs and Races

 Our week was kind of a grind on all sides. Jeff and Jay had lots of swim practices and a weeknight swim meet waaay out in Wenatchee. Jeff, Jay, Rose, and Amber all had five days of school. Jay had four days of early morning seminary. At home, I fielded a nearly endless parade of workers bent on finishing the last odds and ends of our house. Wednesday was the craziest, when we had a dozen different guys tromping in and out of the house for various reasons: 1 plumber, 3 electricians, 2 HVAC guys, 3 carpenters, 1 foreman, and 2 delivery guys. It was loud and our floors were covered in dirt tracked in. I found myself obsessively sweeping and vacuuming the floor twice in a three day span. 

After all of that home invasion, there are still things to be done! It is so close to being fully finished. My favorite home invader came on Friday: the piano tuner! Our poor ancient piano, given to us 7 years ago when some friends upgraded their piano, did not take kindly to being loaded into a truck and driven across the street. It was twanging and buzzing and so badly out of tune that playing it was like the soundtrack to a horror movie. Within 5 minutes of his arrival, the piano tuner had eliminated the buzzing. Two hours later, it sounded like a different instrument! Soft full rich notes came pouring out when the tuner sat down to test his handiwork. I was so incredibly relieved and happy! He even "denoised" the piano so that the notes blend better and it doesn't sound as harsh when the notes ring off of the hard floors in our new house.

At the same time the piano tuner was at work, the porch railings were being installed. I ended up spending that whole two hours sweeping and organizing the garage. Now we have actual space in our garage and it feels so nice not to have to walk sideways and think skinny thoughts when I get in and out of our car. 

At the swim meet on Thursday night, Jay swam the 500 meter freestyle race for the first time. That is the longest race in high school swim, and it involves 8+ minutes of nonstop swimming. I was sad to miss it! Jay was very tired when he got home. 

All in all, it was a productive week but it was also an exhausting week for all of us. Jeff and Jay got home from the far away swim meet on Thursday night after 10pm. On Friday, Jeff took his French classes all over the school all day long, singing French Christmas carols to dozens of classes. He was so drained from that intense day that he canceled swim practice that afternoon. 

On Saturday morning, I got up at 6am and got ready for a race! I was feeling sore, tired, and not so sure if I even wanted to attempt running hard, but I decided to go and see what happened. A few weeks ago I was feeling strong and decided I wanted to test my PT strength program "new legs" in a real race (as opposed to a self-inflicted solo time trial). I signed up for the Lampson Cable Bridge Run, which takes place in Pasco, WA (the tri cities). It had been at least 6 years since my last road race. In our area, it is pretty hard to find a good road race with competition in my range. I find no value in running a road race alone! I scoured past race results and saw that there was a steady stream of people finishing in the time range that I was hoping to run, so I signed up. The race had three distances available: 1 mile, 5k, or 10k. I chose the 10k. There were over 1500 participants spread out over the three distances!

Over the past few months, I have been doing a good amount of strength training, but less aerobic training and lower mileage with my running. Basically, I am in excellent shape but not quite in 10k shape. Usually I do a lot more running to prepare for a race, so this was new territory for me, not knowing quite where my race threshold was at the starting line. I had a range of possibilities in my head, but my most realistic-yet-challenging goal was to run the 6.2 miles in less than 45 minutes.

A guy dressed as Santa was suspended from a crane over the starting line, and we immediately ran up and over the large cable bridge crossing the Columbia River from Kennewick to Pasco. The first half of the race was hard but bearable. After I passed the halfway point, the reality that I had to cover that same 3.1 mile distance again hit me hard. I nearly gave up and jogged it in several times during that 4th mile! 10k is so long! To get through the rough patch, I used a trick I learned from reading about the pros: Instead of focusing on the entire overwhelming remaining distance in the race, I made tiny mini goals every few seconds "just keep this pace until that next cone. Stay with this guy until that crack in the sidewalk. Hold on for three more steps. And three more." It worked! I managed to shake off the mid-race malaise, and even passed the guy who I had been depending on to pace me and pull me through. He started slowing down about then too, but still. I was back in the race! I didn't pass anyone else for the rest of the race, and I got passed by several people during the last mile, but mentally I was tough and knew I was giving what I had. It was a very satisfying feeling.

Out of 373 runners in the 10k, I finished 48th overall and the 7th place woman, with a time of 45:13. It's been a while since I took on a 10k, and it definitely was a test! Even though I faded a little in the second half, I still feel pretty good about my 22:20//22:53 back to back 5k's. After the race, I did too many errands since I was already in the tri cities, and got nearly worn to the bone from navigating holiday crowds at Costco and Target. Going shopping on a Saturday in December is enough to drain the soul of even the cheeriest Christmas spirit. But our stockings will be stuffed and we will have enough Hot Pockets to get the ravenous teenagers through at least half of Christmas break.

Our stocking hooks finally came in the mail this week, so our Christmas decor is complete!

Jay knows what his Christmas present is (shelves for his bedroom), and after it was delivered, it was sitting in the middle of the entry way for 4 days before I got tired of it and wrapped it (partially) and shoved it behind the Christmas tree, unfinished side facing the wall. Amber was so surprised and excited to see that huge gift under the tree when she got home from school. She was disappointed to find out that everyone knew what it was but her. I told her it was the same box that had been in the middle of the floor all week, and she said "but that's just shelves! What is the present?" I just laughed, and she stayed mad at me for a full hour.

Piano practice before the piano tuner worked his magic: PAIN and ANGUISH for all in the house.

One day I got bogged down in ONE box, sorting old medals and plaques and throwing most of them away. It's fascinating how some mementos lose their meaning over time, while others mean more the longer we have them. I only kept the latter, so most of this stuff was tossed.

Strength and conditioning workout at the PT clinic with Jay on Tuesday afternoon! Jeff forgot where we were so we sent him a quick selfie.

The couch delivery guys had an obstacle course to get down to our basement door.

I was planning on asking the plumber if a water fountain could be installed in the barn, but he had already brought one, so he installed it right away! It is so NICE! No more filling water jugs with the hose by the house and lugging them over to the barn.

Rose and Amber asked me to spin for their game of Twister on Thursday night while the boys were at the swim meet. We turned a fire on our tiny 15 year old TV, and it was a cozy ambience.

Freshly tuned piano selfie!

A picture out the back window, showing the newly installed deck railing.

This tidy garage represents 2.5 hours of my life. After Christmas, Jeff will be able to park his car in the garage too!

Library date with Amber! This was the first time that she did not check out any kids picture books and only checked out longer books. Many of those books were graphic novel types with more pictures, but it makes me happy that she is beginning to dive into bigger books. She is currently reading the Wings of Fire 15 book series--each book is over 200 pages long with no pictures.

Amber carefully figured out these self-inflicted equations and then said "Look at all of this delicious math!"

On Friday night, I went to pick up 4 dozen tamales from a lady I met while doing Relief Society visits last week. Ever since we started having tamales at Christmas time 8+ years ago, I have wanted an abuela who knows how to make them! Now we have one! Hermana Sanchez invited me in and had me pull up a chair while she finished wrapping our tamales. She was selling tamales so she could buy Christmas presents for her great grandchildren. I loved listening to her talk about the best way to make a tamale. And the tamales are the best we've ever had!

Warming up for my 10k on the Cable Bridge.

Start line picture--doing a road race alone, without a friend is kind of lame. Taking selfies in public by myself feels lame too. But I had to try to get a picture of the 1500 people behind me!

This sign made me nervous: By choosing to stand in this group, I felt like I was committing to running at a 7 minute pace. I stood at the back of the 5-7 minute mile group. I wanted to take a picture of Santa suspended by a crane over the starting line, but he arrived too close to the start of the race for me to get my phone out.

Post race, part 1: the race ended inside a massive Lampson warehouse. They served cookies, beer, and hot Coca Cola. I passed on all three and exited at the back to find the shuttle back to the parking lot.

Post race part 2: my hair is so wispy, it never looks good after I pull off a hat.

Our family Christmas present, chosen by Jeff: a stupidly enormous TV to go in the basement with our other family Christmas gift of a new Costco couch.

We squeezed onto the couch on Saturday night after a brief appearance at the ward Christmas party, and watched part one of the first Lord of the Rings movie. Because, as Jay put it, "Lord of the Rings has elves in it, so it's a Christmas movie!"

Sunday afternoon chess. Jay is the vice president of the high school chess club, and he kept saying things like "and that, my sister, is a ___[insert chess move name]" Rose was not amused.

Quality time. Amber was reading the cards to the game "What do you Meme" and giggling on the sidelines while Jay and Rose labored at chess.

I can't remember if I ever posted the kids' school pictures, and I don't feel like checking old posts, so here they are. Jay's was taken in August on the first day of Freshman Orientation. Rose's was taken in September. Amber's was taken in early October. 

9th grade.

7th grade.

3rd grade.