The reality of the fact that it is going to be winter soon hit me hard today. I am not looking forward to winter. I really never do, mostly because I hate the snow, but this year just seems so much harder than the years before it. Usually I can find at least a few positive things to focus on in the gloom of the winter months approaching. Winter means holidays, family parties, treats, gifts, good food, happy memories, and fun. This year though, I can't seem to find the spark of excitement that I usually have.

I can't help but dwell on the fact that this year winter means that I will have to experience my first Thanksgiving and Christmas without my mom here, and the hardest part of all; facing the day that marks one year since she's been gone, and reliving all of the awful memories that day brought. New Year’s Eve will never be the same to me.

I really miss her today.

Xterra Utah 2009

Brett finished 119th out of 252 racers!
overall: 2:23:50
swim: 18:26
bike: 1:39:21
run: 26:03

Curtis finished 112th out of 252 racers!
overall: 2:22:13
swim: 22:43
bike: 1:34:30
run: 25:00

It was such an awesome race to watch! The swim was my favorite part because right when the gun went off for the race to begin all of the racers just rushed into the water at the same time! It was crazy. It looked like the water was full of sharks in a feeding frenzy. I can't imagine how intense it was to be down in the water at that moment. Brett and Curtis both said that they kept running into the other swimmers, and either kicking other people or being kicked themselves.

Brett came out of the water about 3 minutes and 20 seconds ahead of Curtis, but he ended up making up for the lost time during the bike ride. Since Brett was the first one out of the water I was expecting to see him come around the corner off the bike trail first, but Curtis was ahead at that point, and we almost missed him. I think that having each other out there on the trails definitely had to be a good motivator to keep going, and not give up. That's got to be why they finished the race within 45 seconds of each other!

I would have to say that the worst part of watching the triathlon is the anticipation. Watching as each racer passes you and moves onto the next leg of the race, waiting to see when Brett and Curtis were going to come around the corner. I am so glad that they both did so well!

The race was challenging for both of them in different ways, and now they each know what they need to work on for next time. Yes, I said next time. They are obviously crazy because they are planning on putting themselves through the pain again in Lake Tahoe's Xterra next year!

Congratulations Brett and Curtis!! You both did great!

Round two

{Click map to enlarge}

This coming Saturday Brett and his brother-in-law, Curtis, will both be participating in the Utah XTERRA triathlon!!

This race will be quite a bit different than the last one though. Last time he swam in a pool and then rode his bike and ran on pavement. This time it's going to be a lot more difficult because they will be swimming in open water and riding their bikes and running on uphill trails. {see map above}

This race will consist of a 750 meter swim in the Pineview Reservoir followed by almost 12 miles on a mountain bike, and finishing up with a 3 mile trail run at Snow Basin. It's going to be AWESOME!

If you are going to be in the Ogden area Saturday, and you've got some time to kill, I think you should come and cheer them on!

When: Saturday, September 26, 2009 - 9:20AM start
Where: Port Ramp Marina, Pineview Reservoir

If you need more information feel free to call or text me and I'll make sure that you know where you are going, and what time to be there.

Hope to see you there!!

Thoughtful gifts {by Jasmine}

{Jasmine & Levi}

The best gift I have ever received was from Levi for my birthday this year. He's an amazing artist, and I have absolutely fallen in love with so many of his paintings. The problem is that every painting I've ever fallen in love with always ends up getting sold. So for my birthday this year, Levi made a painting just for me, never ever to be sold. He designed it so that it would match our living room perfectly and is even making a frame for it by hand! It's so special to me because it's something he made with his own two hands with me in mind. I've never owned a real, original painting or piece of art before, and now, not only do I own one, but it was created just for me. I don't think anyone will ever be able to beat that gift....well,Levi might beat it eventually. He's always one-upping himself. :)

xo
Jasmine


Thanks to Jasmine at An Experiment in Poverty for contributing to our thoughtful gifts segment!! If you'd like to share your story send us an email: scothernsblog@aol.com

Thoughtful gifts {by Erica}

{Erica & Malia}

When we were dating, my husband, Zach, and I went on a weekend trip with several of our friends to a cabin in the woods. It was one of those trips that you never forget and you can never recapture. We had so much fun. One of the days we went on a little nature walk and Zach picked some wildflowers for me. When we got back to the cabin I was going to throw them away. I know, not very sentimental of me; but I am a practical girl. My friend Malia, who has been known to save a plastic cup (for years, mind you) that a high school crush once used to drink a sip of water out of, was to say the least; appalled that I was about to throw away flowers from Zach. She took them from me and I forgot all about them.

Three years later on my wedding day, I was getting ready in the bridal room surrounded by my family and bridesmaids; ready to walk down the aisle and marry, Zach, the absolute love of my life. One of those bridesmaids was of course Malia, and she told me she had a gift for me. What I opened was a pressed yellow flower mounted in a beautiful black framed shadow box. I was flooded with emotion. I can't think of a more perfect and more thoughtful wedding gift than a forgotten flower from my soon to be husband. To me that flower represents my relationship with Zach and the little things he does that I sometimes forget to appreciate, as well as my friend Malia - She is full of thoughtfulness and sentimentality that I can definitely learn from.

Thanks to Erica over at Tartraz for participating in our thoughtful gifts segment, and being our first official guest blogger! If you'd like to share your story, send us an email: scothernsblog@aol.com

A brew and a movie

Last night was our first experience at a theater downtown called Brewvies, and I have to tell you, we were very impressed. You see, there aren't any other theaters in Utah {that I know of, anyway} where you can order a pitcher of beer and a pizza or burger to enjoy while you are watching your movie. I think that the concept is brilliant.

The Schlange's came with us, and we saw The Hangover. It was literally the funniest movie that we have seen in a long time, and I'm really sad that we didn't go see it sooner. There was a constant eruption of laughter throughout the whole theater during almost every scene. It was hilarious.

I may or may not have dropped a full glass of beer on the floor, but that's not important.

We will definitely be going back soon. The food was good, the movie was great, the atmosphere was just awesome, and the prices are very reasonable. I wish that there were more businesses in Utah like this. We had a blast.

Friday frustrations

I'm just going to throw it out there: I really hate stupid drivers.

I have a serious road rage problem, and the idiots that inhabit I-15 on a daily basis aren't helping.

I can't stand it when traffic is at a standstill for an hour, and then just out of the blue it picks up for no reason. No accidents, no debris, no construction, no explanation. It's ridiculous.

I also really hate it when you can clearly see that the road is being reduced ahead, and the people in the lane next to you need to merge into your lane, but they choose not to. Instead they decide to wait until the last second to cut you off and slow everyone else behind you down to a crawl. Don't people realize that if they would merge into your lane earlier, when the sign says they should, then everything would continue moving along quickly? Obviously not!

I could seriously go on about it forever because it is one of my biggest pet peeves, but I'll just leave it at that.

What's your biggest traffic annoyance?

Thoughtful gifts

You all know that Shay is truly my best friend in the whole world. She is always there for me when I need her, and better yet she is there for me even if I don't ask her to be. A few weeks ago I was having an exceptionally shitty week. I had casually mentioned it to her in a text message one day when she had asked me how things were going. As usual she offered to be there if I needed to talk, and it was left at that.

Shay and I share a common love for a comedian named Nick Swardson. He is hilarious, and we both laugh so hard we cry when we are listening to his stand up. There is this one skit that he does about dying, where he goes into detail about how he is going to plan ahead and make his funeral fun and entertaining for the people that are mourning him. He talks about this great idea he has to send some money to a random celebrity before he dies in exchange for them agreeing to show up at his funeral. They don't have to stay long, just make an appearance. He chooses John Stamos. He thinks it will be funny when his friends are standing around at his funeral talking, and they will all be shocked when they see John Stamos walk in. Then someone will say: "dude...did Nick know John Stamos?". This is my favorite part of the skit, and Shay and I quote it all the time.

A few days after I had told Shay that I was having a horrible week a delivery guy shows up at my office with this giant bouquet of fruit. I assumed that it was for this other girl in my office, because her boyfriend had sent her flowers two weeks in a row, so I was really shocked when I saw my name on the envelope instead of hers. I opened the envelope and just about died laughing when I read the card! It said:

Hey Kaylyn!

Did Nick know John Stamos?

Hope you are having a better week!

It didn't say who they were from, but I knew right away that it was my good buddy Shaymus. She always knows how to make me laugh. I love having her as a friend because she is so thoughtful, and always knows just what I need without needing me to tell her.

I am going to start posting thoughtful gifts from our guest bloggers next week, so if you have received a thoughtful gift, and you want to share the story with everyone send me an email with the story, and a picture of the gift if you have it to: Scothernsblog@aol.com

When the moon hits your eye

Last Friday when I came home from work Brett informed me that he had a date planned. I was instantly excited because Brett always plans the best dates. He is such a thinker, and is always coming up with fun things to do. This particular date was no exception. He had gone to the store and purchased all of the necessary fixins for us to make homemade pizza's!

I love pizza! I could eat it every day of the week, and never get sick of it. We each made two pizza's. I made Brett's, and he made mine. Here is a picture of Brett-the-master-dough-spinner-Scothern working his magic. I swear he should have been a chef!

And here is the finished product, don't they look fantastic? Oh, well that's because they were.

The pizza's all turned out great, and we had so much fun making them that we decided to do the same thing for dinner on Saturday. Cheers to homemade pizza filled weekends!

Thoughtful gifts

I’m pretty sure that it is no secret that aside from my husband, books are my favorite thing in the world. I could spend hours and hours just walking around a bookstore, and never even buy anything. Just looking at the books makes me happy. I hope to someday have a collection so monumental that it will fill an entire room full of shelves.

One of the thoughtful gift givers in my life shares my passion. That would be Brett’s sister Kristi. She is also a book lover, and I think that is a big part of why we get along so well.

For a few weeks before Christmas last year she kept on telling me that she had found the perfect gift to give me. She just knew that it was going to knock my socks off. Despite many attempts to get her to spill the beans, and tell me what my gift was early, she held strong and made me wait until Christmas. It was agony. I am not a good secret keeper at all when it comes to gifts, I just hate the anticipation. I usually tell Brett what he is getting for his Birthday or Christmas a week or two prior to the day that I actually give him the gift. It is something that drives him crazy.

However, on Christmas day when Kristi finally let me open my gift it did not disappoint. She was right, once I saw what it was, my socks were no longer on my feet. It was a copy of my favorite book in the whole world, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Not just any copy though, a special copy. Why? It was a hard back, first edition, and it was signed by the author. I KNOW! Isn’t she great?