Conditioning

Within a week I was able to hang with all my siblings from Reed in the Phoenix area to Natalie in Logan and all the others in between.

I haven't seen Reed in forever and haven't been to their "new" house they moved into 5 years ago. So when Nate qualified to race in Phoenix at the Nike Regional invitational, I was so there even if it meant an 11 hour drive each way in one weekend. Kiersten and Jason quickly jumped on board. Tyler slowly came around to the idea and we made it a fun family vacation (Ash and Alex no longer had a choice).

Nate and his running buddies decided they really wanted to qualify as a team to go to the Nike National race in Oregon. That meant winning at this regional race.

They came close taking 8th place out of about 30 teams. However, the most exciting part was when our number one runner took 2nd overall. The excitement was palpable as history was in the making. He was headed to Oregon (and took 9th overall there).

Photo courtesy of Stansbury Stallions XC Facebook page

On my 11-hour journey home, I was reflecting on the success of this team. I'm impressed with the coaches who devote a considerable amount of time to running with and training these kids. They run year round in rain, snow, sunshine, heat, cold, early mornings, late nights. They were prepared and ready. Their bodies were conditioned with intense training: the hills, the repeats, the sprints, the workouts. Their minds were conditioned with inspiring, motivational coaches who believed in them and helped them to believe in themselves.

The idea of such conditioning is that they will be prepared for whatever comes their way. It would make them stronger and faster. With such conditioning Nate shaved minutes off his race time from the time he was a freshman to his senior year. On the contrast, I am a fair weather runner. I run when I want to run, in weather I prefer, and I run as slow or as fast as I care too. I am in no way conditioned to race at the level of these boys.

Conditioning on a spiritual level is very much the same. There comes a point in our life where we need to figure out for ourselves what we believe and who we will place that belief in. Are we going to condition ourselves to be our own savior, a human with such limiting power and knowledge to control really anything? Or are we going to condition ourselves to rely on a higher power other than ourselves, someone who is omniscient and omnipotent? As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, my parents began that conditioning process of building my faith when I was very young by teaching me about Jesus Christ through the scriptures, family home evening, church attendance, their examples. It's up to me now to continue that conditioning process to ensure my spiritual muscles are toned and ready. I have had some hard trials. The first big one was a daughter born with cancer. Throughout the many doctor visits and tests, I just felt peace and calmness. When everything else was out of my control, that's when all my years of spiritual conditioning kicked in. I had prepared for this moment. My faith in God definitely gave me the assurance that everything would be okay. And it is. Our cancer survivor is the one in the middle.

In any sport, a coach will tell you that you will have greater success if you can get the athlete to buy into their regime, their coaching philosophies. Same with the Savior. He can better prepare us for life's critical moments if we are willing to put in the work. He will help us succeed and be ready to perform in those big moments. The Savior is the ultimate coach and guide. When he asks me to show up, I will do so . . . consistently and diligently every day in order to condition myself to be ready and prepared for whatever lies around the corner.

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These are the days of . . . 
*LOTS of snow. The storm that lingered for days over Thanksgiving, dropped a total of 19 inches on our doorstep. Had we been in school, it would have most likely been a snow day.

Snow day last January for comparison.

Erik likes to compare all the snow he's getting too.


*Ash got to have a sleepover with her friend Anna and help make mounds and pounds of chocolates. Since sleepovers are nonexistent at our house, this one exception was the highlight of her life.

Snow Day!

The snow came and shut down pretty much all of Salt Lake County and Tooele County except for Wells Fargo. They were open and expected their commuting workforce to somehow make it in to work with no bodily damage.

Tyler took the day off and fumed at their lack of decision making and inconsideration.

We took the day off and made breakfast burritos and orange juice

(while Erik was a 1000 miles away in sunny Florida inhaling his own Taco Bell burritos)

made forts

and shoveled snow

ALL

DAY

LONG!

My body did not like me the next day.

And as I sit and write, it is snowing again with more storms forecast for this week.

Ah, Mr. Groundhog. I thought you predicted spring.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

I gave myself permission to not finish a book even though I am more than 100 pages into it. The premise was somewhat interesting . . . the US government giving 1000 women to the Indians to marry in hopes of helping them assimilate into our way of life. This never really happened although I do believe the idea was broached at some point in history. It's really dragging and when I get bogged down by a book, I need to just move on because there are so many wonderful books to be read.

Like this one:

I took a leap of insanity and checked out a book that had to be returned in one week. What was I thinking? With school books to be read and lesson plans to be written in my very limited time, who did I think I was kidding?

I tackled it and conquered and so glad I did. It was a good one. Eye-opening. Shocking. Admirable. This was story along the same lines as The Glass Castle, a girl who grows up with fundamentalist parents who don't believe in schooling or medicine, but who decides to break out of that mold, eventually earning herself a Ph.D.

Crazy warm December

The weather has been fabulously warm. Although I'm afraid my fruit trees are going to get a little confused and begin the budding process.

This was the other night, December 12th to be exact.

And today Tyler brought home a truckful of compost and started spreading it around the yard. I thought I was crazy last year when I mowed my lawn for the last time on December 1; but this year takes the cake.

I seriously am not complaining. I detest the cold in every way. It makes me want to burrow down in my bed and not surface for a good couple of months.

We did get a little snowfall a few days ago,

much to the delight of Ash and Alex who worked tirelessly to build any snowman they could.

He hasn't lasted long.

Girls Camp, part 2

Summer is officially half over and I have failed to document so many things. Life at the moment is seriously crazy and fun. A lot like girls camp.

MONDAY: Monday morning of the week of camp, my little family and I woke up early and left our Leary family reunion in Idaho in order to make it back in time to get Kiersten to the stake center and off to the woods for her 4th year overnight hike. I got to spend the rest of the day getting packed and ready.

TUESDAY: Our theme for the day was Discovering Your Super Power. Every girl has been given certain gifts or "powers" that can help someone else. We may not touch every person all the time, but we can be someone's super hero. Leading up to camp I decided to pull out my patriarchal blessing and study it a little deeper. I looked for those special gifts and talents I've been blessed with. It certainly didn't come right out and say it, but through experiences I've had in my life, I know with certainty that I have been given the gift of faith. I've never been a doubter. Sure I've had questions. It's natural to question and wonder, but I also know that God is in charge and some day all my questions will get answers. And I'm okay with waiting. . . . Which is weird because I'm not a very patient person.

That afternoon is began to snow and snowed for several hours leaving a couple of inches of fresh, white powder -- perfect for a snowball fight and a snowman named Olaf.

That night our girls discovered that one of their super powers might very well be resiliency. I never heard one complain or want to go home. I'm sure they thought it and might have voiced it out loud to their tent mates but not a one grumbled about the weather that blew in on top of us.

The next morning I got up to make a fire and I just had to stand still for a moment and take in all the beauty surrounding me. Trees frosted with snow and the sun just peaking over the mountaintops. It was awe-striking and I decided that morning I would do it all over again just so I could witness the breathtaking beauty of that morning once more. Seriously, there are just no words to describe what I saw and felt as I got to be a witness to a small part of God's creation.

And ya know, life is kind of like that sometimes. It gets a little cold and stormy and is certainly nothing you'd wish for, but after passing through those hard experiences, most would look back and wouldn't trade it for a thing. The sun will always come up. All of us, regardless of what lemon life has passed on to you, has a choice. You can either choose to be miserable or you can choose to be happy. I personally like myself so much more when I'm happy.