Breakin' Bread

And again, Thankful for:
Family
Friends
Faith
Health
Happiness
And
Opportunities

Happy Thanksgiving. I thought I would get a fresh start on this. My day hasn’t really started yet, pretty much all that has happened is the coffee pot is a brewin’ and my slippers have made it to my feet. No bra yet….

Oven…please work with us and be a good little oven and do as your told….cook a great turkey, sweet potatoes and lots of side blessings.

We are having a few friends join us. I’m really excited to A. not travel and B. enjoy turkey and the works with the Seattle gang.

My menu:
Citrus Turkey- by Dirty Truck Driver
Sweet Potatoes-inspired by the Pioneer Woman
Roasted Vegetables- my neighbor suggested it…there are parsnips in it….yeah I know.
Cranberry Sauce, salad, rolls, pumpkin pie, wine, green bean casserole, red wine, and maybe cookies???? Oh did I mention wine?



God Bless this Day!

Gotta put the taters in....here we go! Wish me luck.

Adventures to Terre Haute with an Exciting Homecoming

Hi everyone!

Sunday night we packed up a small backpack with an extra pair of socks and headed to Terre Haute, IN the home of the country’s best distance running, the NCAA Championships. Our women were ranked in the top 20 going in to the race. I want to say it was 4th. The trip was supposed to be quick, a 36 hour tour that ended up being an adventure that had us delayed and freeway stopped.

The race unfortunately did not end up well for the Huskies. We finished 16th. My heart goes our for those girls who really rallied and worked hard to get sharp and ready for the NCAA battle. But in this sport, sometimes you just aren’t on. And we were not. As we left INDY with our heads hanging low, we got to the airport with an hour to spare. Someone had a great idea to get dinner before we departed. How were we supposed to know that our food was going to take 47 min, leaving us with 13 min to get through security and to our gate? That should have been plenty right? WRONG! It would have been if not for the lovely body scan I received from TSA. I was prepared for the whole search; at one point I thought the TSA chick was going to check my boobs for something malignant. After I got the “OK, you are good…no bomb or weapons on you, enjoy your flight, have a great day” nod to put my shoes and stuff back on, we jetted to the gate. I forgot to tell you, at the initial check in, we didn’t have assigned seats so we were going to have to get that at the gate. With two minutes to spare we had arrived to our gate that was boarding the last few Seattle bound travelers, and the only reason I know that it was two minutes is because the attendant at the counter got on her handy dandy mic and announced if “Audra Smith and…..(other passengers who were running on the late train with me) do not pick up their tickets in 2 min, they will be given away! WTF?!

“HEY HEY…I’m here with tiny little sweat beads on my forehead, Please don’t give our tickets away…Let us go home.” Oh crap, I have to pee and I have a middle seat!

As we were taxing out, the Pilot comes on the loud speaker saying that our flight into Denver should be smooth and skies are clear. Enjoy your flight. I sat next to a lady with three little boys under the age of three. I will admit they were very polite and well behaved. The little boy, Vincent who sat next to me had evidence of ketchup and chocolate on his face and smelled like poop. Every few minutes I would get a whiff of pooh.

Getting to Denver was a breeze. The landing was great and all the little boys were happy. Until we arrive to our connecting flight only to find out that it has been changed to an hour later. Raul, who I am going to rename Dirty Truck Driver, began to search his phone for weather updates in Sea Town. There were several reports about freeways being closed, cars being abandoned and even a plane sliding off the runway on account of the friggin’ ice. In a nutshell we were getting pretty nervous to fly back to Seattle and as our time of departure continued to get later and later into the night we weren’t sure we were going to see Seattle until the next day.

But as some would say “The show must go on” and we boarded the plane. I was smashed between two wonderful people who eased my nerves as we tackled the treacherous trip back to the PNW. Because of the late departure our tv was free so to keep me sane I watched a handful of Real Housewives and Millionaire Matchmaker. That lady is a Rock star. On our final decent down I was terrified! The plane was bobbing up and down on the count of the wind and I could see the houses and lights swaying back and fourth. Then all of a sudden my heart begins to pound super fast….is this what a heart attack feels like? Should I yell to the front of the plane to Dirty Truck Driver that I love you and its been real? Then we get closer to the ground….I squeeze my eyes shut and my fingernails grip the seat and the lady’s knee on my right bracing myself for the slippery landing, she taps my shoulder and points out the window, claps and says….”We make it!” Oh I could have kissed her! I was safe….

Then we jump in the truck test the roads and make our way back to the casa. Freeway was desolate, cars and trucks stranded. Buses abandoned. We thought we would be home in about 20 minutes….then the exit for I90 approached and so did big red brake lights. We sat in traffic and moved inches every 20 minutes. Our trip had been running for 4 hours already since we had touched down. Right around 2:30 our low fuel light comes on…Dirty Truck Driver says a few unrepeated words and then as always for me, pure panic sets in. I’m spiraling in my head how the hell we are going to make it home…should we walk? Pull to the side of the road and call someone? Sleep in the car? Oh god…we are going to die right here! Well my overreaction lead to some movement that resulted in us getting a shitty javelin throw further but got us to an exit that lead us to gas!!!! Yippie. Now we are not going to die. Then it got even better. We decided to ditch the freeway and take snowy icy side roads. An angel from the DOT appeared from heaven with a snow plow as a halo. We followed behind her all the way to Husky Stadium, HOME SWEET HOME!

What a trip! So glad to be back with Tweedle dee and Tweedle dumb.

Note to self…on my next trip, I’m going to go easy on the liquids. I swear I peed every 30 min.

Goodness Audra...more photos!

I took this picture over the summer. I named it the obvious, "Two Trees". Recently, we updated our house with some art, mostly just pictures that I took. Our house is full of personal art, we have pictures of the Snake River, sunrise at Mt. Whitney, paintings my grandma did, sheep farm in Rupert, and even some Shoshone falls pics. I would rather have something with some meaning than a random from IKEA or Bed Bath and Beyond (no offense).

Two Trees is one of my favorites. Hope you enjoy.

P.S. We have family in town this weekend and it might snow. Not ready for jingle bells and holly. Peace out!

Just messing around

I took this picture over the summer while we were in Rupert...any guesses what it is? I was mesmerized by these. Its an onion!


Trying to be creative with some photo editing

one of our first pictures together. I just love it!

The Come Back Kid

Let’s see, last time I blogged was in August. Now it is the middle of November. We are knee deep in our fall track season, and the last thing you remember about me posting was the Rock Star effort that Wilson gave climbing up his first mountain. And I also recall vowing to post more often and more frequently. Note to self: Don’t promise things you can give…makes you a liar.

My apologies to my readers. Which is probably two of you…Thanks DAD!

I digress…last year at this time, I was training for a marathon. Logging miles and planning my trip back to Arizona for Thanksgiving. This year I’m taking a different approach, I’m making a comeback. A comeback you say? For what? The Heptathlon of course! My job allows me to have the freedom and resources to pursue a dream of going to USA Nationals in both the indoor and outdoor championships. I have a great training partner, a really fast hurdler-former UW athlete-gone post collegiate pro with me, we help each other fight the battle of lifting, soreness, intervals, hurdles, abs, etc.

The Plan:
INDOOR Season
Enter in a few indoor meets in Seattle in hopes of scoring enough points in the Pentathlon to qualify for USA Combined Event Championships hosted in Indianapolis (March).

OUTDOOR Season
Basically the same thing, but trying to stay healthy, It seems like it takes this motor a lot longer to get rollin. I’m the car that you have you warm up the morning just to make sure she will make it down the hill. Outdoor USA’s are in Eugene this year. Hayward Field…if you haven’t been to a track meet there, I would strongly advise doing so. It is an amazing venue and the crowd it draws for track meets is like nothing I have ever experienced before. All of that will and should take place in June. I will do the heptathlon there…plan on going to some California meets to qualify for that. Makes my spring pretty fun.

SO… with that being said, I’m really excited about the next 8 months. I feel like this is my shot. I don’t like living the “What if” life, and I know that I have had the “what if” about the heptathlon.

My days are usually filled up with training athletes, training myself, and being dedicated to the special things our track and field team will be able to do this season. I love my job and the opportunities I have being a part of this program.

Other News:
I could talk track and about my job all day but why don’t I dab into some more personal stuff. As I mentioned the state that I was in last year, marathon training and then going home for Thanksgiving, well this year we are staying home for the holidays. About five years ago, I made a decision to stay at school and not fly home to AZ for Thanksgiving. We made a turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes…all the pilgrim favorites. And after saying some sort of grace, I started crying. It was the first time away from home on a “Big” holiday and I promised myself that I would never, NOT be home for Thanksgiving again. Well I was just a baby then and now I’ve realized that I’m an adult now and I have to start my own traditions plus flights for four days to Arizona from Seattle…OUTRAGEOUS! Therefore, I’m cooking for some Canadians and a few other fellow friends who agree with my system to staying home due to price of flights.

Next Wednesday Raul’s mom and dad and family friends are coming to visit. It is so funny when you have people come stay with you. There are so many little things that need to be done. Wash couch covers, clean walls, dust the corner of the closet where no one sees or ever visits besides the dust bunnies. Clean sheets…hell buy new sheets, new towels, organize the towel closet, organize kitchen pantry, organize this, and organize that. Throw away, give away…exhausting but it seems like we do it every time we have visitors. First of all, how do we accrue so much crap and second of all….who is feeding that dust bunny?

Don’t let this give you the wrong idea. I’m really looking forward to the visit from the Rupert Clan. I am just not looking forward to my date with the house.

One last thing:
I have been doing a lot of blog reading, but not blog writing (which I have missed) and I have discovered two blogs that I just love. One is called the inspired room and the other is the Pioneer Woman. Thanks Margo and Jennifer. The lady from the inspired room lives in Seattle and the PW is really fun to read. Anyway, those have become my inspiration to stick with the bloggy blog blog.

Hope ya’ll are enjoying your fall. Thanks for reading!

Mt. Pilchuck

I've been wanting to go on a Family Hike/Camping trip after we climbed Mt. Whitney but since then we've had moves, track meets, holidays and more. It has been over two years since we were in Cali climbing that mountain with our good friends. So I was delighted to be able to finally take an adventure with Raul, Sug and Wilson. It only took us three and a half hours round trip but it was perfect. Wilson was solid the whole way...even better than me.

After our glorious summit, we camped in a local campground about 8 miles from the trail head. We slept four to a two person tent and even though we didn't freeze I think I only slept about three hours. It was a little cramped. Anyway, glad we went, had fun and I really want to do a back packing trip up by Wonderland Trail.

Cheers to Goals for September 1st 2010

Hey Ya'll....Alright, I had a talk with my lovely boyfriend about having a five year plan, this does not mean a five year plan of frying wings at the local Hooters. I liked the idea and I feel it is going to be a project of mine.

With the five year plan, I get nervous because I feel like the possibilities are endless and it is only up to me on what I want to do and who I want to join me on the journey. Even though I'm not quite ready to start my five year plan workbook, I thought a new fall resolution was a good start. Technically it gives you enough time to plan some great goals and then it is immediate enough to satisfy the Freudian "Id" in us.

With that mouth full of gibberish being said, I advise ya'll to set some goals for yourself. They could be anything from weight loss to finances. Make your deadline right before the holidays(or Jan 1). Here is the cool thing...then you can do another set of resolution goals in January. It is a pretty sweet deal if I don't say so myself.

I think too many times we talk about what we will do tomorrow...and as the great Garth Brooks says, "Tomorrow Never Comes." So make it a September goal. I plan to get somethings in order. I want to make some extra money on the side, which might entail my own business. I want to establish a better group of girl friends up in Seattle.

So...write it out, put it up somewhere where you will see it everyday. Good luck and hope you are enjoying your summer.

Next up(Steeling from Katie): Mt. Pilchuck Hike-First family Summit!...hopefully with pictures.