We love Bubble Gum

How do you get cheap bubble gum off skin and out of eye brows?

Not with peanut butter!

Not with ice!

Mostly it took good ol' fashion elbow grease.
And a few Whoppers for a bribe
Remarkably it all came off but Joseph did NOT like being scrubbed on. Adam and I had to double team him to keep him still enough to work on. I'm pretty sure he's going to remember to keep gum IN his mouth from now on.

Normally I would Google such a problem but that night our internet was down. Of course!

p.s Just for the fun of it, I Googled it and that was totally unhelpful. Lots of suggestions for peanut butter and ice. Peanut butter works on hair NOT skin and ice to the forehead for that long won't work for obvious reasons.
Guess it was okay that our internet was down that night.

See, with Halloween right around the corner, aren't you glad you read my blog today?

So Handy

Joseph loves tools. He's convinced the door to the laundry room needs fixin'.

You gotta have glasses to fix properly.

He's concentrating so hard. It's adorable!

And you've got to use the claw end for something.

Required Equipment for "fissin" the door, according to Joe:
glasses

screwdriver

hammer

matchbox car

(matchbox cars are essential for everything Joe does, EVERYTHING)

Where to begin?

So, its been . . . four months since I posted last and I offer no excuses. I just didn't want to anymore. So I stopped. That's it!

But now I'm kind of feeling it again so "here I go again on my own . . . dunnuh, nuhh, nuhh!" (hello, old school Nelson).

I know better than to try and catch up so I'm going to start with now and if I find some good stuff from the last four months, all the better. Don't count on much though because not only did I lose interest in blogging but I took far fewer pics. Far!

Where to begin? There's nothing like the present, right?

Hutchinson Family Pictures 2009

All us Hutchinson's last had a family picture taken in 2001 with just eight people. We have grown to a whopping 17 people. This last minute, afterthought picture at the end of our session ended up being the crowd favorite.
Adam and I haven't had a family picture since . . . NEVER. This is our FIRST!

Our children were running amok while we had this picture taken.

When the photographer said "mom and daughters" I didn't join the group. I was then told to sit myself down and be in the picture where I belonged. I appreciated that. I have incredible sisters and mom-in-law.

My favorite part of looking at other people's family pictures is trying to pick out the siblings vs. the spouses. Can you guess?

The two guys standing on the ends and me in the middle are in-laws.

Did you guess right?

We were all looking forward to getting a grand kids picture. Such a cute little group of friends/cousins.

Men folk. I am fortunate to have awesome brothers-in-law. I love it when all the grown-ups get together and can chat (in peace). I end up with aching cheeks and tears in my eyes from laughing so hard (their wives are pretty funny too).

And the family picture we were first trying to get but ended up liking the tree one better.

FYI, pink kids belong to Randy and Angie, teal kids belong to me and Adam and green child is Emily and Sean's.

I am so blessed to have married into such a loving and accepting family. I love watching the family grown in number and in size (kids growing up). The cousins play incredibly well and can't stand to be apart for too long. The begging to play is actually pretty cute!

For the first time ever (I think) we all happen to live in Salt Lake right now. Its so much fun!

I am thankful for my "other family" and how much they love me. I love them an awful lot too.

Memphis 2009

I have this really cool husband who, every year, says, "So, when do you want to go to Memphis this year?" And every year we take a trip back east and I don't have to bug him or pout or anything annoying like that. That's so not my style!

I also, have these really cool women in my family. My sister, Audra, is a picture taking enthusiast that seems to always have her camera handy.
Meggan, my sister (in-law), who is quickly becoming a picture taking expert. She has this really cool camera that takes awesome pics AND she always has it handy. So, because Audra and Megg are such cool pictures people I don't feel the need to be the third person taking pictures.
Now I just have to sweet talk them for copies of the pics.

We always have a blast on our trips. We have things we always, always do and somethings that are new each year. Man, I love trips home!
* This year we added Nauvoo to our fun. Mom and dad were brave enough, I mean, sweet enough to take all seven grand kids (ages six months to 11 years) while all four siblings and spouses did a session at the Nauvoo Temple, a first for the four siblings (at any temple). That weekend we visited Old Nauvoo, made rope, got prairie diamonds, took a wagon ride, visited Carthage Jail and enjoyed having all 16 of us together.
* We got to hang out a little extra with Ben and Megg in St. Louis before Ben had to get back to school. They hosted a cousins' sleepover that was a huge success.
*Memphis tradition, we had dinner (of Krystals, of course) one evening down at the River Park. We sat on a blanket and talked while the kids played then walked along the river until the more kids had scraped knees than not.
*Adam, Sam and I ventured out for a new barbecue experience. We ended up at Neely's and it was goood! (no pics, be thankful for that)
* Adam and I got in a few runs where we sweat like little piggies and they felt good (no pics, be thankful for that too)
*We experienced a really good storm last Friday. Really good! I love good storms. I miss them!
*Mud Island where they have the football field long replica of the Mississippi River that you can splash and play in, that dumps into a big fountain (the Gulf) at New Orleans. Love that place except it is hotter than blue blazes for the adults.
*Swimming at Aunt Meggan's mom and dad's place. Thank you Kennedys.
*Getting to visit with Grandma Agnes and Walter.

I'm sure I forgot something or many things. Hopefully the wonderful pictures from Audra and Meggan will jog my memory. I promise pics soon!

The Most

I have a friend, Denae, who asked the question on her blog, "What's the most tender thing you've ever seen?" I gave the question I quick thought, couldn't decide, then went to find my chiming cell phone. When I returned to the computer our random pictures screen saver was on. This picture was on and I instantly thought of Denae's question.
This happens to be when Joseph was born. For one reason or another I don't have this picture with the girls but I'm so glad I have at least one.
This is how I see my children for the first time. I only have one free hand and about a minute before the baby is whisked away. The nurses hand the baby to Adam and he brings them to me. And for the first time, still feeling the warmth and tugging of the surgeon and the OB doing their thing, I get just a moment with my newest heart throb. Just a moment to meet and savor this brand new person I love so deeply and completely.

These are the best moments. These are the moments that make me, yes me, cry. And the tears collect in the ears, just like the country song. And then Adam and the baby are gone. I stay behind for a while longer, then post-op, warm blankets and chills, the "good stuff" in my IV, then nurses and doctors and visitors and more nurses. The moment is gone and parenting and growing up begins.

These are my most tender moments.

And yours?

Ogden Marathon 2009

Wait, I know what you're thinking because that was my first thought too. Ogden? Who would want to run through Ogden? Actually the course was beautiful! The entire event was incredible start to finish.
Once upon a time, eight months ago, Adam said, "I'm going to run the Ogden Marathon in May." I, apparently having a really good day, replied, "How cool. I want to run it too. May? What day?
"May 16th", came his answer. "Perfect", I said. "We should run it for our anniversary. Now that would be a cool thing to do together." Agreed!
And so it began. Seven and a half long months of running and running and running. After six weeks we were forced inside by snow and spend the next four months scheduling our days around sharing a treadmill. Me and that treadmill, we have a love/hate relationship. I hated being forced to run inside on 13 mile days but found it difficult to part when the weather warmed in March. Running paths and sidewalks scared me and . . . it was going to hurt again, wasn't it? Yes. And it did!
March marked an increase in mileage. Long run Saturdays went into double digits and didn't come back down. We found ourselves running further and further, exceeding our own expectations and loving the sense of accomplishment we were feeling. We were able to run together occasionally but mostly alone. Thankfully, grandma Vickie and fam agreed to watch the kids for runs 15 miles and longer. I loved being able to do those runs with Adam.
Skip to race day.
Alarm sounds at 3 am and we pop right out of bed. Eat, shower, dress, sunscreen, eat again, check and double check the checklist (SportShield, blister powder, Chapstick, ibuprofen, GU, sunglasses, running hat, bib, race chip, watch, drop bag, bandaids, ipods). Bags in the car and by 3:45 we're off. We made good time though anxious that parking would be a nightmare and we'd miss the buses. Parking was close and easy and we made the buses in plenty of time (4:50 am). By this time I can NOT eat anymore bagel or banana and drinking slows down so we're not having to stop and pee every mile. The bus ride takes almost an hour but the bus is warm and I finally relax. I actually fall asleep for a while. Now all we have to do is run. We can so do that!

We reach the "full start" at 5400 feet elevation in the dark. There are only 2000 runners (compared to St. George's 7000) and more port-o-lets than I've ever seen in one place. There are fires going and we look like "huddled masses" around them since it is so stinkin' cold. I'm talkin' see your breath cold. Brrrr! The sun starts to rise and we see our beautiful surroundings more clearly. As the sun hits us we warm almost instantly. They announce the clothing drop truck in leaving in five minutes so we're forced to shed our sweats but at least its time to line up. We find our pace group and at 7:02 am we are off. The first ten fly by but we are keeping to our pace pretty well. The next ten don't fly but they pass quickly. We run around PineView Reservior and through little mountain towns. We come to our only "hill" at mile 14 and kick its trash. At mile 17 we head down Ogden Canyon and its incredible. At mile 22 we exit the canyon and things flatten out. The going gets a little rougher at 22 and 24 but not as bad as I was expecting. I was able to avoid "the wall" entirely and was able to enjoy the sites and the people.

The kids spent the night at grandma and grandpa's house. They and the whole family brought the kids to cheer us on.

(Ella's sign says, "Ella says: Go mom and dad! GOOD JOB)

Ella has gotten very into our training and all the excitement. She was a little disappointed when I explained that kids shouldn't run marathons but when she gets older we'll run one together. She seemed okay with that answer. She wants to run a Kids K this summer. Pappaw will be so proud.

The family made signs for us. The kids were pretty excited.

I promised one running picture and here it is. Unfortunately there isn't a single running picture that we could both agree to post so this is all you get. I'm waving to the kids.

We came across the finish line together (though not holding hands, our last name in not Hallmark). I felt myself getting misty eyed but my brother-in-law, Sean, saved me. I heard him call our names for a picture (just the distraction I needed).

I wanted water and Adam wanted ice. We got our water, ice and our finisher medals.

I wondered at the time how long I'd keep the medal. I'm not the nostalgic, keeper-of-stuff type. In the days since I've decided that I'll keep it forever.

Running our first marathon was incredible. In retrospect, even the training was so cool is many ways. The weekly sense of accomplishment is addictive. The pride I felt when we finished was the same as the day we graduated from college.

Just as Adam and I shared graduation day, we shared this day too. I am so thankful to have done this with Adam. I don't think I would have endured the seven months of training without knowing Adam was doing it too.

I must admit that I've been lost these past two weeks. I realized how dependent I became on "the schedule." Schedules work for us. We want to run some shorter distance races this summer and do some speed work, just for a change.

I want to run the Top of Utah Marathon this fall. I think I could be hooked. Hooked on the security of the schedule, hooked on fighting my 30's, hooked on the accomplishment, hooked on the feeling you get from being at the start with thousands of others that just trained like you've trained and feeling respect for those complete strangers, hooked on my local running store, hooked on Sauconys and really comfortable running socks, hooked on a really good sweat that keeps all the little hairs from getting in your face and hooked on the way Ella bragged to her classmates at school so that when I came for my regular volunteer day they clapped and cheered and gave me hugs.
It felt good y'all. Real good! I have a marathoning friend, Courtney, who I can only hope to keep up with one day, who wrote me once that finishing her first marathon was the coolest thing she'd ever done besides her wedding day and the days her babies were born. I must admit I thought she was nuts. I still thought she was nuts race day afternoon. In the two weeks since, I've decided she's exactly right.

Tomorrow morning I will strap myself to a new schedule, tie on my RIDEs and begin again. I can't wait!


p.s. The good outweighed the day that day but there was still bad.

1) At mile three I felt a strange rubbing on the little toe of my right foot. I finally put a bandaid on it at mile 14 but it was already a pretty impressive blister. That spot NEVER blistered before. I'm baffled.

2)I discovered that my stomach disapproved of my marathoning. Its voiced its disagreement after mile 10 or so and clean through that evening. Again, baffled. I took EVERY precaution.

3) I hate GU. The stuff nearly makes me vomit. It takes a lot of GU to run 26.2 and feel decent. gag!

4) Water from heavy duty plastic bag looking things tastes NASTY! PowerAde made with water from heavy duty plastic bag looking things tastes nasty too.

5)Despite my running shoes being 1 1/2 sizes bigger than my regular shoe size several of my toenails KILLED for a couple of days. Thankfully I'll get to keep them though.

6) Running downhill LOTS can hurt too. Don't forget to train uphill and downhill.

Even if you don't think you can, you can. You are the only one stopping you. Eight months ago I couldn't run a block, literally, not a block. Find a schedule, do what you can, listen to your body and "go man GO" (name that movie).

Thank you to our friends and families for all your love and support. Thank you for the babysitting, encouragement and advice. Y'all are so cool!