Flashback: Hunter 2004

A Snowy Evening Update

Mitch arrived home safe and sound after a weekend at the farm (one of his last as his mother recently sold it). He came home with a lot of stuff, some sentimental and some that went immediately into the trash (he knew it even before he brought it home). We had a lot of fun going through the stuff. Some of the treasures we kept: 5 Mason jars that have taglines, all featuring the name Mason; Mitch's wrestling pins; his yearbooks (with love notes from lots of girls- more on that later); Mitch's tractor/truck set (the boys went wild). We also sat down this evening to look at the pictures his sister-in-law took this weekend, all of the farm- outside and in. Even though I didn't grow up there, I still feel a sense of loss. All of the picture remind me of Mitch's father and my thirteen years as a part of the family have imprinted the farm on my heart and in my mind. We intend to make one more trip to the farm in the next few weeks so we can take a farm picture of Mason and Clare (the two youngest grandchildren in the family). All of the grandchildren have a farm picture, so we need to make sure to include the last two little ones in the mix. Missi, Mitch's oldest sister, has an idea to have Mason and Clare dragging the "For Sale" sign behind them. I think it's a cute idea.

So these girls.... hmmm. It was fun to read the notes former girlfriends and potential girlfriends wrote in Mitch's yearbook. So idealistic in tone. So carefree (but so much drama along with that). I was able to determine a number of threads that held all the notes together. These girls all liked having long talks with my husband; they all had crushes on him; they all wanted to "party with him some time"; they all told him to "never change." Oh, and so many of them had mentioned memories the girls predicted he and they would never forget. Funny thing is, we do forget those high school moments we claim we will never forget. I've noticed that in some of my high school memorabilia. I can no longer recall a lot of what was so incredibly important to me between the ages of sixteen and eighteen.

Mitch and I have been together since 1997. I told him that he and I should write letters to each other. What I would write now, I have no idea, but it's really pretty fun to think about what I could write and then save to read years from now....

Greetings 2011

We put our Christmas tree and stuff away today, much to the boys' dismay. So, in honor of our Christmas season, here's a little pic of the boys with their stockings. As Hunter says, "Christmas will come again when I'm seven and you're four Mason!"

Free Stuff (that no one will take)

I now know where Hunter gets it- his persistence, insistence, stubborness, etc. Mitch! After weeks (months?) of talking incessantly about buying a new TV (and researching it and dropping constant hints about it) I finally broke down and said, "Whatever! Buy one!" He, of course, was already at the store when he called me to "ask" if he could buy it. Anyway, he now has a 50-inch flat screen plasma in what he has named his "Man Room." He moved the other clunker of a TV (huge, weighs a ton) out to the curb and posted an ad on Craig's List in their free stuff category. So many e-mails later from people promising to come pick it up, it still sits on our curb making our house look very classy. Why will no one take our free stuff? Rewind to the Dining Room Table debacle of this past summer. Someone came and picked it up and then brought the damn thing back. Seriously. Anyone else could put a pile of newspapers out on their curb and someone would be there in an instant, probably fighting off hundreds of others who are just desperate for some old paper. Now we are going to have to pay our waste collecting company to pick up the TV- forty-five bucks. I wonder what would happen if I posted this ad on Craigslist- "We will pay YOU to pick up this TV"? I really think it would continue to sit. That's just the way things go for our free treasures!

Merry Christmas and All That Jazz

Hi, my name is Bethany, and it's been nearly two months since my last post. Why so long? Well, I have two small children who really don't give me a lot of free time to work with. Even now, Mason is doing cannonball jumps off the computer chair I'm sitting on in our office. Things go terribly awry when I'm not paying attention to them.

So here goes a quick update:

1. I ran the Rock-n-Roll Las Vegas Half-marathon. Very little training this time= no injuries and a very solid run. People ask my official time. Officially they clocked me at 2:32. I have to say though that I waited in a portapotty (spelling?) line for 10 minutes and then had to stop a couple times so Jodi could fix her race number (2-3 minutes total probably). We ran the entire 13.1 and if you subtract all the wait time, etc. I'd say we officially ran it in 2:20 or less, which is consistent with what we typically run that distance in. The trip overall was quite fun. I would do it again, though I'd say that being gone for four days was hard on the boys and did me no favors professionally.

2. According to our measurements, Hunter grew a 1/2 inch in 10 days. Mason grew a 1/4 inch in 10 days. They eat constantly and I guess it's not just "eating out of boredom." They eat because they are growing like weeds (cliche yes, but so very true).

3. Mitch purchased a 50 inch TV for what he's calling the "man" room downstairs. If you want a free TV, you're welcome to our old one. It's quite large. You will need to find transport for it. But again, it's FREE!

4. My sister Shannon welcomed a baby boy on December 13th! Welcome Chanceler James! Sarah will welcome a baby boy in April. I'm done having kids (why I'm choosing to share that, I'm not sure).

5. I'm tired of training for things. What does 2011 hold for me regarding races: don't know. Shorter races. Maybe a marathon. Can you see the inconsistencies in this item?

6. I'm tired of teaching- burned out right now. I want to go to culinary school.

I guess the theme of this entry is: TIRED!