I'M DOING THIS

And I can't frickin' wait! But really I have to. Till February.

Now, as some people may know, I love and live to run. More than Mike does for college football (mine's year round! beat that!). I sometimes truly honestly wish that I could quit work and just concentrate on my running and being awesome. Honestly, I am not very good -- but I absolutely strive to be. I can run for a pretty long time. I have the endurance to be able to pick up and run an hour after not running for a long time, and I have a level enough head (or maybe it's the opposite) to be able to stand/love an upwards of three hour run when in shape and 80 mile weeks (though I haven't done that since getting engaged). Can you imagine how amazing it would be to be a real runner and just run all the time and do 200 mile weeks? makes my shoulders go weak.

SO. My excitement: I am going to be one of a twelve-woman team to run 36 legs of a 202-mile relay race from Prescott to Mesa. One plus of the course is that it's coming back down into the valley, so there'll be plenty of downhill! Looking at the course map, though, there will be plenty of tough legs, too.

TO MY FAMILY: I hope to claim leg 23 because it passes right by my parents' house out in carefree, and I expect everyone to be out there cheering me on - even if it's at three in the morning.

See? The little black circle is their house, and the red line covering the Carefree Highway is leg 23. Just as I said: right by. If you zoom out it looks a lot closer.

TO MIKE'S FAMILY: Lap 36 (the very last lap) runs right by your house -- even more right by than my parents'. I would draw on another map image, but it would be so zoomed in order to see just how close it passes that people would be able to see in your windows, and that's not safe to post on the internet. We'll just suffice it to say that it is within a two-minute's walk of your front door, right on McClellan and Grand. I do not quite feel comfortable asking for the last leg of the race, since I think that might belong to the captain, but I'll be there all the same.

Is this not the coolest thing? If you want to run....I can see if we're still wanting girls. I don't know yet who all is on the team, or if we even have 12 yet.

Also, to be cool and see cool stuff, visit http://www.ragnarrelay.com/.

What I Pass Up

The debut Kate Spade clothing line is out. It's beautiful. I got to research Kate Spade for my entrepreneurship class last semester. It's a pretty cool/interesting story. From an entrepreneur standpoint.


My life would be a little more sweet with this cardigan. I am infatuated with it, quite literally. I keep a window open in one of my tabs at work and sometimes click over to it just to look at it again.

The problem is that I will never own it. The price of ownership is the same as six months of internets, or 13 tanks of gas, or the cost of repairing my laptop keyboard, or about a million dinners, or the collective cost of all of the wedding presents we will buy till this time next year.

I don't think I could ever really feel right about owning/wearing something - just one little article of clothing - with such a high price. Actually I take that back. I've worn expensive gifts and not felt too bad. I don't think I could feel right about actually buying it. It's not just that I would feel guilty about spending so much on myself or one thing, I would feel less personal integrity. There are things to spend money on, and a wardrobe that makes me feel beautiful is one of those, but I know my Heavenly Father (and heck, my earthly father) is counting on me to find a way to use my resources to help my family and others around me, not just me. But with these ideas and feelings, why am I cursed with such expensive taste? It just makes it so I never buy anything.

And maybe I take this too far, or maybe we're just poor, but seriously, I bought some tan pants, a couple pair of jeans, and some tank tops for EFY last summer, and then the next time I bought any clothing, except for my wedding dress, was my graduation outfit (this past May). Is that sad? I'm getting better though, 'cause I bought a few things with my birthday dinero from mis padres a couple weeks ago.

To close this post up, I will tell of my solution to the cardigan problem. I'm sure I could find a good, adorable cardigan with the same bracelet sleeves for $30-50. Then it's all a matter of cutting up felt into those cute flowers, stitching them in with little beads, and probably replacing whatever buttons it has to be as cute as the ones in the picture. And if I ever get around to finding, cutting, and stitching, I could invite you over to make your own. Though it would obviously have to be in different colors.