7 Days

Saturday, October 17, 2009

That's how many days I've been sick. It all started last Saturday. The day started out so well. We were finishing up the Vegas race. Ryan and I got massages. Went swimming for about a minute. Took a nice long nap in 70 degree weather. We were walking from our hotel room to the restaurants when it hit me. I started getting a really bad headache. By the time we made it to the food court I was shivering. Once we sat down for dinner my whole body was shaking like crazy, and my hands were purple. My sickness had hit me hard in a matter of 5-10 minutes. Saturday night was by far the worst. I've never ever had a headache that bad. I was tossing and turning all night long. I was in tears. I was coughing like mad. I seriously thought my life was coming to an end. Every minute I was throwing my sheets off because I was so hot, then putting them back on me because I was so cold. At about 2:30 in the morning I took some medicine and Ryan was so good to get me a drink of water. I said a little prayer and pleaded that I would be able to sleep for a couple of hours and get feeling a little better. My prayer had been answered! Granted, I woke up with my clothes damp from head to foot, but hey, I was better! Or so I thought. We drove home from Vegas, and I was so excited to see my baby girl. I had missed her oh so very much. Then it hit me, I really wasn't feeling very well. I came home and took my temperature. I believe it was 102.8. Monday, when Ryan got home from work, I went to the doctor and he diagnosed me with Swine flu. He put me on Tamiflu (which I personally don't think helped). I found out Tuesday that this flu is going around everywhere. My poor nieces and nephews in Colorado got this terrible sickness. Even little Carter who is Kate's age. It turns out that I wasn't the only one who got this in Vegas. Cousin Jen and friend Drew got it too. :( I wouldn't even wish this illness on my worst enemy.

I am so so happy to say that my fever is gone as of yesterday! To be honest I don't think I could have handled it another day. I've been going crazy. The only good thing that came out of this week was that I was lucky enough to spend so much time with Kate. And what's even better is that she hasn't gotten sick! I am hoping that she won't get sick because we went on Thursday and got her the H1N1 shot. Now we need to make sure Ryan doesn't get sick. But Kate was so so so good this week. It was almost like she knew I was sick, and that she had to be on her best behavior. I think she was in heaven too because she had my undivided attention. We did whatever she wanted. She ate whatever she wanted. We watched whatever she wanted on TV. Life couldn't be better for her! My favorite was when we would just hang out on the couch and she would cuddle up next to me. Usually she's too busy to have the time to cuddle.

Now all I need to be 100% better is to get rid of this nasty cough. I can not wait to get back to normal life. I hope this nice weather sticks around at least one more day or two so I can enjoy it. I can not wait to get back to work. Believe it or not, I've missed it so much! I'm sorry to all of you that I had to cancel this week. Believe me though, I was doing you a favor!

Thank you so so much to all of you that have helped Ryan and I out this week. Thanks for your meals, trips to the grocery store, your concern and prayers, and help. We really appreciate it.

ps Jen and Drew, I am so sorry if I was the one that got you sick. I promise I didn't do it on purpose.

The (801)- der's

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Yay! I am finally feeling well enough to work on this post. I've been working on this since Sunday. (It is now Friday.) Last weekend was our VaLlEy Of FiRe relay. We had so much fun! And it was extra special for me because I got to run it with my hubby. We left Thursday evening and slept in Mesquite. We actually beat the Mangum's and Brown's down there, so we decided to play a little joke on Uncle Gary. We spoke with the lady at the front desk, and convinced her to tell Gary that he had no reservation, and the hotel was booked up for the night. We (Parker, Ryan, and I) were hiding in a small room right by them recording the whole thing. We got a kick out of it! Fortunately nothing got out of hand. Gary actually didn't act up at all. We were hoping he would make it more enjoyable for us to watch.

Van 1 had to leave bright and early to make it to the start line. Our team started at 8 am. People in Van 1 were

Jordan Brown

Parker Smith

Natalie Pettit

Gary Mangum

Kim Brown

Jen Chunat (Mangum)

They did great starting out the team! We met up with them around 11:30, and Jen handed the Baton off to us shortly after. Matt did AMAZING! He kicked butt. He wore the cape the entire time he ran (His first leg). We stopped a couple times to cheer him on, and give him some water and try to cool him off with the spray bottle.

Mike was our next runner. Here we were able to catch step by step his first Kill! Far left picture, if you look closely, you can see the victim in the distance. Top right corner, here he is passing her. Then in the bottom picture, he's leaving her in the dust!

Ryan was after Mike. Here he is in some pictures stretching out and warming up. His first leg was 7.7 miles. It was about 2pm. Dead hot. It was 85 degree's outside, plus with the heat of the cement it was I swear 100. (That's what it read in our car). About 3.5 miles into it, Ryan started throwing up. The heat got the better of him :( Drew stepped in for two miles, which he ran in 13 minutes, so Ryan could cool himself down, and finish his leg strong. Thanks Drew! Unfortunately Drew threw up too right after he got done running the 2 miles. It was a tough leg.

In the bottom left picture, Mike is handing the Baton off to Ryan, and in the bottom right picture, Ryan is handing it off to me.

My first leg was 6.1 miles, so not nearly as bad as Ryan's. I was only too happy to give the baton up to Drew. I ended up running with the spray bottle in my hand, so I could cool myself off every 2 seconds. Smartest thing I could have done!

After we all ran, and Greg handed the Baton off to Van #1, we figured we gotta get some sleep. We found a nice little park and crashed! It went by too fast. I swear just as we fell asleep, we got a text saying we're almost up. So we packed up the car, and were on our way.

We were finally running at night. Which was a good thing, and a bad. The good thing was that we didn't have to deal with the heat, the bad thing was that EVERYONE and their neighbor was getting lost. Matt was the first. He was running on a trail the whole time, so we couldn't stop along to way to make sure he was going the right way. Luckily we dropped Mike off at the exchange, then went and looked for Matt where he should have come off the trail, and started running through the neighborhood. I guess he stayed on the trail the whole time, and ran an extra mile to the exchange. By the time we got back to it, Matt had already finished, and Mike had started. I guess there were girls running out of the sagebrush with their legs bleeding and they were just bawling. It was scary.

While we were driving through the neighborhood looking for Matt, we came across this MANSION. It totally did not belong in this neighborhood. It was like a mini hotel. It was huge. This picture we took doesn't do justice. We were guessing how many elevators this place has.

First picture, Jen just finishing her scary leg on the trail, 2nd- Matt starting his leg, 3rd-Matt waiting for Jen,4th- The boys hanging out- Parker, Greg, Gary, Jordan, Drew, Matt, and Ryan, 5th- the Mansion, 6th- Matt running.

Ryan ran on a trail the whole time too. Luckily he didn't get lost. His second leg was 4.0 miles. He made awesome time. When he passed the Baton off to me I think it was about 1:30 in the morning. My 2nd leg was 3.5 miles and most of it was on a trail. Since I did not get lost, it was kind of nice being on a trail and not worrying about any cars. I felt like I ran pretty fast! This one was definitely my favorite leg.

1- Ryan getting ready to run 2- Greg and Matt hanging out waiting for Ryan 3- Random picture of the time. 4- Drew running his second leg.

Here we are waiting for Drew to finish his leg. His second was over 8 miles and his feet were KILLING him. He got a blister on his first leg, and had medical wrap it for him. They ended up wrapping it too tight, and cut off his circulation. You know when something is wrong with Drew when he doesn't care that people are passing him. He's the king of Kills, and will not let people pass him.

1- Greg and I hanging out on the "corner" waiting for drew 2- Me getting so excited that our van is almost done for the night! 3- Drew passing the Baton to Greg.

Sad story about this corner. Exactly one hour after we took this photo, a drunk driver came and hit and killed a runner that was standing on this corner waiting for their runner to finish. My condolences go out to the family.

Here are pictures of our van and team.

My nickname was Kinki. And the boy's nickname was "Scrotum Slapper's". I'll take my nickname any day over theirs!

Good ol' Greg entertaining us. He let me do his hair!

So our last leg's were done in the morning when it was already hot. Everyone woke up not feeling very well. Drew's feet were gone. There was no way he was going to run his last leg, so we helped him out and ran it. Without meaning to, I ran his first mile. My last leg was only supposed to be 3 miles. It ended up being 4, and they didn't warn anyone about it. I wasn't too happy about it. I feel like I could have done better if I knew ahead of time I was running 4 not 3. Oh well! So then Matt ran the next two miles, and Mike ran the last 3 miles of Drew's leg.
1- Greg peeing. 2- Ryan and I hangin out. 3- Greg coming back from giving someone water 4- Drew hanging out in the back.


Greg finished the race for us strong! Yes, you see it right! He is wearing a cape AND Superman underpants that says "Man of Steel".
(There is also a random picture of Mike jumping a cone on his first leg)
The Finish line!!!!! It was at the Red Rock Hotel.
It was so much better than the finish line for Wasatch Back. Probably because there was still a party going on! We finished at 12:15. I am so proud of our team! Way to go everyone!

At the finish line, Ryan and I were able to enjoy massages. I was in Heaven! It was Ryan's very first massage, and I know he enjoyed it. Now I need to treat him to a nice, more relaxing one. Afterwards, we went and crashed by the pool.

A huge thank you to Gary Mangum. Thank you for sponsoring us and making this happen! Good luck in the Del Sol race!