Thinking of Boston today.

10 mile marathon training run on Boston's Charles River this past July

I am feeling the weight of the Boston Marathon bombings.

I keep picturing the end of my own marathon a few months ago. How I felt - exhausted yet determined. I keep thinking about what marathon's symbolize: triumph over the body, the spirit of a community, a sporting event where everyone has victories - there are no "sides" or "teams", each runner is celebrated, and the poignant emotions that occur after putting your body through hours of pain.

I keep picturing the marathon training runs I had in Boston this summer, one in June and one in July. Running next to the Charles River so close to where yesterdays tragedy unfolded.

I keep picturing riding a bike along Back Bay in June and again in early November with Megan (who, luckily, stayed home sick instead of going to the marathon like she'd taken the day off of work to do). I keep picturing that street and passing the marathon finish line, remembering how I thought about all the runners who work so hard to even qualify for that race, and then train again to compete in it. I am so sad for them and how a great event was tainted by evil.

The victims, of course, whose lives are changed forever are in my thoughts and prayers.

I am full of emotion - anger, sadness, shock, fear. I guess that is what "they" wanted from us - to make us feel unsafe in situations where our safety is not on our minds.

I'm proud of the people who helped others. Physicians who had just run 26.2 miles but ran over to the medical tent to help others.

I'm thinking of Boston today and paying closer attention to the people and things I love and focusing on giving good to the world. I can't control what other people do, but I can control what I do.

At church on Sunday a friend shared a favorite piece from last weekend's General Conference - some thoughts from Elder Cook's talk, which I looked up again today. Some things that stood out:

"Events often occur that rob us of peace and heighten our sense of vulnerability."

"In contemplating these events, I have been impressed with the doctrinal difference between universal or world peace and personal peace."

"We earnestly hope and pray for universal peace, but it is as individuals and families that we achieve the kind of peace that is the promised reward of righteousness. This peace is a promised gift of the Savior’s mission and atoning sacrifice."

You know...

1. You know you are at a New Jersey lacrosse team pasta dinner when there is a pile of tennis shoes at the door and plenty of Penne Vodka on the table. (My team makes fun of me for saying tennis shoes - they are sneakers here).

2. You know you don't clean out your couch often enough when you find your dad's reading glasses from his October visit. You also know that reading glasses aren't your best look but you text your dad this picture anyways.

2. You know Donna is in town when you get to go to your favorite Greek restaurant and when Paul is being goofy and happier than ever with that mom of his.

4. You know it's conference weekend when you go on a tow path bike ride with friends during half time. And you know the church is getting hip when it is encouraging hashtags.
#LDSconf all the way!

5. You know you are the fifth wheel on this outing because your husband goes to Pennsylvania and you can't because of lacrosse but you don't care because you really enjoy the company of these friends, plus baby Kate was my 6th wheel friend.

6. You know you can't wait for your June trip to Utah when you facetime with this week old little beauty of a boy and the rest of your family.

 

6. You know Spring is late this year when the pretty Magnolia trees that were in full bloom on March 20th last year are just barely starting to pretend that they might bloom soon, but since today is a high of 70 (SEVENTY!) you hold onto the hope that today is the day that Spring will finally be here.

 

7. You know it's your mom's birthday today because the calendar is telling you April 8th! I love this lady and am so glad we get to celebrate her. Love you mom!

 

Lucky Paul goes to Florida

Paul headed down to Florida at the end of March for some training at Florida State for an anchored phylogenmics workship. Poor dude didn't even get to enjoy the warmer temps and new views because the workshop he attended required really long days and no time for leisure.

The best news is that on the drive back, they got to swing a few hours to the east and visit his sister Camie in Jacksonville on the day they were blessing baby Mason. I stole some of these from Camie's blog (more here!), but a few of my favorites:

 

Paul's Ph.D. advisor, Karl, was with Paul at the training and was so nice to let that 3+ hour driving detour happen and join them for the blessing.

These two seemed to really enjoy each other. Paul texted me as they were leaving, "Mykita kissed my hand and wanted me to stay". I miss that sweet little thing (we hung out a lot together in Provo) and can't wait until I have a chance to see that Martin family again.

I was also glad that Camie and Paul were together to celebrate their dad's birthday - and even have the traditional root beer floats to celebrate, even if the picture came out a little fuzzy.

10,000 pictures am I nuts or what.

After posting my last blog I realized that the last picture in it was IMG_9999 on my iPhone and suddenly I felt a lot of pressure to make #10,000 be a real nice one. But then I got impatient and was sick of denying myself the opportunity to take pictures so I just wanted to get it over with and wanted to document our snowy Saturday practice so then this one happened:

St. Patricks day I really enjoyed the Google page and sent to to my Irish dancing mom right away.

While Paul was doing some training in Florida I kept my self busy with some projects and added a lot more pictures to my wall collage. It makes me happy and I like how we have a lot more friends on that wall now.

These self-taken pictures are better next to each other.

Left: Was taken to send to Paul about the second snowy lacrosse practice in a row (ice in my hair) while he was in warm Florida (too bad he didn't get to be outside at all).

Right: My happiness with getting my free Italian Ice at Rita's on the first day of Spring - bad news is that it wasn't actually warm that day, I was sitting in my car.

 We got a package from Paul's twin friends in Russia and they sent us the coolest hand painted egg and chocolates and a cool tin.

 I gave my fish an upgraded suite and I think he's very happy there.

I also house-sat for our friends and took their dog Stella on a morning walk, so I guess I'm just all the sudden a pet person.

 Saturday evening I was getting lonely and bored so I texted Celeste and told her I wanted to make something and then ran to the fabric store and found this best giraffe fabric and made a car seat cover. Sweet baby Kate helped me test it out the next day.

On Wednesday I did the best parallel parking job in Princeton and was so proud of myself for being an adult and not having to back in and out a hundred times.

And that brings us to yesterday, when Paul let me know he called the police to report a crime. The crime was against an innocent victim. He was working in his office when he heard a "snap" and saw a semi-truck knocking over this poor tree. When I came to pick him up I made him take a picture with the fallen foliage that he tried to save.

But the best news of this whole week was that my sweet little sister, Celeste, had her baby boy! I am such a proud aunt and sister and sister-in-law and I am so excited for Celeste & Brandon and can't wait to meet sweet Ezra. My family has been doing such a nice job of including me by sending pictures, and video chatting.

Eric took a few great pictures at the hospital and it made me feel like I was there, some of my favorites:

Welcome to the world little Ezra!