Still Waiting

Well Everyone, 

We are still waiting to hear from ASU and still waiting for more answers from the Lord.  We know he has a plan for us, but we are just waiting for it to happen in his time.  We are learning and growing everyday and feel so blessed for all we have in our lives. So, here is quick update in the mean time.

Alissa is still loving school! They go on field trips every month at least.  She has one favorite friend named Jenna and they actually get to play at each others houses.  She is not currently in dance or piano but misses them both and we work on piano sometimes together.  She is such a good big sister and really mothers her siblings.  I love how strong she is, she definitely knows what she wants in life.

Kenzie is not a little boy anymore is only about 2 inches shorter than Alissa, I bet it is not long before he passes her up.  He loves to play outside and is so good at playing by himself.  He gets to got to preschool two days a week and has so many stories to tell each week.  The other day i was late picking him up by about ten minutes and his teacher said he had been crying for his mommy to come.  It was very sweet.  He has such a loving heart and is sometimes too loving for Taft.  He is truly such a peacemaker and I am so glad he is in the middle.

Taft thinks he is the same age as the other two and always tries to keep up with them.  He usually does in most things.  He love to talk and today I caught him saying naked, it was quite funny because it just feels like such a big word for an 18 month old, but nevertheless he wants to be like his siblings.  He loves to read books and go for car rides!  His other favorite thing is to make apple juice with our juicer because he likes to put the apples in.  He is growing so fast and does not even feel like a baby anymore.  I would have to say the funniest part right now is all his facial expressions, he has too many to keep track of.

We are so lucky to have three wonderful children!

Ryan is in the process of relocating our family which is a lot of work.  He is such a hard worker and tried so hard to always follow what the Lord wants.  I feel very blessed to be guided by such a righteous, honest man.  He is currently taking a Jujitsu class two nights a week and loves going on adventure runs with his dad.  I love to look out in the back yard and see him up in the fort of the swing set right in the middle of a game with the kids.  He is so fun and they love to have him to play with.

As for me, I am just trying to learn and grow and pack.  I have so much I want to learn and do and hope to be able to do all of it.  I have to say I feel so rested to still not be pregnant and have some time to focus on feeling well enough to take care of the family I have here.  I am currently working on a few projects but we shall see how they play out.  I love to blog and chit and chat (as my mom would say) on Facebook.  Thanks to Katrina and Sonia for introducing me to it.  I am starting to make time to read again too which is lots of fun.

Well, that is a little update on our family.  Hopefully we will have more news soon about where our life is headed!   We hope you are all fantastic!

Running with Dad

This is Ryan.  

Staci asked me to write about going running with my Dad.  

The runs I do with my Dad are intense and very unconventional, even for a cross country runner.  Dad calls them adventure runs. These aren't runs that I'd take very many people on.  I always wish more people could come and see because there fun to do, we see incredible sites, and they'd be as fun to watch as a chase seen in a movie - (with a little of cut and paste to take out the slow parts).  However, I don't know many people outside of my dad that I could take with me on this kind of run.  It requires a lot of cross country, off the trail experience and a love of hills.  It also requires flexible and strong ankles, good eye-foot control, and phenomenal balance while traveling at a decent pace.  Finally it requires the ability to run for about 3 hours in that kind of condition.  Without out all of these abilities a person would get injured very easily.  For example: today, I twisted my ankle about 3 times due to bad eye-foot co-ordination  (twists are going to happen on a run like this -every step won't be perfect).  However, thanks to my ankle's strength, flexibility, and good cerebellar balance, I rolled with my ankle and rolled right out of the twist - in other words: no pain.  You could get hurt a lot of other ways too.  For example: I did a 10 foot jump (not the longest) down a steep incline and as I landed I slipped in the soft dirt for about 7 feet.  Now if you threw your weight around incorrectly you'd probably throw it right over a cliff while trying to do such a landing.  Due to experience, not only was this not a scary experience, it was a blast because I knew I had total control, and yet it was something out of a movie.  You could take a nasty fall while running down hill through rocky terrain at a 7 min. mile pace.  Scary because there's cactus and little lava rocks all over to fall on.  

Dad does the down hill cross country running part so much better than I do.

Truly, my Dad is one of the only people I can think of that I feel comfortable doing this with, where I don't need to worry about him.

Well today we decided to make it interesting by going deer hunting - or more like deer herding.   In Africa they jog behind the animals.  the animal will sprint ahead of the tribal hunters and then rest.  The runners just keep jogging.  What happens is the runners are able to jog for a long time, but the poor animal gets tired of doing wind sprints (sprint, rest, sprint, rest).  Eventually the animal collapses and the runners just take out a knife and slit the animals throat.  No struggle, no guns, - just a nice morning jog. 

So one of the mountains we frequently run/climb/scamper all over happens to have a ton of deer that call it home.  We didn't bring a knife or anything, but we wanted to try and just herd the deer all over the mountain.  We started out chasing one right off the bat.  Then there were 2, then 15, and then 30 deer.  

We realized something.  This would be a lot easier if we were on the flat plains of Africa.  The deer in the mountains were so elusive, but we managed to stay on top of them.  They would bound out of sight and down into a  ravine.  There are so many ravines on the mountain. that the deer could duck into any of them and hide.  This makes keeping track of them challenging and a lot of luck is needed since they camouflage so nicely with their surroundings.  The other thing is that we were basically doing hill sprints, which is not quite the way we were supposed to be doing this run based on the African hunting method.  Nevertheless, we enjoyed chasing them to all corners of the mountain. Before it was time to go home 2.5 hours later.  To finish out the workout we had a blast jumping in and out of the fingers of the mountain.

Some mountains have these finger like projections that are steep at first and create a series of ravines.  Well, we were on a side of the mountain. we hadn't been on before and there were these long, and extremely steep hills jutting out in rows away from the mountain.  We needed to get back down so there was one safe option - traverse.  By going mostly along side the mountain. we could gradually drop down.  The dirt here was really soft so it made for amazingly safe landings.  We could drop down 15ft or so onto a very steep, and very soft incline.  We had so much fun going down this way.  It was like running sideways on a wall and then throwing your body into the air and flying.  It was nice because with the soft dirt we didn't have to worry about the landing, you could just throw your body in the air, pretend you're flying, and then when you land rely on your body's balancing reflexes to make for a controlled landing.  

The other thing I like about these runs is the need to use our arms and hands to scramble up a hill.  This allows for a more upper body and core workout then we typically get with just running.

The best part of these runs though is getting to talk to my Dad.  I always enjoy and learn from his example and his perspectives.

Seriously though - everyone needs to try this type of run- when they're ready.  It is sooooo much fun to bounce, run, and slide all over a mountain.  It's like a roller coaster ride that they serve healthy endorphins on.

Well, that's probably too detailed a description for most people.  Sorry, I Love talking about working out, but especially this kind of work out.

Memories August 2007

Well here are a few pictures that my friend Melissa took for us clear back in August of 2007.  We lost the disc and just found it while packing.  If you want to see more go to my facebook photo.  I am so glad we found these!

18 Months Old!

Well, my baby is no longer a baby,  Taft is officially 18 months old and it went by way too fast!  This is the longest I have gone without being pregnant already and I am actually really enjoying just enjoying my kids!  I had to post this picture because it says a lot about Taft.  Taft is totally a Daddy's boy right now!  He LOVES to be with Daddy and the minute Daddy goes to leaves he runs after him to catch him before he leaves, he can usually even keep him back for awhile, it has almost become a game.  He also always loves to be dirty because he hates his face wiped unless he can do it himself, which means it does not get very clean, as you can see, so I have to make a game out of it.  Taft is seriously just one of the kids now, his favorite thing is books.  He could look at books all day long and loves to take in each new word.  He already know well over forty different types of animals and can probably say at least 100 words.  He talks in sentences too and loves to attempt to put Mommy in her place.  He even thinks he is in charge of the other kids.  It is really fun to watch how well Kenzie and him play and how much he loves to snuggles Alissa!  He loves to tell me no and when he has to go potty.  He loves to dance and can already sing a ton of songs.  He also sings the songs from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  When we went to Arizona in January we watched movies in the car and now whenever we get in the car he says, Moobie, because he wants to watch a movie.  Lately we have been learning people in the family and it has been great to see him learn all of the names of the extended family, he even knows his Aunts, Uncles and cousins names now.  If I had not had Alissa before him, I would be extremly suprised right now.  Sometimes, I think it is hard to believe unless you see it.  I am so thankful to get to have his spunky, moody, loving personality in our family!  

Leaving Our Lives In His Hands

This may seem a bit personal, but at this time in our lives we are going through a lot of changes.  It almost feels as though we are starting over again with no absolute sureties of which direction to go. Ryan is looking for a new job and we are still waiting on ASU to get back to us about the Masters Degree Program.  We are supposed to be moving in a few weeks and the job we had hoped for is no longer available due to the hold in hiring for The Gilbert Arizona Police Department.  At this time we truly are learning a lot of things, but I have to say what I am learning the most is that no matter how in control of your life you think you are, you are wrong.  We are literally at a point where we will be putting all of our trust in the Lord to guide us the direction he wants for our family.  As I look at the temporal changes we are coming upon, the best things are still here, my husband and my children and the gospel.  I am being taught that these are all that really matter anyways.  So, for now we are still packing and praying.  Ryan is still working on his online business and hoping to sell more books in the mean time.  We hope that you are all doing well in this hard economic time.  

What It Is Like To Have An Amazing Mom!

Yes I know strange to post a picture of half eaten food but let me explain.  Ryan and I have now been eating raw for over 30 days and sometimes really wish we had more time to prepare raw meals.  I have been so tired of the same foods and talked about wanting something different.  Leave it to my mom who is the most wonderful woman in the world, she got the Carol Alt book out and brought us this Saturday Night.  It is a raw lasagna that some parts of took ten hours to soak.  As soon as she brought it we could not even wait to dive in it smelled so good.  Now obviously it didn't taste exactly like lasagna and the cheese looking stuff is actually shredded zucchini I believe, but I just have to say it was soo yummy!  She is such a wonderful person and always so thoughtful.  So if anyone would like the recipe, let me know!