Took A Little Trip And Took A Little Run

This past weekend Audrey and I got to take a mini-vacation down into Southern Utah, and more specifically Moab. We left Kemmerer on Thursday morning in 30 degree weather and snow, and made it down to Moab around 2:00 p.m. where it was a little overcast and 60 degrees. We stayed at the Riverside Oasis Campground in one of their cabin rentals. When I made the reservation I really didn't have a whole lot of an idea of how big they were, I just knew they were really cheap, and that worked for me!

The "Saloon" Cabin

And instead of saying that it was really small, we will refer to it as "cozy". Once we unpacked our belongings and made the "cozy" little shack feel like home, we headed into downtown Moab to walk around and check out all the shops. Since we were driving all day it felt good to get outside and move around.

Walking along Main Street

Bucking Bronco!

The Bucking Bronco was also a little "cozy".

Friday was a nice relaxing day. Had breakfast at our little nook, and made coffee with our French Press (which by the way if you don't have one of these, you need to buy one right now). We decided to drive around a little bit and then maybe do a little rock climbing as well. Nothing too serious because one of the other reasons we were in Moab was for a race. Which I will get to a little later.

Park in Moab.

On the climb.

Looking back down.

Headed down.

The tahoe!

Almost there.

 After we did some climbing and walking around we headed over to Moab Coffee Roasters for a little coffee. It was a very interesting coffee shop that was combined with a middle eastern clothing store, but the coffee was really good. We both got Americanos. They also had Gelato which looked too good to pass up, and we were on vacation after all. It was so relaxing to sit and talk and drink coffee and not really have to be anywhere else.

The Grasshopper was really good!

Coffee faces?

We were supposed to run the Moab Marathon on Saturday, but it was supposed to be 25 degrees and snowing at the top, not real well organized, extremely windy with gusts up to 40 mph, and we had to check out of our "cozy" cabin by 11:00 a.m. So I knew that there was a trail race on the same day, we called the director to make sure they were doing "day of" race registration and he said yes.
The race is called the Amasa Back Trail Run which is ran on the Amasa Back Trail. Pretty straight forward. The race started at 8:00 a.m. and was nestled in a canyon along the Colorado River. So the wind was not bad and the temps were higher because we were at a lower elevation than the start of the marathon.
The course was amazing! Running along slick rock and technical single track trails. The first 4 miles were all going up and the last two went down bombing along the Colorado River. At the very end of the race we had to cross a river that had risen up pretty high, it was almost chest deep in one place!

"Financial Peace Revisited" By Dave Ramsey

I just finished "Financial Peace Revisited" By Dave Ramsey. Audrey and I are enrolled in the "Financial Peace University" Class that we as a Church have offered to our community, and one of the assignments in the class is to read the book.
We meet every Tuesday night, watch an hour long DVD presentation by Dave Ramsey, and then we split off into small groups and talk about how things are going for each one of us. It has been pretty good so far, and we have a lot of people from the community in the class, I think around 25 family units at least.
The book builds on the principles that Dave lays out during the DVD sessions, and technically we are supposed to skip around to different chapters in the book depending on what DVD session we are on, but I am to much of an a to b, b to c, c to d, person to do that. When I pick up a book, I'm going to read it cover to cover.
I even do this with magazines, to my wife's amazement who looks at all the pictures first then goes back to read the articles that interest her. I have to move through the magazine from the front to the back, keeping my place so I can pick up where I left off.
So, back to the book. Ramsey is a pretty good author and throws enough stories, personal and from people who call in on his radio show, to keep things interesting. The first thought that came to my mind when I decided to read the book was, "Honestly, how is this going to keep me interested?" But, it did for the most part. There were a few areas that didn't apply so I skimmed over them pretty quick.
If you are in a place financially where you don't think you can get out, then you need to read this book and find a Financial Peace University Class where you live, or if you want a better handle on your finances then I would suggest doing the same. The principles and ideas are right on point. The only hard part is implementing them into your life.
So far things have gone pretty well. I think that's because we have the accountability of all the other people in the class. If I was trying to do this on my own, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't last. Also, if I had just picked up the book without all the other information in the class I doubt that I would be in as good a place as I am right now with it all.
So if you want a challenge to change the way you handle your money and live your life, then I would say read the book. If you are not ready to change how you spend money then you would be wasting your time if you read it.

Friday, Funday, Runday - To Me They're All The Same Day!

Here in good 'ol Wyoming we still have snow on the ground. The high temps are in the mid 40's, and it feels like the Cowboy State might actually be waking up from winter. Which means: 1. More races are coming. 2. I get to wear shorts. 3. It's time for a new pair of running shoes. And on that last note Audrey and I made a trip down to our favorite running store, Wasatch Running Center, in Sandy, Utah.

This trip was not just for running shoes. We decided to add as many things as we could into the short time we had for the day (Audrey had to be back in time to work out with two of her Personal Training clients -which I am super proud of her. God has truly gifted her with this talent and career.) So we also went grocery shopping and stopped by Eleanor's Gluten Free Bakery to stock up.

Alrighty, back to the events of the day. It started off at Wasatch Running Center where we tried on at least 5 different pairs of shoes. My choice came between two pairs of Sauconys. The Kinvara and the Ride 3.



 

Saucony Kinvara






Ride 3

 I finally decided on the Kinvara. On Saucony's website they say, "Neutral running shoe that allows your foot to run uninhibited, Lightweight, flexible, Minimal midsole construction with protection from the pavement, and Weight: 7.7 oz.



When I tried on the Kinvara the first thing that I noticed was how comfortable they felt. The upper is almost nothing. Very very thin and lightweight, and the cushioning on the bottom of the shoe felt really good. That might have been the deciding factor of purchasing them over the Ride 3.
Audrey ended up getting the Asics Landreth 6's. A great looking shoe that I think will be great for her. After figuring out the shoes we also decided to get the Pro-Tec Roller Massage. This little baby brings the pain when you have sore muscles. Different from the foam roller, the Roller Massage allows you to pinpoint smaller muscles and really dig into them. Such as your achilles. It also has a rubberized end allowing for trigger point therapy on different areas.

After Wasatch Running Center, we stopped in at Eleanor's, grabbed a quick bite to eat, changed into our running clothes, put on our new shoes and headed out into the 70 degree weather that was amazing!!! It felt like Summer. It was such a glorious run. The mountains in the background with snow still on them, blue sky, sunshine. Basically perfect. The new shoes did great on the first run for both Audrey and I. And considering we are running in the Moab Marathon this coming Saturday (April 9) the shoes being great is a good sign.
After the run it was time for the groceries. We are enrolled in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University Class, and since April 1 is the beginning of a new month we are trying out a new revised budget. So everything is already laid out for the entire month. It is kind of freeing knowing where our money will go and that we have everything already set in place. So the groceries were right on target.
As to the title of my post you can see how it was a Friday, Funday, and a Runday. Maybe this should be a weekly occurance????

Antelope Island Buffalo Run 25k 2011 Photos

The KU Basketball Fan Prayer

Our Father, who art in Lawrence, Hallowed be thy Game.Thy Tourney come, thy Championship will be done, in Houston as it is in Allen Field House. Give us this day, our deserved victory And forgive us our turnovers, as we forgave Roy, who double-crossed against us. Lead us Not into Defeat,but Deliver us from the East Coast Bias. For Kansas is the Basketball Kingdom,& the Tradition,& the Glory, forever & ever. Amen.

Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk
KU!

A Conglomeration Of Happenings

It has been a while since I have blogged about life. And I guess I have been not really wanting to write anything because it seemed like there was nothing exciting going on. But my reason for having this blog isn't to just write about exciting things in life. So here goes with a smattering of things from the past week or so.

I'll start with today since it is the most fresh in my mind. I did something that was a first for me today. I attended a webinar. You know, a seminar that is held on the web, a webinar. When I first told Audrey about it she laughed and said, "They really call them that?" I said, "Yes, they sound very sophisticated, and only sophisticated people are asked to join them." Anyway the really cool webinar was hosted by the Rocky Mountain District (RMD) of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) and I participated on my Acer Laptop (ALP) while I was in my Church Office (CO). Catching a drift of acronyms? (CADOA?) The topic was reaching out and meeting needs in your community. There is a program called Blessings in a Backpack, and the idea behind it is to provide food for the weekends for kids who aren't able to get it at home. On Friday afternoons all the kids who are in the program receive a backpack full of enough food for the weekend. Pretty cool idea if you ask me. And only $80 bucks per kid for a school year's worth of food. This definitely is a possibility for our Church.

I am ready to race this weekend. It has been kind of a weird week for running. I haven't ran near as much as I would have liked to, but I guess that happens sometimes. One of the great things is that Audrey and I run basically all of our races together and we train together as well. And then on the other hand if something happens to one of us, such as an injury, then we join them in their healing process. That being said, Audrey has sustained some foot pain for the past week, so it has hindered our training. We even swam on Tuesday, and if you don't know how much I am NOT a swimmer you can read about it here. I also took today off from any sort of exercise, I felt sluggish and worn out. But that doesn't make sense to me now because it's 2 a.m. and I have a serious case of insomnia. Which NEVER HAPPENS TO ME! So I'm pretty baffled by that.

I am also looking forward to wearing my new trail shoes (Brooks Cascadia 6) farther than 4 miles. Since it is still half snow/half slush, all wet and muddy here in Wyoming I haven't had the chance to take them out very much. My only worry is that I don't get blisters. Antelope Island has quite a bit of sand in some parts of the trail, and if you get a bunch down in your shoes you either stop and dump it all out or you have about 15 different hot spots from all the tiny pebbles.

In Church we are going through a sermon series on Habakkuk. If you haven't read it, you should, and if you have you should read it again. It's a pretty good one. On one hand you can totally relate, because Habakkuk is questioning God with circumstances in his life that don't make sense. But then you get to chapter 3, which we will be studying this Sunday, and doing what Habakkuk does makes it really hard. He says that he is going to rejoice even when he doesn't have anything to rejoice about. He is going to rejoice even when things in his life are going horribly. This is not an easy task. Because when things are bad we want to be down, depressed, angry, and hurt. We don't want to have understanding, or to be rejoicing, looking at the bigger picture of life.

So there you have it. The uneventful things of this week. Oh, I finished our taxes today. Cleaned out our dog kennel, which hadn't been cleaned all winter - let me tell you, two dogs go to the bathroom a lot during the winter. I'm currently reading Dave Ramsey's book Financial Peace Revisited. That's it.

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