Rest in peace, sweet cousin

Last Friday night, the 20th, my sweet older cousin passed away. She was 33.

That's why this past Friday night found me on a plane to Spokane with Dave to be there for her service yesterday. My wonderful husband decided we should fly, in spite of the outrageous expense. I am so happy we did, and that I was there. I knew it was going to be a hard day, but it was beyond what I expected. It was so sad, and so hard to remember how difficult Theresa's life was. It was great to have the opportunity to be with the family, and say goodbye to our first lost family member together.

Theresa had pretty severe mental and physical disabilities. She was mentally retarded and had some emotional problems as well. She always had some mobility problems, but in the past year and a half, she had to live without a hip. They botched her hip surgery three times - well, I'm not sure the hospital should be blamed, but the end result was that sweet girl had to live without a hip.

At the funeral yesterday, Theresa's family shared some special things about her, including how positive she was about life. When I think about her life, I think it was brutally hard - and how unfair it was that she had so many bad breaks. I think she knew how much everyone loved her though, and she was so full of love for everyone. In spite of all the bad things that had happened to her, she was so certain that everyone was good, and rejoiced in the little things. While she may not have been able to live life to same fullness that many of us get to, she was able to enjoy her world.

I hope her heaven is full of hugs, angels, and all things beautiful and delicious. She deserves it.

Mt Si Relay

Last Sunday, I participated in the Mt Si Relay on team Dae Han. Here are some things I learned:

• Watch Best of the Best, just do it.
• Running while on antibiotics BLOWS, and I would still consider myself sick that day
• There are more than 13 versions of the song "Wuthering Heights" and the Houck brothers consider that pump up music. It's not. 
• It is possible to listen to the same song, in 13 different versions ALL DAY and mostly stay sane
• The Houck's consider vomiting at the handoff the only indication that you have worked hard enough
• Being in first place when you take the handoff and subsequently losing that placement really sucky
• Everything with the Houcks is a contest, including chugging Guinness
• I am a better beer drinker than Brian

We came in second place overall, but first place in the mixed team division!

Happy, tired and sore!

It was a super fun day, and I hope I am invited back on the team next year! The event isn't just a relay - there are people who do a 50K or a 50 miler. They are insane!

The order was:

Total	min/mile
Scott	06:32.0
Brady	06:47.4
Elizabeth	07:17.9
Brian	06:23.8
Heidi	07:41.0

(I was super pleased I was a lot faster the girl who I replaced. She ran an 8:05 pace last year. You always want to be an upgrade ;))

I think I could run a lot faster if I wasn't still sick and on antibiotics. I averaged 7:17 pace over my two legs - 5.7 and 4.1. The first leg was almost pancake flat, and we were in first when at the handoff. That changed about a mile into my leg - when we moved to 2nd. At about mile 5, we moved to third. Both those other teams were all male, so not in our division, but still. The one Husky Runner kid was mad fast. I threw up at mile 2, and at the end. In spite of my regimen of pre-race immodium, my stomach was completely ick. (When I texted Dave to tell him how we were doing, and the vomiting, he responded that he was making breakfast. He loves me.)

The Houck's brought us back into first, and then Heidi unfortunately got passed by one of the Husky runners as well. (I was so excited to meet Heidi - she's super fun, nice and a great runner!)

We were in first by 4 minutes when I started my second leg, which was 2 miles up the Iron horse trail and 2 miles back down. Ouch. I am not the world's best hill runner, and my hip and hammy were acting up after my first leg. I was passed by that fast mo-fo at mile 2.25, and he put 2.5 minutes on me by the time I handed off. (That other team that had passed us during my first leg had imploded, and were no longer a concern.) Brian managed to pass the husky team's next runner, but not by much, and we ended up in second place overall by only 86 seconds. We were the first place mixed team, though, so we got award mugs!

Winner mugs and beers to go in them!

Thats when the beer drinking started. The Houcks were chugging Guinnesses, so of course I joined them! how could I not? That results in some ride home shenanigans which may or may not have included public urination. I mean, don't these guys look like trouble?

In spite of his expression, Scott is not a serial killer.

Best of the Best - and Brownies on a Saturday Morning

After a week of being sick - a solid week at this point - I am OVER IT. I haven't gotten to run all week, this cough is making me crazy, and as much as I complained last week about never being home, I am now sick of being home. (Careful what you wish for!) It would be different if I had the energy to do stuff like redecorate or whatever, but I don't. And I have races looming - it's freaking me out! I was really hoping to PR at the Cinco de Mayo, but my fitness isn't where I want it to be, and a lost week of training isn't helping my confidence. Also, I NEED to get out on my bike before Oliver, and the weather's been totally beautiful.

Also, why do I have to feel so gross about myself while being sick? TOTALLY UNFAIR.

Whats looming even bigger though, is the Mt. Si Relay. I was recruited by Brian and Brady Houck, who are nuts. They seem to think I'll be some big asset to the team, but with my aforementioned lack of running fitness, I am concerned. It's next weekend, and I am still hacking up a lung. That's not why they are nuts. They just are. And also, they are obsessed with this 'Best of the Best' movie, which was produced in 1989, and is actually horrible. (It's some kind of world championship MMA movie, but the only two countries competing are USA and Korea. Where are the rest of the teams? Were they eliminated in some other competition? And if so, why isn't the US using the same fighters they previously used, rather than this rag tag bunch of misfits?) It's a beautiful Saturday morning, and I am watching the movie for the second time. Tagline: 'A Team is not a Team if they don't give a damn about each other'. It is AMAZINGLY bad. I foresee many bad quotes in the van next weekend at the relay, and since Dave's seen it now, in our Ragnar van.

Since I haven't had an appetite all week, it's time to make brownies, because why not? :) Maybe I'll feel up to running later?! I hope so!

I really thought I'd be better at this...

I'm not kidding. In the past 3ish weeks, I have so many fun things happen to blog about but haven't!

Let's see...

I went to the Trophy Cupcake Easter decorating class with my sister and Ms Harmony. We got to decorate cupcakes with the wonderful and kind Jennifer Shea, owner and founder of Trophy Cupcakes. It was AWESOME. We got to decorate cupcakes, have snacks and  champagne and hear the story of the beginning of Trophy. We learned some awesome secrets that I can't wait to try in other seasons. For example, they cookie-scoop (yes, I just turned that into a verb) icing onto a cupcake, and then, for those that are covered in sprinkles, coconut, or other awesomeness, they just turn the cupcake over and press the frosting down using the sprinkles. It really is GENIUS! The high-hat cupcakes, which are their special Easter tradition, are the tall, chocolate dipped ones. Although it was scary to dip the frosted cupcakes in the chocolate, no one lost their meringue in the chocolate. ;)

IT SNOWED on March 31st when I went to the team run on Cougar mountain... SNOWED. It was almost April! It was nevertheless a fun run with fun peeps, but still. SNOW. (Which was better than the rain when we got done.) Check it out!

My shoes are still on the porch. I hate throwing them out, but they are older, and COMPLETELY caked in mud!

I also turned 32. I have been celebrating all week - my Birthday was last Wednesday, and Dave and I celebrated by going out to dinner. He got me some really nice presents (a Kinect YAY for dancing!!, and a super fun summery Valentino purse - can you say spoiled?!), and it was fun to have a night out together! The previous Sunday, my sweet friends and training buddies, Vicki and Teresa, took me to dinner at Black Bottle (YUM!) and then Vicki took me to the Hunger Games :D On my Birthday day, Teresa took me to get our nails done, which is always fun, and my team made me drinks and snacks at work. My sister had even sent me flowers, so everyone knew it was my birthday! :D

They even remembered my love of peeps! Champagne cocktails AND peeps?! What more could a girl want?

On Friday, Nicole took me to Happy Hour to celebrate, and then Dave set up the Kinect and we Dance battled - after applying the trophy decorating skills to some Easter Cupcakes Jessica brought over!. :) Saturday night was more dancing fun, and after a long run on Alki on Saturday morning (in absolutely beautiful weather - such a difference from the prior week!! - and a team swim on Saturday, I was done in! More dancing ensued on Saturday night, and the Easter bunny brought me a head cold on Sunday. :o/

Easter was a lot of fun, anyways though! Although I did miss my long bike ride and t-run due to feeling like death, I did get a lot of fun family time! We had brunch with the extended Martin clan on at Caroline's house - and she always throws a mean party. The attention to detail is always FANTASTIC! down to little fresh flowers, and decorated eggs forming the table runner. I made Monkey Bread and Bacon in the oven from Allrecipes... And neither turned out all that great, which is always a disappointment. I had tried to save time by cutting the buscuits and rolling them in cinnamon sugar the day before (so I could complete aforementioned long bike ride).

Next, it was off to the Ullstrom's for more Easter fun - we had 'Easter Happy Hour' which was a great idea! My family is all about the snacks anyways. :) No one ever goes hungry chez Ullstrom. I like to say we 'love with food' and I think it really is true. There was also an egg toss, where Dave was sorely disappointed in my lack of 'soft hands' (we were the first ones out!). My family also bought me a Soda Stream (which I am already in love with - we drink so much sparkling water!!) and some gorgeous brown pearls.

Here's our Easter spread:

You can see the cupcakes we tried our Trophy skills on, and  my mom's lemon lamb cake! No one went hungry, that's for sure! 

And here's my necklace from mom and dad: 

Did I mention how beautiful it was this weekend? I got a little pink from sitting in the sun on my parents deck! It was the best :)

So... I'll try and be better at this, but I'm not making any promises... And since I think Rachel is the only one who reads this bad boy, she and I can just talk ;)