Gettin' Dirty for Deb

On August 13th I got to run the MS Mud Run! It was out at the Miller Motor Sports Park. My cousins got the group together. It included (from left to right) Spencer, Andy and Forest in the back. On the front row was Jackie, Missy, Megan, Cassi and I. My mom has MS so my cousins, Missy and Megan, made us these tank tops that said- Gettin' Dirty for Deb, on the back.



The run was set up in two categories. There were people on the competitive run and then teams on the DGAP. We were in the DGAP category, it stood for Don't Give A Poop.
The run was 6.2 miles with 30 military obstacles in-between. No, that is not inmates from the prison sitting on the side. The volunteers wore orange T-shirts. Some obstacles were pretty simple, like a mud bog. The one above was a huge slide into the mud pit. Now you see us...

And now you don't. We all held hands. That backfired because Missy and I crashed on Cassi's ear.
We had to make our way out of the mud and then army crawl under a net spanning a foot of mud.

There were a few obstacles that were really hard. The one above was hard to cross. I tried it two times and ended up landing in the mud. We also did a version of monkey bars. Instead of bars it was rope. Missy was a super tough chic and made it all the way across. She tore a hole in her hand. I made it to 5 ropes, and then fell into the pit and went totally under. Yuck. The water was surprisingly cold. The temperature outside was sweltering, especially since it was out in the desert, so the water cooled us off for about 30 seconds.

We were SO dirty! When we would run to the next obstacle the mud would dry on our legs and it looked like we were wearing white tights. I did face one of my biggest fears on this run. I don't know how to swim. Years, and years of lessons when I was little, and I still don't know how. Well one of the obstacle was to jump off of a 7 foot high platform and jump into 7 feet deep pool of mud. That thought just turns my stomach. Missy and Forest jumped off first. Then Meg and Jackie. Cassi and I went together, but I had to warn the volunteers that they had to come save me if I didn't come back up. They counted down for us 5... 4.... 3.... 2.... and I took a running jump! I did it! I did it and didn't drown! I had mud going up my nose, but I made it out. It was so scary but I was able to just do it and survived. It was strange how strong I felt, being able to face a long time fear.
We crossed the finish line tired and dirty. It was so much fun. I loved being able to do this with my cousins and sister. I am planning on doing it again next year. I'm bringing Lew with me too!
I love to do races- running or cycling. I really enjoy doing races that are for a good cause, like this one. All money raised goes toward MS! And if it can help find a cure, so my mom does not have to suffer from MS, even better. If anyone wants to give it a whirl next year, let me know. The more people, the more fun it is! And thanks to my mom, grandma and grandpa. They brought the kids so they could watch us. I'm thankful for my Sweet Lew also because he supports me in all these adventures, even when it falls on our 12th Anniversary!

Moving Part 1

I got in trouble from Ruby today because I haven't updated my blog lately. Okay, it has been months now. We have had a lot of changes, so I have a lot to post. I think about it every night, but things keep getting in the way. So let's see if I remember how to do this?

I'm going to start back in January/Februaryish. We decided to move. This was a difficult decision for us. We have lived in our home for almost 11 years. I really loved being close to my family. I liked running into people I know at the store. We had a great routine going on.
For the story to make more sense, let me tell you about Lewis. He is very protective and very smart. He has fast reflexes and 95% of what he does is for his family. Sometimes he has a bit of fun. Every once in a while. So things began to add up that we should get out of there.

Examples;

In our neighborhood some of the homes have been becoming rental homes. One house has people moving in and out all the time. When one family was moving out, our neighbors /friends noticed that their missing air compressor was being moved out with the tenants. We noticed that since one of the tenants moved in, we had an increase of homes being robbed in the neighborhood. It happened about every three weeks. One of the families with little children was robbed on Christmas Eve. So we bought a security camera system. At least we would be able to identify the jerks. Every time we left our house we would hide our valuables. I would talk to one of our neighbors, to give them a heads-up about the robberies, and they would tell me it was too late. They had already been robbed.

Around Christmastime we had a guy come to our house on a 4-wheeler. He just sat in our driveway and laid on the horn until Lew came outside. He wanted to buy some tires that we had stacked near the side of our house. We were just storing them for Lew's brother, so they were not for sale. A few weeks later this same guy comes over to our house. It was during the day, so just Zane and I were home. I saw him peeking in our front windows before he knocked on the door. He wanted to know if he could buy something. His English was really broken, so it was difficult to understand him. I told him we had nothing to sell. He asked for tires (they were gone now) and I told him- No., no tires for sale. Well he was not getting the hint and would not leave. So I told him to leave and had to shut the door. Less than a week later this same guy is peeking in our windows again. Well, mamma bear instincts kicked in. I opened the door and told him that he needs to leave and not come back. He argued with me, telling me he knows my husband and that he wants to talk to him. I told him, "No! You go away. Don't look in my windows. Don't come to my house. Go away." He told me no multiple times and would not leave. So I shut the door and ran to our gun safe. Lew has some pretty scary looking guns. So I grabbed the biggest shot gun I could find. I opened the door, cocked the gun and told him to never come back to our house again. He left and never returned. It was disturbing that it had to come to that.

At least once a week we would have the police at then end of our street arresting some one. A few times it was because of a high speed chase. Once it was a stolen truck. We did have a bunch of cops chasing a guy on foot, and then he hopped the fence into the school yard. Once in the middle of the night we heard a loud bang. It was because the FBI was breaking down a garage door. They were doing a drug bust on three houses in the neighborhood. The drugs were hidden in the walls of the garage.

School. Ruby was attending Jacking Elementary. Hey did you hear a kid stabbed his mom in the back? Oh yea, that was a student from Ruby's school. It was a sad situation for the boy that he had to resort to that. One kid in Ruby's class had a problem with exposing himself to the class. When Ruby was in kindergarten the class was in a separate building on campus. When the kids were let out of class the teacher would shut the door and then eat her lunch. We all have to eat. I understand that. But there were kids that had not been picked up by their parents. These are 5 year old kids! They were left out there all alone! So most days we would stay at the school until all the kids had been picked up. There were a few kids that their parents had forgotten to pick them up, so we would have to interrupt the teachers lunch and ask her to call the parents. This became something that we would do every day. Even in first grade we would notice kids from Ruby's class still wandering the playground and we would walk them home. Where were the principals or staff? Oh, they lock the doors after 15 minutes. Not kidding. In the winter the high for the day would be 13 degrees. Remember the week that it was incredibly cold? My kids were dressed warm so not a problem. The school has a lot of low-income families. So a lot of the kids have a sweatshirt for a coat. Some kids would continue to wear shorts in the winter. Well the school would not open the door early for these kids. If the high was 13, it was really cold in the morning. Unbelievable! There are a lot of fantastic, good kids that go to that school, that don't have a good home life, and that is how they are treated at school. It was so upsetting! I fell in love with so many kids there, and I just hope that the school can improve and get them a better education. A few months ago KSL had published the ranking of all elementary schools in Utah. Jackling was in the bottom 10 schools. This just confirmed our decision to move.

West Valley is a great place to live. There are so many wonderful people that live there. But things do happen. And in West Valley, things were, and still are happening too much. Does these things happen every where? Yes. More in West Valley? Yes. If I can do something to protect my kids, then I'm going to do it. There are still a lot of great neighborhoods in West Valley. My street had just become too dangerous. We decided to look into moving...