Uncle Dale

This week I am grateful for eternal families and the plan of salvation. My dear Uncle Dale passed away on November 11th. He was 84 and sick, so the news of his death didn't come as a surprise. Even so, it's not easy to come to terms with the fact that someone you love has passed away. It truly is the atonement that has helped me cope with his passing. Knowing that his time on earth was nothing more than a fraction of his life. Knowing that I will be able to see my sweet uncle, with my other family, again in the afterlife. How grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father that understood love and families, and provided a way to make them eternal.

I wish I could express exactly how my heart feels about Uncle Dale. My mother's parents died when I was very young, too young to recollect any memories of them. Uncle Dale and Aunt Lois understood this and filled the void I would otherwise have. They stepped in as my grandparents and treated me as if I were one of their own grandchildren. I have many fond memories of Uncle Dale.

Uncle Dale and me, 1988.

Many summer vacations at their cabin in the Uinta Mountains of Wyoming.

My week visit alone to the cabin and their home in Green River, Wyoming in 1988 when I wasn't quite six.

My visit with my cousins to their home in Thermopolis, Wyoming in 1995 when I was 12.

Uncle Dale and Aunt Lois's visit when I lived in Chicago, 2001.

Our lunch date at Little America when I was passing through on my move to Oregon, 2006.

The thousands of griddle cakes Uncle Dale cooked on an open fire.

The blue jumpsuit he always wore.

The way he always sang.

His smile.

His giant bear hugs.

Uncle Dale with my cousin Collette's kids. I love the smile on his face.

Uncle Dale had a way of making everyone he met and knew feel special. I know that every grandchild thought they were his favorite. He made me feel the same way; I felt like I was his favorite. He always called me "English" (derived from Brittany - Great Britain - England - English). He could light up a room simply by walking into it. He had an unwavering testimony of the gospel. He had an infinite love for my aunt.

I received a letter from Uncle Dale last December that I have cherished ever since. My aunt had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's for a handful of years and the effects of the disease were transparent. Even so, Uncle Dale met this adversity with a positive attitude. The following is an excerpt from the letter he wrote me, describing his feelings for Aunt Lois:

"I am thinking of moving her to another location closer to where I live... I love her so much so maybe I can spend more time with her also. She is doing amazingly well. She knows me and calls me by name. We told the beautician not to color her hair and it has come in the prettiest gray. Not white gray but gray gray, it is so pretty and shinny. It just enhances her looks. I take her for a ride in the car about at least once a week and some times twice. She seems to soak up everything and reads me signs, tells me when the lights are green for go and red to stop. Her health is excellent other than Alzheimer's. She tells me she loves me and wants to kiss me. I love it."

Uncle Dale and Aunt Lois at the cabin.

I can only hope that Wyatt will be in love with me after 60 years of marriage the way my uncle was in love with my aunt. He was chivalrous.

I am looking forward to seeing you on the other side Uncle Dale. I love you.

Marathoner

mar·a·thon·er, noun. Someone who participates in long-distance races (especially in marathons).

In recent news, I have elevated to "marathoner" status. That's right my bloggy readers, I now have two marathons under my belt! "My name is Brittany Wilson, and I am addicted to running." My bud Jen and I dragged our husbands to Chicago two weeks ago so we could compete in the Chicago Marathon. Yay!

When we decided to run the Chicago Marathon, it was already filled. So we had to purchase bibs from people that were no longer able to participate. Jen bought a bib from Brynn (the butcher) and I bought my bib from Nupur. I had a friend draw the above picture, I added the words, made a silk screen, and printed matching shirts!

The Chicago Marathon had 37,000 runners! A far cry from the 800 in our Newport Marathon last year. Oh, and one lady ran 38-weeks pregnant and had a baby shortly after crossing the finish line. And another man died. So yeah, I ran in a race where one life was taken and another was given.

I won't bore you with all the details. Though, it has come to my attention recently that many people are unfamiliar with the ends and outs of a marathon. Notably that a marathon by definition is a 26.2-mile race. I've had many people ask me how far my marathon is/was. Also many people are unaware of how long it takes one (of average running speed) to run a marathon. I've had one person innocently say that they heard I ran the race in two-hours, and was able to qualify for Boston. Yep, that was me, drafting behind the Kenyans... (It's the elite runners that come in around the two-hour mark. The average time (at least for the Chicago marathon) is four-hours and 45-minutes. And my age group (female: 25 - 30) has to run a marathon under three-hours and 40-minutes to qualify for Boston.)

Us, running in the MASS of people. It never really did thin out... even at mile 26.

The Kenyans. I think the winner came in at 2-hours and three minutes. Like I said, I was right behind them. Because I look like I am an elite runner...

By now you're wondering what my time was. Drum roll... ... ... ... ... I was successfully able to shave 17-minutes from my last marathon, bringing me in at 04:02:37. Not too shabby. Especially considering that I was not feeling confident the morning of the race that I would even be able to beat my old time, let alone reach my goal (which was to run a four-hour marathon... I know, two-minutes over! Even so, I'm counting it).

Mile 12. The only time Wyatt and Jon were able to really cheer us on.

I could go on about how we walked the streets of Chicago far more than we should've the day before, how my ankle/shin was sore from all the said walking, how I didn't sleep very well two-nights before, how I woke up at 3am WIDE AWAKE race day and proceeded to stare at my clock for three hours, how I was successfully able to "go to the bathroom" before the race (a stress of any long distance runner), how I surprisingly felt GREAT the first 21 miles, how I peed my pants at mile 24 (yes, while running), how I nearly gave up at mile 26 (who's bright idea was it to add a hill 0.2-miles before the finish line?!!), and how great I felt at the end of the race. Yeah, I won't go into detail...

Another shot of the thousands of people.

Here are the highlights of the weekend:

1. Returning to my beloved city, Chicago! It has been five years since I lived in Chicago and I felt like I had never left. I was GRINNING from ear-to-ear the minute the plane landed.

Grinning from ear to ear!

2. Strolling (and running) the streets of Chicago with Wyatt (just strolling, not running), Jen and her hubs, Jon (also just a stroller, not a runner).

This is what Jen looks like when she's not running. (I thought she'd appreciate this picture.)

3. Absolutely PERFECT weather! Sunny, CLEAR, and warm (the temperature hovered around 75 d's the entire three days.)

4. Visiting with my Chicago friends I haven't seen for years (sad I missed all the others).

5. Running a marathon.

Happy finisher!

6. Seeing Wyatt act as the paparazzi as he sprinted by my side, camera in hand, trying to snap a few shots of us as we passed.

7. Chicago food. It is the best.

Yeah, so it was an awesome weekend. And I'm sure I'll be maintaining my "marathoner" status by signing up for another in the future. Next time, I hope I can come in sub-four-hours. And maybe, with a lot of training, someday I will qualify for Boston.

The marathoners (plus Jon) basking in the sun of a job well done. (About to gorge on some delectable Italian Beef sandwiches!)

The Summer that Never Came

Here it is, August 10th, and we have had roughly 15-days over 80-degrees since the start of summer. 15! And things are looking pretty dim for the upcoming ten-day forecast. I know, I know, I am obsessed with the weather. I'm not going to deny it, I am. But frankly when you've been counting down the days until your favorite season and it doesn't have the decency to show-up, you too might be on the verge of a hysterical break-down.

Wyatt said it best when he said, "Oh, Fourth of July must be around the corner". Because it feels like we're in eternal spring here in the Pacific Northwest!

So for all my bloggy readers that are amidst a heat wave, just take a moment and think of me and my suffering (I'm not being dramatic, I am suffering). Would you rather that your heater automatically turn on in the heart of July? Or that you needed your heated blanket in the middle of August? Because your dreams could come true if you simply lived in Oregon!

Let me just say that my worst nightmare has come true. And that I am still waiting for summer to start as of August 10th. And that La Nina is officially on my bad side. I hate her so much!

PS - I wasn't lying about the heater or the heated blanket. Both of these events did take place in my home this "summer". I feel so sorry for myself that I could cry.

PPS - It's no wonder that no one reads my blog anymore. All I do is talk about the weather... I guess that is what my world revolves around.

PPPS - I was going to blog about how I know of 66 women that have been/are pregnant this year. And how 53% of the babies are boys, 41% are girls, and 6% are unknown. And how April, June, and July were the most popular months to have a baby this year. And how 34% are first-time mothers, 21% had baby number two, babies three and four both had 17% of the pie, 11% had five or more. Yes, I am a nerd and have been tracking the stats in my trusty excel workbook. I know more than 66 women but I got tired of tracking and stopped. That is a lot of babies!

Summer Solstice 2011

Well, I couldn't very well let my favorite day of the year pass without recognizing it. Especially since this is what the forecast was for the day:

And this is what we got:

And this is how I felt about it:

"excited"!

Let me just say, it was a summer miracle! Today would mark the second day in 2011 that the temperature exceeded 80-degrees. That was not a typo people, I did write "second"!

Now I find myself in a conundrum: Am I excited that the summer is here? Hopefully implying that warmer weather will accompany it? Or am I sad because the days will now be getting shorter? Perhaps if I lived somewhere that experienced summer temps pre-4th-of-July, I might not find myself awake at night analyzing the situation.

And for the record, my beloved swim park opened on Saturday (only to close early "due to inclement weather" - people, it has be BAD here! La Nina is out to make my life miserable!)! I've been scratching at the door for so long Wyatt finally had to take the leash off and let me run loose. Despite the fact that he has finals to study for this week, he took the trip to the park with me...twice! Happy day!

Wyatt + Brittany = Love

Wyatt + Brittany + Swim Park = True Love

National Debt Pay-Off

If you’ve had your ear tuned into the news lately, I’m sure you’ve heard that the nation’s debt is on the verge of maxing-out. In other words, we’re about to default on some loans unless we get tricky with the books.

Everyone knows there are two ways to reduce debt: cut spending and/or pay it off. Naturally this triggers a debate on how exactly does one United States of America do this? Who gets the pay cut? Who gets cut-off? Who pays?

My initial thought was to work together. Let’s instigate a national one-time, flat-rate tax. Everyone over the age of 18 pays $5, one time. $5 is doable. $5 is a pizza at Little Creasers, three-hot dogs at Costco, five RedBox movies – surely it’s not too much to ask?! I decided to do the math to see how brilliant my plan was. Vote for me! I’ll reduce the nation’s debt!

SCREEEEEEEEEECH! (This is when my enthusiasm came to a screeching halt…) As it turns out, my piddly $5 per person doesn’t even make a dent! My $5 plan reduces our debt by 0.01%… What the?! It’s not until each person pays $1,000 that we pass the 1% threshold. And the magic number each person can contribute to bail the country from its financial burdens is $57,405. That means a total of $114,810 for my household of two.


US Total Debt: $14,300,000,000,000
US Total Population: 311,383,748
Estimated US Population 18 years + (80%): 249,106,998

After all is said and done, I have decided that I will not be giving the United States of America 57,405 of my dollars to rescue them from the chains of debt. Instead I will offer my two-cents of advice: stop spending money!

Thirty-Three

Happy birthday to my beloved! You are my favorite!


(even if you refuse to share your birthday orange rolls with your classmates in fear that you might receive some birthday attention.)

Ode to Mom

Dear Momma,

Because of you, I am who I am today... and that makes me happy!

Love you tons!
No. 6

PS - Wouldn't you agree that the best is always saved for last?