The art of bathing

I realize that this can be an uncomfortable subject because just talking about bathing involves, try as you may to ignore it, thinking of others in the nude. But I'm desparate for some advice. My shower keeps malfunctioning. Every few months I turn the nob and wait for that stream of water and instead I hear this awful vibrating chug-chug-chug noise that means something has, yet again, gone wrong. The "fix-it" guys at Family Housing usually come fairly promptly, but not promptly enough for me to avoid taking a bath at least once a month. I do know how to take a bath just to relax. I don't do it often enough, but I do love to sit in a tub of almost too hot water, add some bubbles, turn off the lights, but I usually take a shower when I'm finished (is that weird?). My question is, how do I take a functional bath? How do I wash my hair, etc., without sitting in soapy water? How do I really get clean? You'd think my experience bathing Jack for over a year would help, but he is so small and I can dump plenty of water on him to make sure he is rinsed off. I, on the other hand, can barely fit in my tiny tub and I never feel clean when I'm done--I feel like I've still got a film of soap all over me. When this happened just a few days ago Jack got quite a kick out of it. He was in the bathroom brining me toys and handing me a washcloth. He also tried to climb in, clothes and all. So, help me out. How does this work? I know some people actually prefer taking a bath, so share your techniques.

No autographs, please

All it takes is a little slacking on my upkeep of the blog (okay, maybe more than a little) for me realize how incredibly popular I am. My public is clamoring for my return to the blogging world! So, for all seven of you out there, here we go (this is long, but I do get to the marathon eventually):

CHAPTER 1: Christmas

I know. Christmas seems like a distant memory now, so consider this a "throwback" entry.

We traveled to sunny Texas on Dec. 23rd, anxious to leave the snow and even more anxious to see Chad's family. Chad hadn't been on a plane with Jack for over 6 months. I kept trying to explain to him how difficult it was getting to keep him relatively immobile for 2+ hours, but he didn't quite understand. In fact, Chad was convinced that Jack was fit for a much longer plane ride. Let me explain. We have some friends going go China for a few months in the spring and they really want us to come and visit them so we can see a little of China together and then maybe venture to Japan (where they are from). I told Chad I thought it was a great idea if we felt we could leave Jack for a week or more. He insisted that we should bring Jack with us. This flight convinced him otherwise. Not that the flight was incredibly arduous, it is just too much for the little Jack man to be still for that long.

The weather in Texas didn't disappoint. It was a little bit cooler than it has been in past years, but I didn't mind that at all. The sun was shining and we could enjoy being outside. Steven and Janet took great care of us. Their home looked beautiful and we were definitely well fed.

I wasn't sure how Jack would react on Christmas morning (he wasn't really that into opening presents on his birthday) but he quickly learned the art of ripping wrapping paper. He was really giddy to see all of his gifts. It truly made the morning magical. Such a sweet boy!

CHAPTER 2: Other fun stuff we did

Though we did our fair share of lounging (and Chad spent many hours working on his job paper) we had plenty of fun activities over the break.

We celebrated Holly's 17th birthday on Dec. 24.

We hung out at the park.


The girls went shopping.

Grandma (GiGi) and Grandpa entertained Jack with a bubble machine.

Jack also developed quite a bond with his Grandpa. He really loved hanging out with him. It could have been that Grandpa fed him chocolate chip cookies almost constantly....no, couldn't have been that.

The guys set off fireworks on New Year's Eve.

And we celebrated Grandma Fitt's 75th birthday with a great dinner and a boggle tournament! Jack really got into the dice rolling. A little scary that he already copies EVERYTHING we do.

CHAPTER 3: The Texas Marathon

The time finally arrived! After 18+ weeks of training I wasn't sure if I was ready, but ready or not, the marathon came. My great friends and running partners Jan and Kiersten flew to Texas from Michigan so we could run our first marathon together. They arrived safe and sound on Dec. 31. Jan has a sister who lives in Dallas, so she and her family came to witness the event. We spent the 31st trying not to be nervous, playing Guitar Hero (how did I not get a picture of that!) and carb loading. We all turned in early and I slept surprisingly well. It was really nice that we were less than 20 minutes from the race site so we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn.

The morning was pretty chilly by Texas standards--about 40. The 300 or so runners were gathered at the park where the race began. I could tell many of the runners were experienced. In fact, a good 10-20% had shirts from the "50 States Club." To be a member, you have to run at least 10 marathons in 10 different states, and most of them had run many more than that. Before the race began we all gathered for instructions and they asked how many of us were first-timers. I think it was a max of 15% of the group. Many of the runners were using this as a training run for the HUGE Houston marathon that was 2 weeks away.

And then we were off. One of the many positives of this race was that our names were printed on our bibs. That meant that Kiersten and I, with Jan politely putting up with us, were greeting (read: yelling, cheering for and being crazy to) everyone we passed. One of the negatives of the race was that it was a four time loop. Well, the organizers advertise it as a loop, but it is really an out and back, meaning that we covered some parts of the course eight times! That also means that we saw the same people over and over again. The first two laps were fantastic. We did wonder why other people weren't cheering each other on as enthusiastically as we were (by the end of the race we realized that they were saving their energy), but we had a great time. We kept a pretty good pace, though the wooded path we were running on was wreaking havoc with our watches. Kiersten was worried that we were going a little fast, but we were all feeling good so we decided to keep it up. We met so many fun people along the way. One guy had some colorful commentary about running with the "three virgins," we met a fellow Mormon, we even met a guy who had run over 100 marathons. The scenery wasn't quite Michigan, but it was really beautiful. We ran along a park path past huge homes, a lake, and part of a golf course.

By mile 13 Kiersten the speed demon decided to pull ahead. Jan and I were still feeling good. I was feeling pretty confident until about mile 20. I've heard about the wall, read about the wall, I even thought I had experienced some of the wall, but I wasn't prepared for truly hitting THE WALL. I told myself that I would really push it at mile 23, but by that time I felt like a goner. I can't really describe the feeling except that I couldn't will myself to go any faster than I was going. I could barely will myself to put one foot in front of the other. I haven't yet mentioned the only serious con of this race, and it is a big one: this beautiful park path we were running on is CEMENT. The pounding was getting painful. I started taking a few walking breaks and Jan knew I was hurting. She was hurting too, but she pulled me through. She was an amazing motivator. We were both starting to get emotional and we knew that these last miles were going to be beyond tough. We'd take a short walking break at an aid station and then she'd say, "You see that tree up there? When we get there we are running. Don't give up, you can do this!" Next time I wanted to stop she'd say, "See that tree up there? Remember that trick Kiersten taught us? Pretend that tree has a rope around it that is pulling you toward it." At one point I told her she could go ahead and she said, "We've come this far together, I'm not leaving you the last three miles." She swears that she couldn't have gone any faster and that her cheering for me was helping her, but I'm not sure I believe her. My chance to return the favor came during the last .2. I finally felt like the end was in site. I certainly couldn't push much, but I wanted to push. At that point Jan was FINISHED. She wanted to stop more than anything and I just kept telling her that she couldn't and that we were going to finish strong. You probably can't see it in the pictures, but we were concentrating with all of our might to finish this race AND WE DID!!!

Kiersten crossed the finish line at 4:14 and Jan and I came in at 4:30.

Crossing the finish line was more emotional than I had imagined. I shed a lot of tears. It was, surprisingly, one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. My mind and spirit had to overcome my body, but I couldn't have done it without my family and friends. The first thing I actually said, tearily, was "that was harder than childbirth!" Now I think I was being over dramatic, but I should probably trust in the feelings I had in those moments right after the race. It is hardest thing I've ever done.




Thanks to everyone for cheering for us! Chad's sisters, Kelli and Holly, made such great posters. Kelli was especially helpful watching Jack while Chad came to different points along the route to give us ibuprofen, Icy Hot, etc. And a big thanks to Steven and Janet for hosting Kiersten and Jan.

As a true testament to my new addiction, I'm registered to run the Traverse City, Michigan, marathon on May 24th. I've officially lost my mind.