Day 2 (oops!)

I told you I would skips like 10 days!! I’m back :)
Today I am grateful for a healthy body. In school I hear about so many conditions and sicknesses that people can have and every single time I think, “wow I’m blessed!” Sometimes I complain about my body, or how I look, or how my teeth aren’t perfect..I always thought they were until I started Dental Hygiene school :) But in reality, I love my body. I am so grateful that I have a healthy body that allows me to do what I love to do.
Yesterday I ran my third half marathon. It was the toughest one for me, mostly because I only ran once a week to train for it without working out at all throughout the week. I am secretly very competitive. I have a hard time when girls my age are flying by me during races! I pushed myself very hard even though I know my body was not as in shape as it was in my last two races. I ended up finishing in 1:47 which was exactly between my other two race times! So I was happy with it! Sometimes I wish I would just run to enjoy the race. But nope, my competitive self tells me to run till my legs feel like they’re going to fall off. I ran my very hardest and about passed out at the finish line (not really but it felt like I was going to!) Maddix slept at my parent’s house so that she could watch him in the morning. We took advantage of it and went to Cheesecake Factory. You’re probably thinking that I loaded up on carbs right? Close. I ate delicious greasy onion rings! And a big salad that had about 10 pieces of lettuce in it and lots and lots of dressing :) I’m so smart. Brig was a trooper and came early with me to the race to be there the whole time. My dad surprised me and showed up at the half way mark with his video camera. I just figured that that was the only time I would see him, but nope! He showed up at about every 2 miles to video tape me! It was so nice to have someone (especially my dad) cheering me on the whole time! I have the best family.
That being said, I’m so grateful to have a body that allows me to push myself and achieve my goals.
Next up, TURKEY TROT!

i just had to add how hilarious/difficult it is to try to get a decent picture with this little boy. Just about every pic, his face was blurry and mine was not, which means he can’t stand still for 1 sec! Or he would say cheese and then hurry and turn away. Finally we got one!!
 

londons run

this morning brig and i ran the londons run 1/2 marthon. it was about 36 degrees when we got there so we picked up our stuff and then sat in our car for about 20 minutes until at least the sun came out {we played scrabble while we waited :)} when the race started i was just assuming that brig and i would run together the whole way since he has a hurt knee. um..not even a chance. he took off and we were separated at mile…1/2. i was totally fine with this considering he trained hard for this and wanted to do his best..it was just a little unexpected since he has a sprained knee!!! anyways, i tried to make sure i could at least see brig the whole time and i figured that would keep me running fast. nope, lost him on that one too, at about mile 4 {when i had to stop for a bathroom break. dang bladder.} brig ended up getting 1 hr and 36 minutes and he was there at the finish line to greet me about 6 minutes later! {1 hr. 42 min.} i am happy to say that i beat my time from my last half marathon by 10 minutes. i ended up getting 2nd place out of the girls in my age group! my family came to see us after we finished. it was nice to have lots of support :) they also had a sweet reptile display {picture of niece tessa and alligator below}. so basically brig’s knee is dead and im just sore everywhere. we are so glad we did it though :) it felt great to accomplish our goal!
tonight we will celebrate at costa vida :) {they gave everyone a $5 gift certificate to CV!} im excited. oh and ocean blue frozen yogurt. i also celebrated this afternoon by finishing off my 1.5 quart chocolate recess peanut butter cup ice cream that my brother in law & sister in law brought us last saturday. brigham did not eat any of this by the way :)))) oh, and if this surprises you, then you do not know me that well. we still both had to laugh about it though :) {i get it from my grandma, she orders two ice cream cones when she goes to mcdonalds. she inspires me} anyone else have an addiction like this???

  

 
 

life

running. running. running. you probably hear me talk about this a lot. maybe a lot a lot. but i cant help it. i finally started running again after skipping a whole week. you might laugh when i say a whole week..but really. thats a lot when youre training for a race. my body has been through a lot this past week, but im happy to say that im almost back to normal :) saturday i ran 3 miles to see how my body would hold up. that was a heck of a 3 mile run! i thought i was going to fall over. my legs were about to crumble and my pelvis bone was aching {i know..wierd}. so, monday i went and tried 5 miles. after i got past the nasty 3 miles, i was floating on a cloud :) it was the best therapy..it allowed me to take my mind off things. i finally got back to my original speed..we’ll see how the 1/2 goes.
brig has also been through a lot this week. he hurt his knee snowboarding. my dad has been doing some therapy and stuff on it to help it heal quicker but every time brig runs or plays basketball on it, it makes it worse. of course he still insists on running the 1/2. this should be interesting. wish us luck! :)
maddix has also been through a lot this week! both parents injured, emotional mommy, and even through all this he started taking steps! however, it does take SO much to get him to walk. like holding the tv remote, cell phone, camera in front of him. bad news is that he knows the trick..he walks to it and we take it away from him. oh well! he’ll be walking soon enough :)
these guys make me extremely happy. did i mention how good looking they are? i just love them to death!!!

story time

so today was not the best day.

maddix slept a total of like 15 min during nap times today...not okay

walmart was extremely crowded and i only needed TWO things {one of them was needed to make dinner}.

took about ten minutes to exit the parking lot.
on my way home, went to pick up brig from getting his haircut at sports clips {free coupon}
this didnt help my day get any better, he told me the girl gave him a head massage, back massage {not with her hands thank heavens, otherwise i wouldve chopped them off}
and she kept asking him, are you happily married? do you like it? are you sure?
good thing i have a husband that loves to talk about his wifey and baby boy
he just kept talking about us to her the whole time :)
sorry lady, he's mine.

so, i got home, only had an hour to make dinner before brig had to go to school,

but the dinner i wanted to make took an hour and a half to make...

so, i told brig that he would need to be late to school because i was craving this dinner.

{i know, i'm such a supportive wife}

so when i got home from the store, i kindly asked brig to please take the groceries inside....

but the groceries were not there.

i forgot them in the shopping. cart. at. walmart. {second time}

brig asked with all seriousness, "does this happen often? like do other people do this a lot too?"

i didnt answer.

he laughed about it, i didnt

i pretty much thought i was going to die.

there was no way i was going to go ALL the way back {two miles :)} and get those dumb groceries!

{mostly because of the dang crowded parking lot}

{plus i wouldnt have time to make the dinner anyways...}

for some reason, this put me in the stinkiest mood ever.

just ask brig, if i have a certain meal/food set in my head that i get to eat and then i dont get to eat it,

no bueno.

might as well stay away from me. until i find something better to eat or to complain about.

guess what i did to solve my problem?

run.

after my run i was in a great mood and whipped up some pancakes and homemade syrup for din din :)

moral of the story: running solves more problems than you think.

try it out

thanksgiving

turkey trot!!! best way to start out thanksgiving morning {unless you’re brigham..then its turkey bowl}. my family has been running this since before i can remember! in fact, a couple years ago…we won a turkey for having the most popular last name at the race. {meaning out of all families at the race, the LeSueur’s had the most runners.} i was extra excited about running this year since ive actually been running lots. it felt like nothing compared to the half. nate {my little bro} & i ran it together. at the last stretch of the race he stopped for a minute because he was feeling sick & i just kept running because i wanted to see how fast i could do it. once he took care of business, he sprinted the last stretch! i’m such a mean sister, i left him in the dust on his 18th birthday! and beat him by one minute :) i did it in 47 minutes which means i beat my personal record..yay!! my father in law and sister in law were so kind to come watch & babysit maddix, olivia, & gracie!
 
after the race, i went home, cleaned up & got cookin’! sweet potato casserole for the weight party & fruit salad for the lesueur party.. i was not a fan by any means of the sweet potato recipe. sad day. my parents had about 120 people at their house for lunch!!! i kinda have a large family. for the weight side we reserved a church building & ate lunch & played games! very busy, but fun day. maddix was so worn out by the time we got home, which meant he went straight to bed. brig & i cleaned up our ridiculously messy kitchen & then he headed off to his brothers for their madden tournament. katie & reagan came over & we had a girls night :)

yesterday morning i went out to target & to the mall with reagan & katie. maddix got a little tired of shopping after a couple hours..but i did get some cute stuff!! when i got home from shopping, brig had put up the tree, hung the stockings, hung the wall hanging from his grandma leavitt & another wall hanging & put up the alaska bear nativity set. too cute. brigham gets so excited about this time of year. i love it to death. we went to costco to walk around. we ate lots of samples & ended up eating dinner there {delicious & cheap…healthy? not so much}. last year we started a tradition the night after thanksgiving. so this year was our second time doing it! we made monkey bread & watched a Christmas movie together! it was delicious & lots of fun.
tonight we went to costa vida for dinner, stopped by qt for some amazing hot chocolate, then walked around & looked at the temple Christmas lights. maddix loved all the beautiful lights! we had an elder take our picture, but it was ridiculously blurry..& then had someone else try to take another one later but battery was dead..oh well. i’m sure we will be back plenty of more times this season :)

{picture found here}

go see them!!! they are wonderful. makes for a great, not to mention cheap, date night :)

training

so training’s going well! besides the the fact that i have crappy knees and an owie on my hip. my sister in law katie & i wake up at 5 two days a week to run. i dread these days. its a love hate relationship. love to run, hate to wake up to darkness. and saturdays i run when ever i can wake up..or whenever maddix wakes me up. :) the farthest i've run so far is 6 miles. i am proud to say that i beat my record time yay! i was going for 8 min miles but i think it came out to like 8.5 min miles? you do the math. i did it in 52 min. i am hoping to do better than that in the turkey trot though. 5 weeks until the half marathon! i’m excited and nervous. but mostly excited :) my motivations will be 1. to drink a large chocolate protein shake when finished. 2. to wear the shirt around and say that i did it :) 3. to burn 1300 1800 calories in one day {1300 from running 500 from nursing. SCORE!}. 4. to hopefully enjoy a nice dinner out to eat..yeah brig?? 5. to be in good shape of course!
thats all for now.
love, shelby
p.s. did i mention that in 21 days i will be riding the waves in hawaii with my lovely husband? not to mention i get to run a 5 mile & 9 mile there and i am STOKED! and yes, brigham will be joining me for those as well :)

pss. it wouldnt be a complete post if i didnt post a picture of my darling maddix. so here he is with his cheesy, but adorable smile, enjoying the AMAZING weather.