The toilets are clean at our house!

Come visit while it lasts :)

Lesson learned... again.

Don't let his smiles fool you. He absolutely hated the "Max-King-of-the-wild-things" costume I made for him. He screamed and cried when I was putting it on him and was mostly rotten the whole time he was wearing it. Just the usual 2 year old on sugar stuff: "No!" "Mine!" and loud sudden outbursts into heaving tears over the smallest little things.

So the lesson I learned (again) in making this costume and the way it was received is about the way people express love vs. the way they feel loved.

I love Nigel.

I wanted him to have a fantastic costume for his 3rd Halloween.

That's about where my expression of love for him stopped. I didn't ever ask him what he wanted to be, because I didn't want to know the answer. I wanted him to wear something that I made him and that I thought was cool.

But in the name of loving my son I made my own pattern for a Max costume. Sure everyone who saw it (mostly on a hanger because Nigel only actually wore it for 20 minutes) loved it, but who cares? Nigel probably would have been absolutely ecstatic to be dressed up like a football, or basketball... "any kind of [ball]" and it wouldn't have cost as much or taken up as much time as Max-King-of-the-wild-things.

I forgot that it's important to put my energy for expressing love into things that will send and actually deliver the intended message. Lots of time in life I spend time, money, energy, and other resources on things that I care about, but don't mean anything to the person it's for. I just do it because I like it and subconsciously wish that they would like it.

To me, part of love means knowing a person well enough to really understand how they feel loved and delivering that kind of love as much as possible.

Next year Nigel can be whatever he wants for Halloween. Even if it's from Costco like every other kid on the streets.

Don't worry. Nigel is still cute.

Or maybe you should worry because he is as cute as he is. This kid cracks me up. I wish we had personal cinematographers capturing every second of his life. Like today when he had been in his bed for 2 hours for a nap that he never took because he was too busy singing and talking and chanting, "BYU! BYU! BYU! BYU! BYU! Kick the football BYU! BYU! BYU! BYU!" over and over and over again.

That's when I got him up to play again because I missed his cute fun-ness.


Also, Nigel LOVES to watch himself run. He's content to watch his shadow or his reflection. He runs in place in front of a really big mirror in our family room and he runs back and forth in front of the big mirror in our bedroom. I don't think it's narcism really. I think he's in awe of the human body.

This is him running across BYU campus holding on to a calzone from the Cougar Eat, checking out his shadow on the way to meet Uncle Ceddie while Grandma Anderson was here to visit. I think this was his first time on campus...
This is a little corner of Beal's School, or what I like to call heaven.
Scout and Lulu never hold still long enough for me to take a good picture so here are shots of all the Beal's School kids minus them.

Nohnny doing his favorite work. Doggies.

Laurel, hard at work spooning little beads from cup to cup and back again.
Nigel. His favorite letter is d, and he really does know what it is.
Maisy, concentrating on spooning marbles into an ice tray. By the way, she carried that tray to the table herself! These little Stevenson twins are the little babies who could. Seriously, there so petite and fragile, but they keep surprising me with their capabilities in Beal's School.
One day when I have more time I'll write more about Beal's School and everything else going on in life. So much is happening and it's all GOOD. I love my life. I love my family. I love my friends. I don't know why I got the best life ever. Now if only Micah would come home so I can go to bed...

PS I found my camera! And then the battery died and now I can't find the charger. Of course.
PPS Nigel really is cute. We aren't kidding.
PPPS

If you're in the market for a used RED MICROFIBER couch

Check it out.

Little Garcon

Anyone can do anything!

Last Saturday I ran in the Top of Utah Marathon in Logan. Last year when I was at the same race cheering for Dad, Catie, and Carlie I was completely inspired and decided that I would run it with them this year.

I started running in January. My first running goal was to run 3 times a week, not even thinking about distance, just getting out of my house and running. My second goal was to run 5 days a week, then 6 days a week. All of these days I was huffing and puffing and cramping the whole time. Then I started setting distance goals beginning with 2 miles.

We started our official training program in February and that's when I started running with my Nike plus. Since then I've gone over 750 miles all in preparation for this race day.

At the beginning of the race Carlie and I were together for probably about the firs 4 miles or so. Every time we passed an aid station I would ask her where the mile markers were because I couldn't find the sign with the actual number on it. She would laugh and say, "Right there!" pointing somewhere I was definitely not looking because I didn't see a single mile marker until mile 10. Intelligent, I know, but I was trying not to care about mileage as much as I was about just being in the zone.

So the first 14 miles are running down Bear River Canyon. It was beautiful, peaceful, and downhill. I couldn't have asked for a better run. When I got to mile 13, practically halfway, I saw that the clock said 2 hours and 9 minutes. I freaked out. In a good way. I was so happy about my pace and I thought if I could just keep that up for the second half, which I knew I couldn't because it was 13 more miles, I could make it under 5 hours.

I didn't train for a time goal. I just trained to finish, but on race day I decided that I really wanted to make it under 5 hours.

So I kept running.

I have never trained using pain medicine or energy drinks or anything, but for some reason I always planned on taking two 200 mg Ibuprofen at mile 13. I think it ended up being mile 14 that I actually took them, but I was glad to have them in my little pocket in my running shorts. I think it's what got me through the HEAT of miles 18 to 23.

In my training program they recommend taking walking breaks every single mile of the race. I started taking walking breaks half way through and it worked out nicely because there was an aid station pretty much every mile the second half of the race with water, gatorade, and oranges. I would walk for 60 seconds, keeping my heart rate up, but giving my running muscles a short break while I drank my water and sucked all the life out of those oranges.

After my mile 23 walking break water, gatorade, and orange were all gone I was trying to figure out how I was going to get my legs to run again. It wasn't a physical issue, it was completely mental. Then I looked ahead and saw Catie!

It was exactly the boost I needed to start running again. I had a surge of energy and caught up to her, especially made possible by the fact that she started walking soon after I started running to catch up. I didn't say her name until I was right beside her in the 24th mile and we hugged and screamed and I welled up with emotion and we shouted, "We are here! We are here! We are here!" in reference to Horton Hears a Who and the fact that we would shout that on all of our long runs to help remind us how far we'd come.

So Catie was physically spent when I caught up to her. She wasn't really in to the race and wanted it to just be over. She said, "Can we finish together?" and I said, "Yes." So we ran together side by side. That's her arm next to mine in the purple tank top.

She pretty much carried me the 24th mile because I wouldn't have been able to make myself run if she weren't right there next to me. THEN...
we saw Micah! That sent another surge of energy through me and I started sprinting up this hill. He was up just ahead from some more of our family....

This is where we saw Callie, Collin, Mom, Nigel, and Michael all cheering for us and it was very motivating. Especially for Catie. I think it really helped her to see Michael and think about being with him at the END.
So then we made it to the 26th mile, turned a corner and saw another hill. We made it up and turned the next corner to see Tine, Covey, Nohnny, and Baby Evy. I felt so positive and supported and so close to the end!

So we kept running. That's us in the leaves of the tree.
Then I turned to say something to Catie and she wasn't there. I looked back and she had started walking. I didn't know if I should leave her or not, but I decided that I should get her and make her run because we only had 2 more corners to turn and we had said we would finish together.

I pulled her by the arm to a run instead of saying don't walk, run. We ran and saw the 0.2 miles left sign and "sprinted" from there.

In my training especially on the 3-5 mile runs I would visualize myself at the end of the race. I knew the last corner turned for the two tenths of a mile and you can see the clock after that corner. I always visualized 3:31 as I turned the corner and then 3:33 as I crossed the finish line.

It's only fitting that my official time was 4:32 because I'm always late for everything.


I was VERY happy with my time for my first marathon ever and my goal was to just finish. I was also very happy to have been able to finish with Catie.
Carlie came around the corner not long after us and then we had a picnic with all of our siblings and our mom.













This is Callie practically passed out on the grass. She had just finished a crazy busy week ending only right after youth conference and cooking for everyone there! We like this picture because it makes her look like some mommy druggie passed out in the park.

It was so wonderful to have the family and friends' love and support whether they were at the finish line or not. Dad ended up not being able to come to the race because their recovery in Baltimore took a lot longer than planned. They are finally home in Texas and being home always makes everything better so hopefully they can both get some much deserved rest!

I started running because of my dad. Many times during the race I kept running because of him. I'm so proud of my dad and of course it was sad that he couldn't run in the race or be there at the finish, but I felt so motivated, loved, and supported by him, really even more than anyone else during all 26.2 miles.

I ran 26. 2 miles!

Anyone can do anything!

Sue and Nigel

Nigel loves books these days. We all love Sue and especially Nigel loves Sue these days because she will read this book to him. It's the kind of book that stops half way through, you flip it over and upside down and start the story again, and again, and again. I try to only read it once a day because it can really just take up a whole day...

We started calling Carlie "Carlie Sue" years and years ago when our family babysitter ended up living with us for a while started calling her that. It has definitely stuck. Lots of times we call her Sue, Susan, Sue Bear, or Carlie Sue Del Papa. The last one came relatively recently from Micah. There was a local politician in Reno running for some office named Frankie Sue Del Papa and how could anybody pass up the opportunity to use that as an endearing nick name?

I also have a marathon to write about. I don't know why I'm putting it off, except right now I'm going to go finish my book club book...