Sunday Bloody Sunday

On Sunday, I was smart. Rily smart. As I was about to leave for church, I stepped on our air mattress* to get my phone. In my high heels.

We went to church and came back to this sad sight. Is it site or sight? Now we sleep on the couch. So far, I don't mind. You all probably know that I'm an amazing sleeper. I've thought about going pro, but I'm not quite sure how.

Excuse the disarray.

I tried a new 'do that day (a faux braid), and now I almost do this every day. It's so easy that it's pretty much equivalent to not doing my hair at all. But it looks better. From certain angles.

Matt had to go to downtown Austin that evening because one of his projects (Chase Bank) was opening the next day and he thought his superintendent was stressed. Beck and I accompanied him on his voyage, and B wore his Clark Kent glasses that he refused to wear on Halloween

Then he tried on my sunglasses. Upside down. With a finger up his nose. Boys.

He also let me try on his CK glasses. Talk nerdy to me.

*Remember how we're poor? Yeah, we've been sleeping on an air mattress since we've lived here. Neither of us have minded because it's actually pretty comfy. Just maybe a little ghetto...we'll look back and laugh.

Mormonland

Beck, my mom, and I went to Utah for about ten days (Beck's last free trip). We were busy the whole time, and I didn't run at all for 12 days. It's hard getting back into it.

I got some dental work done (and a new fun smile).

 I saw the jungle my condo now has.

 

I painted some rooms in my condo (thank you mom, Kaylene, Grandma #4, and William). Goodbye blue and purple.

  

Beck got to be part of my cousin's son's birthday party and also got a cupcake.

This video is so cute, but I'm not sure if I can make it portrait instead of landscape.

My friends got married. I hooked them up!

My cousin also got married, but I don't have any pictures. I REALLY wish I had a video of my cousin Todd and my mom dancing at the reception. It was goooood. My other cousin goes, "Does your mom embarrass you?" I said, "No, not anymore." He goes, "Well she's embarrassing me."

And now we're back in Texas, meltinggggggg!

Camp Pendleton Mud Run

I almost forgot about this one. This will catch me up as far as races go, and I'm sure there won't be another one for a while. After my half marathon in May, I wanted to keep doing them because I had worked so hard to get to that mileage. After a few weeks I decided to drop to the middle range so it wouldn't be hard to work back up, but it's hard when I don't have any races to train for. (Races in this Texas heat would be murder. No, suicide.) That was a long explanation about why there won't be any race posts for a while...

Anyway, on June 18th, I ran in the Camp Pendleton 10K Mud Run with my family (that's in California if you didn't know). Matt, my mom, aunt, four cousins, and two cousins-in-law ran in it. The girls got matching shirts that said Hirschi Squirts (Hirschi is a family name) on the front and We got the runs on the back. We're a classy bunch.

During the beginning, it was really slow. We were all hyped up when we started the race, the fire engines hosed us down, and then it got backed up and we took pictures and became friends with the people around us. This guy was going to hold my mom over his head like a barbell for a picture, but she got wimpy. She also said she saw my face that said, "Mom dont!" I don't know if I really made that face, but it could be true.

 

we had nothing to do but take pictures

We were fake running here, recovering from the hill we (or was it just me?) ran up. (Preposition fix: The hill up which we ran...?)

Jami got so gross.

While some people (Alex) took this race seriously and swam across quickly, we just leisurely floated along. This was nice.

Jami tackled Lori in the mud.

Jami also tackled Kelly and they had a wrestling match (where everyone cheered). I got tackled too, but there's no evidence.

One of our walls we had to climb over. The first one was easy to jump over, and I thought I could do the second one by myself too. This marine was standing there asking if we wanted help, and I yelled, "I can do it myself!" acting all tough. Then I got to the wall and realized it was taller than I thought, so I said, "Uhhh I think I need some help," and he let me step on his thigh and jump over it. I felt stupid.

Real running this time.

Oops, mud on the lens.

The team had to run through the finish line arm in arm.

All of the runners.

Go Hirschi Squirts!

My feet hurt from kicking so much ass

Ok, here it is. Half marathon. May 7, 2011. Provo, Utah. 8am.

Let's see what I can remember...my mom, Matt, Jared, and I were running it, so we all drove there (from Orem to Provo, not Texas to Provo) together. I was planning on running with my mom, and Matt was deciding whether or not he was going to run with Jared the whole way. We got to the starting line, and we started looking for the pacer for a 2:30 finish. We didn't see it or anything longer than maybe 2 hours, so we were thinking that we were too slow to even have a pacer. But no, we found her. We talked to her until the race started, and then we kept talking to her as we started running. Some chumps took our spots as the pacer's friends, so we just ran behind them until they stopped for water. We didn't need any water yet, so we kept on trotting (with our feet, not with other body parts, if you know what I mean. That comes later.). I knew that as long as the pacer stayed behind me, I'd beat my goal of not taking longer than 2:30. No problem.

So we ran. And ran. And ran. Then around mile 5 I said hasta la vista to my mom. And ran. And ran. And ran. I would also like to mention that I did all this running while holding onto my giant, dinosaur-of-an-iPod from, like, 2005, and I didn't even listen to it. Because we were talking to the pacer as we started, I didn't have my earphones in, and I just didn't want to bother putting them in. We ran through neighborhoods for a while, and I often thought about putting it into someone's mailbox.

I'm trying to think of anything noteworthy to mention between leaving my mom and mile 8 or 9, where Matt caught up with me. The only thing I can think of is that there was a pretty old lady running, and she was going pretty fast for how awkward her running looked. She had to be like 50. Ha, just kidding. She was way older than that. At least 55. Man, I'm a comedian tonight. Oh, another thing I thought was funny was that I passed this area with all these people, and I thought it looked like a place that should have water and all that stuff, but it didn't. I didn't realize until wayyyy later that it was the relay pass-off place. Whatever you'd call that. I was like, "I think that girl just got to the race and came in there." Duhhhhhh. Oh, and these girls were doing the run/walk thing, and it annoyed me, so I was glad when one of us passed the other for good.

Ok, so Matt found me at mile 8 or 9. He told me he was glad to find me because he was getting really tired from running fast after leaving (abandoning) Jared. So we ran. And ran. And ran. And I wanted to stop because I was having my fun intestinal issues that popped up during my training once I hit 8 miles, but Matt didn't stop, so I didn't stop. I tried entertaining myself once after a water station by stepping on as many uncrushed paper cups as possible as I ran past them. Quite satisfactory. Better than crunchy leaves. Highly recommended, but only if you're not running in front of me, because that would be rude of you to take my cups.

Let's see, let's see...I guess I don't remember that much to talk about until we came to the end. There was a bridge that went over the freeway, and we had to run over it at the beginning, and since I was having a really stupid day, apparently, I didn't think about how we'd have to run over it at the end too. I saw that bridge, and I was like, "Oh crap." Just like Peter Boyle from Everybody Loves Raymond, even though they really don't love him. I don't. But I did like Peter Boyle's character. RIP, Pete. Anyway, looking up at the bridge at the end was totes different than at the beginning. At the beginning, you'd look up, and the whole thing was covered in people. At the end, I saw like four people. (Dad, when I write like, I think of you. No Lexus for me.) So we ran up that damn hill. RAN. And ran. And ran. We probably did it slowly, but we ran.

As we came down the other side, we could see the blow up finish line thing. It looked so far away, so I didn't feel excited or anything. Then all of a sudden, I felt like it was close. Really close. And I started crying like a freaking idiot. Not just tearing up, like sobbing crying. I turned to Matt, and I was like, "I'm CRYING!" I knew I would cry, but this just hit me, and I was surprised. So I said, "I'm so stupid! Marathoners can cry. Halfers can't!" So I made myself stop. But then I looked up and saw my friends who came to cheer me on, and it all started again. The stupid sobbing! I covered my face so they couldn't see how lame I was, and then I tried to keep it in. And I did. And I finished.

And that is the end of my ass-kicking story. Because the race then kicked mine, and I went to the bathroom. A few times.

Oh, here are my stats:
1st half: 1:11:12, pace: 10:52
2nd half: 1:12:55, pace: 11:08
Total: 2:24:07, pace: 11:00

Matt's:
1st half: 1:16:59, pace: 11:45
2nd half: 1:07:08, pace: 10:15
Total: 2:24:08, pace: 11:00

before

35

My parents had a bench put in at a big park by our house in Texas, and the bench has a plaque next to it with a dedication to my brother. It says something like, "Brandon Dennis Collmar, April 26, 1976-September 9, 2007, You're forever in our hearts. Love, Mom, Dad, Ryan, and Kari." Today my mom, Beck, and I went to the park to hang out at Brandon's bench. I put Beck on the bench and we tried taking pictures, but he didn't want to hold still.

Uh...almost the exact same weird pose...

This disgusting thing fell on my leg. 

Whenever I read the "You're forever in our hearts" part, it makes me think of the time my mom told me what was going to be on the plaque. I don't remember if I misread the text or if she mistyped it, but I thought it was "You're forever in our ears."

Anyway, happy birthday, Brando! How do you celebrate there?

Blog Boredom

I should update my blog. I guess I'll just go through my camera and show you what's been UP.

In December we (Matt) poured concrete countertops over our existing countertops. They're not quite finished, but here's a preview.

Before, about to pour.

After, but with some imperfections we're (Matt) is trying to fix.

Beck was banished from the kitchen during the process. 

Matt's new toy

Beck was playing with a ziplock bag of fish rocks. They flew EVERYWHERE.

In the hinges. They're still there at this moment.

On top of all the drawers and doors.

I made Hasselback potatoes that ended up being pretty boring for how long they took. More seasonings needed for next time.

Olive doesn't like when Matt holds her up to the ceiling. She holds completely still.