Mike's Marathon

Mike ran his 1st marathon in September (I know I'm very behind). He has been training for several months-- all through busy season. He would come home at 9:30-10:00 p.m. and then go upstairs and jump on the treadmill. He is amazing. So finally in September he was able to show off all his hard work at the Top of Utah marathon in Logan. It was incredible to see our families come and support him. Mike's parents drove all the way from Vernal and stayed the whole weekend. It was so fun to see them, eat out, go shopping and just talk. It ended up that now that we live in Texas to be one of the last times we were able to spend a lot of time with them-- so we were grateful for the time together. My family also gave up their entire Saturday and came up to cheer him on and enjoy a celebratory lunch. Our families are awesome!! 

It's late and I've been unpacking, hanging, opening and cleaning our new Texas home for the last 8 days straight (if I see another cardboard box I think I might snap)... so I'm giving up on writing more about his marathon today. Laziness? Possibly. Or just pure exhaustion. Either way, I hope you all enjoy the pictures and the quick captions.

  Dustin & Jeffrey. Like my sign? It rhymes. :)

   The whole gang waiting for Mike.

This is with only about a half a mile to go-- you can just feel the pain that all the runners are in at this point. I started running with Mike at this point and tried to encourage him.

 He's almost there! I'm running off the right (families have to stay out of the final stretch) and yelling loudly encouragement. :) 

  Can you feel the pain?!

  We sure could! This is mom and Marisa's "this is how we would feel if we ran 26.2 miles" look.

  Our AMAZING family who came to cheer Mike on! I LOVE this picture but hate that the picture taker didn't tell us that Alys was barely visible back there with her head poking over Mike's shoulder!

  These are three remarkable people-- I love Mike's parents and of course can't think enough of them for the fantastic man they raised. 

Mike finished in 4:06! Pretty incredible marathon time for a 1st timer, eh? Yeah, I think he's pretty amazing too. I hope one day to have a picture of the two of us at the end of a marathon again-- maybe with me wearing the medal? Ok, maybe a half. ;)

Before & After

Since we decided to move to Texas (see below post)... I am in a fast frenzy to get our current home ready for us to leave. Below are some fun "before and after" shots of the guest bedroom. For those of you not aware, these pictures are from our town home which we just moved into in February. We are going to keep it as an investment property (which was the original plan anyway) and rent it out when we move to Texas.

Before

After

So these pictures don't really have great lighting and they're taken with my phone... but basically I took the ugly pink and brown striped wall with tan walls and cream moldings TO light grey walls, white ceiling, white baseboards and white doors (can't see here). Really, it may not look like much in the pictures but WOW it took forever-- at least a week. The brown stripes must have had 10 coats on them because they were 3D. It was hours of sandpapering, patching, cleaning, sandpapering, cleaning, painting, painting, taping, painting, painting... you get the idea. So I can't help being a little proud. Now that I'm moving onto our Texas home JUST as we finished renovating this homes... I am going to post some pictures on here of our beloved town home we are leaving behind. Look for those soon!

A Recant & an Announcement

So... the last post I put on here was about going private. I really had every intention of doing that-- especially with warnings from my friends about having personal information online and public. Truthfully, I still feel that way- it makes me a little nervous. However, a LOT has changed in the last month and now I feel like my connections, even my internet ones, are suddenly very important.

So as many of you already know from Facebook... Mike and I are moving to Texas at the end of October. We have always wanted to live out of state and have explored opportunities in different states in the past. We both wanted to expand our opportunities and have an adventure. So just about a month ago, we made a big decision. A decision to move our family, change our plans and head 1,200 miles east to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Mike will be transferring to the Deloitte office in Dallas and on a surprising twist...I received a job offer to work at Cook Children's Hospital! I never imagined us living in Texas-- most especially because we just moved into our town home in February. I love it so much here (we just finished renovating!) and life is good. We have been trying to start a family and things were smooth sailing. About a week or so before we found out about this opportunity I turned to Mike and said, "I don't want to move for another 5 years at least. I love it here!" Heavenly Father must have been listening because just as I was feeling comfortable... there was one gigantic push that turned all our "plans" upside down. Isn't it funny how life works? No matter how much we plan, or don't plan and assume that's just how life will be... it always ends up surprising us.

So here we go... one step forward into the unknown. I have to say, now that I've had some time to digest everything... I am SO excited! Psyched to meet new people, move into a new place, start new jobs and experience a different life. It's almost like starting over and with that comes a certain level of challenge and adventure that we can't help to anticipate. So here goes... we are up and moving from our roots, family and friends. And even though we are incredibly sad to leave them we feel like this is what the Lord wants for our little family. Because of that, I am hoping to keep this blog open (and hopefully updated more often) and this really GIANT adventure we are starting on. I apologize for the private/not private fake-out. Hope you'll still stick with us and see where this journey leads!

Going Private

I've seen many people go private on their blogs over the years. Frankly, I've never felt the need. I understood why others chose to, especially with children, but I didn't think I'd want to do it. Mostly because I know what it's like to find a blog and follow it-- whether you know the person really well or not. I hate being blocked out by that private notice. Total hit to the blog-stalkers, right? :) However, the day I didn't think would come for awhile (at least until I had children) has come. I've been thinking about it for the last couple of weeks. Thinking about how personal my posts often are. I want to be able to disclose personal thoughts, feelings and information about me on this blog because lets be honest-- this blog is mostly for me (just like everyone's blog is mostly for themselves). Yet, I've recently realized I'm not sure who is reading these very personal feelings and I'm just not very comfortable with it. SO... here we go. I'm jumping on the private bandwagon. Please if you want to read, occasionally look or just be included... let me know. I'm not trying to cut anyone out that I know. I just want to know the people I include! :) Either comment or if you feel more comfortable...send your email address at megan.g.mansfield@gmail.com and I will do whatever magic bloggers do to make you able to see but make us private. ;)

So thanks for your understanding! I hope you choose to continue to read-- it's not nearly as fun if no one reads your rants, romps and raucous. So here's to that--happy reading! :)

Rafting the Green

A couple weekends ago we were finally able to go home to visit our family in Vernal. I love going to Vernal! It's alway a fun getaway with lots of activities, family and laughs. This trip out we did something we've never done before-- raft the Green River! I was so excited because I've never rafted any river, ever. Amber and Thomas get the credit for coordinating this excursion and I am impressed with how quickly they planned it and we carried it off. Let's hear a wahoo for new adventures. Check out the pictures of our rockin' fun day!

Love being outdoors! This is us getting ready to launch.

We had a little picnic lunch at the push-off site.

I think these monsters are ready to get rowing...

Sandwich, anyone? :)

Baby Max

We are rocking the shades and ready to rock the river.

Off we go!

Kameron & Ben

What you doing allllll the way back there boys?

My boy- oh how I love him.

Chloe & I!

Look how beautiful this is! Floating on this scenic scape was serene.

Kameron, Stephanie & Ben. Once in our raft we caught a rock, steph fell forward and knocked Ben out of our boat right into the rapids! He did a great job at staying calm and pretty much went round and round till the next boat got him. That was about as much excitement as we saw that day.

Raft #2. Big Mike literally had bloody blisters the next day from rowing so hard.

Wyatt took a few dips in the river. This time may or may not have been my fault for not getting a bottle throw quite to him in the other boat.

Alys & Chloe

It's a rafting train!

Boat #3

Abby working hard...

Maddox at the end of the trip

Abby resting from her hard work

Brinlee playing frisbee

I just thought this picture was so cute of Chloe frolicking in the water. ;)

WE LOVE OUR VERNAL TRIPS AND LOVE OUR FAMILIES!!