Sunlight after the Storms

May 22, 2011 

Dear Jared,

Is it still raining in Indiana? We have had six days of rain and one sunny day. One morning at 3 am it was raining and it turned into hail. It was so loud it woke every one in the house up. There was crazy lightning and thunder. It made me wonder how you were doing, being out in the rain all the time. This has been the craziest weather.

Taylor was ordained a Priest today. Can you believe your little brother is getting so old?

Taylor and Dad went test driving a sports car yesterday. It was an Audi TT. Cute car. It was like driving a rocket. I think it's a bad idea to get such a speedy car. We can't afford all the speeding tickets. I think Dad's in love. Oh, Taylor is too.

Yesterday was the Ogden Marathon. Sherisse, Laura, Jeanette and I all went. We had to leave home at 4:00 am so that we could be on a bus by 5 am in Ogden. We were bussed to the start line where we waited for an hour and a half for the race to start. Laura and Sherisse did the full, Jeanette and I did the half. Our goal was to run the entire thing, no walking. We did it! That is such a neat feeling of accomplishment. Jeanette and I hugged and cried after we finished. It was a  pretty emotional experience. I waited at the finish line for Laura and Sherisse and watched as other runners came in. It was interesting to watch. As soon as the runners crossed the line and stopped running, some started throwing up, many of them collapsed and were caught by the medics, a couple of them collapsed on the ground unattended and were rushed off to the medical tent. One girl made it almost to the finish line  and passed out. She did a face plant on the pavement right in front of Laura. It's amazing how people can push themselves that far, where they have absolutely nothing left to give.  Crazy! Anyway, I'm thankful  that was the one sunny day last week and we didn't have to run for hours in the rain and I'm glad to have that behind me because we have a 100 mile bike ride coming up in two weeks. I'm really excited for that one.

Run your marathon, Jared.  give it your all. Don't walk. Push yourself and give it everything you have. When you cross the finish line exhausted, you can come home and rest and know that you worked as hard as you possible could.

No regrets!

I love you,
Mom


Dear Mom,

The rain has mostly quit and the sun has come out this week. We've had a couple short storms though. The thunderstorms here are LOUD.

It's weird to think how old Taylor is getting. By the time I get back he'll almost be done with High School.

I look forward to seeing an Audi parked in the driveway for me when I get home. It'll be great to have something with a little more power than the Ford Escort.

My companion's a little jealous about you running the Ogden Marathon. He misses running. A few weeks ago there was a marathon ran all through Indianapolis that ended in the Indy 500 track that he wanted to run, but he couldn't because it wasn't on Preparation day. Speaking of Elder Moore, he got some shocking news this morning. First thing in his email from his parents he got told that they'll be moving to Seattle in a few months for a new job. His reaction was pretty funny.

Other than the news of the move, this week's been great for us. We set two baptismal dates for next month, and we're hoping to set two more this week. Our area's doing great. We've been having lots of success in our "marathon". At this rate, we're running like a two minute mile. Time is flying by.

Love, 
Jared

PS Thanks for the package!