Gratitude, Sponsored by RRR

I have much to be thankful for, I know that and I often lay awake at night listing my blessings.  On Friday night, as I lay in a sleeping bag under the pavillion of an LDS church in Newcastle, Utah with a bunch of strangers and listened to the thunder and rain, I once again found myself making a mental list of my blessings.  I'm grateful for a healthy body that can run and stay up for all hours when called upon.  I am grateful to share fun adventures with my darling daughters. I am grateful that my girls love and support each other and have a lot of fun memories that they laugh about. I am grateful to live in a beautiful world that has stunning scenery such as Cedar Breaks and the red rock of Southern Utah.  I am grateful for shelter, and a place to rest my weary body, even if it's for a couple of hours. I am grateful for warm showers, or a slip and slid at the end of an epic adventure.  I am grateful for opportunities to push ourselves physically and mentally, and to overcome hard things.  I am grateful that my children have a grandpa that is active and tough and inspiring. I am grateful that my youngest daughter could spend quality time with her grandma while I was gone for the weekend. I am grateful for technology that helped us capture and share these memories with a husband who is having his own epic journey on the other side of the country.  I am grateful for a heart that is at peace and knows that everything will work out.

The Mordue 1/2 of Run, Walk, Crawl: Tahir, Markelle, Karen, Mads, Kelsey, and Dandad

My Beautiful and Strong girls!

Markelle's Hubby at his finest, always so positive and HAPPY!

The Inspiration of our team, Dandad Mordue, age 74

Bringing in Kelsey on her last leg, finishing strong after a gruelling 7.5 miles

Mostly still smiling with only one leg left to go to the finish!

Waiting for Tahir to hand off to me to finish the last 3.7 miles

RED ROCK RELAY, peace out and we will be back!

Summer ReCap

This has been a very interesting and event-filled summer for me, and the Mordue household in general.  When we were in May and looking ahead at the next three months, there was a lot of uncertainty.  As a planner, that is very hard for me to live with.  However, life has forced me to truly live the mantra of "God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to Know the Difference."  Here's what I can change:  I can change my reaction to things that are hard, frightening, new, different.  With that in mind, I jumped into training and participating in the Ragnar Wasatch Back, with a great group of people, including my very studly--yet quiet--brother Matt.  He is a runner on a whole different level than I am.  He runs 100 milers and thinks nothing of running from the trail head to the top of King's Peak and back down again for a training run.  We had a great van of athletes and this was one of my favorite Ragnar races to date.  Thank you, Alicia, for inviting me!  

The hand off between me and Matt, 1st leg:

Our Studly Team right before our last leg:

The Glorious finish line:

The next adventure came in the first days of July, when I flew to New York to meet Kelsey (who had been living there for the summer) and to journey on with her to Ireland and England.  This was a dream trip that we started planning in April, and as I have never travelled without a tour group before, I was very nervous about how things would turn out.  Together, Kelsey and I studied travel books and talked with people who lived in the places we wanted to visit and then we put together an itinerary, booked rooms, rented a car, signed up for mini tours, booked our flights and away we went.  The one thing I was the most scared and nervous about? Driving on the left hand side of the road.  Seriously, I woke up in a panic a few times.  But once we got into the car, turned on the navigation system and made a few practice passes around the parking lot, I was good to go and it turned out to be a piece of cake.  Also, a great way to travel, since we were in control of where and when we travelled.

Our first morning in Dublin:

On the island of Inish Mor:

Overlooking the Cliffs of Moher:

The London Eye:

Stone Henge:

Kinsale, Ireland:

After 2 1/2 weeks of international travel, I came back home to reality of the fact that I had to finish planning and preparing for Markelle and Tahir's wedding.  I had a week at home before we left for a family trip to Laguna Beach, Ca (where Markelle and Tahir were going to be married on the beach) and then we would have a week after we got home to put the finishing touches on the details for the reception.  We went to Laguna with Steve's family to celebrate his parent's 50th anniversary, so we had the Whole Mordue Clan and we made some wonderful memories with all of them. The trip to California was bitter sweet for us because our sweet Ashley and studly Covey were not able to come with us.  We missed having our whole family together, they are both such vital and important people in our family, but we absolutely loved have Adam with us.  He is wonderful and fun and a great addition to the guys in our group! After a week of playing in the water and sand, the crowning event of our extended family vacation was the wedding. 

Markelle and Tahir getting ready to say "I Do":

Our little group:

Our happy family, sans Ashley and Covey:

After getting home from Laguna, we celebrated this cute girls 16th birthday!~

Whew, now the kids are back in school, the feeling of fall is in the air, and Markelle is already planning and preparing for the annual Mordue Halloween Party.  Good-bye Summer, you went by way too fast!

Bright Spots of Sunlight

Although it is 100 degrees outside, I am feeling like this is an all weather day.  One that starts out with all the promise of a bright and glorious day, only to have the dark clouds move in and unleash it's violent storm, followed by the aftermath of calm and sunshine slicing through the dark to help illuminate our path once again. This is a great description of a day in my life.  I won't say that it is a horrible day, because it's not, nor a sad day, because it's not.  It just had some very sad, disappointing moments.  I am grateful to a good friend that felt it important enough to come have a good laugh and therapy session with me over a sandwich. I'm grateful for daughters that either emphasized with me, or created distractions.  I am grateful for an incredible husband who hurts along with me and is my committed partner. What would we do without  human connections discussing the human condition? I am grateful of the crazy antics of my dogs, who will curl up next to me and let me cuddle with them.  I try to look for the tiny miracles that happen in each of our lives everyday, and today those miracles took the form of many listening hearts, whether it be man or beast, and helped me to see the bright spots of sunshine bursting it's way through darkened skies. This may indeed be the miracle that I've been praying for, just not the one that I've been envisioning.