So a lot of little things (one only in size) have been happening lately, all of which have been keeping me away from the computer other than for work.
The most exciting of which is that my nephew is here. Logan Eli Hatton born 5/5/2008 at 12:59 PM. Weighing in at 7 lbs, 9 ozs., & 21 inches long. He is oh so precious. I get to go meet my little Logi Bear on the 29th. I am counting down the days and cannot wait. His big cousins are oh so excited too!!! We have all waited a long time for him, he came in God's time and we could not be more thankful.
I had a wonderful Mother's Day! We spend the morning and early afternoon at church and my kids made me the cutest gifts. They sure know how to make my heart melt! We then went home and picked up Daddy who was waiting and ready to go. We went to CostCo to pick up a magazine rack that I wanted. I love it and really want to go get one more! Dustin also got me a bathing suite. We then went to lunch, and I chose Chuck-E-Cheese!! Who wants to spend their mother's day lunch shushing their kids and telling them to sit still. So we went to the place where a kid can be a kid, and Mommy and Daddy can be kids too!!! Then we headed home and had some cuddles before Daddy had to go to work. We then put on our suits and went out to the pool at the apartment. It was the first time we have used it and it was really nice. It is not very large and gets quite a few hours of sun, so it wasn't too cold. I even jumped in myself. The kids played and played for a couple of hours. Then with only a few steps we were back home and Jayden was in the bath. We ate a quick dinner since we had a big lunch earlier and the kids were off to bed. With no whining since they had tucked themselves out. It was a wonderful ending to a perfect day.
I want to say thank you to my Mommy for teaching me the value of family. Not only me immediate family but extended family as well. You also taught me that, you don't have to share blood to be family. You teaching me those things has helped make me who I am today. It is one of my best qualities and I have you to thank for that. I love you Mommy, more than words can say.
I want to thank my Mom (in-law; just so I don't confuse anyone) for teaching me to slow down and cherish every moment with my family, especially my kids. I tend to get caught up in the tasks aspects of the day to day. You remind me with a few kind words that, that is not what is most important in life. I love you and am so blessed to have you in my life.
These two women help make me who I am and I don't know what I would do without either one of them. I feel like God has truly blessed me with two great female role-models (not to say anything of the males, but it is mother's day, you'll get your Thank you's on Father's Day). Thank you both for just being who you are and making me who I am. I am so proud to call you both my Moms; I can only hope that you are even a fraction as proud to call me your daughter.
A good friend, you know who you are, recently reminded me that it's not only about cherishing the moments with my kids but finding pure joy in them and getting down and having fun. So what if I look goofy. I have always found joy in my children's smiles and giggles, but who says I can't just smile and giggle with them. Being silly is awfully fun and addicting.
Along the same lines, God has been placing something on my heart that I did not want to hear. Jealously and envy have always been one of my greatest struggles. I have always justified in it that they were goals and ambitions, but recently I realize that I was really letting "wanting" affect me. While I would still love to have the things I was longing for, such as being a stay at home mom, I have stopped let the "wanting" keep me from being happy with all of the many blessing that I have. I am learning to "love the life I live", while it is a process I feel like I have come a long way in the past couple of weeks.
I know this blog has been a hodge-podge of everything but if you know me you know that is how I work. If you've known me for any length of time you can probably even follow along with my random thoughts by now. I guess the unifying theme of this email is the strong women in my life. Like my baby sister who has wanted to be a Mommy for so long and never lost hope, my Mommy who is an amazing woman and raised 3 great kids, as well as influenced many many other kids (the countless foster kids), my Mom (in-law) who is an amazing woman and helps keep me on track and listens to y endless ramblings, and my friends who help keep me balanced! I love you all!!! Be proud of yourself, you are amazing women. Let this be a "pat on the back" to all the Mommy's. The work is hard, the hours are long, and we are under-paid but the reward is greater than any paycheck. I will leave you with a quote from Jill Churchhill that I got from a book I am reading "The most important thing I've learned over the years is that there is no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one." For me I am going to leave the perfection up to the Lord, since he is the only one that can get it right anyway; I am going to embrace just being "good".
Again, as written by MY Mr. Wonderful.......
Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series D-7 - Fontana
For the time in over a year, I was able to attend AND compete in a divisional event. This time it was in Fontana, California at Auto Club Dragway at California Speedway. When we were there last time for the Summit Series event I was able to figure out my throttle stop ratio, and was somewhat confident that it was right. We were unable to leave at a normal hour on Thursday, and ended up getting to the track at 1:30am and had to sleep in the truck out in the parking lot. It wasn't so bad actually. We got the car set up in the morning and when I made my first time run, I set up to run a 8.89 and the car ran a 8.88. Thank God, the ratio works. The car was still spitting out water and it was starting to bug me. We found the problem, there was a massive air bubble in the water lines, and so actually there was no water in the motor, which is a very very big problem. We got the bubble out and the motor full of water and it only dropped 6 drops out the overflow the rest of the weekend. In round one, I was paired up against Aaron Kinard, who was fresh off a D-6 win in Boise, Idaho and the current division 7 points leader, but he was no match for me in round one( not really, the weather was completely different for round 1 and I guessed better). In round 2 I raced Don Meziere and was able to get the round win with Don's -.057 red light. Round 3 found me against Gabe Torres, the youngest of the Torres family, which is full of talent. I had a .008 light and was able to back into him at the finish line and take a 8.92 8.90 holeshot win. In round 4, which was the furthest in competition I had ever been, while running super comp was against Rober Naber. He usually finishes the year in the top 10 in super comp D-7 points, and was lucky to get by him as he gave the finish line back to me and I took a .006 margin of victory. In round 5 I was up against Rick Beckstrom. Oh my God, would it be possible to get a easy round today. I was able to pull of another holeshot victory with a 8.91 to a 8.90 .011 margin of victory. I was now in the semi-finals and so happy just to be there with the talent of the people I was able to get by, it did not really matter what happened( yeah it did). In the semis I race Justin Morgan, and I was able to get a reaction time advantage, a small one .029 to .030, and as we got to the finish line I started backing into him, and as we crossed the finish line, my win light did not come on. DAMN-IT. It ended up being a double breakout race, 8.865 to a 8.869 for him. He was .004 closer to the 8.90 dial, so he won. I have no idea where that 8.86 came from. The part that hurts, is in the wallet. I won $300 for my semi-final finish, but at National and Divisional events, they pay contingency money. They only pay to the winner and runner-up, no one else. By my count, I lost out on a minimum of $600 in contingency alone. Oh well, what you going to do? It back to Famoso for Summit series 3, will post that tomorrow.
Update on Dragracing. Dustin is a little behind on his blog. I will update you all with this past weekend as soon as he types it up.
As written by my wonderful husband......
Summit Series 1-2 Famoso, April 26-27, 2008
The 2008 Summit Series at Famoso got started to great weather conditions, high 80's and not a cloud in the sky. Over the weekend we held a 50/50 raffle with the proceeds benefiting the Sgt. Benjamin Portell Foundation, which was started by his wife Michelle and his parents following his death in Iraq last December. The foundation helps the financially challenged kids be able to attend Hume Lake Winter Camp. With the help of my wonderful family, and the support of the great racers at Auto Club Famoso Raceway, and with a few last minute donations, we were able to raise $500 for the kids to go to camp. Thank you to all that bought a ticket and who helped out. Let me tell you, this drag racing thing, it plays with your mind and emotions. Just two weeks earlier in Fontana, I was runner-up after red-lighting in the finals, so one would assume, hey he's on a roll and is going to do good this weekend. HA HA.. if you only knew. Following two good practice runs, the old hot rod decided to crap out on me in the first round. Dialing a 8.28, and racing 2007 Pro National Champion Greg Dreher, the car took off stumbled, and shifted into 2nd gear and ran a 8.70, which of course was no where close to what it should have run and I lost in round number ONE. Sunday was going to be better day, right... NO not really. After making two runs in the morning, the car still was doing the same thing., and now it was blowing water out at the finish line. We played with the transmission, the carburetor and anything else that we could think of, and rolled up for first round unsure of what I had. I dialed a 8.70, because if it fixed the problem, then I could use the brake pedal and slow down, but if it did not fix the problem, there was no way that I could speed it up. When the car took off, and did not shift early like it had, I knew that we had fixed the problem, and I also knew that I was running 4 1/2 tenths of a second fast and needed to kill some e.t. So when I caught the guy, I started playing with the gas pedal, on and off 10 times, and even on the breaks as we went across the strip. I looked over, and no win light was on in my lane. I had run a 8.696 on my 8.70 dial, and broke out by .004 of a second. Not a good way to start the year in points, 2 races 2 first round losses. On the other hand, my brother Jeff, enjoyed his best outing of his career, advancing to the semi-final round where he fell to race winner. I will be posting my results from the Lucas Oil Division 7 in Fontana shortly, and those results will be better.
I feel compelled to stop working just for a moment to type out a prayer for health. Recenly it seems my life has been filled with death and illness and enough is enough. I ask God to heal those around me that are ill and/or injured. And to heal the hearts of those who have lost so many. God has given me so much and I have so much to be tankful for. But that old addage "The Lord Giveith and the Lord taketh away" has been given a new meaning latley.
Dear Lord please heal those aournd me that are ill. Please be with my Grandpa Smith as he goes through chemo for the second time, please be with my Grandma Smith as she helps care for him, please lighten her burden and comfort both of them. Lord please be with my Grandma Baker and she recovers from her sugery. Lord please be with my sister as her difficult pregnancy comes to an end. Be with her & Tyler as they prepare to welcome their son into the world. I pray for an easy dilivery and a healthy baby boy. Lord please be with Dad Harris as his back is becoming worse by the day. Please be with him and Mom Harris as they look over the options and be with them and the Doctors give them wisdom and guidance. Lord please be with all of my Friends and Family as they deal with health issuses, please lay your heavenly hand on them and heal them NOW. Lord I pray for the Portell Family as they are still DEEPLY grieveing the loss of Ben. Please comfort them and draw them to you. I pray that they continue to seek you for strength. I thank you Lord for your many gifts and all that you have given me. One of the greatest gifts you have given me is my Family and Friends, I ask that you be with them, heal them, show them your love. And I pray that I am able to show them your love and compassion as they go through these troubled times. Amen.
Now I don't normally type out prayers through the keyboard but what a great way to make sure I get it all out and now I can come back and say this prayer daily. Please join me in praying for healing for my friends and family as well as yours.
So I had quit blogging for a while and stuck just to MySpace. And while I am still a MySpace addict, I figure why not have a blog spot too for all of those who don't have a MySpace. I will be posting pictures but plan on doing some good old fasion blogging/journaling. Please feel free to read and comment away.
