Happy 2012

Another year is rearing its head for us to ponder about. It always seems a bit silly to me, the new year frenzy. The resolutions, the crowded cardio equipment at the gym for 3 weeks or so until the resolutions wear off. The countdowns of the best of ... you name it for the previous year. I, personally, enjoy all the commercials for weight loss this and that... the quit smoking stuff, it is a bit much. Why does it take the "New Year" to inspire change for the better?

On the other hand... if it does take the New Year, then why not embrace it and make a change? This year, I have been thinking about what I'd like to do this year. I have some goals. Some personal goals that I've shared with God and that will suffice. I also have some prayers, which I've also shared with God, but don't mind sharing with any folks who happen upon here too.

I have been working really hard at rehabbing my hamstring for the last several months. I am making progress and have a real hope and a prayer of running within the next month. Praise God and my PT Josiah. This has been the longest I haven't run, other than pregnancies, my whole life. It's been brutal and also a learning tool. I listened to a sermon from Steve Fowler tonight on suffering, he was eloquent and my "not running" has been tough, but I don't liken it to the suffering he spoke of. I do, however, have a person in mind who has been suffering and if he could run again, oh boy, that would be a huge answer to prayer and God would be glorified.

That brings me to my number one New Year's goal and prayer. I have been praying for my good buddy John Stumbo to run again since October of 2008. This was when he became deathly ill. I prayed for him to live at that time, but quickly segued into praying for him to get better to run on our Hood to Coast team. Let's back up to September of that year, I decided to do a Hood to Coast team of staff members at Salem Alliance. John was the first to commit, I can still remember the day he came to my desk and said "I'm in. Let me know when to write the check." I put in for a team that October, literally the week he became sick was the deadline. The day I found out we got a team was a day we heard a bit of good news in his battle. I honestly, at that point, still held out hope that he'd get better and be running with us. Well, we ended up changing our name from "SAC religious" to Stumbo's Prayer Warriors. We handed out cool rubber bracelets with our team name on them to other teams, we told John's story, we prayed for John on each leg, it was cool. But John wasn't there. He did see our team off, in his very fragile state. He didn't get to run.

John continued to battle, I managed to get a team for 2 more years, we were still the "Stumbo's Prayer Warriors" we had "Run John Run" as our slogan for the second year. That was cool, we tagged teams with magnets that said they'd been prayed for. That is the pic on this blog, with John sending us off again. But he still couldn't run. This past year, we handed out magnets again and still prayed and still John wasn't running. I put in for a team this year and we were turned down. It's a lottery, we didn't get in. John still isn't running.

I mentioned my long haul hamstring injury. I've been going to my PT who is located on S River Road. I drive by Minto Brown to go there. One day I was uber early and felt compelled to drive into Minto and pray for John to run. I literally, drove around the parking lot and prayed aloud... begged God for John to run. I have been doing that on almost every visit to my PT, I go twice a week. I drive around Minto praying for John to run. I have this fervor.. this burning in my heart that John should run this year. I can't describe it, I thought that I should keep it to myself, but as it's morphed... I feel led to share it. To any who read this, please pray for John. I know that the running gene is a rare thing, few of us have it, but if you do, you know... John has suffered a bunch from his illness, but his inability to run, to do what God made him to do... has been among the greatest suffering that he's done. I am convinced of this.

And so, this 2012, I hope many people lose weight, quit smoking, go to the gym... etc. etc. etc... all of these resolutions will be great! I pray that my friend John Stumbo will have the amazing feeling of running with the wind in his face, the endorphins flowing through his veins, the most amazing feeling in the world in his heart... run like the wind John... this is my prayer.

Duds family Christmas

Hello friends,

I have been anticipating this Christmas for a while. I didn't wait as long as Zechariah or anything... but suffice to say, I've been dreaming of a... Dudleys at home Christmas for a while. This is the year we go to grandparents for Thanksgiving and stay home at Christmas, it has become my favorite. This hasn't always been the case, but as my small family has grown, I have grown to appreciate the times we have together as very precious. I do love our extended families too and enjoy those years, but I do love my "off year/quieter year".

This year was a bit different in that I got lists from the kids early and did the bulk of my shopping online and was virtually done mid December. The baking was almost the same. I was a wonder woman... would come home each night and whip up a batch of confections... the freezer was filling, my closet was filling (that's where I stash the loot), I even got the annual Christmas letter/newsletter done at a decent timetable.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve... I'll start on the nitty gritty. We were lucky enough to have Bruce's folks join us, Gene and Rita. My in laws of almost 26 years. They're a hoot. They arrived on the 23rd. I guess we're backing it up a day... We all went out to Red Robin for dinner. Gene and Bruce play this game of "who will pay the bill?" It's super fun and all party goers should try it. This time Gene won, he told the waitress while he was ordering his beverage, HUGE rule breach. The funny "Dudley family folklore" was that he tried to pay with his driver's license. The waitress was really nice and he remedied his faux pax. In his defense, we had thrown our Red Robin Royalty card at him to get him a discount and that threw him, plus he volunteers at the jail every week and they make him provide his DL there. We didn't rule out a mini stroke though... I had my eye on him the rest of the night.

Ok, now we're at Christmas Eve. We spent the bulk of the day at home. Dinging around, visiting, I was preparing for our meal(s). Just a good day, my favorite kind, all my kids home, me cooking, my boys having a run. We all went to church at 5:00. All but Grandpa who had caught a bug, an immediate and really awful little cold like bug and coupled with some muscular chest issues he's dealing with was making him fairly miserable. Poor Gene-O, I felt awful for him. The rest of us enjoyed an amazing service at Salem Alliance Church. Complete with a rendition of "Oh Holy Night" that left us all dumbfounded by my buddy Logan.

We came home from service and had an awesome lasagna meal (if I do say so myself), we each opened one present, we began the annual "A Christmas Story" marathon that has graced our world for a few years now, thank you TBS.

Christmas Eve ended with most of the Dudleys going to bed and the "Lead Elf" aka "Mom" stuffing the stockings, eating the cookies that were left for Mr. Clause... actually, I put them into the tupperware with the others, I mean, I aint running these days, I can't afford cookie calories. Anyway, merriment was readied... I went to bed and woke up at 8:00 to put the giant bird in.

We had told Grandma and Grandpa to come at 10:00 f0r the presents. (they stay in a hotel, no room in the inn) I got up, wrangled the turkey, drank some coffee, watched the straggling family members stroll down. It's nice to have larger children (notice I didn't say 'more mature' children) who don't get up at 5:00 am to see what Santa brought. My larger and way NOT mature children all managed to get up and then Grandma and Grandpa came. We opened up the loot! It was amazing. Yay God!

You sent us Your Son on this blessed morning, thank You so much, we are all so not worthy. I felt compelled to add this, I make jokes and kid around, but Jesus, You really are the reason for the season... regardless of whether that rhymes. You rule my life. I love You, I worship You and You are the only reason that all of this Christmas craziness happens. I'm sorry it can seem like craziness to You. I hope You can see the sincerity that is in there too.

The present frenzy ended... it was great, we all LOVED everything! My favorite thing was that I decided to give each person in our house a letter of "Words of Affirmation" I spent weeks on this task, I loved it. I wrote a single page letter to each of my family telling them what they mean to me. From the heart, things I don't tend to say.. I highly recommend it to you all. I didn't anticipate the silence of the stocking opening when they each read theirs... it was a bit awkward, but also fun to watch their reactions. I had assumed they'd each read them later, but they each read them before they tore into their stockings. That ended the present portion of our celebration.

We gently moved into the "Dudleys shall hog out" portion of our program. I made my way to the kitchen and laid out the appetizers. Let the feeding frenzy begin. I then ensued onto the rest of the Christmas feast. When I post this blog on my FB page, cuz that's how cool I am yo! I shall tag all the people who had a part in our feast. To quote Bob Cratchit in ANY of the Scrooge knock offs... "To Mr. Scrooge, the founder of the feast"

We had a turkey dinner. I prepared a 24lb. bird. I also did homemade stuffing with sausage from my brother Marty. Awesome. I made a green bean casserole. Mashed potatoes, which my mommy taught me how to make before I could drive. I had home made yeast rolls from my Nana, who taught me everything about baking and also Bruce's Grandma McQuary who gave me her recipe. We had jam from my mom, the butter was put in a dish that Randy Portolese, my bro in law gave me, a really cool antique one. The dinner was complemented by a nice Syrah from our friends' winery, Elemental Cellars. It was dee.. lish!

All in all, our Christmas was awesome, we capped it by watching "It's a Wonderful Life" like we always do, complete with all the commentary. We all cry or tear up. It's wonderful. I love my family. We rock. Oh yeah, this year was also capped by Tyler doing the "Dougie" in the Ralphie bunny suit from "A Christmas Story". It's on YouTube. under... who knows what.

Thankful for memories

Hello bloggers and Happy Thanksgiving!

I am up late/early this Thanksgiving Eve... Thanksgiving Day. We traveled from Salem today and got to my parents late tonight. The intake of diet coke and the amount of time I snoozed in the car have made me awake past midnight. This year we have Thanksgiving dinner with my family and Christmas at home. I like this year, it is fun to see the fam and then relax and spend Christmas in our own house.

I have a bit of angst every time we travel to my childhood home. Where I currently live requires us to travel from Salem, OR to Eastern Washington. We go north on I5, which is always fun on a holiday weekend.. we hit I 205 (equally as fun) and then 84 and the Gorge which is full of gale force wind, rain and endless amounts of trucks. I usually lose 3-5 years from my life as Bruce navigates this each time. That isn't the angst, though.
The last part of this trip requires going by my grandparents' old homestead. It's not their original homestead, that place still stands, but it's the place they lived that I have the fondest/newest memories of. It no longer exists. Their old house/barn/yard and everything has been leveled. It's been years now, but every time I drive by there, my stomach knots up. I just HATE that it is gone. Tonight, however, we were approaching it and it was dark out, so I was unsure of the exact spot. I knew the roads and landmarks leading up, but as the time came to pass the empty place where their home once stood... I missed it.
Instead, I conjured up a memory of being there. There are so many, but the one that came to mind was of Nana making up Pepsi floats one night. I was there, the only grandkid (what a treat) and we were listening to the Prescott Football team at a playoff game on the radio. It was the year that we won state! Epic for our small town. This wasn't the state championship game, but a very important one, none the less. Nana was making Pepsi floats and we were all gathered around the radio and it was a wonderful memory.
It occurred to me that I don't need an old house or barn or yard to have the memories that were made and still are alive in my mind. I spent hours upon hours there, learning to bake, helping Nana in her yard, listening to her tell stories, "working" harvest with she and Mew as they spent their retired years still both working longer hours than most people do during their normal careers.
I have some objects from Nana and Mew's house. I own some of Nana's baking bowls and always think of her when I use them. I have some quilts and afghans, I love that she wanted me to have her Deacon's bench and there are still some yarn scraps and crochet needles in it that I can't bear to take out. I loved my Nana dearly and still wish she were able to meet all of my kids and get to know them, but some day in Heaven, they'll all have a grand time getting acquainted.

So, I'm thankful that I have a lifetime of memories to conjure up whenever I pass the old place where Nana and Mew used to live. I am very blessed to have had them as my grandparents.

Happy Thanksgiving, I wish for happy memories for all.

Dudster

Christ in Thanksgiving and Thanks in Christmas?!

I am on purpose writing a blog about Christmas before Thanksgiving, to accentuate the fact that I am on a bit of a rant.

There has been some talk in the media regarding the "even earlier than usual" Christmas decorations in the stores. I have grumbled every year about the early, like having the cheap post Halloween candy display flanked by a reindeer... get your own candy Rudolph!

I just drove Megan to her friend's for a sleepover and passed a house that is all decked out. Again, my immediate thought was "Wow, in the daylight, your approximately 6 blow up features that aren't blown up, look a bit like they've been in a war... and lost." I also had the thought that "Since when are woodland creatures playing on a see-saw a sight that makes me say, 'Thank you God, for sending us Your son.' " Then I was immediately a bit ashamed of myself. Examining oneself is probably a good practice from time to time... enter sarcasm punctuation.

Who am I to judge someone based on the decor of their house at Christmas? Shame on me. For all I know, they have a wonderful relationship with Jesus and choose to celebrate the season by decking their house like Clark Griswold, their choice. I choose, instead, to not sit in judgement. I will hope that the early decor in the stores provides an extra conversation for each Christ follower to have with a friend, child, parent or whomever about Christmas that otherwise may not have happened.

Now, this is the beginning of the week of Thanksgiving, a holiday oft overlooked in preparation of Christmas. Well, this Thanksgiving, I choose to be thankful for all the early bird Christmas people, all the Clark Griswolds and the chance for this Christmas to be awesome, let's break down that word... some awe. I hope you have "some awe" for our wonderful and very awesome Savior, whose birth we celebrate this season.

Now, go overeat, overbuy and overdecorate!

Dudster

Blog Brag on my Pirates

I must start this blog with a disclaimer... there will, no doubt, be a bit of biased opinions displayed throughout this blog entry, they are based on a bit of maternal instinct and a bit of love of all things Whitworth... there, I'm covered for the attorneys.

I am the mother of 2 boys/men children. They are Tyler and Trent and they are 2 1/2 years apart in age. They delight me. They, for the most part, always have. There were some times in there during the toddler years that I questioned my "delight." I am also mother to a darling girl, but sorry Megs... this post isn't about you right now.

My boys are runners, Bruce and I are both runners and pretty much LOVE that our boys are runners. There was a time when Tyler was a senior in high school and Trent was a freshman in high school that they were both on the same team. The West Salem Titans. I told Tyler that year that he was allowed to treat Trent like a freshman, but not like a little brother, that was the code. He did. They were district champs, Trent made varsity, represented, it was a good year to be a Dudley.

Fast forward to now... Trent decided to also attend Whitworth University, the very same institution his brother attends. I think that the coach was a big influence on this decision as was the fact that Trent witnessed the TEAM in action for these past 3 years. We've been fortunate enough to feed them several times at our house before meets and go to enough meets that we've grown quite familiar with Toby and the TEAM dynamic. I could go on and on about it, but instead I'm going to fast forward again to today, which was their conference meet.

Trent had been running poorly in the first half of the season, he'd been having good workouts but the races were horrible. It was just a "thing" he was having to work through. Toby and his teammates were helping and we were trying, but yeah, it was a tough start.

As luck would have it, the conference meet was hosted by Linfield and was quite near Salem, so the TEAM was able to come to our house and eat the night before. This, basically, makes me so happy... pause for the happiness quotient.... not enough, but I'll move on. I pretty much LOVE having 27 runners in my house... seeing the shoes in my entry way... their smiling, hungry faces... watching my crazy dog freak out and run from kid to kid for a pet.... my heart is so full. Toby's smiling face and, oh yeah, this time he brought the new Athletic Director along... so, yeah, I'm pretty much firing on all pistons.

They arrived... they prayed, they ate, they had fellowship with each other and the parents who were there and they left... it was awesome as always. My parting shot as they thank me is "Run fast" that's all I really want, my competitive nature is just to win.

Now, it's race day, we had the parents of the captain spend the night, Sue and Jim Jenkins, amazing, quality folks who reared an amazing, quality kid, go figure! Sue and I had discussed that the kids seemed a bit subdued at the dinner, not as goofy or loud as usual, we couldn't put our finger on it, but the adjective we came up with was "focused". We felt good about it, but being the crazy running moms we are... we both woke up feeling nervous for them, so silly, but yep, we were. We arrive at the course super early. Chatted with coaches and other parents... poised ourselves to watch the girls run and do a "dry run" for the boys' race.

Boys' race: Oh my... that's all I can really muster for this re-telling... I have in my mind this really cool movie footage from the race that "Seabiscuit" ran in that movie... all goes silent... and then the old time announcer voice comes on... and announces the race. Basically, the Whitworth boys ran out of their minds and won! I screamed my face off! I think I pulled something in my back... my throat is hoarse... my head was pounding from yelling. Aaron and Trevor ran awesomely... Tyler ran out of his mind... Eli outkicked Willamette's #4 in the last 50... Mark ran his face off.... I could go on and on. I was high on Whitworth runners and their amazing showing. I sort of hobbled over to the finish area and found them all and hugged/high fived/stared in dazed confusion at them... I had done the math and thought they won, but we were still a bit scared.

Then, the TEAM gathered together, no coaches around, just this young group of boys... they prayed, they thanked God for their race, they circled up and just glorified God. There were some moms crying... I wasn't among them... and then I realized why. I LOVE this TEAM... I have a senior on this TEAM... but I am so fortunate that I also have a freshman on this TEAM... I don't need to mourn the loss of it yet. I was immediately sad for those moms. I feel their pain and in 3 years somebody better get a really good counselor to help me.

So folks, this blog ends with this... sending your kids off to college is a scary/sad thing, but I will say that at least for me, I have a peace about the place they landed. I pretty much love their coaches and feel like God put them where He wants them to be and for that, I'm most grateful and humble.

Go Pirates!!! Kick some major "Booty" at Regionals!!!!!!!!

Mama Duds

PS.. the New Athletic Director got to witness first hand his very first Conference Championship, so yeah, that is another awesome thing too. He's a baseball guy and was very interested in the World Series game that was happening during "carbo load" time... October is XC time, NOT baseball... sorry!

You Da Manns!

This blog is dedicated to the Manns... that is Josh and Bex Mann... and Mercy...

I had this thought that I would be able to let the fact that the Manns were leaving our life go by.... I thought that I would be able to say a very feeble goodbye at their last staff coffee and that would be a goodbye... I was very wrong. Let's start at the beginning, a very good place to start.. if you are Maria Von Trapp... I'm not, but let me try. I have a very vivid memory of Josh Mann as an intern at SAC. I was working with the Preschool staff, Tess and Nancy, in a not on official staff payroll sort of way, but getting paid sort of way. Josh was an intern under Erik and was doing events and in that arena was my eldest son's assistant pastor. My early memory is of Josh seeking to have lunch with Nancy and Tess and me... he made it happen and ate with us and asked questions of us... if memory serves, Nancy made a very inappropriate fart joke... you adjusted quite well, I was impressed by your young, Doogie Houser self.

Tyler, my eldest would invite his friends (non churched kids) to events and Josh was "the main guy" who would engage. I have major recollection of follow up conversations with those kids about the "cool church dude". Always engaging, Josh, from the beginning.

After those times, I just praise God for the fact that He placed you in my kids' lives. Trent has been blessed by you... a million times.. and Megan... the same. I can't articulate, I just feel like God placed you into the middle of the Dudley's lives... for real, I'm so blessed that you have been the Pastor that God placed in my kids' lives. I pause here, because I can't articulate the emotion I feel here. (Sob) just doesn't seem to do it justice, but suffice to say.... there are tears on my keyboard.

So, Bex, on to you... I pretty much love you, so THAT is awesome for my crying self.... I feel like you and I are a lot of the same person. We both married young and also, I feel like our young marriages have faced a lot of the same obstacles.... call me crazy, but I know what I feel, call me on this, I'd love to share.

I have a very vivid memory of you sharing about your miscarriage with me... I shared with you about mine. I had one before I became pregnant with Megan. I know that God orchestrated mine and yours and that He had a plan for both of us to have our darling daughters as His plan unveiled... so happy that I could watch both of those plans play out. I love that I got to meet your daughter... I wish that my daughter could have become her best babysitter, but perhaps her friend she met at YouthQuake... I love God's plan....

But Bex, I do feel like God put you in my life and me in your life for a reason... our stories are close. We married young, our husbands are similar... I feel like we are a pair... please keep in touch.

So, the last "thing" to this blog... I was at the front desk today because our Monday girl got sick, I was sitting there answering phones and in walks Josh.... He waves at me....I believe he was leaving a key or something for Tim... doesn't matter, He waves.... I wave and immediately realize... Oh my Goodness...!" I say, " Good bye! Thank you for Pastoring all of my kids." He says, "Your kids are awesome." I love that boy... I reply, "I hope Trent can intern at your church." To which he replies, he hopes so. I say, that we love you and he is gone.

I am, in a weird way, glad that I'm the last interaction Josh has at SAC... Bex was the "girl Friday" as her first job... Josh and I go way back for '"jobs" here... I feel like it's appropriate.

I pray for Fox Island and the Manns, I just love that God has a plan for them, praise You God for your plan at Fox Island. I can't wait to see what You have planned for them.

The Long Haul

So, anyone who has any interaction with me, whatsoever, knows that I am an avid runner.  I have run all of my life.  I have a vivid recollection of my sister and I climbing up the hills in the wheat fields behind our house and running along the little patterns that the farm equipment had left preparing the field for seeding. Judy didn't enjoy running as much so she would usually stop and find dirt clods and try to hit me, but I would just run and run.  I loved it.  


I was fairly fast in small spurts too and would brag to my 2 older siblings, they'd get mad and tell our dad that I was bragging about beating them.  He thought he'd teach me a "Tortoise and the Hare" type lesson so he told them to challenge me to a race to the end of the pasture and back.  That would be about a mile and a half, give or take.  I eagerly agreed and took off like a shot.  They took a more educated approach and jogged along knowing that I'd die.  I was probably 8 and they were 10 and 11.  I crushed them.  I believe that on that day my dad decided I should run. 


 I played basketball, volleyball and softball instead.  Finally, in my junior year Dad managed to convinced me to go out for the track team.  I loved it, I made it to State, the following year I was 2nd and 4th in the 2 Mile and the Mile.  I went to college and ran and found a new love of Cross Country, which my small school never had.  I met my runner husband, my life changed because of running. 


Life went on and there was always running, it morphed from the competitive collegiate running into other racing, but somewhere along the way, I just realized that running is part of what God designed me to be.  I love it, it makes me... me.  I have heard all the funny jokes from "non runners", they're very clever.  I don't condemn, I run because I was made to enjoy it.  I have run 2 marathons, they each deserve their own blog entry, so I won't bore you with the details.  I LOVE Hood to Coast and have run many other "fun runs", but I must say that my favorite running memories are just me and the pavement, bark dust or gravel trail.  I pray while I run.  I solve lots of world problems and Dudley problems while I run.  I cry, sometimes, while I run.  There was a time in 2008 when I refused to run because my friend John Stumbo was so ill that he couldn't, so I wouldn't.  Then, when I resumed, I realized that I could cry and pray and run.  Multi faceted.  


So, this boring blog running story must have a point.  I am injured. DUMB!   I had been blissfully injury free for my entire career until... I got old!  In '09 I hurt my Plantar Fascia and long story short, my buddy/PT Josiah Faville fixed me up.  It was a process, but I was back in action. 


 Then a few months ago I hurt my hamstring.  I've been in PT again with the awesome PT Josiah since a while, I've lost track.  We were making progress, I was a puzzle which Josiah tried to piece together, apparently my SI joint was/is out of whack which made the hammy vulnerable.  Anywho... skip the boring PT stuff/torture (sorry Josiah) and fast forward to me attempting my 3rd "return to run" fiasco.  I basically am failing miserably at it and the hamstring is yelling at me about it and I FB message Josiah sniveling as always.  Bless his little heart, he emails me this long email today about the history of my injury (data backed studies) he dummies it down for me to understand that basically, the extent of what I've done to my hamstring over years of abuse and other circumstances means that I'm not running for a few (couple?, wishful thinking) months.  (Sigh, gulp, nope, not gonna cry).


Now, the title of this blog is "The Long Haul".  I've trained for many events in my years of running.  The marathon training is the long haul type of stuff.  I get it, I need to put in the hours of doing the exercises to strengthen this and that and get my hammy back to healthy. I need to undergo the lovely scraping and other things Josiah does to my leg to get it healthy. (no complaining allowed, he is ruthless)  


I have no doubt I'll run again, but in the meanwhile I am figuring this out.  God always provides me with a gentle or sometimes a plain old smack in the side of the head lesson.  This week it was in the form of my dear friend Don Bubna leaving this earth and entering Heaven.  What a party there must be.  My job at church is planning services and I am in the midst of doing that for Don and his family.  I love to think about the "Long Haul" that Don had here on this earth.  He encountered many bumps bigger than an injured hamstring.  He ran the race quite well and he is reaping the rewards right now.  


Pastor Don Bubna, thank you for teaching me so much about how to serve families during their times of grief.  You taught me so much and you always made me feel like a million bucks.  Love you friend. 


I am signing off, I will limp to bed, try not to cuss my failing leg and the pain it brings me... deep sigh... yeah, the long haul, I can do it and some day this blog entry will make me scoff at my whiny self. 


Dudster