Boot Camp for Dummies

Hello Bloggers!

Today I am going to talk about my first experience with this tortuous thing called "Boot Camp". A friend of mine has blogged about this before and she is much wittier and more clever than I. The name of her Blog is Mother Hen. I am just going to share a bit because at this point, lifting my arms as high as the keyboard is just about all I can muster.

Back it up a bit, I've always been a bit of an exercise class snob. I've done my share, I "Jazzercised" my way through part of the 80's, although never a leg warmer have I donned. I've done step classes and they were fine, but I've never reached the cardio burn I get from running and always just pooh poohed them.

My friends Kara and Shannon have been regulars in this class for awhile, they recently recruited a couple other friends and voila, here I am on this Wednesday, nearly crippled.

It began at the glorious hour of 4:55 am. I pretty much hate mornings, so already I'm off to a very cranky start. I roll out of bed, cuz that's how I roll... ba da boom! I brush teeth, put on my workout garb, grab some coffee and jump in the car. Bonus, no traffic on the bridge at 5:00 am. That's probably the last silver lining you'll get from this blog. Arrive at the YMCA and look at the parking meter to see what I owe... I lied, another silver lining, don't have to pay til 8:00 am. Crazy people can keep their quarters, thank you very much.

I wander in and immediately spot Kara, who IS a morning person, yippee freaking skippy! She does dial it down and greets me with a subdued for her, "Dudster!" Shannon arrives and it's a party. We head up and I'm a bit nervous, but first thing you do is run 6 laps around the tiny track at the Y. Yes! Running is my favorite, so that was easy. Get in the room and my eyes are darting around nervously for this person they call Tina who I've heard is slightly mean. Kara introduces me and I say "nice to meet you". She said, "We'll see what you think after." Gulp.

The rest is a blur of me trying to follow directions while doing things like push ups, carrying heavy things over my head while running, more push ups, circuits of different things using my weak little runner arms. I was doing modified push ups aka the dreaded "girl" push ups only to realize that my sweat was making me peel out and I couldn't get a grip. That was fun! The wall sits reminded me of high school basketball, our coach called them "Green Chairs" and we had to do them when we cussed in practice. I was pretty good at those and I didn't cuss once today while doing them.

Fast forward, I made it through and it was fun, yes I know I'm a masochist, but it really was and I feel invigorated! Now, I will end this blog entry with a list of things that it's difficult to do when your arms are so weak, you can barely lift them:

1. Taking off your sweaty sports bra. Who knew, I thought I might have to get a scissor, I made it.

2. Washing your hair.

3. Shaving your arm pits, ouch, literally braced one arm against the shower wall, sorry for the visual.

4. Putting on deodorant.

5. Drying your hair.

6. Putting on your shirt.

7. Putting your hair in a bun. The salt in that wound is that after arms were up, I realized I'd grabbed the sweaty hair tie from
the torture class and didn't care enough to replace it.

8. Reaching up for bowl to make oatmeal (thank the Good Lord the oatmeal is on a lower shelf of the pantry)


I could probably go on and on, but you get the idea. I feel like I am going to be pretty sore, but hey, I survived it and it can only get better from here right? Question to fellow campers: Is it better or worse when Tina doesn't have a migraine? One of the thoughts I had...

Dudster is out (of her mind)

Silver anniversary

Hello bloggers! I wondered about the title of this blog, I thought about mentioning Maui, but then I thought, "No, I'm going old school on this puppy!" I didn't bust out the Burl Ives song or anything, but the "silver" anniversary is pretty stinkin' cool. We made it! I'm sure there were folks (you needn't fess up) who thought we wouldn't. I mean I was 19 and Bruce was 22. He was a college grad with a good job, but seriously, anyone who knew me probably thought I was pregnant or crazy or both.

Our official anniversary is January 26. We got married on Superbowl Sunday in 1986. Think Refrigerator Perry and the famous Chicago Bears' "Superbowl Shuffle" They creamed the Pats that day, turned out nobody missed much... didn't end the very long stream of oh so creative comments from well meaning men whose wives forced them to come. Give me a break, we had already ordered the invites when I figured it out... blame my sister who was still in High school and couldn't miss a basketball game. I would never have asked her to, that's how we rolled in the Hall household.

Fast forward to now... we decided to do it up big and head to Maui for a week to celebrate the big day. We went from Jan 20-27th. A great time to escape Oregon's dampness. Maui had been experiencing some rain, but we lucked out and the weather was great the whole time we were there. Some of our adventures included:

Biking off the Volcano. The volcano in Maui starts with an H and is a LOT of syllables. It is also 10,026 feet above sea level. For those of you who don't really know about such things... I ran a marathon at Lake Tahoe which covered from 6800 - 7000 feet. I had issues at that altitude, to the point of having to (ugh) walk at times and had a bronchial event after the fact that still affects me today. At 10,000 feet, I could barely get a full breath. The view was breathtaking and our very cool guide named Kimo was amazing and fact filled, also quite funny. After we toured around the crater we then drove down to a more human 6500 ft. for our "take off" point.

Now, at this point I should add that I'm not really a biker gal. I mean, I biked a TON as a kid. I was pretty able at managing a bike in my youth, I just hadn't really been... oh, how do you say??? A youth in a while. I didn't let this small fact bother me. I hopped on that bad boy and promptly freaked out! I was heading down a freaking mountain on a tiny little bike lane and having to break so much that my hands were cramping and my forearms were really tight because I was really nervous. It was a very nerve wracking first few miles, I'm not gonna lie. In fact, had there been a "bike cam" it would have sounded like this:"Whoa! Oh! Man! Whoa! Crap!" AND repeat! After the first few miles I became more sure of myself and by the end of the ride (22 miles) I was a pro. It was a blast and I am really glad I did it.

Adventure #2 was snorkeling at Molokini. This probably isn't an adventure, but I qualify it as one and I'll get to why. We got on a Catamaran and motored off toward Molakini. Along the way we saw a bunch of whales which are in Maui this time of year having and making babies. So cool! We get there and set off to snorkel. This is where the adventure is, for me. Bruce is part fish and loves this, I, however struggle. I, under normal circumstances have approximately 4 respirations per minute. I think this is a pretty low number. Put a snorkel mask on me and that number quadruples! It's quite a sight. I have snorkeled successfully quite a few times, but it's never without trepidation on my part. The trip to Molokini was no exception. My mask was leaking (stray hairs, I think) so I ended it early, but saw some cool fish and wasn't disappointed, Bruce had a blast, so all was well.

Next we departed to "Turtle Town" which is not a real place, put your globes away. It's a spot where the giant sea turtles are known to be. We got there, I got in, having fixed the rogue hairs and feeling way better about the mask situation. Immediately, I saw this giant one, so cool, just like the movie "Finding Nemo". I puttered around, having minded what our captain had told us about being still and letting them come to us. I saw another turtle and was smiling about my turtle seein' self. I then headed to the boat and got to see my third giant turtle. I was feeling pretty spunky and swam back to the boat. Turns out I saw the most turtles that day (murky waters). Got in the boat and looked over the side in time to snap a pic of one last turtle dude swimming under our boat. So, Turtle Town is my new favorite place!

We also went to this really funny comedy show and had lazy beach days but I would be remiss if I didn't share one of our people watching moments. We had staked out a place on the beach (Kaanapali). One of our first days we noticed that the waves were breaking on the shore. Quite dangerous. We watched a few unsuspecting folks get slammed. We chuckled, once we saw they weren't hurt, but Bruce mentioned that nothing would ruin the day quicker than seeing someone get hurt. Then this lady, who if I'm guessing was probably close to my age or older, so let's say mid 40's to 50. She wandered out into what Bruce and I had named the "Death roll". It was this place on the beach that just slammed you to the shore. She walked out there and in less than 30 seconds was SLAMMED to the beach. She staggered out of there, her bikini was askew and quite frankly... well... her boob was out! Her hair was a mess, she had sand all over her body, she was wrecked! Thank God, she was unhurt, but, bless her heart, she sat down in the sand and just put her head in her hands. She didn't fix her hair or anything, she just sat there. I was intrigued. A while later, her brilliant husband comes out of the ocean like a Merman... He sits with her a while and all of a sudden, I say to Bruce, "they're on the move". Holy Heck! They both start sprinting toward the surf, only when I say sprinting, I mean that she has these little choppy steps that don't really make her move very fast and sure as heck... BAM! Slammed again! She came back out again, sat down in much the same manner. Her husband came back and decided against another pep talk. They disappeared, never to be heard of again. Oh my!

We began our 26th year with a run together. Very appropriate, since we met as college XC runners. We have never really run together much since Bruce has always been faster than me. At this point in our lives, we are at a place and a pace that allows a run together. We don't manage it much at home due to schedules, but on this very beautiful morning of our 25th anniversary in Maui, we did. It was nice. We ran like 5 miles and enjoyed it very much. I thought if was a very apt beginning to our next 25 years together.

Our lovely week ended, but we'll be back. We always manage a vacation, I think we've done that well over our 25 years and feel confident we'll continue on that journey. So, to you nay sayers, I say to you, don't feel ashamed, you probably had a good thought; what did us couple of kids know back in 1986... we didn't, but I thank God every day because He did.

Dudster has been married 25 years.

What will 2011 bring?

Happy New Year! I had in my head, for some reason, Frosty the Snowman when he first comes to life. He says "Happy Birthday!" His voice was in my head when I typed that first line. Weird. Anyway, I shall try to focus. I wanted to post a blog tonight about New Year's resolutions and some other thoughts.

I have been reading a friend's blog tonight. Her blog is titled "Andrew's Mom". She lost her dear son this year. He passed from this earth as a teenager and went to Heaven in June. She has been bravely and eloquently sharing her journey with people through a blog and tonight I read 3 of her entries which got me to thinking.

The first one I read was from Christmas Eve. She shared about him not being there and also a poem from the vantage point of a loved one who has passed and that they are spending Christmas with Jesus this year. Her angst that while she knows he is in a better place, she still misses him, brought me to tears. After the poem she wrote:

Dear Jesus--please give my boy a hug for me today. Kiss him gently on the forehead and tell him how much I love him, today and always.

Pretty powerful. The second blog I read was a memorandum of 2010, she recapped some of the famous people who passed in 2010. I had forgotten some on the list, but quite a few of my favorite celebs had passed, I'd forgotten, as we do. This blog ended with this quote:

Even though I feel profound sorrow at the passing of Andrew, I also feel profound joy at being called to be his mother. What a gift he was to us.

I salute you Roseann, you are a rare person who, in your sorrow can minister to many with your honesty. What a gift our children are to us, I have thought that often.

The last blog entry I read tonight was about smells and the memories they evoke. Roseann shared that her son's room no longer smelled as strongly like him. After 7 months, his smell had dissipated. Only a mom can appreciate this, especially a mom of boys. Again, I was moved to tears. The power of smell. Having grown up on a pig farm, I can tell you, smells bring you right back to places and people in time. Roseann articulated this waning smell like this:

I think I am afraid the day will come and I won't feel him as near to me as I feel him right now. But that really won't happen. How can I think that I will ever forget that soul whose body was a part of my body for nine months and a part of my life for sixteen years?

It is heartbreaking. I can't comprehend and yet my friend is so eloquent and honest that I can, a bit.

So, sharing these tidbits from "Andrew's Mom" I have been convicted to make a small New Year's Resolution list. I pretty much despise New Year's Resolutions. Having been a runner my whole life, I scoff at the people who say "This year I'm going to work out!" Only to quit after a month. I feel like they're silly. This year, I will make one.

• I will trust in God that what's around the bend for me is His plan and if I lean into Him and spend more time with Him, He will prepare me for what is ahead.
• I will make more time for things like chatting with my daughter about whatever thing she wants to chat about, even if I feel like I have something else that's more important, I don't.
• I will enjoy the smells of life. I will pick up a sweaty little 3 year old boy and breathe in his "little boy" smell and try not to be melancholy that my boys are no longer little.
• I will live in the moment and not wonder about what is next because what is now is what I need to be doing.

I think that 2011 will bring exactly what God has planned for it. I will brace myself for impact and expect... just what He wants.

Baking with Nana

Hello bloggers, tonight I am wishing all a great holiday experience. I know that is a funny wording and I am not saying "holiday" to be politically correct. I believe that this season is about the birth of our Savior, period, but my message is about the whole holiday season and experience.

One of the traditions at our house is that regardless of where we spend Christmas, I always am the baker of the rolls. Every other year we stay here and celebrate with our family and any grandparents who want to join us. On those years I make a whole turkey feast including my homemade rolls. On the other year (which is happening this year) we travel to Eastern Washington and spend Christmas Eve with my fam and Christmas Day with the rest of the Dudleys. On those years my contribution to the Dudley feast is homemade rolls.

That is the history leading up to why I find myself on this Sunday baking a batch of rolls. The rest of that history involves my Nana, thus the title of this blog. Nana is the one who taught me the fine art of yeast rolls. She gave me the recipe, but more importantly she showed me the way she was taught to make them, a family tradition. I still remember those many years ago in Nana's kitchen learning this art. She was so patient and let me do everything, even crack the eggs. She showed me the proper way to make them into rolls and every little detail. I remember her apron getting all dusted with flour. I remember the smell of the yeast. I remember how she said to knead the dough until it was as "smooth as a baby's bottom". I remember it all. The reason I remember is because I helped her make them many many times. She really did want me to learn how to make them and I'm so glad she did. Each time I make a batch I think of Nana. She passed from this earth in February of 1990 and I still miss her very much. I am sure that the folks in Heaven are enjoying a nice batch of homemade rolls as we speak. I feel Nana's presence each time I make them. Thank you Nana for passing along a tradition to me and for being my Nana.

Dudster

An early blog before blogs were invented

Hello fellow bloggers!

Tonight I am rerunning one of my Christmas letters because I had a conversation with a friend the other day about being a Grinch and it reminded me of this letter I sent out in 2000. Let me set the stage. In Dudleyland, we were living in Salem, we had all of our kids. Tyler was 11, Trent was 8 and Megan was 2. Below is what I sent out as our Christmas letter for Christmas 2000:

Ode to the Grinch

Everyone down in Salem liked Christmas a lot

But the Grinch who lived just west of Salem did not.

Hate isn't the word, "dread" describes it better,

the shopping, the baking and of course that letter.

It could be she didn't quite know where to start.

It could be, perhaps, she didn't have the heart.

But whatever the reason, no one dared ask,

she sat there in November dreading the task.

A half marathon in January had Annie's fingers nervously drumming,

gale force wind and rain made the whole experience quite numbing.

Basketball, baseball, football and soccer for the boys boys boys...

driving them to and from, watching oh the joys joys joys!

In March there was an Elmo cake and lots of presents too.

Little Meggie Moo is now more than two.

Trent turned eight with a party at the gym,

quite the little man, we're sure proud of him.

Summer was filled with trips of camping and the beach,

spending time with grandparents is a goal we like to reach.

Bruce and Annie ran Hood to Coast, a tradition they wish to keep,

they had a blast and remain married despite many miles and lack of sleep.

Bruce spent two weeks in Hawaii, that military duty is quite a chore,

Annie hopes to join him next year frolicking on the shore.

Wizard friends joined Tyler for a Harry Potter birthday.

He's eleven now, our young man gets bigger every day.

That brings us to November, where the Grinch, with a grin

said "I'll skip the dumb letter" her voice with chagrin.

When she heard a small sound rising over her gloom,

it wasn't a sad sound or the voice of doom.

It was her little blonde daughter, her voice filled with love,

singing "Jesus loves me" like the coo of a dove.

And the Grinch sat perplexed at her blank piece of paper,

was this the true meaning of the whole Christmas caper?

It wasn't about presents or baking or a letter,

the reason for Christmas was oh so much better.

She composed a quick poem to give to all of you,

with the strength of ten grinches, plus two!

Merry Christmas to all our loved ones and have no doubt,

this message to you: Remember what Christmas is about.

So, that was my Christmas wish back in 2000 and remains pertinent this year too. Sometimes it seems like all the activity of Christmas can be overwhelming, but try to remember the true sentiment of Christmas. I hope you are all enjoying the season.

Dudster

Saying goodbye to a friend

I have been anticipating a goodbye, which I don't think is a good thing for me as I don't like goodbyes, per se. I pretty much hate them. It's kinda funny because I spent the better part of my early life, let's say 18 years in the same town and didn't have a lot of these horrible things that people speak of called "goodbyes". Ew, they should be called badbys, they hurt, they make my eyes leak and my heart hurt.

I shall spare you all the next few years of my life which were peppered with goodbyes since I ended up marrying a military guy. I managed to survive each one, but never really mastered the art. I made some really good friends along our military route. I have conjured up a lot of memories of each of them as I write this blog. I think that might be a sign that although I don't enjoy the goodbye, I do remember the friendship and even keep in touch with them as well.

Alas, that brings me to the goodbye that this title speaks of, it is of my dear friend John Stumbo. I have known that he was going to leave our church for a while, but it doesn't make his departure any less painful. I don't want to hash out his tenure at our church because it would take up too much space and I could never do it justice. Suffice to say that today he said that he can't understand all the people saying to him how much they have been blessed by him because he feels so blessed by being apart of this thing called Salem Alliance. Salem Alliance has been blessed beyond this blog and any other articulation by John Stumbo. Pause here for tears...

So, on this day of him packing his final things in his office which is a few feet from my cubicle... I sat at my desk and wandered over to his office to pop off occasionally. It was a good vibe. We'd had our goodbyes and I wasn't feeling particularly weepy, just kinda flipping him crap. At one point I went in his office and noticed a really cool triangle shaped metal ruler in one of his boxes. I picked it up and commented that it was nifty. It was quite nifty, btw, one of those cool old ones. Anyway, late in the day out comes Stumbo... he says "Anyone with an eclectic work space like you that comments on this, deserves to have it." He handed me the cool ruler. I told him that I didn't need it and he should keep it, I was just commenting on it and it was from Minnesota, so he should keep it. He casually says "it was from my Dad's office" He wanted me to have it. It was such a very non-event and yet it was an event. Here was John giving me something that had been his Dad's in such a casual way... it was perfect in that our friendship has always been that way. I don't need to give the details, but basically John gets me and I get him.

A bit later, he was leaving for good and I offered to help carry boxes out to his car. He said he'd love me to help. I did and his assistant Kathy helped too, he told a funny story about his recently purchased car and a speeding ticket, it was all very casual and normal... we loaded his car and he drove off. I will miss my friend. I will see him again, I know this, but I will miss him so much. As Josh Mann said (our Middle School Pastor) John has a quality of occupying an inordinate amount of space in people's hearts. I think that is a good quote. I know that is true with me. I will miss him very much. I continue to pray that he will run again and that he will be healed.

Good bye John. See you later. You have touched my heart in knowing you. I will never be the same.

The busyness of life

Sooo, the title of this blog might give you a general idea, but basically here's the dealio yo! Fall around the Dudley house is chaotic at its most boring time and just plain crazy at its peak. We have 2 boys in Cross Country, one in college at Whitworth and one in high school at West Salem.

Pause for commercial: Go Pirates!!!!!!!! Go Titans!!!!!!!!

Let's just say that we are fans. We go to every meet that we can. Tyler doesn't run near us as often as we like, but we get to a few a season and we go to all of Trent's. Let's just add to that mix, just cuz. I also referee volleyball. That consumes much of my September thru mid November.

This particular fall I decided to start officiating college again, so that added to the mix a bit. Suffice to say, my goofy little uniforms are quite familiar with the inside of my washer and dryer.

As if enough Dudleys weren't busy enough, Bruce is traveling all over with his drug dealing job. Ok, you all know that he is a Pfizer Pharmaceutical District manager right? It sounds so much cooler to say drug dealer, anyway, he's occupied a few hours a week doing that. I work 40 hours a week also, so we are busy, to say the least.

The other component to this mix is Megan, our darling youngest. She doesn't do a fall sport, yet anyway. She does like volleyball, but being a 7th grader, they don't play it until Winter. What does occur for her in the fall, however, are the sign ups for the 3, count them, 3 things she does want to do during winter. There is her school volleyball for 7th graders, there is the club volleyball, which she's done for the last 2 years and there is Skyball which is the middle school basketball program in Salem.

The emails and flyers and phone calls begin around mid October. I corner Megan; "Are you sure you want to do basketball this year, even though both volleyballs are at the same time?" She assures me that she does. I push a bit more, "honey, this is a lot of time you are committing to, are you really sure you want to do it all?" Yep, she does. So, I go to the bad cop and enlist his help. I figure if I employ Big Bad Daddy onto the scene, I'm golden. He'll lay down the law and we'll be back down to a manageable 2 sports per season per kid quota that we've managed for.... EVER!!!

Well, guess what? Mr. Softie tells me, and I quote: "We'll make it work, I'll help out, she deserves to play basketball like the boys did." Well, that's fine and dandy, except the boys never played volleyball on TWO teams while they also played basketball!! Awesome!

Fast forward to November aka now! Last week Megan had tryouts for Middle school volleyball, tryouts for Skyball, 2 nights she had to volunteer at church for her fundraiser, she also got sick (bonus) and oh yeah, did I mention that Mr. Softie, Big Bad Daddie, aka bad cop was in New York? Awesome! And with a perfect double switch, don't even still know how it happened??? I am the assistant coach of her basketball team! Tryouts for the club team are in a week, I'm just praying I don't wake up on the next day with a volleyball tattoo on my lower back.

You know, it's my life. I gripe, but I love it. I attended the coaches meeting tonight and I'm already thinking of drills in my head and dreaming of high fives and victories... I love my kids, it's what I do.