MauldenNews May 2011

Hello all -

Here are some of our highlights of our month of May -

It was the wettest May on record for Salt Lake, and the wettest spring on record for at least 150 years. We awoke to a light dusting of SNOW on Memorial Day - and poor shocked tulips in the yard. The local ski resorts are hoping to stay open through July 4, which has happened only twice before. If you want to come ski with us on July 4, let me know.

May 25 we celebrated Alex's Arrival Day - 6 years with us! She was dying to try laser tag, so we took her and of course, she loved it. Sam was more enthralled with the "Blast Zone," a 3-story multiplex structure with nerf balls and nerf guns, a nerf cannon, and a huge, steep slide. May 31 marked Alex's  kindergarten graduation. She courageously overcame her stage fright and performed the whole program with her class, something she hadn't been able to do at the Christmas program. We're pretty proud of her. She has grown so much this year, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually (if not so much physically). :-) After the graduation program, at home, she was crying and told me she missed her Korean mom. I'm not sure if it was seeing all the other mothers in the audience, or her recent Arrival Day milestone, but it was a little sad, or maybe bittersweet.

 Sam has been entertaining us with songs he learned for his preschool end-of-year program: "Baby Bumblebee" and "I'm being eaten by a boa constrictor" and "I'm a VIP." He is actually a pretty good little performer  - lots of enthusiasm and smiles and no sign of stage fright. Alex's class sang for church - she didn't want to sing, but I told her I'd give her a piece of gum afterward if she did. She said, "Even if I just stand there and move my lips?" Little turkey! She did stand up and appear to sing with her class, and I don't know if she was just lip-synching, but she did get the gum. She made up a wonderful song and performed it at home for me - it was called "It's almost time for me to be a princess." :-)

My 2nd official half Marathon (the Ogden Half) luckily landed on a rare sunny day, and I had a great race. I even beat my old record by about 15 minutes! I don't usually care about going fast, but in the future I will remember to sign up for a downhill race course if I want to go for a new time. The course was very scenic, with a reservoir, high canyon walls, a rushing stream and a beautiful waterfall. My friend Tammy went with me, but she couldn't race because she had an injury. She was an awesome support crew, though, getting up at 4:30 a.m. to drive me to the bus pickup and cheering me at the finish. I'm already plotting and planning ways to get together with friends and family for more runs - it's a great excuse to go somewhere new and connect with people. I'm enjoying having a Galloway group to train with here.

And finally, a very interesting fact: according to the "very accurate" doctor's scale, Alex and Sam both weigh EXACTLY the same: 37.6 pounds. Alex still has 2 inches on Sam in height, but they're pretty evenly matched for wrestling.

Take care, hope you are all well and enjoying your summer - we will eventually have summer here too.

Sarah