Running

Workout Plan
I have always liked to work out and suddenly find myself a little wobblier and floppier than before. I guess having a child does that to some of us. So I made a goal.
It involves something I am terrible at- running. Claire signed up for the Provo Half Marathon. Who does that? She blogged about it. I have always wanted to be a runner. I feel like if I even look at a treadmill my heart rate shoots up to 180 bpm. My throat closes- my feet go numb- my mind screams- how much longer. I proudly step on and after a warm up bump the speed to a whopping 5.5mph. I go as long as I think is humanly possible- almost an eternity.
It is twenty seconds. I almost never go more than twenty seconds without checking the time. Has anyone in the world ever made it through an entire ipod song without checking to see how far they have gone. In theory I know I can't run three miles during one Linkin Park song but that doesn't mean I'm not surprised when it doesn't happen.
I have always wanted to be a runner. My obvious lack of talent leaves me with girl crushes on runners. Once I had a friend who asked me if I wanted to go on a 50 mile run with him. I wasn't sure if I should just die in shame or question his intelligence. I want to be a runner- I want to fake it. One of my most vivid London memories is going running in Hyde Park with Nancy. After a few moments Nancy said- "boy, you really are slow," and ran without me. Not the first time it has happened.
But one of my life goals is to run a marathon. I made it in High School so I know it is important. I signed up for a run on May 1st here in PA. (It is only a half marathon) Claire pointed out that it doesn't matter if I am bad at it. She claims she is not a good runner. I know she is lying but it made me feel good. If I really want to do this I will have to practice. I am doing a training program. It is going horribly and I hate every minute of it. But I am confident that I will hate it no less in five years.
Maybe...

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Once Their Was A Snowman

Danielle's snow spider ate some snow. She let me put all her snow gear on. I guess she doesn't really have snow boots but she does have really cute gloves that look like spiders.


So we pretty much live in a frozen wasteland and we get lots of snow. I think we currently have about six inches on our lawn. Saturday Danielle and I went out to make a snowman. The beautiful snow was too powdery to stick together. The next day it was coated with Ice. Despite our troubles Danielle loves the snow. We shoveled our walk and the neighbors walk. I used the car scraper and Danielle needed the shovel to make circles in the driveways. Mark learned to play with his ball and loves his fuzzy boots for inside. He is so funny and loves to sleep in his crib now. I haven't really had a baby that gets overwhelmed by too much excitement before. He likes things to be quiet and peaceful and yesterday he got overwhelmed when we had some friends over. As soon as we put him in his safe crib he stopped crying and fell asleep. Gone are the days when the best way to calm our baby is to take them to a movie or play loud R&B. Is it just me or was Danielle rather unusual?

Danielle loves snow- She plays outside until her hands are frozen then comes inside then wants to go back out again. When we visited NJ Sara blogged about Danielle in the snow and got some great pictures:
From her blog-

Building Snow Castles

This is when without uttering a word, Danielle and Ed just decided to randomly take off and head down the road.

Danielle was very attentive to "snow babies" as she called them right up to the point when she decided they needed to be hurled at me while I was trying to take a picture of her. A mother's rage I guess.

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Dear Toys

Dear Toys,
Once someone told us we spoiled Danielle. How? too many toys. In addition to being stored in my file of rude things people have told me this comment was completely ignored. Think my daughter has too many toys? Don't buy her any. I happen to think she needs more little ponies.
Anyway you toys live on my floor often. I buy you bins. I make you labels. With Sara's laminating machine. I wanted to buy my own machine to help organize you. I relive my childhood with you.
The first great toy purge is beginning. I remember the first time my parents made us throw away all of our stuffed animals except two. On a whim I let them throw away my beloved large stuffed dog for a smaller one with leather ears. Two weeks later the eyes fell off and it was discarded. ONE stuffed animal. Like any decent scarred new parent I am going through Danielle's toys in the middle of the night without telling her. Maybe she won't notice.
She will never know about the purge. How does one perform one of these? Obviously the ponies will last, and the McDonalds toys will be gone.
I will miss you toys.
Janae

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Five Years

John and I celebrated our anniversary December 21. We have been married five years. It blows my mind that we are married. Every now and then I ask him if he can believe we are married. He says yes. I guess I am just a little slow on the uptake. Our anniversary was great because it was really relaxed and nice. Like John.
I went through and found some of my favorite photos from our wedding day. I really like the picture of us by the temple doors because we look good but not 10 years old like we look in all the other pictures. I was 23 when I got married but John was only 21. People still think he is in his teens. I loved the picture of my grandma and grandpa Berg because grandpa was so healthy. John sang me a song at our wedding and it was beautiful. We got married on winter solstice and I think it is funny to joke around about it being the darkest day of the year. There was a blizzard the day of our wedding. It was freezing. 21 other couples got married in the Salt Lake Temple that day.
My only regret? I didn't get my stuff together in time to have beautiful wedding favors at our wedding. It's like me and Christmas cards now.

marriage stats:
Pets:10
Boaz (gone with the great pregnancy parrot purge) African Grey 14 years old
Austin STILL HERE!
Taylor (allergic to pennsylvania- went crazy with allergy problems)
Mayli (see great parrot purge) African Grey 2 years old
Bedford (died at 14 weeks old- heartworm)
Simon- (I am allergic to cats) the best orange tabby ever to live
Maya- (died of autoimmune disorder) a sad sickly black cat I fell in love with. She hated me.
we also fostered Jackson and Jax and Lexi. Jax tried to kill our parrots.
We clearly don't have great luck with pets.
Children - one boy and one girl. we have better luck with children than pets.
Weddings we've seen- 6
Moves-6
College degrees- 3 (2 undergraduate 1 masters)
I learned to quilt
I have my first car ever.

Here are five things I like that John does. He only gets five this year.
5. John sometimes acts like he has a British accent. His accent is TERRIBLE. But it is really funny because he knows it is terrible and sometimes it morphs into an old man accent which he is much better at.
4. John is an optimist. I think he believes in people being good, which is increasingly rare.
3. John is a hard worker. I didn't really think about how this would become what I consider the most important characteristic to look for in a spouse. I love that I feel like we work equally hard.
2. John knows how to have fun. He reminds me that sometimes we need to go to the movies or hang out and do nothing.
1. John is good at change. He adjusts quickly which is a good thing since a lot has changed in our five years of marriage.

John is proving to be a worthy opponent. I like it.

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Last Year.

every now and then Danielle asks me to take pictures of her and says cheese. Mark never initiates pictures.

Top 10 of 2009

1. Baby Mark Sept 18,2009 Also new Nephews Elijah and Lincoln. All born within a month of each other. Now they just have to meet each other.
2. Our beautiful office built ins. and the finished Nursery. Except I still need to make a twin sized quilt.
3. John getting into medical school. Did I just put IKEA built ins above this? Oh well- I didn't get in to medical school. In 8-10 short years John will be done with school. It's like the light at the end of a tunnel. A very long tunnel.
4. My Christmas was awesome this year. Danielle loved her house. I loved my screenprinter.
5. Mark started sleeping through the night.
6. John is now "Master John" since he completed his masters degree
7. We bought a house.
8. People visited us in our new house. Mike and Diane, Mark and Sara, Jen, Rachelle and Janet.
9. I sent out Christmas cards and discovered how you could enter your addresses in to tiny prints and they would send them out for you. Thrilling! If you didn't get a card send me your address- although their turnaround time is WAY faster than mine.
10. John finished one term already- only 11 more to go. I think I will make it.

also I won an ipod touch from a blog that I found from Sara. I can't believe I won. Also we went to disneyworld. CRAZY FUN.

Bottom 10
1. my second child has somehow ravaged my muscles- it will take lots of work to get them back again. I miss having hips and abs that worked.
2. Danielle changing her own diapers.
3. We didn't send out graduation announcements for John. I was too bitter about his own dad not sending him a graduation present from undergrad. Or a card.
4. Trees fell on our house.
5. The ground froze before our fence was up. Rude!
6. Diaper blow outs at church.
7. Danielle dropped her nap.
8. White carpet + toddler
9. Our mysterious and undefined car problem. No one can figure out what it is but the lights keep coming on. Also I don't know if perpetual dirt is a car problem, but our cars are perpetually full of childhood toys and food remnants. Maybe this is a personal problem.
10. I have no idea how to organize my bedroom closet. Or what to do to the ugly yellow bathroom. So I just never go in those rooms.

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