Volkslauf

I was telling Dan one day that it's so warm outside and I don't have any fall/halloween decorations that it doesn't feel like October and was really sad about it. He told me to go buy decorations but I didn't want to spend the money and the thought of trying to figure out what to buy and to put where stresses me out. I don't have the innate ability to decorate rooms really well. BUT THEN I receive a package from my mom in the mail. She sent me a box full of awesome fall decorations and candy- how awesome in my mom? I know, she's great. I didn't know where to put anything but I think I did okay. This is what she included int he package :)

Autumn leaf runner

Pumpkins, candles and felt leaves

fall placemats

This cute bouquet

little decorations

more leaves :)

And now we have plenty of candy too :) perfect!

Dan's company gave us tickets to go to the annual California State University dinner that raises money for their athletic programs. So Thursday night we went with some of Dan's co workers to this dinner and holy cow it was awesome. They have about half a dozen people with these big circular smokers smoking tons of chicken and steak at the same time. They looked like this but tons bigger

It was seriously so cool and it smelled amazing! With the choice of chicken or steak I chose steak because I don't have it as much and he gave me a piece that was this big

It was huge, perfectly cooked, juicy, seasoned and just amazing! I almost ate the whole thing but Dan helped me finish :) It was a honkin' piece of steak and they were all that big, actually most were bigger. We got to drink chocolate milk (ahhhh so good) or there was all you can drink wine. For dessert was Marie Calendar pie! Dan got apple and I got lemon meringue so we could eat and try both. Both were wonderful. Holy cow, what a meal and it was free for us! So great!

Friday wasn't one of my best days. Around 11am I started to feel another headache come on so I was determined to try to beat it....but I lost. I tried to make sure I was eating, taking tylenol, not clenching my teeth, relaxing, massaging my head but really it was too late and I had a raging head ache like the one that kept me up last week. That evening Dan was so sweet and let me lay on his lap, he got me a pack of frozen veggies to use as an ice pack, massaged my jaw and made sure I was taking pain killers. Because of my head ache last week my mom had sent us some of my older left over prescription drugs that are a little bit stronger than just acetaminophen. Thank goodness! I took one of those before going to bed and I was golden! We decided though that these are symptoms of TMJ and that we needed to get a mouth guard to stop me from clenching my teeth.

Saturday was the big day of the Volkslauf!!! This is a big race in Bakersfield that has a 5k and 10k race but all have a huge, big, muddy, dirty obstacle course at the end. It looked crazy. Dan's company was paying the entry fee for the race so he really wanted to do it. He signed up for the 10k and has been training and running all the way up to the race. Luckily when I woke up I felt completely fine and the head ache was gone! The race was pretty close to our house but we left early and thank goodness we did because it was a huge traffic jam to get into the parking area. We eventually got in, got his number on him and waited around for the race to start. Sadly because there was still a long line of cars waiting to get in they delayed the first wave (Dan's heat) by 45 minutes. But eventually they got started and he was off!

So the running part was cake for Dan. He ran all through high school and he's just good at running. He told me there were some obstacles out around the running area but they weren't too bad. The first thing in the big obstacle course was the quarter mile long trench. A big trench of muddy water that started out knee deep then went to chin deep. (Good thing I didn't do this.. I would have been swimming I'm so short!)

That's him sopping wet, muddy and pretty darn tired! Next was a rope swing over a mud pit then the ladder wall.

Then he ran to a wall. I looked at him height compared to the wall and I again was so glad I didn't do this. Short girl problems.

Then there were two sets of these ridiculous bars. You basically had to jump and barely reach them, then either do and entire body chin up or try to kick your legs over. A lot of people struggled with this one. It was the funnest to watch... haha

 Then there was these ropes over a big muddy pit you had to climb. Sadly this is where Dan's sunglasses (that he bought for this race) ended up. Oh well, they were cheap!

Army crawl through giant pbc pipes. These were scraping up knees like crazy.

Climbing a muddy hill with a rope.

Then a balance beam log over a muddy pit.

 There were two more of these walls you had to scale.

Second wall

 Hill before the lake mud lake

Last trench, he's almost there!

Out of the trench and running down the hill to the finish line!

FINISH!!! WOO

Showers. I'm so glad they had these. He was a MESS :)

After finishing the race we sat down and he just sat there for like 15 minutes solely trying to catch his breath! He pushed himself so hard I was worried he wasn't okay haha then we got up to get the free lunch and he still wasn't okay. He sat there for another fifteen minutes. It was awesome because he would try to eat but his mouth couldn't function quite yet. He was literally exhausted.

Then he perked up, ate and drank and was asking when he could do it again. Umm are you crazy?! He loved it though!

Then we went home, cleaned him up, cleaned the apartment, did homework and relaxed until dinner time where we went out to Olive Garden using some giftcards :) I LOVE Olive Garden so it was really awesome and fun.

While we were down town we stopped at Sports Authority to buy me a mouth guard and plus it's fun to look around in that store. That night we molded it and I wore it last night and it seemed to help!

Superrr cute huh?

And today, Sunday, we had Stake conference. It was good but it's hard to relate and intently listen to a stake president you've never seen/met or even know. I don't know maybe that's bad but I love listening to my stake president at home because I know him, I know he knows me and cares for me. It's just one of those things with being new. But besides all that, it was still a good meeting. We came home and I was freezing so here are some cute pictures I just took and yes, I am wearing my penguin snuggie. I seriously always have it when I'm at the apartment :)

Oh and I have finally added a button on the right side bar of my blog that makes it much easier to follow us and our stories if you'd like. As I read other blogs I got upset with ones that don't have that button, then I realized mine didn't... oops. So please if you would like to follow you can now push that button at your own will :)