Live Life

Just a quick post tonight.

When I was in the depths of the most difficult place in my life 16 years ago, I wrote - A Lot!  I journaled, I wrote poetry, and I prayed.  I was scared, I didn't know east from west, right from left.  I was walking through a space of life that I had never walked through before - making choices that I knew were not wise but afraid of the choices I would make otherwise.  I guess you could call it the valley of death.

I have long lost the original poem I wrote, but below is the essence of the poem that I was just thinking about tonight.  It changed my life.  I recognized in that time that I needed to Live.  To Live meant not giving up to the fear or the loneliness, that I was walking through but to embrace the space I was in.  At times to Live meant to explore, try new things, and be with others.  At times to Live meant embracing tears with a welcomeness.  The tears meant I was alive - but not to remain there - to move beyond the tears and into the joy of the unknown future.

To Live meant to recognize that God, the creator of the universe, the one who counsels, and gave up His life for me knew my future and although I didn't, I could embrace in His faithfulness, His goodness, and His mercy.  And in the Living, I could step into life without fear and enjoy Living in His creation.

To Live meant that I recognize that I have life and the life I have was meant for a greater purpose than myself.  I could laugh in the face of adversity.  I could stand strong in the face of fear.  I could love in the face of distrust.

In the end, recognizing that to not Live Life was Worse than Death is what brought me back to Life.  It is what brought me out of misery.  And although I didn't have any more answers than before I wrote the poem, I will never forget, that God's gift of poetry to me in that night was to forever Live Life. 

Since that time, Life has become synonymous to God and to Live means to Live for Him but at that time, to Live Life meant to move beyond my pity.  I pray that if you are not Living, you would choose to Live Life - never let a day be wasted.  Adventure is everywhere - whether it is a car accident, a grocery store trip, a cleanse, a video game, or traveling to the remotest place on earth, you can choose Adventure at every turn. 

Live Life

5 Day Cleanse

Hi Kindred Friends,

I am attempting a new world of blogging which is not going to marry two worlds easily for a bit, so I apologize for bringing you here to click on another link, but eventually I will get these kinks worked out (like maybe by the New Year).

In the meantime, Ray and I are currently undergoing a 5 Day Cleanse to rid our bodies of toxins, jump start our system, and hopefully find more energy and are journaling each day and sharing what we have chosen to use. 

Read5 Day Detox Course.
all about it at our

Fall and Winter Immunity - Lifestyle and More

Winter can be a difficult season on your physical and emotional health. The days are shorter, it is cold in most parts of the country, and colds and the flu are more prevalent.

During any season there are a few basics that can help to maintain optimal physical and mental health, such as eating healthful foods, drinking lots of water, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep. However, you may be doing everything “right” and still need a little extra support to get you through those short winter days and long winter nights. This particular post is focusing on those things we should be doing to maintain our optimal health.  Another post will focus on what I recommend for extra support.

Stress (Lifestyle Action 1)

If you are alive, you have stress.  It is integral and important to our lives.  However, when we live with long-term stress, it is about the worst thing we can do to our bodies.  

There is no substitute for the reliance on God for our strength, prioritization, and carrying our burdens but the reality is, our lifestyle affects our relationship with God, others, and our stress level.  The other lifestyle actions we will be discussing are actually stress-reducers as well as immunity boosters.  Knowing how to reduce stress is of utmost importance to your health and quality of life.

You can see from the picture, that stress places demands on much of our body - it is no wonder that it plays havoc with our immune system too.

Check out the interactive graphic on Healthine.com to learn more.

Go Outside (Lifestyle Action 2)

 

Spending time outside reduces stress (among many other benefits) --> reduces the demands on your body -- > boosts our immune system and keeps us healthy ;)

Two Important Items are Outside which provide nutrition for our bodies thus boosting our immune system:  Sunlight and Fresh Air

Sunlight:

With less sunlight and cooler temperatures in fall and winter, we all find the reality of time spent outdoors more challenging than in the late spring and summer months.   But sunlight is very important to our bodies.  Sunlight helps to reduce stress, increase energy, increase serotonin levels, and raise Vitamin D levels.

Vitamin D is incredibly important for us and the UVB rays from the sun are the best way for our bodies to receive Vitamin D.  Many people are aware that it helps with the absorption of other minerals but its actual primary job is cell management.  Due to its primary function (cell management), you can understand how Vitamin D affects all these areas:

·      Muscles

·      Bones

·      Nerves

·      Immune system

·      Hormones

So, no matter the temperature, find time to take a walk and absorb some vitamin D this fall and winter! 

Fresh Air:

The outside air is fresh, full of nutrients that our lungs and bodies just crave.  It is “disease-free” because there is just so much of it meaning fewer particles to make you ill.  Allowing that fresh-air to circulate through your body is going to strengthen your immune system because you are not adding as much “debris” which gives your body a break!  A Google search as to “why is fresh air good for me” will give you tons more data ;)

The air inside is recycled and stale – in the fall and winter, we don’t even open the door as often to allow an exchange of air.  It is even more important to change those air filters in our heating systems monthly in the winter as most of the air we breathe is our own recycled air. 

5 Reasons to Spend Time Outdoors Even When It Is Cold Outside

Exercise 

(Lifestyle Action 3)

Exercise requires a bit more planning and commitment in fall and winter with less sunlight, cooler weather, and busier schedules.  Once you lose the momentum that you might have found in the active summer months, the habit to continue is hard to reestablish.  Knowing why and having strategies to have a plan help make it happen!

Exercise is known to reduce stress and increase your immune system, being outside is also known to reduce stress and have many other amazing benefits on your body, so while you are outside, exercise and maximize your time!  Any exercise is good - so if exercising indoors is the right place for you - go for it!

“Doctors have found that exercise can boost your immune system by providing a boost to the cells in your body that are assigned to attack bacteria. These cells appear to work more slowly in people who don't exercise than in those that do. As a result, if you exercise, your immune system is better equipped to handle bacteria that could cause you to become sick..” Fitday.com

Some strategies for finding “time” to exercise:

•  A fall outdoor activity challenge
  
  
• Start off each morning with a stretch and strength routine such as the idea to the left. 
  
  
• A five minute walk soon after waking is known to be a power immune and mood booster. Spend your time in the outdoors walking praying to our Creator and benefit from so much more!
  
  
• Set a timer on your watch or phone:  Just 10 minutes makes a huge difference, especially if you do it 4 times in a day.  Start off your day with a walk, set your time to go off in 3-4 hours and take another one, reset your timer…you get the idea.
  
  
• Take your work upright and/or work outside –
• On a phone call?  Walk around or better yet, outside to the parking lot, around the neighborhood, or if you are lucky enough, into nature and walk and talk.
• Spending time in conversation?  Go walk together and converse 
  
  
• On a business trip?  Walk to dinner – my husband just returned from a trip where he asked his co-worker for permission to walk to dinner.  His co-worker benefited as well.  They walked a mile each way – talked, exercised, and both actually made wiser choices in their meals because of it too.
  
  
• Find a buddy – whether you are a person who finds working out alone or together to be of the best benefit for getting a good workout in, a buddy is helpful.  You can meet at a destination and each do your own thing or do it together, but knowing you have someone to meet will keep a date and time on your calendar.

  

Water and Food 

(Lifestyle Action 4) 

Food and water give us nutrients -> nutrients help our body’s functions -> we have a strengthened immune system.

The action item to drink plenty of water and eat healthy food is one of the most difficult actions for most people to follow through with.  

Water is so simple yet so easy to forget.   Your urine should be the very palest of yellow otherwise you are just not drinking enough. Water flushes the toxins out of your body!

Remind yourself to drink lots of water.  Some tricks that work for different people: Fill a gallon jug in the morning and determine to finish it by bedtime; set a timer or alarm to remind you to get a glass of water; drink only water with meals; drink a glass of water in between your “usual” drinks.

Our bodies do not handle all “sugars” the same way.  Here is a quick video to teach about how our bodies react to sugar specifically in regards to the compromised immune system: http://yhoo.it/1Mtt4en

The quality of food that you put in your body DOES matter.  You want nutrient dense foods.  Nutrient dense foods are as close to nature as possible.  In the last 50 years, most of the food in our culture has lost it’s nutrient value.

Here is one example of why much of our food has lost its nutrient density.  When processing wheat, 26 vitamins and minerals are taken out of the wheat in order to make the wheat shelf stable.  This does not matter if it is organic, unbleached, or just plain white wheat.  This process started during the industrial revolution in order to bring wheat into the cities and keep it from going rancid on the shelves.  Americans were getting sick because of the nutrition that had been removed.  Once the source of the lack of nutrition was found, the government required the wheat processors to replace 6 of the vitamins and minerals.  These 6 vitamins and minerals are synthetic which don’t have the same qualities as the original and that still left 20 vitamins and minerals OUT of the wheat.  Unless you buy bread made from fresh ground wheat or grind your own, there is no way of getting the vitamins and minerals in your diet.  

As you can see, the nutrient density of food decreases through processing in order to meet the requirements of shelf stability.  The easiest way to know your food is nutrient dense without growing or raising your own is to read food labels.  If you can’t pronounce the names of products and/or there are more than 8 items listed on the label, you can assume the level of processing done is not the quality you are looking for.

Food Renegade is a great place to learn more about how to get nutrient dense foods into your life.  I highly recommend their nutrition class as you will learn much about what your body needs as well as sources from which to find nutrient dense foods.

Bonus Thoughts on Lifestyle (Lifestyle Action 5)

1.  Sleep allows our body to heal, repair, and rest.  It has been said, “Instead of sleeping in, sleep earlier.”  For most people, going to bed earlier means giving up television, phones, or computers.  The blue light from our phones and computers actually feign us into the belief we are not tired.  A person should expect to fall asleep within 20 minutes of the time you lie down.  This will be harder if you have had the light of a computer or phone.  I have started leaving all electronic equipment out of my bedroom as I was too tempted.  I am literally getting an hour extra sleep a night just by leaving my phone and computer in the living room to be charged while I am in bed.  I did have to go out and purchase a $5.00 alarm clock.

2.  “Laughter is the best medicine.”  I am not actually sure where the quote originally came from but it is so true – when we laugh, the number of T-cells increase and other markers of a healthy immune system increase too.

3.  Whatever the weather, spend more time outdoors and take the opportunity to exercise while you are there.

Three cheers to your healthier fall and winter!

Update to Difficult Decisions and Diseases SUCK!!

Diseases still SUCK!!!

The middle of this post has more details regarding Ben's disease and how we have come to today...the end has an update on where we are today.

There are honestly a whole lot of unanswered questions with the decisions we face in choosing what route to take for Ben's future.  Dr Furuta (gastroenteralogist), Dr Atkins (allergy) along with a nutritionist work together to determine how to best maintain Ben's overall health profile.


History:
When Ben was just 18 months old, he was a sick boy with failure to thrive.  We found that due to his disease and food allergies, he was not and had not been absorbing nutrients as he should have been. His esophagus was swollen with strictures from eosinophil cells that do not belong in the esophagus.  These strictures look like coral reefs and keep growing until eventually the esophagus could be shut off.  The section of the esophagus could be cut out and the esophagus stretched but this is dangerous because it would cause thinning of the walls and a sharp piece of food could puncture the esophagus causing a life-threatening emergency situation.  SOOO... the main way to handle the problem is through diet.  It is so much more than "normal food allergies" - in that things that most people might have sensitivities to but be able to tolerate cause more damage for Ben.  If food restrictions are not effective, they use steroids to control the cells.

I'll save you the disgusting actual pictures but if you do a yahoo image search of what is EoE, there is an image with three shots of the esophogus - we have never seen the "normal' one - but we have seen the likes of both of the other before.

Recents History:
At this point, Ben's allergy tests are actually looking positive.  We left the office a few weeks ago with hope that he would actually be able to introduce most everything back into his diet.  They did three different types of tests.  As long as there was no allergic reaction in each of the three tests, our expectation was that he would be able to introduce that food back into his diet.  The only two items that showed up in any of the three tests was peanut and dairy.

You cannot imagine how elated we were to think he was going to be able to have ALL these food again - soy being the most exciting because it is in everything.  In fact a whole new genre of food he has never had would have been possible - Asian - with the introduction of soy!

We had one more hurdle to jump over before we would get to start introducing food - a baseline endoscopy.  This would be his 14th endoscopy and because he hadn't been having any significant symptoms and the allergy tests were so positive, this "scope" was just a routine scope in our mind.  The thing we had to do to reach the promised land of food :)

The day of the scope, I sat down with Dr Furuta to look over the images.  He showed me and I could see a bit of swelling and a few strictures in his esophagus, but honestly his esophagus looked better than I had ever seen it.  His stomach and upper lower intestines looked great in the images.  We still had to wait for the biopsies to be sent to the lab and hear back about those results.

The scope was on a Monday.  On Friday, Dr Furuta called back with the biopsy results and the news that there was swelling in both the esophagus and the stomach.  I asked what the eosiniphil count was - 72 and 36 respectively.  I was encouraged by the numbers to be honest.  72 was the LOWEST I had ever heard.  He's had them in the thousands before.  Dr Furuta did not sound as excited as I was.  He said he wanted to run more tests to find out what might be causing the swelling in the stomach.

Dr Atkins was out of the country for two more weeks and they work as a team.  Dr Furuta said we would wait until he came back to make any further plans.

I was honesty not worried at all.

Ben had an episode of his stomach hurting really badly soon after that essential oils, benadryl, nor tums would touch.  (well, the essential oils actually did give relief for 20 minutes at a time)  I wanted to ignore his stomach pain as "one incident."

So, when Dr Atkins' nurse, Jenn, called on Friday, I was really shocked to hear that not only were they NOT going to introduce any new foods to Ben's diet but in fact, they wanted to take more out - eggs and dairy OR he could go on steroids (for life).

Current Thoughts/Decisions:
Because this is a follow-up to the last post, I am not going to go into the details of the choice but tell you where we have landed at this point.

Ben does not want to go on steroids.  He is not interested in living with the side effects of steroids.  So, he, with a good attitude, will be choosing to alter his diet.  We do have a meeting (yet to be scheduled) with the Drs before anything actually changes.  Ray and I don't understand where they came up with egg and wheat as the choices to remove from his diet.  Because Dr Furuta and Dr Atkins are the leading docs in this field, we are choosing to trust their judgement but now without question :)

Specific Prayer Requests:
1.  If you could pray for us to ask the right questions that would be great!
2.  Also, assuming we change his diet, we know our diet will be altered as well.  There is a part of me that is super excited about the changes because the reality is we will be healthier than ever.  But I do pray to be able to find recipes/food that Ben will get excited for.
3.  The part of me that mourns the most is the fear of relationship.  When a diet is restricted, it is intimidating for others to invite you over.  I don't want his or our lives with others to be restricted.  He can bring his food, but others need to feel comfortable enough to know that he'd rather bring his food than be excluded.
4.  Then there are other things like youth group, sports, school, etc in which he will be the kid who has to exclude himself.  We know that a year from now all of this will be normal for us and although we will look back at this and know it was BIG then, it will not always be big; in fact, it will just be normal.  But I don't want to discount the life change now either.
5.  Pray for us to choose to take it moment by moment - one step at a time - to not look too far into the future or for us to be sucked in by the fears of being different.

Our prayer is that this verse we didn't even know we needed to commit to our heart but chose to commit to memory this month as a family would be one that is not just head knowledge but becomes heart living!

That is why,

for CHRIST'S SAKE,

I delight

In Weaknesses

In Insults

In Hardships

In Perscecutions

In Difficulties

FOR WHEN I AM WEAK,

THEN I AM STRONG.

2 Corinthians 12:10

We can only be strong when we know He is our strength.  I pray that as we walk through these difficulties, we will choose to delight in Him and be strong!

Ben's Week
This week I have seen Ben press into God and reach for strength that has been amazingly encouraging.  He is not looking forward to changes he knows is coming but also has a great attitude.  He has had adults and peers reach out to him which has brought much encouragement.  Thank you to each an everyone of you who commented on Facebook, this post, sent text messages, called, and grabbed him when you saw him.  It has meant A LOT to Ben (and me)!!! Not one name has been missed in his telling me who has showed him care.  He has been floored and definitely knows he is loved.

Difficult Decisions and Diseases SUCK!!!

My Amazing 13 Year Old Son
Who Teaches me Faith,
Trust, and Hope!

When you become a parent, you could never imagine the joys, pains, laughter, sorrows, and pride that comes with it.  Tonight, holding my son as he wept hurt my heart to the core. 

Ben has lived without many foods for much of his life do to a condition of his esophagus - eosinophilic esophagitis.  Our entire family is healthier because of all I have had to learn through the course of Ben's life and his needs.

I received a call from the Dr on Friday that was not the news we were hoping for.  Ben's stomach is the major concern as it is swollen and has the same cells that have existed in his esophagus that do not belong there. (his esophagus does look a tad better)

The Dr wants him to continue to live without the foods he currently cannot have but also wants him to live without wheat and egg or swallow a spray steroid twice a day. 

The food elimination list looks like this: dairy, soy, nuts, all legumes (beans, peas, lentils), strawberries, melon, grapes, sesame seeds, carrots and now eggs and wheat.

The idea of going without his favorite foods is painful to his heart but the idea of going on steroids as he is in the midst of his growth spurt is painful too.

For me, I would LOVE to find a holistic way of healing Ben but also do not feel like going against the Dr's advice is even a choice.  Ben's condition is rare and not one that I want to mess with.

To be honest another fear I have is my son getting angry with God for the life he has been given.  My greatest fear is for my children to turn against God and walk in their own paths.  I know the pain I have caused myself by choosing my way instead of His.  The truth is, the fear could cause me to make my own bad choices.  I stand in the truth of Him and know that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose." (Rom 8:28)

This is the truth I am standing on!

God's got this! Ultimately Ben will be healthier.  

We are grateful for our friends who are walking alongside us through this journey.  


Ben went to his Bible, to the Lord in prayer, and his best friend, Aaron for prayer and wisdom - and then to us with his heart in words and tears.

Ben spoke His fear of how he was going to live life.

My words - one day at a time, one step at a time.  We'll figure it out as we move forward.  We just need to ask for God's wisdom as our wisdom is not enough.


My son teaches me what Faith, Hope, and Love really are!!!

Natural Chemical Free Moisturizer for Beautiful Skin

A few days ago I was going to give ya'll a recipe for soft scrub.  That led to a very different post - all about Dr Bronner's Castille Soap.

You're still going to have to wait a bit for that soft scrub recipe because as I recounted in the last blog...it all began with a less expensive but yet effective way of caring for the skin on my face.  Our faces are fragile and give away our age - we cannot skimp on the care of our faces!!!

I use Dr. Bronner's for my cleanser straight from the bottle.  Just a dime size amount.  And I make my own moisturizer.  I spend about $1.00 a month to care for my face total compared to the $64.00 per month I used to spend and I have to admit that the results are actually better than anything I have used in the past. ...and I have used it ALL!!!  That $64.00 savings lets me wander and explore a bit more!

Some of my friends might be surprised to learn that I was actually a cosmetic counter salesperson for a very high end line of cosmetics in a department store.  I say surprised because I am far from a glamour girl these days.  I wear make-up on occassion and enjoy dressing up here and there.  But day to day, I'm a wash a go kinda gal.

About six months after I started my new skin-care routine with Dr. Bronner's and Coconut Oil, I found essential oils and fell in love.  Essential oils are volatile oils that absorb into our skin with amazing results!   I will caution that not ALL essential oils are created equal.  You can read more about that here, but that's not what this post is about.

I eventually found the exact right mixture for my face that has reduced the signs of wrinkles, protects from sun exposure, and all the clogged pores are a thing of the past!

Enjoy this free recipe for your own Naturally Beautiful Moisturizer:

For Printable Version, Click on Recipe

Dr Bronner's Castille Soap

I started to write a post with a recipe and realized that Dr Bronner's really is the foundation of so many recipes that I needed to let you know about this soap first!

I began my life with Dr Bronner's Castille Soap in an effort to find a cheaper alternative to skin care a few years go.

 Experience drives me.  I LOVE experiences.  Visiting new places, eating new foods (good or bad), making a fun craft, spending time with old friends, making new friends - they drive me - they give me life!!!

I was spending $65 a month on my face.  I was not happy about it at all.  There were other things I would prefer to do with $65 other than clean and moisturize my face.  However, my face was also important and I didn't want to ignore that either.

After doing a lot of research, I decided to go with Dr Bronner's Castille Soap as a cleanser.  A $10.99 bottle would last 2 years as a cleanser.  It is completely natural and many bloggers recommended it as an excellent cleanser!  (my moisturizer recipe will be next)

I sought out my first bottle of castille soap at our local grocery store - Sprouts.

I had to ask an employee for help.  She told me that it was good for the washing machine, dishwasher, dish soap, hand soap, body wash, and face wash.  I was pretty shocked that it was an all-in-one, but I was really only ready for one purpose - my face!

At that point, I stuck with using the soap only as a the face wash.  It took less than a dime size drop to soap up my entire face.  I was immediately in love - my face was clean and felt great!

It has done a fabulous job as a face wash.

But NOW...I use it EVERYWHERE!!!

It is my body wash.

Used in recipes for hand soap, dish soap, dishwasher detergent, laundry detergent, soft scrub, and to wash my car, it has proven very effective.

Dr Bronner's Castille Soap is all natural, chemical free, wonderful goodness.

When I purchased my first bottle, I read the bottle which was full of crazy thoughts and sayings.  They still are and might cause some to be put off by the whole deal.  From what I've read, his real life resembled the craziness you find on the bottle.  He was a survivor of the Holocaust which shaped his life.   Although he, himself, might have had a few screws loose, his soap is all that and a bag of chips too.  You can read a bit about Dr Bronner with a simple google search.

There are other brands of castille soap that aren't filled with quite so much rhetoric on the bottle, but I definitely prefer Dr Bronner's to the other ones I have tried.

Scheduling Life Around Running - It's a New Thing!!!

Colorado Marathon QTs

Last year I registered for my very first half marathon which I gave myself almost a full year to train for.  I couldn't run to the stop sign at the end of my street without walking when I started my training.  The training kept me motivated in the winter cold, snow, and ice to continue running.  I pretty much despise running on a treadmill but training for the half even forced some treadmill running when the ice was too scary.  I came in at the back of the pack - but I did it!!!  A victory I would never have imagined.

Zoe, Claire, and Vanessa
took their moms out for a fun race!

At some point I will have to share the story of why it is such a miracle that I am running at all -- but by God's grace, I have come to enjoy running thoroughly.  In fact, the whole family has taken joy in running.  Emma and Ray completed the half marathon with me (Emma with a torn hip labram).  Ben ran his first season of track in the spring and KILLED it!  He was one of the top 7th grade runners for his school.  Jake has chosen to run cross-country this fall much to my surprise and has been working to best his own times each day - and has succeeded each and every time!  Zoe and I just did a Color Run 5K on Saturday morning from which I am still blowing blue snot 2 days later.

We LOVE Garden of the Gods

Ray and I started doing some trail running and it is has become another joy in our lives.  The undulating ground beneath my feet - jumping over rocks, down the path, up the inclines, and the back to back pacing over wash-outs - is just fun!  There's no joking about the fact that it is a lot tougher than the running I was doing to prepare for my half-marathon - but in a totally different way.

Today we ran our normal 4 mile route at Garden of the Gods and it about killed me.  I have not run that particular trail in over a month and I ended up walking almost the entire last two miles because my right leg felt so incredibly weak. The difficulty was a surprise -- I'm going back tomorrow -- I have to build some more muscle!!!



After our run today we had a conversation about our concern for winter.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our trail running since June but once winter comes, the ice on the trails will keep me away.  I am not willing to injure myself and risk months of recovery over ice!

So....I started looking into some CA winter runs.  I've got it narrowed down to two - the Seaside Half or the Surf City Half which are both in February.  Although I am feeling quite confident that the Surf City Run is going to win.  The website is way more fun and inviting ;)  This gives me the opportunity to visit my daughter, stay with a friend, and keep motivated through November, December, and January with my exercise!  I'm so super excited!!!!


Following this, I plan to run in the Garden of the God's 10 miler in June.  That gives me March, April, and May for training.  Since it is a trail run, it requires a different type of training - but also gets me through Colorado's tough spring months.  Spring is the toughest time in CO for me with it's manic weather.

Looking at the map of the run gives my heart a bit of a leap of fear.  But last year I couldn't run to the stop sign - this year I completed a half.  Although this 10 miles has been described as more difficult than a full - I am excited for the challenge!!!


That's it - just sharing a bit of excitement for the running that's ahead.  I have never planned a budget or life around training for races.  This is pretty fun!!!

!!!!RUN FRIENDS!!!!

Adventures of Jake & the Mountain

This is just going to be a quick post of our adventure yesterday (quick meaning pretty unedited and without pictures).  I don't have the time to create the creative journal I desire and hope to spruce it up "scrapbook" style in the future if even for my own memories...

History:
There is a problem in our math curriculum that just doesn't seem reasonable to solve.

                    150112
(add math symbols to make this a math sentence) - answer at the end

Ben was the first student to solve this problem last year; this year it was Jake's turn.

As a reward, I have told them that if they can solve the problem in 20 minutes with no help, I will take them anywhere in CO they want to go.

Ben asked last year if he had one help if I would take him anywhere in Colorado Springs.  I accepted that offer and he earned his trip - we went to Skyzone with a friend.

This year, Jake asked for a help and earned the reward.  He asked to hike Pike's Peak with both Ray and I.

IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE SINGLE HELPS THEY GOT DON"T READ THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE:  Ben got 1/2 and Jake got the % sign.

THE ADVENTUROUS MOUNTAIN:
I asked a friend how long it took her husband and 10 year old child - she said they made it up in 6 hours.  Another friend said it took her 6 hours to go halfway.  We decided it should take us a maximum of 8 hours based on our data points.  We gave ourselves 9 hours to catch the 4:40 train down the mountain.

Cliff note version:
5:45 am - out of bed
6:45 am - out of the house
7:15 am - out of the car
7:24 am - start our adventure
7:59 am - mile 1
8:38 am - mile 2
9:26 am - mile 3
10:05 am - mile 4
10:34 - mile 5
11:00 - Renee' gets dizzy and almost passes out
11:26 - mile 6
11:45 - Renee' gets stung by a ? (hornet?)
11:50 - Met men who had already hiked 23.8 miles UP the mountain and were on their way down.
----The mile marker signs don't go up past mile 6 and I don't have times here---
1:05 - Jake is really sore and asks for pain gel
2:28 - treeline - Ray is getting pretty sick
From 2:28 until 6:33, Ray is really - really sick
2:30 pm - a stranger gives us false hope that we will make the train
2:45 pm - mile 10.5 - Renee' is crying like a baby
4:40 pm - our ride down the train can be heard in the distance leaving the mountain
5:30 pm - water angels arrive
6:33 pm - Summit Pikes Peak
6:50 pm - strangers Liz and Josh from WA take us down the mountain
7:55 pm - Liz pulls off the side of the road for a sick Jake and drops us off (by request)
8:00 pm - call a friend to rescue us
9:00 pm - finally get to our car in Manitou by the Cog Rail
9:30 pm - dinner at Chipotle
10:05 pm - finally home

We each left the base of the mountain with our own packs - 2 liters of water, food, clothes for bad weather, and a small emergency kit.

The goal was to make it to Barr Camp, take a good break and get some great nutrition.  I got crazy dizzy around 5.5 miles and almost passed out.  Ray made me sit down and eat, take in some electrolytes, and took my pack.  I actually felt better after this stop, but Ray wanted my pack to "save me" for the end.

As we were hiking along, I suddenly felt pain on the back of my left arm - I reacted by swiping and sure enough, a large black bug of some type flew off.  I immediately had Jake make some mud to put on it wishing I had something else when it occurred to me, I had my "3-in-1 Summer Spray" in my backpack.  As I was digging for it, Ray told us to move quick - right next to us hanging in the tree was a huge nest with bugs swarming it.  We didn't stick around long enough to see what type.  I am guessing hornets as I know it wasn't wasps and the nest didn't look like bees.  Anyway, after moving on down the trail, I located my spray, wiped off the mud, put on the spray, put on more mud and moved on along.  As soon as I sprayed it, the pain was relieved.  I smeared the mud on to pull out the stinger or any poison as it dried.  You can't even tell I was stung today!

Not long down the path we ran into two men who were on their way back down the mountain.  They were sharing their stories with us as this is a regular occurance in their lives.  It was before noon and the guys were ON THEIR WAY DOWN!!!  But get this...THEY STARTED 11.3 miles away from the base of the mountain at Memorial Park.  This means that they hike 23.8 miles each way REGULARLY!  They said this was the second time this month.  They started at 12:03 am with the light of the full moon.

Jake kept begging for the pain gel because his hip was bothering him.  Ray didn't understand.  Finally, Ray got the message and gave Jake the gel.  Jake was so thrilled.  As soon as he used it, he had immediate relief.  We got to learn some new human anatomy terms (sacrum, illiac, groin...).  This makes it in the story because this is the ONLY time of the entire climb that Jake asked for anything.  He was AMAZING!!!

Before 2:30 Ray started getting pretty ill.  He just didn't seem right at all.  I MADE him give me my pack back and tried to take his but he was not having any part of it.  We should have stopped at Barr Camp to fill our water bladders.  We thought we had enough and didn't want to increase the weight of our packs -- bad choice!!!  There were definitely some items we did not pack that were left at home that would have helped as well - our Nitro and our Ningxia were just sitting in the fridge at home - bad choice on our part!

We stopped for another hefty snack around 2:30 and realized we were completely out of water.  A nice man who loves elk hunting and snowshoeing stopped to dine with us.  He explained that he was out of shape and had to kick it into high gear to prepare for Elk Season.  We were just past tree line and he was excited to show us the great areas to snowshoe.  Apparently, if you hike out of treeline, the best fresh powder for snowshoeing is RIGHT there!  He told us we were 1.5 miles from the summit and our goal of reaching the summit by 4:00 was well within our reach!

We hiked on and saw a sign in the distance.  I wanted to run to the sign because according to this nice elk hunting, snow shoeing man, this sign should tell us we had only one more mile to go and if that were true, we would make it to the train in time for the ride down.  I got to the sign, saw that it said there were 2 miles to the top and sat down on a rock in front of the sign.  Jake and Ray were making their way up.  By the time Jake got to me, I was in a puddle of tears.  When Ray got to me, I was a sobbing, blubbering mess.  You see, this nice gentlemen also told us the store at the top closes at 5:00.  I didn't have too much hope that we would summit before 5:00 knowing we had 2 miles left and Ray was in BAD shape.

I didn't want to turn around and go down because we were 2 miles from the top, I don't ever intend to climb this trail to the top in my life again, and if I didn't go on, I would never achieve the goal of summitting Pikes Peak from climbing Barr trail.  However, if I DID go up and the store was closed, there was no filling up of our water and no way down other than our feet.  That would put more miles on our feet with no water.  If we turned back, we were 4 miles from water and climbing down instead of up a mountain.  But if we turned back, the mountain defeated us.  Ray found a patch of grass nearby and laid down to gather some energy.  We had a serious discussion as to when dehydration and altitude sickness turns from a feeling of misery to danger.  At this point I was also dehydrated.  Ray's lips were white and around his mouth was quite scary looking.  We decided to call the store at the top and found out a couple of important things.  1.  They didn't close until 7:00, so we had plenty of time to summit before they closed.  2.  We could get a ride down the mountain assuming we were there by 7:00.  We decided it was time to continue heading up the mountain.

We stopped about every 40 yards for a break before moving on.  A man on the way down the mountain stopped to check on us.  His wife had barely made it up leaving her pack behind to get rid of the weight in order to summit.  She took the train down and he was heading back down to gather her pack and see her at the bottom.  He was carrying two 16 oz water bottles and demanded we take one of them.  Each 40 yards we would take a sip from a bottle trying to hydrate a little yet conserve it as we still had nearly 2 miles to climb.

Jake and I would go ahead and give Ray a goal to reach.  He would reach us and we would move on.  One of these times, we waited and didn't see him for some time.  We had turned a corner a woman came around and I asked if I should go back for him.  She said, "We're giving him water."  They each emptied part of their bladders to give him a full bladder of water.  With this gift, I drank up the half full 16 oz bottle while Jake and Ray enjoyed a full mouth or two of the newly gifted water!!!  It was beautiful.  With the water, we were able to eat some nuts, some dried fruits, and peanut butter.

The altitude sickness lingered but there was definitely more expedient movement from our bodies!  Ray's lips got color back in them and he didn't look like a Zombie taking steps.  I have to admit that I was quite worried about him but didn't want to upset him or Jake - I just watched.  We turned a corner and could travel with a bit more ease.  Jake and I continued to create goals but Ray was reaching them quick enough that sometimes we actually needed a break ourselves!!!  This was GREAT progress!!!

Although we have made better time in hikes, the remainder of our mile up the mountain was pretty uneventful.  We had whoops of excitement and wails of misery - but we saw it coming!

Jake ran ahead to see the top but stopped short as he wanted to hold each of our hands as we summitted the mountain!

I must tell you that Jacob Mitchel Hogan was a superstar.  He was an amazing encourager and extremely patient.  He never once complained and never once whined.  He wanted to spend an hour at the top before our train ride down.  At one point he learned if we got to the top in time for the train, but not time for donuts, we would not even get the world famous Pikes Peak donuts, and he had not one negative thing to say.  When we sat for a bit, he would encourage us to "just keep swimming."  When we got negative, he would remind us to stay positive.  He was such a terrific leader and made me prouder to be his mom than I have ever been!!!

So, when Jake stopped so that we could summit together, I cried...big old happy, proud Momma tears.  The top of that mountain was a beautiful sight when we summited at 6:33 pm.

When we walked in the store, Ray immediately asked the staff if we could get a ride down with the Rangers.  We found out that the way that this works is to first put a call out on the loud speaker to see if anyone in the store would be willing to take hiking strangers DOWN the mountain with them.  The deal is that they would drop us off at the gate and we would be responsible for finding our trasnportaiton at that point.

A young couple on vacation from Seattle, Washington offered to give us a ride down.   Liz is a Master's student working towards teaching teachers how to teach teachers to teach math.  Her dream is to live in Japan and study their method of teaching math.  Josh is a lawyer who currently works on "boring" litigation but dreams of doing law for microbreweries in the area of trademark and patents.

The agreement was for Liz and Josh to drop us off at the gate where we would have to find our own way back to our car.  We talked about having a friend come get us but that didn't make sense for a friend to drive 40 minutes to pick us up.  I suggested we should get a cab.  Liz and Josh were headed up to Denver and offerred to take us somewhere along their route.  The plan was for them to take us close to our home, drop us off at a Starbucks.  From there our friend would pick us up, take us to our house, we would drop Jake off, get our other car, and drive 35 minutes one way to pick up our car at the base of the mountain.

We did not have our best wits about us and found thinking clearly to be a challenge.  When we got to their car with our donuts and Gatorades, I realized I did not have my phone.  Sooo...the search for the phone commenced.  I went back inside the summit store to the 4 locations I had been in - NO PHONE.  Ray had looked through all the packs -- and then we searched again.  It was in the side pocket of Ray's pack so 20 minutes after starting the search, the phone was right where we left it beside us.

Liz did an excellent job of getting us down the mountain.  Jake did not feel well but held it all together.  Ray and I perked up quickly.  At the bottom, she pulled over for Josh to use the restroom and Jake jumped out to get fresh air and hopefully to feel better.  Everyone loaded back into the car for the drive to Starbucks.  We made it another 15 minutes down the road before Jake yelled, "I'm going to throw up."  Liz pulled over blocking traffic to get Jake out of the car.  He made it out of the car on time.  At this point, I felt so bad for Liz and Josh getting stuck in this situation.  I asked for them to leave us where we were and we would find alternate arangements.  Liz felt horrible about leaving us, but I assured her we knew the restaurant we were near and the gas station.  We would call a friend to help us.

We walked up to the restaurant and called in the calvary.  We canceled our first friend who lived 30 minutes from where we were dropped off.  And we called another friend who lived nearby.  Luckily Cindy answered her phone, picked us up, and took us to our car at the base of the mountain.  We got to our car at 9:00 pm.  We had eaten lots of healthy, nutritious snacks but were all famished by this time.  We had planned to eat a meal at the summit - but there had been no time for that AND we summitted 3 hours after we had expected.  Now with this extra fun, we were 6 hours past our planned meal time!

We found a Chipotle that was open at 9:30, ate some grub and headed for home.

We got home to the cheers of Zoe and Ben who were all ready to tell us of their adventures and excited to hear of our adventures.  Jake said that he has a day full of the best stories to share EVER - the day that he changed roles with the parents ;)



The Answer:
150% = 1 1/2