Turkey Day!

We woke up a little earlier than we wanted to..but I had a Turkey Trot 5k race to get to!  Not sure how my body knows but every single time before I go running I seem to get sick!  So Lately I try to tell myself and body that I am not going running. hahah yeah that doesn't really work, somehow my body just knows!  Anyway I am sure no one wants to hear or read the rest of the details of what really happens to me so I will move on!  The Race went well, however it was FREEZING!!!!  Timmy bought me some new running pants at The Gap last week, so it was my first time trying them out!  They were great!  I actually felt like I had nothing on besides my running shoes and sweatshirt! hahah They also kept me warm which was nice!

My mom and I, also Dan Rasmussen, have kind of started doing this race since they started it three years ago.  It has now become a tradition!  It is crazy how many people signed up this year! It is nice to see that many people out being active but at the same time we decided it would be nice to have it like the small little race with only about 200 people like the first year we did the race!  Even though my time has improved in the last three years, I keep getting placed lower and lower because of the amount of people that show up!  Yesterday I finished my 5k with a time of 26:45, which was pretty good considering the weather!  My mom finished around 34 minutes and Dan finished around 23 minutes!  So we all did pretty good! 

After the race we waited and waited hoping our name would be drawn for one of the prizes!  My mom ended up winning a Pumpkin pie at the very end.  While we were waiting and hoping our names would be called.. they announced a prize for $250 off a set of tires at Discount Tire.  There was a family next to us, that said "oh that would be funny if we got our name drawn for that since we own a tire place"  Sure enough what happened!  One of their names got drawn and they took the prize.  After I heard them talking and they said that they were just going to go buy the tires with their gift card and then take them over to their shop and sell them for full price!  I don't know why this bothers me so much, but honestly if that were me and I owned a tire company.  When they drew my name, I would have said, oh go ahead and pick someone else's name because we own a tire place so we don't need that.  Maybe even trade a prize with someone else.... But plan to do that.. I think that is just rude! 

After the race we went over to my parents.  My mother made a delicious breakfast by scratch!  We ate until we were stuffed!  We then went to Timmy's parents for Thanksgiving Dinner.  On our way we stopped at the Gas station and Timmy wanted a drink of course!  While I was in there I noticed a couple getting two 44 oz drink and a huge thing of Nachos!  I thought to myself "are they on their way to Thanksgiving dinner, did they just eat thanksgiving dinner, or... do they not have Thanksgiving with anyone"  Anyway I just thought that was odd! 

We arrived in Ogden at 1:59 p.m.!  The reason I say that is because Tim, Timmy's dad said that if we were not there by 2:01 we were not eating and we had to pay him $10.  hahah
Dinner was Great!! all the food was delicious!  I really didn't eat too much.  I held back and only had two rolls!  I also didn't get any seconds!  But somehow I still ended up with a pretty bad stomach ache.. it felt like knives stabbing in my stomach!  We also played games and went shopping!

Health and Exercise

So about a week and a half ago I decided I wanted to get real skinny for Hawaii.  We are going at the end of December. I decided to try the HCG Diet!  My mother and father in law are doing it and have been fine with Great results! As for me .. this didn't work out too well!  I was a little skeptical because only eating 500 calories a day!  Well just doesn' t sound healthy.  Plus finding out that every morning I would have to skip breakfast, which is in fact my favorite meal of the day!  any other meal i would gladly skip, but BREAKFAST!! Anyway I went to the store and got some.  Tim decided he would join me in this diet as well.  We went and got tons of fruits and veggies and lean meat.  The first two days of the diet.. well they were great!  Getting to eat whatever I wanted and when i wanted. Day 3.... started.. i began the day with a slight headache but just tried to guzzle more water during the morning because we weren't supposed to eat breakfast.. Then I ate lunch, the small portion of meat and veggies.  I counted my calories the first day and I only ate 460 calories.  Day 4 was about the same I was hungry in the morning.. then i ate lunch and felt better, I went to Young Womens that night and so I didn't get to eat dinner until I got home from that.  Day 5 I started out in the morning with a headache again.. by dinner time though I was feeling pretty good so I decided to do a little work out.  I did Bob's 20 min workout from Biggest Loser.  I was out of breath half way through.. so just took it easy throughout the whole thing.  I was really struggling with the fact that I just ran a full marathon just over a month ago and now a 20 min workout was killing me! Day 6 which was last Friday, I woke up and my vision slowly started going blurry..I decided since I still had two hours before work that I would try to take a nap. I wasn't able to really fall asleep because of the light and the noise.  When I got to work I ate an apple right away hoping that I would feel better.  My vision was going in and out and for about 3 hours straight I felt so sick that I wanted to throw up.  Tim came on his lunch break and brought me subway.  That is when I decided I was done with this diet, for me it just wasn't worth it anymore.  If I was going to feel like this everyday I would just rather be fat is what I thought! 

So I have now decided I am just going to eat healthy, exercise like crazy (like I love to do of course)  and be happy with who I am.  So on Monday this week.. I went to 24 hour Fitness and got their 7 day free trial for the gym.  I am loving it!  Monday night I went running and biking, Tuesday morning I went to the cycling class, swam some laps, and sat in the steam room! I felt like a child again! having so much energy and getting to sit in the steam room.  I haven't sat in one of those since I was a kid.  We used to have a membership to the SportsMall in Murray where I grew up, I would go and work out with my mom and then we would sit in the steam room.  My favorite part about it is that they had a hose where I would be able to squirt myself to cool off.  I also came back that night again and worked out! 

This morning I went to a class called Zumba!  I had tons of fun but I am definitely not a dancer and not that coordinated!  haha   I think I am going to keep attending each week and hopefully one day I will get the hang of it.
But anyways, I feel great, and am loving working out and having energy! Nothing against those who do the HCG, I just don't think that was something for me.

Respecting People for the choices they make

So I just got finished taking a phone call, where I was setting up a new Distributor for Nuskin.  When they gave me the social security number, I noticed that it started the same way mine does.  So me trying to make small talk and the conversation fun, I said "Oh was she born in Utah by chance?"  she than said "Yes, and you probably know all of my family", than continued on and said "So are you one of those Mormons?"  I said "Yes I am LDS"  They then continued to laugh for like 3 minutes!  What in the world!  I was so mad so the rest of the conversation I just had to bite my lip on other things I wanted to say back. I could have said "no I am not Mormon, my name is Melissa, because well techniqually no we aren't Mormon, Mormon is the name of a Faithful man in the Book of Mormon.  Maybe not all LDS people act the way I do but according Article of Faith #11 it states as follows:

"We claim the priviledge of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."

I believe this to be true and should be honored by all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I also believe that any one of any other Faith should let anyone else worship the way they like to as well, without being mocked. 

I have had many friendships in my life with people not of my Faith, this doesn't mean that they are horrible people.  These people might also drink or do drugs, but that is their choice.  I remember specifically in college a good friend of mine.  I was his DD Designated Driver sometimes.  I let him know that I didn't mind that he drank, that was his choice.  But he was not allowed to offer it to me because it was my choice and I have chosen that I would never do that.  We had a wonderful friendship, unfortunately, we have both moved and not kept in great touch.  I remember one day he told me that he respected me because of the way I respected him for who he was and that I never judged him. 

"The Lord gave a warning to guide us in our judgment of others: "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. As much as we can, we should judge people's situations rather than judging the people themselves.

Judgment is an important use of our agency and requires great care, especially when we make judgments about other people. All our judgments must be guided by righteous standards. Only God, who knows each individual's heart, can make final judgments of individuals." (lds.org)

Anyways, off my soap box, I just wish people would respect everyone. 

Halloween

For Halloween this year we went to Natalie's sisters for a party.  Tim and I dressed up as Mary Poppins and the Chimmney sweep Bert.  We had fun playing games all night.  Natalie and Nate dressed up as Skeletons.