Charles Edward Bevins III

I tried to think of some creative title for this post, but realized it doesn't need one.

On May 1, 2011, my 23 year old nephew CJ was killed in a work accident.

There are so many things I've had on my mind since we lost CJ and I wanted so badly to say them here.
But every time I start a sentence I can't finish it.
I can't describe CJ well enough.
I can't express the pain our family has gone through.
I can't find the right words to say how sorry I am for his mother (my sister) & father, his sisters & brothers, his fiance, his son & daughter and all of the rest of our family who loved him so much. 
I can't tell everyone how much this boy meant to me without sounding inadequate.
 

For now all I can do is post the video that was made by a friend of their family.

In Memory of CJ Bevins from Remember CJ on Vimeo.


CJ was laid to rest on a beautiful hillside on their family property.  He will always be close to the family and they can visit with him anytime they want or just sit quietly and remember everything that was so wonderful about him.

 In time I may be able to express the other things I want to say.  But for now, this will have to suffice.

The Past Four Months...

Where to begin?  So much has happened since my last regular post back in February.  I have a LOT to catch up on, so fair warning--this will be long.  

Garden

If you've followed my blog or know me very well, you know that every year I try to grow a garden.  This year instead of listening to my husband (sorry honey, I still love you) I decided to reign in the size of my garden.  Years ago, my sister introduced me to the concept of "Square Foot Gardening".  Over the years I've incorporated small hints of the SFG method into my gardens but have never done a full blown actual square foot garden.  Since I also wanted to move the garden closer to the house this year to make gardening more enjoyable, I figured it would be a great time to go all out.  I got some used wood from someone who was dismantling an old deck.  I had my son bring in some gravel from my old house.  I used the existing laundry line structures to make my vertical portions of the garden.  I got some seeds passed along from my sister.  

The result?

  I am very pleased with how it turned out.  I would have liked to have gotten an earlier start with more of the seeds my sister sent me, but due to unforseen circumstances my planting schedule started much later than anticipated and I ended up having to get several already started plants.  But the point is that I got it planted & now I can enjoy working in it each day.  Bring on the veggies!

New Additions 

We have goats!

 We got them primarily to try to keep our pasture down.  As you can see from the second picture it's gotten a bit out of control.  We were hoping the goats could do some serious damage to the grass & weeds--however we're quickly learning that having just two of them probably isn't going to cut it.  Are we going to make the leap to goat herd farmers?  You'll have to stay tuned to find out...

5K

Back in February I made the decision that I wanted to run my first 5K.  I saw an advertisement for a 5K race called "See Jane Run" and I figured that was the perfect one to try.  I started off okay with my training, but again, due to unforseen circumstances, I lost about a month of training in May and at one point wasn't sure I still had the will to do the race.

But with less than a week to go before the race, my friends encouraged me to go ahead and try.  I had to remind myself that I didn't have to run the whole race--I could walk if I needed to.  And I needed to.  I didn't turn in a great time and I found out halfway through the race that an old knee injury may keep me from being a true hard core runner.  But I was happy that I finished the race and I had a great time with my friend Donna & her daughter Shelby.

 (Photo taken with my phone...sorry about the bad quality)

I had intended to write about one more thing that happened recently but thinking about it now, it doesn't seem right to include it in this post.  It really needs a post of its own and I need to be in the right state of mind to write about it.  It may show up later tonight or sometime during the next few days.  But it will be written, if anything, to help with the healing process.  You'll be hearing from me soon.

  

Update Coming Soon!

Yikes!  Sorry about the little break in posting there, folks.  (Ha! Like I have a big following or something, lol.)  Just wanted to let you know I will be updating soon.  This will include an update on this post earlier in the year: See Jane Run
Be back soon!

See Jane Run...

I have a new goal for this year.  (Well, for the first HALF of this year at least.)  I am going to run a 5K.  I know, I know...it's not a MARATHON.  But for someone who has become as unfit as I have over the last year or two, this is a big deal to me. 

The seed was planted for this when a cruising friend of mine (hi Brandi!) got herself off her couch and started training for a 5k.  She did it through a website/application called Couch to 5K.  I saw her posts that kept popping up on her Facebook page, following her progress.  At the time, I thought, "Good for Brandi!"  I knew she was trying to drop some weight and I thought it was a great goal for her.  I was excited for her the day before Halloween when I saw her post her pictures from her first 5K. 

Fast forward four months to me sitting in my living room on my couch, reading a book.  For some reason in the middle of reading, I had a realization hit me.  I am SOOOOO out of shape!  Okay, I didn't just realize this.  It's been creeping up on me for awhile now.  (We all remember the muffin top?  That should have been the first sign.)  So when I thought about this last night, that weird little part of my brain that remembers stuff I didn't realize I remembered told me that there is a program out there to help a beginner like me get back in shape & have a goal to work towards.  I did a search for the Couch to 5K program and started reading.  This sounds really good!  I got out my phone and did a Marketplace search for the Android application and found the free C25K Lite.  (The more advanced version costs money but not only a couple of dollars--so if I don't like the free Lite version, I may decide to use the other one.)

While on the Couch to 5K web site, I noticed that you can do a search for 5Ks in your state.  I put in Idaho and lo & behold the See Jane Run Women's Half Marathon/5K came up.  Oh..My...God.  It's actually called See Jane Run!  How can I NOT do this?  Even better, it's just two days before my 43rd birthday.  What a great way to celebrate my birthday, by getting fit and feeling like I really accomplished something!  (Not to mention the race ends with chocolate & champagne, lol!)

So there's a reason for me telling you all of this....I want to be held accountable.  I figure the more people I tell about it, I can't slack off and not do it.  People will hopefully ask me, "How's it going with your C25K program?"  I am one of those people who is often driven by worrying about what other people think of me.  If I know that people will think I'm a big fat quitter for not seeing this through, then telling everyone about it definitely helps.  Progress updates will be posted to my Facebook page through the C25K application. 

I hope I have a good sports bra....

Too Big For The Bed...

My dog Zoe is a Dachshund/Border Collie mix.  I know I posted a story about how she came to be part of our family at one point, but try as I might, I can't find that post!  Grrrrrrrrr.....  Oh well, I'll get over it.  Basically she looks like a Standard Dachshund (larger sized than a Mini) but with slightly longer legs and shorter ears.  Did I mention she looks like a sausage?  She's a little...uh..."big boned" right now.  Yeah, we're working on that.  (We'll be taking lots of walks when the weather warms up).

 

So since she's a little on the "large" size, she tends to sometimes try to fit in places that aren't necessarily a perfect fit for her.  Case in point:

I bought this bed for her when she was smaller...not only in size relative to her age, but also in size relative to her girth.  I'm not sure why I've kept it--maybe it's like when we women save a pair of smaller jeans, determined that "someday" we'll fit back into them.  I love how she's just kind of spilling out onto the floor, completely oblivious that we are snickering at her from across the room...

Or....maybe she isn't so oblivious....

Way to make it work, Zoe.