What a weekend!

This past weekend was the indoor conference championship for the track and field athletes that Craig coaches. One of his athletes, on both the men's and woman's team won the shot put event. That means that he can add 2 more conference championships to his resume. Julie Labonte, the female shot put champ, is from Canada. In the course of winning the shot put event and being a conference champ, she also broke the Canadian national record. And, if that wasn't enough, she broke the school record as well. That record stood for 28 years!

Craig left Seattle after that meet was over and instead of coming home, he headed over to Albuquerque New Mexico where Jill Camarena-Williams was competing in her indoor championship meet. She was going for her SEVENTH championship. Which she accomplished and in the process BROKE THE AMERICAN SHOT PUT RECORD!!! She is ranked #1 in the United States and currently ranked #2 in the WORLD!

Here is the video with her winning/record breaking throw. (the first guy she hugs is her husband, Dustin...the second guy is Craig) :):):)

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runnerspace.com%2Fvideo.php%3Fdo%3Dview%26video_id%3D37658&h=40611

Here is another article about Jill if you would like to read it.
We are all about as proud as can be! :)

Can I have your autograph?

It's not everyday that one can say there was an article about their husband in the local newspaper.

Yesterday, at church, a man came up to me and asked me if I had seen the article about Craig in the paper. We don't take the paper so hadn't seen it. He briefly told me about the article. 

I immediately felt a rush of pride swell within me.

He is well known around the track and field coaching circles as a great recruiter. He has been able to recruit some pretty stellar athletes, not only to the UA, but also to Utah State University.

Not only is he a great recruiter, he is very good at what he does.

Just recently, Jill Camerena-Williams (pictured above), threw her all time best in the shot-put event. She currently has the 3rd farthest throw ever in the US.

She is a mere 2 feet off of the world record.

She is ranked 7th in the world.

Since she is a post-collegiate athlete, he has been her private coach for the last 6 years.

I won't go on with his personal athletic and coaching accomplishments....they are quite lengthy.

I will say though, that he is so much more than his athletic accomplishments

.

Pres. David O McKay once said,

"No other success can compensate for failure in the home."

This is something he truly believes in.

His family comes before all he has ever done.

Even though it may not appear that way because he is gone so much,

 it is clear to us that he loves his family very much.

Now...if you will pardon me, I am going to have Coach Carter scribble his autograph on my copy.

And then I am going to show it to everyone I see. :)

My 100th Post

Gosh! It's been a long while since I have posted! Things here at the Carter house have been crazy busy. There were days when I resorted to crawling under the covers, assuming the fetal position, and sleeping. Long and hard. Thankfully, it has done wonders for me.

Well, everyone.....this is my 100th post! WOO HOO!

And, it's gonna be a long one, so buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Ragan told me everyday for about 2 months that the band Mayday Parade was coming to Tucson. I tried to mask my "who really gives a darn" feelings because she really wanted to go. Now, I know full well the kind of "folks" that attend concerts such as these, and I was, to put it mildly, very reluctant to let her go. Finally, Makenzie and Justin said they would go with her. They all had a wonderful time despite the mosh pit....

Here is Ragan with one of the band members. She was so excited. She had her belt autographed and got some body's guitar pick....I believe it was the base player's.... She shook hands with all of them and got pictures.

Who might this half naked boy be with my daughters???? What's with all the tattoos?? I guess no one ever told him his body is a temple......:)

She prattled on about the concert for days. She says she wants to marry one of the band members....I forget which one.

I say, OVER MY DEAD BODY!!!

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We are in to our arm pits preparing for Mark's mission. We are learning more and more about Uganda. We also found out that the son of his mission president is on our ward (church)! That sure did my heart good.

This is a picture of the Ugandan flag.

I have been asked on several occasions how I feel about Mark serving in Africa. If I am being honest, I have to say my first reaction was shock. Then, when it all began to sink in, I had to stuff the emotions that wanted to demand a "do over". When thinking of Africa, it conjured up images of mud huts, malaria, and orphanages. But, after researching it, I have found that it is a very civilized country. We have also received a lot of support from family and friends and that has helped A LOT! :)

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When I wasn't sleeping my days away, I was finishing up a few projects for Halloween. This is a little wall hanging that I made. It is my own pattern and I used up quite a few scraps making it.

This is a picture of the finished table runner I showed last week.... I would have put it on my table but it is covered with....well, everything....{{sigh}}

Next time I make one of these I will use more contrasting colors. But, I did take a solemn vow to use up my stash before buying anymore fabric. Another {{sigh}}

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I thought I would include a few pictures of my sewing buddies.

This is Rusty (cat) and Macy (dog).....

They are lovely little friends. They keep me company all day long. Macy follows me everywhere and lays at my feet whenever I stop. Rusty lays near, too. Just waiting for a completed project to curl up onto.

Macy believes she is a lap dog and very often crawls up onto Craig's lap while he's watching TV. **Craig is very happy to oblige! Can you see his other TV buddy laying beside Craig?? That's Rudy.

She is such a pretty girl!

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We have quite an assortment of critters her in Arizona. Mark found this moth on the door last night. He brought it in the house to snap a picture. (Ohhhh...if his sisters only knew....) He thought I might like it to show the preschool children, but I took pity on the poor thing and had Mark set it free after it's photo shoot.

It sure was a big'un!! But beautiful in it's own right! ************************************************************************************* Craig and Jill had a very memorable time in China. Their goal for her performance was for her to make the finals. She threw her season best to advance to the finals so they achieved their goal!! They both knew that it would take a miracle for her to medal so they weren't expecting that. This picture was taken right after the competition. She finished 12th in the world. GO JILL!!! Here is a shot of the Olympic Track Stadium as it is filling up with people. And for your viewing pleasure, here is a shot of Craig with "a couple of locals"! :)

The grounds were immaculately kept. Not a blade of grass out of place!

Well, that's it for now! I do have a little give away in the works so watch for that! I am also furiously working on opening my Etsy Shop. Thank you for being patient!!!

Whatcha Workin' On Wednesday, Olympic Update, & Preschool begins!

Here is what I have been working on this week... It's the bag for my swap partner. This is just a little teaser, mind you, because I have discovered from reading other blogs that I am giving away too much information. And, I would hate for her to figure out who I am and ruin the surprise! I will say that the colors I used were requested by my swap partner. It has been interseting using such spring colors when all I want to work with right now are fall colors! :) This is a picture of my first attempt.....let's call it a prototype... The actual bag that I will be sending does not look like this. Preschool has been in session for a week. Yesterday we played with some shaving cream. I will just say that I had to put on a video for 10 minutes to clean up the aftermath of that activity. It was a big hit, however, and the kids and the room smelled wonderful! Craig is having a good time over in China. He has been able to do some real bargain shopping a the "Silk Mart". He can really chew down at the vendors prices! He has been ripped off by a taxi driver and is mad about that but now he knows what to do for the next time. (That taxi driver better hope Craig doesn't jump in HIS taxi again....) Jill has been practicing well despite a nagging knee injury. She throws on the 16th. The TV will probably not show the womens shot put event, as they hardly ever show any of the throwing events. But, she is on a Home Depot commercial that is shown frequently. She is the girl chalking up a shot put!! There was also a really great article published in The Church News if anyone would like to see it. (Our churches newspaper publication) I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

He left me....

Craig is on his way to China. I miss him already. His tickets to attend the shot put event arrived by Fed Ex a couple of days ago. So what's a girl to do while her guy is so far away???? That's right....stop at every thrift store in town. (someone, save me from myself!) I found enough ric rac and bias tape to last me for awhile. You might be wondering what I plan on doing with all this. Well...the answer is...I don't quite know yet. But I will think of something! (Denial is always the first sign of a problem.) Now I am grabbing all the vintage pillow cases, too. (Hello. My name is Jo-Anne and I'm a thrift-a-holic.) I suppose $10 worth of old sheets will chase away my case of the blues. No pity party here!! If anybody needs me, I will be found sitting at my sewing machine. :)

An Olympic hopeful, a child on the mend, an attempt at a skipped birthday, and a missed girls camp.

Since Mark has been sick, I feel so out of the blogging loop. I have missed reading blogs and can't wait to get caught up. Mark is doing better. He is slowly but surely improving. He is finally able to eat a little more but it is basically a bland and smooth diet. He cannot have any chocolate, soda, citrus, tomato-ey or fried foods for one month. I made him smile for a quick snap to ensure everyone that he is still among the living. :) Well, as hard as I tried, no one would let me skip my birthday. I received several lovely cards, a few emails and a couple of phone calls. My mother sent me a cute little doll (forgot to get a photo as she is safely tucked away already in my curio cabinet) and a pretty necklace. I got a funny card from Craig's parents with some money inside....Hmmm, what shall I buy??? Fabric, wood??? Craig's sister sent me a card with a stitchery pattern inside. She wrote a little note saying that she wanted to see it finished and on my blog in a week. Sorry Michelle...I don't think it's gonna happen. And finally, a cute little handmade card from the leaders of the women's group (Relief Society) at my church. Craig recently returned form the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon. He is happy to report that Jillian Camarena made the Olympic team in the shot put event. So, he will be leaving for Beijing on August 8th. We have had news reporters calling him and doing news stories on the both of them since he's been home. They have been the subject of many newspaper articles as well. I feel sort of famous....vicariously through them of course. Because of Mark's sickness, I regrettably had to miss our churches young women's camp. Ragan refused to go without me and even though I felt some pressure to MAKE her go, I knew she would not have a good time worrying about her brother the entire time she was there. I feel so bad about missing it, especially since I had made the commitment to go several months ago. I hope that none of the other leaders were cussing my name. I worried about it all week. Now that Mark is on the mend, I hope that we will be able to get back into our usual routine. At the moment, I feel a bit like a deflated balloon, but I just wanted to let all of you know how your prayers and kind words REALLY helped us through this rough patch! Thank you for them! :)