Dear Car,

I feel it necessary to provide to you a few pointers in the interest of both of our lives. I am the runner that you freeze up around when you see me out of the corner of your eye. I am the one who wears headphones making you feeling like I am less aware. Trust me, I see you. Usually before you see me.

First and foremost, I promise not to jolt out in front of you like an absentminded cat or a deer that chooses to cross the second attempt to pass. I feel like me giving you this knowledge should put you at ease since you seem to be driving as if you are unsure of my next move.

I promise to look both ways before I cross any street and abide by all laws that apply. This means when I get to a light and the 'Do Not Cross' hand is flashing, I won't cross. I will stand there, even if it does add a couple minutes to my run (secretly, I am welcoming the break). When the little man on the cross walk starts to walk though, so will I, but not before looking both ways. I don't trust you either. It may just be a good rule of thumb to look at the sign before you turn. Really, it's bad for everyone when you begin to turn and then SLAM on your brakes the second you see me standing on the side of the road. And for heaven sakes, do not honk at me.

If you wouldn't mind, please keep the crosswalks clear. I understand how stopping behind the white line is difficult, but when you don't leave me enough room in the crosswalk I really want to slam my hand onto your hood when I pass. Keep doing it and I just might one of these days.

Don't panic when you get to a four-way stop and you see me there. Chances are I have been standing there for a minute waiting for my turn to go. Again, I promise not to jolt out in front of you. I will wait my turn, just like I do when I am in my car. Please whatever you do, don't wave me across. I know you're just trying to be nice, but I don't trust that you have taken into account all the cars around you. The guy behind you is honking because he can't understand why you're not going and now I really don't want to cross in fear that he just might go around you and hit me because I am holding up traffic. Don't wave me across. I will wait for my turn.

I am still unsure what they best way is for me to run through a roundabout when you are there. If it is ok with you, I think I will steer clear of them all together.

Respectively,
Amber

Perfect Description

"Portland is a town of two halves, one part cosmopolitan quirkiness, the other active outdoorsiness."

I was looking online today for Portland some races to sign up for in the Spring. I ran across this quote and thought it perfectly describes this area that I live. You see a bit of everything here from high end shops and designer clothes to socks with sandles and running in the pouring rain. I like to think that I fall somewhere in between.

Oh and the sun is out today! Yay! I haven't seen the sun for about a week... Oh boy, did I miss it!

That Sugar Tastes SO Sweet

As a Ute Alum and a girl born a University of Utah fan, I don't have much to say except I am very excited for the 13-0 Sugar Bowl winner, Utah Utes. They played a great season and it was so fun to watch them take home a victory of such sweet success. I watched the first half of the game with Bryce and a house full of BYU fans. Camden, who decided for himself which team he would cheer for, was on my side! You can tell Bryce wasn't too excited about that!

I watched the end of the game with my parents. We were so excited for the Utes. We love watching Utah football together, but we love even more to see them win! Go Utes!

Wishing You A Very...

Here's a toast from the fancy cups that I HAD to drink out of on New Year's Eve! Wishing everyone a year full of health and happiness. Here's to big dreams and the commitment to making them come true. Cheers to family and friends because loving you makes life worth living. Happy New Year!

Sunny St. George!

After Christmas the Marlor's always go to St. George. It was so nice this year to spend a few days in St. George where the weather was 60 degrees and there was no snow in sight!
Cobe got baptised while we were down there so all of his cousins could be there to see. It was such a fun experience to see his grandpa baptize him. Bryce gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and Burton (Brandon's son who is almost 3) must have been paying special attention. The rest of the night Burton would ask with a very terrified look on his face where the Holy Ghost was. He was concerned the Ghost was going to sneak up on him! Too cute!

Along with the St. George trip comes the white elephant gift exchange. For the gift exchange everyone is supposed to bring a one-dollar goofy gift to be exchanged. Saturday afternoon Bryce and I made a trip to the dollar store to pick out our gifts. As we were walking up and down the isles making laughing at all the funny things we were finding Bryce stopped dead in his tracks with a hilarious idea. He decided he wanted to buy a frame and sign a picture of himself to put inside. We laughed and laughed for a few minutes and decided it was a plan. We walked out of the store and found this awesome bench - perfect for taking a picture of yourself to sign. I couldn't stop laughing while I was taking the picture, everyone was starring at us and he was posing so funny! We took about 6 pictures, but decided that this was the one.
We quickly ran to Walmart to get the picture printed. We ended up getting two 5x7 pictures and 3 wallets and let me tell you it was a good thing we did because this certainly was a hot item!

Here are some highlights of the fun presents! Doesn't Bryce make a great knight!

I think these underwear are as big as Camden is!

I think McKelle ended up with Bryce's hilarious picture, so Tami will now proudly display it at her house. Keep the signed picture Tam, I am sure it will be worth something one of these days!

Pat got these wonderful gloves - which I am totally coveting! Bryce signed a wallet sized picture for her, she was so proud!
While in St. George Bryce and I found a new passion - SCRABBLE! If you know anything and Bryce and I you know that we are both VERY competitive. Typically we try not to play games together unless we are on the same team. This is because the one who loses the game (which is usually me) ends up angry because the other (which is usually Bryce) is rubbing the loss in their face. We ended up however, being able to play very nicely with each other and discovered that we really LOVE scrabble! We stayed up one night until 2am with Brad, Tami, Mandy and Ty playing team Scrabble. Bryce and I took home the win - we play respectively well when we play as a team. Bryce and I still have a championship going on that we didn't get a chance to complete. Currently we are 2-2 against each other.

We had such a fun time in St. George! Thanks Lynn and Pat for the trip!

Christmas Love 2008

Christmas is such a fun season. I remember the days when Nate and I used to wake up at 3 or 4am and beg our parents to let us go out and see what Santa had brought. Our parents always spent the month reminding us of the true reason for the season while giving us opportunities to see and help others in need. As we have gotten older the only thing changing is the time that Nate and I make it out to the front room as each year we sleep longer.

We had such a fun Christmas Day this year, but the days leading up to Christmas were equally as fun. My mom doesn't love to shop so I love the days during Christmas that I get to spend shopping with her. Luckily she hadn't finished all her shopping before I made it to Utah so we got to spend a few days braving the crowds together!

On Christmas morning we woke up as usual and opened presents.
My dad was so excited to get a windshield and top for his razor. He is making it his new hobby to make the razor street legal so he can drive it down to the local grocery store!
Nate was so proud of Santa for picking out such hip clothes for him! Santa is so insightful!
Mom was really excited for her new wine cabinet, even if it did take us 2 hours to put together! Mom and Dad also got a new camera and this fancy tile!
There is a little background on the blank tile... I had intended on making my parents a tile with a vinyl quote on it that could be displayed. Brad and Tami cut vinyl and while Bryce and Lynn were in Vegas I asked them to bring the vinyl up for me. In transit somehow the vinyl got stuck to the seat and didn't make it to the tile. They mailed another one up, but it didn't make it before I had to wrap presents. I wrapped up the tile without any writing. When my Mom opened it she starred at it for a few seconds and then said, "oohhh, thanks!" She had no idea what was going on! I told her the story and we all had a good laugh. A Christmas miracle came true that day and Bryce brought down the newly arrived vinyl that we were able to add to the tile and display it in the house. The tile now says, "Our feet my leave, but our hearts will always be at home."

Santa brought me a new piano! He brought the piano straight to Oregon, so I wasn't able to play it while I was in Utah. I am sure there will be many more posts to come involving the new piano as I learn to play! I can't wait!!

Nate's new little dog, Valcor, loved playing with all the wrappings from the presents! He loves Christmas!
I was so glad that Bryce was able to brave the inches and inches of snow and spend Christmas day with us. He brought down about 14 billion presents - suprisingly - I didn't get one picture of us opening presents together!
All the neices and nephews made Christmas complete. Everytime I see Alex I am amazed at how much she grows. She is in 8th grade and offically taller than me and looks older by the day!
I love Christmas. What a fun season and day we had. Thank you to everyone and Merry Christmas to all!

Lost

I have pictures I would like to upload and stories I would like to tell. I feel like I am so behind that I don't even know where to start. Most importantly, I can't find the cord that goes to my camera to upload my pictures. This is no surprise really, I was in Utah for 21 days. While I was there I lost my mind (along with my camera cord apparently). It was a wonderful trip full of family and friends, holidays and fun. Of course, I didn't see everyone I should have - so if I missed you, I am truly sorry! I was back and forth from house to house. Everytime I left one place, I would leave something behind - my purse, my camera, my laptop, my shoes, my coat. Maybe I just wanted them to remember me, but these are important things that I would just walk out of the door and forget! See... I lost my mind and then I would have to turn around and get it. I made it back though - I had to leave some heavy Christmas presents and all my new Christmas decorations that I got for next year. But, two 70 lb suitcases, a roller carry-on full of shoes, my laptop and a gym bag full of jewlery and purses all made it back to Oregon. They are sitting in my room, I am not ready to unpack yet. Hopefully when I do I will find my camera cord.