Visual Designs by Chris

Chris Durnan

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Birthday Challenges -warrior dash

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My hubby and good friend signed up for the Warrior Dash in the Phoenix area.

It fell on my son’s birthday. So we spent the day watching crazy people competing in the warrior dash.
Here are some photos of my guys.
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This was the mudpit at the end. Yep mudpit. 🙂
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My gorgeous hub waiting to go. So proud of him. He really enjoyed it thoroughly. And wants to get a bigger group together and go next year and really push it and get through as quick as he can. This was before he started. And yes participants received a free beer coupon and this lovely helmet below. Haha. Cracked me up.
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My son is modeling it here. He is anxious to turn 14 and join Dad.

Tips for the participant or folks waiting for one:
-people watching is awesome
-bring shade and a chair. (There was one shade we found a spot under.) My friend Michele brought a chair for me after sitting on a blanket on the ground. I could have kissed her. I wanted to buy a bucket from one of the stands selling stuff to sit on.  Maybe someone will start selling warrior dash chairs with the kilts and flags.
– food available to purchase included a turkey leg. (Oh so manly to see a huge buff ripped man dressed in a Dorothy sequin dress with the cowardly lion. And the tin man. And all three chomping on  big turkey legs. Let’s just say they wore it well. The wizard would have been proud. It was quite entertaining watching people realize what the costume set was.)
-sunscreen
– shoes… if you are participating.. they will take your shoes and donate them after you have soaked them in the mud pit, if you like. They had large recycle bins for shoes.
-cleanup… well after the race you get your muddiness photo at the photo op.. then can head over to the water trucks where they will attempt to spray you clean to a point. Pretty much bring a towel to sit on anyways. It is muddiness craze.
– gear check in.. they had a check in. We didn’t use it because we were watching the stuff. However, most seemed to go from the end of race to gear check out. And work from there.

-photos. Anyone who had a camera or phone had them in waterproof cases. You travel down a water slide to a huge mud sludge pit you have to get into because of the barbed wire over your head.

Needless to say my hubby is trying to get together a team of folks who want to go and really do it up.

Who knows maybe next year you’ll see me covered in mud donning a red hat with horns. You never know. It could happen.

Here is a group photo in case you were wondering how muddy muddy could be. haha.

My guy is the middle one facing the camera just right of middle.

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The group photo op that you need someone to take a pic of you for.

It was my son’s birthday and he reallllly wanted to be part of the guys. So he jumped right in. Red helmets and horn also.

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I must say all our adventures. I really “love my life”.

Enjoy!
Chris

Be Kind – Spring Break Fun

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My sister came up with an awesome idea. Let’s visit Ben’s Bells and volunteer some time. My friend Heidi came with us. She brought her kids too and it was an awesome day. 3 adults and 5 kids. Easy to manage. The Adults were well behaved this time around. haha.

Can I just say this organization just makes my heart sing. A simple message of “Be Kind” . Kindness. Plain and simple. I see the web/tv/schools lately as filled with so much cut downs, making fun of, blasting others for their thoughts etc etc. It just blows my mind. I wonder what our world will come to in the future where every movement, every thought, every differing opinion is persecuted and cast down. It only takes one person in a group of many to “be kind”. I’ve had those people in my life and they were the sun in a cloudy patch. I hope in the future I can continue to be someone’s sun. And hopefully one of our beads will end up being the sun for someone in of that life.

If you would like to know more about Ben’s Bells, here is the link to their site. 

I hope you find someone in your day that you can be “be kind” to.

Enjoy!

Chris

 

Volunteering:

Our experience. We came at about 10 and sat at a table that was out in a courtyard patio near our local University. There was paint in a crate and the table had brushes and water. Wear shirts and pants you are not worried about getting paint on. We sat in the beautiful sun and surrounded by tall trees and enjoyed the conversation and silliness of our children. Then after ate at the close Hot Dog Venue called Mutts. The food was quick, yum, and devoured by our group.

I highly recommend the entire experience and may also recommend it to those who may be visiting. It was only a few hours and yet. Perfect. There were lots of other options for food right in the near vicinity.

Ages. Our youngest was three and he petered out but sat in Mom’s lap. I could see this as being the youngest. Everyone else painted and did fine.

More then 4 people I would say call and let them know you are coming.

Strawberry Jam yumyum

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I must admit.. my guys are spoiled when it comes to jams and jellies. I love to can. I make jam, jelly, syrups, concentrates and more. However, I still have not taken the jump to pressure canning. Wew. I get a little nervous at the thought and say I stay within my comfort. Well rather, my enjoyment zone. I, also, found I like to make small batches and put it away after. I don’t need nor want in the middle of summer to stand over a hot stove for days on end when fruit is ripe. I was really excited to try the freshtec jam & jelly maker. For my first run, it was uber easy. In an hour I started the process of cleaning and smashing strawberries, dumping them in the “maker”. I then pulled out 5 jars and put water on to boil. When the jam was done “making”, I poured it in my hot jars and hot water bathed them. All in all I think the time investment was an hour and 5 minutes. And I am satisfied with a pop pop pop pop and don’t feel like I am trying to run a smuckers shop in my kitchen. Pretty cool. My guys are impatiently waiting for the 5th partial jar to cool in the fridge so they can partake. There has been alot of grumbling about jam choices here recently. Haha. I am happy to help them out. Love my Life.

Enjoy!
Chris

PS. If you own one of these machines and have a good resource for recipes, please comment and let me know.

 

Review of:

Ball® FreshTECH Automatic Jam & Jelly Maker (by Jarden Home Brands)