A Book Review: Unbroken

Some of you may have heard about this one. I was hearing great things about it, so I added it to my kindle this past week. I could barely put it down for the 3 days it took me to read it. I stayed up until 2:00 this morning / last night finishing it, and decided I had to blog about it right away. I give it 5 stars. In fact, this may have become my new all-time favorite book.  I love stories of human triumph. This one is unsurpassed. In the same spirit as Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning (though in the form of an AMAZING story and less of an analysis), this book shows the depths of human endurance and the POWER of forgiveness and love. It's the story of an American Olympic distance runner, Louis Zamperini, who was easily on track to be the fastest miler in history up to that point, when the world descended into war. His journey and the horrors he and others experienced over the next several years is unbelievable. It's got just about everything: Running, the Olympics, Hitler (up close), air battles, a particularly beautiful "Joe vs. The Volcano" kind of  moment, angels, Japanese POW camps, Billy Graham, skateboarding... I won't spoil anything for you here, in case some of you wanted to read it. But I have to say that my admiration for "the greatest generation" and my own determination to live in gratitude and forgiveness have increased.
The author (of Seabiscuit fame) is an incredible story-teller. Fair warning: the descriptions of violence and degradation in the POW camps is graphic, and really tough to read. But the redemption of a human soul is so beautiful and inspiring I was brought to happy tears. This guy is one of my new heroes.

Life is beautiful

Louie Zamperini, who took up skateboarding in his 70's, here at 81

Crossing the Finish Line

Five years and six races later I am hanging it up as the official race planner / timer of the NPA 5k/1 mile fun run. It's been a lot of fun, and at times a lot of stress. I have gotten to know some great people better, and we've made some awesome memories.

 

**Sigh**

 

But life goes on.  Next year I plan to participate as a private citizen. :)

 

This year the kids put up some great times. Noble decided he was going to see how fast he could run the mile. He ran it in 6 minutes 11 seconds. He didn't beat his previous record of 5 minutes 46 seconds...so he was a little bummed, but he still won by quite a bit. 

 

 

 

The next runner was some awesome 2nd grade girl about a minute behind Noble. Then at around 7 min. 30 sec. this guy who had run the whole way CARRYING his baby, crossed the finish line.  That's hard core.

 

 

Tillman came in with his friend at about 8 minutes, Grace about 10 minutes.

Sully finishing strong with a time of 12:16.

 

Here he is with our old friend Michele Rosqvist who ran the mile with him so I could take care of business at the finish line and Mike could direct traffic out on the 5K route. She saved the day. I am so thankful for good friends.

 

Tillman, Sully and our neighborhood/carpool buddy at the finish line.

 

Jessie finishing strong in the 5k. I don't remember her time, but it's faster than I can run.

 

A good time was had by all.

It's a little sad to step away from something you've been a part of from the beginning. But in other ways, I am happy to let others take it on.

 

 

 

Sully Has Lift Off

 

 

Sully recently took one small step for him, one giant leap in the realm of childhood milestones...he graduated to riding a two wheeler.

 

Like his brother Tillman before him he took to it naturally. Not a lot of fuss and anxiety...just get on and go.

His universe has just expanded. And he is pretty excited. Go Sully! Safe travels.

J. In The Driver's Seat

This has been an exciting month for Jessie.  The end of September found us at the Golden Spike Arena in Ogden for the State 4H Horse Championship. 

She was kind of disappointed with Dolli's performance in show events on the first day. Usually, show events are Dolli's bread and butter, but especially in Halter (a ground work event) she came unglued.

In the warm up arena before show events. Looking sharp!

Jessie lunging Dolli before events on day 1.

Trail

A beautiful pivot in the box

But day 2 - speed events - was a different story all together. Historically, Dolli hasn't displayed lightning speed. She's respectable, but Jessie's always just resigned herself to the fact that Dolli would never be winning any ribbons when it came to speed.

She proved us wrong at State. Jessie was blowing past personal bests all over the place. Quadrangle, Poles, and then Barrels. And at the end of the day, Jessie ended up taking 19th overall, out of about 150, in speed. (We didn't see that coming, so we left before the awards ceremony. Oops. We are still doing penance for that one with Jessie. Another demerit on our parenting record. In our defense though, we had been away from home a LONG time, and were anxious to get back to our other children.  Her friend collected her ribbon for her, and she got it at practice later. Sorry J. )

Sun rise on day 2.  Waiting to run.

Here's the video of her Barrels run. She had quite a fan club, as you will hear.

DSCN5403 from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

Here, at the end of another State Championship with the man of the hour, Grandpa Sullivan.
The memories are priceless.

 (By the way, that horse on the left, another of Grandpa's project horses, took first in State...second year in a row for a Sullivan-trained horse, Megan L. riding. Not too shabby. Congrats, Meg!) 

In other Jessie-related news, the long-awaited day finally arrived when Jessie took the wheel. It was long-awaited because I didn't realize that to get a learner's permit she had have her social security card, which I lost years ago and hadn't taken the time to replace yet (more great parenting). So I spent a day at the social security office (thank goodness I squeaked that one through before the government shut down), and then we had to wait a week for it to arrive in the mail. THEN.....there was the written test to take...and then take again....and then take again. (To tell you the truth, she knew her stuff, so I think that the DMV must have intimidated her. Which I can totally understand.)  

Third time's the charm. On her last attempt she passed with a 95%...so I guess she's qualified.

She is now legal on the roads (with a parent). It's hard to believe, but we have a teenage driver in the house. 

...And suddenly, for some reason, I find myself marking the time until she leaves home (can you believe it?) ...because if the day came when she's old enough to drive a car, the day will inevitably come (sooner than later) when she leaves the nest. It's really happening.

We're trying to enjoy it all.  Love you, Jess!