new… house… first… night… so… happy… so… tired… must… rest… :)
Monthly Archive for July, 2006
In an earlier post, I was a little “ranty” about the painter/circumstances with our new place. For an update - it is all working out (and the red walls are so yummy it makes me want to lick ‘em). The painters are making good on delivery. I’m cool. Can you feel it? Pretty much, there are a bunch of fellers kickin’ tail up at the ‘ol properTAY..
Which leads me to some exciting news… I got to vacuum brand new carpet in my brand new house today!!! Zip! Who knew vacuuming could be so exhilarating. I am here to testify, it can be - oh it can… But the most exciting news of all is that it is 99.99999% likely that we will be moving in on Saturday! Yes, THIS Saturday! I can hardly stand it. If you saw me right now, you might be think I was a 7-year-old trying to “hold it” - bounce, bounce, bounce!
Speaking of exciting news… my life-long friend just had a baby boy!!! He’s wicked cute, but only I got the pics - and I’m not sharing! She’s not created a new post, but maybe this’ll get her going. Gosh, she’s had a whole 3 days to recover :) Congrats my dear Jen :)
I really want this shirt… it’s the coolest ever… and it’s dumb-expensive…
Oy. Here are the digits: Swam 45 minutes of 80 scheduled, biked 70 of 195 scheduled, and ran 80 minutes of 120 scheduled. It’s better than nothing, but nowhere near I need. In my defense, I didn’t do nothing - hardly slept for that matter - I had a sick baby who had me up one night from 1:15 am to 4:30 am, the next day she woke up just as I was leaving to swim (I couldn’t leave my hot, miserable, fever-baby), and the next night we were up from 2 am to 4:30 am. That’s 3 days shot. Yes, the “elite” division is not for me.
I am a mere 2 weeks away from the Luna. I am coming to accept the fact that I will not out-perform my past times. Should I reveal those times? My pride says “no”, but the fool in me is louder… Here goes:
2001 Danskin - Swim 17:25, Transition 1 6:20 (forgot my helmet and had to go back - rookie), Bike 43:56, Trans 2 2:29, Run 32:46. Total time: 1:42:58
2003 Danskin - Swim 12:23 (the buoy's moved, less than a half mile, so an impressive-looking time), Transition 1 4:44, Bike 46:34, Trans 2 2:05, Run 32:45. Total time: 1:38:32
What I’d like to see in 2006: Swim 16:00, Trans #1 4:00, Bike 40:00 (or under), Trans #2 2:00, Run 30:00 (or under) Total time: 1:32:00 hahahahahahahaha. Seriously, I’d be very happy if I could get in at 1:40:00. I just don’t think I’ve been able to get enough time in to accomplish that. My pool swim is just over 16 minutes. The open water waves slow a person down. My run has been especially slow lately - even up to 36 minutes. I just can’t seem to push harder. And the bike - I have no idea - except that it is usually my weakest leg of the event. There are so many hills around here… there is no way to gauge my real time compared to the flat courses I will be riding…
Off to bed…
I get to go to the MOPS International Convention in September! I’ve registered, I have my plane tickets, and I have the best husband on earth who will be the Lone Ranger wrangling the Sundance Kids for nearly 5 full days during my absence. There isn’t a blogging seminar at the conference… It’d be cool if they did. I’d love to start something like that - with all this extra time on my hands, But talk abou “hot” - mother’s of preschoolers blogging at a mothers of preschoolers convention - without their kids.
make it hard to follow-through with that whole “training” idea. Why else would I be up at 3:23 a.m. when my alarm is set to go off in 2 hours??? Yeah, that bike ride won’t be happenin’ today.
Could have done much better, but I was tired or busy tired and busy. On Monday I ran for 40 minutes. On Tuesday I swam for 50 minutes. Saturday was a test-run with the “open swim”. We went to Lake Washington with our friends and found a great little family beach/park area. There was more grass than sand, but enough sand to qualify it as a “beach”. I don’t care much for sand. We swam for quite some time between the ropes. The water wasn’t too cold. I saw a fish and milfoil tried to strangle me several times. I am not a huge fan of aquatic life. I blame Jaws. Yeah - salt water, fresh water… mere semantics…
Back to Saturday - we did our open water swim, biked a few miles and ran a bit. Not sure of any of the times or distances. I just know that by the time we hit the run portion, I was wishing I was dead. Yeah, I’m not feelin’ so athletic after my “death run”. In my defense, it was hot and 2 in the afternoon. PLUS I did manage to swim fast enough to evade the hungry, slicing jaws of, um.. Jaws :) I must have used all my energy on that little mind game.
The thankful part - the water was great, only a little chilly. The portion of the Burke-Gilman Trail we rode and ran were spectacular. We spent the day with wonderful friends and we discovered a great little beach to take the family to (and the trail is right there so it’s a great way to spend an entire day swimming and biking together!).
OK people. I am constantly riding my kids about whining, and lately I’ve been looking a little bit closer at myself. In short, my own whining and complaining have been bugging me about myself. It comes and goes - depending on how right I am and how wrong others are. Either way, I am always right and they are always wrong.
I went for a run this morning. Even though I neglect my relationship with my Lord and Savior - He still talks to me. Most girlfriends aren’t so understanding about random communication. Man(kind), God really does have that whole “grace” thing down. It’s the people that fog up the reality of who He is.
Today God showed me why I can be thankful. Specifically, thankful for the struggles I had as a brand-new mom - distance from my family, tough issues with nursing, my own emotional battles with society over breast or bottle, and a baby that didn’t sleep through the night for nearly his first entire year. Other stuff too, but you get the idea… Oh, and my first baby was boy - a very energetic little boy. How can a woman be thankful for any of that? It’s crazy - irrational!
This morning, my mind wandered back to the day my son had his first seizures. That was one of the least thankful days of my life. One of the 2 times I remember being thankful that day was when I realized my son was not lying blue-faced/dead on the floor because he couldn’t breathe, but because he was in the postictal drowsiness state where breathing is very, very shallow. I learned he was breathing only because I hit his head on the door on my way out to meet the ambulance and he managed to eek out a whimper. I felt bad, but I was so relieved. I was thankful a second time that day when the cat scan came back clear - after a second ambulance ride to the ER in one day.
Why am I thankful to have gone through that? Well, friends who know the story of my son and his seizures - he has been off his meds nearly 9 months now! There have been no indications that there is any seizure activity! We only went through 2 other medications before we found the one that worked, and after almost 4 years of medication - he is free!
What is there to be thankful about having a rocky start to motherhood? Sisterhood. I am now in a position to understand, encourage and share ideas I've already experimented with. Or just cry.
I am thankful for the struggles of home building - because there is a home for us.
I am thankful for conflict to struggle though in relationships, it means there are people I love who love me too.
I am thankful for the mess. It means the kids have things to play with.
I am thankful for driving around a bunch, it means we have a car and options.
I am even thankful for this little house I am so eager to leave. It is the home I brought all 3 babies home to. Plus, there are few homes where a mother can take a shower in the master bathroom and check on her kids in the living room by pulling back the shower curtain!
Well, that's a start :)
So, the company who is painting our house (get it, “brush”) was the company that painted one of the Extreme Home Makeover houses in our area awhile back. I’m so mad I can’t even link to EHM. The whole home-makover thing - love it. Love. It. Best idea. Best. Idea. I fully support it, but read on….
wwhhEll… (read as a moan of dissatisfaction not a gleam of impression), apparently the painter got a “last minute” call to work on the opening season show in Alaska last week. They gave him a hefty chunck-o-change to turn tail and forsake all his other obligations - like my house. Mi. Casa. “Never fear Jenny” - is what I hear from our project manager guy - “the ever-impressive painter-man has his top 2 guys on your project.” Why do I ever believe anyone? Can someone please send me a kindergarten teacher from 1952 to walk next to me with a pointer stick so she can strike my knuckles each half hour for buying that line of nonsense…
At one point we were told it would take 10 days to finish painting. The job needed to be completed by this coming Monday (the 17th) so things like the following could be completed: the fireplace, the rest of the lights, 2 more coats on the wood floor, carpeting, clean-up, and who knows what else!
As of today - those 2 “top men” must be dead. No one’s seen ‘em, at least not at my house…
Yep, Shellie - it was not about the Saturday bike ride - it was all about the kids :)
Daniel, sounds like the long trip to Tucson, unpacking, and re-settling have all been a bit, well - exhausting???
Jen!!! You can do it - that lil’ feller will be here soon!!!
Why the fit? There was a tiny, grumpy 16 month-old snot monster whining, whining, whining continuously in my shadow… big brother and big sister provoking, antagonizing and pick, pick, picking away at each other… and this mother was fresh out of creative approaches, patience and compassion to appropriately handle the whole batch of chaos…
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