I am a Triathlete

I am so proud and excited that I finished the triathlon! This was my first race of any kind and I loved it! I got so pumped up the morning of the race and I just stayed super pumped the whole time, it was awesome! We all finished the race and none of us came in last, I am really proud of us, this was the first triathlon for all of us. We won't have our official times til today or tomorrow. I know I beat Gramper and DocRom. It is too close to call a winner between BigBro and I. Here are some pics from Tri day.


Here's Ben and Evie cheering me on for the swim.



Here's me coming out of the water.



Here's me coming back from the 13 mile bike ride. And here is the transition area.




Here's me going out to do the last leg of the race, a 3.1 mile run.



Here's me running to the finish line!! Whoo HOo!



And here's our Tri Team after the race =)



The only thing I didn't like about this experience was how awful I felt after the race. I was nauseous and had a splitting headache for 4 hours after the race. I think next time I will eat during the race and I will drink Gatorade. I drank water throughout the race but Gatorade and some food probably would have saved me from the post race awfulness.

Lake Stay Before the Triathlon

Here are some pics of our stay at the lake the day before the triathlon.

Here's Gramper and BigBro with Evie.



Here's Evie running around Grammy and DocRom.



And here's almost all my favorite guys. (TwinBro is missing.)



And here's Evie with her Grammy and Gramper.

Hello Kitty

Wanna Wrestle

Fall Fest

Even though it was hot as all get out today, we celebrated Fall at the local Fall Fest. Grammy, Gramper, Ben, Evie and I loaded up and drove an hour to a big farm with a 6 acre corn maze and an hayride, petting zoo, corn box, corn cannon, hay jump, kid train, duck race, etc. We stopped at a gas station on our way and Ben bought lotto scratch off tickets for all of us. I won $30!! I never win anything when I do lotto tickets so I am super excited about my win. =)

I'll let the pictures illustrate our day.

First we hung out at the house and played. This is Evie in Ben's glasses.


Here's Evie playing at Grammy's house.


Here's us measuring up at the Fall Fest.





Evie enjoyed checking out the fallen scarecrow and the baby pumpkins.



Here's Evie hanging out at the corn box.



Here's Evie riding with Gramper on the Cow Train.


I sat in front of them.


Evelyn LOVED playing with the ducks at the duck race.





And here's Ben making a face and me.


Overall the day was really fun. The heat was kind of a bummer. But we plan on going back when the weather turns cooler. So what did you do to celebrate Fall this weekend?

a little proud

Friday Sept 21
Swim 400 meters
Bike 13 miles

Sunday Sept 23
Bike 13 miles
Run 3 miles

Triathlon here I come =)

Jen is Coming Home!!

My truly bestest, most longest friend ever is coming back to the mainland!! She has been living in Hawaii for the last 2 years and I have missed her terribly!! She will be moving back to the Southeast in November and I am thrilled! The last time I saw her was almost a year ago. Evie was about 4 months old. Jen and her rockin parents are the people that gave Evie her lion. She absolutely loves that lion and she sleeps with it in her crib. I am so stoked!!

Here's Evie and Jen last year.



Here's Evie and her lion last year.

Tri Training

Because of various circumstances I haven't been training at all in the last 1.5 weeks. BUT, I will be doing the triathlon in October, come hell or high water. I am committed to finishing this, even if I have to crawl to the finish line. I don't think I will crawl, but I may walk, we'll see.

In other news, I got a fabulous pair of new running shoes. I have decided to train for a half marathon in December. As a reward to myself and out of necessity I had to buy new running shoes to train for the half marathon. I got a pair of these. Mine are cuter, they have pink and yellow and gray. I got them for $50 instead of $85, so I feel good about that. Nike has this new thing you can get to put in your shoe and it will send your pace/distance/rate running info to your ipod nano. Once the info is in you ipod you can upload it to your own nike ticker. It looks really cool, and I am pretty sure that my friend Rich is utilizing this technology. I am toying with the idea of doing this but it costs $29.00 to get the sensor thingy that goes in your shoe. We'll see. =)

This Train Has Only 1 Stop...

Cuteness!









On a side note. Thank you to everyone for so much support and good advice about talking with my Mom. You all pretty much said the same thing and that made it clear to me what I should do. I am gonna write her a letter. I'll just open the door on my side and we'll see what happens.

A Much Needed Vacation

I got a wonderful and much needed 1.5 day vacation this week. My BFF Angie and a bunch of her folks were staying at a condo on Hilton Head Island this week. They were gracious enough to invite me up for a night of board games, poker and shopping. Let me tell you, it was exactly what I needed! I had a wonderful time and I LOVED catching up with my girl Angie! Much silliness and debauchery was had =)



We are Carahzy!


And uncooridinated, lol!


Oh, and did I mention I got to go to the beach!!!! For the first time in years!! I <3 the beach!






Check out this crab just chillin.


It was so awesome, I feel rejuvinated from the experience. The only thing that would have made it better is having Ben and Evie there too. Ben had to work and I wasn't gonna take her on a 3.5 hour car ride each way by myself.

This Post Brought to You by...

Evie Ready for School

Here are some pics of Evie before I took her to school yesterday. She looks so good in purple! =)

Evie Caught Her First Lion

Who is This All About?

Oh Yeah, it's All About Evie!

We Are Alive - 7

Hi,

We are alive, we aren't all healthy though. Evie and I have been fighting off a head cold for a week and now Ben and Grammy and Gramper are getting it. So we are not a very exciting bunch today. I do have news. Good news, exciting news.

1. Triathlon training is going really well! Dad and I are really getting better at all the events. Yesterday we tried to do 2 events back to back for the first time. It was a very very hard task. We swam 400 yds and then ran 3 miles. It was about 87 degrees outside and sunny. I nearly passed out from heat exhaustion but I finished. Dad totally kicked my butt. Overall we feel like it was a success. We are both hoping that on race day it will be much cooler.

2. Evelyn had her 1st day of "baby school" last Thursday. She did well considering the newness of the whole thing. I dropped her off at 8AM and picked her up at 145PM. She ate solids with the other kids and even napped. She was totally exhausted when I picked her up but she perked up after another nap at home. We are happy with the Montessori school so far. We aren't taking her tomorrow because she is sick and we don't want her to get worse or pass the sickness to other kids.

3. Shadowing Aidan at school was very challenging the first week of school. The first few days I didn't know how to keep him in line AND keep the peace in the classroom. Aidan's mom talked to me on Wed. of last week and said to do whatever it took to keep Aidan on task. She told me not to worry about Aidan bothering the class unless the teacher mentioned it to me. So I started disciplining Aidan in the classroom and he responded really well. He didn't like being made to do his work and act correctly in class, but he complied. And this week he is just doing fantastically! I am really proud of him. My job is easier when he is on task and not testing me. So hopefully he will continue to follow directions and rules and make my job even easier. In other work related news I am going to be working less starting in October. I won't be staying with Aidan after school at all by October. I am just too exhausted and worn out after being at school with him for 5 hours. So they will be hiring a new person to take over those hours and possibly to go to school with Aidan on Fridays. So the schedule will be Mon-Thurs 8:30AM-1:30PM if everything goes according to plan. I hope so!

3. House building and all things related to it are on hold at the moment. I'm not sure where we are in the process. But I do know that Ben and Vanessa are working on it.

4. Labor Day weekend was very nice for all of us here at the farm. Ben and I hosted a BBQ/Pool Party for Ben's old boss and his wife and Aidan's family. I wanted to get to know the Aidan family better and Ben and I both wanted to catch up with our old friends. It was super fun! We all got wrapped in conversation and before we knew it 6 hours had passed.

5. Next week Ben is going to visit his best friend on the West Coast and all of us left here at the farm are going to visit BigBro and DocRom. I am super excited about seeing them again! We are all running in a 5K race. BigBro and DocRom are training for the triathlon too. Grammy is going to push Evie in the stroller for a 1K family run/walk. It should be super fun. I wish Ben were going to be with us but I know he'll be having a big old time with his best friend.

6. In other news, I will hopefully be visiting my good friend Angie in the next few weeks when she comes down to my neck of the woods for a vacation. I sure hope it all works out! She and her hubs are both in the process of changing jobs and moving so her plans may change. Either way I think she is the COOLEST and I am wishing her all the good luck vibes I've got. =)

7. I am just in shock at how different my life is right now. Working is really wonderful, I love making money and having a new challenging career opportunity. I am now thinking seriously about getting a grad degree. Financially we can't really afford for me to go back to school but maybe a year from now. I hope so. I hope by next year I'll still love working with Aidan and I'll be going to school to get a degree in special ed. or psychology specializing in autism. We'll see.

Thanks for reading still, sorry I am a such a bad blogger lately.
Jen =)