That night we had Jackson’s music/art program at
school. We rushed around to try to get
out of the house a little quicker because dark clouds were moving in. We were actually under a tornado watch for the
evening. It started sprinkling a little
more as we pulled in, so Andrew dropped the kids and I off and went to park the
car. My parents were already there and had
saved us some seats which was nice. We
got to see Jackson’s ninja art work and then let the twins roam around until it
was time to start. Andrew’s mom joined
us too for the performance. Jackson got
to be part of a group that came up front to sing. Even thought I think it is not his favorite
thing to do, he still did a good job! J And the storm blew through as we were inside
and the sun was shining when we left.
After we got home from the program, I headed out to do
some grocery shopping and pick up one of our pack-n-plays at my parents. The next morning Lincoln, the twins, and I
ran a few errands. We had to drop off
some stuff for the 3on3 tournament at the K-Life House and then we picked up a
key to my parents’ storage unit and met Sarah over there so she could borrow
their ocean kayak for a display to sign people up for camp at church. I spent part of the day packing us up for
Kansas City and then getting stuff ready for my triathlon the next day. When Ellie got home from school, she brought
out her lines for her upcoming program.
She gets to be a cat and has a few lines. She was trying to practice them with
Lincoln-telling him what to say before her lines J.
That evening we had a Parents’ Night Out. I quickly fed the kids, loaded them up and we
dropped them off at church. Then Andrew
and I went to the TCC so I could pick up my race packet and do a helmet check. We saw Andrea when we were there so I talked
to her for a bit. We were both feeling
pretty nervous about the race. I know it
wasn’t a long race, but I was still nervous-especially about the cold. They also had the St. Pat’s Day Race results
posted there that Andrea was looking at.
I noticed they had the age-group winners posted too and I actually ended
up getting second in my age group. I’ll
just let them keep the medal though.
After picking up my packet, we had dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. Then we rode around the bike course one last
time since they had it marked. I
finished up getting stuff ready at home and then dropped off some hand and toe
warmers at Andrea’s before we picked up the kids. I took some melatonin that night and was able
to get to sleep. I woke up around four
though and a got a little sleep off and on until it was time to get up. Andrew was up early too. I think he was as excited as I was-he has
been so supportive of me through all of this.
Ellie ended up getting a little early too. I had a pretty nervous stomach so I ended up
not eating much. Just a piece of toast
and part of a banana. Andrew aired up my
tires for me and loaded up the bike in his truck and I was off. He, Jackson, Ellie, and Lincoln came closer
to start time. Mary stayed with the
twins which we really appreciated!
Our transition area was set up behind Pershing, so I
racked my bike there and set all of my stuff out. The temperature at start time was just in the
30s, so I put some toe warmers in my cycling shoes and hand warmers in with my
clothes. Then it was off to the
pool. Once we got marked there wasn’t
much time to warm up, so I didn’t bother.
Andrew thought it would probably be best to try to stay was warm as
possible before it all began anyways.
The original plan was to just run outside wet and barefoot to the
transition area but with it being so cold a lot of people thought throwing on
some shoes before running outside would be a good idea. Some people even ended up getting dressed
right by the pool. I figured if I was
going to have some shoes there, I might as well have a towel.
Then it was time to line up according to our swim
time. There were probably six or so
girls ahead of me and we started at 10 second intervals. I jumped in and got under the water right
away and then it was time for me to start.
I didn’t feel like my swim went as well as I was
hoping. We were supposed to snake back
and forth from one end of the pool to the other which meant going under the
lane lines at each turn. I decided to go
ahead and do flip turns and one time I didn’t make it under the line and had to
scoot over. But I guess the adrenaline kept my time faster than I though it was going to be. Andrew and the three oldest
were my roaming support team. They were
right outside the pool as I went out the doors to head down to the transition
area. My transition to the bike was really slow, but they weren’t
timing them. With the cold, I had
several layers to put on and then my helmet didn’t seem to be fitting quite
right. But my crew was cheering for me
as I headed out. Andrew also did a great
job of getting pictures of some of my friends doing it too.
The bike was okay.
We did two loops of the course which went from Franklin to Shepherd to
Michigan to Patterson and back to Franklin.
The hills on Shepherd are always hard but getting a little easier. I rode the course probably four times before
the race and I was always able to get good speed on Boundary but for the race
there was a north wind that made it so much harder which was
disappointing. I was able to pick up
speed on Franklin though. I passed a
couple people and had one person pass me, but other than that I was just kind
of on my own. And again, my cheering
squad showed up in a couple places as I was biking which was fun. I felt like I finished strong and was able to
unclip okay, but getting my leg over the bike to get off when my legs feel like
jello is always a funny sight.
Then it was time to switch out shoes, grab a quick drink
and take off for the run. I wasn’t quite
sure where to go for the run or who I was supposed to show my number to so I
walked down the hill of the transition area until I got direction. I feel like that few seconds of walking kind
of helped my legs though as they weren’t as heavy as I was expecting. I usually have my tracker on my phone going
but didn’t get it started during the race so I wasn’t sure what my pace
was. I like knowing my pace and I think
it would have pushed me just a little more.
But I felt good on my run which I was surprised by. I was on my own again as I could barely see
one girl ahead of me and didn’t notice anyone behind me. Then there were those smiling faces as I was
coming up on the finish line. I was
happy I did it and am looking forward to doing it again. We stuck around and saw Andrea and Rachel
finish at the same time and then Rachel’s mom a little later.
Andrew loaded up
the bike and my transition stuff while I got my stuff from the pool and then we
stuck around for the raffles and awards.
They ended up just giving awards to the top three overall
finishers. But they ended up posting the
times pretty quickly that afternoon. I
ended up ninth overall and second in my age group. The lady that took first in my age group took
first overall. So I was pleased with all
of that even though my times were a little slower than I was expecting. The bike was around 9.2 miles and my time
ended up being 36.51, while I had been able to do it in around 35 with some of
my rides before. Andrew blames it on my “parachute”
jacket. I loved my wind breaker jacket
but it did blow up with air quite a bit J.
My run time was 19.28 which I initially was a tad bit disappointed with but
after putting the info into my tracker, plus the distance actually being around
2.4 miles instead of 2.1, my pace was pretty good for me. I ended up 9th overall out of 49
participants and second in my age group.
Overall, I am really happy I had the chance to do it and look forward to
more. I do struggle with feelings of
guilt for taking the time to train though.
But Andrew is so supportive and happy for me. He also reminds me that I don’t take the time
to train to hard. I usually just allow
myself 30 minutes a day (some days more if I try to do two activities) and a
lot of people spend more time than that in the gym just working out every day,
not actually training for something. I
do need to spend more time with it if I want to improve a lot, but that
probably isn’t going to happen. Next up
is the Arise Run/Bike. It is a 5K
followed by an 8 mile bike. I think some
of the area’s more competitive people come out for this one so I will probably
finish further in the back of the pack J.
After we finished up at the triathlon, we went home so I
could shower and get ready to head to Kansas City. Andrew made the kids a quick lunch while I
got ready, cleaned up the house a bit, and loaded the car. Andrew and I just grabbed a quick snack for
lunch. I just got a banana and a cup of
granola. Nothing else sounded that great
at that point, but I was really hungry by the time we got to Cameron and
getting a headache. So I grabbed a
cheeseburger from Wendy’s that tasted really good. The kids did pretty well during the car ride
which we were thankful for. We stopped
at our hotel first so we could check in and getting the suitcase and
pack-n-plays in the room and then it was onto Andy and Autumn’s for Baylor’s 4th
Birthday party. It took Miles and
Bennett a little while to warm up. While
they were pretty good on the ride, they didn’t really sleep that much and I
think it was catching up with them.
Bennett didn’t want me to let him down.
He would act like he wanted down but then would start screaming if I
did. They didn’t even want Papa. We had an Italian dinner that Autumn made and
it was delicious. Miles and Bennett ate
a little bit of it but I eventually got them some Teddy Grahams and they were
happy. They even liked sharing them with
Viva. Lincoln was really anxious to give
Baylor his gift and helped him open them up.
Actually I guess Owen opened up Baylor’s gifts that were waiting down in
the basement earlier in the day and Andy had to rewrap them J. It was a nice day out so they opened gifts
and did the cake outside. We had to
leave around cake time though to head to Disney on Ice. At the last minute we decided to not take
Miles and Bennett since they were having fun at the house. I am thankful that my parents offered to keep
them because I’m not sure how they would have handled all of it. I think the evening show was a little busier
than the earlier one that the rest of them went to. Everything was crowded from the parking, to
getting in the Sprint Center. We had
great seats and the kids enjoyed the first half of the show. I asked them at intermission if they would be
fine with going ahead and heading back to the house. Jackson said that was fine and I
misunderstood Ellie. I thought she
wanted to head back to the party, but she wanted to see the rest of the “party
on ice”. I didn’t realize it until we
were walking to the car though.
Oops. The first half of the show
was about an hour and they got to see a lot.
My mom said the first part of the second half was pretty boring plus it
would have taken us forever to just get out of the Sprint Center, to our car,
and out of the parking garage with the crowd.
So that is why I thought it would be okay to leave. I do feel bad that Ellie wanted to stay
though.
After the show we headed back to the house to pick up the
twins and head to the hotel for the night.
The twins were wound up when we got to the hotel. They were bouncing off the walls, so we went
up to visit my parents and run off some steam, but that gave them even more
energy. Ellie ended up sleeping in Lissy’s
room with Briley, but our room had a rough night. The twins were not happy about being in their
pack-n-plays and screamed and cried a lot that night. Needless to say, we didn’t get much
sleep. We even contemplated just heading
home in the middle of the night.
But we
battled it out with some sleep, got ready the next morning, had some breakfast
at the hotel, and then headed over to say goodbye to Andy and family. The twins did sleep a little on the way home,
but still went down for a long nap when we got home. I put them down a little after two and it
took them a little while to settle down.
But then I had to go wake them up around 7! Life is rough when you miss a couple naps and
won’t sleep at night. While they were
napping the older kids played outside off and on and I started mounds of
laundry that somehow multiplied quickly and worked on cleaning out the car and
garage. When Andrew got home he decided
to try to start a fire from scratch-with stick and kindling. I think he eventually got it to work and was
pretty proud. While he was doing that I ran
our old beach cruisers over to my parents.
We weren’t using them and they thought they might. Ellie went with me and tried several times on
the way over to convince me that I needed to do some grocery shopping so she
could pick out something J. She wasn’t successful though. Then just as we got the kids to bed that
night, there was a loud pop outside and Andrew came into the bedroom to inform
me that he thought part of our outdoor fireplace exploded. I looked out to see red embers all over the
inside of the fireplace, the hearth, and on the concrete around it. He ended up staying up on the couch that
night to keep an eye on it. After
inspecting it a little more this morning, it was just the bottom of the firebox
that was affected. It was made out of
concrete. I read a few things about
concrete exploding like that but the guy that built the fireplace thought it
would be fine. He has done quite a few,
so I assumed he knew what he was talking about.
So I’m not quite sure what happened.
I know he will get us all fixed up though. I am just soooo thankful that no one was out
around it. The twins had been out there around
it earlier sitting on the ground right where some of the concrete pieces shot
out to.
So now it is back to work and school. We had a little bit of rain this morning and
Lincoln and I both tried to take advantage of it. I was needing to clean the bike, so I set it
out in the rain to rinse off a bit before I wiped it down-it worked J. Lincoln wanted to go play out in the rain
again with his rain jacket, but it stopped by the time he got around to it.
And a couple of random pictures. Miles likes to wear his hat this way, so Ellie joined him. And Ellie's new hairstyle-sock curls :-).
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