TimaSue's Wedding

My best friend got married this past weekend!

I met TimaSue my second day on campus- she was my next door neighbor in the dorms. We quickly became friends and every year after that, lived together (dorms, apartment, house, and townhouse...the last two years, joined by her sister Katrina, and the last year, by her brother Anthony). She's come out to visit me since I've moved to Texas, and I always go back for Tamale Day with her family. It was such a joy to share her special day with her. I am so happy for both her and Mark (who is just plain awesome :) ). Congratulations you two!!!!

Blast from the past- our 19th birthdays...10 years ago!


Spring Break 2000


My college graduation


Rehearsal dinner


The lovely bride and her lovely sister


Aww, Mark and Tima are married!!!!

Bikeish Upgrades

For Christmas, my awesome padres bought me carbon fiber aero bars for my bike. Aero bars are used by triathletes to get into a more aero dynamic position on your bike and it also helps take weight off of your leg muscles, which you desperately need for the run of course...like this:

This is Pip Taylor. She is awesome.

Here's my bike with its new fancy schmancy aero bars:

Close-up:

Profile Design Carbon Stryke Aero Bars
I tried them out this morning, a bit scary, but nothing I can't get used to after more practice. Thanks padres!

Oh and what would my bike be mounted on? Oh that would be my snazzy new Saris Bones 3 bike rack. Bought at the same store as my bike and my shoes, so here's how the conversation went:

Me: I need a bike rack for my car
Bike guy: This one will work well for you
Me: It's nice but waaaay out of my price range
Bike guy: I'll give you 15% off
Me: Still outta my price range
Bike guy: Let me see what I can do (goes off to the computer and comes back). I can give you 25% off.
Me: Still too much
Bike guy (a bit exasperated)- well, what is your price range?
I told him
Bike guy: I'll let you have it for 40% off.
Me: Done.

Sweet!

Saris Bones 3 rack

Learnings

I started reading Ezekiel back in the fall...I did it because that book has always intimidated me (I mean, come on, he's got a "z" in his name...z's are scary!). I'm just about done with it...the chapter that has impacted me the most was definitely NOT what I expected to get from this book. It's a bit random (to me, not to God of course :) ). In chapter 24, God mentions Ezekiel's wife...::enter screeching halt sound::...wait a second, Ezekiel had a WIFE!? My first thought: "wow, what kind of a woman was she?" I mean, she must have been pretty awesome because Ezekiel, was, in the terms of the world...odd...he ate weird stuff, laid in the dirt, said dramatic things, etc...(I'm not trying to be blase about what Ezekiel was saying, he was God's prophet and being obedient, I'm just describing him as how the Israelites must have seen him, at least when they first heard him speak)...so then I read further, and God refers to this woman as "the delight of your eyes". Whoa. That answers my question- if this is how Ezekiel thought of this woman (the delight of his eyes), then she must have been encouraging, caring, and supportive of him in the role that God had him in. What a Godly wife example! So then I started pondering on what an honor it must be to be considered "the delight of your eyes" to someone...which prompted some emailing to some Godly wives I know to see what they have learned about being a delight to their husbands. I was blessed and encouraged beyond my expectations from their responses. Good stuff...filing it away to be used at a later date, God willing :) I highly recommend to those wives and wives-to-be and wanting-to-be-wives-to-be out there to read chapter 24 and reflect on what being a delight means...awesome stuff.

Birthday Fun

What a great day- and a great start to capping off the roaring twenties! Ah yes, my last year of being in my twenties- weird.

The day, before my friend Lisa took me out to lunch (and gave me some rockin' orange nail polish, which now graces my toes :) )

Today, my day began with opening up cards and thoughtful gifts from friends and family and then was so suprised by a delivery of 2 dozen multi-colored roses from the McDonalds- I've never had flowers delivered to me before, it was such a treat!

Then Claire, Lynn, and I went to Glazed Over to paint pottery- I made a plate, as did Lynn, and Claire is working on a mug. It was such fun and SO incredibly relaxing to just sit and be creative for hours. A great mental break from two weeks of hardcore technical type work.

Lynn, me, and Claire with our almost finished products (they will get fired this week and then we go pick them up)

Me and my plate

We hosted a get together in the evening for the singles from our church and another church that we are fast becoming good friends with. Lots of laughter (my stomach hurts from laughing so much!).

It was a great birthday- I'm so thankful for my sweet family and friends who made the day so special!

Freaking out

So my next triathlon (or first of the season, whatever way you want to look at it) is exactly 51 days away. 51 DAYS!!!! Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh.

Okay, yeah I've been training. Two to three runs a week, two to three swims...and um, a big fat ZERO bike per week.

See, biking in traffic SCARES me. You Tucsonians out there have it made- nice wide bike lanes along all of the roads in town. We don't have that in Texas. You don't even always have a standard shoulder to ride on. And Texas has a lot of trucks. A LOT. And big scary men drive them. Big scary men who floor it to pass you and then cut right in front of you (hello, I know I am not going 35mph, but I am going about 16mph and I will run into the back of your truck if you do that) and wave their hands out the window with their fingers in a particular configuration and yell stuff like "long live Texas" (okay not really on the latter, but I pretend that's what they are saying because it is cleaner). Anyhow, riding on the roads is scary. Unless it is at the crack of dawn...which then becomes my fault because it has been very rainy and cold lately and that's just not motivating to me. So, I've been lacking in the bike area.

Here's where the freaking out starts. I just saw the course for this particular triathlon. I knew it was going to take me over the Kemah Bridge (the only hill in Houston, honestly...unless you count other bridges). It's a big bridge- about 140 feet high and almost a mile across- it's about a 5.4% grade. I've ridden it, I've run it. This course takes me up and over it, sharp right turn, under it, then back up and over it again!!! Then you go south. Then you go north, and do the bridge again, up and over, under and back over.

My legs are going to fall off

or

My bike will make the turn but my body will keep going in its original direction...oh wait, that can't happen because I AM ATTACHED TO THE STUPID BIKE.

Can you tell I am freaking out?

So, game plan- ride Kemah bridge incessantly until April 10th. That oughta do it. Right? Right? ::whimper::

2009 Resolution Recap

Ha...already more than a month into the New Year...but I figured I should probably still go over my last year's resolutions to see how it went.

I have to say, I tried several times at the end of December to do this, but every time I started reflecting over the year, I couldn't get past my amazement by how much God has grown me and by how much He has done in my life. So I just spent some time meditating on His works, His grace, and His love for me. I will say, I am glad 2009 is over, it was a growing year- and yeah, growing usually means challenging, painful at times, and tiring...but I am all for growing, because on the other side of it, it's amazing to see where He has brought me!

So a few of my goals from last year:

1) Read 30 books- didn't make that, only read 24...
2) Complete at least 3 triathlons and a half- marathon- completed!
3) pay off my student loan- completed!
4) Be a watered garden (Isaiah 58:11)- eh, this one is a work in progress :)

There's more of course, many of them more along the lines of ones that I will continually be working on...

For this year? The usual read some books, run, tri, and some other deeper ones :)

How about you?

AHHHH

I just realized that it has been over a MONTH since I last blogged. Oh that is just horrible! I promise I have blogs coming...seriously, I think I have about 10 written in my head...standby for the weekend....

Visting my nephewS

Yes, that "S" in the title is supposed to be capitalized...'cause I now have TWO nephews. And they are both adorable. And my sister is an awesome mom.

John Michael, me, and Carter


Getting ready to hit the town


Making faces in the car


My lovely sister and her boys

Houston Half-Marathon

After being thwarted from last year's half-marathon by a stress fracture, I was able to finally run in the Chevron Houston Half-Marathon! My running buddy, Lisa, completed her first marathon!

Post race- 39.3 miles combined :)
Stats:
Chip time: 2:13:21
Place within age division: 279/985
Place within gender: 1441/5732
I placed in just about the top quarter! So excited about that!

This is my new toy...I call it my Superwoman watch. It's a Garmin 310 XT- first GPS watch that can go underwater...great for my triathlons.

Random pics from my visit so far

Just a hodgepodge of pictures:

Chad, Lynn, little Roman, and me after a concert at their church

This is my parents' dog, Cinnamon, she is awesome (she was kinda annoyed that I was interrupting her nap here...I think). She's a lab/heeler mix.

Christmas toy!

My bro, really excited about his new snowboarding hat :)

Decorating Christmas Cookies

Since a large snowstorm has prevented me from going to Flagstaff to visit my aunt and uncle :(, I headed down to Tucson a couple of days early.

Grandma and I decorated the yummy sugar cookies Mom made before she headed up to Boise to visit Monica and family.

Finished!


Yummy cookies!

Tamale Day 2009

Once again, I headed to Florence, AZ for Tamale Day with Tima and her family (sans Mom, since she is in Boise visiting the new grandson). They broke a record this year- 103 dozen tamales made!

Tima and Phyllis loaded the tamales to be steamed


Me, Andrew, and Dylan- stuffing tamales



Love this picture of these ladies- Dylan, Mary, and Lee


Terry spreading masa on the ojas


Tima and Mark, hard at work, and counting down until the game (Cowboys vs the Saints...)

Christmas Cards

Last year, I was too busy with my flight to make Christmas cards. I honestly think I am even busier this year, but thanks to my Cricut machine that I bought during the Black Friday sale, I about halved the time it usually takes to design and make them. Here you go:

Ankle status

It's getting better! I'm seeing this chiropractor that my friend Jessica recommended. She uses Active Release Technique (ART) therapy and the Graston technique.

Turns out, I have really weak hip muscles and my ankle just got tired of compensating and starting protesting. I've had 4 treatments (the above therapies plus lots of good hip strengthening exercises- bonus, these exercise also TONE. Woot!) and the ankle is feeling much better. In fact, I ran 4 miles yesterday and it didn't hurt at all! The trick, now, is getting the rest of me to learn this "new" (ie correct) ankle position. So my knees are twinging and so is my lower back...all very minor, just my body getting used to being able to move my ankle. Seriously, learning how your muscles work together is fascinating. God designed our bodies so intricately- it's mind blowing really.

It's also been very humbling to have it so blatantly pointed out by my limited range of motion how much more "in shaping" I have yet to do. The perfectionist in me wants it to happen NOW...but I know that in time, I will improve and hopefully, this added flexibility will mean fewer injuries. Yay!

So Houston Half Marathon, here I come!

My second nephew, Carter!!!!

My second nephew, Carter Anthony was born on December 2nd. I can't wait to meet the little guy next month!

Yeah, he was 9lbs 3oz...look at those cheeks!


John Michael getting to meet his little brother- he's touching Carter's hand...oh my gosh could that be any sweeter?

Christmas Party #1

So Pam, Claire, and I invited the singles from our church and from another church over for some festivities. The couple that heads up the other singles group had planned a party for the same night, so we ended up combining the two. Desiree had the idea to have a tacky Christmas sweater party. It was a lot of fun. The outdoor fireplace seemed to be a hit. Thanks Sholls for letting me borrow it!

Desiree went ALL tacky- hair and 80s makeup included!


Natalie also went all out, tinsel headband and wig


Part of the spread (snowflakes compliments of my AMAZING Cricut)


Lynn and me- I glued ribbons onto a sweater I had shrunk accidentally and tied bells on the ribbons. I was very noisy.


Natalie, Sara, Joseph, and Alex chowing down in their tacky get-up (albeit Sara, she was festive, not tacky :) ).

Snow in Houston!

Yay! For the second year in a row, it snowed in Houston. It didn't stick at work, but it did where I live.

The snow view from my window at work

Yes I took a picture of wunderground...

Backyard the next morning- still snow on the rooftops...

Christmas Decorations 2009

Ta-da!!! What do you think? Pam and I had fun decorating this afternoon...

Front door

Entryway



In the living room

The tree

Mantle/counter

More decorations

At night...

Seriously?

Every wondered how you can sprain your ankle yourself (as in you are the one that causes the sprain?). Apparently, you've come to the right person. Okay, okay, I don't know if it's sprained. It just hurts (although I think it would hurt more if it was a real sprain, but calling it one makes it seem more dramatic and less I Love Lucy). Like...hurts when a run on it. UGGGGGGHHHHHHH (how's that for an exasperated groan of frustration? I can do better, but you are probably wanting to hear how I was the cause of my current...(not going to say the "i" word)...ouchiness.)

So last week, I woke up in the middle of the night and both my ankles were aching. Now, this isn't a completely random thing (with my disease, you discover all sorts of fun and interesting aches and pains at very inopportune times, like when you are sleeping). But this was a different ache, kinda like when your knee or elbow needs to "pop". So I rotated both of the ankles, and the left one popped, but the right one didn't, it just ached more...so I reached down to "help" in the rotation. And the aching kinda stopped. I fell back asleep only to be woken up again a few hours later with some MAJOR hurtage going on in that ankle...I pretended its was dream and went back to sleep.

A day later (and minimal painage), I went on a short long run (7 miles). It felt fine, except for the last two miles, I started noticing it. I went out and bought a wrap...it's been feeling better (yay). I went on a 3 mile run today...it was supposed to be 4.1 miles...guess that tells you how it feels. UGGGGGGHHHHH. So it has been iced and wrapped and I am wearing tennis shoes around the house to give it more support (rather than going in flipflops or barefoot). Can I just tell you how FRUSTRATING "not-the-i-word"s are? Definitely keeps this gal humble, that's for sure. Pray for this non-i-word to be short lived...

My First Half-Marathon!

Half-Marathoners!

Two years ago, I had yet to run a 5k....I can now say I have done a half-marathon. ::HUGE grin::

This weekend was AWESOME! Lisa and I road-tripped to San-Antonio, ate awesome breakfast burritos on the way from some random taqueria, got our packets, purchased the "required" runners paraphanelia (shirts with quirky running slogans, running glasses, tri and run stickers for the cars, etc). Then we had dinner with some of her family at Zio's (pasta a MUST the night before a race, at least for me...stick with what works :) ).

At the expo

We'd heard some horror stories of race logistics from the previous race year (which had been the inaugural year), so we woke up at 4:15 (ugh) and were at the shuttles by 5:15am or so...it worked out so well, we got to the starting line with plenty of time to eat breakfast, check our bags, stretch, visit the facilities (I swear I have the most nervous bladder EVER, ::sigh::). There were SO many people...close to 30,000 people ran this race. The race started at 7:30am and we didn't cross the start line until about 8:05am! It took us that long to get up there, crazy.

On the shuttle to the race



My race morning granola in my engineered bowl :)

The weather wasn't ideal. It was ridiculously humid. Thankfully, it was overcast with relatively low temps (~65)...but me and humidity have never agreed so I was a bit worried. We hit some decent hills between mile 5 and 6 and I was really getting concerned that I might over heat. Yay for a double downhill and an AWESOME cool breeze...it set me straight and I found my stride. We had a couple of sub-10 minutes miles after that, that's how good we were feeling!

The longest distance either of us had ever run before was 11.2 miles and I will tell you those last two miles were the longest of the course (other than that, the time flew by, seriously!). Running with live bands along the course was great and the course was PACKED with cheering spectators the entire way. That was pretty impressive!

The course ended up on a mean uphill, but we made it and crossed the finish line with arms raised high!

Of course, my legs immediately starting trying to cramp up (they never fully succeeded :P). I've had some problems with my hamstrings of late and they were certainly protesting. But other than a quite spectacular blister on my big toe from a sock seam that self-adjusted during the race, I came out injury free.

At the spa, after our awesome treatment

Lisa and I treated ourselves to a full body treatment (including a 90 minute massage- a scheduling accident on their part so they only charged us for the 60 minutes we had actually requested. What a blessing!). And then we chowed down at P.F. Changs. Comfy jammies and hotel movie being the nightcap :)

We spent today at the outlets in San Marcos- walking around definitely loosened the muscles...I'm feeling pretty good- no groaning when I stand up :D. That tells me I trained pretty sufficiently, so I am very pleased with that.

What's next? I've got a couple of things up my sleeve...but that's for a later post. Thank you all so much for your support. I really couldn't do this without those of you who asked about my training and encouraged me (Allyson and Kristi especially, love you girls!)- it's quite the lesson in mental and physical discipline. I thank God for allowing me to do this half-marathon, especially since I was on the injured list this time last year. All glory to Him, for His healing and His sustaining.