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 :)