Gma's Birthday

"Gma" is short for Grandma...my cousins and I have shortened our traditional "Grandma" to that for texting purposes...and I sometimes call her "Gee-maw"...she thinks I am weird :)

After Tima's wedding, my brother and I drove to Tucson for Grandma's 88th birthday. This birthday was a big deal because just over a month ago, she was in the hospital having emergency surgery to fix two preforated hernias...a big deal for an almost 88 year old woman with breast cancer and major stroke history. We are all so glad that we get to have her with us longer and it was only by God's grace and mercy that she made it through surgery, recovered at a miraculous pace, and was released from the rehab center about 3.5 weeks after the surgery. She's a bit on the frail side right now and gets tired easily. But she can eat birthday cake with the best of them :)

Look at all those birthday flowers behind her. And by the way, no, she doesn't color her hair! (Can I tell you how excited my sister and I are with those genes!?)


Making a wish


Love her smile in this one...

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?