Coming to a blog near you (like, really near...as in, the one you are reading now)...Melissa's Do-It-Yourself EXtravaganza! That's right, I am a homeowner now...and that means...PROJECTS!!! So expect to see postings in the near future...before and after pictures included :)
"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 :)
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!!!!
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:
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.
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.
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::
