i forgot the best part!!

so the other morning i was laying in bed trying to wake up.  this has started to be real problem for me.  twice now i have woken up at the sound of my morning workout alarm, actually gotten out of bed, started to get going then deciding or realizing that i am too tired and should go back to bed.  i have then both times fallen back asleep so soundly that i totally sleep through my get up for work alarm!  gah!!  and not just sleep through by a few minutes, we are talking slept through it by almost an hour both times!!!
before any of that happened, i was laying bed one morning, trying to decide when i was actually going to get up when i rubbed my head.  my hair is growing in, but its still sift and feels nice to rub.  plus the incision still hurts sometimes for unknown reasons so i rub my head a lot.  but this one morning, i was just rubbing it when all of a sudden - ouch!  what is that?  i started to investigate with my fingers a little more since i couldn't see my head and sure enough - ouch! again!  there was something sharp and spiky sticking out of my head!  what in the world?  first i thought maybe i had a scab there for some reason so i tried to pick it off.  wouldn't budge.  so of course my imagination starts to wander and goes straight to OMG!!  i have got a tick latched onto my head and it has been sucking my soul out all night long!!  OMG OMG OMG!! so gross, i am going to throw up, this is terrible.  or OMG what if its lice!!  OMG, i couldn't handle it at all, so i jumped out of bed and titled the bathroom mirror so i could see the back of my head.  i isolated the spiky thing and it didn't look dark like a tick might so i just didn't know.  i grabbed the tweezers and found eric. 
he was making breakfast for the kids, but i was just like, dude, i have something sticking out of my head and you need to pull it out, RIGHT NOW!!!  so he tried and it was stuck.  he tried again with a bit more force and sure enough he got it out.  it was about 1/4 of an inch long, and white and thin.  it seemed to be that it was one of those thin plastic things that attach tags to clothing.  not the thicker T section, or the smaller T section at the other end, but just part of the middle.  it was so weird.  what could it have been?  could it have been one of the disolvable stitches?  could it have migrated over 4 inches away from the incision and then decided to just pop out for no reason?  was it a bone fragment?  was it an alien being or maybe my parasitic twin?  it was all i could think about for a few days, i couldn't beleive i didn't SAVE it for further inspection, and instead hoped another one would pop out we could pull it out, too.  what the hell!!!

its all out of order

 so much happening, has happened, here are the dirt riders and mountain biking camp.  this is where that sweet little girl learned to tear up the trails and drop my ass.  man she is fast!!

 eric took them to winthrop for some camping.  we didn't have rain for like weeks and the two nights that they slept in the tent there was rain.  but they had a ton of fun, and at least it was sunny during the day.

 i did the warrior dash.  its one of those events where you run and then do a bunch of obstacles in the mud.  like climb over 20 ft walls, and crawl through mud trenches under barbed wire and stuff.  then you get a beer after when you turn in your timing chip.  i did not get a beer.  i gave my chip away.

 i was pretty pumped up for the warrior dash!  i was super happy to wear this sweet blue hair hat/wig combo.  loved it!! and the green warrior paint, too! i felt tough!

 after the warrior dash we headed to eatonville so the kids could do a mountain bike race with lenny.  but before the race, they showed off their parcour skillz at this skate park.  they do indeed have mad skillz!!

 i took seamus to froyo.  and i also discovered this fancy app where you can put more than one photo into a photo.  i like the 4 photos option.  i'm not very creative, but i like to see the kids' funny facial expressions all together like that, they are so annimated.

 oh, and eric's facial expressions, too.

 we tried stand up paddle boarding.  eric did really well.  i was a big wuss.  i didn't want to stand up.  i tried once and instantly fell off then decided i didn't want to try any more.  lavonne did really well too.  she fell off a few times but was tough and just kept getting back up there.  janet fell off a few times, too, but she was like me and seemed happier kneeling.

 the kids and i went down town to pick up my face packet for the see jane run 1/2 marathon.  it was so amazingly beautiful out that we just had to walk around.  so beautiful!!  we went to the seattle big wheel - the giant ferris wheel along the water front.  it wasn't nearly as terrifying as the one at california adventure.  but that one is open air. i think being in the gondola made it not as terrible.

 i ran the see jane run 1/2 marathon.  i did the 5k at this race last year, it was my first race after my brain surgery. this has been on my radar for a bit and i have been working with my coach to prep for it, but i wasn't so sure how serious he was about training me for it.  none of my long runs were longer than 80 minutes and none of them seemed very fast or that terribly difficult. but i have faith in him, and what he does so i went with it. i asked a friend to pace me.  he's a super fast runner, like super fast, so my goal paces were like walk in the park for him.  he is a coach for team in training and was already planning on being there to support some other runners, so he said he'd be able to help me out.  he'd catch me a little bit after the start and run a few miles with me at the beginning and then catch me agan later on and run a few miles towards the end.  i told him my plan was to cut the race into 2mile chunks, run the first two miles as how i felt and then back the pace off and then build back up every two miles after.  he said, no, don't do that.  he said i really needed to start out slow, not super slow, just like around goal pace, maybe a little slower and then keep it there for the first 1/2 then pick it up for the 2nd half and then start to run the last 3 how i felt.  so i knew this was the better plan, and of course the strategy for the negative split and all that magic that they all say, but its one that is hard to follow because you just feel so good at the start, might as well take off.  well, so he kept me honest and although we did go a little faster than planned, it was conversational and i felt great.  he peeled off at about 3.5 miles in and i help the pace for the next 5 miles, then he ran with me from like 8.5 to 11.5 or so.  i felt great the whole time.  when i met up with him again i was still able to hold a conversation, and then i was able to pick it up for the last mile or more, which i have never been able to do!  and ya know what  - it wound up being a 5 minute PR, that is 5 minutes faster than my pre-surgery PR even!  and i was 2nd place in my AG out of 150+.  not too shabby! so the combo of the super coaching and pacing really paid off!

 we took the kids out for some stand up paddle boarding.  Mr. Crampy's let them try and they had a lot of fun.  neither of them fell off at all!  they loved it!

 i took the day off from work while the kids and eric were camping. it was a total mental health day.  i tried to sleep in but woke up at like 630, and i did some organizing and cleaning and such, which resulted in me trying on my wedding dresses.  i have two!  one that i actually got married in and one that i wore to our reception the following day.  this is the reception dress.

 another example of the fun photo app.

 crawling through the mud at the end of the warrior dash.  i could have, should have picked up the pace on this one.  i was 21 out of 600 or so in my age group.  the run was actually pretty challenging, and the obstacles were fun,.  i'd love to try them again and practice so i can race again next year and do better.

 the amazing view on the way to eatonville.  could you even imagine having this view every day?  how amazing would that be?

 this ice cream man was driving around.  i got the Big Vanilla which was an ice cream sandwich.  they are my favorite and i must say this one was good, it wasn't any rinky dink bite sized ice cream sandwich like you tend to get, this one was real size.  and it was frozen SOLID.  his cooler had some serious freezing power. 

 sunday we went up to lake stevens to see some friends who were racing the 1/2 ironman there.  also racing was craig alexander, aka Crowie.  he's won the ironman in kona a few times, he is no joke.  i really wanted to see him run, he is one of the best, if not the best runner in the business, as was evident in his run split - 1:12 for the 13.1 miles at the end of the race.  he was just floating, looking effortless. 

 he won, which wasn't terribly surprising, although the 2nd place guy, Luke Bell, was certainly pushing the pace.

after the race, he was just standing there.  i expected there to be a crowd around him or for him to be in some tent recovering or being whisked away back to his hotel, but instead he was just standing there wrapped up in his mylar blanket, chatting with a few people.  i asked if we could take a photo, which was was totally said was fine, he talked with the kids and asked if we could keep him warm.  he was super nice and in looking at this photo, i can't help but think that we look very similar.  we are about the same height, wieght, age, same haircut.  pretty much the same.  i am about as fast as him too.  super nice guy, i hope he'll come back some day!

Phineas and Ferb

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